Blue: "Yes. In two days, I have - done a lot. And acquired a scary super power." said Blue. "You can read souls and you can judge them. Definitely scary." said Pink. "Yes. Actually, I have, no we have, another super power." "Eh?" "Our sexuality has been switched off, until as such time as our respective guardians decide we have an established a sufficiently strong relationship. And I used to spend an inordinate amount of time thinking about sex. Being distracted by sex, obsessed by sex. And now, all of that is gone. It's actually freeing, not to have to worry about it all the time. And I still get to have a full relationship, sometime in the future. With you." "Hmm, yes." she smiled at that. "And, you know, we both sort of have another super power." said Blue. "Which is?" "We know without doubt, well I know without doubt, and you have a strong indication, that there is something after death. We will be judged and sent on to some next stage. Knowing my own personal Angel of Death on a first name basis gives me a very interesting outlook on life." "Will we go together to this next stage?" Big shrug of shoulders from Blue. "... Who knows?" Knees to knees they sat there. "I feel comfortable being here." said Blue. Pink could hardly suppress her laughter. "Unlike that first lunch we had!" Silence for a while. "You certainly can move fast when you want to." said Blue. "Yes. Look, I'll demonstrate, just so that you have no doubt." said Pink. She held out one hand. "Hold your hand one centimetre out from mine and try to track mine as I move it." She started off slow, and Blue followed. She then switched to high speed, and no matter how hard Blue tried, she was always able to move her hand away from his. "This is hopeless! You must be cheating!" said Blue. More giggles. "Now swap over." said Pink. And no matter how fast Blue tried to move his hand around, Pink's hand remained stuck to his, with a centimetre's separation. "Ok, Ok, I give up. My girlfriend is definitely faster than me." Pink grasped his hand for a moment. Then she held both of her hands in front of him, five centimetres apart. "Now try to push them together." Even kneeling and putting his full weight onto them, he could not make them budge. "And she's far stronger than me, also! I wonder, is she ticklish?" She was. A quarter of an hour later. "I haven't been tickled like that since, well, since I was young, by my parents." said Blue. "You still miss your parents?" "Yes, terribly. But I do manage to get by. And you? Some of those images I got from reading your soul I don't quite understand..." said Blue. "Yeah. Here, let Prime explain that bit." said Pink as she picked up Blue's phone just as it rang. "Another one of those things I didn't quite get right. I wanted her to feel has if she had had parents, so I gave her a strong desire for parental affection. And then I forgot the bit about satisfying such desires. So that one of the reasons she is always keen on physical hugs and connections. And why she felt so out of place, since she could never get hugs and friends, until you came along." said Prime. Indeed, Pink as even now holding on to Blue's arm with her hands. "Ah, but aren't you a father figure for her?" said Blue. "No, not really. One of my design choices was to be a guardian for her, but not a father figure. After all, she is meant to be as human as possible, and so she should aim to gain all of her affection needs from other humans. Which didn't work out too well, until you arrived." "Ah, right." "However, you are bringing up a good point. Through her radio link to me, I can go as far as simulating my physical presence, make her think that I am actually present in the room with her. Not for hugs, mind you, but just for normal communication purposes. I haven't done this so far, because, as I said, I didn't want her dependent on me for her emotional needs. But, now, I think it will be a good time to do so." "Sounds good!" said Pink. "Ok, it'll take a day for me to work out the details." said Prime. "And, another question, in my first soul reading from Pink, I got an image of stars, against a backdrop of the Milky Way..." said Blue. "Right, that's because my people arrived at your star after a multi thousand year journey through space. We travelled here with all of our data compressed into a single small speck about the size of a grain of rice. It took about a thousand years for that speck to slowly manoeuvre its way to a suitable asteroid, and then about a century for it to slowly build and expand itself, until it got to the point where the first conscious beings were able to think and become aware of their surroundings. And, of course, one of the things they became aware of was you lot. So, one thing lead to another, and here I am." They had a shower and got dressed. "So, you really are pink all over!" said Blue. "I remember wondering about that before, although now I can't quite recall why I was so obsessed about it." Pink laughed. "I think some of the girls relayed that information to some of the boys in class. But obviously you didn't move in the right social circles to get it." They had breakfast; warmed up