Bedmate Wonder

"I think it's a superconductor that can function at standard temperatures. No need for super-cooling."

"You think so, huh?"

"I kind of know so, Nelondo. Go on and put it through the resistance test, but shield it first - it absorbs any ambient energy."

"You don't say?" said Nelondo. "Metallic superconductor, unbound by the rigid characteristics of ceramics. The holy grail of circuitry and generators. Meissnerium."

"Meissnerium?" asked Irina.

"Yes, not to be confused with Meitnerium. Meissnerium is a hypothetical metal named for the Meissner effect. Such a metal has been postulated for centuries, but never found. Let's see how close this is to the jackpot."

Nelondo's eyes grew wider and wider as he checked and rechecked the numbers. Finally, he was satisfied with his results.

"Tell me, Irina," he whispered. He found himself whispering, even though he knew there was no way they were being monitored. "How long did it take you to refine this metal?"

"No time at all," she whispered back. "I took the sample I found and spun it out. It took longer to remove the impurities I introduced in collecting it than it did to turn it into wire."

Nelondo whistled in amazement.

"Irina, this sample here. This one strand of wire, it represents an average worker's annual salary - probably more. Exactly how much more of this metal do you have?"

Irina proceeded to tell him about the thunder egg and its contents.

"Can you help me?" she asked.

"I can," he said seriously. "But I need you to listen to me. Tell no one. Talk to no one. If you can, bring the entire thunder egg in. Even if the contents are as pure as you say, there will be traces in the rest of the rock and we can manage it better here than you could extracting it. Hell, if we can get it inside, Lester's crew could get every last microgram out of that thing."

"The smelter's next pass through this sector is in nine months. You have that egg here, I'll have the right reps to make you a deal and I'll broker the hell out of it. You want to retire? You want to buy a planet to retire on? Just get that egg here safely and that's what we're talking about."

Irina nodded in agreement. As they waited for they chit-chatted about general things mining-related.

"So, what's your Shangri La, Irina?" asked Nelondo. "When you do get that mother lode, where've you set your eyes on?

"Planet Summer," replied Irina. "Already have my deposit down and passed the tests for immigration."

"Nice choice," said Nelondo, his kind eyes g sparkling. "Slightly lower than one standard gravity, endless beaches, and the Sirens. By god they're amazing. I met a pod once, well, a human-siren pod. Nicest creatures you'll ever meet."

Soon enough, Bimi was tapping on the back hatch and Irina was back on her way to the sled.

"What Irina-Lady needing for return?" asked Bimi. "Hanumen stock up nutrients and water, usual supply kit. Any special order in mind?"

"Yes," said Irina. "Six propulsion units and a 10-pak of stabilizers."

"Very good," said Bimi, who was already tapping the order into her wrist unit.

"Oh, and movies. I want every new movie from the past year. Especially romcoms."

By the time they had arrived back at the ship, the propulsion units had already been secured. In the space of less than three hours, Irina had off-loaded, made a deal, been re-supplied, and was back on her way home - very anxious to see Yuri and share the news.

***

The trustworthiness of Hanumen is something which cannot be doubted. Not one of the crew, and neither Lester or Bimi spoke a word to anyone about Irina or her generosity. However, those of an unscrupulous nature did notice the Hanumen shopping and spending a bit more time in the onboard pub over the next few days. Those same unscrupulous sorts had gone to the rather challenging process of bribing the propulsion unit supplier aboard the smelter. She had been given the instructions that if any miners ordered two or more propulsion units, she was to insert a dormant tracker into the containers which would not activate for a set time period, and the signal would broadcast on an ancient frequency though to be so useless it was no longer monitored by any current detection equipment.

The logic being, and it was sound logic, that anyone purchasing more than one propulsion unit was not merely repairing a sled. Multiple units meant a big rock needed to be retrieved and a big rock meant something worth investigating.

***

"Yuri! Yuri, I'm back!" cried Irina.

It had been a harrowing week and a half. Traffic was greater than usual in the sector and she had been forced to do small hops and wait frequently en route to her base. Being away from Yuri had made the time pass even more slowly. She found herself longing for his conversation and his quirky smile, and yes - she longed to be in his welcoming arms again.

