Sentients in the Maze Read online

  “I’m not using the attic bedroom on the third floor for anything but storage. There’s enough room if we clear it out.”

  “If you get what we need, I’ll tackle the attic space, but, I need a blood test before you go. I need two ounces.”

  Jonah tilted his head back. She smiled. He was a quick learner; he’d already gotten accustomed to the procedure. She nipped, drew the blood and healed the bite.

  When finished, Tiana unwrapped her tail and stood. “Get seven avocados and two pounds of kale while you’re out,” she said over her shoulder as she went up the stairs.

  Jonah

  Jonah rubbed his neck where she had taken the blood then rubbed the back of his neck. “Why aren’t there any knots in my neck?” he mused aloud.

  Tiana’s tinkling laugh answered him from the attic stairway two floors away.

  Jonah slid into his boots, grabbed his helmet and went to the door. “Probably take about an hour.”

  “And shiitake mushrooms and another bottle of those amino acids I got last time,” Tiana yelled down the stairs.

  “Add twenty minutes to the last estimate,” Jonah amended and walked outside to his bike. He’d grown accustomed to speaking in a normal tone of voice even when she was rooms away.

  “See you around noon then,” her voice floated to him from the attic window.

  Jonah threw his leg over the bike, rolled it down the drive and popped the clutch to start the motor. He focused on paying attention to the road. A wandering mind was a ticket to disaster on a motorcycle. He managed to get to Staples without accident.

  It seemed hot for so early in the morning and he was sweating when he arrived. On his phone, Google Weather was showing only 75 degrees. Even the air-conditioned store felt warm; he was perspiring.

  Several multi-colored packs of post-it notes and a prepaid cell phone for Tiana went in the cart with two packages of Dri-Erase markers. The girl ringing up his sale was helpful and chatty. She jotted something on the back of his receipt before handing it to him. He smiled and thanked her as he went out. On the way back to his bike, he glanced at the receipt and noticed she had written a phone number and ‘Kathy— call me!’

  That’s odd… and risky for her to do on the job.

  She had been young… in her twenties and pretty.

  Jonah had seen flirtation from twenty-somethings when he’d been in his masters programs, but that had been in Blacksburg, a hard-drinking, hard-partying college town. He’d always mentioned his wife and kids to fend off advances. Well, he supposed girls in Lynchburg could have daddy issues too. Also, he’d been wearing a bandanna to keep skin oil out of his helmet. Perhaps she mistook him for early forties when his salt and pepper hair with extra thin on top wasn’t visible. He smiled and put the receipt in his pocket.

  At the Vitamin Shop, he found the amino acid tablets. He’d known the manager there for years. She invited him to a party, but he’d already committed to Tiana for the next few days, so he begged off.

  At Kroger, he headed to the produce section and picked up the kale, then made his way to the bulk mushroom bin. He was shoveling the stalky fungus into a produce bag when a tap on his shoulder made him glance up, but he had to look higher. His gaze travelled past a pair of long, muscular legs to the smiling face of a girl in a Liberty Flames volleyball jersey. She was blonde, easily 6’4” and had a fresh-faced beauty only enhanced by a dusting of freckles across her nose.

  “Didn’t we meet at Rivermont Pizza when Firecracker Jam was playing on Thirsty Thursday?” she asked, smiling at him.

  Jonah kept his own smile in place as he looked up into her eyes, but found himself speechless. Was Allen Funt about to step out from behind the cut-flower display to announce that he was on Candid Camera? He almost snorted with laughter, but managed to keep control. “I am certain I would’ve remembered you, but I’m afraid I missed them that time. They are a great band though aren’t they?”

  “Mmmm,” she replied. “Is that your bike outside?”

  Jonah, nodded. He’d carried his helmet in on the mini-cart to, so it was an easy guess on her part.

  “Could I get a ride with you?”

  This was getting crazier. He snuck a peek at the flower display. Still no sign of Allen; besides, he was sure Allen had gone on to a funnier world a couple of decades ago. “Uhm, where do you need to go?”

