Work The Problem Ch. 03

Leslie must have caught the look in Grace's eye, because she gave the doctor a friendly wink. Then she strolled off into the shower area herself and was met by Holly coming out the other way. The corporal gave a wave which was returned by the much shorter lagomorph. Their bodies were an interesting contrast. Holly was also lean, but had proportionally bigger hips and chest. Her ears almost came up to Leslie's shoulder. The soldier gave Holly's backside an appreciative look as she turned into the shower area.

Ah, so the corporal definitely liked the ladies. That was...useful knowledge, thought Grace. And Leslie wasn't her patient, so that made ethical considerations cleaner. Assuming, of course, that Leslie was interested in a blonde doctor who had a little bit of extra padding around her midsection. Grace felt a glow inside as she imagined cuddling up behind Leslie in the shower while running her hands over the corporal's taut stomach.

Her pleasant daydreaming was interrupted by Holly holding out a handful of electrodes. "I figured you'd want these back."

"Er, yes, thanks!" Grace felt her voice squeak a little. Damn it, it had been far too long since she'd gotten laid. She set the pile of hardware down on the bench and kept making notes as Holly dried herself off. They had gotten in an industrial-strength hair dryer for Holly, but even then it took a little while for the rabbit-human to get herself fully dry.

Grace kept working, and didn't really notice it when Holly left. She just gave the lagomorph an absent-minded wave as her mind kept plotting out her next steps. She distantly chewed on the end of her pen. She heard a laugh from beside her and realized that Leslie had finished her shower as well.

"Holly's gone, you know," said the corporal in a teasing tone.

The doctor felt herself blush. "Ah, yes. Sorry, let me get my stuff out of your way and get out of here."

Leslie gave a languid shrug. "Don't get in a lather on my account. I'm just a little jealous, what with Holly getting all of the attention." She gave Grace another wink and finished dressing, then strolled out of the showers while the doctor sat and blushed furiously.

Come to think of it, she could probably use a shower too. A nice cold one.

­__________________________________________________________

Ned was sure that he would never get tired of feeling Holly clench around him during her climax. Holly pushed her head into his chest as she cried out, her yell muffled against his skin. Her leg was hooked over his hip as they lay on their sides facing each other. His cock was buried deep in her and still twitching as he gave up the last bits of his seed.

"I love running," she finally panted. "But I love that even more."

"Well, by a happy coincidence I love it as well." He kissed the top of her head and almost said And I love you too. But that was a big step for him. The last person he'd said that to was his ex-wife.

Holly sniffled a little.

"Hey, are you crying?" Ned hoped that they were happy tears.

She nodded her head slightly and pushed in even harder, like she was trying to crawl into his ribcage. "I don't want to give you up. You know, when I go back."

Ned stroked her head and began to withdraw. Holly clamped her leg tighter. "No, leave it in," she whispered. "I want to feel it inside me for a while longer."

He stopped moving and tucked one finger under her chin. "Holly? Look at me." She did so, and her big eyes were watery with tears. "Neither of us are going to have to give up anything. I've been doing enough reading on this whole dimensional-travel business to know that we'll be able to make stable wormholes between our worlds. I can come with you and we can visit here anytime. Or the other way around, whichever works best."

Holly sniffed again, and blinked in surprise. "Oh. I somehow thought you would have to...sort of 'zap' me back, just like when I came here." Then she chuckled. "Guess I should ask before I get all upset, huh? I guess I am just a scared little rabbit after all."

Ned smiled. "You're the bravest person I know. If I was in your shoes, I don't think I'd be adjusting anywhere near as well."

In response, she pushed herself further onto him. He felt her internal muscles squeeze his deflating member. The sensation of that warm embrace made him gasp.

"I'm not letting it go," she said with that cheeky grin he'd come to treasure. "We'll just have to spend the rest of the day like this."

He almost said something in reply, but then gasped again as she continued her pussy-massage of his cock. "That's...that's some really good muscle control you have there," he finally managed to blurt out.

