Connors' forces had returned to their staging areas and except for occasional small missions to stop a terrorist, didn't need to fight. It was as if the world was shaking its head after a bout of temporary insanity.
At first, Dale's father was nervous. "If we missed something and they were able to track our people back to their hidden bases, we can expect an attack anytime. What bothers me the most is that everything seems to have just... stopped. I mean nothing involving any of the world's militaries is happening. While that seems like a good thing, we monitored the radios on both sides of each of the conflicts. All of them received orders to cease at the same exact moment. That tells me something isn't right here, we're missing something important," he confided to Dale and Sarah one evening. However, after three weeks and no attack, or even a build up of forces, he began to relax.
Dale and Sarah had returned to work, but it was going slowly. Sarah finally told Dale to just hook into her and use her eyes to look at the monitor. That suggestion helped a lot and development of the new fabric slowly moved into the testing phase. The discoveries they made impressed and fascinated the rest of the scientific staff. The lightweight fabric, though thin, had a high insulating property in low temperatures; in high temperatures it allowed air to flow though, cooling the body. It was also impervious to any bladed weapon. However, when it was tested with a projectile weapon, it stopped the bullet, but the dummy chest underneath sustained enough trauma to kill a human.
Frustrated, Dale wanted to return to her lab, but Sarah asked to make a couple more tests. Sarah herself was the test subject as she pulled the suit on over her nude body. She stood still while the test group trained every electronic sensor on her they could think of. Sarah's earlier suggestion to Dale had been correct; the suit effectively blocked the electronic sensors even when she moved around the room. Obviously, visual and motion sensors still detected her, but those could be fooled in other ways.
Dale and Sarah arrived back at their lab to find a young man waiting for them. "Dr. Connors?" he asked. When Dale nodded he nervously smiled and extended his hand, then realized what he had done and smoothly moved it over to Sarah. "My name is Jon Taylor. I'm sorry to interrupt your own work, but I've been working on something that you alone might be able help me with. You see, I've been working on a device that will help return limited sight to those who have lost that ability. If you would be interested, I could give you access to my research so you can look it over. I've done all I can in the lab, and I think I'm ready for a human trial. It worked very well on our primate test subjects."
On hearing that last Dale immediately let his thoughts into her mind, and found that the young man was very nervous, mostly because he felt that these two women were very beautiful. She read further and found what she had been looking for: the primates in question had been donated by two different zoos. The chimp had been born blind, and the female gorilla had lost her sight in a freakish accident. Two test subjects was hardly an exhaustive test, but the results looked positive. Both primates had been wearing the devices for six months without ill effect. Dale also noticed how attracted to them he was. He was a classic brainy geek and had never been able to talk to pretty girls without getting flustered — much like he was now.
"I would be honored to help you. Yes, I'd like to have Sarah and my doctor look over the research if that's alright with you. My doctor is a neural surgeon with a lot of years in researching the brain. I think she would be fascinated," Dale replied.
"Of course! May I ask who your doctor is?" the still flustered Taylor asked.
"Dr. Samantha Rivers, she was working on a research project at Harvard Medical..."
"OH MY GOD! Dr. Rivers is here?" Now Taylor got really flustered.
"Is that a problem?" Sarah asked innocently.
"Oh, no!" He struggled to get his excitement under control. "It's just some of this research is based on her discoveries. If there is somebody on this planet more qualified to evaluate this, I don't know who it would be."
"Great, I'll have her get in touch with you. I'm supposed to meet her later today, so I'll pass on the message then," Dale replied.
Smiling, the flustered young man quickly left.
"Well, that was different. I guess my reputation has preceded me. I swear that man was terrified," Sarah said.
Dale chuckled, "It wasn't your reputation that had him frightened, love. It was your sexy body. He has a really hard time talking to beautiful women, and you fit that category in his mind perfectly."
"Really? From his body language, I would have said he wasn't interested at all. All I could read was how much he wanted to be somewhere else."
Dale tilted her head down at Sarah's body that was still encased in the skin tight, black suit. "You should look in a mirror before you make your final judgment on that. Hell, I'm blind, and you're making me horny!"
"I'd be happy to look over Dr. Taylor's work. I'd been thinking about some of my older research and how it worked with the optic nerve, but had discounted it since you don't have 'normal' optic nerves anymore," Sam said.
"Well, if it can do no more than let me see a computer monitor again, I'd be ecstatic. As it is, I have to look through Sarah's eyes all the time, and we have to be careful when others are around. Dr. Matheson got curious about us, when I told Sarah to input some data when she hadn't given me the parameters yet. We managed to explain it, but it was a close call," Dale explained.