  The girl stepped forward and ran her fingers down the front of his chest. “Wherever you’re going,” she said with quiet, smoky intensity.

  The sense that something strange was going on rescued him. “Well, I’m afraid that would be awkward, because I’m going to an appointment. Could I call you?” he said, hoping to get away gracefully.

  He left the store with her name—Candide—and number written on his hand after promising three times to call her. He didn’t trust himself to stay focused at expressway speeds after the last hour, so he took the direct route back to his house.

  When he reached home, he pulled into his driveway and grabbed the shopping bags out of his bike’s carryall cases. Tiana met him at the door, “Take your clothes off,” she ordered.

  “Not you too,” Jonah said, taking a startled step back.

  “Your body is transitioning earlier than I expected. I could smell you three blocks away. I need to monitor you directly for the next couple of hours. It’s not usually this intense, but now, every nearby pre-menopause human female with a working nose will want you in her bed.” She grabbed his arm and pulled him inside. “But what’s stranger is that you are putting out pheromones that aren’t normally produced by human males.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “What I mean is, I wouldn’t mind having a piece of you myself,” she grinned as she pulled him into the kitchen. “But I’ll try to keep it platonic between us.”

  “But why is it happening?”

  “I’m not sure yet. The first milk might have been more potent than I thought. Your body is a complex system too. It might be combining with your normal high testosterone to push your glands into high gear. Your aroma is potent for women anyway and you’re putting out twenty times the pheromones you usually do.” She untied his boots as he pulled his shirt over his head. “Did you get the post-it notes?”

  “Yes, of course I got the post-it notes. I even fended off Wonder Woman in the produce department to get the mushrooms.”

  “Good…. Sit.” She pushed his chest lightly.

  He plopped on the workout mat, and she pulled off his boots.

  “Drink,” she said, handing him a water bottle, and then returned to stripping him.

  He was still thirsty, overheating again. Something weird was going on after all but it was happening inside his body. When he finished the water, Tiana blew a warm breath like cinnamon and cloves into his face.

  He was suddenly very interested in the whole process of Tiana ‘directly monitoring him’.

  “We’ll plan later,” she said and ran her hand up his leg and around his rising erection, leaving a cascade of tingling sensations.

  “That sounds good,” he said, eyes widening.

