Fade to Blink - A Quantum Date Ch. 02

I could feel my gut twisting. I glanced at the clock: four more minutes had passed. Maybe we could end this early..."Okay. I guess I have a couple more questions...is that okay?"

He nodded, and thankfully lost the smile.

"Is my manager going to know about this? Or...I guess, who else besides CorpSec and I will know these are my new responsibilities?"

"Your VP has a list of candidates under her who we've suggested. If you accept, she'll be aware."

I nodded, blinking for a second. He hadn't actually answered the question. Welp. "And, um, is there any change in my security status?"

His expression flickered for a second. I had no idea why, but I figured I'd asked a sensitive question. Oh shit! He'd already said that! Fuck. Stonefaced, I waited. "Noooo, not right away at least. You're...Blue2, right?" He continued without waiting, "so that's perfect for what we need right now. But after a few months, depending on the situation, you might be upped to 3." He paused. "In very rare cases, individuals get moved up a full level, but that usually is related to their actual work."

I got it. AdminConsole wasn't all that sensitive; I'd have to get transferred into one of the core code area. "Hmm...kay. Are there any other perks?" I could hear my mother chastising me for being impolite, but then again, this wasn't polite company.

He laughed that bark again, and looked at me, his eyes twinkling, but cold. Like stars on a very cold winter night. I didn't know which was more frightening: those eyes or that smile. Either way, I wanted to get as far from Dir CorpSec MiltHodgson HQB2.0.3 and as quickly as I could. "I'll supply a tray of donuts for your crew every week. How's that sound?"

I smiled. That was what I thought the situation needed even though I didn't feel like smiling at all. I wanted to run screaming from that conferences room, feeling the walls closing around me. "Great! I'm sure they'd appreciate it! But, erm, okay, just a couple more questions and then I don't want to keep you."

He nodded, his lips pressed together softly.

"How long would you need me to do this? And, who would I be reporting to?" I knew the answer to the first one, or at least I felt pretty certain. The second one was simply to find out how little I'd have to spend time with Dir CorpSec MiltHodgson HQB2.0.3. "Oh! One more: When...shoot, two more: When do you need me to let you know? And I assume this is completely voluntary...like...um...it won't look bad on my personnel record if I decline, right?"

Again the bark, but softer. "With respect to the last question, no. This isn't on your HR record one way or the other, and yes, it's completely up to you. I do have to say, even though there isn't an immediate pathway to promotion, many others have found they have improved performance reviews because of the experience gained through this program."

I could feel one ear turning red at the implications. Shit!

"...end of the week would be great, if you could. I can get you a link to the program site so you can learn more about it. And how long? We ask that you participate for a minimum of six months. It takes a while to find your voice. But after the six month mark, if you want to bow out, that'd be fine. And, reporting to? There's a program manager who is available to answer questions, troubleshoot, that sort of thing. Other than the initial transition period, when you'll meet with someone to QA your work, there really isn't much of a reporting structure."

I nodded and thanked him, telegraphing as best I could that I was satisfied with giving him a few minutes back. Even though I knew we both left the room at the normal speed, I felt like I'd flown back to my desk. I literally couldn't remember the walk back after we parted at the corridor.

When I got to my desk I worked hard at calming down, trying to forget that meeting as quickly as I could. I had work to get done, and if I fixated on that face, that smile, I'd be better off going home. Grabbing a drink from the kitchen, working some of the adrenaline off just by walking around, staring out over the lobby, about a half an hour later I had put it all into a box, labeled it HAZMAT, and turned my attention to more important things.

Except, I couldn't quite get into the rhythm of my work, Dir CorpSec MiltHodgson HQB2.0.3's meeting leaking fumes from its box, distracting me with the memory of that damn blueprint Jimmie had shown me. I was fucked. Hodgson was expecting me to snitch on Jimmie, which, if it were just about the fucking blueprint I suppose I could have done. But the line between work and our personal life had become very fuzzy: we'd cross several lines that night he showed me the blueprint.

