The Reality Engine

Hi!

Thank you for reading my story. A couple of points to know:

I don't like writing wank porn. I want to write full-fleshed stories with plot, character, drama and tension. This is chapter 5 of what I hope will be a long ongoing story, but I will only write additional parts if people want to read them. Events in this chapter pick up right after the end of chapter 4.

Thank you for taking the time, and I would love to talk to anyone who reads my work and has advice. This is my fifth submission for literotica (my first four being chapter 1, 2, 3 & 4 of this story), but it's not my first story, as I've written many over the years. Please be sure to vote and offer any feedback you can. I am always looking for a way to improve.

Note on edit: I have fixed tiny issues with spelling, grammar, and usage. Plot remains exactly the same.

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Chapter 5

Everyone looked at each other astounded, and wondered if it was true. Was Alania pregnant with Steve's baby?

"Psyche," Alania said, laughing her ass off. "As if I would let Steve knock me up! Where's the logic in that? Maybe, if he was ten years older, and stinking rich, but at 18, with 4 to 10 years of school left until he could start making money to support me? No."

Everyone exhaled, and then, the discussion group broke up, with Alania and Sonya heading off to find Margaret, and Henry and Steve heading off to find Bridget. Chad and Scott were alone by themselves.

"Nice work, my friend," Chad said. "Steve will never, ever forget you for helping him out in his hour of need."

"I'm just glad he didn't knock her up, and that's she's smart enough to know it would have been terrible for both of them," Scott said. "Steve is probably going to graduate school after he's done with a four year, so he'll be poor for most of the next decade. If she gets knocked up with his kid now, then the prime child support years gain her nothing."

"She knows it too," Chad said. "She's one conniving bitch, ain't she?"

"She's damn beautiful, maybe the most beautiful woman I've ever laid eyes on, but whoever marries her is going to suffer in a way few other men ever have. Sooner someone else than me," Scott said.

"Amen," Chad said. "Can I change the subject?"

"Of course," Scott said, with a smile. "You don't need to ask permission to do that."

"What did you think of what happened to Cherry last night?" Chad asked.

"Simple mistake, that I fixed easily," Scott said, not understanding what Chad wanted to know. "The kind of thing that could have happened to anyone."

"You met Mike for the first time yesterday before you helped Cherry, right?" Chad asked.

"Sure, was happy to do so," Scott said. "It was nice to talk to him as we all walked out here tonight, and I hope to get to know him better in the future."

"Okay, I'm going to spill it," Chad said. "I set that all up. I had Mike wait for you outside Maybe Dick Hall, and I was with Cherry while you were with Mike. As soon as he saw you coming, his job was to distract you, and to signal us, so that Cherry could get undressed and wait for you to drop by. If you hadn't been able to open the door to the office with paperclips, like you were able to do, there was a spare key in the front desk drawer, just in case."

"Why in heaven's name did you do that?" Scott asked.

"You aren't mad?" Chad asked.

"No, just confused," Scott replied.

"Cherry and I got to talking yesterday," Chad said. "It was about you, and about how she didn't want to model her swimsuit for you, which I had an issue with. I wanted to know why she, and other girls, disrespected you so much. During our conversation, she mentioned that all guys like you ever wanted was to see girls naked. She didn't think the affection you had for her was genuine, and that it was only physical."

"To be fair to her, I hardly know her, so yeah, it is pretty much physical," Scott replied.

"Well sure it is," Chad said. "I told her that and I also told her there's nothing wrong with that, everything has to start somewhere. I told Cherry that she wasn't required to fall hopelessly in love with you, or anything, and that the heart wants what it wants and all that sort of thing. I understand all these things work both ways, and that if she weighed 300 pounds, you'd treat her very differently, but I also made sure to stress, that if she did weigh 300 pounds, a guy like you would still absolutely be respectful."

"Well, sure I would," Scott said. "That's simple human courtesy."

"The point is, girls don't treat you that way," Chad said. "When I pointed that out to Cherry, she got pissed. She claimed that if you had the chance to take advantage of her, in a vulnerable position, that you would, and that all men would. We made a bet, and we set up that situation with the two of you last night to see which way it would go. That was why you caught me with my foot in the door of my room; I was monitoring how things were going downstairs, and was ready to step in and help if she had been proven right."

"So, you won the bet with her?" Scott asked, smiling. "Good for you."