  Tiana moved on top of him and sheathed him between her legs; Jonah gasped, breathing fast now. She rose and slid her inner shaft into him on the down stroke, and he wrapped his legs around her hips and moaned as she completed... plugging into him.

  ~~~{Tiana}~~~

  Tiana moved her filaments up Jonah’s spine. The procedure was much quicker this time. She took another sample of his blood, trying not to overdo it.

  Acta vila! He smelled good. After analyzing the sample, she relaxed. Jonah wasn’t in any danger; just speeding through the DNA update. His body adapted fast. Many of the repairs she’d started were continuing on their own as he slipped into growth mode. He’d probably grow an inch taller over the next few months, mostly from longer legs. Tiana tried to trace what was triggering the nii pheromones, but found no lead. It must have been the first milk. If she had reacted to Jonah’s powerful ‘potential’ and done somethin
g instinctively, the reason might surface later. Anyhow, it didn’t look like she could change it at present. It might fade. It wasn’t unbearable for her; she’d get used to it. Jonah’s social and work life would suffer though. She needed to get it under control.

  She had to stay in contact to monitor him….

  Might as well move to the next step… after lunch.

  Tiana explored his body for nourishment, savoring and subsuming by-products—all items he wouldn’t need or use. In passing, she erased the remaining tiny arthritic deposits in his fingers. Toxins trapped in fatty deposits were also fair game. She pulled six ounces of toxin-laden fat from his abdomen and converted it to her own energy storage.

  Satisfied, she stopped feeding and touched his cheek. “Jonah, I’ve determined you are not in danger, but I need you to hold still. I’m going to move my filaments through your nasal passages to your brain higher this time for the neural enhancements, and it would be helpful if you remain very still. Can you do that?”

  “As long as there’s no sudden pain,” Jonah said.

  “That shouldn’t be a problem,” Tiana said. She took his head between her hands and slid the tips of her thumbs into his nose, then tightened her hold to steady him and locked her grip. He’d only notice a light pressure, but she could stop any attempt to move. She slid her filaments up to the top of his nasal passages until they reached the olfactory epithelium.

  After mapping the area, she pushed them up behind the epithelium to the cribriform plate then turned, following the nerves up through the olfactory foramina. She kept going, avoiding nerve endings and sending most of her filaments to either side of the prefrontal cortex with a smaller group into the thalamus and hypothalamus.

  “You can relax now,” she said. “I’ve shut down the path that sends movement signals to your body, so you can’t do any damage with an involuntary movement. If this upsets you, I’ll know by your body’s reaction and I’ll pull out, but I’m analyzing your brain structures now, and interrupting would be inconvenient.”

  Jonah’s nervous system reflected a brief uptick in anxiety that soon settled back into a meditative state.

  “Okay, I appreciate your confidence in me,” she said with a chuckle.

  Tiana went back to work. The human brain was a fascinating place. She always discovered new knowledge or mysteries. The connections in the prefrontal cortex, with all its connections to the other parts of the brain, were a front-row seat to the whole performance.

  “Think about the last book you read,” she instructed. “Try to remember the cover or the first page and see it in your mind.” She sensed his memory pathways activate, and—there it was, a partially developed eidetic function. The signals fanned out to areas in the cerebrum. Tiana sent instruction packets—grow; process information this way; use these areas—out to work in the thalamus, prefrontal cortex and cerebrum. She watched to make sure they were working as intended, told Jonah to relax and went back to exploring.

  Associative areas in the cerebrum needed a better processing heuristic for math-related operations, so she set more packets in place. Then, reaching the limits for one session, she stepped back to plan the next. Before leaving, she released a packet in the corpus callosum and the anterior commissure, the connecting paths between the hemispheres. The packet held instructions to grow more axons for communication between spatial and logical tasks and conceptual creativity. She wondered whether Jonah would balk if he realized she’d told his brain to act more like a woman’s. No, he must know what his connective request would mean.

  As she disconnected her filaments from their contact points, she noted a low impulse coming from a node near her connections. The node appeared to be a simple mass of brain matter near the thalamus, but she’d never sensed anything like this from that area. When she focused on it, she sensed it doing… something, warming or tingling at the connect points and up the filaments themselves. She shrugged mentally and released the connecting points, the sensation faded.

  Tiana turned her attention back to Jonah’s body as it continued on its cascade back to youth. His body had stabilized to a more sedate regression. He was halfway through the change with no more worrisome anomalies. She released the block on his body movement and pulled out of the neural area, resealing the tiny gap in the epithelium behind her.

  ~~~Jonah (a few minutes ago)~~~

  “You can relax now,” Tiana said. “I’ve shut down the path that sends movement signals to your body, so you can’t do any damage with an involuntary movement. I’ll know if this upsets you by your body’s reaction and I’ll pull out, but I’ve started analyzing your brain structures, and interrupting would be inconvenient.”

  Jonah squirmed mentally, struggling with the sudden helplessness.

  At least you don’t have to fight not to move anymore. Why don’t you try to relax?

  It couldn’t be too hard; the pleasure had not stopped. Tiana still held him tightly inside her, squeezing him in rippling waves.

  The dominant/submissive dynamics that seemed so much the rage everywhere left him cold. He sensed nothing domineering from her. Tiana was doing what they’d agreed on the best way she knew. The sensations were just a side-benefit for him. Freed from the need for active participation, he opened himself to the experience and attempted dividing his attention between what he sensed her doing in his head and what was happening between his legs.

  Just enjoy it; let them both happen.

  Tiana interrupted his thoughts. “Think about the last book you read,” she instructed. “Remember the cover or the first page…. Try to see it in your mind.”