Holly stretched her neck up and licked his chin. She didn't say another word as her tight pussy gripped him. At first Ned didn't dare move, since any motion would cause him to slip out of her. He just lay and groaned slightly as Holly continued to assault his senses with both her internal milking as well as her tongue tracing little wet circles on his chest. Her roving mouth found one of his nipples and gave it a playful suckle. His hand tightened on her asscheek as Holly chuckled. He felt himself stir into life again, his cock expanding back up and into Holly.

"Damn, woman," he mumbled. "You make me feel like a teenager again."

"Less talk, more fucking," she mumbled back.

Ned placed his hand on the small of her back and rolled so she was on top. Holly just relaxed, letting out a gasping breath as she fully impaled herself on him. "Oh, Kas!" she whimpered. In response, Ned gripped her hips and began to use his arms to move her up and down his shaft. Holly gave a delighted laugh as her paws gripped his forearms. "I can't believe how strong you are."

He didn't reply as he just kept moving her, using her almost like a sex toy. Her inner flesh slid around him and he felt the little nub of her clit bump into him at the bottom of every stroke.

After a little bit of this treatment, Holly grabbed his left hand with one paw and brought it up to her mouth. She moaned as she continued to hump against him, and then began to suckle on his finger. Her little tongue ran over his index finger as she slobbered over it and coated it with a generous portion of her saliva.

Ned had no idea what she was up to, and right now didn't care. His only thought was to thrust as hard as he could into her. Finally she let go of his finger with a wet slurp and leaned forward.

"Put your finger in my ass," she whispered.

The thought invigorated him. He almost questioned it, but then decided to go ahead and do as asked. His lubricated finger reached behind her and ran teasingly along her crack. He felt the little pulse from her crinkled anus as he made brief contact with it.

"Do it," she moaned. He centered his finger and pushed. Her spit made it slide in easily, and Ned felt her inner muscles grip and milk the intruding digit.

"Oh, fuck...yes..." Holly whined, and he placed a hand over her tail before beginning to really thrust into her.

Holly squeaked in surprise as he sped up quickly. He kept the finger in her ass still at first, then began to work it in and out at the same tempo as his cock.

"Ahh! Do it, you slut!" she yelled. Their bellies slapped together in a quickening beat as they both felt their climaxes approach.

Once more Ned felt her vaginal walls grip and massage his cock as Holly came. Her anus similarly squeezed around his finger, and the sensation was enough to set him off as well. He felt himself pour into her, and eventually his spasming cock slowed and stopped. His finger pulled out of her rear with a 'pop'.

For a long while, they just lay with her sprawled on top of him.

Holly stroked his face with one trembling paw. "Ned, I..." she paused, and Ned suddenly realized she wanted to say what he'd almost said to her earlier. They were both so hesitant around each other's feelings, even after weeks spent in such close proximity. The absurdity of the situation made him laugh.

Holly got a slightly indignant look on her face. "What's so funny?"

"Me," he simply replied. "You. Both of us, dancing around each other and too scared to say the words." He stroked her fuzzy cheek in a mirror of her caress. "I'll say it if you will, my dear."

He felt her tremble against him as he said 'dear', and she looked away. "I've screwed up so many times, Ned. So often I thought it was the right thing, and it turned out not to be. I thought...I thought I was going to go through life alone."

"Never alone." He pushed his head up and kissed her. It wasn't a deep or erotic kiss, but it got across his feelings. As he pulled back from the kiss, he saw her huge eyes watering. "Holly, is it okay if I say it? I don't want to if...."

She shook her head, and he felt his heart sink a little. Had he misjudged her feelings? "We say it together," she replied, and he felt his spirits rise again.

Ned smiled. "On the count of three, then. One, Two, Three..."

"I love you," said two voices simultaneously.

Holly sat back and blinked tears out of her eyes. "Good. We got that out of the way. Now, shall we continue?" Again with that cheeky smile.

Ned stretched under her. "Um, you're gonna have to give me a moment." He gave her an answering smile.

­__________________________________________________________

Arnold and John Dengar had called a general all-hands meeting in the cafeteria. It was the largest space available to fit everyone. Holly had insisted on sitting on Ned's lap, much to his public embarrassment and private delight. Her ears tickled the sides of his face while Arnold laid out what he and John had worked out.