"One other thing, Sam," Sarah said. "Taylor is deathly afraid of pretty girls, and is intimidated by you anyway, since you're his hero. So you may have to have a lot of patience with him."
"Maybe it would be best if we had him present his research to us and your father in a conference room. That way it would be more like a lecture for him instead of a one on one thing," Sam said thoughtfully, quickly writing down a note to herself. "I think I'll check with some of his research aides and colleagues."
The rest of the appointment was more of the same frustration for Dale, trying to send her thoughts to someone else. Sam theorized that since Dale could 'hear' people's thoughts, she should be able to send them as well. However, if that was indeed the case, Dale wasn't getting it to work. After an hour of trying, Dale called a halt with a thundering headache.
"Here, take a couple of these and lay down for awhile," Sam said. "I'm sorry I pushed you so hard. Perhaps you can only try a little at a time and let me know if anything happens. In the meantime, I'll see about getting Dr. Taylor's attention."
"Dale, in order for Dr. Taylor's device to work on you, he'll have to be aware of your altered optic nerve. His research is based on the assumption of a relatively normal, or at least something close to normal, optic nerve. Yours isn't even close," Sam said. "Don't get me wrong, I think he's on the right path here, especially for millions of people. But for you, while I'm sure he can get the device to work, he'll know you have a mutated optic center once he starts testing you to calibrate the device."
"Okay, but remember, I'm the mad scientist, not the lab rat," Dale replied.
"If those old horror movies had a mad scientist that looked like you, they would have gotten a lot better ratings," Sarah said.
"Suck-up! It's your night to cook, and no amount of sweet talk is getting you out of it," Dale said. "Now let's get the hell out of here, so Sam can try to have a normal conversation with young Dr. Taylor."
A little over an hour later, Sam heard a light knock on her door. Dr. Taylor entered on her invitation and nervously took a chair in front of her desk. "Jon, you've got a good thing here. Your work is going to help a lot of people one day."
"Th... thank you, ma'am. I know the primate testing isn't very extensive, but those two test subjects are all we could get. But I'm sure we..."
Sam cut him off by raising her hand; "Relax, Jon. You've convinced me. However, I wanted to discuss Dr. Connors' case with you before we proceeded. There are some special circumstances you need to be aware of before we start, and you have to promise that the information you are about to hear will never leave this room."
Jon looked confused for a moment. "Dr. Rivers, I'd never discuss a patient's information."
"Even with other doctors? Jon, Dale Connors is a very special case. She absolutely refuses to submit to exploratory surgery, and most scanning equipment causes her physical pain. But I can't tell you why until you swear you'll never repeat a word of this to anyone outside of this room, especially our colleagues," Sam said. "You would be surprised at the number of our contemporaries that would butcher the poor girl just to publish a paper that would put their name on the map."
"I don't understand, but I'll promise not to disclose any of the particulars of Dr. Connors' case with anyone other than you or Dr. Connors herself. Will that suffice, Doctor?" Jon stated.
"It was recorded and logged. Now," she said as she handed over a folder with Dale's name on it. "As you will soon discover, Dr. Connors isn't truly blind. Through a mutation in her optic nerve, she has the ability to see energy fields. As you know, almost everything has some kind of energy involved in it; as a result those things that don't have an energy field are clearly outlined by those that do."
"My god, Dr. Rivers! That's amazing! She could very well be the next step in human evolution! What tests have you..." He paused; "None, you've run none. Because the only real way to examine this is directly. I owe you an apology, Dr. Rivers, I thought you were being overly melodramatic. I can see now that Dr. Connors would be pestered and cut on until she went insane if this were well known. I will do my best to maintain her security on this matter."
"You can discuss this with her, her wife Sarah, and her father. There are only the five of us that know. The main reason she is so willing to work with you is that she can't do her work effectively because she can't look at a computer monitor; all she sees is a big white blur. If we can make this work for her, she'd be able to pursue her work, and return to some form of normal life," Sam said.
"I'm beginning to wonder if the device will work; I mean if there is already a signal traveling through the optic nerve, the device might cause a feedback that could be very painful," Jon said thoughtfully.
"Her eyes and the optic nerve have changed. Into what I'm not sure, but it's clear they have nothing to do with vision as we know it. In fact, they are highly sensitive to light as well. If Dale goes outside without her sunglasses, she will soon be in considerable pain, so please keep that in mind if you try to examine her eyes; if you use a flashlight, she will either hit you, or puke on you... or both," Sam said, chuckling.
