Sex Culture in the 23rd Century

Chapter 2: Invasive Procedures

From the plane they could see the western coastline of the US of the A's. As the plane steadily lost altitude, they could see the cities, great transparent domes housing buildings of all different sizes and shapes. The plane landed next to one such giant dome, which was sandwiched on one side by the Pacific Ocean and on the other by a large bay.

When they emerged from the plane, they looked out at the city with wonder. It all seemed to be made of some kind of crystal that glittered beautifully as the sunlight hit it.

"Follow me, please," said Karen Disney. She led them into some kind of terminal, following holographic signs pointing to "Cooperative Assimilative Processing".

She led them into a room with several booths that looked like showers. There was also a box in the center of the room. Karen left the room without saying a word, leaving them a bit bewildered. But a moment later, they heard her voice over unseen speakers.

"Is everyone comfy?" she asked. Without waiting for a response she said, "Now, please remove your clothes and step into the Manipulator Booths."

Manipulator Booths?

"What?" said Fredrik. "We can't do that."

"Why not?" Karen's voice asked.

"There are men and wimen together here," said Fredrik. Laura looked embarrassed. Of course, they had seen each other naked before, but not in front of Manu and Rowenka!

Rowenka looked similarly embarrassed.

"If you want to proceed, you need to remove your clothing," said Karen.

"All of it?" said Laura, looking distressed.

"Yes," said Karen. And then, "Of course, the choice is always yours. If you want to go back to your island...."

"No," said Manu and Laura, almost simultaneously.

Eyes averted, they all took off their clothes. Fredrik cast a guilty glance at Rowenka's nude form. Her breasts were rounder and fuller than Laura's. He chided himself for even thinking about them. He only had eyes for Laura's small, perfect breasts.

They held their clothes in their hands, trying to cover their nudity.

"Now, please put your clothes into the box in the center of the room, and each of you step into one of the Manipulator chambers." When they hesitated, Karen reminded them, "It's all for your own good."

Reluctantly, they complied, putting their clothes in the box. When the hamper was full, the bottom dropped out of it and their clothes disappeared.

The girls ran to the booths to hide their nudity but Fredrik was not so quick. "What heppened to our clothes?" Were they going to be cleaned? How long would that take?

Karen Disney's voice came back quickly. "You will be given new clothes. Now please get into the Manipulator."

Somehow the loss of his clothes disconcerted Fredrik more than anything, as if that were the last link to his New Cal identity, now forever gone. A little sadly, he made his way to the booth, careful not to look at the others so he wouldn't see if they were staring at his own nudity.

The booth was partially opened and partially enclosed, with a metal wall encompassing about half its perimeter. When Fredrik stepped into it, a glass partition came out of the wall and closed the booth entirely. He clawed instinctively at the glass.

"Do not be alarmed," said Karen. "I want to thank you for complying so obediently. It was very nice to know you."

Very nice to know you? That sounded like they were going to be killed!

"What's going on?" said Fredrik, banging against the glass as anxiety constricted his throat. It wouldn't budge. The others started to panic and bang on theirs as well. Panic swelled up, their hearts started to race, and....

"Why hello there," said a new voice. A deep voice. An

unnaturally deep voice

.

Fredrik immediately stopped banging.

"It's so nice to meet you," said the voice.

Calm

was the first word Fredrik thought to describe it. Unnaturally calm. Like it was drugged.

"Who... who are yew?"

"I am Ted," said the voice. "And we are going to be the best of friends," Ted said, in that super calm, drugged-sounding voice. "Are you ready to start phase one?"

"Maybe," said Fredrik cautiously, not really sure what that meant.

Fredrik looked up and saw what looked like a showerhead above him, as well as various tubes. Without waiting for a response, a liquid started to spray out of the showerhead. But it wasn't water. It was pink! It had an odd smell too.

"Please scrub the liquid all over your bodies," Ted said.

Laura, in her own booth, started to comply, rubbing it against her thighs. "What is this liquid?"

"It is goooood," said Ted, in a very self-pleasing sounding voice. Suddenly, gentle harp music started to play.

After a few minutes of scrubbing, they were sprayed with another liquid, an orange one this time, that also had its own mysterious smell and purpose. Rowenka obediently rubbed it against her breasts, seeing it lather up with a strong orangey smell, as Manu in his own booth rubbed some experimentally against his scrotum.