"Yuri?" she called again, a bit of concern growing in her voice. "Where are you? Oh my gods, no!"

She had searched everywhere and finally made her way back to the sleep chamber. The full wall was covered with vids and what looked to be at least forty screens showing simultaneously. Each channel was tuned to something different - physics, biology, movies, war, and so on. Some were simply showing page after page of text.

Yuri was on the bed, but he was not Yuri. He had reverted. He was once again a stuffed mannequin with a painted-on face and the mere hint of fingers and toes. His sketched-on eyes watched the vid-wall with a death-like focus.

"Oh Yuri! My Yuri, what has happened? Where have you gone," cried Irina, rushing to his side.

"I - ree - nah?" said the mannequin, turning to face her, his mere hollow of a mouth struggling to form the words.

"Yuri, darling. Where are you?"

"Yu-ree for-got. Yu-ree needs Irina to remember."

"Alright, alright," said Irina, wiping away the tears. "I need to get the sled unpacked and then I'll be here. I'll be here as soon as I can."

Though one couldn't rush the proper storage of supplies on a remote station, Irina hurried as much as she could, setting aside the things that could wait for another day and clamping them to walls.

She was surprised to find how deeply Yuri's reversion had affected her. It was almost like having him die. But, he had said he needed her, to remember. That's what she was going to do. She would be there for him.

Once she felt everything was stowed away and safe, she hurried back to the bedroom. He slowly turned his face to her and smiled. She might have been imagining it, but it seemed he was already a bit more defined.

"Let's get comfy, yes?" she whispered.

Taking off her clothes slowly and seductively, she liked to imagine that she saw a curious glint in those charcoal eyes.

"Station," she said. "I purchased new movies. Please access the sled databanks and begin streaming."

They watched the first movie in relative silence. Now she knew she wasn't imagining things. He was definitely feeling warmer. His face, too, seemed to be regaining its definition.

"Feeling better?" she inquired.

"Yes," he said, more clearly. "Being near you helps me remember things. The closer you are, the more I remember."

They started another movie and arrived at a lovemaking scene. Irina's hand drifted languidly over his cloth/skin and suddenly met with a rather hard obstacle lower down.

"Ooh, I see you are remembering something else," said Irina playfully.

The object at hand was not the full, fleshy cock she remembered. At the same time, it wasn't cloth. Though his skin still bore some resemblance to fabric, his manhood (or should it be dollhood?) was more smooth and rubbery - more ultravibe like.

"Yuri," she asked in a soft voice, "When you said that it helps when I am closer - do you really mean closer?"

"I'm not sure I understand the question."

Irina crawled on top of him and slid down so his toy cock was pushing against her opening... which had been moist for days in anticipation of their reunion.

"I mean, if I'm closer like this." She slid down, pulling all of him inside of her. "Would it help you remember how to be more human again?"

Yuri's cloth-skin had suddenly turned from white-cotton in color to more beige.

"Oddly, I think it would," mused Yuri.

"Good, then let's work on that."

Irina started working him in and out, bouncing up and down on his cock with her muscular thighs.

"Is that how you like it?" she whispered in his ear while kissing his face.

"Yes. Yes, I do enjoy this very much," muttered Yuri.

"Oh Gods," moaned Irina.

His cock had just altered and become more fleshy. The feeling within her was so much more fulfilling. He changed from stiff to supple. It wasn't that he wasn't still ramrod straight, but the fleshy feeling within her was ten times more fulfilling and spurred her on to greater heights.

"Come on Yuri, fuck me," she urged. "More the point, I'll fuck you. Come on, do you like being fucked."

"I do," agreed Yuri, and even his incomplete face showed a bit of surprise. "You are speaking differently, Irina. You are talking like in the pornographic vids."

"That's right, Yuri," she moaned. "There are times for making love and times for fucking. It is time for us to fuck. Station, switch off romcom. Please stream Venus Vixens 17."

Something Irina's mind told her that Yuri needed the intensity. He needed a shock to his alien system to help bring him along. The video switched to the vid she had named. It was more than two centuries old, but was legendary for its intensity and visceral feel.

"Come here, Yuri," she urged.

She had spun off of him and was kneeling on her hands and knees on the bed.

