Sitting in his rental car, on the street near the trash can where he had recovered the bags of cash, Alex sighed, and restarted his own Control Program. I have the other disc, he told it. The other user is dead. Will that fix things?

It should prevent future continuity errors from that source, yes. Also, if you allow me direct access to the second disc, I can appropriate its access codes and enhance my own function.

Enhance your function how?

It will allow me another bit of addressing space. The practical effect would be to double my range and the number of locks and save slots available to me.

Oh. Doubling the effective radius from 22.7 to 45.4 miles would allow Alex to access all of Los Angeles. How do I give you direct access.

Within your metaphor, if you plugged another drive, with the disc in it, into the computer I am currently running on, that would do it.

Gotcha. Alex found a public phone, flipped through the yellow pages, and then drove to a computer store. Using a few of the bills from the waste basket he bought an external DVD drive, as well as an adapter to plug his laptop into a 12V automotive slot. He also found a compact solar panel. It was larger and heavier than his new notebook computer, but it promised to provide enough power to run his new laptop even on an overcast day, and charge the battery if it were sunny.

Now that the emergency was past Alex needed some time without distractions and other people to think about what to do with his newfound abilities. He decided to take the backpacking vacation he'd used as an excuse for his cousin Cathy.

He made another stop at an outdoor recreation super store, and used more of the trash bin cash to buy a tent, sleeping bag, water filter, camp stove, hiking boots, backpack, GPS unit, and other camping essentials, along with a generous supply of freeze-dried food. Finally he bought a book of local back country hikes. Out in the parking lot he picked one that promised scenery and isolation days from the nearest road, and hit the highway.

He stopped once at a public rest area to start up his Master Control Program where he could plug his external drive into a wall outlet. After fifteen seconds of whirring, the help agent told him that it had appropriated the control codes of Dan's disc. It also warned him that the physical disc had priority over the codes and starting it up in another computer would reclaim control over them.

Alex spent the night at the rest area, sleeping fitfully in his rental car, and got back on the road at dawn the next day. After an hour's drive along a fire control access road — definitely prohibited by the terms of his rental agreement — he reached the trail head. It took him another hour to pack up his equipment and start along the trail. After a long day's hike he stopped at sundown to pitch his tent in a flat spot by the side of the trail.

He slept well, since he was physically and mentally exhausted from the exertion of carrying his pack and considering the possibilities available to him through the Master Control Program.

The next morning he broke camp, packed quickly, and hit the trail. After a day of hard trekking Alex found himself next to the scenic, isolated, mountain lake his guidebook had promised. The sun was setting. Completely exhausted, he pitched his tent and slept like a stone.

In the morning he leisurely fixed breakfast and then started up his computer. When he was satisfied that the solar panel was supplying sufficient power, he restarted the Master Control Program.

So, he asked the help agent, tell me just exactly what you can do.

He spent the entire day, with only a short break for lunch and a swim in the lake, interrogating the help function and listening — and occasionally reading, when the responses were especially dense — to its replies.

Within the radius of 22.7 miles — or 45.4 miles now that Alex had two of the strange discs — the program could acquire any human being as a target. Given a name, or a symbol selected on a map generated by scanning all the human beings within its range, it could entirely re-write the digital simulation routines that represented that person's mind and body. It took anywhere from ten to fifteen seconds to acquire and modify a target, but the program could easily be told to iterate and apply a set of commands to all the individuals within its control radius or any smaller area within range. At a minimum of ten seconds per person, though, such an iteration would take time, especially in a high-density city environment.

After a couple of days of questions and answers Alex felt he had a pretty good handle on what the Master Control Program could do, with a special emphasis on functions he thought he might use on himself.

Mentally, the Program could entirely re-write an individual's memory and personality. Thinking about himself, Alex discovered that the Program could modify intelligence, either decreasing it to a level appropriate to a dull chimpanzee, or increasing it to a level limited by arcane factors that Alex wasn't sure he understood. Something to do with things the Control Program referred to as physical context evolutionarily defined optimization parameters which Alex concluded referred to the abilities of the programs comprising an individual human being to interface between their true digital simulation routines and the physical universe metaphor they used to interpret it. It was quite confusing. The entire concept of intelligence was complicated because the English word referred to a property with multiple dimensions, from pure logical reasoning to intuitive social pattern recognition. They were all related, and all separate.