"Dr. Rivers..." Jon began.
Sam interrupted him. "Please, Jon, call me Sam or Samantha. There is no need for all this formality."
"Yes, Dr... er, Sam. There is something else I'd like to talk to you about. It... it's rather personal, but I've really no one else to ask," Jon said.
"Uh, okay, I'll try to help if I can." Sam answered hoping this wasn't about her or Dale.
"Well, I've got this problem with girls. If I'm going to be working with Ms. Connors, her wife and you, I've got to get over it. I was hoping you might be able to give me some advice."
"I'll do my best, Jon. What's the problem?" Sam asked.
"Well, I... I get so nervous and flustered around girls, I get sweaty and nauseous. Even now, I feel ill just being in the room with you. If I even look at you, I'm afraid I might throw up," Jon said, quickly. He did indeed look a little green, and it seemed to be getting worse. Sam also noticed that he really hadn't so much as looked at her since he arrived. "It's a lot worse when the girl is very pretty like the three of you are, and especially if they're nice to me, again, like the three of you are. I don't know what to do."
"How did you make it through medical school like this? I'm sure you had female patients during your residency didn't you?"
"Yes I did, but it didn't seem to affect me nearly as bad when the patient was in distress. I did my residency at St. Joe's hospital in Tacoma, Washington. The nuns were the only ones that didn't affect me when interacting with them, but there were only two or three that I actually had contact with while I was there."
"Were any of them young and or pretty?" Sam asked.
"Yes, Sister Joan was pretty, I think. She always seemed to be wearing her habit when I saw her. The other two were pretty too, but well over fifty years old and a bit crabby all the time. Sister Joan always seemed to go out of her way to be nice to me," Jon answered.
"Do you have any idea why Sister Joan didn't get you flustered?"
"Not really; I wasn't raised Catholic or anything, so I don't know that much about nuns, except that they've taken a vow of celibacy, and are 'married to god'. I've never been curious enough to ask more about it. I kind of felt it would be an invasion of her privacy."
"Okay, how about married women? Do they affect you the same way?" Sam asked.
"It depends, I guess. I mean, they do until I find out they're married of course, but in most cases the affect seems to lessen after I find out. However, in Dr. Connors' case, I don't understand enough about lesbianism for her union with Ms. Rogers to have the same affect. I guess I have the typical male reaction to the term 'lesbian'. I see erotic images of a threesome, though I've never... uh, I don't have a lot of experience with sex," Jon said, blushing.
Considering his problem, Sam thought his 'not a lot of experience' equated to 'no experience', but she wasn't going to say anything to him about it. "Well, then I suppose the easiest thing to do would be for you to accept Dr. and Mrs. Connors as a married couple. You can consider me married as well, which isn't far from the truth."
"You've been single all your life. When did you get married?" Jon asked.
"That's a little difficult to explain, but I'll try. When I was still a college student, I fell in love with three men and a woman. We got rings, and proclaimed our love for one another, but when a horrible accident took one of our husbands we kind of drifted apart. The other woman was already pregnant, and she and one of the men got married officially and moved away. They didn't do it behind our backs, we knew all about it, and we still let them go. They were Dale's parents. Though I was hurting, and I tried to cut myself off from them, I never stopped loving them. Then Dale's mother passed away and I fell into depression. I almost had to resign because of my inattentiveness," Sam explained.
"Dale's injury prompted Ben to call me back into his life, and from the moment I saw him again, I knew I still loved him as much as I ever did. Polygamy and Polyamory are felonies now in the United States, but I didn't care. Ben has fallen for Sarah's mother pretty hard, and I think I am too. My heart belongs to them; if I could marry them, I would. So that's why I said you might as well consider me married."
"I've never given a thought to how many lives the National Moralities Act affected when it was ratified by congress. I listened to all the people spouting out about how all the perverts would finally be locked up. Personally, I'd always thought we had laws against child-molesters and rapists, which is what I thought that law was for. What ever happened to the other man? Couldn't you have had a normal relationship with him?" Jon asked innocently.
Sam's eyes flashed in anger but she fought it, since she figured he didn't understand what he just said. "Jon, I know you probably have no idea how big an insult you just gave me. Granted they are not traditional by our society's standards, but they felt right to those people involved in them. No one should have the right to dictate whom, or even how many people, a person can love. But, to answer your question, I did see the other man again, and we are still very close, however, he did not want to resume our relationship even on an exclusive basis. We will always be close, but not intimate ever again."
