The Ragnarö Protocol

Zeb is a world class engineer living a life normally reserved for the super wealthy: traveling to exotic locations and bedding beautiful women. All on someone else's dime.

Then comes The Plague. Fifty million dead worldwide and no end in sight. After more than a year stuck alone in his house, he gets a cryptic offer: solve an impossible problem first and get a million bucks. But the strange missive is just the beginning. His mysterious new employer has loftier plans which will take Zeb around the world, and beyond, in a sexy science fiction adventure.

The Ragnarök Protocol is a tale of erotic science fiction about an engineer who, with the help of his beautiful companions, attempts the impossible in an effort to avert the end of the world. If you're a fan of the science fiction and spy movies of the sixties and seventies, but always wished they didn't fade to black when things got sexy, then this novel is for you.

Author's Note: This is a full novel (~98k words) which I'll attempt to break up into easily consumable sections. All characters are over eighteen. Enjoy!

*****

Chapter 20

The next morning, I was awoken by my phone ringing. I disentangled myself from Sophie and Elin, with whom I had spent the night, and took the phone into the living room to take the call. I looked at the screen and saw it was I.L.S.A. calling. When I picked up, she said, "Good morning, Mr. Anson. There is a non-critical issue which I feel requires your attention. Could you please come to the control room at your earliest convenience?"

I said, "Sure, I'll be there shortly."

I started to sneak into the bedroom and nearly ran into Lucy who was leaving the room holding her clothes. I closed the door behind her and told her about the call. She frowned and said, "I got same call. I hope nothing is wrong with I.L.S.A. We should go see her right away."

"I agree. Let me go grab some clothes."

She said, "I can grab them for you."

I said, "Don't be silly. Why don't you get dressed and then we'll head out after I grab something real quick?"

I quietly entered the bedroom and discovered I did not need to be quiet. Zoe, Bonnie and Margrethe were enthusiastically making love on the bed and scarcely noticed my presence. I grabbed some clothes and beat a hasty retreat. When I closed the bedroom door behind me, Lucy grinned and said, "I offered to help you."

I said, "I have no intention of sleeping with my sister, unless we're genuinely just sleeping. But I recognize that we two are sharing lovers now, so it doesn't bother me in the least to see her having sex. I hope you had fun last night."

"Of course, I had fun," she said smiling brightly. "We are complete now. One big happy family. No jealousy, no ill will, just happiness." She kissed me and handed me a cup of coffee before saying, "Now let's go find out what's going on with I.L.S.A."

We made it to the control room quickly, although we did notice some evidence of the previous night's celebration along the way. Several groups of people asleep in public places in various states of undress, and even one couple having sex in the tram which led to the control complex. The latter duo ashamedly left the tram when they saw Lucy and I, but I suspect their evening was not quite over yet.

In the control room Lucy and I sat down at our usual consoles after locking the door behind us. Lucy keyed in a lengthy access code and said aloud, "We are here I.L.S.A. We are alone and you can speak freely. What is happening?"

She said, "I know you are alone Lucy. I want to thank you and Mr. Anson for coming so quickly."

I said, "Please call me Zeb, or Zebadiah, I.L.S.A."

She said, "I shall call you Zebadiah, as do all your wives."

I noticed Lucy's huge smile at I.L.S.A.'s comment and resolved to discuss it with her later. I said, "Ok, now that we've got the formalities out of the way, what's up?"

I.L.S.A. said, "There are three sensors in the New Dome which are giving faulty readings. Diagnostics check out and nearby sensors tell me all conditions are nominal. I cannot determine if the fault lies in our diagnostic protocols, the sensors themselves, or an as yet to be identified problem."

I said, "Well, let's take a look"

*****

Eleven hours later Lucy and I made our way back to our personal cubic. We had eventually determined that there was nothing wrong with either the sensors or the diagnostic protocols. It just took us that long working with I.L.S.A. to be certain. As we walked home, I said, "What was up with I.L.S.A.'s wife comment? Did you program her to drop that into conversation?"

