Fantasy Journey to Year 1,000,000,000

"Score one for expra," said Taylor.

Pam rapidly appraised him with a practiced stare. "You have not crossed over yet. But you will," said Pam.

"Yeah, about that, I was wondering if we could find a quiet place to talk-"

"We will," Pam promised. "But first, I have a new class of initiates to welcome. But I have arranged for you to be well cared for. Pam!"

Taylor looked confused, until he found himself spun about and Pam, a mirror image of Pam, kissed him. As she pulled back and smiled at him, Taylor realized that this was Pam, the original Pam!

"My dear Michael, it's so good to see you again," she said, smiling broadly.

"And you," said Taylor, not sure what else to say during this incredibly awkward moment.

"You and Doug are acquainted, are you not?"

Doug. Her fiancée. Her fiancée, whose form had been copied by the hostile alien 1012 from the future who had briefly killed Taylor.

Doug extended a hand. "We met at the bioanthropology conference about a year ago. We talked about space artifacts, I think."

"That's right, I remember," said Taylor, lying. Truthfully, Doug had made so little impression on him that he barely remembered meeting him. But he shook his hand.

Pam, future Pam, addressed her original. "Pam, I have to welcome a new class of initiates. Can you and Doug see to Michael's needs?"

"We'd be delighted," said the original Pam, giving Taylor a sly smile.

Pam, the original Pam, fed him lunch as they sat on the floor on overstuffed pillows.

Taylor felt distinctly uncomfortable as she flirted with him and fed him finger sandwiches and grapes while Doug sat on the other side of her, grinning like a fool. Taylor had always wanted to win his competition with Doug for Pam's affections, but not like this.

"We have been so happy since we joined Us," said Pam. "Open wide, Michael."

Taylor obediently complied, and she smiled as she gently put a small bite sized morsel in his mouth.

"Now chew, Michael. And swallow."

Taylor swallowed.

There was definitely something sexual about all of this.

Taylor talked as he ate. "So... you don't mind a woman who looks exactly like you being a sex icon for every man on the planet?"

Pam shrugged. "Well, when you put it like that, sure. At least at first. But then I realized what a tremendous honor it is. A woman who looks exactly like me is bringing happiness to the entire planet."

"Or at least half the entire planet," Doug said.

Pam laughed.

Pam wouldn't laugh at that.

"In a small way, a very small way, I am contributing to bringing the world together in global Formos," said Pam.

"Well, I know how important Formos is to you," said Taylor.

"It is now," said Pam sternly.

This one, at least, still recognizes sarcasm when she hears it.

"Now that we have this chance to visit together, I want to thank you, Michael," said Doug.

"Thank me for what?" said Taylor, eating another finger sandwich which Pam put in his mouth. She smiled as he chewed.

"For preparing Pam for me," said Doug.

"Preparing?"

"Your relationship with her paved the way for my own. It made her realize that she wanted me," Doug grinned. "And for a time, you made her very satisfied. I can't thank you enough for that."

"Oh... it was my pleasure, Doug," said Taylor. He felt incredibly awkward, and unsure what to say. "What is Pam up to? My Pam, that is," he added hastily.

"There is no your Pam here, Michael," said Pam sternly. Her hand started to roam up his arm.

"You know what I mean," said Taylor, very much aware that her fiancée (former fiancée?) was mere inches away.

"You know what Pam is up to, Michael," said Pam, moving her face closer to his. Her roving hand moved down, to his leg now.

"She said she was welcoming a new class of-"

"She's fucking them, Michael," said Pam bluntly, staring him in the eye. "You know that." In every way she looked just like the other Pam. They were, after all, identical.

"I feel your unease," said Pam, and now her hand was working on his thigh, moving inwards. Her lips moved over his own, and traced them. "Let me comfort you. Let me ease your pain."

She pressed her lips against his.

And Taylor... Taylor just let it happen.

She felt exactly like Pam, his Pam, and yet she didn't. There was a certain spontaneity, a slight asymmetry of effort, the tiniest imperfection that separated the two--not good, not bad, simply different. He kissed her back. They embraced for a while.

