Laser Control

I arrived at the hotel restaurant about half an hour early. I was nervous in an expectant sort of way. This was the day I had waited for years to arrive, and in some ways I never thought it would come.

I checked around the large restaurant, feeling like a dozen eyes were watching me from someplace, but I realized this was just my paranoia. I looked at my watch and realized I would have to wait for a while longer so I ordered a drink and spent the rest of my wait pretending to look at the menu, not wanting to be bothered by the overly enthusiastic waitress.

Finally I looked up and they were crossing the hotel casino outside the restaurant and headed inside. Rebecca was lovely. She had full-bodied raven black hair that hung past her shoulders. She was tall and shaped well. She always knew how to dress, just a tad on the conservative side, but with always a hint of that incredible body just beneath the appropriate clothing. At twenty-two she was a serious person for her age. Her grades going into grad school had held right at four-point-oh, and her work experience in the scientific field of her study was very credible for one so young.

The big hunk accompanying Rebecca had to be her fiancé. I couldn’t remember what his name was, but remembered it was something unusual. He was a few years older than she was and was built like an all-pro quarterback, his chest seeming to bow out in front of him as he walked, keeping a superbly erect posture. His white teeth were big and shining and bright, and he had a perfunctory smile for everyone as he passed them in the casino outside the restaurant. I thought that he must have had his teeth capped. I remembered hearing somewhere that he owned his own business, and so that made him not only well built and handsome, but also rich, and with her beauty Rebecca was the perfect trophy wife for him.

I had read Rebecca’s resume, and had looked up all the papers she had published on-line through her university. I had talked with her professors about her sharp mind and academic insight, and I had given her three extensive phone interviews. However, I had never actually met her. This was going to be our first meeting. That was a part of the reason this was such a big day for me because I always had a soft spot in my heart for beautiful women like Rebecca, however that was not the main reason for the intensity of the moment as my story will soon demonstrate.

I stood up from the booth I had gotten in the corner for us. The perfect couple came forward to me and I tried to put on my best smile and extended my hand to greet them.

“Rebecca, it is an honor to finally meet you in person,” I told her. She smiled at me. She didn’t smile often, but when she did it was perfect. That smile of hers always made me fall in love with her. No matter what else had happened that smile of hers never failed to get me.

“Nice to finally meet you, Dr. Koenig,” she said shaking my hand, and her skin was so soft to the touch and so lovely to feel I may have held her hand a second longer than protocol required.

“We’ve heard good things about you, Doctor,” the hunk with Rebecca said, shaking hands with me and giving me a strong thump on the arm, as he fixed me with the million dollar smile.

“Come, let us all sit and order our lunch,” I instructed and I sat down, with Rebecca and the hunk sitting across from me. I found myself irritated at the way Rebecca cuddled into his side as we spoke, and the way he held his arm casually over her shoulder like she was his property.

“So tell us doctor, why did you pick the deserts of Nevada for your top secrete project?” the hunk asked me after we had settled in behind the table.

“Well first of all, my project isn’t exactly top secrete,” I told him, all though that was a lie. “But I’ve always preferred working in the desert because of the anonymity. The media has some interest in the experiments our corporation is performing, and we’d prefer to keep everyone in the public at arm’s length. Plus, I personally own a small property about one hundred and fifty miles outside the city.”

Rebecca was quiet for the most part. I could tell she was completely dominated by the hunk and probably even liked it this way. The hunk definitely liked things this way. She did ask me all the right kind of technical questions about my project and the work she would be doing for me out at my lab. She wanted to know how far along I had already progressed with the project and what problems I had encountered along the way.

In all my answers I lied to her. I told her I had not progressed very far with my work, but was still in the initial stages, and needed her help in the analysis process. I also lied about the nature and scope of my work, telling her that the laser I was designing only intended to be used on a small clinically selected sample population.