Memory was yet another distinct aspect of mental functioning, and Alex was intrigued to learn that the Program could modify a person's mentality to give them a selectively photographic memory, meaning that they could, with concentration, recall anything they had seen, heard, or felt at any point.

Asking about what he could do to others, Alex learned that he could type simple commands to overwrite their thoughts and beliefs. Another set of more subtle and powerful modifications would allow him to command their feelings and emotions. These were the functions Dan had used to turn ordinary — if highly attractive — young women into his willing sex slaves.

Physically, the Program could modify a human body to any extent subject to the laws of physics, chemistry, and human biology. He couldn't alter a person to have wings, or four arms, but the help function assured him that any permutation of the human figure he'd ever heard of, and many more that he hadn't heard of, and still more that had never been realized in the history of the species, were within his control.

Improvements could be made to the basic physical structure of the human organism. Bones and teeth could be re-organized to a stronger crystalline form. Neurotransmitter production and propagation could be optimized and speeded for enhanced reflexes. Metabolic efficiency could be improved, even to the point of halting or reversing the aging process.

Physical changes could be performed in three different ways. The quickest and fastest was instantaneous. Once the program had locked onto a target, the modifications to reality could be made in an instant. The old would cease to be and the new would take its place between two of the most miniscule ticks of time's clock. This sort of change was instantly detectable by all the other running Master Control Programs, and inevitably produced a continuity error. The relative size of the error depended upon the physical range of the change and — for some reason Alex didn't quite understand — the number of human beings observing the transition. All continuity errors had the potential to crash reality, ending the universe for Alex and everyone else in the world.

Reality contained maintenance routines that could automatically repair smaller continuity errors, but the larger the error, the greater the likelihood of a universe-ending crash.

Physical changes could also be phased in slowly, with matter being created or destroyed to produce the modification. Essentially the process was a series of smaller, incremental instantaneous changes. The continuity errors produced were very small, and so virtually certain of being compensated for by the maintenance routines. Again, though, the creation or destruction of matter was obvious to all the other Master Control Programs.

Alex visualized the difference between the first and second methods by imagining Dan changing his penis size. In the first method, at one instant it was its original, normal length, in the next it had blinked into a donkey-sized member. In the second method, Dan's penis perceptibly grew, over the course of a minute or so, from one state to the other.

The third method of physical change was safest, without any chance of continuity errors or detection by other Master Control Programs. In the third method, the Program simply re-wrote the subject's DNA (or rather, the digital simulation code for the individual's body, analogous to their DNA) to specify the new physical form and the bio-chemical instructions to adjust to that new form. The process would take time, and would be subject to the normal laws of physics and chemistry — in order to grow a foot taller a person would have to eat enough food to produce the new body mass, as well as the energy needed to fuel the cellular activity involved.

Late in the afternoon of his fourth day after leaving Denver, the help function declared another priority alert. Matter creation function detected. Source: interface designate 2. Location: City of Denver, Colorado. Alex felt a quick chill run down his spine, and his heart started to pound.

What do you mean? he asked. In Denver the city or near here?

In the city. Priority alert: Matter creation function detected. Source: interface designate 3. Location: City of Denver.

Alex panicked again, and then, thinking about the implications, relaxed. Apparently he hadn't been the only Master Control Program user to investigate Dan's activities; he'd only been the first. And now, four days later, two more had arrived on the scene. Likely they'd met each other, and perhaps come into conflict.

Have there been any continuity errors?

Nothing unresolveable by maintenance routines.

Over the next fifteen minutes, the program alerted him to several more matter creation incidents, from interfaces two and three, all of them safely several hundred miles away in Denver. After that, there was nothing. When the computer's battery finally wore out, Alex managed to fall in to fitful sleep, worried that someone, another Program user, might manage to track him down despite all his precautions.

