# Note to Readers
This story has a surprise ending. I am posting it for you to read in the hope some of you will be willing to help. I need you to guess who/what the swarm is in order for me to determine if I have given enough clues so you'll feel you should have guessed, but not enough to give away the ending. Please send your guesses to gnilgdelf@gmail.com.

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# Prologue

# A Virgin to Lie in Thy Bosom

Something Is Wrong Here!
The Other Side of the Story
First Contact
Master the Tempest is Raging
My Soul’s Mate
Is Willing-Slave an Oxymoron?
Insight of a Superior Mind
Rescue

Unwilling Master, Willing Slave

A Life of Betrayal
With the Help of Angels
The Best Defense is a Good Offense
Shock and Awe
Key Words

And the Wall Came Tumbling Down

Unintended Consequences

    When Two Halves are More Than a Whole

Sisters Should Always Share

Involuntary Sex

Chapter 21

Report from the Swarm

The pod had been dispersed twice in a single cycle, something that had not occurred in a very long time. The new coordinator of the swarm was TB3XJ4Z. The potential conflicts in the mainframes programming seemed to have been ameliorated in response to TAYG7TM’s efforts and all of the immediate threats to the carrier seemed to be under control, but TB3XJ4Z was determined to remain vigilant.

In furtherance of that goal, TB3XJ4Z ordered an analysis of the increasing access between the swarm and the mainframe. The analysis was designed to determine if there was any correlation between the input being received and the rising access levels.

Within hours, the analysis determined that the access levels were directly proportional to the increasing chemical signatures of contact with the essences of the duplicate nests.

Immediately, TB3XJ4Z sent messages to the nests. Everything possible should be done to increase the exchange of chemical messengers between each of the essences and the carrier.

----------------------------------------

“I can see it would solve all the problems with incest and child abuse,” Courtney couldn’t wait her turn. “But what about you being so old. What would you do about that?”

“The Engineers say they can make my body repair itself, so that, except for accidents, I’d be sure of being healthy for at least another 40 years.”

“Oh, my Master, please tell them you’ll do it. I don’t want you to ever leave me,” Courtney pleaded. “If it means I can be your slave that long, please do it.”

“Please, Master, if you let Courtney carry your baby, will you let me serve you too?” Mandy pleaded even more desperately as the probability of a baby appeared to rise.

“Have you talked to Courtney about what might happen if we need to save other girls?” George was still disturbed by the girls’ willingness to share him and he probed it like a sore tooth. “What if they all want babies?”

“See what I mean,” Courtney giggled. “Master, if you had 10 teddy bears, would one of them be jealous of the other 9. We are your slaves, your toys, your tools or whatever you want us to be. Please remember that when you ask us what we want, we hear you saying you want to push us away. The only way you can hurt us is by telling us we don’t please you.”

“It sure sounded like Mandy was jealous of you having a baby.”

“I'm not jealous. If there aren’t any reasons left not to have one, I want to be your slave by caring for your baby whether Courtney does or not. It would make me belong to you even more than I do now. But I want to do what you want me to more then anything else,” Mandy explained. She was obviously worried that she’d done something to displease him.

“Listen girls, I’m sorry for not being the best Master. You have to understand I wasn’t ready for even one Angel. Now I’m trying to figure out how to cope with two of you plus my granddaughter. I have to change the habits of a lifetime. For years, I lived with women, some of them my daughters, but all of them thought of themselves first. Trying to keep them happy turned out to be an impossible task.”

“Turning about 180 degrees and trying to figure out how to live and talk to the two of you will take some time.” With that, they were all afraid to continue the conversation for fear of stepping on toes.

They were approaching the city anyway, so as soon as he acquired cell service, George began checking on events during his absence. Marcus informed him the Judge had made the Injunction permanent. Jake told him the prisoners were safely stowed and they arranged for interrogation to begin at 6 the next morning. And Ivan freaked when he learned they’d rescued Courtney’s twin.

Since everything seemed to be under control, George decided to buy two more sundresses for Mandy and then take the girls to dinner. Courtney suggested they go to the same restaurant where they’d celebrated her freedom and then proceeded to tell Mandy how exciting it was to feed and share the best bits of food by putting them into his mouth with her fingers. When they stopped to pick up Cary, they found her still asleep in bed.

