Kinetic

The arousal was intense for both of us. I could feel my own heart beating in my chest, all my longings and desires being fulfilled, having Melanie in my arms again. She started to whimper with her desire. "I will never lose her again", I thought with total conviction, so beautiful, so open for me, my beautiful, loving and eager...

"Eager what," I thought? My mate? My wife?! My feelings were so intense, so demanding. I had an overwhelming desire to respond to the faithfulness Melanie had already offered me, to offer my faithfulness in return. I had to acknowledge the permanence of our bond. It became unbearable not to...

I broke our kissed and whispered, "Melanie?"

"Hmmm?" she muttered. She was lying still with her eyes closed, panting in the heat of her arousal, holding my caress on her stomach with her hand and eager to re-establish our kiss.

"Marry me?"

Her eyes popped open. "Eric?!"

"Yes?"

We stared into each other eyes for the longest time. It was and forever will be the most amazing and precious experience of my life. We were making pledges to each other with our eyes alone, words weren't necessary. We committed ourselves to each other, for now and forever, affirming our vows back and forth with our eyes alone until our tears finally broke the contact.

Melanie was shivering and gasping in my arms. I lay by her side, stunned and bursting with joy and fulfillment. Melanie finally made the move to end the moment.

"We should wait, a few years I think, for the social contract. Eric, would that be okay with you, to wait till graduation... before we make this public?"

I was crying without sound by her side, overwhelmed with the emotions of Melanie accepting me as her husband. I simply nodded.

"Eric, darling," Melanie continued. "Would it also be okay if we wait a little while longer, before we commit sexually? I need a little time to adjust... Not long, just a little time..."

My hormones were raging with desire, but her words sliced through them. "Of course," I panted. "Oh Melanie, I love you."

"And I love you, and I promise, just a little time, before I offer myself..." She softly caressed the back my neck and whispered, "My husband..."

Chapter 14.

Four months later...

Time: Friday, May 21, 2004 2:37 PM

I sat at a classroom desk, immersed in a three-hour math final. I came up for air after finishing one particularly difficult problem on conformal mapping and glanced at the clock, 2:37 PM. I smiled happily. I had another fifty-three minutes to go, and I thought the three remaining problems were straightforward and would take less than ten minutes each. I'd have a little buffer time to check everything over, but I was certain everything so far was correct. This was my last test on the last day of Final Exams week, and I was acing the test. My status as sophomore at M.I.T. was drawing to a close.

My only problem with the last of the test was focus. My mind wanted to drift to what was coming next. After an incredibly busy spring semester for both of us, Melanie and I were taking our first vacation together, a ten-day backpacking hike deep into the woods of northern Maine. Both of us were anticipating the trip as our honeymoon, and Melanie's eagerness was a joy to my heart.

Melanie is so smart! Not just with academics, though she certainly excels there too. I'm thinking about her request to me, for us to wait before becoming sexually active. Back in early January, we pledged life commitments to each other hours after spending almost of a year drifting apart. We spent the following months rebuilding our love for each other, lots of great movies and dinners together sure, but much more important were the quiet times, showing each other our hopes and weaknesses, learning to depend on each other with unquestioned trust. I'm so glad we waited and rebuilt the love first.

And my housemates are so jealous! They might be the cream of the country's brightest students, but some of the guys seem to have very limited skills and experience in dating. They would give anything to have any girlfriend at all, let alone one as nice as Melanie. It's rather amusing. So many guys in desperate pursuit of females have asked me about my technique for "bagging" Melanie, as if a girlfriend were a big-game animal! I'm so glad I'm not in that mode.

There's been a little progress on the kinetic front, no major changes. From September 1, 2002 11:42 AM to April 28, 2004 6:38 AM, I crossed over another nineteen periods of what used to be my sense-sphere doubling rate. Melanie had the thought that perhaps something new would occur again when I finished that second set of nineteen. It was an interesting idea, and we took the time to be alone together when it happened.

It was not uneventful. I had that strange road-bump feeling as I did in September of 2002, but nothing else changed. My minimum-mass requirement continues to decrease at the same rate and everything else is frozen. As I was taking my math test in May, I was down to 5.6e-31 kg, below the rest mass of a single electron. I can basically lock anything now. Well, I do have just a dim fleeting sense of quantum photon and neutrinos, but they zip through my sphere too fast to be studied.

