Cybercock Ch 03

Author's note: What? An update after 11 years? That's crazy!

Was that... humming?

Consciousness slowly seeped into Stacy's brain. She was comfortably cocooned in her blankets and could have easily slept another hour or two. On the other hand, she felt well-rested, energized even. She always slept fitfully when her boyfriend was abroad, but this morning she felt amazing, as though she had....

"Oh," she said, as her sleep-fogged brain abruptly recalled that she had invited Liz over for help fixing a certain problem. "Oh, no." She remembered using the cybercock on Liz, then letting the other girl return the favor with her tongue. "Oh, shit."

Liz had stayed the night, had slept in Stacy's bed. They had cuddled and she had fallen asleep with Liz's arm around her. Stacy had awoken in the dead of night from a pair of soft lips touching her own. She half-remembered fingers gently prying her thighs apart and bringing her to climax, all the while those lips never left hers.

Now it was morning and she had to own up to what she had done, what it meant. One of the ways that she defined herself, who she chose to have sex with, had changed, or at least hadn't been as immovable as she had thought. She hadn't planned for that to happen, however enjoyable it had been at the time.

Stacy sat up, letting the blankets fall away, just as the humming voice down the hallway broke fully into song. "The sun will come out, tomorrow...."

She frowned. Annie? Was Liz seriously singing the theme for Annie? And it was actually...not bad? A cringeworthy choice, for sure, but still, it drew Stacy out of bed. That, and the sweet, buttery smell coming from the kitchen. She slipped on a nightgown and padded down the hall to the kitchen.

"There you are!" Liz said, standing in front of the stove with nothing but an apron on. She looked Stacy up and down and smiled. "I hope you like pancakes. You've got to learn how to properly stock a fridge, by the way." She gestured at the table. "Have a seat, lover."

"Uh, okay, thanks," Stacy said, feeling distinctly awkward as she sat at her kitchen table. Liz brought her a stack of pancakes and her mouth began to actually water upon seeing blueberries cooked right into them, with a huge pat of butter melting on top.

"Use some syrup if you want," Liz suggested. "But they really don't need it."

Stacy picked up the maple syrup bottle--warmed, she noted approvingly--and gave her pancakes a light drizzling. They tasted just as good as they smelled, sweet, buttery and so fluffy that they almost melted in her mouth.

Liz retrieved her own stack of pancakes, staying warm in the oven, and joined her at the table. "Any problems with the cybercock?" she asked.

Stacy shook her head. "Not since you fixed it."

"I'm glad I could help you with that particular problem," Liz replied, giving her a smoky look as she opened her mouth, inserted her food and slowly dragged the bits of pancake from her fork.

How did she manage to make eating breakfast look sexy?

Liz dabbed at her mouth with a napkin and continued. "Have you thought any more about Vicki?"

"You mean talking to Divya about her? Honestly, I don't know if that's a good idea. I think Vicki's worked really hard to make her like her. I'm not sure she would believe me, let alone take my side. I think I'm gonna need some kind of proof."

Liz frowned. "Good luck with that. Victoria isn't the brightest flash in the pan, but she was careful not to falsify documentation for any of the ideas she took credit for. In meetings, she spoke highly of the team, and even called out a few of the other members, but I noticed that your name never came up. It was that project I mentioned last night, the one where Stephan had cocked everything up. I remembered it because you had already told me all about it. You worked like eighty hours that week to fix it. So it stuck in my mind when she claimed that she had personally put in extra effort where I knew that it had actually been your work."

"You said you would back me up, though," Stacy said, her tone hopeful.

"Of course I will. But I think you're right. It's not enough. I've got some pull with upper management, but probably not much in your department. Vicki would just weasel her way out, say she misspoke and meant to credit the team. At best, she'd get a 'stern talking-to', and then she'd know that you know about her. I think what we need right now is for you to do your usual stellar work and document everything. Track your time. Take notes on all your ideas. Record your conversations with Vicki. Then, when she tries to pull this again, we forward your evidence to someone in management who'll go to bat for you."

Stacy chewed on a mouthful of pancake for a moment while she thought. "And what if she doesn't pull the same trick next time? Then it'll just look like I'm trying to make trouble for her."

