The World of Tomorrow

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Aleph Null
Joined
Jan 15, 2002
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4,372
~ This thread is closed for Zydrate and myself ~

Sometimes things don't go as planned. Sometimes, things go so horribly wrong that it's hard to see there was a plan at all. Such was the situation for one young woman, who found herself ripped from her time and propelled forward.

She would arrive in what at first glance would seem to be a Utopia, and for everyone that lived there it was. But when she arrived, she caused a bit of a stir. The commotion was because nobody could tell who she was. Everyone had an access node implanted into their heads to give them the ability to link with a central databank of information, finding out any sort of thing they could ask for, like directions to a place they have never been, where a friend or lover was at that given moment, or in this case, a person's name. She was an unknown. Unheard of in their society.

That was where Casses came in. He was dispatched as a liaison to assess her situation and help her join society as she should have long before. Of course nobody knew that she wasn't from their time. At least, not yet.

Casses stood 6 foot 5 inches, with short, wavy brown hair, a well manicured goatee, broad shoulders and a muscular chest. Sadly, he wasn't in the immediate area when she was discovered however, and it would take him a day to reach her. He hoped that she wouldn't do anything rash.
 
Ever get that feeling some one was watching you sleep?

The feeling that a hundred pair of eyes are on you when you're at your most vunerable moment?

Ever get that feeling you were just fucked and didn't even have to open your eyes to know it?!

That's how Kari felt. She opened her eyes, which took several attempts mind you, until her line of vision was filled with a crowd of people looking down at her and she was looking up at them.

"All right--" she said quietly as she sat up slowly. At least those surrounding her closest had backed up and gave her some room. No one said a thing to her. No one asked if she was ok either.

Her whole body hurt, every muscle seemed strained but she ignored it as she got up and did a mental check of herself. Everything seemed to be moving all right and without pain, so she was doing good so far. Yet still--no one spoke to her.

She was wearing a simple pair of blue jeans and a t-shirt with the letters "UCLA" stamped across the front. The last thing she remembered was---

Shit! She didn't remember a thing. What the hell happened?!
 
The women gathered around her were wearing more revealing clothes than Kari would have expected. Some were just wearing what she would call lingerie. The men were similarly dressed to emphasize their physique as well.

Eventually a couple people helped her up off the ground, and to her feet, and conversation started up again as the crowd talked amongst themselves wondering who she was and where she came from.

"Come on." One of the people who had helped her up, a busty redhead, said to her as she led the girl through the parting crowd. "Lets get you to a med center... there's something not right with you... appearing out of nowhere like that... and dressed so... ewwww." She wrinkled her nose at Kari's clothes, obviously not approving of her wardrobe in the slightest.

At the med center, AI drones ran a bevy of tests on her trying to determine what the situation was and why this girl was so completely unknown.
 
"Ewww?" Kari repeated in shock to the young lady as she escorted her to--the med center? That was new. Then again, as she was being escorted, things around her didn't seem all that familiar.

"What do you mean something's not right with me?" The redhead didn't answer Kari.

It was then Kari noticed the clothes that the redhead was wearing. It was quite revealing. She looked around at everyone as they too stared at her as if she were infected or something.

Things inside the med center weren't that great either. Even though there was no 'person' around, just little flying robots, Kari asked question after question with no result in a response from anything. To say she was frustrated now was an understatement. They poked and prodded her. Took blood, took hair samples, skin samples. Examined her mouth, her eyes, her nose--every where!

"Where am I?!" she cried out for the last time, knowing she wasn't going to get any answers out of these little machines.

Just as she thought she couldn't take any more tests, they stopped. It all stopped. Almost like a shut down at a mill, when the bell chimed, everything just shut down. That was surprising but not shocking for she couldn't do it anymore. Hopping off the examine table, Kari grabbed the clothes provided for her, if one could call it that.

It was a slip. At least it looked like a slip. If anything, it was more modest than what any one around her was wearing when she woke up. Now really wasn't the time to dwell on it so she put it on. It was a bit snug in some places and loose in other places that allowed for movement.

Instead of waiting for any further instruction, Kari walked carefully over to the door and tried the handle.

