NEW STORY! iVortex - Chapter 1

Chapter 1

“That is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.” Ryan leaned back in his chair and gave Cameron a long, pitying look.”It’s gotta be a prank.” 

Cameron was grateful for the noise and acoustics of the cafeteria which made it difficult to hear any one of the dozens of conversations going on. The fewer people who heard his “crazy conspiracy theory” the better. “Yeah, that’s what people are saying but I’m not so sure.” Cameron replied, sketching a few more lines in his notebook. A diagram of some sort of machine was taking shape.

“So let me get this straight. In that big leak of DARPA documents there were instructions to build a device,” Ryan said.

“Yeah.”

“And those plans were received from outer space by what, aliens?”

“Presumably, yes.”

“And they are for a device that you think can alter reality.”

“It’s not what I think, it’s what the DARPA scientists think.”

Ryan shook his head. “Even if aliens were somehow sending us blueprints; why hasn’t the government built the thing?”

Cameron set his pencil down and looked thoughtful for a moment. “I dunno. Maybe they have. Maybe they built it and are afraid to use it. Maybe there is a bunch of government red tape. Maybe they are afraid it’s a some sort of trap. There are any number of reasons.”

“Or its a hoax,” Ryan prodded.

“Sure, yeah,” Cameron conceded. “It could be a hoax.”

“But you don’t think so?” The naked scorn in Ryan’s words stung a little.

“No, because the document IDs on the schematics are consistent with the-” A heavy stack of papers walloped the table between the college sophomores. Cameron nearly leapt out of his chair in surprise. Ryan scowled at the new arrival. 

Erina Vanderbilt stood over them, flashing pearly white teeth between her perfectly pert, red lips. It wasn’t quite a smile, more an expression of well-practiced tolerance; the sort of look an adult might offer a bratty child. And in spite of her youthful nineteen year old face, Erina was very much an adult. Maybe not in temperament or maturity, but she was adult in the way that mattered most to young men: she was a total sexpot. Erina’s large, firm breasts featured prominently in all of her clothing, including the keyhole sundress she was wearing today. High cheekbones gave her fake smile a haughty, european beauty that somehow perfectly matched her tone. “More homework for you Cameron. I need this done by Friday.”

“He’s not your slave, Erina,” Ryan retorted.

Erina’s eyes glanced over Ryan before turning back to Cameron as though she hadn’t heard anything. To Cameron she said, “Try to make them A’s this time, the cultural lit paper got a B. My GPA needs to be perfect, okay?” Cameron looked down at the sketch in his notebook. Erina nodded and turned to leave. Her firm bubble butt sashayed away, drawing glances from all over the cafeteria. 

“Hey man, are you really going to take that?” Ryan asked, glaring at Erina’s back.

Cameron tapped the papers on the table, head bowed in thought. Erina was a dozen steps away before he stood up suddenly, scattering the papers spread across the table. “Erina wait,” Cameron called. Ryan nodded and thrust his hands out toward her as if to say, ‘Go get her’. Cameron walked quickly across the cafeteria floor to catch up with Erina who continued to walk away. “Wait,” he repeated, from right behind her.

Erina sighed heavily and spun on her heel. Wavy blond hair fell across her face and she brushed it out of the way. “What do you want?” she said.

Cameron opened his mouth to speak and found a lump in his throat stopping his words. He swallowed hard and said, “You said after last time we could uhm… Hang out?”

“Did I?” Erina said, offering another not-quite-sincere smile.

“I was thinking I could show you something,” Cameron said uncertainly.

“Like what?” Erina said, and pulled out her phone.

Sensing she was already losing interest Cameron spoke quickly, “It’s a secret. I mean- it was a secret. It got leaked on the internet, but I built it- I mean it’s not done yet, but I can show it to you.” 

“Huh?”

“It’s a machine, it can do, I mean I think it can do- something incredible.”

“Sounds lame.”

