She shook her head with a light smile of amusement.

  “You’re enjoying yourself aren’t you,” she whispered as she walked by.

  “Always, especially with you gorgeous.”

  She flashed him a quick smile, and then they walked through the weapon sensors, and over to the security desk.

  Before one of the guards could ask what they wanted, a short young harried looking woman walked straight toward them with an apologetic look on her face. She was very short, with a pixie like face, shoulder length brown hair, and brown eyes.

  “Miss Mia, Doctor Stedman, I’m Celia, Prime Minister Liam Brown’s assistant, please follow me.”

  Mia said, “Just Mia please.”

  Celia replied, “Mia, of course. The Prime Minister and representatives Daniel Smith and Olivia Taylor will be with you in about ten minutes.”

  Celia led them both down the hallway, up some stairs, down another hallway, and into a conference room that looked like a board room.

  “Please, take a seat. Do either of you want a drink?”

  He replied, “Coffee please,” as he sat down at the large oak table.

  Mia smiled, “Me too.”

  Neither of them needed it, but it was a social thing. Plus, he missed the taste of a good coffee. He hadn’t had any since he started to just have one meal a day, dinner. Maybe he needed to change that, or at least have a coffee for breakfast in the future.

  He kind of missed bacon too. That was an important food group all its own.

  Celia rushed out to get them coffees and they shared a brief look.

  He asked, “Any idea why they want to meet me?”

  She nodded, “Short briefing remember? It’s your fault.”

  He snorted, but couldn’t argue with her about it. Besides, eating her out was definitely worth being in the dark and surprised. He loved to go down on her as much as she loved going down on him, or at least that what it seemed like to him.

  She said, “Digitization I think.”

  He blew out a breath, and nodded. He supposed that made sense, it was a controversial topic. To say the least. Far more controversial than an A.I. colony on Mars, and the withholding of artificial gravity tech. It also made the political mess of Silvia’s Pod tech look like a lesser issue. He hadn’t truly given it much thought the last couple of days, and wondered if that meant he’d grown accustomed to it.

  Celia came back in followed by two men and another woman. Both he and Mia stood up and moved to shake hands. He recognized Liam Brown, the Prime minister from the news, who was a distinguished looking man in his late sixties.

  Celia gestured first to the PM, “This is Prime Minister Liam brown, and these are representatives Daniel Smith and Olivia Taylor.”

  Daniel Smith was in his forties, he was obviously in shape, and had a faint smile on his face. Olivia was in her forties as well. She was attractive, with a statuesque figure and was probably right around five foot eleven. She had flowing strawberry blonde hair down to her shoulder blades, and her eyes were a warm brown but somehow calculating at the same time.

  Liam spoke in a warm timber of voice, “Welcome Mia, Doctor Stedman. We’re excited about this partnership, and possibly expanding it in the future.”

  Celia nodded to her boss respectfully, dropped a manila folder on the desk, and then closed the door on her way out.

  Liam waved his hand, “Please, let’s sit.”

  The five of them sat around the table.

  Liam cleared his throat, “We have decided to go forward with this, and take advantage of the short sightedness of the other nations and leaders. As I’m sure you know, we’ll benefit from housing exclusive access to the path to Mars, mainly through increased travelers, tourism, and taxes. Not to mention the future technologies that will become available to us here in Australia first.

  “Frankly, the artificial gravity excites us the most, but we are also most pleased with the Pod technology. We do however have reservations about digitization and what effects that might have on the societies of Earth, and what it means to be human. Which is why we invited you here Doctor Stedman, to give us your thoughts on the process. I realize it’s highly personal, but anything you can tell us might help chart a course in the future.”

  He gathered his thoughts while he took the measure of the people in the room. Liam looked rather excited, as if he hoped he’d get to live forever himself through this technology. Daniel looked curious, but obviously hadn’t made up his mind either way yet. Olivia looked at him like a hawk measures a mouse, and he had the feeling no matter what he said she wouldn’t believe it. Even if she wanted to, or maybe, especially because she wanted to.

  “Well, first I’ll say this was the last option, and was only done because my human body was murdered. That said, it surprised me how much I feel and think the same, exactly the same. I hold the same opinions, thoughts, thought processes, emotions, and the same five senses. I am Ted Stedman.

  “I also think that this is the most realistic way to extend life, since I don’t consume resources. No need for food, or for oxygen. As opposed to any DNA tweaking to extend life, which would cause resource population issues on the planet.

  “That said, there are some differences, and there is a period of time for a human to become acclimated. I’ve already mentioned the most obvious, food. I no longer need to eat but continued to have three meals a day virtually to keep my mind grounded. Other not so obvious ones are memory. I think and feel the same, but my memory recall is now flawless. I don’t have those moments where I search for a word, or forget why I went into the kitchen, and there’s no need to struggle to remember what I was wearing on my fifth birthday.

  “The last thing is sleep. Sleep is different. But the important thing I believe, is that I’m still Ted”

  Olivia asked sharply, “So you believe this should be offered to humanity?”

  He blew out a breath, “Very carefully?”

  Daniel looked amused, “Carefully how? I’m curious how you would do it.”