The latch released and she opened the door. She had one thing on her mind and that was to find out where she was and how did she get here? Quickly, she tied her waist length black hair away from her face and secured it there with a hair tie she always kept on her wrist. It was time to get some answers.
 
Before she could leave the med center, a drone got in her way. "If you will follow me, we have prepared a bed for you to rest in. Because we cannot determine who you are to find out your place of residence, we require you to remain here until a facilitator can be assigned to you." The little drone said to her as it hovered at eye level.

It escorted her down a hallway to a private room with a bed. "Please lay down on the bed." When she did, it sedated her. The AI didn't want her running around loose without at least someone watching her.

When she woke up, Casses was standing at the side of her bed. "Good morning. Can you tell me your name? I'm Casses." He took a seat next to the bed and looked at her for a moment. "It seems you're a bit of a mystery... nobody knows who you are or where you came from... it's like until you appeared in the middle of the square, you didn't exist."
 
With a dry mouth which she tried to moisten, Kari again found herself alone. She was dizzy a tiny bit, but nothing she couldn't handle.

She sighed as she sat up, swinging her legs over the edge of the bed and not bothering to answer the man's question about her name nor respond to anything else he had said. She saw a glass of water next to her bed and reached for that, downing the entire glass.

Kari could still feel Casses looking at her and she decided that if she were to get answers, she needed to answer the questions. "My name is Kari. I come from Chicago, Illinois, and how I got here is a mystery to me too." Finally she regarded the man towering over her. Even sitting, her 5'3" frame would probably be swallowed up in his shadow. Her neck craned to look up at him, "Where is this? What is today's date?"
 
He wasn't offended by the delay she took in answering his questions. He was a patient man. "Hmmmm... I've never heard of... Chicago Illinois. This is Losangle." Over time, the name of the city had changed simply due to lack of importance put into it. People had other things to concern themselves.

"And the year is 3681. Why? What year do you think it is?" Time travel? Could it be possible? It would certainly explain why she was so different from every other woman, and why she was so unknown. If she was from a time before the Link was established, she wouldn't have an implant, and it would be impossibly for her to do anything meaningful in the world as it was now.
 
"What?!" Kari squealed. She jumped up and off the opposite side of the bed and away from Casses. "You're shitting me!!!" She said in the same high pitched voice. This couldn't be happening. It was a joke! It had to be a joke!

There was only one way to find out. "This is some kind of joke right?! Tell me I did just not get thrust over 1500 years into the future! You have to be lying! It's still 2010 right?! Please tell me you're joking!"

Her breathing became erratic as her mind started to go into overload. Kari was never one to take jokes very good and with the extent of this joke, that was just going too far!

She started for the only door in the room and banged on the door when she couldn't open it, "Hey! This isn't funny! Let me outta here!"
 
2010? That was almost unbelievable. Casses found himself almost as stunned as Kari was. Which wsa why he didn't stop her right away when she went to the door. Not stop her from leaving, the lock on the door would do that just fine, but stop her from freaking out too much.

When he recovered, he turned and pressed himself up against her back while putting his arns around her. One hand cupped a breast through the slip, and the other moved between her legs. He wasn't really trying to come on to her, he was just trying to calm her down. Or at least get her mind off of what was upsetting her.

"Shhh... you're safe here... you don't have to worry about getting out. I'm not joking though, that is what year it is... I have no idea how you got here, if you really are from the year 2010... that's as much a mystery to me as it is to you. Maybe more. But getting upset and hurting yourself won't help you one bit."
 
Gasping in surprise when she felt his arms around her, Kari stopped her outburst momentarily. What was he doing? She tried to move his arm but it was use as he was a lot stronger than her.

She panicked when she felt his hand between her legs. She was still smashed between him and the door. Despite his hand being between her legs he had an amazing touch and her body reacted to him even though.

"I'm not going to hurt myself, I-" she was cut off when his hand squeezed her breast a little firmer. She wanted to say more but couldn't as she felt him carrying her from the door with no effort at all on his part.

He sat her on the bed and knelt in front of her as she looked at him, really looked at him and could see he was dead serious.
 
He put his hand on her thigh as he knelt infront of her. "I can tell this is upsetting and confusing, and I would explain what happened if I could. But like I said, I don't even know what happened to you myself... what I do know is that youaren't exactly ready for life here in our time."