In the morning, once the sun had risen high enough to energize the solar cells, Alex made sure the program was active and monitoring for activity of other Control Programs and nearby human beings. Then he decided to do what he could to give himself all the advantages he could.

Alex scrounged through the packaging and instructions of all his new camping equipment to find mostly blank paper to use for notes. He was mildly irked that running the Master Control Program didn't allow him access to any other software. Was he going to need two computers from now on?

He spent the whole day thinking and exploring and swimming in the lake, grateful for the isolation, moved by the grandeur of the landscape around him, and thrilled and fearful at the thought of changing his own intrinsic nature. The help function assured him that there had been no other extreme activity from the other interfaces.

That afternoon, with a couple of hours of sunlight left, Alex targeted himself with his Master Control Program, and began to enter commands. First he issued standing orders, asking that the help function request secondary verification for any command that would require creating or destroying matter. He did not want to attract the attention of other Program users. He made sure that the default method for all physical modifications would be to take the slow, DNA modification route.

He began by deleting an inherited pre-disposition to skin cancer and numerous other genetic abnormalities that might have expressed themselves as he aged or perhaps shown up in subsequent generations. Next he increased his intelligence to the maximum, in all of the factors possible. The help function informed him that the effect would be small, ranging from a 5 to 20% increase on various dimensions of intelligence, and that the effects of his brain reorganization should be complete within three days.

He chose to believe that the relatively small increase in intelligence was due to a pre-existing genius status.

He gave himself a pseudo-photographic memory so that he would be able, with effort, to memorize anything perfectly. He also optimized his ability to assimilate and process information. The help function told him the modifications should be complete within 10 minutes, but was unable to provide him with an intelligible measure of the resulting improvement.

Next he began to modify his physiology. He boosted his immune system to render himself perfectly immune to any sort of disease or infection. The effects would be complete within a day, and the program told him that an incipient rhino-viral infection would be totally defeated within half an hour. He changed his metabolism to halt the aging process at his current twenty-two years, and improve its efficiency to the maximum. The help function projected that when the changes had completed (within a week) he'd have the aerobic capacity of a triathlete and be able to hold his breath for ten minutes.

Dan had increased his musculature to an extreme degree. Alex had never wanted to look like a body builder, but admitted that there was nothing exceptional about his own physique. Working with the picture of his body in the Program window, he made modifications to his body fat and muscle mass until the projected image looked fit and toned without seeming exceptionally muscled. Beyond that he modified the very structure of his muscles, increasing their efficiency and power to optimize performance. Despite the medium appearance of his muscles he'd be at least twice as strong as any other man of his size and build. To match his muscles he optimized the crystalline structure of his bones, leaving them anywhere from three to five times as strong as before.

The muscular changes, the program reported, should be done in a week, provided he maintained a healthy diet. The bone changes would be 50% done in a week, 75% done in three weeks, and completely finished within two months.

Zooming in on his facial features, Alex ordered the elimination of an acne scar on his cheek. The help function declared it would be gone within 12 hours.

Alex paused, then. He'd made all of the changes he'd written down, but not all that he'd been thinking of. He thought of what Dan had done when he discovered the ability to re-sculpt bodies at will and almost closed the changes right then and there. But he caught himself. Surely what Dan had done was beyond the bounds of morality and good taste. That didn't mean the entire concept was obscene, only the degree to which it been had carried.

Changes to self-subject complete? The voice from the small laptop speaker ended with a natural interrogative lilt, and the command prompt continued to blink, indicating the program was waiting to receive further input.

He thought of Dan's impossibly huge penis. A foot long and as wide as his arm when flaccid, who knew how ludicrous it had been when erect? He thought of his own penis. Average-sized, he'd never had any cause for complaint. His one partner, Cassie, had seemed pleased enough with it. And yet… he could always change back.

Not yet. He told the help agent. I want to make my penis bigger.

How big?