"Also good for you," Chad answered. "Ask me why."

"Okay, why is it good for me?" Scott asked.

"Guess what she has to do because I won the bet?" Chad asked.

"I get to see her model that sexy bikini?" Scott asked, hopeful.

"Hell no," Chad said, laughing. "Why the fuck would you want to see her model that swimsuit when you got so much more skin out of her last night? At this point, with what you've already seen of her, a swimsuit might as well be a burka."

"True, but damn, is she hot," Scott replied, his mind glancing back to seeing Cherry nearly naked the night before.

"Yeah, she really is, and what she has to do is going to be special," Chad said, with a smile.

"Well, don't just keep me in suspense, what is it?" Scott asked.

"I won't tell you," Chad said. "I want your mind to go crazy with anticipation. However, it will take place next Friday night, at 6 PM. Can I trust you to be in the lobby of Maybe Dick Hall at that time?"

"Of course," Scott replied. "I absolutely wouldn't miss this, even though I have no idea what it is."

"That's what I like so much about you," Chad said. "You're so eager to please. It's a hell of a trait, and it's why I know that if the situation had been reversed, if you were going to model a swimsuit for Cherry, let's say, and her 300 pound best friend, you'd leap to it, because you're respectful."

"Well, then, I guess I'd better start picking one out for Friday night," Scott replied. "This sounds like fun."

"What the fuck?" Chad asked, astonished. "You'd do that?"

"Well, sure," Scott said. "Like you said, the heart wants what it wants, and while I'd never want to sleep with her 300 pound best friend, being respectful is so easy, it costs nothing, and it's so beneficial to everyone. I'd absolutely model a swimsuit for any girl, no question."

"That's not what you're going to get on Friday night, but it's good to know, and someday, I might hold you to your words," Chad said. "You know what? The more I think of it, the more I don't get why women don't respect you at least a little. You're a good guy, with a lot of good qualities."

"Yeah, but I'm a bran muffin," Scott said. "I'm something that's good for her to eat, and she knows she really ought to eat, but who wants to eat that for every meal of every day for the rest of their lives?"

"Did you ever tell me what your undergraduate degree was in?" Chad asked.

"Not sure if I did or not, but it was in computer science," Scott replied.

"Graduated at the top of your class?" Scott asked.

"Naturally," Scott replied.

"How did you get the job with Dr. Karlov here at the University of Frostbite Falls?" Chad asked.

"Oh, my faculty advisor in the department of computer science at the University of Iowa, Dr. James Bartholomew Fink-Nottle, is an old friend of Dr. Karlov's. He made the call, and then sent in a letter of recommendation, and I got the job," Scott replied.

Chad made a mental note of all this information, in addition to the information about Scott's High School and hometown which he had gained previously. Something about Scott wasn't right. Chad was sure of it. There was no reason why a young man, who was decent looking, wasn't fat, wasn't short, had an excellent education, and was a good, kind, and decent person wasn't having enormous success with women on a college campus that was, at least, 60% female by enrollment, and in a dormitory that was, at least, 85% female. Chad was sure that was easy money, the numbers didn't lie. Scott should have women fighting over him every day. He had a degree and a good paying job, already, which was more than what Chad had. There had to be more to this than met the eye, and Chad was determined to dig for answers.

Scott had fun at the party for another two hours that evening, but, at fifteen minutes before midnight, he grew tired and wanted to go home. All his friends were just getting started for the night, and only Steve also wanted to go home, so Scott and Steve left the party and walked back to the dorms.

"Hey Scott, can I ask you something?" Steve asked, as soon as the two friends were on the road home and alone together.

"As Adol Heningway said to me tonight: ask of me anything, and I will give it to you, even unto half my kingdom," Scott said.

"Wow, he really said that?" Steve asked. "What the hell does it even mean?"

"I think it's from the Bible," Scott replied. "Specifically, I think it refers to Mark, chapter 6, verse 23, and it concerns the dance of Salome before King Herod. Herod was so taken by her dance that he promised Salome anything she wanted, even unto half his kingdom."

"Oh," Steve replied. "So, what did she ask for?"

"Nothing," Scott replied. "She went to her mother and asked her mother what she should ask for, and her mother wanted the head of John the Baptist. So, Herod had no choice, his word had been given, and that was how John the Baptist was be-headed."