He stood up and sat next to her. "And by that I mean you're missing a couple things that everyone simply takes for granted, and it's why everyone was so confused when they saw you yesterday. You see, everyone has an implant in their head that gives them access to any information they want. If you need to know what someone's name is, or where they are, or any number of other questions, all you have to do is ask the Link. But, you don't have that implant. Something else that goes along with that is nanites... tiny machines that move around your body, fixing, monitoring... your blood tests from yesterday show none in your system."

"If we knew how to get you back home, obviously that would be what we would do. But our only option, and why I'm here, is to get you fitting into the world as it is now. So, how does that sound?"
 
Obviously she was stuck here. She looked away from him and stared at the ground, not immediately answering him. Kari sighed and gave him a slight nod of her head, "I guess you're right."

Kari gave him a shakey smile and regarded the man in front of her, "So, get me to fit in here--does that mean having to wear these sort of clothes all the time?" She remembered seeing the other women and how they were dressed and she also recalled how the one that escorted her to the med center had addressed her clothing.

"So, where do we start first?" She asked, her confidence coming back gradually.
 
He smiled and shook his head. "No, dressing just like everyone else isn't really what I'm talking about. But you are more than free to do so of course." In actuality, that was ultimately what he wanted her to do, but he could tell that taking things gradually would work much better.

"I think first, we should get you set up with a Link node, and nanites... think of it as something like..." He paused for a second while he thought of the right terminology. "Like having a driver's license in your time."

He stood up and held out his hand. "If you're ok with that, we can get started right away."
 
"Whoa, wait a minute, a linknode?" She asked with much surprise, "I didn't think we were going to go that far, I mean brain surgery is very risky. What if something goes wrong?"

He led her from the room she was in and down a lighted hall toward another room, "This isn't going to hurt is it?" Kari asked as she hesitated by the door.

His hand felt warm in hers, which was cold and clammy from her little freak out earlier. Her bare feet padded softly and quietly along the floor as the whole place seemed deathly quiet.
 
"Relax, there is nothing to worry about. You'll barely feel a thing. And there is no risk to the procedure at all."

Casses let Kari down a hallway to a room with a large padded chair with stirrups. Once she was seated, he secured her arms, legs, torso and her head. "Don't be afraid, it's just so you don't move around during the procedure."

He moved an over-hanging device into position above her head and a little bit infront of her. It had a long rod about 3 inches thick that was pointed at her mouth. "The safest way to implant the node is to go through soft tissue. That means the back of your mouth. It might feel a bit strange, but trust me when I say it's perfectly safe."

He moved the device closer. "If you'd like, I can sedate you so that you sleep through the process. I mean, if you're worried."
 
The whole room was basked in white from the lights and decorations. It still had that same 'clean' smell a clinic or hospital might have had back home.

"Umm, well," Kari took a deep breath and shook her head softly, "No, I'm fine, sorta--" She relaxed herself and closed her eyes, only to have them shoot open, "WAIT!" She wanted to bring her hand up to a stop motion but the straps held her in place. "I--umm, what if I change my mind about the implant, can it be removed?"
 
"Why would you want to remove it? Technically it's possible, but all it does it let you retrieve information, and let the AI monitor things like your health. It's harmless."

If she went ahead with it, it would look like she was giving the machine a blowjob as it slid into her mouth.
 
The device came closer and Kari moved her head as she heard him say it was harmless, "Well, harmless doesn't always mean safe." She said as she opened her mouth once again.

As she opened her mouth, the device entered and before she knew it, the procedure was over. Kari had only felt a slight pressure pinch in her mouth and it was done. As it pulled away, she could feel it with her tongue just slightly.

She heard a small beeping noise and then before she knew it, a slight pain radiated through her entire head!
 
"You will feel a small disconfort for a little while... something like a headache. The node needs to integrate itself with your thoughts, and that will take a bit of time and exploring. No two people have the same mind, after all. When it's done, you'll be able to start accessingthe link system with just a thought."

What she didn't know was that her node was special. If she concentrated too hard on any topic that wasn't sex related, she would get a headache which would get worse the more she tried to think about things. Of course, since she didn't know what would get rid of the headaches, after enough time had passed, the link would give her a few hints. A flash of fantasy, or a stray thought about someone she was with. The hints would become more insistant and bolder until she couldn't help but start thinking about them, at which point the headache would go away. But that was just to get her started. He hoped that she would figure out the 'trick' on her own after that.