And then Taylor felt hands starting to undress him. "No, Pam," he said.

"It's all right, Michael," said Pam, working on his pants. "Doug, tell him."

Taylor looked at Doug with an expression of chagrin.

"Not to worry, my friend. You're in excellent hands," said Doug, with an almost alien detachment in his eyes.

Doug didn't just watch, he actually helped; he undressed Pam while she undressed him. Taylor felt like he was living in the most surreal kind of fantasy scenario. Even in his wildest dreams he never imagined having sex with the original Pam, while her fiancée not only looked on approvingly, but helped make it happen!

Pam pressed her naked body against his. "We have learned to cast jealousy aside, Michael," she said. She grinned as she felt him getting hard. "It excites you, doesn't it? To have Doug watching us?"

Taylor said nothing, but Pam stroked his stiffening shaft with her hand and grinned knowingly. She kissed him and fondled him and touched him and finally whispered in his ear, "Take me, Michael. Take me, for old time's sake."

And then she rolled over so that she was on the bottom, and he was on top. She was purposefully requiring him to take the next step.

Taylor looked down at her. She was so beautiful. He felt a burning need to take her. But then he looked up at Doug, still fully clothed, Doug, who was just sitting there holding one of Pam's hands, and grinning ear to ear. "Go on, Michael," said Doug. "Please. Do it for me."

Taylor frowned.

"For us, Michael," said Pam, looking up at him. "Do it for Us."

Taylor's mind was a swirl of confusion. He didn't know if this was right.

But rightness no longer entered the equation. Her large, warm breasts were pressed against his. Her green eyes were full of mischief and delight. Her blonde hair so perfectly framed her sexy face. His shaft was highly aroused, rubbing against the wonderful roughness of her achingly familiar blonde-brown pubic triangle. Pam lifted her knees, and spread them, and Taylor took one look at her thick, glistening, labial lips, and knew he had to have her.

He had lost.

He aimed himself and plunged into her, and started thrusting. He leaned forward so he could feel the softness of her breasts as he took her.

"Oooh, oh, oh, Michael," said Pam. For a moment it reminded him of old times, when he and original Pam had been a couple.

But now there was something distinctly different, an added element, an alien one.

"Ooooh," said Doug, his face contorted. "I can feel him inside you. You enjoy it so much."

"Yes, Doug, I do," Pam whispered.

"Michael, Michael, give it to her. Give her to her harder," Doug implored her.

Taylor's eyes widened. He was disturbed and aroused, all at the same time. He looked down at Pam, and tried to just concentrate on her.

"Yes, Michael," Pam whispered. "Harder. Do it for Doug. Do it for Us."

Taylor, feeling very conflicted, started to thrust harder. He knew that people could sense each other's emotions, but he never considered the sexual implications of it, until now. As Pam started to moan more frequently, so did Doug. They both began to speak at the exact same time: "Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah," like a chorus of a tenor and a baritone.

But it was still Pam underneath him, the original flesh and blood Pam he had fallen in love with, and it was the inner walls of her vagina which was rubbing the head of his penis, stimulating it, giving him that tingling sensation, causing a buildup, making him reach a peak that he couldn't climb back down from.... And then it happened.

He erupted, pulsing strongly inside her.

"Aaaaah!" said Pam, with a satisfied smile. A few seconds later, Doug gasped as well.

"That was so good," said Pam, playing with his hair.

Taylor was lying with Pam. He sensed that he must have dozed off. As he opened his eyes, he saw Doug, lying nearby. Taylor found he had shed much of his inhibitions. He felt no shame in lying naked with his former girlfriend and being fondled by her while her fiancée sat right next to her. But he still couldn't look Doug in the eye.

"Wasn't it great?" Pam asked Doug.

"One of the best," said Doug, grinning from ear to ear. "I can see why Pam valued you so highly, Michael."

