Spark the Runner

Their nominal lifespan was around sixty human years, but their Alpha male was an 80 year old with a loincloth below his knees out of necessity, while the Alpha female, not related by marriage, was a 75 year old who spent most of her time having sex.

The males had soft spiny growths right behind their glans, meant to stimulate their females to ovulation. They looked like a bunch of little tentacles and the first human females discovered that the little spines would drive them absolutely crazy with orgasmic bliss. As a result, the Cresco males became exceedingly popular among the colonists. And the human females who had sex with them became "classified."

The Cresco females also had an oddity which made them very desirable to human males. The muscular response in their vaginal canal would pulse like a milking machine. That, coupled with their intense pheromones, would drive the humans to multiple orgasms, whether they were predisposed that way or not. Human males who had sex with them became "classified."

Tonya was programmed with all the available information on how to blow the doors off of Cresco libido, male or female. They'd decided to leave the programming intact, but with a wall around it so that it would take an act of will to access it. Now Spark was trying to figure out what the Blood Alliance thought they were going to do with it. And the more he dug, the more intrigued -- and concerned -- he became.

Sitting around the usual table, coming down from his latest Run, he started sharing his concerns with the others.

"If you wanted to dominate an alien race who had superior intellect and technology, relative to humans, how would you do it?" he asked.

"Sex," Tonya and the Professor answered together. The Professor went on, "like early human religions... control the females, and consequently the sex, and the males would generally do what you wanted them to do. Provided they were rewarded."

"So we have an alien race which has two dominant sexes and they are about equal in both drive and social standing," Spark went on. "I want trade contracts which favor me over anybody else. I want them invested in keeping me happy. What do I have to offer?"

"Sex," Tonya iterated.

"Tonya," the Professor pointed out, nodding towards her.

"Yeah. I kind of thought that might be where this was going," Spark nodded. "So their fifty billion credit investment brings a return of trillions. Not bad for one little construct. So why look for Tonya? Why not build another one? Okay, first of all, fifty billion isn't a drop in the bucket. Secondly, they have the original specs but what they don't have is the miracle."

"What miracle?" the Professor asked.

"Helena," Spark told him, indicating Tonya. "As far as I can tell, and you're the expert in this, she's made the leap from Artificial Intelligence to Actual Intelligence. Her datamesh is more superhuman than construct. She has taken her basic programming and enhanced it a thousand-fold. There isn't any way they can force that. It just happened. It's a miracle."

"So she needs to be off this planet, where it would be difficult, if not impossible, for them to find her," the Professor speculated.

"That's one solution," Spark agreed. "Let's take it a step further. My fantasy is, she goes to Mars as they planned. Except instead of working for their interests, she works for her own. Win the Cresco over to her, get their loyalty, and she sits there ruling, fat, dumb and pretty, generally forever. I haven't been able to figure out what her service life would be."

"I am not fat, and I am not dumb!" Tonya bristled. It was the first time Spark had sensed any kind of anger from her.

"No, you're not," he quickly agreed. "It's a human expression. Fat, dumb and happy. When everything is going like you want it and there aren't any problems to deal with." As she understood what he was saying, she put her hackles down.

"My 'service life' as you called it," she informed him, "based on mean-time-to-failure of my weakest systems, is slightly over two thousand years. Presuming exposure to a power source, like the Sun, or other radiant energy."

"Two thousand years of running a civilization superior to humans," he chuckled. "Too bad I won't live long enough to see it."

"Yes, it is..." Tonya murmured, and Spark noted there seemed to be genuine sadness in her voice.

"So how do we smuggle her to Mars?" the Professor asked.

"As my wife," Spark suggested and Tonya visibly brightened. "Tourists," Spark went on. "I've got so many identities, it's ludicrous. Make me Communications Officer on a freighter, taking his newlywed wife along, and we slip by most of the vetting process SEX has." The Professor chuckled.

"Such an amusing acronym," he told them. "Security Executive eXtraterrestrial. They wouldn't know what sex was if it sat on their face while blowing them. But yes, you are right, Spark. The freighters are monitored for passengers, but as a member of a flight crew, you'd get a fairly automatic pass. So would your spouse."

"I think it is a great idea," Tonya put in. "Professor, you can manage my portfolio here on Earth, and I will go with my husband to Mars and seduce an entire alien species." Turning to Spark, she added, "after, of course, you screw my brains to mush, husband..."

Spark just shook his head and smiled in amazement. This was not at all how he'd imagined this gig would go. He'd have to set it up with his people that he would be unavailable for an extended period.

Tonya stood up and shed the simple wrap she was wearing.

"I told you your reference to Rossum might not be that far off," she told Spark. "Shall we go see if you can get me pregnant?"

*~*~*~*~*

Author's note: the story of Spark and Tonya is intended to continue with their trip to Mars and elsewhere, but for now, this is the end of the story. Just so it gets said, Geeks Rule! Even us Dinosaurs. I hope you enjoyed this small homage to RUR, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (i.e., Blade Runner), The Matrix, Star Trek TNG, Shadowrun and others. Cheers.