"God! I'm so sorry, Dr. Rivers! Please forgive me! I... I just didn't... I don't..." he sighed. "This is what I mean, I just don't understand very much about the dynamics of relationships. This isn't the first time I've stuck my foot in my mouth either. I don't know how to learn though! I'm too blasted shy to talk to just anyone. I'm very close to a panic attack right now just talking with you!"
Sam got up and unlocked a cabinet; she looked through a few things before taking two pills out of a bottle. She locked the cabinet and got him a glass of water. She handed him the pills and water. "Take these, they'll help."
"What are they?" he asked.
"Zoloft, to help fight the panic attack. How long have you been getting them?" Sam asked.
"Since grade school; I always thought it was because I was so shy," Jon said.
"It might have started out that way, but the reaction you're describing is way past what could be considered normal. I want you to schedule an appointment, so I can check you over. Your problem could be medical in nature. Also, why don't you speak to Doctor Salizar? Perhaps with both of us helping you, we can beat this thing," Sam said.
"I don't think I've met a Dr. Salizar yet, is she another medical doctor?"
Sam smiled. "He is a clinical psychologist. One of the first things he'd have you do is come over here for a full physical anyway, so we can get that handled."
"As for gaining knowledge about relationships, you just need to be exposed to more non-traditional relationships. I'll speak to my lovers and Dale and her wife; perhaps we can have you over to dinner a few times, so you can observe us," Sam said.
"Right now, Doctor, that sounds extremely terrifying. I really hope there is something you can do to help me," Jon said.
"I thought I asked you to call me Sam?" Sam grinned, as Jon stood.
"Well, I think I better get back to work. May I have a copy of Dr. Connors' file, so I can design an appropriate interface? I swear I will not share the information with anyone, though my research assistant is going to be dying of curiosity," he asked.
"Yes, that copy is for you." She indicated the folder still in his hand. "Don't forget to stop and schedule that appointment with Donna out at the desk. She can make the appointment with Dr. Salizar too if you ask her."
"Thank you, Sam," he said as he stuck out his hand.
"See you soon, Jon." They shook hands and he left to make the appointments.
"Dale, this is Gene Warner. I think he might be able to help us with the new suit." Ken Hansen, one of the researchers working with her and Sarah, introduced the man with him.
"Does he have clearance for this, Ken?" Dale asked.
"Yeah, I made sure before I brought him up here. He's been working in the aircraft labs."
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Dr. Warner. Welcome to my own private little hell," Dale said smirking.
"Thank you, Dr. Connors, but I'm afraid it's only Mr. Warner, or better yet, Gene. I didn't get a chance to finish my doctorate before everything went to hell," the man said. "Ken's told me some of what you're doing up here, and I thought I might be able to help."
"Well, this fabric started out as my doctorial thesis, but we discovered that it had some other surprising qualities. When worn on a person, the person is no longer detectable by any sensors except for motion detectors. It's still visible of course, but the sensor blocking was a nice surprise," Dale explained.
"I understand that it's bullet proof as well?" he asked. "Something that looks like a body suit with that kind of protection would be invaluable to the militaries. Hell, to almost any industry!"
Something in his voice caused her to peek in his head. He was genuinely impressed with her discoveries, and mentally added it to the list of things he was going to report to his superiors in Virginia as soon as he could either get off this damn island, or get a communication line out of here.
"Well, Gene, we were just about to knock off for the day, so why don't you drop by in the morning and we can get a fresh start?" Dale asked forcing a smile onto her face.
"Thanks, Dale, I'm sure I'll love working with you." He almost leered at her, and she fought the urge to puke. Dale felt Sarah bristling from where she sat at her work station, so she lovingly put her hand on the woman's shoulder. 'You're so bad!' Sarah thought to her.
Smiling, Dale turned to Sarah. "Are you about ready to go home, love?"
Gene bristled in anger and revulsion as he realized that Dale and Sarah were lovers, Lesbian lovers. "You do know that lesbianism is illegal don't you? Besides, all you really need is a real man to show you what real love is like."
Dale chuckled; "It's not illegal here, this isn't the United States, and the only real man I've ever met already has two wives of his own. If this is going to be a problem for you, Gene, I'm sorry, but you just won't be able to work here."
Gene realized he was stepping out of character, and quickly changed his tune. "Uh, no, that won't be necessary; I can ignore it. It really doesn't bother me anyway. So, may I have access to your files on the fabric so I can get up to speed on it before the morning?"