We did learn one new thing about my kinetics over the spring semester, something Melanie and I both find vaguely disturbing... Depending on the material, I can pull a kilogram of room-temperature matter down to a Bose-Einstein condensate in about thirty seconds. That should be it, no more heat to pull. But kinetic-wise, it still felt as if I were pulling. With my sense now able to observe at the quantum level, I could finally see what was going on. I was "popping" the quanta, my word for it, popping the leptons and bosons into oblivion.

I guess Einstein would be pleased, E = m c squared stands true, even in my insane kinetic world. My ability to pull heat energy into oblivion at a rate of 46.5 kW is also my ability to destroy 44.7 micrograms of matter a day. Or create it... I can heat things up, or create a speck of dust in a day, from Einstein's perspective the equivalent act.

Nothing new has come up with Melanie's parents. Let's see, anything else? Oh yeah. We're both spending about $1,500 a month of the cash. At this rate, it'll last another forty years. Melanie has a joke that after that we'll move to the north shore of the Mediterranean and start spending the Euros. And we bought a fair bit of land in northernmost Maine for a dirt cheap price, a very inaccessible mountainous plateau deep in the Allagash. Inaccessible for other people, that is...

Time: Saturday, May 22, 2004 8:22 PM

Melanie and I reached the base of our property ten minutes after sunset, right on schedule. We were both porting enormous backpacks, 150 kg each, but for us they were as light as feathers. We hadn't seen anyone for hours, and weren't expecting too. It was the height of the green-fly season, and those buggers are murderous. Except, of course, if they hit a repelling force when they get within a few meters... Melanie is such a nature lover. She prefers me to do it that way, rather than use power. It only takes a small fraction of a Joule to blow a bug's brains out. And power requires less concentration too, and is MUCH more satisfying! But what the heck, keep the woman happy...

It had been a full day, close to twelve hours driving 411 miles from Cambridge, Massachusetts to Eagle Lake, Maine, doing a bit of sight-seeing along the way. I bought an old car that gets fantastic gas mileage. Except for quick accelerations, I just keep the engine idling for appearance sake. The car had phenomenal braking ability too. Imagine that.

After reaching Eagle Lake, we drove west as far as the dirt roads would take us, and hiked the final twelve kilometers with the last of the sunlight.

"What do you think Eric?" asked Melanie. "Dark enough?"

"Yeah, I would think so. There is absolutely nobody around here. I'll do the packs first?"

Melanie nodded as she un-slung her pack. "Take 'er away!"

We were both standing at the foot of a sheer 117-meter cliff. It is by far the easiest access spot to our land. I floated half way up, pushed my pack to the top, then pushed Melanie's pack from below to the top, and then finally lifted Melanie. We joined hands and made the last of the ascent together.

In a similar manner, I leap-frogged us and the packs a few times until we reached our destination, our home.

It's a beautiful home, several cozy rooms carved from an original cave system and an outdoor patio area. Power is no problem. I can generate 372 Amps at 125 Volts AC. Water and sewer are a bit tricky, but there are several small lakes very near the western base of the plateau, and they are pristine.

"Want to go skinny-dipping?" Melanie asked as we unloaded our gear. She didn't have to ask twice. Our honeymoon had begun!

Time: Sunday, May 30, 2004 2:24 AM

I was lying behind Melanie, my hands on her breasts, nibbling the back of her neck as my penis was butting her crotch, seeking re-entry. Melanie was giggling and playing a short game of hard-to-get, wiggling her vagina away just as my penis would find purchase in her slippery outer folds.

Our honeymoon was everything we dreamed it would be, and more. Many delightful swims, lots of hiking in the pristine forests, a bit of recreational reading, and tons and tons of hot sex, much more than either of us were expecting. Melanie would laugh about it and say we were fucking each other silly, but she was just as eager for the sex as I was. She would start posing in lewd positions near me if we hadn't coupled in two hours, and straight-out attack me after three.

I caught her! Once swift hip thrust before she could pull away, and my penis head was kissing her cervix at the far back wall of her vagina. Melanie yipped at the shock of the penetration, and then wiggled her rump into my groin in appreciation. We thrust against each other for a while, weaving our sexual urges for release into a beautiful harmony. I don't know how my nuts were doing it, but when Melanie's vagina finally began spasming around my penis, my gonads followed her once more to orgasm. I could feel myself splashing a tiny bit of semen high and tight inside my most beautiful and perfect bride...