And then finally there was water. Beautiful hot water, just the right temperature. It felt glorious. Laura spread her legs and basked in the warmth of it. Fredrik turned his back to it and let it bathe the back of his neck. The music was soft and soothing.

And then the water cut out, and jets of hot air played down from above.

Ted spoke again. "And now you will be rotated, so the heating jets dry you off evenly." The floor beneath them started to slowly turn. As the heat pounded on Fredrik, he felt like a spinning rotisserie chicken.

The jets of air turned off.

"So good. You're so compliant," Ted marveled. "I just know you're going to be

wonderful

additions to the Community."

Manu felt himself smile. Laura felt hopeful. Rowenka felt her nipples getting excited. Fredrik felt cautious.

"When do we get some clothes?" said Fredrik, starting to shiver inside his tube.

"Soon," Ted assured him. "For now, I want you to lean back against the metal part of your booth."

"Why?" Fredrik asked.

There was no answer.

Fredrik reluctantly leaned back against the metal wall. It felt cold against his back and ass.

For a moment, nothing happened. And then, all of a sudden, metal hands came out of the wall and restrained his arms and legs. And then the wall, which was vertical, sloped down and became horizontal, somehow becoming a table that floated above the ground. Fredrik started to sit up, until restraints came down on his shoulders and neck. But before they did, he saw his friends also restrained on tables of their own.

The tables moved on a preprogrammed course. They moved through one room and then another and then another. Fredrik lost sight of the others as he was wheeled into a room that he heard rather than saw was filled with electrical devices. His head was locked, so he could only look straight up, into a bright light above him.

There were sounds of mechanical equipment moving. What were they doing? And then, all at once, metallic things reached out and poked and prodded Fredrik, all over his body, his arms, his legs, his feet, his hands, everywhere. A little device came over his face and shined lights into his eyes, clicking rapidly. He felt a sharp pain in his arm, and it seemed they were drawing blood. He felt other kinds of prodding and weird machine sounds.

Fredrik felt very alarmed. But then, a device that looked like a balloon descended over his face, and blew air over him. And then suddenly, he was calm. Better than calm. He was in a relaxed, almost dream like state, even though he was wide awake.

Fredrik heard voices, saying things, and somehow he knew they were talking about him, but he didn't really care. "Biceps... thighs... hips... anus..." The unseen voices seemed to be evaluating every part of him,.

And then a screen came down, in front of his face. Images started to appear on it. Objects. Animals. Buildings. Faces. Scenes of violence. Scenes of affection. Suddenly, Fredrik felt a tugging down below on his most sensitive part. He was being

stimulated

. The scenes in front of him were of women, women of all different colors, shapes, sizes, and ages. As Fredrik stared at pictures of breasts, thighs, and other body parts, his pulse, heartbeat, brainwaves, and eye movements were meticulously recorded.

And while this was going on he felt himself being rubbed! It was like someone wearing a soft, fluidic glove, though Fredrik would have guessed that it was mechanical in nature. In his dreamy state, Fredrik felt himself getting more and more excited, without his active control, as if he were outside of his own body, watching someone else being aroused. And then, when he was shown a certain series of images, images he would not consciously recall later, he felt himself go over the edge, and the device

milked

him.

"Sample obtained. Pair with genetic analysis," said a voice that sounded like a machine, but somehow also wasn't. And then another voice added, "Malleability 68... potential for alteration subpar, but within acceptable parameters."

Meanwhile Laura, strapped to a table of her own, also felt herself being probed, her arms, her legs, her stomach, and even her breasts. The calming substance she had inhaled didn't fully prepare her for the probe they inserted inside her, and she gasped as she felt something insistent,

tunneling

within her, between her legs.

"Activate numbing field," said a nonsensical voice, and a light came on over her stomach, and suddenly the discomfort was gone. Laura still vaguely felt something moving within her, deeper and deeper now, deeper than even Fredrik had ever been, where no man had gone before, but she felt no pain. She also felt no alarm, feeling, as Fredrik did, as if she were having an out of body experience. But then she did feel a slight twinge, deep within her, like a tiny grape being plucked off the vine, and then the probe suddenly withdrew as someone (or something?) said "Sample obtained. Pair with genetic analysis."