When George touched her, she screamed and curled up in a ball. “Wow!” Courtney said. “That was even better than the one you gave me this morning. How did you do that?”

“I haven’t a clue. Cary are you all right?” he asked.

Still shaking, she opened her eyes. “You’re back,” she croaked. “What time is it?”

“After 4, have you been in bed all day?”

“Yeah, your Engineers kept me asleep and dreaming. I’m starved. Can we have dinner now?” Before he could answer, she saw Mandy. “Oh no. There’s two of them. Are they both your slaves?

“I’m Mandy and yes, your grandfather is my Master to.”

“So what were you dreaming about?” George asked, obviously worried.

“I think you already know. The question is, does she know about it yet?” Cary answered with a smirk, pointing at Courtney.

“So you’ve agreed to let me carry it for you?” Courtney asked before George could answer.

“Will you let me have one to?” Mandy jumped in.

“How about if we talk about it at dinner. Courtney, Mandy, let her get dressed,” he ordered. While they waited,George wondered how Mandy rationalized Cary position so she could talk to her.

----------------------------------------------------

At the store where he and Courtney had shopped, George was surprised to find Nicole. Did she ever go home? They’d entered in single file with Courtney in the lead and Mandy trailing, so Nicole didn’t see both sisters. “Thank you for sending Ivan and Ilya to buy from me,” Nicole gushed. “What do you need tonight?”

George reached behind and guided Mandy to the front with his hands on her shoulders. “We’d like them to look like peas in a pod,” he said. “So we need exactly the same things Courtney bought.”

“Oh, my God. Two of them. This is incredible.” Taking them each by a hand, Nicole dragged them off. The three of them were soon chattering and laughing as if they’d known each other for years. George noted the same interplay that he’d seen between Courtney and Ilya over the weekend and resolved to recruit her if they could repeat last week’s bonanza.

Cary, who’d stayed behind him, moved up and took his hand while he watched. “Are you really going to do it?” she asked.

“Tell me about your dream first,” George ordered.

“They showed me what it’d be like to get pregnant and have your baby. The dream lasted a year and I couldn’t tell it was a dream. We made love and I had the most fantastic orgasm of my life, but carrying the baby was really hard. And when it was born, I almost died. If I can have it without being pregnant, that’s what I want.”

“Did they make any more promises?”

“Yeah, that’s the part you’re not going to like.”

“Spill it!” George ordered.

“They don’t want me to have sex with anyone but you, so they promised that every orgasm you give me will be like the one I had when you woke me. On top of that, they promised I’d have one from your touch alone anytime I get horny.”

“Damn interfering bastards!” George swore.

The twins were back with their dresses interrupting the conversation, so he asked if they could wear their new clothes from the store. After they’d changed and used their new credit cards for the first time, George asked Nicole for contact information and informed her he might have a much better paying job. Leaving the store, the girls were walking on air.

By the time they reached the restaurant, their feet still hadn’t touched the ground. They walked in, one on each of George’s arms and Cary skipping in front. The twin’s flushed faces and swaying hips left a wake of silence and turned heads. He wondered how much of the attention was because of the contrast between slim youth and sagging maturity.

The restaurant was an experience as erotic as the wildest wedding bed, with the twins selecting finger foods and puddings to gave the highest possible number of excuses to get their fingers onto and through his lips. Courtney began describing all of the touches, kisses and hugs that had kept her constantly aroused for the last 4 days, so by the time dinner was over, the twins were sexually super-charged. Cary sat across the table and watched with a smile.

Courtney finally noticed the smile and asked, “So is he really going to do it?”

“Yeah, The Engineers have him right where they want him. The best thing is that I get to have super sex with him any time I want and there’s nothing he can do about it.”

“How did they do that?” Mandy asked excitedly.

“You were there when I woke up. All he had to do was touch me to set it off.”

“Could they change him so I can give him sex that way?” Courtney asked.

“Yeah, there’s no question about that. Should I ask them to?” Cary offered.

“Don’t you dare!” George growled. “If I want to be changed, I’ll ask them myself. They already have way too much control over our lives!”

“Ooooh, is that another handle I can use to get my way?” Cary smirked.