And then... I hit a pothole.

"Eric? You okay?"

I looked at the clock, 2:35 AM, and then told Melanie what I had felt. We sat around and chatted and waited.

It didn't take long. By 3:00 AM, twenty-five minutes later, my maximum power output had increased from 46,485 Watts to 46,557 Watts. All my other abilities seemed to be holding constant.

Melanie and I went to the patio area to lie down and watch the stars. We lay there a long time cuddling with each other, lots of affectionate kisses, nothing too sexy. It was all love and affection. Then lying on our backs holding hands again, watching the brilliant stars...

"Eric?"

"Yeah?"

"What will my life be like, if I become married to a god?"

I sighed. "I know... I know... My abilities are incredible now. If they continue to grow exponentially... Heck, power to rule the world? Power to destroy a world? Power to create a world? You're right, it is godlike. But I'm not a god! I don't know Melanie. I'll try to be good. I promise."

"You're also human..." She thought for a long while. "I can help you, I think, as your wife, if you let me. Eric, will you accept me... accept me as part of your conscience?"

I gazed in love at my bride. "I already have Melanie... I already have..."

Chapter 15.

Two years later...

Time: Friday, June 2, 2006, 8:12 PM

I look out of my window at Baker House a few minutes before sunset, and I can't help but feel a wave of nostalgia. I have gotten so familiar with my room's view of the river and the majestic Boston skyline. But after four tough and magical years at M.I.T., I am one week away from Commencement and receiving my Bachelors degree. And Melanie and I will marry a day later. My time and identity as single and an M.I.T. undergrad are drawing to a close.

I'm very proud of my senior thesis. I got my inspiration for it watching a NOVA program on the Chinese Rainbow Bridge of the Song Dynasty. My thesis is a really neat combination of fractal geometry and Lagrangian formalism, and it leads to a building technique I call compression/tension weaving. My thesis advisor and reader are ecstatic with my work, and I'll be staying a fifth year at M.I.T. to expand on it and get a Masters degree.

At the end of April Melanie and I closed on a small condominium near Harvard Yard, only 1100 square feet of space but perfect for us. We'll both be moving out of our dorms next week, and shopping for the rest of the furniture, primarily a couch. We are both keenly looking forward to it, living together openly as a married couple. We are so ready for it!

Melanie's dream has come through! The competition was incredibly tough, but she got accepted to Harvard Medical School. She hopes to one day be a pediatrician.

And my kinetic powers are currently locked at constant values, have been for over four months. Have I reached my final plateau, or is this fourth rotation just "the pause that refreshes?" Melanie laughs about this when no one is watching and will hug me and call me her "god in training." It's her intuition that the party isn't over yet.

The third rotation was the same temporal length as the first two, nineteen periods of 31 days, 19 hours and 56 minutes each. It lasted from May 30, 2004 2:30 AM Standard Time to January 24, 2006 9:31 PM Standard Time. Each period within the rotation would have the characteristic expansion of its attribute, a factor of 2 for sense-sphere radius, 16 for force, 18 for energy, and 9 for minimum mass. The order of progression was 9-18-16-2-9-18-16-2-9-18-16-2-9-18-16-2-9-18-16.

Bottom line? My sphere of influence now has a radius of 1102.75 meters. Within it, I can generate 3.77 giga-Newtons of force, 87.7 giga-Watts of power, anywhere I want, with fantastic bifurcation if I choose. And I lock down on a single 2.99 eV photon.

Locking photons is such a bizarre feeling. They don't really exist as a point or a wave. You can see that in the QED math, and it's also true when I probe the quantum reality. At the quanta level, I feel the complex wave function of the photon as a "promise", a tiny promise for interaction flying around the universe, sometimes being fulfilled and sometimes not. It's so strange... and beautiful... And I can create or destroy them, one 3 eV promise at a time. It's a wavelength of visible light, 415 nanometers, about in the middle of the violet range.