A quick peek told Dale that he'd decided that he'd blown his cover, and was planning on stealing a whisperjet that night to make his escape.
"I'll have Sarah grant you access to the files once we get back to our apartment. That's where the main files are anyway," she said as Sarah logged off and stood. "Have a good evening, Gene. You too, Ken." Dale scanned her researcher to make sure he had no idea this jerk was a spy. He didn't, Ken honestly thought the guy could be of assistance with the project.
"Okay, I'll look forward to reading your work. Good night, Dale," Gene said, and Ken led him out of the office.
"Okay, what was that all about? You know I need to be here to give him access," Sarah asked.
"Call security. He's working for the CIA. Wait!" Dale said as Sarah turned back to her terminal. "How the hell am I going to explain how I found out?"
Sarah typed in a command, and shortly the terminal beeped, then Dale heard her father's voice. "What's up, Sarah?"
"Sir, Ken just brought in a Gene Warner to help with our project," Sarah said.
"Yeah, I'd heard. He's a really sharp chemical engineer that helped design the skin on our assault aircraft that can't be tracked," Ben explained.
"Uh huh, was that before or after he'd been brought to the island?" Dale asked.
"Hi, Peanut! After, all that research was done out here, why?" Ben asked.
"Something he said didn't ring right to me, so I peeked in his head. He's a spy working for the CIA. He's planning on stealing a whisperjet and making a run for it tonight with all the research and information he's gathered here. Daddy, if this creep gets away, we're toast," Dale said.
Ben turned to something on his desk; "Doris? Please get Olivia in here right away, we have a major problem. Also issue a lockdown on all aircraft, cut all off-island communications, and issue the order to lock down the island."
"Right away, Mr. Connors," the two women heard his assistant answer him.
"Thanks, Daddy. I would have called security myself, but I didn't know how to explain how I knew he was a bad guy," Dale explained.
"No problem, Peanut. I'll have a story fabricated before Olivia gets here. Thanks for letting me know." A chime sounded in the background. "Damn, Olivia's here. Talk to you later, ladies." Ben broke the contact before either girl could answer him.
"What do you think he's going to tell her?" Sarah asked.
"Knowing Daddy, something very colorful and utterly ridiculous," Dale replied. "Come on, let's head home; I feel dirty."
"Okay, but I need to stop at the commissary for a few things," Sarah replied.
Dale and Sarah arrived back at their apartment carrying the stuff they'd gotten. Karen should be home already, but Dale stopped Sarah before she could open the door.
"Something's wrong, love," Dale said, then 'reached' for Karen. When she found her, it broke her heart. She was badly beaten, and tied to a kitchen chair in the living room, facing the door. Gene Warner was standing behind her with a knife at her throat. He was telling her how he was going to slit her throat after he got those other two bitches under control. "Warner is in there, and he has Karen. He's going to kill her."
"Fuck!" Sarah said quietly. She sat her bags down and started down the hall. "Dale, stay there and keep an eye on them; I'll get help."
Once again, Dale was wondering how they were going to explain this, but for now, the priority had to be Karen. Dale reached for Warner's mind again; he was getting impatient. He had just decided that if the dykes saw their slut sliced open, he'd have enough of a surprise to take out Sarah, then force Dale's access codes out of her. He was planning on taking Dale as his hostage and forcing that traitor Connors into giving up a whisperjet. He'd get a promotion for all the intel he was bringing back this time. He smiled to himself, and before Dale could do anything, he drew the knife across the helpless woman's neck.
"NO!!" Dale screamed as the door was blasted into the room. She followed the door into the room and headed straight for the surprised Warner. Dale grabbed him by the neck and effortlessly threw him through the wall to one of the bedrooms. "You fucking ANIMAL!!! You just couldn't leave well enough alone! You just had to kill an innocent woman, just to make yourself look good to your FUCKING bosses! Well, you're not going to look so fucking good now, motherfucker!" She picked the semi-conscience man up by the neck again, and threw him at another wall. This time it was an exterior wall and made of much stronger material. He impacted the wall with a loud, sickening crunch, and slid to the floor, leaving a wide trail of blood on the wall.
Sensing that his life-force was no longer in his body, Dale turned and walked slowly out to her and Sarah's dead lover, and friend. Dale knelt down and held Karen's body and slowly rocked back and forth. "I'm so sorry I couldn't protect you, love. I'm so... very... sorry..." The strength of her sobs would no longer let her speak. She just held on to the blood-covered corpse, rocking and crying.
Sir Winston