"We've made a lot of progress," said Arnold. "We have a good handle on how Ms. Arnbock ended up where she did, rather than inside the lab. The short answer is that she was inside an unbreakable 'bubble' of her own spacetime. There wasn't enough space for it to manifest inside the probe, so the bubble 'squirted' out at random and she wound up in that nearby back yard. However, there's another part of it that we simply cannot figure out. It's a problem of energy. Every bit of data we have indicates that the 'barrier' between the dimensions should be high. The probe's energy during its initial activation should have been much less than that required to breach such a barrier, let alone bring something back across it. It should have needed about a hundred thousand times more energy. We just can't make the math work out. Honestly, we're looking for inspiration. The tired old term is 'out-of-the-box' thinking."

"I don't get it," said Leslie Nowak. "So what if this barrier is lower than you think?"

Arnold tapped his chin. "Maybe an analogy is in order. Let's say you have something in front of you that looks like a cinder-block wall. There it is, as solid looking as anything. So you decide to barely brush your finger against the wall. You just want to verify that it's there. But instead of rubbing against the cinder blocks and feeling their texture, your entire arm pushes right through the wall, and you find out that it's made out of wet tissue paper."

"I hate to repeat myself, but so what?" The corporal still looked puzzled.

John now spoke up. "If we assume that the energy barrier is that much lower, then all of the fundamental physical models that we already know are wrong. But we know those models work. To continue with Arnold's 'wall' analogy, imagine that apparently solid cinder-block wall is holding up the roof over your head. And yet it's made out of wet tissue paper."

Leslie nodded and sat back. "Okay, I get it. I have to say that I don't know what sort of help I can be to figure it out."

Keith spoke up as he leaned against the door to the cafeteria. "Holly was hit by lightning at the moment of her transport. Maybe that gave enough additional energy?"

Arnold shook his head. "No, we took that into account. It's still nowhere near enough."

Holly drummed her fingers on Ned's thigh. "Can I maybe re-phrase your analogy? It's like you have two ledgers for one account. One set of books says the account should have a lot of money and the other says it doesn't. And you can't reconcile the two books with each other."

Arnold shrugged. "That's as good a metaphor as any. It's an energy budgeting issue. There just simply isn't enough power anywhere in the probe or the lightning to do what it did."

"Unless it came from outside," said Ned. The words were out of his mouth before he realized what he'd said.

Both Arnold and John looked at him. Arnold got an unfocused look in his eye. "Keep talking, Ned."

"Um...well, let's go back to the 'wall' analogy. Who says that the whole wall has to be made of tissue paper? Maybe it was only tissue paper in that one spot."

"The physics of it wouldn't work like that," said John. "The dimensional barrier has to be all one set value."

"Yes, if everything is naturally occurring processes," replied Ned. "But what if somebody else is also probing into Holly's dimension with more energy? You said it would take a lot more energy to breach that barrier. Maybe your probe inadvertently sort of...'piggybacked' on somebody else's efforts."

"My metaphor works too!" said Holly triumphantly. "Somebody's cooking the books!"

Arnold's eyes refocused. "Yes. That has to be it. It's the only explanation that fits all of the data."

John rubbed his forehead. "Shit. It sure does, unfortunately."

"Why unfortunately?" asked Holly.

He looked up at her. "We'll have to run the numbers, but I'm pretty sure that in order for our probe to have brought you here, they...whoever 'they' are...must have already opened up a portal or two to your world before you came here. Those portals might not be currently active, but they must be there and ready to re-open."

Colonel Gossett's normally reserved face became even more set. "I don't like the sound of that." The other soldiers in the room also looked grim.

Holly shrank back against Ned. "What am I missing?"

Sergeant Forrester spoke gently, as if to not spook her. "If they have opened portals into your world and yet haven't made contact with your people, then their intentions might not be friendly."

Ned hugged Holly as he felt her tremble. "Don't worry, love," he whispered to her. "We'll work the problem."

­__________________________________________________________

John Dengar and Colonel Gossett sat and cooled their heels. This was a small waiting area, with just a few threadbare chairs. Clearly this space had been furnished by the lowest bidder, thought John.