Taylor looked away. Doug was so happy to be cuckolded. It made him feel uncomfortable. What had he walked into?

"Awww, are you still shy?" Pam asked, playing with his flaccid shaft."Well, don't worry. Once you fully achieve Formos and become one of Us, you won't be shy for long."

"When will I see Pam?"

"Right now," said future Pam, appearing in front of him. So she had been monitoring him.

Taylor was immediately embarrassed. Even though he knew full well what Pam had been doing, must have been doing... to let Pam catch him here with another woman, with the original Pam... he looked up at her with fear and shame in his eyes.

She leaned down and kissed him. "Relax, my love. There's no need to feel any of that here." She pulled him up gracefully by the hand, and they stood face to face, he fully nude, and she still clothed. "Michael, you taught me how to feel love. Please permit me to teach you how to shed jealousy and shame."

Michael made himself look into her green eyes. She was so beautiful. He reluctantly nodded.

"Excellent!" she said, kissing him rapidly. "And now, are you ready for dinner?"

"Dinner?" said Taylor. "We just ate."

"Michael, that was nearly three hours ago."

Three hours?

Taylor looked down at the original Pam, who nodded.

"You've been a busy boy," future Pam grinned.

They ate on overstuffed pillows. Food simply... appeared. No one questioned the manner of it.

"-chapters all over the globe," Future Pam was saying. It was funny, seeing original Pam sitting right next to Future Pam. Taylor had never expected to see the two of them together, and he certainly never expected original Pam to like future Pam. But original Pam was just sitting there, smiling smugly, as future Pam went on and on about her global plans to bring Formos and Tisson Crae to the Earth.

"Tisson Crae?" said Taylor. "But human beings can't even screan, much less expra."

"It's a first step," said future Pam. "First they will achieve Formos."

"Formos?" said Taylor. "But in your time, you achieved Formos by physically merging with... the others. We can't do that here."

"Not yet," said Pam. "You can only make emotional contact with one person at a time. But by being emotionally aware of the feelings of others around you, and trying to satisfy them and be in harmony with them, you are still achieving a rudimentary form of Formos. And with Formos comes the very tentative beginnings of Tisson Crae."

Taylor looked skeptical.

Future Pam turned to original Pam. "Pam, tell her."

"Michael, I was prepared to live the rest of my life with Doug. I would have been happy, even," said Pam, smiling at him. "But there is a whole wider world out there. When I became sensitive to the feelings of others, I felt it. Michael, do you know that when men look at me, they consider me more beautiful than any other women they have ever seen?"

"Yes, I knew that," said Taylor, with indignation in his voice.

"Well, I didn't," said original Pam. "I thought I was pretty, of course, but didn't realize I was having that kind of effect on men. I made them feel need, Michael. Do you know what it's like to feel in need?"

Taylor did.

"It wasn't fair, Michael. I have this super sexy body, and the mere appearance of it frustrates males all around me. I couldn't cope with all their feelings of unfulfillment."

Taylor frowned. "What do you mean, you couldn't cope with their feelings of unfulfillment?"

"I've been satisfying them. One man at a time," said Pam proudly. Her smile grew broader as the realization of the meaning of her words moved across Taylor's face.

"You mean you-"

"Yes, Michael."

Taylor pointed at Doug. "And you agreed to this?"

"Of course I support her!" said Doug.

"And this makes you both-"

"Very satisfied, to tend to the needs of others, to build Formos." It was future Pam who spoke. "Of course it does. It's a new way of thinking, Michael, but you'll get used to it."

"Pam... you changed everyone, but... why didn't you change me?" Taylor asked.

Future Pam looked into his eyes. "You're what you might call the control in this experiment, Michael. You're the basis of comparison, the original unconverted example of humanity. At least, until you decide to join Us."

Taylor felt a chill go down his spine. He felt all the eyes on him. "Pam, is there a place where we can talk?"

"We are talking, Michael," said future Pam pleasantly.

"In private," said Taylor.

"I'd love nothing more, Michael, but...." said Pam, getting up.