pizza. Blue in particular was very conscious about not wasting food or money. Prime waited for the right moment, then said "In the mean while, there is something I would like Blue to think about.". "Yes?" "This is not something that will be forced upon you. You can make up your own mind. But, I can embed within your brain a radio link to me, something like what Pink has. Although not as sophisticated, since, after all, you are not a robot designed to have such a link." "Ah? You mean I will be able to communicate with you, and with Pink, just like PInk now does with you?" "That's right. Effectively telepathy, with your girlfriend, and your girlfriend's guardian." "Course, as an ethical being, I have to explain the possible downsides, so as to give you the full ability to decide if you want to or not." "For a start, there is a very small chance of something going horribly wrong. But I would like to state that I do know quite a lot about brains, since after all I have managed to create Pink's brain. And I have managed to embed radio links into some of the local stray cats, with success." "Secondly, it means that I will always be aware of what you are doing and thinking. I can give you privacy, but this means that you won't be aware of my presence. I will still be fully aware of you." "Thirdly, you will never be able to lie to Pink, or vice versa. The link will always convey the emotional overtones and feelings of everything you say to each other." "But, against that, by continually monitoring your reactions to Pink, I can work out how to improve Pink's emotional reactions and expressions." "And, of course, there is that full telepathic access to you girlfriend. But only if she wants it, of course. You can both assert your privacy and temporarily turn off the link." "Finally, you will have access to an extremely powerful computer, me. Want some factual questions answered? Want to multiply a million numbers together for some math's problem? Well, I'm the one to ask, and I will be just a moment's radio linkage away." Blue: Invokes his super power yet again "You mean I get another awesome super power? This is becoming a habit." "But, it is certainly scary. And while I know what's in Pink's soul and thus can trust her, I do feel just a little fearsome about..." Here Blue stopped. And did some thinking. Eventually- "If I can read Pink's soul, why can't I read Earth Watch Prime's soul?" "What?" said Pink. "What? said Prime. "Are you serious?" said Pink. "Sure, why not. If you can have a soul, and Prime was able to create you, then surely that indicates that he's got enough capacity to have a soul, also?" "Well, young man, you have certainly managed to surprise me this time. I am more than willing to try, this sounds like a sterling opportunity to get lots of wonderful new data. Think about those teenage males eager to get to the beach to eye off the girls, and you will get an idea of what I'm feeling." "Ok. I shall try. It's all up to Esmeralda, of course." As it turned out, Esmeralda was happy to grant his request. In fact, she had been waiting for this chance. Basically this whole business of getting Blue to exert his free will in the service of carrying out Esmeralda's tasks, was just a end run around the constraints she was forced to act under. She was obeying the rules to the letter, while violating their spirits as much as she could. Apparently, even an angel, with a morality much higher than any human's could possibly be, could still be totally devious in getting what they want. All for the highest moral purposes, of course. Blue read Earth Watch Prime's soul. That is, a very very tiny slice of it. How he carefully created Pink, and how he continually cared for her. His respect and affection for her, and also for Blue. His morality when it came to creating sentient beings: always look after what you create, as they would want to be. His generalised concern and worry for the human race. And, dimly visible, were images of his ancestry. He had inherited racial memories of many of his predecessors, and there were faint hints of vast tragedies and horrors, enormous efforts made to overcome them, to hammer out agreements and rules to live by. The incredibly bitter and painful experiences which resulted in his current ethics; respect life, let others grow their own way, protect those in need, be friendly with others. And Prime got a reading of Blue's soul. Not a few miserly images. No, he got enough to stretch his considerable powers to the limit. Esmeralda made sure that Prime got enough to know how Blue's soul and mind were put together. How he functioned, how he thought. She illuminated all the nooks and crannies of his brain, his subconscious, his emotional drives, his goals and drives and motivations. In other words, she gave him a crash course on how to construct a human brain. It was only later that he realised just how deliberate she was in choosing what information to give him. But for now, he let that information flow into him, into his capacious memories, soaked it all up. After a minute or two. "Wow, just wow. She has given me a lot to go on. This will certainly help me with improving