"I see," Steve said. "Well, I wasn't going to ask you to be-head someone, or anything, I just wanted some information."

"Yeah, me too when I asked Adol why he had the name he did," Scott said. "Be-headings sort of went out of style after the French Revolution. So, what do you want to know?"

"What do you do at your job?" Steve asked. "I mean, I know you work for Dr. Karlov, and everyone is always impressed and stuff, but does anyone really know what it is you do?"

"It has gotten that reputation," Scott said, with a smile. "Mostly because the flame out rate is so high."

In a few brief words, Scott explained to Steve what the job entailed, and how his first week had gone.

"Oh, I see," Steve said. "So, what is the core, anyway?"

"It's about the size of a quarter," Scott said, repeating one of Dr. Karlov's lines.

"You know what I mean," Steve said.

"I don't know, and I don't think Dr. Karlov fully knows either," Scott said. "That's why I think we're doing so many experiments, to find out what it is."

"That doesn't make sense," Steve said. "You said Dr. Karlov assured you it wasn't biological, right?"

"Yeah," Scott said.

"Well, if it's something in the realm of physics, then it had to be constructed, at some point, by somebody, right?" Steve asked. "I mean, even if it's the size of a quarter, it has some dimensions and some mass and some, well, something, right? So, if it's not a living organism, if it's a thing, it had to have been built by someone."

"Or found by someone, but you're right, that doesn't seem as likely as built by someone," Scott said. "Even the cutting edge stuff in physics, the experiments at the Large Hadron Collider, don't just come from nowhere. Scientists have to slam sub-atomic particles into each other to break them apart and measure the fallout to get science. The Higgs-Boson had to be made by science, or rather exposed by science, before it could be detected and measured. This definitely involved a mechanical process. Science might not know exactly what the Higgs-Boson is, and may have to do experiments to learn more, but science has to know how to find those particles first."

"You think maybe the core was created by some super crazy physics like the Higgs-Boson, and that it's really unstable or something?" Steve asked. "That would account for the mutations you saw this week, or rather, the changes in the nature of the experiment. Maybe it's just some new kind of completely unstable thing that can't be pinned down."

"I'm not sure," Scott said. "I thought, during the middle of this week, that it was random, but now that I think about it, I think there was a pattern. It was the advice Dr. Karlov gave me: do what you can to help others. Once I started verifying the values of adjacent calculations first, the calculations became far more stable and predictable. I think if I had done that from the start, from Wednesday morning, I would have gotten the same results."

"Meaning something about the experiment changed on Tuesday night, before you went to work on Wednesday morning," Steve said.

"Meaning something changed once last week, and it took me a few days to figure out how to compensate for it," Scott said. "Did Dr. Karlov know or was he as surprised as I was?"

"The advice he gave you suggests he knew," Steve pointed out.

"That's strange, if he knew it was going to happen, why not tell me?" Scott asked. "Why the dumb act?"

"The only explanation I can think of is to see if you could figure it out," Steve said.

"Yeah," Scott said, as the two friends arrived at the mid-way point between Mojave Max Hall and Maybe Dick Hall, which is where they had to part. "So, dinner tomorrow night?"

"Looking forward to it," Steve said. "Let's think up a plan that Bridget can use to save her brother."

"Right," Scott said.

"Scott, one last question," Steve said. "Now that we've thought it through, what are you going to do about your job and Dr. Karlov?"

"For the moment, continue on as things have been," Scott said.

"Are you sure that's wise?" Steve asked. "He's obviously not telling you everything."

"True, but we have no proof that his intentions are bad or sinister, just that he's hiding something, which could be for any number of valid reasons," Scott said. "For now, I'm best off continuing on as things have been, and not panicking and changing course just because I'm a little uncomfortable."

"I hope that's the right decision," Steve said.

"Time will tell," Scott said. "Good night, and I'll meet you for dinner tomorrow."

Scott and Steve separated at this juncture, and Scott used his key card to enter Maybe Dick Hall by the main door, and rode the elevator up to the second floor. As soon as he got out, he was about to hit the shower and then bed, when he saw, about half-way down the girl's wing of the second floor of Maybe Dick Hall, an open dorm room door with the light falling into the hallway. He felt it would be a good thing to go down and say hi, for he knew this dorm was the room occupied by Marisol and Pepper.