So that, it's, ummm… larger than normal while erect.

At 6.24 inches, your erect penis is already larger than average for human males of your age class.

It… what? What's the average?

6.21 inches.

And how do you know that?

It's part of my function. To integrate understanding of your level with what must be done on higher levels to carry out your will. I must have intimate knowledge of many things, including the human organism, and certainly the norms and extremes of the type.

Oh. Sure, so then I'm not much more than average. Suppose I was at the 99th percentile, so only 1 in 100 are larger?

That would place your penis size at 8 inches in length, 2 in diameter while fully erect.

Okay. What would 1 in 1000 be?

Length 8.6 inches, diameter 2.24 inches.

Wow. Alex pondered. He could make his hardon whatever size he wanted. He remembered reading somewhere that most women's vaginas were only six inches deep, and that most nerve endings were in it's outer third. And he'd always heard and been told that size doesn't matter but with enough winks and nudges to understand that, for some women at least, it certainly did. Width, on the other hand, was probably more important for female pleasure, yet 2 and a quarter inches seemed excessive…

Make my penis so when erect the length is at the 99.9th percentile, and the width at the 99th percentile.

Done. With a proper diet the process should be done in a week.

Okay, I want conscious control over my erection. I want it to behave autonomously subject to override. That is, if I get a hardon I can just will it to go away, and if I'm soft I want it to erect to full strength at will.

Done. Should be relatively instantaneous, though you'll need to practice the new skills.

Along with that I want to have no refractory period during sex. That is, I want to go from ejaculation straight back to the plateau stage without unpleasant hyper-sensitivity. I also want to be able to orgasm repeatedly.

Done. You shouldn't even need to think about that one.

I want consciously reversible sterility. I want to control my own fertility.

There was a short pause. That can be done with some physical modifications. Due to the physical structure of the epididymis, without extreme intervention there will be a three to four day wait for a shift to take effect.

Okay.

Done. Changes should be complete within 24 hours. You'll need to work with me develop the appropriate mental skills.

Alex thought a bit. He'd already rendered himself immune to disease. Even AIDS would wither before his optimized immune system. He'd boosted his strength, endurance, and reflexes. He would now have a cock longer than 999 in 1000 and the ability to fuck literally all night long. There remained the problem of attracting partners, but now, with this program he could simply… but then he remembered Dan's sad little harem and shuddered.

That's all I think.

Alex spent the next week exploring and enjoying the wilderness around his campsite. He left his computer hidden up a tree in case other hikers came by, running all day long, and every day it reported no more instances of matter alteration in Denver or anywhere else on the planet.

His appetite had increased noticeably, but whether that was due to his increased physical activity or the changes that were progressing throughout his body, he could not tell. He decided a quick and easy benchmark of the changes to his physiology would be to measure the size of his penis. He'd thought to use a stick with notches carved in it to mark progress, but when he pulled out his new pocket multi-tool to mark the stick, he realized one of it's functions was a ruler engraved into the casing. Either way he felt excited, relieved, and a bit thrilled when there was no doubt that his erection was getting steadily longer — and fatter around as well. Such thoughts always led him to fantasize about who he might use it with when he returned to civilization, as his Control Program made literally anyone he wanted available to him. After wistful moments of fantasy about famous actresses and clothing models his sense of morals usually returned to tell him consciously what he felt in his heart, that to alter another person's mind was just not right.

What he didn't notice as the week progressed was that in addition to his muscles getting stronger, his endurance improving, and his penis getting longer, that his fantasies about using the Master Control Program to command Terrie or Dorothy or Lisa or that hot actress on that popular sitcom into bed with him got longer and longer also.

When he did catch himself day-dreaming about using his Control Program to make one of those fantasy women fall in lust with him, he paused and caught himself. It was only natural, only human, to want to have sex with such women. To be true to himself, and moral as he'd been taught growing up, he must resist the temptation to re-write them to lustfully jump into bed with him, fuck him, and bear his children.

At the end of the week Alex knew he needed to return home. School began soon, and no one knew where he had gone. Cathy might start to worry, and she might call his parents, and then there'd be too many questions and problems.