Mid-April 32

He pushed me back against the couch, his tongue pressing against my lips and I let him in, the previous conversation about steampunk geeks and gears momentarily obliterated by the press of his body against me. The grey cloud coalesced into a burning orange and yellow syrup so quickly I couldn't fight it. I didn't want to fight it. I let it overwhelm me, hoping, maybe, it would wipe away whatever it was we'd just been talking about. I responded. I let myself respond. I had been wanting to feel him since the first day in his cubicle. I needed this, in spite of the cloak and dagger. I've never needed a template to help me feel, and I'd been feeling this need for Jimmie since that first day, months ago.

I pulled his shirt up from his pants, wanting to touch his skin, to rub his back and his ribs. His kiss intensified, his lips pressed against my mouth, his tongue wrestling with mine. I held him tight against me, wanting to feel his naked chest against my breasts, feeling his erection pushing against my thigh.

I slipped my hands between us, pushing against him until he broke away.

"Fuckkkkk, Jimmie...." I looked up at his face, lust. I recognized lust. His cheeks were red and blotchy. His eyes glassy, scanning me. I was trying to get my shirt off, but there wasn't enough room. He sat back on his knees and helped me, stripping off my shirt, helping lift my back up to unclasp my bra. I reached up and pulled off his shirt and pulled him back against me, feeling the warmth of his skin against me, my nipples hard, sensitive, rubbing against the sparse hair on his chest.

He had moved his hands to undo his belt, but it wasn't going to work. "Hold on, Jimmie. Hold on." I was catching my breath, swimming in the sensations of feeling his skin against mine. I rubbed his back, from between his shoulders down to the base of his spine, my fingers dipping under his waistband to feel the sweat in his butt crack. "Let's take it a little more slowly, k?" I moved my fingers up his ribs and felt him responding in kind, his fingertips lightly tickling my sides, his weight pressing down on me. This was fine. This was more than fine. The clamminess between my legs heating up, the orange syrup inside matching the stickiness around my quim.

We laid there for a while, luxuriating in this new thing we were doing, this line we'd crossed, this new relationship we were exploring. I needed to sit up, to breathe a little more deeply, pushing softly against his ribs again. He lifted off of me. I saw the hunger in his eyes, staring at my breasts, his gaze traveling down to my navel, to the top of my pants. I knew what I looked like, I knew what he wanted to see. I wanted him to see more, too, but I wanted to draw this out, to take it slowly.

"Jmmie," my voice was a croaked whisper. "Can you undress me?" I'd done this before with boys. It had always gotten the results I was looking for. His face lit up, a smile adding to the hunger in his eyes. He quickly undid my belt and jeans, pulling them and my underwear off in one smooth motion. Nothing subtle about this guy. But it was okay. I wanted him to strip me, to see me. But I wanted to see him too. "Now...you. I want to see you stripped too."

He looked down and in a smooth motion stood up, unbuckled his trousers and pulled them off, his erection preventing his boxers from sliding down, the waistband stuck on his cockhead. Carefully untangling his underwear, he stood facing me, his penis proud and erect, pulsing slightly with his heartbeat.

"Hold on," I said, pushing up onto my elbows, stopping him from jumping back on top of me. "Wait." I sat up and patted the cushion next to me, inviting him to sit. "I just want to take this a little more slowly. I want to see you, have you see me, feel you, feel your body."

I knew it wasn't as comfortable as lying in a bed, but it would keep things from moving too quickly. As we embraced, awkwardly, his thigh against mine, our torsos twisted, our hands stroking each other's backs and sides, we kissed, and then we didn't, and then we did again. I looked down to see his erection, pushed off-kilter by how he was sitting, my quim hidden between my thighs. And my eyes drifted across the floor, looking at the gear, the blueprint, and the whole reason we were here came crashing back into my head.

"What...?" He pulled away at the obvious change in my attention.

I sat back and nodded to the floor. "I can't. Not like this. Not with that."

He looked down and his face crumpled.

"Not yet. I want to. Gawd, Jimmie, I want to....and we're going to. Like rabbits." I looked at his cock staring up at me, pulsing, still very ready to do its job. "But, you asked me to look at something, and I think I'm looking at it. I just don't know what it is exactly, or why you have a blueprint from a super-secure site, or why you need to share it with me or..." I waved my hands at all of the open questions I had, and laughed at how ridiculous we were: sitting naked and horny on his couch while we faced probable jail time for even being in the room with that piece of paper.