Taylor looked at her in alarm. "You're leaving, again?"

"I have another class of initiates to welcome tonight."

Taylor stood up. "Pam, I really want to talk to you."

She kissed him on the cheek. "I know, my love. Tonight. After the ceremony. I promise." She looked past him, and beckoned with her head. "In the meantime, I'm going to leave you in the best hands possible."

Original Pam again?

He looked behind her, and his eyes widened.

No. Not her. It couldn't be!

"Hello again, Captain Taylor. Do you remember us?"

Taylor's eyes went wide as he saw Maureen and Kelly Hale. Jennifer's mother and younger sister. Taylor remembered only too well the tongue lashing that Maureen Hale had given him, blaming him for the death of her daughter. She had had to be dragged out of the remembrance, kicking and screaming.

"I think Captain Taylor remembers us quite well, Mother," said Kelly Hale, giving a shit-eating grin. Her face looked a lot like Jennifer. And her round melons... she was almost an exact copy of her sexy sister, except her hair was a bit longer, and her shoulders were narrower.

"I'll see you later, my love," said Pam. And before Taylor could protest, she vanished.

Taylor looked at Maureen and Kelly Hale.

"There's nothing to fear, Michael," said Kelly softly. "We have cast aside all our negative feelings. Haven't we, Mother?"

"Oh yes," said Maureen Hale, smiling at Taylor with obvious designs on him. "We really have."

They took Taylor to a private room filled with overstuffed pillows, where his misgivings only mounted.

"You must forgive us, Captain Taylor," said Maureen, as she ran a hand along his chest. "My anger with you was most unsociable."

"Most unFormos," Kelly added.

"Yes," said Maureen. "I did not fully kockk what a brave and excellent astronaut you were, nor the depths of your despair when you were forced to make love to my darling Jennifer. You loved her, just as we did, and were devastated when she was lost."

"Pam told you about that?"

"Oh yes," said Kelly, opening his shirt. "Pam told us everything."

"Ladies... I'm not sure this is such a good idea," said Taylor, as both Maureen and his mother slid hands into his now open shirt.

"But we are," said Maureen. "That's the wonderful thing about Formos. It drives all doubt away. Your function, your only function is to promote harmony in the group and to see to the needs of others."

"The needs of others," Taylor repeated, as he felt Kelly's hands reach for his pants. He tried to grab her hands, but Maureen grabbed his own first.

"Let it happen, Michael," she said. "Just let it happen."

Just let it happen.

Taylor never thought he would hear those words again; certainly not from Jennifer's own mother, as Jennifer's younger sister was trying to fuck him.

But to his intense shame, he let it happen.

Kelly Hale looked so much like Jennifer, even more so when she was nude.

She had almost the same face. When she smiled at him as she was stripping him it was as if Jennifer were smiling at him. Her breasts were the exact same round melons that Jennifer had, down to the huge areolas that were blood red. Her waist was equally slim, and the neat dark triangle between her legs, and the subject of Taylor's mounting desire, looked almost the same, except it wasn't shaved on the sides like Jennifer's was. Only her hair on her head was a little different, a little longer and more wavier than Jennifer's, which had been straighter.

Kelly smiled as Taylor acquiesced and the last of his clothes came off. Meanwhile her mother had helped Kelly quickly remove her own clothes. She sat by their side as Kelly started to make love to him. Kelly pressed her nude body against his. Taylor felt almost embarrassed as he got an erection as Kelly ground her furry pubis against his rapidly stiffening organ. But Kelly's smile became even broader. She kissed Taylor, and he responded.

In the back of his mind Taylor wondered what was really going on here. First future Pam had put him in original Pam's hands, and now Maureen and Kelly Hale's, while future Pam went off to have sex with a bunch of guys. She was trying to seduce him into Us. To ease him into it. He could hardly protest that Pam was sleeping with others, if he was doing it himself.

Her plan was perfect. Pam had chosen women he could not possibly resist.