Pink's mind. It's going to be some time before I can digest it all, but." "Ok." said Blue. "I am happy to take the risk, what do I do now?" "In light of all of the information I have just received, how about we do it tomorrow morning? It gives me a chance to work out if there are any refinements I can add to the process. In the meanwhile, why don't you two relax, take a walk together, enjoy each other's company?" The tide was still in. So as they wandered hand in hand along the river wall, the water was a metre below, obscuring most of the rocks. "What are we going to do about that bloke that almost killed you?" said Blue. "I saw it all, and I know who he is since I watched where his car went. Unless you can think of something else, I shall track him and see if he is guilty of anything else. And if he is, I shall, one way or another, make sure that the police get to know about it." said Prime, speaking through Blue's phone. "So don't worry that he will be forgotten. He won't be. He tried to kill Pink, and thus he has earned himself a powerful enemy. However I would like to say that I will won't be using my powers and draw retribution down on his head like some biblical god. I do have my own standards." "Right. As long as he gets his just deserts. And that's how Pink knew how to guide me when I was carrying her. You were looking down and could see the rocks in full detail." said Blue. "That's right" said Pink. That night they lay in bed, shoulders pressing against each other. "I just hope no one ever sees me wearing these pyjamas!" said Blue. "I really think that is the least of your worries!" said Pink. "And on Monday, we shall be walking to school, hand in hand. That will cause a small frisson of excitement amongst the students in our class." said Blue. They both laughed. "And really, how about I move my stuff here and live here? After all, it's not as if either of us are going to be changing our minds anytime soon." said Blue. "I would love that." There was a thump and something landed on Blue's tummy. It went meow. "Hello Fluffy!" said Pink, patting it. "This is one of the feral cats that Prime used as a test for embedding his radio link. As you can see, he is alive and well, and almost fat from catching the plentiful mice around here." Fluffy decided he liked where he was, so he settled in for a cosy sleep. "Not that we can hold a conversation with him, mind you. After all, he is a cat." continued Pink. "So this is my station in life, is it, A cat's sleeping mat." said Blue. "Sounds about right!" said Pink. Blue: Becomes a full member of the club Next morning. Pink took Blue's hand and led him to one of the spare bedrooms of her house. In it was a bed, with a rather solid looking pillow. It had been specially delivered during the night via Prime's rocket. "That's it, the radio implanting unit. You lie down, put your head on it and the billions of nano-machines in it will mould itself to your shape. Then they will start their process of drilling tiny holes in your skull and extending microscopic tendrils into you head and brain, where they will link up with your brain circuits. Prime controls it all and you will end up with your very own radio link to us." said Pink. Gulp. "Ah, actually I might have preferred if you hadn't told me the details. But, Ok, here goes." said Blue. He lay down on the pillow. It gradually dented and flowed around his head and was almost at the point of covering his eyes, when it reversed and flowed back out again. He ended up lying on a pillow that refused to conform to the shape of his head at all. "Err, has something gone wrong?" he said. Pink, standing behind him, brought her head into view. "No, nothing. It's finished. It took an hour or so." "Oh" He stood up. Felt his head. Did not find anything out of the usual. Pink took his hands, looked at him and [Hello Blue] The voice was clearly Pink's, and it clearly came from inside his head. And not only did it convey the words, but it also carried her current feelings. "Oh, wow. My new awesome super power." he said, out aloud. [Now let's practice saying that to her over the link] said Prime. Whose voice also clearly came from inside his head. Half an hour later, he had gotten the hang of it. They were holding a conversation while standing at opposite ends of Pink's block. To someone eavesdropping, all they would have heard would have been the sounds of silence. [Ok. What's next?] said Blue to Pink, as they walked towards each other and stood under a tree. There was laughter from Prime. [It didn't take long to get used to that, did it? So, what's next, is I shall introduce myself in person.] And there besides them was a man. He looked like an old fashion sea captain; one you could imagine hanging onto the ships railing and, as the wind threw salt spray past his face, looking at the sky and the currents in the sea and the set of the sails, and occasionally issuing orders. "Hello Pink and Blue. I've decided this is good enough as my persona. Blue, you may call me Horatio, as in Nelson Horatio, the famous fictional sea captain. He sailed your oceans, and I sail the starry void. Although at the moment all I