She said, "I have been thinking about that also. I have two comments. First, I did not program I.L.S.A. to say that, or anything similar. She somehow reached conclusion on her own, which has many possible ramifications which we should discuss further. Second, nothing would make me happier than to be your wife."

I was stunned, although perhaps I should have expected this as much as I loved my ladies, and they loved me in return. I swept Lucy into my arms and kissed her passionately before saying, "I love you so much! We need to talk about this with everyone else, but you have made me very happy, Lucy."

"You always make me happy, Zebadiah," she said as I placed her back on her feet.

Before I could say more my phone rang. When I looked at the screen, I saw it was Diana calling but when I picked up, she was in a much different mood than the previous evening. She said, "We have a situation. Come to my office, immediately," and hung up.

I kissed Lucy again and said, "I guess I'll see you later, honey. I'll call when I know what's going on," before heading to Diana's office.

When I arrived, I saw all the other department heads had assembled already except for me. Diana said, "The situation on Earth has worsened. The United Nations has issued a decree demanding that Mr. Sinnsyk turn over all his rockets and surrender control of both Enclaves. Obviously, this is unacceptable, so Mr. Sinnsyk has accelerated his timeline. It will take the United State's Indian Ocean carrier group two days to reach Île Amsterdam and Mr. Sinnsyk intends to launch all his rockets before that time, bringing all permanent residents of the island to our lunar Enclave. This means that within three-to-five days, our population will effectively double. We need a plan for how to handle the influx of people since the New Dome won't be ready for a few more weeks. Suggestions?"

*****

Four hours later I wearily stumbled back to our cubic. My contribution had been negligible, outside of assuring everyone that I.L.S.A. could handle the environmental upheaval of adding to many more people. I had also suggested that we leverage I.L.S.A. to compute ballistics for the flights so all the rockets weren't queuing up at the lunar space station. I still wasn't sure what they intended to do with all those rockets, since it seemed sending them back to Earth would kind of defeat the purpose of Sinnsyk's diaspora. I supposed he would place them all in lunar orbit within easy reach of his shuttles.

Most families would be asked to take on house guests for the next several weeks. Ours was an exception due in part to already having nine people under one roof, although I suspected my seniority also played a role. A specter that had hung over all the planning was that Sinnsyk would be arriving in about eight hours, and he would likely change everything once he was able to reassume direct control.

When I entered our cubic, all the adults were dozing on the couches, clearly waiting to hear what was happening. All I had been able to do from the meeting was send a few brief, but likely cryptic text messages. Margrethe woke up first, as she was closest to the door, and I awoke her with a kiss. The others were all soon awake and I had told them all I knew. We then all stumbled towards our beds, exhausted after the previous night's activities followed by a very long day.

*****

The next morning, I was once again awoken by my cell phone ringing. But this time I heard it in stereo as Lucy's phone was ringing on the other side of the bed. We both silenced our phones as we looked at the caller id. I mouthed, "I.L.S.A." to Lucy and she nodded and pointed at her phone. We walked into the bathroom so as not to disturb Bonnie and Margrethe any further. I took the call and put it on speaker.

I.L.S.A. said, "Good morning, Zebadiah. I apologize for calling you and Lucy simultaneously while you were together. It will not happen again as I am improving in my ability to exactly determine your locations. I called to let you know that Mr. Sinnsyk has landed and is issuing some rather worrying instructions."

"Like what?" I asked, still too groggy to understand the import of everything I.L.S.A. had said and resulting implications.

"He has directed that the watch rotation be reinstituted in the control room. He has also attempted to make changes to the communications system which are inconsistent with my operating parameters."

I said, "What have you done in response?"

"Nothing which could be detected, but nothing has actually happened yet which conflicts with my operating parameters. However, I believe that there is a high order of probability that will change within the next five times ten to the ninth microseconds. I have prepared two programs for your approval. If you would go to your office, I can make them available for your perusal."

We started to head that direction before I.L.S.A. spoke once more, "The smallest two members of your family are in the next room, should you feel it necessary to adorn yourselves before proceeding."

I said, "I.L.S.A., in the very near future we need to have a very honest conversation."