And then a screen appeared and started showing Laura images. At first they were numbers, then colors, then shapes, but soon enough she graduated to images of objects and then people, doing different things. After a certain period of time the images began to change, and they showed scenes of couples making love.

Laura gasped as she felt something new enter her. This was thicker than the previous whatever-it-was, and it didn't go far, not far at all. In fact, it was rubbing back and forth inside her. It was stimulating her!

Laura was shown images of lovemaking that would have made her blush, under normal circumstances. But in her mental detached state, she felt out of control, watching her own body simply react to the stimuli. At first she was shown images of men coupling with women, men of all different shapes and sizes. But then the images changed, showing women making love to other women. Laura's eye movements and brain patterns were recorded minutely.

The device within her seemed to suddenly increase its viscosity and friction potential, and then Laura felt herself going over the edge, and she gasped and moaned slightly, and the system noted the images playing on the screen at that moment.

"Malleability 87... response within acceptable norms for alteration."

As Laura came down from her high, she thought she heard the distinctive sounds of Fredrik moaning. Could they be doing the same thing to him? The thought embarrassed her, for some reason.

Meanwhile, Manu felt the invasive procedures being performed on him as well. The testing seemed to go on for a very long time. Or no time at all. It was hard for him to tell.

As for Rowenka, she went through the same procedures. The last thing she remembered was staring at the images in front of her, of people being intimate with each other, as she fell asleep... or was she rendered unconscious?

********

"Ah, there you are."

The world slowly came into focus. Fredrik found himself sitting in a chair. He was in an office of some kind. The first image his eyes saw when they focused was a large emblem on the front of the desk. It was a circle of people, holding hands, and in the center was written "COMMUNITY" in big letters.

Fredrik blinked and looked around. His friends were all sitting in chairs around him, all seemingly waking up at the same time as him. He and Manu now wore tight blue clothes, like spandex, for shirts and pants, while Laura and Rowenka were similarly attired, but in pink. How had they had gotten these clothes? Who had dressed them?

And where were they now? Fredrik looked around. They were in an office of some kind. A big, fancy office filled with all kinds of mechanical wonders. It looked like the office of someone important.

And then Fredrik saw

her

, sitting behind a desk. Some kind of Chinese lady, no, a lady who was part Chinese lady and... part something else. She stared at him curiously, watching him slowly come to his senses with great interest.

"Have you arrived, Mr. Diem?" the woman asked.

The question made no sense to him. He looked quizzically at her.

The woman smiled. "You all seem aware now, at least to a sufficient degree. Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Maoina Bin Laden. I am the First Deputy Controller for the Northern California District."

"First Deputy... What of whot?" said Manu.

"Controller," said Maoina. "Think of me as... a friend." She indicated a young blonde Chinese woman with a hard face standing next to her. "And this is my assistant, Madison Alibaba."

Alibaba smiled, somewhat insincerely, and said, "Hi, how are you? I'm fine."

"What... what happened to us?" said Laura, blinking.

"You were processed," said Maoina. "Coming from the outside, we had to check you for infectious diseases and the like."

"It felt lyke more than that," said Fredrik.

Maoina smiled. She knew that Fredrik would be the most challenging to handle. "And it was. We also learned a lot about you. Here, let me demonstrate."

She paused, looking down at a screen they could not see for a moment.

"Your names are Fredrik Diem, Laura Ngo, Manu Enterami, and Rowenka Jovanka, or should I say, Rowenka Enterami, since the two of you are married. A quaint custom, that," Maoina smiled, giving Rowenka a sly wink. She had said the word "married" in a very affected way, while raising her eyebrows, as if she were talking about sex. "You encountered one of the beacons we placed, and set out on a small boat to make contact with us. One of our transport vessels discovered you, and sent a plane for you, and here you are," said Maoina. She added, "And we are so very happy to see you."

"You are?" said Rowenka.

"Why?" Fredrik asked.

"Because of the positive contributions you can make to our Community," said Maoina.

"What kind of contributions?" Fredrik asked.

"Well, let's start with you, Fredrik," said Maoina. She looked down at her screen again. "Fredrik Diem, age 20. You grew up in the small village of Voh on New Caledonia. You lost your parents at the age of eight in a typhoon. You were raised by your grandmother Nana-"

"How do you know all these things?" Fredrik asked.

"SleepTalk," said Maoina.

"SleepTalk?"

"We had a full discussion. You were very friendly and outgoing," said Maoina.