Liz nodded thoughtfully. "That is a risk."

Stacy groaned. "God! I hate this. I hate the thought of working for even another minute under that bitch. Maybe I should just find a new job."

"I don't think we're at that point just yet. Besides, you love your job. Way more than I like mine. It would be a shame to lose it."

Stacy had to admit that she was right. She did love her job, and she believed in the company's mission to build robust, sustainable homes and buildings. AI might automate her role away soon enough, but she would keep at it just as long as she could.

"I'm not likely to find another gig out there like this one, am I?"

"Not unless you want to move to California."

Stacy wrinkled her nose and shook her head. "No thanks. I'm a Texas girl."

"A Texas girl who's pancakes are getting cold," Liz said disapprovingly, as she scarfed down a bite of her own food.

Stacy glanced at the clock. "Yeah, well I need to get going soon or I'm going to miss the train. And I haven't showered yet."

"You're working on a Saturday?"

Stacy stood up, looked longingly at the half-eaten pancake stack, and leaned down to cut out another bite. "My choice. We just submitted our final proposal for the last job, so they'll drop the next one from the queue today. I want to review the specs and get a jump on it before the Monday meeting."

Liz stood and reached across the table to put a hand on her shoulder. "Hey, take your time. I'll drive you in. Mind if I grab a shower first?"

Stacy sat back down, only too happy to dive back into the pancakes. "Sure. Go right ahead."

Thirty minutes later, the pair exited Stacy's building and crossed the street to where Liz had parked. She had brought a change of clothes last night, demonstrating that she had already been thinking she might be staying over. The office was in Midtown, only ten minutes away by car, and the parking lot was mostly empty when they arrived.

Stacy got out and was surprised when Liz joined her. Halfway there, she felt the other girl's hand touch hers. She stiffened and almost pulled her hand back, worried about someone seeing.

I don't care what they think,

she decided, and let her new lover interlock their fingers.

They took the elevator up, and Liz, after a hungry stare, pulled Stacy in for a deep, passionate kiss that took her breath away. She drew back, just as the elevator announced Stacy's floor, leaving her swaying in a daze. Liz had to hold the doors long enough for Stacy to remember where she was and what she was doing.

"Sorry," she said, and took a step towards the opening.

"Wait, wait," Liz hissed. She pulled something from her purse--a handkerchief?--and dabbed at Stacy's makeup. "Sorry, smeared you a bit. Okay, go."

Stacy looked back as the doors closed to see Liz blow her a kiss. Chuckling to herself, she navigated between the cubicles on the mostly empty floor. Rounding the last corner, she stopped dead in her tracks at seeing a person in her cubicle, bent over her desk.

"Victoria?" she asked.

The other woman startled and turned to face her. "Oh, good morning, Stacy. You didn't tell me you were working this weekend."

She smiled, and Stacy had to remind herself that Vicki didn't yet know that Stacy knew what she had been up to. She played the part of friendly, supportive team manager so well. Stacy needed to be careful not to raise her suspicions.

"I wanted to get a jump on the new project. What were you doing at my workstation?" She could see behind her that the screen was on.

"Just a routine security check," Vicki said with an apologetic shrug. "There was a memo recently about keeping documents with proprietary information under lock and key. I was just making sure my team was in compliance."

It was a reasonable-sounding explanation. Stacy had seen that memo, though she rarely used paper records, so it didn't so much apply to her.

"Were you testing my login? Because I changed my password just a couple of days ago."

Vicki's eyes narrowed. She seemed to catch herself, blinked, looked back at the screen, then smiled again. "Oh? No, I must have bumped something. Sorry about that. Were you hoping to get a jump on the new project? I do admire your commitment, you know. You're a great asset to the team."

"I'm glad you think so." Stacy forced a smile. "If I look good, you look good, right?"

Fuck me!

she chided herself.

That was too much on the nose!

But somehow, Vicki didn't catch the veiled accusation. "The whole team looks good, actually. Keep up the great work."

Stacy waited until the sound of Vicki's heels clicking on the floor tiles had faded away before sitting down. She entered her password, but was greeted with the message

Login attempt limit exceeded

.