He was nervous, of course. The colonel looked calm in contrast, although John could tell by the set of his lips that the man was just as on edge as he was. After all, it wasn't every day you got summoned to a secure meeting with the President.

The inner door opened to reveal a big man in a suit with an obvious earpiece dangling down one side of his head. "Gentlemen? We're ready for you."

The two looked at each other and stood. The next room was not the standard Cabinet meeting room so often seen on TV. This was a secure room, deep under Washington D.C. John had lost count of how many times he'd been searched during the journey down here. It was small and very utilitarian, fitting with the decor of the outer waiting room. There was no ornate wooden table with plush chairs. This room just had a hunk of Formica and some chairs that would have looked at home in a ratty start-up company. Against the far wall, however, was a series of screens that looked like something out of a science fiction film.

Seated at the long table were two people. John knew that one of them was the Secretary of State, an older woman with dark brown hair. The other was the Secretary of Defense. This particular president had chosen a retired general as his SecDef, a barrel-chested man with short gray hair and a reputation as a tough bastard.

The two seated people then stood up as another door opened and the President walked in. He was shorter than John had expected, and still had the bounce in his step that had characterized him on the campaign trail. His face was lined, however, and his famously black hair was beginning to go gray. Six years as President, thought John. Six years and he looked twenty years older. Why anyone would want that job was beyond him. Gossett saluted, and the salute was returned with equal crispness by the President.

"Please, have a seat everyone," said the President. He had a folder tucked under one arm and tossed it on the table as he took his seat at the head of the table. John and the colonel took their seats at the far end. The President steepled his fingers together as he regarded the two of them.

"Well, gentlemen," he continued. "I've read your reports. Thanks to you, my nights have gotten even more sleepless."

"Sorry about that, sir," said Gossett. "I should stress that our conclusions are strictly theoretical at this point. Until we begin experiments again, we won't know for certain about our conjecture of another group creating portals into Ms. Arnbock's world."

"And with regards to Ms. Arnbock, these...rabbit-people," said the general. "Damn it, we need a better name for them. Anyway, these rabbits are harmless?"

Gossett shrugged. "They are certainly less warlike than us. Keep in mind, Holly is not a combat specialist. We're getting an idea of their capabilities second-hand through her. However, with that in mind I can say they are nowhere near as militarily advanced as we are. Overall, their technology is roughly equivalent to ours during the 1960s. They have just really started using solid state transistors, for example."

"Hmm." The general didn't look convinced. "They must have some sort of armed forces."

The colonel nodded. "Yes, but it's very loosely organized and based on riflemen. Sort of like the thirteen colonies just before the Revolutionary War."

The general relaxed a little at that. "I see. Primarily defensive, not offensive."

"Not quite," replied Gossett. "They do have the occasional conflict, but it's rare. They really haven't had their version of the Napoleonic Wars." John had read enough history to know that was when a modern, fully mobilized national army had come into being.

The Secretary of State had a distant look on her face. "What about trade? We can clearly offer them advanced technology, but what can they offer us?"

John cleared his throat. "Ma'am, in a lot of areas we are more advanced. But they appear to have a deep knowledge of chemistry that beats ours handily. My guess is that they have had to get that knowledge in order to grow crops more efficiently. So they have fertilizer technology that we can use here. Not to mention their synthetic fabric technology is also first-rate. We've done a full analysis of the clothing that Holly wore when she, um, came here. It's some kind of woven single-chain molecule that makes Kevlar look like tissue paper. That's one of the reasons that Holly was able to survive her trip. And it's not rare in their world. It was being used in standard running apparel, after all."

SecState sat back with a smile. "That would be worth having. Good, we could probably set up some sort of trade deal with them."

"Forget trade," said the President. "How the hell am I going to spin this to the other countries here on Earth? 'Hey, guys, we can now open portals to other timelines. Maybe they're hostile, maybe not.' What do we say to them?"

SecDef shrugged. "The simplest path is not to tell anyone. This is a technology that could rival the atomic bomb in terms of disruptive battlefield capability."

"It will get out," said SecState. "Something this big will leak. And then we have to explain why we didn't 'fess up to begin with."

The President fixed John with a stare. "Dr. Dengar, can we open a portal to Ms. Arnbock's dimension?"