My force I never use near its full potential, except perhaps in molecular joining in woodworking. Think of one of those jumbo mega-ton oil tankers. I could lift about 42% of it out of the water, but why in the world would I ever want to do such a thing? The most I've ever used the force at the macroscopic level was at our secret home in the Allagash. The floors of the rooms in the former cave are now smooth polished stone, and horizontal to optical wavelength precision.

At a molecular level though, I can do so much with the force! I am a walking woodworking shop! I perfected my techniques in late winter in the Allagash, working with the local hardwoods (maple, birch, beech, and aspen). I taught myself how to make furniture from raw trees.

During the month of May, I brought in huge amounts of hardwoods and some exotic accent woods into our vacant condo. Breaking the wood along optically precise lines and curves is no problem, but what I really love is my ability to join. I can plane two surfaces with my force to sub-wave optical tolerances, and then use my force to bifurcate and tie multi-trillion knots in the micro fibers between the two surfaces. Result? A joint stronger than the original wood, and absolutely seamless!

I built a magnificent bedroom set in solid cherry with specialty wood inlays. The dining room set and the living room bookshelves and rocking chair are similarly made, base combinations of oak and walnut with oiled inlays of beech and aspen from the Allagash. Melanie was so happy with the results I redid the kitchen cabinets in solid maple and birch woods as a surprise for her.

And then there's my power. I can create 3.52 grams of matter in an hour, of anything I want. I often run at my limit. You should see Melanie's engagement ring. Five half- carat diamonds, I guarantee the five most pure and perfect carbon-lattice diamonds in existence. Five 58-facet, brilliant-cut diamonds, and it took me less than two minutes to think up each one of them.

But it's the rings I'm the most proud of. For both the wedding rings and Melanie's engagement ring, I used my own secret recipe, 3-D woven carbon nano-tubes threading a face-centered hexagonal matrix of gold and iridium, with individual atoms of silver and copper at key nexus locations. Light seems to get trapped in the nano-tubes, and creates a strange quantum resonance that appears as a flicker to the naked eye.

The result is iridescent gold. Its beauty is unique, breathtaking, and Melanie and I being the Trekkies that we are, we call it gold-pressed Latinum. It's incredibly tough material. Rule of Acquisition #102: Nature decays, but Latinum lasts forever. The Ferengi would be so proud of us.

Finance wise, our supply of cash is still huge, but the down-payment on the condo and our projected uncovered costs for first-year med school have tied up our legally available resources. Fortunately I've got a research grant for my grad school year.

I've got a pet dream to be within a kilometer of the power-ball lottery machines when they bounce the balls. It would be so easy to "win" the mega-million jackpot. But Melanie is part of my conscience now, and she asks me simply what is our moral justification to steal from all the people who bought the other tickets? So, we're going the route of mortgages and student loans for now. Ah, Melanie... She's become the better part of who I am.

Time: Saturday, June 3, 2006 4:47 PM

Melanie and I spent the afternoon bringing a king mattress and springs for the new bedroom and lighting in the condo. After we made the bed up, Melanie went to take a shower while I stretched out on the bed and did a bit of reading.

She returned wearing just a bathrobe and jumped on the bed next to me and started taking off my shoes. My socks soon followed and then she started massaging my feet. I sighed and lightly stroked her bare foot and calf lying near my face, playfully running my fingers under the damp robe and up her thighs.

I kissed her foot. "I remember the first time seeing you in pajamas, thinking how cute your feet were."

Melanie sighed. "My rescue from Sterling?"

I nodded and smiled. "Yeah. You were right too. I almost didn't recognize your toes."

"Ah, the smell of the acetone! It's been so long, I had forgotten how much I hate nail polish! You don't mind, do you, that my toes are au-natural?"

I responded by kissing and licking her beautiful toes. Eventually I started suckling them one by one into my mouth, caressing them with my tongue as I held them gently with my lips.

Melanie was quiet and still for long while, drifting in the pleasure of the oral foot caress, and then her hand came up and her fingers began dancing lightly across my groin, tracing the outline of my penis beneath my pants. The moments passed slowly, her fingers gradually becoming more insistent and my penis stiffening under her affectionate and sexy attention.

A quick glance at the window shades to be sure we were private, and then Melanie pushed me flat on my back, her hands working my belt and zipper. She soon had me naked from the waist down, her hands caressing my groin and thighs, gentle taps to the inside of my thighs to signal me to spread my legs.