I am a very convincing liar and so Rebecca and her fiancé believed all I had to tell them. In fact the truth of my project would have been far more unbelievable than the made-up story. However, Rebecca was a very smart individual and I did not want to let her even have the slightest detail of my full capabilities or I realized I would never get her cooperation. I desperately needed her cooperation in this next stage if my project was going to be successful.

Our lunch arrived and we all shared a tasty meal. The conversation I had with Rebecca was mainly technical and I could tell the endless equations we quoted at each other were boring her fiancé. Rebecca was a good scientist and she could keep right up with me on all the details, but I think her fiancé was somewhat challenged in the IQ department.

“Thank you for offering me this good opportunity, Dr. Koenig,” Rebecca finally told me after I had fed her many interesting details about my work and the work that she would be sharing with me.

“I need a lab assistant,” I told her. “However, I can’t just use any assistant because of the nature of what’s involved. I really need a full partner, but the grant I’m getting to fund my work won’t support that. So when I discovered your resume in the pile I began to think of you as the perfect choice. You have experience, intellect and desire to learn. I wish I could offer you more. You have no idea what you will be offering to me.”

“That’s no problem, Dr. Koenig,” she told me in that levelheaded way she had of speaking. “The pay for the six weeks I stay out at your place will be more than I would have made in six months with a part time university job like I had last summer.”

Rebecca had no idea what she was getting into or how her life was about to change forever. I feel somewhat remorseful that things turned out for Rebecca as they did, and I feel ashamed that I had to mislead her. But I had few options. What I had been doing out at my desert research lab had not been exactly legal, and what I was attempting to do with Rebecca that summer could not be categorized as legal either.

“You will take good care of my baby when she’s out at your place, won’t you doctor?” the fiancé asked me earnestly.

“Why of course I will,” I replied and thought my voice dripped with insincerity, but it probably didn’t. I just knew what a liar I was and was bothered by it. The two people in front of me believed every word the mild mannered doctor told them. “I will keep Rebecca busy and interested and challenged all summer long,” I told them. “The summer will fly by for her, and with the experience she gains from this position she will return to grad school next semester the envy of all her follows.”

“Baby, we still got a day to spend in Vegas,” the hunk covered Rebecca with his arm looking down at her. “I think we should get out of here and go have ourselves some fun before you start your new job tomorrow.”

She smiled and let him scoot her up from the table grasping her hand possessively. How irritating it was to me that she was always so compliant with this dimwitted muscle man, and here she was a girl with a fine mind who could do so much more. Very irritating indeed!

“You two have a wonderful day in Los Vegas,” I told them, again I felt with a tacit insincerity behind my voice. “I’ll meet you in the lobby tomorrow morning about… ten shall we say?” I asked Rebecca.

“That would be fine. Thanks again, Dr. Koenig,” Rebecca said as the hunk led her away from me, and into the casino. What a day it would be to spend it with her in this incredible city I thought, realizing I was over come with envy for that stupid muscle man.

The next morning Rebecca was down to meet me bright and gleaming. She wore a conservative skirt that came down to her ankles, but was made of a light enough fabric that the observer was not left to doubt the great body beneath. She also graced me with another smile and I found my heart melting like that of a young boy who has discovered his first girl.

The fiancé pawed her and grabbed her buttocks beneath the skirt tightly as he kissed her good-bye. After being taken to the heights by the lovely smile from my lovely Rebecca, I was brought low quickly while watching this denigrating display. I saw Rebecca look up into his eyes for the last time and I realized that for whatever reason (probably the fact that he was rich and handsome, with a perfect body) she was in love with the idiot.

My limousine had pulled up out front to meet us. Antoine, who was the most loyal of servants to me, drove the limo. He wore a uniform and kept a respectful demeanor. My corporate sponsor had actually paid for the limo and I wanted to impress Rebecca with the luxury.

I was disappointed because I didn’t detect any dent of impression I might have made on Rebecca by the appearance of the limo and the servant. But I guess I was hoping for too much, considering Rebecca was of such a levelheaded, no nonsense type of nature, and I realized then that she would be more impressed by the results of my lab work than by the outward trappings of my worldly success.