"Well, shit." Stacy said to herself, on seeing a countdown. She would need to wait almost ten minutes before the system would let her try to log in again.

A chime sounded in Stacy's ear, accompanied by a small notification on one side of her vision. She held her gaze on the spot and the notification expanded into a message.

Hey, hon. Hope I'm not distracting you. I didn't tell you before, but last night was amazing. I know you have a boyfriend, but I'm hoping we can make this a regular thing.

Stacy put her hands out and began typing a reply.

No, it's fine. I'm locked out of my workstation right now. It'll be a few more minutes.

She was about to send the message but paused, her thoughts returning to last night, the intensity of their encounter and the rollercoaster of her feelings then and now.

She remembered Liz's scent, feminine and alluring, the electric spark of her tongue, an upstroke brush between her nether lips, the distinct sensation of Liz's lips pulling back in a smile at her guttural moan. She remembered going down on her, the flavor both mildly sweet and sour, like a mango. She recalled how it felt to slide the imposing length of the cybercock into her. Her body had grown warm, and a swarm of butterflies frollicked in her stomach.

She began typing in a rush, afraid she would lose her nerve if she stopped too long to think.

I think I want a regular thing, too. I'm sure Tim won't mind. And you're right, last night was amazing, and I want to do it again as soon as possible.

The reply came back a few seconds later.

I was really hoping you would say that, hon. Talk to you soon!

Stacy played a game in virtual space while she waited out the lockout timer to expire. The beep of a timer alerted her that the wait had elapsed, and she quickly logged in and dove into the documentation. She had to sign the usual non-disclosure agreements and then she was in. She pored over the project specs, instructing her assistant on which parts to extract and summarize.

This project was on a completely different scale from her previous work. This wasn't just a building. It was an entire theme park. The location was local, a large patch of currently empty land north of Houston. It was an ambitious proposal, combining rides, augmented reality, and robotics in a science-fiction themed sandbox.

Stacy clicked on one of the AR demo reels. A prompt came up, asking if she wished to download and execute the simulated environment. She chose "yes" and leaned back in her chair.

Her office faded away, leaving her in a world of featureless gray. Text appeared in her vision, explaining that what she was about to see would feature a mix of real and virtual elements. The text faded and she abruptly dropped into virch. She.was standing on a catwalk in a large cave, lit by lights from above and below. A prompt notified her that the temperature would be 10 degrees C, a bit chilly. She looked around and spotted a man standing at a console nearby.

"Ah, there you are, cadet," he said. "Welcome to your first day of exosuit training. I'm Lieutenant Masterson, and I'll be guiding you on this jaunt. Let's get you suited up."

She was directed to a platform where a hulking humanoid form made of painted metal hung from a scaffold-like rack, its body hunched forward and split open at the back. The sim used familiar gesture-based movement controls, but text explained that the actual attraction would have the guest walk on their own in a specially-constructed room while the virtual environment overlaid their senses.

The "exosuit" was about ten feet tall, its feet touching the ground several feet below the catwalk, while the top of its head was level with her own. The interior was lit dimly, and virtual prompts directed her to insert her legs and arms, while the explanatory text revealed that the guest would be entering a physical object, a simulator that would enclose the guest exactly in the way the virtual suit appeared to close around them.

Her guide spoke from behind her. "Climb on in, newbie. The suit will adjust automatically to fit. If you feel any sense of claustrophobia, just call for help and I'll pull you out of there."

Her simulated body moved forward on its own, climbing into the suit. A wraparound display lit up in front of her and the back of the suit immediately began to hinge closed. Another prompt revealed that the suit was actually a pod suspended in an arrangement of gimbals and articulated arms that simulated movement and rotation. There was a lurch--only visual--though Stacy suspected that this simulator would turn that into a physical sensation, and the suit was released from its rack, standing now on its own power.

Masterson came on again. "Good, I see green across all systems. Go ahead and try moving, cadet. Once you have your feet, head to the airlock and let's get you out onto the surface."

She used the gesture interface to move, though the information prompts assured her that the simulation would respond to the actual motion of walking. She passed through a thick metal doorway and a thick steel door hummed closed behind her. Air pumps whirred to life, the noise quickly fading as the atmosphere was drained away. The second door abruptly slid open, revealing the stark red surface of Mars.

