More Than is DreamtStormwolfA hot wind blew across the near featureless plain, swirling sand in its
wake. The wind beat down upon the lone rider, forcing the man to pull his
cowl closer around his face to protect against the harsh elements. Beneath
him, cyhorse, trot almost tirelessly. The beast's legs were metal, made from
some of the best cybernetic components, expensive and hard to come by. The
animal's brain was larger than a normal horse's and had been genetically
manipulated to provide the animal with better intelligence. The beast was
smarter than a dog.
The rider pulled back on the reins, stopping the horse, and turned and
rummaged in his saddlepack pulling out a pair of high tech binoculars that
had several settings to it which included infra-red and ultra-violet.
Putting the binoculars to his bright blue eyes, the rider scanned the
horizon.
A normal person would have had trouble spotting the tan cylinder like
building with its high domed roof, but the rider knew where to look, and
what he was looking for.
Satisfied that he had found it, and that he wasn't being followed, the rider
clucked at his horse, and the animal continued on.
*****
Dr. Eli Stoddard stood at the entrance to the Emperor's Facility for
Scientific Advancement awaiting the rider. Beside him were two other
scientists, one a geneticist, the other a child psychiatrist. The rider
pulled his cyhorse to a stop in front of them, and removed the tan cowl from
around his head allowing his chestnut curls to fall free surrounding his
youthful face.
Dr. Stoddard smiled hugely, "Blair! Damn, but it is good to see you."
Blair dismounted from his cyhorse, and went forward to hug the old
Anthropologist. "Its been to long, Dr. Stoddard."
Eli tapped Blair on the back of his head, "Eli, you young whippersnapper,"
He said using his best, "old fart" voice, "My friends call me Eli."
Blair smiled at his old Mentor, "Of course, Eli."
A clearing of the throat made Eli remember the others, "Oh, Blair let me
introduce you to a couple of my colleagues." HE motioned to the beautiful
blonde haired woman with emerald green eyes, "This is Dr. Kate Jenson, Child
Psychiatrist."
"Pleased to meet you, Blair. Dr. Stoddard has spoken highly of you." Kate
said holding out her hand. Blair shook it smiling.
Motioning to the other man, who was perhaps forty five with dark hair going
grey at the temples, and grey eyes, "And this is Dr. Mathew Stark. One of
the world's best geneticist, perhaps THE best."
"You flatter me, Eli." The man said then turned and shook Sandburg's hand,
"I am also pleased to meet you, Mr. Sandburg. Eli has told us quite a bit
about you, I almost feel as if I already know you."
"Well, the old man sure likes to talk. I guess we have no choice but to
indulge him in his old age. Dementia and all that." Blair joked. Dr. Stark
laughed and Kate smirked. Eli Stoddard tapped Blair again on his head,
"Let's get inside and talk before the spells take me again." He laughed.
Blair followed them inside, while an android took the cyhorse to be taken
care of.
"When I received your message, Eli, I was glad to hear that you had managed
to find a research facility." Blair began the conversation.
"Yes, well, the Emperor is interested in our studies, after all. With the
end of the Human/D'strilk wars, and the signing of the unconditional
surrender, humans have had to make due."
Blair nodded. The war had started because humans could barely tolerate each
other, and when they had drifted out into space, they learned new hatreds
when they discovered the D'strilks. Humans had lost the war, their planet
practically destroyed in the aftermath, and humans struggling to survive,
the D'strilks had offered humanity a choice of utter annihilation or
unconditional surrender.
Strangely enough the unconditional surrender had allowed humanity to
rebuild, and with better technology, but they still were under the direct
rule of the Empire. They paid taxes to the Empire, and were considered
citizens...just with not all the rights that a D'strilk had. It was better
than slavery, and much better than destruction.
"So your project was a success, I take it." Blair said the excitement
building in his voice. If Eli was telling the truth then they had something
that hadn't been seen on their world since the War over eighty years ago.
The had all been used by the humans, and had died in the Wars. Those that
had survived had been taken offworld by the Emperor. Supposedly, they had
died to. No one knew if that was true, but most believed it to be.
"Yes, Blair. The project was a success. And that's why I need your help."
Blair followed Eli and the others through the maze of corridors and stairs
inside the facility until they came to an observation deck.
Inside the observation room were video feeds on black and white screens, as
well as several computers, and scientists in lab coats. Rather than observe
the small black and white images, Blair looked down through the plexiglass
that surrounded the room into the room below them that held what they were
observing.
