Day 46

The day started in a typical fashion. I woke up next to my neighbour's stupid-looking dog again. The digital clock on the wall read 25:01. Weird, but I don't care, my mind is still occupied by the naked lady I saw last night. I have seen my fair share of naked bodies but she's of a different breed. Back on Earth, I might have preferred the stupid-looking dog, or the digital clock; here... she's a commodity.

The phone rang, I answered it and I was shocked to see her on the screen! Even though we did not say so, I thought last night would be the first and the last time as that was the unwritten rule between the so-called Type E and Type U. "What is this?!" I said, "Are you trying to get us killed?" She ignored my question and went on to ask me anxiously, "What time is it now?" I could have explained to her what she saw on my clock was normal in an environment distorted by us energy gatherers but that might get me into trouble with the Committee. I glanced at the clock any way and shouted, "Oh! Shit! Time dilation!"

The time is 3407 A.D., lots of Earth like habitable planets have been discovered; interplanetary communication and time travel is very common at that time.However, the availabilities of energy and men had not improved at all and they were actually causing more and more conflicts. I had no doubt the Time Gathers were sabotaging the energy labs ... again.

Due to the energy crisis caused by the black hole in 26th century, since then energy is being rationed by the Universal Energy Committee; at some point the Free Trade Advocates started teaming up with the Time Gathers to either steal energy or damage the energy labs. VSIP, or Virtual Sex Induced Power, seemed to be the only hope and whether I liked it or not, I was deemed to be good at it.

The time dilation effect fell so suddenly that the dorm room seemingly morphed into my old living room and the image on the phone screen morphed into a real person... my beloved wife, Uphori, ... who had died ten years ago. She asked me, 'Honey, do you miss me?' 'Wait a minute!' I knew why this flashback felt so unnatural: Uphori had never called me 'Honey.'

"Honey, do you miss me?", "Honey, do you love me?", "Honey, I need you!", "Honey, come feel me!" Presently, Uphori2, Uphori3, Uphori4 ... loads of Uphoris materialized right in front of me...

Suddenly all Uphoris disappeared and the lady on the phone said, "Looks like there is some impurity in the power we generated last night so your FlashBack Reality Machine choked."

"She's gotta be playing some sort of tricks and she's just trying to cover it up" I was not sure if she was sent by the Committee or the Gathers but in any case the only thing I could do was to unplug and run, real fast. Packing the essentials, meanwhile cursing myself, I started to replay, in my mind, what I had done the night before. After an extravagant seafood dinner at the Bay, I came home feeling lonely. That was the perfect mood for Virtual Sex so I brewed my special pot of tea and waited for a "Type U", i.e. undressed inducer. I often wondered if I was the only Energy Gatherer on the planet who did this -- very unlikely also very illegal -- but I started up the MC2 Synthesizer at the exact time of her arrival in order to slow time down.

The clock keeps ticking, but my energy supply for MC2 is running low, I could only last for another 30 minutes or so. I was not worried though since the longer for the "herb" in my tea to take effect, the better my imagination would be, and this Type U indeed had the best body and look ever. "Honey... My... name... is... Estasia." She introduced herself in a slow, lazy tempo that was the natural effect inside a slower time bubble. Estasia had a wonderful body, pretty face with big boobs, she faced me on her side, covering her big breasts with her hands. She slowly wrapped her hands, I mean my hands, around my neck tighter and tighter until I couldn't breathe and I reached climax at that very moment.

I would be forgetting this when I finally woke up, but in my subconscious mind, I met Uphori and we made love, and we made love again, until even my subconscious mind fell unconscious. Somehow, I feel like this is not the first time I had this dream, seems like I have a similar dream everytime after I have virtual sex with Estasia. Anyway, I panicked now that I realized she was real, not just my imagination, since virtual sex with a real person was punishable by death per the Committee. But that had to be just a figment of my imagination, no doubt heightened by the herbs. Sexual pleasure was the by-product, the main thing for this exercise is to gather enough energy for time travel to go back in time and meet Uphori. At my current level I could only go back to 3398, one year after Uphori died but I decided to go anyway.

But then I didn't go yet ... or did I?

"Hello... what are you thinking? What time is it?" Estasia asked. I was not quite sure but I was supposed to travel to July 29th, 3398, coincidentally the day the Free Trade Advocates made its shocking announcement.

I snapped back to reality and heard voices and noise outside. "It is 25:01, I have guests coming, let's chat some other time." I just wanted to brush her off and run.

It turned out I did not need to run since protesters angered by FTA's decision to oust the charismatic leader Joy-Augusto had already hogged up all bandwidth everywhere.

"Listen to me, Honey," Estasia said with a sinister grin on her virtual face, "You have nowhere to turn to except to become one of us." I ignored her and went on to gather my energy capsules and other essential items that I required for the trip.