  He shook his head, “It’s a basket of moral quandaries. I think if it was offered, it would have to be offered to everyone. I think it would be a mistake, and morally bankrupt, to play god, to decide who lives forever, and who dies when their body dies out. The when of it should be when the body dies, and not before. A person can have their mind backed up daily, and when they die of old age, or at fifteen from an accident, whatever, they can be digitized then.”

  Olivia frowned, “So you would give it to criminals too?”

  He shrugged, “Playing god is playing god. However, that doesn’t mean I’d put a murderer inside of an android chassis. For murderers, we can put them in a computer core that only has virtual world access, and perhaps even a virtual world just for criminals? Even that is a horrible mass of moral pitfalls, because it makes segregating types of people so easy, which would be bad in my opinion.

  “Whatever happens, we need to be careful with it and what is decided. I’ll tell you one thing, I’m very happy it’ll be you folks deciding it and not me, that’s my conclusion for all this. I’ve obviously given it a lot of thought though.”

  Olivia cracked a smile at that.

  Liam said thoughtfully, “If everyone did it at their death, we might not run out of food or clean air, but we’d run out of space pretty fast.”

  He smiled, “Yeah, that’s what made me think of online world’s first, not criminals. Although Earth isn’t far from expanding into space. Android bodies while still needing heat and some kind of atmosphere won’t degrade from lower gravity, like a moon colony. I don’t know, there are many practical as well as moral complications. Our way of life would be completely changed.”

  Daniel sighed, “The biggest naysayers will be the religions. They would call them soulless abominations.”

  He shrugged, “I’ve thought about that as well. Nothing like digitization to cause an existential crisis. I figure there’re three possibilities. I never had a soul, my soul is attached to my consciousness and still here, or my soul is in some afterlife despite the continued existence of my consciousness. I choose to believe if the latter is true, my soul can see me and is cheering me on.”

  Olivia shook her head, “That’s a rather positive take on it.”

  He nodded in agreement, “It is, but then I’m digitized already. It works to prevent a spiral into depression. I am me, and I decided the rest of it doesn’t matter. It took me a while and a lot of thought to get there too. Another thing that helped me to adjust is that I see A.I.s as fully sentient individuals who deserve rights and respect, so by extension if they are alive then surely so am I.”

  Liam smiled, “I hadn’t thought about that, and I’d like to speak to you again perhaps some time, but I’m going to be late for my next meeting. We should move this along.”

  He grabbed the folder and opened it up, and pulled a pen from his inner pocket and signed at the bottom of both copies of the document before he slid it over to Olivia.

  Olivia signed both, and then Daniel.

  None of them objected when Mia flipped through the pages quickly, it didn’t take long, and then she signed both on behalf of Mars. After the gravity of their discussion, the signing of the treaty seemed so mundane and without fanfare, but he knew that was the far more important part of this meeting.

  Mia looked up and smiled, “Thank you. We’ll get started on the spaceport right away, it will be ready before it’s needed.”

  They all stood, and then the three of them shook his and Mia’s hands and murmured pleasant goodbyes before filing out. Just a few seconds later, Celia came in and escorted them outside. He let out a deep breath as they got into the ship and took off straight up for space. Before they reached the Harmon line, Mia straddled his lap, and by the look on her face she clearly wanted to celebrate…

  Chapter Twelve

  He walked down the stairs into the tavern and took a look around, and then walked over to the table and sat down. He’d seen when he logged in that they were all on. Ray, Kathy, Bill, and Tom all nodded at him as he waved at the wench across the room.

  “Afternoon, what’s going on? Good to see you two,” he said to Kathy and Ray.

  Not to leave out Tom and Bill, but he’d wondered where the other two were since Tom mentioned they hadn’t been around.

  Ray shrugged, “You aren’t the only terrorist you know,” he quipped, and then he snickered. It looked like he had a slight buzz.

  Kathy glared at Ray, but bit her lip as her lips twitched anyway.

  She explained, “Our youngest was suspended for a week, for being threatening. That’s why we weren’t around.”

  He frowned, “Threatening?”

  Ray snorted, “He drew a picture of a new sword he got while gaming. It was actually really cool looking, and he just wanted to show his friends. Apparently even a picture of a weapon is too threatening and influential on tender young minds.”

  His mouth dropped open, “Seriously?”

  Kathy nodded in disgust, “He doesn’t really get it, but we had to teach him to not talk about or even reference gaming anymore if he was in school. The damned school threatened us with children services if he ever gets in trouble again.”

  He winked at the scantily clad tavern wench in thanks as she handed him an ale, she winked back before flouncing away.

  Tom frowned, “I didn’t see you order that.”

  He shrugged, “I waved at her on the way to seat. I always get the same thing.”

  Tom nodded.

  He wondered if the good service was more gratefulness from the A.I.s and asked, “Is that strange?”

  Tom shrugged, “I suppose not.”

  Kathy asked him, “So what’s going on with you, what’s the real story behind your terrorism?”

  He just explained the bare bones, “They were holding someone I care about. I didn’t hurt anyone, but I did blow out a window on the tenth floor, and helped someone leave that was being held as a national security asset against their will.”