The room below them was large, with a twin size bed against one wall, along
with a dresser and mirror. The bathroom facilities which included a shower
was also there within the room with no curtains or coverings to give
privacy. There was also a weight machine in one corner, with a punching bag
hanging from the high ceiling. Another corner appeared to be a classroom
with only one desk, a marker board, and a shelf with books. Two more shelves
were lined with toys, stuffed animals, motorized toy cars, board games, and
more books. A large screen TV was also in the room with the newest game
player attached and a small CD holder lined with CD's for the game player.
Blair's attention was drawn, however, to the figure on the exercise mat. On
the mat, performing kickboxing moves was a man standing at about six foot
three, about two hundred pounds of muscle and bone. The man had short brown
hair, and a strong chiselled face. He wore nothing but a pair of grey
shorts, and was moving with the grace of a cat under the watchful eye of
another man who was wearing black fatigues.
"That's Jimmy, and his martial arts instructor, Damion." Eli said.
"And he's..." Blair could say, the excitement closing his throat.
"Yes, he's a full sentinel." Eli answered with a broad smile.
Blair turned reluctantly from the window and looked at Eli, "You did it,
Eli. Damn, but you did it."
Blair turned back to the figure, "So is he fully trained. Does he have
control?"
"He's been trained. And he's rather good at keeping control...at least in
this environment. We've made everything in here practically sentinel safe,
but even so we've had a few zones. But this is one of the reasons I asked
for you to come."
Blair looked at Eli confused.
"Blair, I need you to be his guide."
Blair gasped, "His guide. Eli surely you've..."
Eli shook his head, "Blair, however much I would have loved to be his guide,
I am to old. He sees me as a father figure, more than a guide, even though I
am the one who taught him how to control his senses. He needs a young guide,
one who can BE a guide. You are the perfect choice, Blair."
"You said that was only one of the reasons?"
"Damn, I forgot about your perfect memory. Your right, let's talk in
private." Eli motioned to Blair, and the young man followed his mentor out
of the observation deck, and into the hallway outside.
"We've had several attacks on the facility by the Mutants. The first was
just so that they could steal whatever technology we had, but one of them
managed to find Jimmy asleep in his bed. Jimmy managed to fight the Mutant
off, but not before the Mutant saw what he needed to know that Jimmy is a
sentinel. Unfortunately, the Mutant got away with only a broken arm to prove
he had tangled with Jimmy. Now the Mutants are constantly launching attacks.
Three times they've managed to overwhelm our defenses and come inside the
facility. Each time they sent a group in to kidnap Jimmy. Jimmy has killed
seven Mutants and seriously wounded eight. At first we were worried how he
would take it. You know, killing someone. His sessions with Kate though have
shown that Jimmy is territorial about this facility, which is not a surprise
since this has been his only home. And when its attacked he goes into a kind
of territorial mode. He really doesn't remember killing anyone. Its a
sentinel defense mechanism, or at least that's what Kate believes."
"You want my help in protecting Jimmy from the Mutants?"
"Yes. You are good, Blair. One of the best mercenaries out there. I want you
to work with our guards and try and strengthen our defenses. In three
months, the Emperor is sending a ship to come and get Jimmy, Blair. I want
you to understand what you would be taking on. You'll have to go with Jimmy
to be his guide."
Blair nodded as he thought. (A guide, Blair. This is it. This is your dream!
You know you want it, why are you stalling?) He knew why. He didn't want to
leave Earth. He didn't want to leave the nest and stretch his wings. (Fool.)
He called himself. (Coward.)
"I'll do it." Blair said.
"I knew you would." Eli smiled, "Come, let's introduce you to Jimmy."
Blair followed Eli down a flight of stirs to a metal door with two guards
stationed in front of it. They recognized Eli, but made no move to let him
until the computer identified the anthropologist by his hand print on the ID
screen.
Blair walked behind his mentor into the room that he had observed through
the Observation room. The instructor was gone, and Jimmy was stepping out of
the shower with a towel wrapped around his waist.
Jimmy smiled at Eli, and Blair took the time to get a better look at the
sentinel. Jimmy was well muscled, and toned, his practically hairless chest
gleaming under the bright lights of the room. The man looked to be about
twenty-five to thirty years, but Blair knew it to be a lie. Jimmy had icy
blue eyes, and a handsome face as he smiled at the older anthropologist.
"Hi, Doc!" Jimmy said in a nice masculine voice.