“No it’s amazing, really, I swear.” Cameron said vehemently.

“Fine, whatever. I’ll give you ten minutes. Where is it?” Erina said, no longer even attempting to conceal her annoyance.

“It’s not ready yet. Come to my room Friday night. I’ll give you the homework and you can see it.”

Erina stared at him as though her were a fly that had repeatedly avoided a swatter. Then she shrugged off her irritation and said, “Okay, but this is not a date.”

“Right, of course.”

Erina reached out a finger and tapped the bottom of Cameron’s chin, forcing his gaze up from the line of her cleavage. “If I hear any rumor about us dating I will make sure the only place willing to hire you is my aunt’s farm. You will shovel cow shit until you’re old and gray, got it?”

Erina’s family was in politics so even though her threats were sometimes outlandish they weren’t entirely dismissible. Cameron’s shirt collar felt constrictive and he adjusted it nervously. “Yeah, I got it.”

“Good, was there anything else?” Erina asked, batting her eyelashes prettily as though she had not just threatened to ruin his life. 

“N-no. But you uhm, you look nice today.”

Erina’s smile was incrementally more sincere when she replied. “Of course,” before turning to rejoin her friends. Leona, captain of the volleyball team the resident fem-jock and Yumeko, a quiet and obsequious exchange student from Japan looked at Cameron then exchanged a glance and giggled, sharing some private joke. Cameron returned to his seat.

“So, did you finally tell her to fuck off?” Ryan asked.

“Err, something like that,” Cameron lied. 

“Good man, good man. You can’t let her walk all over you or no girl will respect you.” Ryan waited a few moments for Cameron to respond before adding, “Right?”

“Yeah, right.” Cameron said, focused on completing his sketch. He turned the paper sideways then back the other way, scrutinizing every line. After the machine none of this would matter. He could wipe out all the bad parts and become anyone or anything he wanted to be. Ryan started talking about football and Cameron tuned out. 

A brave new reality was only three days away.

***

Cameron skipped class. He could have skipped working on Erina’s term papers but he wanted her in a good mood for the presentation. The machine required the majority of his time. All of it, really. Erina’s papers would have to be rush jobs that probably would not earn A’s, but that would not matter soon. Once the device had worked its magic none of it would matter. Not his boring life, mediocre grades, or the fact that he had mortgaged the first year and a half of college for a girl who not only wouldn’t date him, but barely tolerated his presence.

“Ow!” Cameron yelped, pulling his hand away from the machine. A bead of blood formed at the tip of his finger where it had been pinched between two metal joints. A bruise was already starting to form. Someone knocked on the door. “Damnit,” Cameron cursed softly then more loudly added, “Hang on.” He searched furtively for a band-aid when the knock came again. With a steady stream of curses Cameron stalked over to the door and wrenched it open, “What?” he nearly shouted.

Lisa, his sister, gave him a wide eyed stare. “Jeez, were you jacking off or something?”

Cameron blushed fiercely. “What? No, I hurt my thumb on this stupid-” He paused. “What are you doing here anyway?”

Lisa tried to shove past him and said, “I wanted to see you, bro! Also mom wanted me to bring you these.” She produced a plate stacked high with cookies from behind her back. 

“Oh come on, I’m not a kid.”  

“I’ll eat em’.” Lisa volunteered with a cheeky smile. “I’m a growing girl, you know?”

Cameron looked Lisa over and shifted uncomfortably, backing out of the doorway. Lisa had really filled out the last couple of years. She’d gone from waifish kid to a curvy teenager seemingly overnight. He felt uncomfortable checking her out but the change was so dramatic he couldn’t help but notice.

Lisa slipped past him into the room and stopped in front of the machine that dominated nearly half the available space in his room. A series of metal tubes intertwined in complex paths that made the contraption look like a 3D sculpture of a celtic knot. “Wow, what is this?” Lisa said, amazement creeping into her voice.

“It’s a secret. A machine.”