Kelly smiled as he started to kiss her back. Taylor felt tremendous sexual desire. He had never really gotten a chance to have Jennifer, not the way he had wanted to. By the time he had gotten the opportunity to have intercourse with her, she had already become part of the United, and had become cold and distant and alien.

But now he was having another chance. This, in front of him, was a human being, one who looked almost exactly like Jennifer. Taylor felt Kelly's firm, juicy ripe melons, and thought of Jennifer; he saw her dark haired, smiling face, and thought of Jennifer again. And then he felt her rough pubis grinding against his.

Jennifer, Jennifer, Jennifer!

Kelly reached down between her legs and touched Taylor's penis, smiling at him as she idly touched the lines of it for a moment, and relished her power over him, his helplessness to his own needs. And then Kelly rolled him over so that she was on top, and she mounted Taylor. Taylor found himself gifted with a magnificent view as Kelly Hale raised herself up in a most ladylike manner and, looking intensely interested, carefully worked the tip of his shaft inside of her. He watched with satisfaction as he slid smoothly and easily between her moist pussy lips. And then Kelly started to ride up and down on his shaft. She was so soft inside, so soft and wet and-

"Ahhhh! He feels so good."

Taylor was startled. It wasn't Kelly who had spoken.

It was her mother, Maureen.

Maureen smiled at Taylor, with lust in her eyes. "I can feel it, Michael. I can feel the way you fill my daughter so completely. Yes, yesssss," she hissed.

Taylor found the way the older woman stared at him very disconcerting. He trained his attention on Kelly, who was also smiling at him.

"Mother is right. You do feel so good inside, Michael," she smiled as she moved up and down on his shaft. "You're making me very happy. You're making both of us very happy," she said, and there was something in her smile and her tone which aroused and disturbed him, all at the same time.

Kelly moved up and down, up and down, with her long dark hair and easy smile and her flopping breasts. But she moved in a slow, almost leisurely way, savoring the moment. Every moment. Taylor was not going to reach his peak this way, and neither was she. He stared at her with a puzzled expression, and she smiled back at him. He was about to say something, when suddenly, the room changed.

They were in the main hall of the former church of the Equalitarians.

Pam was there, standing in front of the room, without a stitch of clothing.

And so were forty or more men, all of them nude.

"I want to welcome all of you to Us," she said, surveying the crowd. And as she said the word all, she made eye contact with Taylor, ever so briefly, and she smiled.

Taylor was still flat on his back; and Kelly was still atop him, moving up and down on his shaft.

"You are about to take a much bigger step into a larger world. You will all join with Us, and become part of Formos. Millions of you have already joined us, and every day millions more are added. Soon everyone will be part of Us, building the harmony of Formos and the beauty and perfection of Tisson Crae. Are you ready to begin?"

The men roared "Yes!" as one.

And then it began.

Suddenly, where there had been one Pam, there were now at least forty; and each one was paired with one of the men.

Each Pam lay one of the men down on the ground. Slowly, each one positioned themselves above each man's shaft, and then each Pam slowly impaled herself on it.

Taylor watched in horror as Pam started to have sex with forty men. He was about to say something when suddenly Kelly, as if by some prearranged signal, speeded up. Taylor's penis started to harden with urgent need. He looked up at her. Her Jennifer-like round melons were bouncing up and down. Her face was a mask of pleasure and joy. She gave little gasps as she repeatedly and violently impaled herself, causing him to go deeper inside of her . "Ah... ah... ah... ah... ah... ah....." To the side, Taylor could hear Kelly's mother Maureen moaning as she fondled her own breasts with one hand, and with the other shamelessly rubbed inside her pants. Maureen was feeling each impalement as if it were happening to her own body, and as she looked down at Taylor, her face was the same mask of pleasure as her daughter's.

Taylor felt anxiety and sexual excitement, unhappiness and tremendous arousal; they coiled together like two snakes wrapped around each other, one hot, and one cold. To his immense shame he felt himself closing in on an orgasm. In some ways, what Pam was doing to him was worse than anything the Ascended or the United had ever attempted.