His exhaled hard and he tousled his hair, trying to clear his thoughts. "Fuckkkk. Fuck fuck fuck. Okay. Yeah. I'm sorry..."

"Noooo. Don't be! Please. I want to do this. Maybe tonight even!" Definitely tonight! "It's just that I can't not think about that."

"...okay...let me get something to drink. You want anything?" He stood up, his cock still hard, pointing out from his thatch of pubic hair, the sheen on his skin subtly reflecting the lights from the room.

"Ummm...you have any wine?" I thought again, feeling the electricity on my skin. "Or water. Whatever."

I watched his muscles move in his glutes as he walked away, his cock drooping by the time he turned into the kitchen. Grabbing my underwear I slipped it on, hoping to not make a mess on his couch, my eyes continuing to scan the blueprint.

"I hope this is to your liking." He crossed in front of me to set a glass of wine on the end table on my side, his penis only inches from my face, now flaccid but still thick. I could smell his sweat and musk and I had to resist the urge to just grab him, turn him and take him in my mouth. I sooooo needed to get laid. And I was soooo into him. "Okay. Sorry. But you are so fucking beautiful, I just couldn't..."

Again with the beautiful. Twice in one night. Hmmm. I blushed and covered my reaction by grabbing the wine. When I set it back down, I looked over at him, his face, chest, soft-on, pubic hair, thighs, face, pubic hair, toes, blueprint, soft-on. I giggled a little and nodded to the blueprint. "What the actual fuck, Jimmie?"

"Okay. Cliff notes. MEI is building quantum 'bearings,' right?" He kept going even as I nodded, as if I knew what the fuck where he might be going. "That," he pointed with his glass, "is one of the earliest prototypes, probably..." he looked up to the left, "six years old at this point. Roughly when I joined the company. Monty and Ritchie had figured out that the best place to be in this new quantum world was a supplier of key components. They knew what the possible applications were. Hell, they'd written enough papers on the applications that everyone was shocked when MEI chose to work on the component side. But it was a cunning move." He stopped to check in on me.

"Okay. I get it so far. They're building a business plan as a supplier to a bunch of others. And they decided on quantum bearings...?"

He nodded. "Yeah. From what I've gathered from everything I could read by the two of them, a quality quantum bearing is at the heart of any steampunk design. There are several others, but they figured the bearing was almost universal. And, based on the competition, they're assumptions seem to be bearing out. Sorry. No pun intended. There are several companies in the supply chain, and all of them have bearings in their catalog." He took a breath and laughed. "This is crazy. I'm sitting here naked with the most beautiful girl and we're talking shop." He shook his head and took another gulp.

I blushed a little and nodded, staring at him, watching his balls drift down along the cushion, his penis slumped now, taking a sip of my wine. 'Beautiful'...maybe he's got a limited vocabulary...I mentally shrugged but couldn't completely ignore how he was looking at me. "Okay. So, a smart move on their part, yeah?"

"Yeah. They chose to go after military applications. Monty had prior relationships in those markets, and the bar to entry is way higher. You know how I suggested this morning you should take a look at the lobby every once in a while? There was an entire group of top brass there just a few minutes before. There's something going on with our new release. Ritchie and Monty are going to be in-house tomorrow." He pressed his lips together and stared out the patio doors into the darkness. "Anyway, the milspec versions of quantum bearings are orders of magnitude more expensive to build, because, more importantly, their precision is absolutely required for any application that the military might be interested in."

I nodded. I got that. Any system's reliability is the result of a combination of each of the component's reliability, as well as the connections among the components. The chain is only as strong as its weakest link and all that.

"MEI decided they would own the milspec sector. That," he nudged his elbow toward the floor, "is the first of a dozen versions of quantum bearings, each of which has pulled far ahead of the competition. MEI builds the most precise, the most reliable, and the most hardened quantum bearings in the world." He turned to me. "But you won't hear any of that on the street." He finished his glass and refilled it from the bottle on his table, offering to refresh mine.

"Okayyyy..." I waited while he topped me off.