  'The Name of the Wind' came to his mind, and he focused on the cover art—Kvothe in the tunnel with his lute strung over his shoulder

  ...as if, he would have gone in there without putting it in its case.

  The green man carving on the wall howled up a storm, and wind blew the leaves and Kvothe’s tattered shirt…. He clutched a book in his right hand. The image came clearer until Jonah could count the leaves and even critique aspects of the cover he’d not noticed when looking before. The artist was clearly better with leaves than people.

  “Okay, that’s fine,” Tiana said. “You can relax again.”

  Suggestion or request?

  Jonah slipped back into meditation. He let stillness fill him as he moved toward his soul center, a quiet place to view his thoughts and emotions without allowing them control.

  Something was different; as though he wasn’t alone here. Jonah followed that sense, groping. He glimpsed flickering images and tried to use what he’d just learned about memory to pull them into focus. Bit by bit, the images became clearer, and he was remembering… looking into a chocolate and cherry striped face. It was like Tiana’s, but held differences; less human in appearance: narrower nose, thinner lips. The image itself was odd, holding color shades that matched nothing in his experience. Double focus points brought separate parts of the image clear—a muscled and striped male chest, hands reaching up to touch breasts—a faraway sailboat on an indigo sea. Both parts of the image were sharp.

  Tiana’s memory?

  Fire spread through her as dark hands stroked her nipples and filaments dove into her skin. Pleasure swept through her body, rising ever higher—the angle of the shaft hitting her sweet spot again and again….

  Jonah fell out of the memory to find himself on the kitchen floor. Tiana was on top of him, and he could move. He grasped her hips and drove himself into her at the angle he recalled so clearly.

  A jolt went through him; the remaining connections still between them fed her pleasure back to him. He drove in again, her sensations overlapping and weaving together with his.

  When he came, the feedback from her sensations sucked him along with her….

  ~~~Tiana (a few minutes ago)~~~

  Tiana removed her thumbs from Jonah’s nose. His hands grasped her hips and pulled her to him. His pelvic bone ground against her bagua, pushing her mons apart and moving him deeper ins
ide her. The tip of his penis brushed the nerve center of her bagua at the angle needed to stimulate it making her hiss with pleasure. Heat shot through her loins.

  His delicious aroma filled her head and, instinctively, she pushed against him to increase the contact. Her heart raced.

  Acta Vila!

  How long since she’d felt that? How was he doing it? At twenty-one centimeters, his penis just reached her erogenous nexus and the approach it required was unusual for a human. But that didn’t stop him from hitting it squarely with every twisting, grinding thrust, and his girth painted pleasure across her nerve center with a large brush.

  Desire and doubt warred within her. Was this wrong? As many times as she’d connected to Edward, or any symbiont partners in the past, it had never been like having SEX with them.

  He isn’t even nii!

  With a burning mix of horror and need holding her captive, a climax took her, climbing through the seven hills of pleasure to the glorious mountain of light.

  When Jonah pulled her nipples into his mouth, a draw both demanding and giving, her milk spurted out, and she screamed a wordless paean that went on, on and on…

  His ejaculate worked past her shaft to bathe her nexus, and the sensitized receptors there subsumed it greedily, creating blazing sparks that crashed across her pleasure/pain threshold.

  Sensation climbed to a height she’d never imagined, and she fell into oblivion.

  ~~~{}~~~

  The rooster crowing across the street woke them. They startled and looked into each other’s eyes.

  “I dreamed I was you,” they whispered together.

  Chapter 6 (Plans)

  Jonah stepped away from the computer and stretched, arching his back and rolling his shoulders. He lifted the towel from the computer stand and wiped his face. It was ninety degrees in the attic ‘war room’. The heat didn’t bother Tiana. She was tracing the decision trees they’d drawn on one of the whiteboard walls and making notes on her new tablet computer. Her slender form flowed like liquid as she moved across the room. He took another drink from his water bottle and rolled the cold cylinder up and down his arms, grateful there was at least a cross-breeze and the ventilation fan was working.