He turned to look at the Pams having sex with all those men. Her breasts, which were longer, more teardrop shaped than Kelly's, were bouncing up and down; her faces were masks of concentration; her powerful thighs were moving up and down, as she worked the men into her; and her beautiful well rounded ass cheeks glistened with perspiration as each of her performed sexual congress on each one of the men.

Taylor felt himself reaching an edge of a cliff. He wanted to stop himself from going over it. He didn't want to be a part of it. He tried to tell Kelly to stop, but at that moment one of the Pams turned and smiled at him, even as she fucked a complete stranger. Taylor was so transfixed by that smile, that even as he stared at it he felt himself climaxing, crying out as he released inside of Kelly, his swollen balls emptying their contents of milky thick cream into her as his body strained with painful pleasure; and as he did so, he heard "Brilliant, Michael!" in his head, and the Pam who had been staring at him actually winked before turning back to her client.

"Oh, that was good... so very good." But it was not Kelly who was speaking; it was Maureen Hale, her mother. "Thank you for honoring Kelly in this way, Michael," said Maureen. "I really appreciate it."

"We both do," Kelly grinned at him. And then Kelly smiled down at Taylor, still breathing heavily from her athletic exertion, her body covered in a thin sheen of sweat. "Now we see what Jennifer saw in Michael, don't we, Mother?"

It was all too much for Taylor. He watched as each Pam uniformly moved up and down at the same time as the next one in the same row, like a highly disciplined army of fuck soldiers. He watched as each Pam rode each man to an earth shattering climax, filling each one of her with their seed. And then he watched as each Pam rode each man gently down from their orgasm, moving slower and slower, giving each man that patented sly grin of hers. Taylor listened as each man groaned mightily, as they filled each Pam with their essence; and he watched as Pam after Pam casually wiped her sweaty blonde hair out of the way, her breasts bouncing up and down, as she milked every last drop of sperm from their balls. And then Taylor looked up, and saw Kelly, and Kelly's mother, smiling avariciously at him.

No!

No, no, NO!

Taylor pushed a surprised looking Kelly off of him, jumped up, still completely naked, and then ran off, screaming into the night.

It was morning.

Taylor, now clothed again, sat on the beach, watching the sunrise. He had been unable to sleep. The image of Pam having sex with all those men was burned into his mind. There were other people on the beach, also in a dazed state, but Taylor's daze was more contemplative, more specific. So he liked to tell himself.

He listened to the roar of the surf, and the awking of the seagulls. And then he heard the voice behind him.

"It did not work."

"But you expected it to, didn't you?" said Taylor, not looking back.

"Yes."

"You expra-ed it. You expra-ed it so much, down to the point of knowing exactly when I would show up at the church, and what I would do, didn't you?"

"Yes."

"But things didn't go exactly as planned, did it?"

"No."

And now she was in front of him, sitting down on the sand. "Tell me, Taylor. What did I do wrong? I purposefully left you unchanged, as a safeguard, in case I did not fully expra my vespering. Where did I go wrong?"

He thought he would hate her. He thought he would never want to talk to her again.

But it was Pam. That face. That body. She was so beautiful. She was always so beautiful. Suddenly, the image of Pam fucking forty men was pushed out of his mind, and along with it his revulsion. All that was left was... love.

Taylor looked at her and sighed. "Where you went wrong is that people are not planets. They cannot be vespered like nebulas. You cannot always expra them like solar systems."

"But why?"

Taylor looked at her face. "I know what you were trying to do. Your intentions were good. Really, they were. You wanted to save humanity. To save the galaxy. You get three gold stars for that."

"Only three?" said Pam, and Taylor couldn't help but smile.

"But Pam, you were too ambitious. What you became took hundreds of millions of years of evolution. You were trying to make that happen overnight."

"I was not. The Formos that your people are achieving right now is only a fraction of the Formos my people have."

"It is still too much too quickly. We are a race of individuals. We survive and improve ourselves through competition. Competition in economics, and politics, and science... and even love."