Stacy played in the sim for a bit, impressed both by how immersive and how flexible it was, allowing her to ignore her guide's promptings if she wished and head off in a different direction from where she was directed. The suit, more like a small mecha, would take long, loping strides that no doubt simulated the reduced gravity. It would be a neat trick if the physical simulator could pull that off convincingly, but the prompts she was seeing seemed to indicate that the designers thought that they could.

She exited the simulation, feeling the usual disorientation of leaving a virtual environment, and read some more about this particular attraction. Apparently, guests could choose from the gentle sightseeing tour she had taken or could opt for a more action-packed scenario. This attraction would accommodate over a hundred guests simultaneously when at maximum capacity, with the simulation pods running in a staggered sequence that ensured that new pods were always coming open every few seconds.

Bracing herself, Stacy looked up the power requirements for the attraction, and then laughed out loud. It was ludicrous. No arrangement of solar panels and power banks could possibly supply that kind of draw without taking up huge amounts of space, and this was just one of dozens of attractions that the park would feature. This whole thing looked like some kind of colossal fuck-up.

Still, she was here on her day off, so she might as well get some work done. She started going through each of the shops, performance venues and attractions, instructing her assistant to assess power needs and start to form a draft for a park-wide distribution network. Maybe the plan was to use solar where they could and draw most of their power from the grid. That didn't make much sense. Her employer was specialized in off-grid, self-sustaining buildings, but maybe there was a good reason that they took this job.

Stacy was deep in the process, lost in the flow state of creative work when a double chime brought her out of her trance, and she saw that she had a flashing message notification--two, actually. She must not have heard the first one. She opened the first and saw that it was from Liz.

Hey, let me take you out to lunch. Come meet me down in the lobby in ten. Hugs.

Stacy looked at the timestamp on the message and cringed inwardly. Sighing, she opened the next message, again from Liz.

Hmph. Standing a girl up after a first date. So low class. Too bad for you, I know where you work.

Stacy logged out and stood up to go, but Liz was already standing behind her. She had changed and was now wearing a flared blue skirt and low-cut, white top that put her shapely bust on full display. "Surprise. I made a trip back home. I wanted to look nice for you," she explained, and twirled her hips.

Stacy had always been capable of appreciating a good-looking woman before, but had never coded those feelings as sexual attraction until last night. The first time she had sex with a man had elicited a similar effect, making real something that had previously been abstract, and allaying the anxiety she had carried about the act. Now that she had been intimate with a woman, she found herself thinking differently about the female form. Especially the female form of the cute coworker in front of her.

"You're gorgeous," Stacy said, and stepped towards her. Liz moved to close the distance and they embraced, then shared a soft, sensual kiss. Liz opened her mouth and invited her in, then teased and caressed her tongue while her hands roamed Stacy's body.

When Liz drew back, Stacy had to clutch at her to keep her balance. Liz leaned close to her ear. "There's nothing quite like it, is there? Making love to a woman," she purred. Her breath in Stacy's ear sent chills down her spine.

Stacy might have stayed there a while longer, lost in a haze of endorphins, but Liz tugged at her arm. "Come on. Let's get lunch. My treat."

The restaurant that Liz took them to was a little Italian spot in Montrose. Stacy tried the spinach gnocchi, which was fantastic, while Liz devoured a massive rectangle of lasagna. They mostly talked about life. Liz had broken up with her last girlfriend nearly a year ago after two years together. When Stacy was hired several months back, it just happened that Liz was the one to set up her workstation. Otherwise, they might never have struck up a conversation and become friends.

"And you might never have asked me out," Liz said with a mischievous grin.

"I did

not

ask you out!" she protested. "I really just needed some help with that thing."

Liz chuckled. "And yet here we are." She took a long sip of her iced tea, sighed contentedly, then set the glass down and leaned forward. "You're still alright with dating a girl?"

"What, are those supposed to be downsides?"

"Just making sure you know what you're getting into. I'm fast approaching thirty. Sometimes I leave my clothes on the floor. I don't always finish my drinks. And I pee standing up."