"Hello, Jimmy. Did you have a nice workout?" Eli asked.
"Yes." Jimmy answered.
"Jimmy, I want to introduce you to Blair Sandburg, one of my ex-students."
Eli said motioning to Blair who stepped forward.
Jimmy smiled at him and said, "Hi, Blair."
"Jimmy, Blair is to be your guide."
Jimmy's face suddenly went strangely blank, as if the word guide had been a
command. Sentinel instincts came forward, and Blair watched in shock as
Jimmy removed the towel he was wearing, dropped down to his knees still
facing them, spread his legs wide, then reached down and lifted the lax
penis and testicles up and against his stomach, as he leaned back,
presenting himself to his guide.
And Blair received first hand proof that Jimmy was indeed a guide. For
there, below his balls, was the suddenly wet, and open vagina that made the
man before them a sentinel...and a hermaphrodite.
"Jimmy, come on back now, its alright. You don't have to do this now." The
voice was Doctor Stoddard's and Jimmy was near programmed to obey it. The
sentinel slowly came out of his strange zone, and blinked a few times.
Blair released the breath he had been holding when he saw the sentinel
looking around confused. They had called in a couple of orderlies, and had
moved Jim to his bed before calling the sentinel back to reality.
"I zoned?" Jim asked Dr. Stoddard.
"In a way." Eli answered. "It was more of an instinctual response, like when
your threatened."
JIm nodded. "I don't remember."
"Its alright, " Eli said patting JIm's head, "There's no need for you to
remember. Let's just hope it doesn't happen again."
Jim nodded, then his gaze focused on Blair. Eli followed Jim's line of
sight, "Oh, I'm sorry. Jim this is Blair Sandburg. An old student of mine.
He's here to help protect you against the Mutants."
"Hi." Jim said unsure of how he should act.
"Hi." Blair said back.
"I've also asked him to be your guide, Jimmy." Dr. Stoddard said hoping
there wouldn't be a repeat of the earlier incident.
Jim nodded, "Okay." He seemed content with whatever Eli told him.
"Alright, Jimmy, I want you to get some sleep. Blair and I have a lot to
talk about."
"Okay...g'night." The sentinel said sleepily as he rolled over to his side
and reached beneath his pillow bringing out a stuffed black panther and
holding it tight against his chest.
Blair and Eli left the room as the lights dimmed.
"How old is he, really?" Blair asked.
"He was brought out of the incubation chamber five years ago." Eli said.
"But he was bombarded with information while in the incubation chamber. He
has most of the knowledge that a twenty five year old man would have. The
only thing we've been teaching him is about being a sentinel."
"So emotionally he's only five years old, but physically and mentally he's
twenty five." Blair summed up.
"YEs. But the emotions don't count because in a given a situation, sometimes
his sentinel instincts take over, and he might as well be an adult,
emotionally anyway. Like when the Mutants attack him, or when we introduced
you as his guide."
"And what was that about?" Blair asked.
"He was submitting to you. I introduced you as his guide, and therefore his
instincts were to present himself so that you could dominate him...mentally
and sexually." Eli answered as they walked through the corridors.
Blair shivered at that. A person should have that kind of control over
another one, even if the other was a sentinel.
"Is he...uh....um"
"A virgin?" ELi smiled at Blair inability to say it. "Yes. In all ways he is
a virgin. He has never had any kind of sex, however, he has been taught sex
education. After all, he is a sentinel. He can get pregnant. Like any female
he goes through the menstrual cycle. We also told him that his only lover
will be his guide. That's why he was a little hesitant toward you."
Blair nodded.
The room Eli led him to was to be Blair's quarters for his stay there. "Does
he know what the Emperor wants of him?"
"Yes, we've explained that to him. The thought frightened him, but we've
managed to deal with that. He tried to run away."
"Did he get far."
"Well he got outside the facility. But once outside, his senses couldn't
handle the stimuli, and he zoned."
"So you brought him back inside, and what grounded him for a week." Blair
smiled a bit.
"Actually no. Grounding wouldn't do any good. After all he has been
practically grounded all his life. No, we've incorporated corporeal
punishment as a means of discipline."
Blair gaped, "You actually spank a twenty five year old man. Good grief, how
do you manage to do that."
"It was incorporated early in his life, and he's never known anything
different."
Blair shook his head. It was a lot to take in. Blair couldn't imagine
'spanking' Jimmy, but then he knew Dr. Stoddard would never do anything
unless he believed it was necessary.
