CHAPTER 2: THE LOVE MACHINE
I had the dubious honour of testing the prototype of the machine, in its true environment that is, in space.
There had of course already been hundreds of official tests - and maybe a similar number of unofficial ones too - done before mine, so I knew the thing was safe, at least technically. The experts assured me that it wasn't going to grind important bits of me into smaller parts or anything like that, which was comforting of course.
The concept of the thing had been around for years and the need for it for thousands. From the moment man or woman left the comfort of their partner, to head off into far places, there had been a need. In historical times that need had been satisfied by a bit of raping and pillaging here and there as they went - that's bit hard to do when you are several light years from home in the totally empty reaches between stars. So these days we have people, many of them travelling solo, starved of human contact, love and affection - and sex - for weeks, months, sometimes years.
It's a problem even on the larger ships and has been since day one, they've tried every combination they could think of. When the problem was first officially recognised - and that took a hell of a while I can tell you - they started crewing the long distance trips with married couples. The ensuing divorce rate soon brought that to a halt. Then mixed singles, that always resulted in either physical brawling or poisonous relationships as several crew members decided they wanted the same person. They even tried both homosexual and lesbian crews - same results, only even more dramatic.
So what did they do about it? Typically, nothing - for quite some time. They had already tried stocking the ships' libraries with porno holo-pix tapes but most people already had their own and the government issue was, as you'd expect, mainly cheap rubbish. So we just got used to it, nerves were stretched, tempers flared, efficiency went down - and the officials wrung their hands and blamed the poor quality of the crews.
Then someone had the bright idea of the machine, I can't imagine how long it took to persuade officialdom to come up with research money for a project like that - but once under way, as things do in government, it sort of took on a life of its own. But all very hush-hush of course, top secret, couldn't have the voters thinking that their taxes were being spent on mechanising sexual pleasure.
Once I was picked for the trial run I got to see some of the early concepts, they were laughable really, someone should put them in a museum somewhere. There were a whole range of what were essentially inflatables, some sophisticated gadgetry inside them of course and some of them were really life-like to look at, especially from a distance. Then there were a range of mechanical devices, some that didn't need the user to make any effort, others that looked as though you'd need to be a mechanical engineer to get them working. All in all a pretty sorry looking range of things.
Finally some electronics whiz-kid came up with a concept that sent them off in a completely different direction, the basic idea was quite simple, getting the various components to function and then pull them all together was what took the time - and money.
Essentially the idea was to use a combination of chemistry and electronics to create an illusion and at the same time to stimulate brain waves and muscle responses to achieve the physical result. In the kid's mind he saw the user simply having to choose various options from a computer menu then lying back and enjoying the result. A sort of 'Dial a Dream' machine, a simple idea - but complex to develop.
Anyway they kept working at it and advances in technology and physiology came up with new bits of information every now and then and, little by little, after some early, fairly disastrous failures, they began to get there.
I've no idea how they selected me for the first, non-technical trial. I'm well known as a loner, have a pretty impressive flight record I suppose and have certainly been in more than my fair share of scrapes - and kept both my ship and myself in one piece. Maybe that was why my name popped out of the list search.
At first I wasn't having any of it, when they asked if I'd be willing to participate in an in-flight experiment I just shook my head. 'There are more than enough problems out there without taking someone else's with you.' I said. But then they invited me down to where they had been developing and building the thing, told me more about it, let me see the records of the tests they had been running - and of course gave me the line about 'my place in history, playing my part in relieving the stresses of inter-stellar travel, industry and peer group appreciation, etc., etc.'.
After all that it seemed easier to go along with them than to try to argue. They took charge of my ship for a couple of days while they fitted out the space for the equipment - and did a whole lot of re-wiring and software upgrading for me at the same time, so I figured that if nothing else I was at least already in front financially.
While they were doing that I was given a short course on the operation of the thing and, as future users would be working from just what information their screens gave them, they wanted me to check-out that their program was user-friendly. It was certainly that!
As I was never alone with the thing there was no way I was going to actually use it - I mean physically, I've never really liked group-sex that much and I certainly wasn't going to put on a show for them. But if the real thing was even half as good as the menu choices made it seem I reckoned they had a winner.
Then of course we had to thoroughly test the ship-board installation, make sure everything was right and that their work hadn't interfered with the ship's other functions, that took another day or so but finally everything checked out just fine.