  Bill cleared his throat, “They say there were explosions in the field next to the building?”

  He nodded in agreement, “Yes, some jets tried to take out the ship with air to air missiles. The ship redirected their fire into an empty field. The explosions were the government’s doing. The fact that no one got harmed by it was mine. Or at least, my ship’s.”

  Ray shook his head, “They’re saying you were responsible. Figures.”

  “Well, I did break the law. Technically, so were they by holding someone against their will in an attempt to seize their technology. I’m not very broken up about it.”

  Tom frowned, “I don’t mean to play devil’s advocate, but the government is allowed to seize properties, even intellectual, for national interests.”

  “Maybe, but they can also be sued to justify it. There’s a reason they snatched the scientist on the street, instead of just seizing the data from Cyber Dreams.”

  Kathy sighed, “Good point Ted,” she switched tracks, “You all jumped ahead of us this past week, so we’re going to kill stuff.”

  Ray snickered, “Yup, while I imagine it’s a certain principal.”

  Kathy giggled as they stood up and then they left the tavern for outside.

  Bill, Tom, and himself talked for a little while longer as he drank down his ale and got started with the second one, when he got a message.

  Kara: Come upstairs, our usual room.

  Ted: Be right there.

  “Got to run guys, see you later?” he asked before he drained the rest of the ale number two and stood up.

  Tom and Bill nodded, and Bill said, “Later Ted, watch your back.”

  “I will.”

  He headed over to the stairs and went up to what he thought of as his room…

  He froze in shock for a split second as he opened the door, for two reasons.

  The first was that Kara looked incredibly sexy. That wasn’t knew, but sexy in a different way. Her red hair was down, and it was longer like in real life. Her chocolate brown eyes twinkled with mischief, as she took him in with a faint smile on her face, and licked her lips sexily. She was not in her usual bustier armor either, she was wearing a matching pair of black lingerie panty and bra set, and nothing else.

  The second thing which had made him freeze for a moment, was that there was no Nicci, which was another first. They were always together, and never played alone. Even the one exception Kara had given for Nicci and him to sleep together alone, Kara had been right outside the door while they’d been together.

  He was speechless as she sauntered over to him with a knowing smile on her face, as he unfroze and closed the door. He was about to ask what was going on, but she wrapped her arms around him and kissed him passionately, as she melted herself against his body and moaned softly into his mouth. At that point he figured questions could wait.

  Her hands expertly removed his armor in seconds, and it was his turn to moan into her mouth, when with the lightest of touches she started to slowly stroke his manhood. She broke the kiss and smiled at him, and then without a word turned and swayed alluringly to the bed, crawled into it, and turned her head around and looked over her shoulders on all fours with a heated look in her eyes.

  He was rock hard as he walked over and joined her. He was still curious what was going on, maybe after Nicci got a solo run with him she wanted one too? His brain wasn’t exactly working the best right now.

  “You look stunning Kara.”

  She smirked, a bit of her usual fire showing through, “Glad you approve, now come ravish me. Nicci knows I’m here alone with you. It was actually her idea after you and her…”

  She trailed off as he started to lean down, and slightly parted her lips as he claimed them with his. She sighed in pleasure at the soft but demanding kiss as he explored her body with his hands.

  Something was going on, but he could figure it out later, much later.

  Kara’s body was firm and supple, but she completely yielded herself to him, and let him set the pace. He explored her mouth with his own for quite a while before he broke the kiss. He kissed his way down to her neck, and over to her ears, while his hands explored the nubile body below him that he knew so well, which set off little gasps of delight from her lips right next to his ears.

  His cock throbbed and twitched in her hands as she lightly wrapped a hand around him and started to stroke. He reached between her breasts, and unsnapped the bra which freed her generous and rounded C cup breasts, which he started to tease with his fingertips.

  Her breathing hitched and sped up as he kissed his way down to her breasts, and started to worship them with teasing lips, tongue, and fingers.

  Kara sighed in pleasure, and with his cock now out of reach, she entwined her fingers into his hair, and arched her back to push her breasts into his face and hand.

  “That feels so good Ted,” she said in a breathless tone that didn’t hold her usual challenge, or sultry tones. Her voice had been soft, beyond sensual, and full of the tones of surrender.

  He almost came right there, and would have if she’d still been stroking him. He didn’t know what was going on, or where the aggressive Kara was, but at the moment he didn’t care.

  He kissed his way down her stomach, leaving his hands behind to continue to tease and please her breasts, and placed a soft kiss on her mound through her panties, which were absolutely soaked with her desire. The scent of her arousal made him moan deeply, and he only removed his hands from her luscious breasts long enough to slip her panties off.

  He did it slowly, as if with reverence. His fingertips slid down her legs slowly, as he removed the lacey soft garment, and then he leaned in with anticipation and licked her lightly. Usually their sex was aggressive, and even very rough. This time he savored each lick as he teased and pleased her silken folds, and only very occasionally grazed her clit. He made love to her sex with his mouth, while his hands gently cradled and caressed her ass cheeks, and the most intense part about it was his eyes had never once left hers.