He decided not to risk going back to Denver. True, there hadn't been any more signs of Master Control Program activity, but that might mean that one of the two users had triumphed over the other, and was busy looking for Dan's disc, the thing that had drawn them all there in the first place. He hoped that he'd muddied his trail enough to avoid anyone tracking him down as the possessor of not one but two discs. He hoped that Stephen had gotten away, far enough and quick enough that he wouldn't suffer from Alex's positioning him as a red herring.

Instead he got up early in the morning, packed his belongings, and hiked back to his car. He realized that even though his pack was lightened by all of the provisions he had eaten, it felt much lighter as he'd swung it onto his shoulders. Climbing the trail over a pass he found himself almost jogging up the hill that had exhausted him climbing up the other side the week before.

He reached the campsite of his first night just after lunch, and continued on, reaching his car before sunset. He felt tired, but still energetic after doing a two-day trek in a single day. More proof of the effects of the Program. He drove down to the highway and continued along for a couple hours before stopping at a small, dingy hotel. He payed with more of the trash basket cash. When counted, he discovered that there was almost nine thousand dollars total, more than enough to cover his credit card purchases. And if he ever needed more, well, Dan's solution was a quick, innocuous, and morally righteous method of raising funds.

He reached Salt Lake City late the next day, returned his rental car (incurring additional fees, as he'd originally said nothing about returning it in another state) and (since he was willing at this point to pay for First Class) managed to buy a ticket on a late flight home.

A taxi dropped him off at home shortly before dawn. He went to bed gratefully, and surprised Cathy when he emerged from his room shortly before noon.

Alex! she said, smiling. When did you get in?

Last night. Err, this morning, around 4:30.

So what the fuck did you think you were doing taking off like that. With no warning! All by yourself. You know your parents called, I told them you'd gone to Colorado and they didn't know anything about it either. Don't worry, I didn't let them know it was a surprise, and I made it sound like you were going with some friends. Both Lucas and Allison asked, though, so I know you didn't tell any of your friends, either!

Uh. Thanks Cathy. What's new here?

Not much. Masako and I have been working on an idea for our Living History project. The Remembrance Foundation is holding a contest for a grant: a hundred thousand in funding, full tuition for the project team and a deluxe, all-expenses paid tour of Europe, meeting faculty at all the famous universities there. To pave the way for graduate studies in the field, as it were.

Sounds cool.Alex said, bustling around their shared kitchen and pulling out the ingredients for a sandwich.

So why did you decide to up and take off like that?

Oh, I dunno. he dissembled. I just felt like I wanted to get away from it all, go somewhere isolated without other people. Backpacking sounded good, so … I went.

Did you have fun? Alex noticed that Cathy was now giving him an intent once-over, from feet to head. I mean, hey, it must have been good for you. You look good. Very… healthy.

Alex smiled inwardly, happy to know that his improved physique was noticeable, yet not incredible. Oh, thanks. he said finally. A lot of backpacking, swimming in frigid alpine lakes, the usual.

Well anyway, I'm glad you're back, because I'm leaving tomorrow. Heading back home for a quick weekend trip. Mom insisted that I could not stay away from home all summer long, and she bought me the ticket, so … I convinced her I had to be back for Monday, though. Classes don't start until Wednesday but she doesn't know that.

Best of both worlds, Alex told her Visiting home at parents' expense.

Yeah, well… can you drive me to the airport?

Oh yes, sure.

That afternoon Alex relaxed and walked around campus, visiting people. His friend Lucas was a little upset that Alex had gone off backpacking without inviting him as well, or even mentioning it to him. He relented when he realized that Alex had flown back and forth to Colorado; Lucas was terrified of flying. Allison was glad to see him, and delivered another dose of concern and outrage that he'd vanished without warning.

Alex deliberately refrained from starting up the Master Control Program. He'd have enough opportunity to experiment at home while Cathy was gone. Exactly what sort of experimenting he would do he wasn't sure.