“A secret machine?” Lisa asked, with a raised eyebrow.

“Yes,” Cameron said curtly, resuming his search for something to wrap his finger with. 

“Oh you’re bleeding,” Lisa said. She whipped a band-aid out of her purse and took his hand. Her fingers were soft and warm as they delicately wrapped the bandage around his finger. When she was done Lisa bent down and gave the bandage a little kiss. Cameron snatched his hand back. “That’s what mom always did, isn’t it?” Lisa asked with a grin.

“Yeah I guess. Thanks anyway.”

“So, you gonna tell me what this machine does?”

“It doesn’t matter,” Cameron sighed, not wanting a repeat of his conversation with Ryan. One friend turned hard skeptic was bad enough, and Lisa’s disbelief would be worse. She had  always looked up to her big brother- believed in him. “Its for class,” he lied.

“Well that’s gonna get an A for sure,” Lisa smiled.

Cameron snorted a laugh. “You don’t even know what it is.”

“Neither will they,” Lisa said dropping into a fake boxer’s stance. “Gonna hit em with the ole razzle dazzle!” She pantomimed a one-two punch. 

Cameron laughed harder. “You’re such a dork.” 

“I learned from the best,” Lisa’s toothy smile lit up her pretty face. It wasn’t so long ago that she was a gangly nerd not unlike himself. It was strange the difference a year could make; she was still the little sister he knew and loved, but there was something vaguely intimidating to her now that wasn’t there before. His electronic clock beeped the hour, it was 7PM.

He sighed, “Yeah well you’re gonna have to take lessons somewhere else, I gotta lot of work to do.”

“Aww, I thought we could hang out?” Lisa pouted. “I never see you anymore.”

Cameron frowned. “I know, I’ve just been really busy with school and stuff. I’ll come by home soon, I promise.”

Lisa jabbed his shoulder. “You better. I’m taking a cookie.” She snagged a cookie from beneath the cellophane and stuffed it into her mouth before he could protest.

“Brat,” he smiled. 

“Ah know ya ar buh wuh uhm ah,” Lisa mumbled around the cookie. She reached up and mussed his hair, a ritual she’d repeated often since they were very little. Usually it worked the other way around, but Lisa had always had a fascination with the slight curl to his hair and her older brother couldn’t help but indulge her.

“I’ve missed you,” he said, speaking aloud the sudden realization.

Lisa grinned around her chocolate chip confection. “Mithed yew too,” she slurred.

Cameron rolled his eyes and ushered her out the door. “Tell Mom and Dad I said hi.” Lisa chomped into her cookie in response and nodded. The door closed with a click that felt more final than it should have. He considered wrenching open the door and shouting for Lisa to come back. She never failed to cheer him up. Cameron glanced at the machine; maybe he didn’t have to change everything.

***

Friday arrived in the blink of an eye. Last minute preparations included champagne on ice, the best dress shirt he could find, and some light jazz that he hoped sounded classy. Cameron considered candles but was nervous about starting a fire; it was difficult to maneuver around his room with the machine taking up most of the space and the last thing he needed was to burn down the dorms and all his hard work with them. By the time seven O’clock rolled around and there was no sign of Erina and burning down the dorms was beginning to sound a lot more appealing.Cameron cursed himself for failing to specify a time, which meant Erina would show up anytime between now and, well, never.

The ice around the champagne had begun to melt into a big puddle when Cameron decided to start the party without her. In the new world Erina would never be late because she would be eager to meet with the love of her life. Champagne fizzled into his glass and began to brim over the sides. “Shit,” Cameron said, jerking the bottle away and nearly splashing it onto the machine. “Where is she,” he grumbled. He looked from the overflowing glass of champagne to the machine and back again. “To a better world,” he toasted and chugged down the contents of his glass.  

The champagne buzzed into his brain, creating an unfamiliar tingling that reminded Cameron he wasn’t much of a drinker. Technically he wasn’t a legal drinker either, but maybe the machine could fix that too. He poured another glass of champagne, careful not to spill any.