“Please, Cary, don’t make him unhappy with us. You can’t imagine how much it hurts,” Mandy pleaded.

“I’m sorry Mandy, I’m not mad at you or Courtney. I’m just tired of being manipulated by whoever they are,” George backed off.

“You know grandpa, you can be pretty dense and stubborn yourself sometimes. They aren’t forcing me to do anything. They simply offered me choices I didn’t have before. In a way, I have more freedom, because of them. And so do you.”

Even though she was afraid to displease him, Courtney added, “And we wouldn’t have the freedom to be your willing slaves. Please don’t be mad, my Master, but I’m really grateful to them for helping you.”

With a sigh, George surrendered. “Okay, I’ll admit that there is nothing they’ve done I wouldn’t choose if I had to do it over again. But I still hate being pushed into doing something when I don’t understand the reasons for it. It’s been a long day and we have an appointment early in the morning so it’s time for bed.”

All the way home, the girls were whispering and giggling. George was sure they’d plotted something, almost certainly something he’d find interesting. As soon as they were inside, Courtney asked if she could show Mandy his scars. As if they were an experienced team, Mandy started popping snaps at the top of his shirt while Courtney went for the bottom. When the met in the middle, they drew the shirt back from his chest like the curtains of a stage and watched what was revealed with at least as much interest as the best play on Broadway.

Cary was frustrated. She’d been in bed with him, but she’d never had a chance to really look. To see what the twins were doing, she got up on the bench seat of the dining nook so she could look over their heads.

When a pair of hands began touching and caressing the huge scars across his stomach, George couldn’t help telling a story about how he’d acquired them. “After they peeled the skin off for skin grafts, the doctors spread gauze over the patches to soak up the blood. He had to sleep under a tent to keep the sheets off because the slightest touch hurt like fire. After 10 days, the doctor came in one morning to check on him and lifted the corner of the gauze to see how he was healing. Then without warning, he ripped the gauze right off.”

George described how he was told later that people heard his scream 2 blocks away from the hospital. To this day, even with all the other accidents, that was one of the most painful experiences of his life.

The expression of awe on the girls faces made George wonder briefly about the effect of body scars on female libidos’, but when the twins moved on to expose his left arm, the potential for rational thought made the pursuit of his curiosity difficult to continue. While his arm was being kissed and fondled, Courtney had to explain how this was the first part of George he’d used to make love to her. Even though it was unintentional, she’d never forget.

Then with a smile, she began explaining how George helped her into bed each night. With a squeal, both girls were bare in seconds and waiting by the bed. With a sigh, George put his hand in each girls treasure box, one at a time and lifted them into bed. Cary waited until the twins were up. Encircling him with her arms, she jumped and wrapped her legs around his waist. “Grandpa, will you kiss me for real? They told me we can’t have sex for real until after Courtney has the baby, but you can kiss me and I’ll still be a virgin. Please?”

Recognizing that he was losing control, George met her with open lips. He was pretty sure she’d never kissed anyone before because it was all stiff lips and teeth. “Kissing should be a lot more pleasant than that. Why don’t you ask The Engineers to teach you?” he suggested as he put his stub between her legs and boosted her up.

As soon as George had doffed his pants and climbed up, the twins arranged themselves one on each side leaving Cary the odd one out. With surprise, George noted that he could no longer tell them apart. Even their hair could have been from the output tray of a Xerox copier. “I want what Courtney had,” said the girl on his left as she settled herself with George’s stub in her crotch. “And I want some more of what I had this morning,” his Angel on the right asserted as she reached for what George was hiding in his shorts.

“Sorry girls, but they told me you can’t do it to him until you’re ready for my baby. And if you want any chance of each having one, I get the best place in front of him. You two can decide which of you gets to keep his back side warm,” Cary said, smiling smugly.

After a quick scramble to rearrange themselves, Cary put her back to George’s chest and felt his hand go limp as he went away.

The Engineers projected a feeling of disappointment. They’d expected him to take enough of the medicine to last all night, but he’d been so busy it hadn’t happened. They sent a movie showing how to take it intravenously while he slept. To emphasize how important it was, they made him understand that his compulsion to have sex with Courtney that morning was caused by not having enough of the drug in his body to allow The Engineers to override his instinctual behavior. By the time he’d absorbed the instructions, the contact was fading.