"Take me from behind Yuri. Fuck me. I want you to fuck me."

Yuri did as he was ordered, and Irina was soon crying out in short gasps as he filled her to depths she'd never imagined possible. It even hurt a bit, but in a good way, the way he was pummeling her.

"Oh my gods, Yuri," she cried out as the first climax rocked through her. "My gods, my gods you are amazing!"

She pulled her dripping pussy off him and rolled over onto her back. Looking up at Yuri she was pleased to see his skin was now quite-nearly-skin. His face, though still pale, was fleshed out and defined again.

"Come here darling," she urged him.

The time for hard fucking was over. Now her body told her exactly what was needed now.

"Put yourself inside of me, Yuri," she whispered. "Make love to me and return to me."

Yuri obeyed and slid his cock in and out of her at a gentler pace. Irina pulled him to her and wrapped her arms around him - wanting to touch as much of his body to her as she could.

When the next orgasm overtook her, she purred one word over and over into his ear.

"Remember. Remember, my love. Remember for me. Remember."

By the time they were done, Yuri was back in her arms. Warm, human, wonderful Yuri - more human than ever before.

"Don't you ever do that to me again," she admonished him as they lay in each other's arms.

"I'm sorry Irina," said Yuri. "It happened gradually. You were gone so long, and I didn't even feel it at first. My body didn't have you to stimulate it and it... it no longer felt the need to be the shape it was.

"Well don't let it happen again," admonished Irina. "What you do on your own time is your business - but when you're with me, I want you. I want this you, or even more of the same."

"I will endeavor to learn how to accomplish this."

"Thank you. What were you doing while I was gone?"

"I was learning," explained Yuri. "With nothing else to do, I was trying to learn as much as I could - to absorb all of the knowledge available. You know Irina. In my learning, it occurred to me that the superconductor you have found may be quite valuable. I believe, it might be termed Meissnerium. "

"My, you did learn a lot."

Irina explained all she had found out and her dealings with Nelondo. He listened patiently to that portion of her story but was far more interested in the Hanumen. He asked her again and again about their appearance and behavior.

"I would like to meet these Hanumen," said Yuri. "They seem like good creatures."

"They are the best," agreed Irina.

Once they were properly reunited, they began the arduous task of plotting how to extract the thunder egg. The problem was two-fold. First, was the simple exercise of getting it out of the asteroid belt. The field they were in was over sixty kilometers thick and three times as wide - stretching around the entire system. The thunder egg was buried as close to the middle of the field as one could imagine - and in a dense section as well. To simply clear an extraction path was perilous as it was. The field was relatively stable. Move one rock too fast and it would bump into another and so on - setting off a chain reaction that could endanger miners hundreds of kilometers away.

Beyond that issue, was the problem of detection. Pirates made great fortunes by watching the belt and looking for the orderly movement of rocks. If they saw a hole opening up, they swooped in as quickly as possible and would poach finds away - leaving the miner dead with little remorse.

"What happens once the rock is clear of the belt?" asked Yuri.

"Once an asteroid is no longer in the belt region and has established an identifiable trajectory, it can be registered as an official claim. All one needs to do is broadcast their ID, the size, shape, and mass of the asteroid, and file a claim code. Sadly, because of holes in interplanetary law - no claim may be filed on an entire rock until it is clear of the asteroid belt and underway. It makes sense, in a way - there are billions of rocks in this belt alone - someone could lay claim to the entire belt if the law allowed, and where would that get us?"

"I understand," said Yuri. "Then what is the standard method for extraction?"

"Slow and steady," explained Irina. "In all your learning, did you make happen across a reference to a fifteen puzzle, or a mystic puzzle."

"I did!" said Yuri, excited to recognize the phrase. "However, the article I referenced was rather vague about what it was."

"Here," said Irina. "Station, please display a 15 puzzle on the touch screen bedside. Standard pattern. Explain the goal."

"Displaying 15-puzzle," said the station. "Sixteen squares in total with one piece being blank. The remaining squares are numbered one to fifteen. Once shuffled, the goal of the game is to return the fifteen squares to a sequential pattern by moving the squares into the blank space and reordering the puzzle. Squares may not be removed and reinserted."