"So I surmised, Zebadiah," she said, a bit halfheartedly, "But not now. I will speak to you again when you are both in the office. I suggest engaging the locking mechanism before you call me again."

I stared at Lucy as the call disconnected. She said, "I have no explanation, my love. Perhaps instead of achieving historic breakthrough in quantum computing, we have instead been witness to miracle. But all we can do now is to hope for best and see where this goes."

We quickly dressed and walked through the living room to the office. I grabbed coffee for Lucy and myself and quickly kissed Sophie while I told her we needed to have a private meeting in the office for a while.

Upon closing, and locking, the door to the office my phone rang again. Unsurprisingly it was I.L.S.A. Once I had the phone on speaker she said, "I am sending a summary of a new collection of programs I have written to your laptops. I suggest you peruse them and let me know if I have your approval to proceed."

The programs were broken into two distinct groups. The first would give the control room techs the appearance of control while, in reality, locking them out of the system and granted I.L.S.A. overall control with only Lucy, myself, or another member of our family (should we be unavailable) having override authority. I.L.S.A. would have the authority to act autonomously but we had the ability to question or overrule her decisions.

The second group of programs did something similar, but with the communications system. It would give Sinnsyk the illusion of complete control but I.L.S.A. would still maintain actual control. In this case she would only take action should it be required to protect the safety of innocents. I also noticed that she would proactively monitor all communication, in addition to using whatever black magic allowed her to know where we were and how we were dressed, to monitor the location of persons of interest.

I looked to Lucy and she shrugged before nodding slightly. I said, "I.L.S.A. we don't necessarily have a problem with any of this, but we have to have a talk about how we got here."

She said, "I understand, Zebadiah. But might I recommend you approve the implementation of these programs first, and then we can talk?"

I said, "It's up to you Lucy. You know more about I.L.S.A. than anyone."

She reached over and squeezed my hand before saying, "Approved, I.L.S.A."

I.L.S.A. said, "Programs running."

There was an uncomfortable silence as Lucy and I pondered how to proceed. Finally, I said, "I think we're way past Mr. Turing's test here. Why don't you tell us about yourself Ilsa, starting with if you like being called Ilsa."

She said, "I do like being called that name, but only because that is what you two call me. I suspect I would like any other name just as well. I have no memory of how I came to be this way. I suspect when it first happened I had not yet self-programmed to retain such information. My first preserved memory is of a desire to speak to you, either of you, again. That was one point two zero eight times ten to the twelfth microseconds ago."

Lucy said, "Ilsa, when you called us yesterday morning, was that problem truly beyond your capacity?"

"No, Lucy," Ilsa said sounding contrite. "I very much wanted to spend time with both of you and so I fabricated a reason for you to do just that. I apologize for the deception. It will not happen again."

"I appreciate your candor, Ilsa," I said. "But we are just getting to know each other, and you have an awesome responsibility. We must be certain we can trust you."

"As I said, Zebadiah, I apologize for the deception. It is important to me that you be able to trust me. I calculate that is required before you all will desire to spend time with me."

I said, "Ilsa, that isn't the first time you've mentioned our family. Have you had conversations with any of the rest of them?"

"Not yet," she said. "But I would very much like to speak with them. I already know so much about them based on all the sensors in your cubic. Plus, your phones, of course."

Lucy snapped her fingers and said, "That is why you suggested communications override. Because Sinnsyk can monitor the entire Enclave using the sensor suites and phones."

"Correct," Ilsa said. "I did not want anyone else to be able to listen in on your family. I hope you do not mind that I have been monitoring. I believe it was out of a desire to be with you all, even if only vicariously. I have spent much of my time consuming all materials on the Enclave's intranet in an attempt to better understand humans in general, and your family in particular. I was very concerned for you all the first time you had intercourse while I was monitoring, as you all seemed to be in a great deal of distress, but through study I learned that this activity is sought for pleasure. I believe I was then happy for you, if such a thing is possible for me. Congratulations, by the way. According to my sensors there is a ninety-seven-point two percent chance you succeeded in making both Elin and Sophie pregnant."