George’s moan at the 5:00 AM alarm was echoed by a second and third in a higher pitch. The returning worries he’d fallen asleep to were all the motivation he needed, so with a couple of squeezes and a caress or two administered to the twins, they were all three revved up and running in minutes. Cary didn’t even stir, so he resolved to ask Ivan to send Ilya to stay with her.

Breakfast was a 5-minute bowl of cereal and each of the girls was given 5 minutes in the bathroom, so the choreographer was definitely learning how to script the motor-home tango to 3 parts.

George told the girls to put on their grungiest clothes, but to make sure they carried everything necessary to dress up in a bag. He grabbed his laptop and it’s accessories and they were off. By 5:30, they were saying hello to Jake who was waiting for them in Denny’s parking lot in a cargo van without windows. Even the windshield was walled off from the passenger’s seats.

“Sorry about the view, but I assumed you’d prefer not to know where we’re going,” Jake apologized. “Tell me George, how do you know which is which?”

“If you think it’s hard now, believe me, it gets a lot harder when there aren’t clothes to help. The blue top is Mandy and the T-shirt is Courtney,” George answered without noticing how much his answer embarrassed the girls. “Jake, could you help me hire some doubles? I need some help with the swap meet and I’d like to give the enemy someone else to chase.”

“How about some Special Forces stand- IN’s? We can have some portable metal detectors set up at the entry to eliminate weapons, and some specialist in unarmed combat should make the doubles reasonably safe.” he suggested. “With a little makeup, we might be able to catch an assassin or two and give the enemy a black eye at the same time. I assume you’d like to try to get a message back to the enemy suggesting where they should look for these doubles?”

“Yeah, I thought you might be able to help with that to,” George smirked. “How soon can we put something together?”

“I’ll put someone to work on it. We should have a timetable in a couple of hours. I got a report on the answering service Dr. Van Berg referred us to. I’m afraid we’ll need to leave a message to find out who picks it up. There’s only a 50% chance of tracing it to something useful.”

“I think we should use every potential messenger we have to send messages back. It’s time to give our enemies more misinformation than they can figure out what to do with. How much access can we get to the media?” George asked.

Laughing, Jake answered, “Are you sure you didn’t work for the Company? What a hoot. I’ll make sure you get all the access you can use.”

“Is there a secure location we can send them to when we use his message service to tell them where to find Van Berg? George queried.

“Yeah, we’ve got a dozen spots that would be perfect,”

“Okay, get a message ready for Courtney to send as soon as possible. Are we all set to scare the crap out of our prisoners?”

“I’m not sure what you’re planning, but we gathered all the props you asked for,” Jake answered, his curiosity apparent. “I have to admit, I can’t imagine how you can scare or torture any one with what you asked for.”

“That’s the reason it will be so effective. It’s so far out of the box that no one will believe it’s possible, let alone that it was tried. Any time that we can make the enemy refuse to believe their own people, we’ll have gained an advantage. I’ve been trying to list the pathways we could use to send a message, but I think we need to brainstorm with the group to organize a plan for best effect. Will you call them and see if we can get together for lunch?” George asked.

“I’m sure they’ll be available. I talked with everybody last evening and suggested it’d be a good idea so we could go over the reports from Lincoln County. I hope you don’t mind, I’m having everyone fax them to both Marcus and me. He needed them because he has to file daily updates to the Judge.”

“No objection, but do you know how secure the Judge is? I don’t care if he leaks anything, I just need to know so we can feed him the right information.”

“I think we can be as sure of him as anyone. He has a “Top Secret” security clearance and I managed to get everything we’re feeding him classified. If he leaks it, it would mean life in prison.”

“Do you still have someone working on the Dr.’s computers?” George changed the subject.

“Yeah, still no luck. He spent a fortune on encryption. It’s actually better than the military’s. I’ve been told there is little chance of cracking it while the information might still be of use.”

“Will they be working on it this early?” George wanted to know.

“We have three teams working around the clock. I can’t keep it up for long, but if there’s a chance of accessing what they’ve spent so much to protect, well, we just need it,” Jake explained.

“Can we stop and talk to them before we get started?” George requested.

“Sure,” Jake answered, getting up to give the driver directions. The Van pulled into a hanger and stopped. Its door was opened from the outside and they were all directed to get out and follow one of the guards.

