Dramatis Personae

• Kristen (born Kristen White), age 15
• Alicia White (Kristen's mother), age ??
• Paul White (Kristen's father), age 47
• Mina White (Kristen's sister), age 21
• Royce White (Kristen's brother), age 11
• Mistress Deborah (Kristen's master and trainer), age ??
• High Master Kenn, age ??

Prologue

By the beginning of the 27th century, mankind had performed its ultimate miracle. Genetic engineers had found a way to halt the body's natural aging process. Each person, at birth, was implanted with a microscopic device that gradually and gently altered the body's DNA encoding. When the process was complete, the device would cause the person's skin to secrete a translucent coating that covered his or her body completely like a shell, and the person would sleep deeply for one month while the shell-coating provided organic nourishment on a time-release. This stage was called Lifesleep. The person would awake from Lifesleep refreshed, revitalized, and would cease aging. Barring very rare fatal accidents, humanity could live forever.

The one imperfection in the device was that each person's DNA coding was different; as such, it was impossible to determine exactly when Lifesleep would begin and halt aging. All that was known was that it could trigger as early as 21 years of age, or as late as 75. Life expectancy and medical care were advanced enough that natural-causes deaths prior to 75 were virtually unknown and unheard of. Persons who began Lifesleep at old ages, continued to look old as far as gray hair, wrinkles etc. went, but they did regain youthful vigor and strength; and medical science and technology made all known diseases, including previously fatal ones, easily reparable and curable.

Such eternal existence made it impossible for Earth to maintain the human race. Fortunately, space travel had become advanced enough to build far-traveling space craft and space stations. Habitable planets had been colonized and properly terraformed through the wonders of technology. Within a few dozen millennia, the whole of the Milky Way Galaxy would be inhabited and it would be time to venture into deep space toward other galaxies.

Humankind lived in peace; racial, ethnic, gender-based, and sexual-orientation-based prejudices and hatreds were long forgotten. Not all people got along; personal enmities still happened and political disputes were common; however, wars and battles had given way to more peaceful, non-fatal methods. After all, they had forever to work issues out. Life and human societies were far from perfect, and always would be. But people learned to get along together; necessitated by their eternal lives.

Philosophers, artists, musicians, literary authors were honored and revered. Religion became obsolete: Most people still believed in God, but took their new eternal lives as a sign that he had given humankind the physical universe to live in and rule over as they saw fit, without further divine intervention, essentially saying goodbye to man and moving on. Worship became meaningless, as it was accepted that humankind was now in full control of its own destiny, to continue its strive toward increasing greatness, on its own.

The greatest change in humanity was the supreme reign of hedonism. Lack of aging, robust health and virility, and the ability to cure any known ailment made physical and sexual pleasure the most commonly sought commodity of human life. True love still existed, but even married couples always had open marriages with one-night encounters being very commonplace. Prostitution was no longer taboo, but an honorable profession and its practitioners always paid well. 'Alternate' lifestyles were now mainstream, with all manners of sexual fetishes openly discussed and practiced. Sex on first dates was now a given. Protection was solely for the prevention of pregnancy.

The Age of Consent for having sex was twenty years old across all known worlds and colonies of human existence. Training for professions now began immediately on completion of Lifesleep, instead of before, so school was now in two phases. Primary, which began at four years old and lasted until thirteen, was devoted to the standard academic subjects. Secondary, which now began at thirteen years old and lasted until twenty, was devoted to sex education and learning to enjoy sex in all forms. 'Final exams' was a series of sexual encounters with a qualified senior instructor, and on graduation, the person was free to begin dating and pursuing pleasure.

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Kristen White will be celebrating her 15th birthday tomorrow... or so she thinks. In fact, she is about to step into a fantastically rare subculture; a one-in-50-million exception to the rule of Lifesleep that will change the rest of her life, lifestyle and existence in ways beyond her broadest dreams...