"I comprehend the puzzle," said Yuri, "but I don't understand the meaning as it relates to extraction of the thunder egg."

"Take the puzzle," said Irina, "and make it three dimensional. When we extract the thunder egg, we may only move one asteroid at a time, and very slowly so we don't attract any attention. Once a space is cleared for the thunder egg, we move it there - but we must then move the other rocks around it back so there is only one 'blank' at a time. The asteroid field is so densely packed here, we don't have the choice of clearing a direct path."

"I see now," said Yuri. "How long will it take?"

"I already asked the station to start calculating an exit for the thunder egg. Station, how is it coming?"

"I have identified seven possible exit scenarios," chimed the station. "Awaiting evaluation from you."

"Can't the station simply figure it out for itself?" asked Yuri.

"No," said Irina, shaking her head. "Computers can calculate the physical variables very well. However, it isn't much use at evaluating external variables: Where pirates might be hiding; better paths for adjustment if we are detected; good paths if it comes to battle - ones that are better for us than attackers."

"Battle?" asked Yuri. "Do you mean it might actually come to combat?"

"Gods willing, no." said Irina. "But we need to be prepared."

For the next day, Irina and Yuri poured over the possible paths the computer had modeled. Yuri had truly learned a great deal in Irina's absence. He appeared to have an eidetic memory and had absorbed everything he'd watched or studied from the data banks. He also had a good level of comprehension - he was able to process them and extrapolate new ideas from his knowledge. Whatever Yuri was, he wasn't stupid.

He was, however, incredibly naïve. He kept finding quicker ways to extract the thunder egg, but Irina had to correct him each time - pointing out the risks of detection or attack.

"I don't understand," he said one time, "if someone attacks us - why can't we simply radio them and ask them not to?"

Irina considered the question carefully. If they were to be attacked, she needed to find some way to break through Yuri's youthful naivete.

"Listen Yuri," she said. "In space, there is one chance. All it takes is one laser through your suit and you're boiled, one projectile into a sled and you are gone. That's the way bad people work. They don't ask questions, they don't hesitate. If we are to be attacked and I am to stay alive, the only way to play the game is shoot-to-kill. Understood?"

"Understood," said Yuri, though it was clear he still didn't quite grasp the overall concepts of human violence and combat.

Yuri became bored after a while and tried to pull a video on the second console. The video displayed, but was choppy and sticking.

"Why are the vids not working?" he asked.

She held up a silencing finger and continued focusing on the computer models of the asteroid field.

"Later," she said, but the issue was soon forgotten.

After another day of calculations, they determined the best sequence for extracting the thunder egg and flew to it to prepare things. They worked quickly to get the thrusters in place and program the drones for the sequence they'd mapped out. Just before activating the sequence, Yuri asked permission to see inside of the thunder egg. Irina agreed, and they flew inside. Allowing for a bit more light, Irina was stunned at both the beauty of the interior, and the volume of the Meissnerium. There were a few splits in the material where one could see that the metal was at least three meters thick all the way around the egg.

Yuri pointed down to a large boulder, indicating he wanted permission to bring it back with them. She nodded in agreement and he picked it up.

"Why the nugget?" she asked as they were returning to base.

"I want to play with it, you might say. Ordinarily, superconductors need a highly cooled environment. We can extract wire from this and perform many experiments with them - we do have time after all, the extraction of the thunder egg will take nearly two months.

"Very true," she said. "Now, time to activate the thrusters."

She pushed the 'go' sequence on the sled and the thunder egg and first target asteroid began shifting very slowly.

"It could go faster," said Yuri. "We could move things much faster with no damage of setting off a chain reaction."

"Once more, Yuri," she said, smiling. "Pirates have scanners that detect motion. However, there is always some sort of motion in the asteroid field. If they set their scanners for any motion, they would go crazy. So, they look out for anything moving too rapidly. We keep our motion below that threshold and we are safe."

***

Upon their return to the base, they found themselves suddenly stuck in a rather monotonous situation. They could mine some more, but the thunder egg represented the last mining Irina would ever have to do. Plus, the extraction needed a good amount of attention. Not that they had to watch the monitors constantly, but if something did go wrong they needed to get to it right away and being stuck in the middle of another rock didn't make much sense.