As luck would have it the next trip was a real lulu, a straight run out, four weeks for that, a fast turn-around and then straight home again. You don't get them as clean as that too often! The first week is always fine, there's so much work to do that you really don't notice the time, especially flying single-handed as I do. Just getting out through the permanent, solar system traffic jams takes most of it, taking care of all the reports and records that have to be filed - that we still call 'paper-work' for some reason - takes another chunk and then getting everything set for the hyper-jump takes a bit too.
Once all that's done and you are actually under way there's really not a great deal that has to be done. We all have our interests of course, you'd go stark raving mad if you didn't have something to occupy the time - mine's history, so I do a lot of reading and library searching much of the time. But in spite of that, sometime during the second week, no matter how busy you try and keep yourself you find that the hormones have started to play up, letting you know you are still a human being.
I looked at the equipment a few times of course and was tempted to give it a go. 'Just to make sure it was working all right. I've agreed to do it, so I should.' I told myself. But it was in fact early in week three before I finally did and at first it was more out of sheer curiosity than because of any mad, physical need. But I admit that once I'd called up the menu screen and began to read the options, I was hooked - and found myself starting to get an erection from just thinking about the various choices I was being given.
The menus were sub-divided; so as you decided things such as, the sex of your partner, their race, build and appearance, each had a sub-list of more detailed options to choose from - even down to things such as hairstyle, clothes and underclothes, or lack of. I chose a cute little red-head, with big green eyes, a turned up nose and a full-lipped, smiling mouth - and spent quite some time considering and selecting the other parts of her body.
I could also select just what I wanted to happen - or more accurately of course - that would appear to be happening, between us. Again the choices were extensive and if I had a twinge of doubt, about pre-planning in such detail what would, under normal circumstances happen according to the whim of the partners, when I thought a bit more about it I realised that most of us in fact fantasise about what we would like - and in real life very rarely get it. So I put together a sequence that I had often found myself thinking about, then stripped off, slipped on the connectors, settled down on my bunk and pressed the start button.
First there was music, music and perfume. I knew from the briefings I'd had that the scent included pheromones, chemicals that, once inhaled began to work in very subtle ways on my body's physiology. The main lights dimmed and softer, tinted lights came into play just as she appeared at the foot of my bunk. I use holo-pix all day and during my introduction to the system I'd seen a wide range of women on the screens - but this was totally different.
For starters it was of course a projection, not screen-based, it was life-size and it was several leaps ahead of projected holos I'd ever seen before. So far as anything my eyes could tell me, she was solid, she was real - and she was there, for me!
For a time she just stood there, swaying slowly in time with the music as she looked into my eyes and then a shy smile formed as they shifted and she looked over the rest of me.
Shining, reddish hair fell down to her shoulders, making her white skin appear even whiter. I had selected breasts for her that were just slightly larger than average but firm and uptilted and although I had dressed her in a short, tunic-like garment, as her eyes continued to roam over my body I could see where the nipples poked the fabric as their tips stiffened. For her height, which was on the shortish side, her legs were long and slender, with nicely rounded thighs, which I could appreciate because I had chosen an outfit that stopped a short way below the level of her sex.
She moved out from where she stood and came up beside me, her eyes flicked back up to look deep into mine again, then she spoke, her voice low and with a faint huskiness.
'Bart - it is Bart isn't it?' I smiled back at her and nodded. 'I'm Paula - but then you know that of course. What's a great looking guy like you doing out here, all alone? Or is there another lady hiding somewhere nearby?' I shook my head. 'I don't know how you do it, alone like this, so far out here - I don't mind telling you the thought of what's outside the ship really scares me. But you're not scared, I can see that and I like men like that, men with that kind of strength of mind, men who are used to controlling any kind of situation - and people too probably. I like a man who can control me, be firm with me. In fact.' she paused for a moment then, as I felt her rest one hand on my thigh, she added with a grin. 'I like men who are not just firm - but really hard - as I'm sure you'll soon be.
You'll make me forget all about the scary space outside, won't you?'
To be honest, as I began to react to the combination of the chemicals, her nearness and the gentle pressure of her hand on my thigh I was forgetting all about it myself. That was the strangest time - later, when fully aroused my brain followed my body and the way it reacted to what she did to it, accepting her as real. But right then one part of it, the intellect I guess, knew she was just the result of some extraordinarily complex chemistry and electronics, while the other part, in the lower levels, simply reacted to the deep-seated responses being aroused.