sail is the space just above your atmosphere." Blue stepped up, extended his hand, and shook hands with what was technically his future father in law. The handgrip felt firm and solid. He then let go and poked a finger at Horatio's chest. There was a momentarily feel of pressure, then his hand went though as if Horatio wasn't there. Which, after all, he was not. All that Pink and Blue were seeing was an image of Horatio, created by Earth Watch Prime and relayed to their embedded radio links. Not just the image, but also a sense of touch and, of course, his voice. "Now I want to make some changes to Pink's firmware. Update her emotional responses just a little, fix up her facial expressions. The data I got from Esmeralda will be put to good use. I don't need to slowly improve her from watching Blue's responses, I can do it all at once." said Horatio. They went back inside, and Pink and Blue sat on the sofa. "She needs to go to sleep. So why don't you hold her, Blue." Pink leant against Blue, snuggled her head into his chest, closed her eyes, and promptly fell asleep. The image of Horatio disappeared, but his voice continued. [This will take a few minutes...] And Blue spent a quiet, contemplative time, his chin touching Pink's hair, feeling her breath. With all of these massive changes in my life, I really need some time to adjust and get used to it. And so, probably, does Pink. Sometime later, as they were having lunch. "Yes, it really does make a difference." said Blue. "I can get a feel of you as a person from your body language and expressions, without having to resort to reading your soul and using the radio link." "Thank you" said Pink. "Let me see, we both have radio telepathy, but you have super strength and speed, while I can read souls and judge them, only as long as Esmeralda agrees, of course. Hmm, so I think I'm still ahead when it comes to the super powers." "Humph, I'm not so sure about that. For example, I can generate lightening" said Pink. She held out her hands, index finger of each pointing towards the other and separated by a small gap. There was a flash as an electric arc momentarily zapped between the two. "I can do it much bigger and brighter, but I don't want to hurt your eyes. At a pinch, I can even arc weld. But I wouldn't really want to; it stresses my batteries and power supply circuitry too much." "Hey! That's impressive." "Just a simple matter of connecting the output of my batteries to either hand. But that's nothing! I can call upon the full power of Earth Watch Prime, I'm sure he can do some pretty scary things." said Pink. "Well, I can call upon him too!" "But he will listen to me in preference to you!" The glared at each other, then relaxed. "This is stupid." laughed Pink. "So, the full power of Earth Watch Prime, I suppose he must be monitoring all sorts of things, radio communications, visual, data communications, everything he can lay his hands on?" said Blue. [Of course. It's all part of learning about you humans.] said Prime's voice over the radio link. "So that's how come you were there when the lady was being harassed." "Yes, it was a clear day and he could see something happening, and I was close by, so he sent me in. So I suppose it was Esmeralda who sent you?" said Pink. "That's right. Now, if I hadn't been sent, you would have managed quite well, but presumably you would still have been hit in the attempted murder, then Horatio would have fished your body out of the river and changed you over, then you would have met up with me, slightly late, and, hmm. There wouldn't have been that extra amount of intense bonding between us... And Esmeralda made sure to draw my attention to you at our first meeting..." said Blue. "So, you're saying, Esmeralda is, ah, definitely in favour of our partnership?" said Pink. "Looks like it. And, and, she is certainly flexible in the sorts of requests she grants me, I wonder..." "Wonder what?" "Well, what if, hmm, say I ask Esmeralda to... also grant to you the powers to read and judge souls?" "What!" said Pink. "Is that even an option?!" said Horatio, hastily setting up an image of himself, sitting across the table on a chair that was not there a few seconds ago. "Well, I can always ask. She invited me to experiment, after all. And this whole thing about getting me to make the initial choice of free will to do something seems to indicate she is sort of not allowed to initiate some things, but if I request them, they suddenly become all right. It's a bit, ah, weird, but that's the way it is." Blue became aware, via his radio link, that Pink and Horatio were having an intense, high speed conversation. It ended, and Pink said "I'm willing. After all, I can't be left behind in the super power stakes, can I? And Prime, as usual, can hardly restrain himself at the idea of even more interesting data." Pink: Getting a makeover "Ok. Here goes. Ah, Esmeralda, I would like to request, on my own free will, and Pink's, that you, ah, grant the same powers as I have to Pink?" said Blue, aloud to thin air. The image of Horatio froze. Their data links gave a little wordless signal saying that communications to Prime was