The next day, Blair got together with the head of security, a large blonde
man named Darian White. Darien took Blair through the facility showing him
all the security measures that were in place. Blair was impressed by the
motion cameras, forcefield, neuro-shields and laser cannons, but he managed
to find a few holes in the perimeter, and showed Darien the newest tricks in
defeating those state of the art security gadgets. Blair had no doubt that
the mutants would be using those tricks to get inside the compound.
The chief of security actually listened to Blair, his reputation proceeding
him. Blair was a well known mercenary with the reputation of being the best.
Blair was glad that he wasn't going to have to prove himself to White. Most
people looked at Blair with his long chestnut hair, and pretty face and
thought that he was easy prey. However, they soon learned
different...usually the hard way.
When he was done with his tour he ate lunch with Eli who told him more about
the project.
"He was grown from DNA tissue from a sentinel that was long dead. We added
our own bits here and there, the others can tell you more about that
process. The incubation chamber worked perfectly. We watched as Jimmy grew
from a tiny embryo to a full grown healthy sentinel. I felt like a proud
papa the day we 'birthed' him from the chamber. Course he was one big baby!"
Eli laughed, and Blair joined his mentor in the laughter.
"So what happens after the Emperor takes him?" Blair asked after they had
calmed down.
"Well, the Emperor is planning to move the facility to one of his planets
since the project was such a big success. Its the Emperor who is providing
us with the tissue samples from which we extract the DNA. After all, he had
the last remaining sentinels in his possession."
"So he wants more sentinels? How does he hope to keep a healthy gene pool?"
"By breeding the sentinels with normal humans. He hopes that with a little
DNA tinkering in vitro that they would be born full sentinels instead of
just the gene carrier."
"I see. And Jimmy will be the first."
"Yes. He will also be the Emperor's sentinel."
"Have you discussed this any more with Jimmy?" Blair asked.
"It comes up, and he refuses to listen. When a topic is discussed he doesn't
like, or something gets to be to much for him, Jimmy will go into a corner,
knees drawn to his chest, and rocks himself while turning his senses down.
The first time he did it it was kind of scary. Strangely enough give him
some time and he'll snap out of it himself, and go back to doing whatever it
was he was doing before it happened."
"Since he is emotionally only five, then I am not surprised. It can be
overwhelming to an adult's emotions to know that eventually you'll become an
alien's 'hands'."
"To true. Well, Blair let's go into the nursery. Jim needs to get used to
your presence and he needs to ground his senses onto you."
"Do have an idea of how we are going to do that?" Blair asked.
"Of course." Eli smiled.
Blair smiled and shook his head.
-------------------
Jimmy was playing a video game when they stepped into the nursery. Jimmy was
so intent on the game that he did not acknowledge Eli's and Blair's
entrance, but Blair knew he was aware of their presence.
The game appeared to be a war game, with the player appearing to be a
soldier running through a jungle killing virtual bad guys. Jim held a laser
gun that allowed him to shoot the characters rather then use a controller to
move the crosshairs on the screen. Blair could tell that Jimmy was good at
the game.
"Jimmy, turn the game off and come over here." Eli said.
Jimmy huffed, but did as he was told. Once the game was off he went over to
where Eli and Blair were standing next to Jim's bed. Jim sat down on the bed
and grabbed his stuffed black panther, and held it to his chest stroking the
fake fur on the toy's head.
"You remember Blair, don't you Jimmy?" Eli asked.
Jimmy looked at Blair with his icy blue eyes, and nodded, "Yes. He is to be
my guide."
"Its good that you remember." Eli s aid.
Jimmy looked at Blair then asked, "Are you going to fuck me now?"
Eli spluttered, unable to voice coherent words. Finally, Blair asked what
Eli was going to.
"Where did you learn that word?"
Jimmy shrugged, "The guards use it a lot. I can hear them."
"Its not a good word to use." Blair said thinking it felt strange to tell a
man who looked to be older than Blair not to swear.
"And you know that." Eli finally said. "We've talked about it before. You
are not to use such language."
Jimmy nodded, but said nothing.
Eli took Jim's silence as aqueisance.
"So are you?" Jimmy asked.
"Not right now, no." Blair said being truthful. Though Blair could not
imagine having sex with the vulnerable sentinel before him.
"I don't want you to be my guide." Jimmy said.
Eli was stunned, and Blair simply stared at the sentinel.