"That was also an injection of nanites. Right now they are busy away building more of themselves inside of you, but once they hit the proper population, they'll begin work with maintaning your body. You'll be in the best physical shape you've ever been in."
 
Her headache did remain dull and Kari was glad of that. She sighed and looked over at Casses, "So this will make me like everyone else?" Kari asked as she got up slowly from the chair.

She didn't feel any different, except for a slight tingling throughout her body and she supposed it was the nanites working.

"So any thing I want to know I'll just have to think the question and it'll get answered? Doesn't anyone around here talk anymore?" She asked jokingly as she walked over to Casses and looked up at him, "I'm sorry if I seem rude but you'd have to look at it from my point of view. This is all so new to me that it's going to take some time for me to fit in."
 
"No, not right yet." He said in answer to her question. "It will take some time for the implant to adapt to your mind. It will need to figure out when you're asking it a question, and how to give you the answer. That's what's causing the headache."

He helped her up and walked with her slowly back to the room she was in before. "Oh it doesn't sound rude at all. I understand where you're coming from completely. Think nothing of it."

Casses wasn't about to start working towards his goal yet. The implant and nanites were a good first step, and that was all he was willing to do for now.

"People do still talk, I think the crowd you saw yesterday was just more stunned than anything. Everyone is linked... seeing someone who isn't... well it's a shock. I'll be happy to answer any questions you have about the world, or where you might fit in it. Or I can leave you alone if you just want some time to think."
 
Sitting down on the bed, Kari sighed as she willed the headache to just go away. She was listening intently to what he had said and she was too curious to let this wait until later.

"No, I'm ok--well, let's see," she licked her full lips and pretend to give it a moment's thought, "What sort of thing do you all do for fun around here anyway? Does any one work? If so, what sort of work could I do? I mean, before this all happened, I was just a waitress working part time while attending college."

In all reality, Kari was a party person. She attended college party after college party. Her work was just so she could make more money to go out and party. Her life was pretty busy before all this. She really didn't have any family and so that wasn't a problem. She figured the only thing she was going to miss was her few friends that she made in school.
 
"What do we do for fun? Well, what do you find fun? I'm sure there are other people who do that. Nobody has to work though, we don't have the need to purchase things anymore. Everything is provided to us. So, the only reason you do something is because you want to, for enjoyment, or some other reason. But it's always your choice."

The idea of forcing someone into doing anything was a bit foreign to the majority of the population. Why spend the effort forcing someone into something when there was someone willing somewhere else.

"If you want to wait tables at a club, to meet people or for some other reason that is important to you, nobody will stop you. But you won't be paid, or need any money to buy things... That may sound odd for you... but that's the way we live."

He felt that leaving out the sexual nature of their society would be best. She would come to terms with that on her own.
 
All he said kind of made Kari feel giddy. No work?! This was like a dream, albeit, a dream where she couldn't go back.

"Well, I'm not sure what I'd like to do first--unless you have any suggestions?" She asked honestly. It was then she took this time to really look at him. Her saviour. Sorta.

He took the time to talk with her and be with her, explain things to her and she was grateful for that.

"I don't think I want to wait tables. I mean, I only use to do that just because I needed the money for school---so if this collective thought is what everyone uses, does it ever break down? And if does break, what then? Are they all lost?"
 
"First, I'd relax and take all of this in... I can imagine there have been a lot of changes since your time. Not to mention you just had brain surgery. You might want to rest. Besides, it'll take a couple days before your Link is functional."

He smiled at her question. "The link doesn't go down. If it did, that would mean a lot more than people not knowing what's on the menu at a particular restaurant, or where someone else is. But don't worry, that's never happened, and I highly doubt it's about to."

"While we've been talking, I put in a requisition to have an apartement made ready for you. After all, you're going to need a place to live, right?" And fuck, but he didn't add that yet. Holding that part of himself back was definitely something he had to keep focussing on. He wasn't used to being reserved. But he figured that no matter what she was like in her time, finding out how much people fucked today, and how casual it was would be a shock for her.

"Do you want to see your new home?"
 
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