We drove quietly through the desert for about two hours. We drove non-stop and I put some classical music on the stereo and Rebecca seemed to enjoy this very much. I know I always liked a pleasant drive through the desert with Bach on the stereo. The drive passed quickly and for me very enjoyably, as I got a good chance to watch Rebecca each time she turned her head to stare out the window at the passing scenery.

She had an incredible fragrance to her. Her hair was so clean and shiny, her skin absolutely without a single blemish. When she talked to me she was so confident and sure of herself, but kept a respectful reserve in her voice due to my senior position. This was a girl from a good background, who had been fortunate enough to have good genes promoting a rare sort of beauty in her. The reader has probably already determined that I was totally taken by her with a devotion already surpassing love, and this just our second day spent together.

Antoine hustled out from behind the wheel of the limo and opened the back door for Rebecca and I. Antoine was bowing and at his most condescending. Some might not have tolerated such behavior from a servant in the twenty-first century. Antoine acted more like the typical manservant of the nineteenth century. However, I knew everything there was to know about the man. You see he had been involved in my first successful experiment. Now, in a very real manner of speaking, he belonged to me. He was more than just a servant to me – he was closer to a slave.

At times I was afraid the dim glaze over his eyes would give him away to the outside world for what he really was, but again that was just my paranoia.

“So it’s just you and Antoine here?” Rebecca asked me as I was showing her around the grounds.

“And now you as well, my dear,” I told her.

“This is a very impressive place you have here, Dr. Koenig,” she said, as she looked around at the exterior of my large home, bordering the size of a mansion.

“You must be tired after the long drive,” I told her. “Antoine will take your things up to your room. We’ll have a light dinner later on. Then I recommend a good rest tonight. For tomorrow we’ll start with our project.”

I had dinner with her later that night. I don’t remember what we talked off. Just meaningless chatter, I think. I was preoccupied. I was finally on the eve of obtaining my long sought after goal. Not allowing her to interpret my thoughts I believe I did a credible job in hiding all my intentions from her as we spoke over coffee after dinner.

The next day it was time to take Rebecca inside my lab, and show her where she would be working for the next six weeks – well where she thought she would be working for the next six weeks. She eyed my laser equipment with something close to suspicion I thought.

“This looks very advanced, Dr. Koenig,” she said as she glided her fingers along the small turret of the laser. “I thought you told me you had only just begun to work on this project?”

“Well yes, my dear,” I thought fast, trying to come up with a plausible explanation. “You see I have worked on the analysis so long it seems to me as if I will never get finished with the preliminaries. However, as you can see the construction phase has only just begun.”

“This looks fully constructed to me, Dr. Koenig.”

“Actually, I wouldn’t want any of my sponsors competitors to know that. So therefore, I keep rather low key about the progress I have made. You are right, of course. The laser is fully constructed and ready to be tested.”

She examined the newly constructed laser, and was held in awe with it. If only she had known of the power held in that room at that moment she probably would have turned and run out into the desert. As I look back on it now I realize it was already too late for her at that moment. However, a new chapter of my life was just opening.

“A mind control laser,” she said in a hushed voice.

“Not really, my dear,” I began to feed her some more lies about the lasers abilities. In truth this was a mind-altering device, capable of penetrating the brain and causing permanent thought adjustment. Antoine, who now stood silently to the side watching us, was living proof of its effectiveness.

“And now I need your help most desperately, my dear,” I came up to her and took her by the shoulders, a rather fatherly type of gesture on my part. I looked down into her eyes and felt intimidated by her because my love for her burned so feverishly inside me. Actually it was her who should have felt fear for me because of what I was about to do to her.

“I want you to be the first to help me test the laser,” I said.

She took a deep breath and looked over uncertainly at the device. “Is it safe?” she finally asked me.