Taylor reached out and touched her cheek and she smiled.

"When you take all that away, when you make everyone care more about each other's feelings than themselves, you may take a step towards Formos. But you also cause society to collapse from within. Just look around you. What do you see?"

Pam looked around at the people sitting in contemplation. "I see people, trying to expand their-"

"I see rotting cabbages," Taylor interrupted. "These people cannot expra. They cannot screan, or trista, or Shursta. They cannot even kockk. Oh, they may think they can kockk, but they really can't. They're kockkless wonders." He gave a dry chuckle.

"Is this from the world's authority on kockk?" Pam asked, leaning close to him.

"It is," he said, and despite the memory of all she had done and all those she had done it with, he reached up and kissed her on the lips. He would always remember the ocean breeze on his face, and the awk awking of the seagulls above him, as he pressed his lips together with Pam at that moment.

When he pulled back, he said, "Was I as good as any of the five thousand men you've been with?"

Pam thought a moment. "You were better than two thousand and twenty four of them."

"And how many men have you been with?"

"Two thousand and twenty five," said Pam definitively.

Taylor felt a tightening and a tingling in his chest and man nipples, and an odd surge of pride. "Pam, people are just not ready for this. They may never be ready for this. You can say you are bringing them to Formos, but it is totally superficial. In the meantime, you destroy what they truly are. Our society has ground to a halt. Can't you see that?"

"But they love and care for each other."

"But at what price? Someone--the other Pam, I think--told me that love is additive. It isn't. It's subtractive. When I see another man giving you sexual pleasure, it weakens our relationship. What does it mean when two people are in love? The foundation of a relationship, of any relationship, is that you get the highest form of pleasure from the person you're with."

"When someone else gives you sexual pleasure, when you get the highest form of pleasure from someone else, it calls into question the nature of the love between those two people. If I'm not the one giving you the highest form of pleasure, then maybe you're more in love with the person who does. And that degrades and ultimately destroys the special bond of love between us. Being in love means setting priorities and making choices. When you're with someone else, you're not with me. You have to make a choice when you're in love. And the choice can't be everyone."

"It is not logical," said Pam. "One should be able to-"

"It may not be logical. But it is human nature," said Taylor. "When I saw you with those men, when I saw the pleasure etched on your face as you fucked them blind, I wanted to mur*er each and every last of them with my bare hands."

"And now?" Pam asked, looking straight at him.

Taylor looked away.

Pam turned to the sea and stared for a while, a long while. Taylor was afraid that she didn't understand. Or maybe that wasn't the right word. Pam understood what he was saying, she just didn't believe it.

A small eternity passed while a gentle wind blew her blonde hair this way and that. And then, finally, she turned back to him.

"I kockk," she said softly.

Taylor looked at her. "What are you going to do?"

"It is done."

Taylor looked around abruptly. People were suddenly standing up, brushing the sand off their legs. They started walking back to their air cars.

"Everyone... is back to the way they were?"

Pam nodded. "Well, everyone except you, of course," she said. "You were upgraded by the United. I was not responsible for that."

Taylor nodded. "Will they... remember what happened?"

"Of course."

"Will it affect them?"

Pam shrugged. "I have learned not to over expra, especially when it comes to human behavior."

Taylor thought he almost saw a hint of a smile.

Taylor wondered what would happen once they all lost their extra empathy. Would Maureen Hale be horrified that she had willingly helped her youngest daughter fuck the man she hated the most?

Probably.

Would Elizabeth feel totally humiliated to have let herself be so thoroughly used by so many men?

Very Probably!

Would she revert to her prior, sexually repressed state once again, or seek something in between, a healthy, mature sex life?

Unknown.

And what about Pam, the original Pam? Would she still think it quite as flattering that a copy of herself had twisted the entire planet in a distinctly orgasmic way? Would she still be quite so pleased that Doug had willingly encouraged her to have sex with other men? If Taylor was an accurate reader of his Pams, he would guess the answer would be a resounding no.​