By the sixth glass of bubbly Cameron was swaying in his chair. The digital clock displayed 9:30 in blocky red numbers. Erina wasn’t coming. She’d probably found someone smarter to do her homework. Cameron stood up and changed the music that he’d heard loop half a dozen times already. Light jazz was about as far from his mood as polka at a funeral. He clicked through his playlist until angry distortion heavy guitars rattled through the speakers.

He opened one of the essays he had written for Erina. Why did he keep falling for her bullshit?       

A knock at the door made him stand up so fast he knocked his chair over. The room spun for a moment as his brain protested the sudden change in elevation. “Coming,” he yelled and stumbled over to open the door. Erina was wrapped in a racy black dress that made her porcelain skin luminant in contrast. A tantalizing line of cleavage peaked from the top of her dress, hinting at the wealth of breast flesh below. The rest of the dress hugged her body like a glove, slimming the curve of her hips rather than emphasizing them. It made her look even more topheavy than she actually was, not that Cameron minded. 

“Are you going to stand there ogling me or invite me in?” Erina asked peevishly.          

“Err you came. You weren’t coming so I… There’s champagne,” Cameron babbled. Finally he regained some semblance of coherent thought and gestured Erina inside, “Come in.” 

Erina cautiously stepped inside, hesitating in the doorway. “Remember what will happen if you try anything weird,” she threatened.

“I’m not gonna do anything weird,” Cameron said belligerently, using finger quotes to emphasize ‘weird’.  

Erina’s lip curled in disgust for a moment before she replaced it with her patented facsimile smile. “Good,” she took in the massive machine at the center of the room. “Is this what you wanted to show me?” 

“Yes,” Cameron said. “No.” He shook his head to clear the alcohol fog. “It’s what it does that matters.” 

Erina rested her hands on her curvaceous hips and raised her eyebrows expectantly. She said, “Well, what does it do?”

Cameron waved her over to his laptop and Erina moved to stand behind him. Subtle heat radiated from her body, and he suspected her breasts were scant inches from the back of his head. It was an effort not to turn and check. He opened the app that sent commands to the machine. He considered explaining how much work it had been to splice a custom cable that was compatible with the alien machine but a mental image Erina’s disinterested expression convinced him otherwise. “So in here I can specify parameters that change the physical constants of reality.”

“In English?” Erina said.

“Its…” Cameron regretted the last few glasses of champagne, struggling to come up with an explanation. Finally he said, “Okay, imagine if the freezing point of water was twenty degrees celsius instead of zero.” Not waiting for Erina to respond he rushed on with the explanation, “The icecaps would become much larger, mountains would retain their caps longer or maybe permanently. Rivers would freeze in early fall. The ecological changes would be massive and global all because of one little change, you see?”

“So this is gonna let you fix climate change or something?” Erina asked, begrudgingly impressed. Cameron’s heartbeat quickened, he knew this would amaze her.

“It could,” Cameron agreed. “But that’s just the tip of the iceberg.” Erina snorted derisively at his pun but Cameron was on too much of a roll to let it bother him. “I can change the evolutionary path of humanity by-”

“So,” Erina interrupted. “You can what, balance the sexes?” 

“You mean make women stronger?”

“Stronger, taller, everything.”

Cameron hesitated, mind churning through all of the variables he’d have to alter to get that result. “I think so,” he said hesitantly. “But wait,” he suddenly remembered the other reason he wanted Erina here. “Before I do that what, umm, kind of things do you find attractive in a umm, mate?”

“In a mate?” Erina laughed- and it was clearly at Cameron- not with him. “Oh, I like short guys.”

“Shorter than me?” Cameron’s eyes widened. He wasn’t very tall, in fact Erina was already slightly taller than his 5’7 height.

