Page 31 of CHOICE Lover
“What’s a parachute?” the woman asks.
Her friend answers, “I believe it’s a massive sheet of fabric people used to avoid dying when they fell out of airplanes.”
The woman coughs. “But then wouldn’t testing the faulty ones be problematic?”
Her friend giggles. “I think she’s being funny! What a great LifeLike innovation. What trait would I have to select to get that?”
“Sarcasm,” Res6 answers, frowning.
In a moment of great fortune, the simulation chamber employee steps around the desk. “Sir, your chamber is ready. This way, please.”
Electra steps in line with the woman, grateful when Res6’s not entirely unpleasant hand falls away. Normally, she’d be an advocate for physical touch, but with him—
“Here we are,” the employee says. “You have one hour of horseback riding followed by a prairie picnic, as requested. The basket with everything you need is in the supply bin.”
Electra steps inside the room, which is nothing more than a large black box. There is a cubby to the side where a classic wicker basket sits, complete with a red and white blanket, presumably to spread out in the field.
“When you’re ready, just press this button,” the employee instructs, then slips out the door. Electra has no clue how this empty room is going to transform into a setting for horseback riding, and surely an actual horse won’t appear. Were they on the extensive list of extinct species? She’ll have to search that later. When she turns around to ask Res6 what exactly they’re meant to be doing, he’s putting on—“Are those chaps?”
His nose wrinkles as he assesses the bright orange overpants with a bedazzled strap that he buckles at his waist. “Whatever they are, they’re a bit ostentatious for my taste.”
“I guess that’s something we can agree on.”
He frowns. “Faulty parachutes. Really?”
She shrugs, trying and failing to hide her grin. “What? You told me to be myself.”
He sighs, fishing around in a bin, and hands her a blue pair of chaps. She takes them along with a sleek pair of safety glasses, adding, “This is insane.”
Five minutes later, to her utter shock and amazement, the room has been transformed into a vast plain surrounded by mountains that looks like it might be Montana, and she’s sitting on something that resembles a mechanical bull but with a longer neck. The thing appeared from a hole in the floor after they watched a minute-long instructional video and Res6 pressed a button.
“Many of the simulations require VR headsets, but the more sophisticated rooms use an advanced holographic technology.”
She glances around the golden, windswept field, then across the expansive blue sky, searching for the projectors. They’re well disguised if they are there. “Where’s your ‘horse’?” she asks, using air quotes.
Her stomach sinks as he steps up beside her, first putting a foot into the stirrup and swinging a leg around like the video showed. “That wasn’t difficult,” he says, using her hips as leverage as he adjusts his position.
“Before we start, I have a question. Several, in fact.”
“Oh, now you want to play my fun questions game?” He squeezes her hips for emphasis.
“I thought the purpose of these outings was to acclimate me to your world. How is this supposed to do that?”
“You said you don’t enjoy shopping, so here we are,” he says, as if that makes any sense. “Just try to get something out of this, okay? Enjoyment, perhaps. Or consider the technology it takes to recreate this experience. It’s fascinating, really.”
He points to a red switch at the top of the machine’s “neck.” She almost can’t reach it, but she gets it flipped. Suddenly, the mechanical horse thing appears to have ears that twitch, plus fur. Amazed, shereaches forward, brushing her hand along its mane, meeting cool metal where the “animal’s” coat ought to be.
“So weird,” she says.
Behind her, Res6 kicks his heels into the “horse,” nudging it into a trot. She lurches forward, grabbing hold of the saddle horn, a part she only knows because of the research she did for herOut of this Worldseries. After the alien king saved Guinevere, he may or may not have used the hornfor her pleasureon the long ride back to Outlandia. The thought makes her jump, which causes Res6 to grasp her hips again.
“You okay?” he asks, and she tries to focus on the gently rolling valley they’re passing through.
Surely he doesn’t think . . .
“Electra,” he urges, squeezing to get her attention.
He knows about her books. Has he read them? Surely he doesn’t think she’s going to let him do that to her now. The woman out there assumed they were having, or at least would have, sex. That’s the whole point of a manupartner. But Res6 doesn’t seem interested in sex with her, though maybe he has a weird kink that he plans to use this poor horse for. Oh God, how many other people have had sex on the machine she’s currently sitting on? Surely they sterilize the equipment after each customer.