"Yeah. Okay. So MEI builds precision components. So what, right? So, the interesting thing is, what is the fucking application these are best suited for?" He set down the bottle. "I've been scouring the interwebs, looking at any documentation in-house I can get my hands on. I'm curious, right? And my security clearance gives me the right to do a fairly broad scan." He wiped his face, clearly preparing for the big reveal. "And I've learned a lot. I have. There's clearly some shit going on out there that only our components are suitable to support. But the thing is, about years ago, I was invited to some high-level conversations that made me....um...pause?" He took a drink and looked at me.

I just raised my eyebrows. I really didn't have a fucking clue where he was heading, and I knew I had asked for it, but I was having trouble concentrating with everything else going on: sitting naked, the cool air in the room hardening my nipples, raising gooseflesh on my breasts, sipping wine, his face, eyes, penis, wine, gear, penis, eyes. There wasn't anything I could look at that would help make sense of what we were doing.

"Right. Remember a couple of weeks ago my telling you to stay out of the basement? Well, the reasons for those meetings were because of 'glitches' going on with the freezers." He stopped and corrected himself. "Not the freezers, per se, but the processes going on in the freezers. Things were not staying isolated like they should have. It wasn't good. People were getting...erm...I don't know how to say it. Not 'hurt' exactly but definitely not normal."

This wasn't helping. "Jimmy. I don't understand. You're all over the board here and I'm not tracking. Let me see if I've got it right so far: a) MEI builds milspec bearings which outstrip, hmmm poor choice of words, maybe, the competition, b) they are suitable for some kind of military application so we're hosting bigwigs a lot, and c) there's a problem with our manufacturing system that's causing people to get...something...in the basement. Have I summed it up?" I realized through all of that that my underwear was now wet and clammy, but the gut blob had at least stayed quiet. I shifted a little, feeling squishy between my legs. I took another drink.

He laughed. "You're right. I'm not telling a very clear story. All of that is correct. My point is, that people, specifically Checkered status people, who spend a lot of time around the freezers, were starting to...shit...you're going to think I'm even crazier than before with the bugs," he waved his hands around the room, "...were flickering in and out of our dimension." He looked at me as he said it, scanning for any reaction.

But my default is stone-faced. So, as fucking weird as that sentence was, I just looked back at him, my eyes scanning his face, trying to understand what that expression really meant. Fear? Vulnerability? Anger? I couldn't land on a specific. He was definitely agitated. "That's pretty weird, Jimmie...but I don't know exactly what you mean...what dimension is 'our dimension,' exactly? And what does that mean, 'flickering' in and out?" My glass was almost empty and my head was swirling from the alcohol. I set it down and sat back, opening my thighs to air out a little, regretting it as soon as I smelled myself, but not wanting to call more attention by closing them again. I sighed silently. Stupid and blind!

He sighed. Only his was audible. "I know. It sounds..." he paused and looked at me, "well...impossible actually. I didn't believe what I'd been reading from the internal reports. But several of the individuals came and spoke to us...told us what they'd experienced, and, well..." He stopped and turned completely towards me to put his hands on my shoulders, locking his eyes onto mine. "...if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes I wouldn't have believed it."

That did get a reaction out of me. Just feeling his palms on my shoulders, their warmth, and the slight squeeze he gave me, that set something off in me, but the sheer intensity of his eyes when he said it. I raised my eyebrows. For me, that was a lot. "You...saw someone flicker?"

He nodded slightly. "The whole room almost exploded. There were 10...maybe 12 of us. CorpSec swooped in before any of us could even think about leaving, our screens were collected. It was...it was the most amazing thing I've ever seen, and..." he got very quiet, "probably the most frightening."

"Um, when you say 'flickered', did they just disappear, or did they like, go and come back, or what exactly happened?" I usually go for the facts. They're the only thing I can rely on.

He kept his gaze on me, his hands moving down my arms to my elbows. I squirmed a little, but not because it was uncomfortable. Just the opposite. It made me self-conscious, a bit, being mostly naked with him, and just sitting talking about work. It was weird, and awkward, and with the alcohol, a turn-on. "Yeah," he exhaled, thinking. "He definitely, like, faded? Like, Alice in Wonderland, the Cheshire Cat?" He waited for me to nod at the reference. "Yeah, like, it was really weird, now that I think about it again. His head faded, like I could see the wall behind his cheeks, like he was semi-transparent, but anywhere there were clothes, they sort of hung there, and then his face re-materialized, and then faded again, and then came back.