He stood outside the room, and knocked gently on the door. As he surveyed the room, he saw six girls (two of whom were Pepper and Marisol) in various states of undress, but all still having at least their bra and panties on, so no one was naked. However, he did see many bottles of beer, and a large jug of what he took to be vodka in one corner of the room (the jug had a label written in what looked like Russian). This, plus stacks of poker chips all over the floor of the room, and each of the six girls holding a hand of cards told the tale. This was the ladies' poker night.

"Evening ladies," Scott said.

"Good morning to you too," Pepper said, as she pointed at the clock on her desk which indicated the time was 12:17 AM. Pepper was dressed in a white cotton t-shirt and a pair of light blue panties, with no pants or footwear. Marisol, who sat next to Pepper, was dressed in a pair of pink cotton panties and a light green colored bra, with no other clothing.

"I stand corrected, my lady," Scott said, ever trying to be the dashing, chivalrous hero. All the girls giggled uncontrollably when he did this.

"Boy, you guys were right about him," an African American girl, whom Scott did not know, said. "He's like a knight in shinning armor, straight out of a storybook or something."

"You have the advantage over me, miss," Scott said.

"I'm Liandra, Liandra Welsch," the African American beauty said. "You must be Scott Laird Cooper, in the flesh."

"That I am," Scott said, as Liandra giggled again. Liandra was dressed in a black lace bra, with a pair of pink cotton panties, and nothing else. Liandra was tall and thin, with very long, sexy legs. She had waist length long, black hair, which she wore strait and with bangs. She had brown eyes, a pearly white smile, and lovely facial features.

"I live in the dorm down at the very end of this floor," Liandra said. "This is my roommate Tammy."

Liandra pointed to a beautiful girl sitting next to her who had lovely brown eyes framed with eye-liner (she looked like an Egyptian goddess), more curly brown hair than Scott had ever seen, thick, ruby red lips, and a pleasant smile. Tammy was dressed in a blue cotton t-shirt and pair of gym shorts, none of her undergarments were exposed. She was bare-foot though, and next to where she sat was the tallest pile of chips, indicating she was winning the game at present.

"Tammy Groves," Tammy said, as she waved. "A pleasure to finally meet you."

"Now, what about the remaining two ladies I haven't been formally introduced to yet?" Scott asked.

"We've met before," a very lovely Pinay girl told Scott. "My name is Rose Floria, and I delivered food to Sonya's room for you on Tuesday night from the LLA. You and Sonya were spying on Margaret and Alania fucking, but that's none of my business."

"Well, to be fair," Scott said. "It wasn't something that required James Bond 007 tech, Alania and Margaret were quite loud."

"Yeah they are," Rose said. "I live with my roommate on the other side of their dorm from Sonya, so we share a wall too, and they are always loud."

Rose was dressed in a white, cotton bra and a pair of old cotton shorts, she had no shirt on and no footwear. She was cute and tart, with a dazzling smile, warm, friendly eyes, long black, shoulder-length hair, and a slightly curvy figure. Scott had met her on Tuesday night, and he thought to himself how different she looked in the LLA delivery girl outfit, versus dressed now in a pair of shorts and a bra.

"Is this your roommate?" Scott asked, as he pointed at the lovely Indian girl who rounded out the six poker players.

"Yeah," the Indian girl said, flashing a beautiful, pearly white smile. "My name is Padme Luckshina, and Rose and I are roommates."

Padme was dressed in a pair of black, cotton panties and a red bra, with no other clothing. She had the longest hair of any of the girls, well past waist length, and which she wore in a pony-tail. She had lovely facial features, but her figure was rail thin.

"Is it tough having a roommate who works such late hours at the LLA?" Scott asked. "I know it would bother me if my roommates, should I ever chance to have one here, came barging in home from work at 3 AM."

"Rose only works 3 nights a week, and she's really quiet, and I'm a really heavy sleeper," Padme said.

"Good to know," Scott said. "Well, I suppose I'll be getting on to bed, it was nice to have met you girls."

"Hey, don't you want to ask what we're doing?" Liandra asked.

"Playing poker, I should imagine," Scott said.

"Well, sure, but we're playing strip poker, do you want to play?" Liandra asked.

"Hey!" Pepper said. "You can't invite a boy to ladies' poker night!"

"Oh hush, he's as safe as any boy can be," Liandra said. "We could all be starkers in our birthday suits right now, and Scott would kneel and worship our divine beauty."