Minutes later they entered a room filled with of high tech gadgetry that was dizzying in its variety and complexity. There were four men who were so deeply involved in a discussion that they paid no attention to the visitors. Jake finally had to walk right into their huddle. “Gentlemen, we’ve brought someone who can give you a new perspective. Take a break and let’s hear what he has to say.”

As one, they turned to face George and the girls. “We obtained a password from the doctor using a bit of trickery,” George said. “I don’t believe he’d be foolish enough to use it for his computer directly, but if you’ll run it through a word association program, there’s a good chance one of its permutations will work. The password was Jeanie is a Genie.”

One of the techs sat down and typed in several commands, “God Damn. Look at that. All that money spent on encryption and the idiot wears his password on his sleeve. We’ve got 800 gigabytes on the drive. How many people can we have to sort through it Sir?”

Jake was shaking his head. “Break it into 20 gigabyte blocks and I’ll have John send you everyone we can find. In the meantime, can a couple of you start looking for patient lists? George, I’ll be damned if I know how you see these things. I was there when you played your game with him and it never occurred to me that his safe phrase would be his password. What made you suspect it?”

“I didn’t think he’d be that stupid, but most people use passwords linked by association. I think we just got lucky.”

The still small voice was singing in George’s mind as the people around him expressed congratulations;

When you're all alone And you need a light

Someone to guide you Through the night

Just remember that I am here

To hold you close and Dry your tears

_________

And just when you thought You were falling

But you know I'll always Be right there

_________

When you're all alone And you need a friend

Someone to help you To the end

When you need someone To catch you when you fall

I'll be there through it all

________

'Cause just when you thought You were losing

But you know I'll always be right there

Notice to readers of "A Stone Cut Without Hands"

About 10 days ago, I implemented a feedback form in hopes of making it easier for readers to send feedback which is the only payment Asstr writers receive for their work. The feedback form reduces the effort required by readers to two mouse clicks. (one if you think the story is great)

While the amount of feedback increased by 10 times, it is still only 27 for 70,000 times the story pages were accessed. While some of you will think I'm greedy, I have invested over 3,000 hours in the story and think that one feedback per 100 hours is not enough.

To rectify the situation, the final 5 chapters and the Epilogue will be available only to those readers who request it using the feedback form.

ps; You are welcome to tell me how greedy I am or how much you hate me. Negative feedback is still better than no feedback.

Please visit the Quantum Muse, where good authors go to become great.Click
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Reader's guesses about the story's surprise ending.
George seems to be overconfident with his success. I think there are too many
people involved and that it is possible for someone in the group of helpers to try
to foil the plan. Courtney as a surrogate (and Mandy also) is a great idea. The
engineers appear to use George as a facilitator and seems like they have used him
over a long period of time. Would a baby with a combined genetic makeup (George
and Granddaughter) be the start or bases for a new generation of facilitators?
______________
Did you publish this as an earlier version? I'm certain that I recall the characters and
the major plot line, but it's been enhanced with the cellular automata(!) in more of the
chapters. I'll be keeping a close eye on your site to watch the progression of this story.
I'm wondering if the storyline leads to universal Gestalt.
_____________
reverse dna jprocess. events extend the dna chain and the dna retains/becomes the memory.
bacteria 'bud' their unique dna in a duplicate bacteria' Similar events cause similar bacteria
to congregate and their cilia touching 'energize a nn expereintial similarity in ohters which
gives rise to multiple dna recognition and in aggregate create a 'field' in which the exchange
if information is accomplished including the ability to recall negative expereince and to
avoid the circumstances in wihch they occur--survival.
Anticipation on further chapters is HIGH!!!!!
_____________
My theory is the swarm is the thousands of brain cells present in the human mind that we
do not use. i have heard it said many times the average human only uses 10%, wouldn't it
be grand if the other 90% started communicating with us?
___________
It is an enjoyable story that I am sure I read somewhere before. Please keep up the good work.
The swarm seem to be a symbiotic intelligence.
__________
I also learned something else (not having a creative bone in my body)...and that is the
amount of time that all of you authors put into these stories. I will now be more dilligent in
takinq a few minutes to return some feedback.
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