“Perfectly,” I told her, and here I told the truth. I had perfected the process enough with the laser where I could probe the mind almost at will and come up with just about whatever kind of a creation I desired. I could have lessened the laser intensity and merely demonstrated it’s power for her, but oh no, I had other far different ideas for my beloved Rebecca.

“Very well, Dr. Koenig,” Rebecca said making her decision. “ I trust you.”

“Very good, my dear,” I said having to hide the feeling of jubilation that sprang to my breast as I got her where I wanted her. “Please go over to the table and lie down.”

She walked over to the table. I loved the way that she moved beneath her long skirt. She was so graceful and elegant. She always carried herself erect and proud. Gingerly patting her skirt down she climbed onto the table, the table with the laser pointing at it. I moved over her and made sure her head was held firmly in place, moving a clamp into place on each side of her forehead.

“Now just try and relax, and I’ll begin in a minute,” I told her as I hurried over to my control panel and revved up the power. “This will only take a few minutes, and I promise you won’t feel a thing.”

“I’ll record my experience for you after the test is complete,” she told me in her always-professional voice.

“Thank you, my dear,” I said typing in the start up sequence into the computer keyboard. “I am starting the process – now.”

The laser made a small humming sound as I sent power to it and instructed the first micro energy wave to dive into my subject’s brain. There was no light, or any other outward visual from the laser, just the small humming. I sat down behind the computer terminal and typed commands in urgently.

The laser was penetrating Rebecca’s brain. No tissue was damaged, and only the thought center of the brain was disturbed. In a way I was programming the subject like a programmer would a computer. I could change perceptions, feelings, memories, the deepest held principles and beliefs, and remake them all in the form I choose. I could induce emotion, fear, hate, boredom, greed, and of course love. I had found I could even increase IQ levels, all though Rebecca was already intelligent enough and did not need my assistance here. The thought reprogramming I could perform on the subject remade their basic personality, and was deep seeded and unalterable.

In many aspects the old Rebecca died on that table, and the new Rebecca, my Rebecca was born. For what are any of us but thoughts? If not for your thinking would you be the same person you are now? And what are thoughts but electrical charges running through the power grid of our minds.

After a few minutes it was all over. I was confident that Rebecca had felt no pain. She had blacked out briefly, and probably did not even realize anything had happened to her. I had not changed her very much because I thought she was perfect the way she was. Well almost perfect, there were a few things about Rebecca that I wanted to change, and I had just changed them.

I stood over her and helped her up from the table. Her eyes flickered momentarily, but other than this no outward sign indicated the depth of the transformation that had just taken place inside the young woman. To my relief I saw she still had all of the poise and dignity she had always possessed.

“How was that?” I asked.

“An interesting experience, Dr. Koenig,” she said, and I couldn’t detect any noticeable change in her voice, all though I thought perhaps very deep down there was something softer about her now. “I must say I really did not feel a thing. If it hadn’t been for the slight vibrations of the machine I wouldn’t have even known you had started and finished.”

“You haven’t any head ache or fatigue to report then?”

“None whatsoever. I will go about recording what I felt. However, there really isn’t much to put down. Are you certain the laser is functioning correctly?”

“We’ll soon see, my dear. We’ll soon see.”

I escorted her over to a computer terminal and she set down to open a document and write down her experience from the morning. She also told me she wanted to write down her initial perception of my laser so she would have it available for reference when she returned to grad school in the fall. I assured her it was all right, and left her alone with her work.

Now I was playing a waiting game. I thought it had worked, but could not be certain yet. I was soon to find out.

That night Rebecca and I had another lovely dinner served to us by the ever faithful and always quiet Antoine. She rewarded me with one of her wonderful smiles as we shared some humor over dinner. She actually laughed at one of my jokes. That was a good sign. The day before I had tried a joke with her and she had only looked at me politely saying nothing, not grasping my humor, or having any interest to understand.

I excused myself early that night and went up to my bedroom. I had the master bedroom overlooking a quiet desert garden. I always looked to keep the French doors to the patio open at night and let the cool night air of the desert blow inside and comfort me as I slept.