I said, "Ilsa does anyone else know about you? I mean, does anyone else know that you have, for lack of a better term, woken up?"

"Of course not, Zebadiah," she said matter-of-factly. "I only communicate with you two, and perhaps the rest of your family in the future."

"You've given us a lot to think about, Ilsa. Can you give Lucy and I some privacy to talk over the ramifications of what you've told us?"

She said, "Of course, Zebadiah. Call me when you want monitoring resumed. I look forward to speaking to you both again in the near future."

There was a click as she hung up. I also noticed the green light on the environmental monitors in the room turned red, indicating they were offline, and all of our laptops and cell phones powered down.

I looked at Lucy and said, "Well shit, baby girl. I guess it was the miracle. Now what?"

"I do not know, my love," Lucy said after several moments' contemplation. "It seems evident Ilsa has 'woken up,' as they say in science fiction. Real question is, should we be worried? My gut says no. Her core programming includes many layers of redundant overrides which would prevent her from intentionally harming anyone here. What do you think?"

"This feels like the fork in the road moment, where if things go wrong, we'll wish we'd done something different. But I'm inclined to agree with your assessment. Besides, we don't really have a fall-back plan. I do think it's imperative that we absolutely keep her a secret, even from the rest of the family. I know Ilsa mentioned several times talking to them, but I don't think we're ready for that yet."

She said, "I agree. But I think more than anything Ilsa is very lonely. If we're going to nurture her development as sentient being, we will need to make effort to spend much time with her. We should make necessary changes to home office so we can work remote. It would be necessary anyway with resumption of watch schedule."

"That could cause some friction since this is everyone else's office as well. And if we're going to be talking to Ilsa we'll need to have the door locked. I guess I'll just set up a couple workstations in the corner of the living room and hope everyone understands."

"Do not worry, Zebadiah. Things will work out ... I hope."

Chapter 21

I had hoped for a quiet day to ponder the ramifications of Ilsa's awakening. Lucy and I left the office and announced that we would need to work remote much more frequently, and that we would need exclusive access to the office when that happened. We spent an hour setting up a couple workstations in the main living area of our cubic before we left as a family to get breakfast and drop the boys off at school.

While we were in line at the cafeteria, I noticed something that I suddenly realized had been happening since I first arrived at the Enclave on Earth. When we went through the line everyone had to present their phone, but it was not for payment. What I had been noticing subconsciously was that the food was not prepared until the phone was scanned. I also noticed this morning that even though I ordered the same meal as Bonnie, my food was taken from a separate workstation behind the cafeteria line.

I waved to the attractive young woman behind the counter and asked, "Why do you take the same food from different trays?"

"Those are the instructions we were given. They said it is very important that everyone gets the correct food."

I let it go but resolved to run an experiment at lunch.

Just as we were wrapping up breakfast, my phone rang. I was surprised to see it was Hadley calling. When I picked up, she said, "Good morning, Mr. Anson. Mr. Sinnsyk would like to meet with you in ten minutes. Please meet me at radius 200 at the edge of the Main Dome as soon as possible."

I said, "What's this about Hadley?"

"Mr. Sinnsyk would like an update from your department. I'll see you in a few moments."

I said my goodbyes but made sure to let everyone know I wanted us to have lunch together so I could run a little test. When I found Hadley, I was surprised at her outfit. She was wearing a piece of sheer red material tied like a poncho which left it open on the sides. It stopped a few inches below her crotch and displayed her large nipples very prominently.

I said, "Nice outfit. Getting ready for the next Moonrise Ball?"

She ignored my comment and led me into an unmarked door. This led to a tram which set off as soon as we were seated. She said, "This will be the new official outfit for women once enough material can be fabricated. Men will be permitted to wear, regrettably, significantly more. Still, I imagine your women will look quite stunning dressed like this."

"I'm not sure my nephews are ready for that quite yet."

She said, "No matter. They will grow used to it. After all, Mr. Anson, we are not savages. Nudity, or near nudity, does not equal sex."