Into the Unknowable Ch. 09

"So if one Beatrice dies then part of you dies," speculated the original Beatrice.

"In a sense I cannot die," said the Beatrice in the flowing dress. "On my demise the nanobot community remains unchanged. My matter is re-assimilated into the main thread. Only the manifestation of the nanobot community that is an exact facsimile of you will have died."

"You don't have to struggle so hard to understand, Beatrice," said Vashti. "After all, it's not as if you'll ever be able to report back to Proxima Centauri Mission Control. It's unlikely that you will ever again be in communication with your home stellar system. All you need to know is that I enjoy fucking you and that I hope to continue doing so."

"What choice have I got?"

"You don't have to have sex with me," replied Vashti.

"If you were human you'd probably be as conflicted as poor Nadezhda is towards you," said the Beatrice in a short skirt. "Or should I say: towards me."

"How is Nadezhda?" asked the original Beatrice sadly.

"She still loves you," said the same Beatrice. "In fact, because I spend rather more time with her than you ever could, she probably loves me more than she could ever love you."

"The same is true of Paul," said the Beatrice in the flowing dress. "He loves you more than ever. We make love several times a day."

"As I do Nadezhda," said the Beatrice in the flowing dress.

"And as I would like to do with you," said Vashti, who leaned her head forward and kissed the naked original Beatrice on the lips. She'd removed all her clothes and her penis was fully erect. "Shall we make love, Beatrice?"

The original Beatrice nodded her head resignedly. "Yes, I'd like that."

"Would you like the other two Beatrices to participate?" asked Vashti. She indicated the two copies that were now entirely indistinguishable from the original Beatrice since they'd also discarded their clothes.

Beatrice hesitated. She couldn't deny that there was a certain attractiveness in the idea of having sex with her own selves. She knew that she was very attractive and that there were few sexual partners who could match her. But what troubled Beatrice was that although when she was making love with Vashti she could at least pretend that her lover wasn't the same nanobot community that was imprisoning her, the same couldn't be said of the two Beatrices.

"Not for now," said Beatrice. "They can just watch. But perhaps later on... If the mood takes me..."

"I thought you'd say that," said Vashti as she pressed her lips against Beatrice's and cupped her lover's buttocks in the palm of her hand. "And I'm equally sure that as we make love the mood of the moment will very much persuade you otherwise..."

And as always, Vashti's prediction was exactly right.