"I was?"

"Yes," Maoina reassured him. "Let's see. You fancy yourself a journalist. You decided you wanted to come to the US of the A's because you wanted to report on real stories that were substantial, more important than reporting Little League results from the middle schools in New Cal." She smiled mockingly at him, showing him her power, showing him that his personal thoughts had been violated.

"How could yew possibly knauw-"

"SleepTalk," said Maoina again. "You are deeply in love with Laura Ngo, and plan to ask for her hand in marriage sometime in the next few months, though you are shy and keep postponing it."

Laura looked stunned. "Fredrik? Really?" Her jaw dropped.

Fredrik reflected on this unreal moment. Maoina had revealed his innermost thoughts to his bride to be.

"Sorry, perhaps I should have kept that more confidential," Maoina said,

not looking very sorry at all

. "Getting back to your record, genetically speaking, let's see, you are 69% Vietnamese, 27% Pacific Islander (variant 14), and 4% a mix of everything else. You are in excellent health, a truly wonderful physical specimen." There was something about the way she said

specimen

that bothered him, as well as the way she looked at him when she said it. And then her voice dropped a bit and she half-whispered, as if the others weren't in the room right next to him, "I imagine you could have any woman you want here. There are highly placed ladies in their 40's and 50's who would cash in all their virtue points to be with a man like yourself." She smiled slyly at him.

Fredrik laughed nervously. What an odd thing to say. "But Ay'm not attracted to wimen in their 40's and 50's. I'm hear with Laura." He grasped her hand, to emphasize his point.

"Oh? Really?" said Maoina, as if she hadn't known, even as she had already indicated that she knew of the relationship between the two quite well. "Well, that's your affair, of course. But I will say that our propaganda arm could use some young blood like yourself."

"Propaganda?"

"Oh, the translation of terminology! What you might call the news media," said Maoina.

"Oh," said Fredrik, brightening.

Maoina now turned to Laura. "And you are Miss Laura Ngo. You are actually 97% Vietnamese. Much more than Mr. Diem here," she said, as if that meant something. "Your ancestry actually originates from Northern Vietnam. Mr. Diem's ancestry hails from the South. It's a good thing the war is long since over." Maoina smiled. They didn't, not enjoying being genetically dissected like this. It felt like an invasion of privacy.

"Moving on," said Maoina. "Ms. Ngo, you are 19 years of age, the eldest of three sisters. You are an accomplished landscape painter, but feel that there is little market or demand for your work in such a ruggedly...

practical

place like New Caledonia. That was your impetus for coming here, along with, of course, your

affiliation

towards Mr. Diem."

Again, her choice of words were odd to Laura. Affiliation? She was in love with Fredrik!

"You are also in excellent physical health, and are quite attractive," said Maoina.

Laura felt startled and she reddened. "Thank yew."

"Yes, I imagine that you could turn the head of any man you wished to here. Or even, any woman," said Maoina, raising her eyebrows ever so slightly.

Any woman?

"Were it not for the fact that Laura and I are together, I'm sure she could," said Fredrik, grasping her hand all the more tightly.

"Please don't feel threatened, Mr. Diem," said Maoina. "Matters of love are not much different from your New Cal. Everyone is free to be with whomever they choose. But we have done away with jealousy and envy."

"I'm glad to hear it," said Fredrik tightly.

"If you two are happy together, than may Gaia bless you," said Maoina. "Far be it for me or anyone else to tear you apart," she added.

"Thank you," said Laura.

"Now Ms. Ngo, I think I would have something that might interest you, a chance to insert yourself as a human component in one of our prestigious Global Consciousness Women's Painting Collectives."

"Human component?"

"Ah, the diction again! I believe you would call it, 'a member of the team'"," said Maoina.

"Yes, that sounds great," said Laura, brightening.

"So good," said Maoina, smiling back. She turned to Manu.

"And now for you, young sir. Your name is Manu Enterami and you are 21 years of age. You are 84% Pacific Islander, variant 22, 9% Japanese, and 7%... Caucasian," Maoina read that last statistic somewhat wistfully. "You lived with your... wife... Rowenka on New Cal, but you have a mother and father and two brothers. Like the others, you are in excellent health, and like Mr. Diem, you grew up in Voh, New Caledonia. You work primary in construction, though you aspire to be an architect."