“Oh yeah, much shorter.” Erina giggled. “And very obedient. Like a little puppy dog.” Her hand suddenly rested on Cameron’s shoulder and his groin stirred. “Girls like me need to be worshipped,” she purred in his ear. “Our perfect bodies and great, big breasts,” she leaned forward and warmth spread across Cameron’s shoulders as her tits compressed against him.

“Taller, perfect body, bigger breasts,” he muttered, typing furiously.

“You gotta give me more though,” Erina pouted, her breath hot in his ear. “Don’t I deserve more than all those other girls.”

“Yes!” Cameron practically yelped as his pants constricted tightly against his rapidly stiffening cock. “How do I…” He muttered, struggling to think with all the blood rushing to his penis. “Maybe isolate individual genetic markers.” Erina continued to give instructions and “encouragement” while Cameron constructed the foundations of a new, ideal reality. 

Finally, it was finished. “Are you ready?” he said, voice tight with anticipation.

“I’m ready,” Erina panted in his ear.

Cameron hit execute.

Nothing happened.

Cameron spun and looked at the machine, it was silent. Erina stepped aside and picked up a sheef of papers. “Is this my homework?” she asked. 

“Yes,” Cameron said, distractedly. “This isn’t right, it should be doing something.” He pulled up the schematics and began scrolling through the document for the umpteenth time. He had triple checked every component- it should be working!

“I’m leaving,” Erina said, already halfway to the door.

“Wait!” Cameron called in desperation. “It’s going to work, I swear.”

Erina laughed. “You really thought this little machine you built was going to change reality? For a smart guy you’re pretty fucking stupid. I thought the whole ‘power over reality’ thing was your idea of foreplay so I played along.” She pulled open the door. “I didn’t think you actually believed it would work.”

“Played along?” Cameron said, crestfallen.

Erina scoffed, “Even loyal dog’s need to be thrown a bone once in awhile, right?”

“But I-”

“Grow up, loser.” Erina said, and the door shut behind her.

Cameron wanted to crawl into a hole. Instead he grabbed the bottle of champagne and began to chug it down. It was warm and tasted awful, but he did not care. The bottle drained and he let it fall to the floor with a thud. Rifling through his desk drawers Cameron wasn’t entirely sure what he was looking for until his fingers seized on a series of photos his Mom had taken on graduation day. 

The top photo showed Lisa giving him a great big hug. In the next photo she had his hand on his head and he was giving her a strange look. In the next she had stolen his graduation cap and was running away, already halfway out of frame. He had chased after and eventually pinned her down and tickled the cap back from her. Mom and Dad had been so proud that he had graduated with honors. It had been a wonderful day- the exact opposite of the he was having now. A tear rolled down Cameron’s cheek. The pictures in his hand blurred and the room spun dizzylingly as the champagne took hold.     

He sat back down at the laptop and started to type, embelishing the perfect world that he would never see. The device is a failure, just like me. Twenty minutes later he staggered to his feet and stumbled towards bed. His foot bumped against the cable and it whipped across the floor. The cable…

Shit!

Cameron dropped to his knees and snatched up the cable. He hadn’t kicked it loose, it had been loose when he kicked it. Cursing he re-wrapped the wires around the prongs at the back of the machine. The fog of alcohol momentarily cleared as adrenaline pumped into his system. Scrambling back to his desk he mashed execute on his laptop. 

The machine let out a low, rumbling groan and one by one each of the tubes that made up the complex celtic-knot-like construction began to move. It was like watching all the stairways in Escher painting become escalators. Then it got really weird. The device began to fold in on itself until Cameron could clearly see the floor beneath the device- it was floating. The low rumbling groan increased gradually in pitch to a high, keening wail. A sharp pain struck Cameron’s tailbone and it took him a moment to realize he had fallen on his ass.

“It’s works!” He shouted over the cacophonous wail. “It work-” 

A wave burst from the machine, rippling out in an ephemeral explosion of ghostly white light. I’m blind, Cameron thought a moment before his head hit the floor.