lost. It appeared that they could still talk to each other, but not as well as when Prime was controlling the link. And Esmeralda appeared, sitting across the table in yet another imaginary chair. "Hello Pink, I am happy to meet you." "Ah, yes, ah, pleased to meet you also." said Pink. "I'm afraid I can't include Prime in this conversation, that would exceed my quota for now. Yes, I can grant Blue's request and allow you to borrow some of my powers. You already know about the not very onerous conditions. Now, us angels always believe that, while you may take what you want, you always have to pay for it. And in this case, I have decided that there will be an extra condition that you both must pay. At the moment, your sexualities, for both of you, will only be switched back on if you establish a committed long-term relationship. The extra condition is that your sexualities will only be activated if you establish a committed, long-term relationship with each other. If you fail, then tough, you can't find someone else. Or you can, but it will be strictly platonic. Oh, and Pink, not even Earth Watch Prime will be able to turn your sexuality on. My powers exceed his, you know! Do you, both of you, accept this on your own free will?" said Esmeralda. She looked serious. Pink and Blue were mindful of the fact that, when an angel of death asks something in a serious tone, it is advisable to pay full attention and give all due consideration to any replies. Pink looked at Blue and said "My affections are already stuck on you. You risked his life to save me, even if it wasn't needed. We are linked via radio telepathy; we have read each other's souls. And, honestly, how likely is it that I will ever find another human male who would want to spend their life with a robot?" "I'm willing." she said. Blue looked back and said "Three days ago we were strangers. Now I love you, platonically for the time being. We have saved each other's lives. We are bonded by our common scary superpowers. And, really, even if you are a robot, how will I ever find anyone else to fill the gap that would be left if you wasn't with me?" "I'm willing." he said. With a smile, Esmeralda extended her hands across the table, and took Pink's into hers. Esmeralda's eyes flashed brilliant blue as she judged Pink. Obviously, Pink was not human. There was not the need to hunt out all the little moral imperfections, like in Blue's case, and wash them away in the brilliance. At this stage, Pink just did not have any. But she certainly had many other imperfections in her soul, design errors where Earth Watch Prime had not gotten things quite right. Esmeralda set about straightening things out, making minor tweaks to Pink's mind and soul. Making PInk a better, more moral, person. Just has she had done with Blue. To Pink, it was as if she was an army recruit, on the parade ground, as the beady eye of a jaundiced drill sergeant took a look at her form and started snapping orders. "Straighten you back! Throw back your shoulders! Head up slightly. But not too far. Eyes straight ahead! Put those hands down, no; align them with the seam of your trousers! Your shoulders are slumping again! Feet slightly apart! Bloody hell; is this the best they can send me?" And so on and so on, except it wasn't her body being worked upon, but her soul. The glare faded and Pink looked into the smile of her angel. "There, now, that wasn't so bad, was it?" said Esmeralda. "Gulp, ah, no, no, ah, bracing I think I would call it." said Pink. "Have fun trying out your new power on Blue." she said, and faded out. Horatio came back to life, and so did their radio links. Pink, at the back of her mind, could feel high-speed data transfers starting, as Prime began to scan her brain, working out what had changed. The awareness faded and Horatio said "This is extremely interesting indeed. She's made lots of little alterations. It's going to take a while for me to assimilate all of this. Hello, what's this, ah, this bit of change is effectively saying 'Cannot be activated without Esmeralda's permission' So, you have an extra constraint? Interesting, interesting. Hmm, what with all of this, and the very detailed soul reading she gave me of Blue's brain, hmm, I am in a much better position to make another robot design... But maybe something not quite like Pink..." With that, the image of Horatio faded out. Prime had things to do and was eager to be getting on with them. "Well Blue, it looks like I'm winning in the super powers race. I've got everything you do, plus all of my robotic powers!" Blue did the only thing left to exert his dominance. He tickled her. Unfortunately, Blue was also ticklish. So it was a stalemate. It lasted until Pink caught his hands and held them immobile. She looked into his eyes, and read his soul. He retaliated by reading her soul. They both liked what they saw. Pink relaxed her hands; they got up from the kitchen chairs and flopped onto the sofa. "I think we have a good chance of reaching that committed true love stage, no worries." said Blue, as he stroked her pink hair. "Yeah. Now we are really and truly bonded to each other." "Interesting times."