The TranspThe Transporter

My first writing love has always been scifi so I’m returning to my roots here.

Carlie turned the crank, sealing the door behind her.  Same routine, over and over again.

It had been about 8000 years, old Earth time, since humanity set out among the stars from their old homeworld.  The first mission was to Mars, but, after the first three colonies were destroyed, they finally perfected Instasteel, making all their ships and colonies from it then.

A few decades after that, the Slip Drive was developed, taking the idea of superluminal velocity and slipstream theory to new heights and further depths.

Carlie had never seen Earth herself.  Some reported that it was a virtual paradise while others said it was driven by corporations now instead of those who wanted to care for the planet.  She didn’t know.  She didn’t care.

Carlie made her way to the cockpit of her ship, her pride and joy, the Horace Goldin, a name she picked up from some historical text but liked since it had a mention of gold.

Sure, she was a transporter. That was one technology Earth science never did perfect and left abandoned centuries ago, so, instead, the word was used to describe people like her, someone who transported goods from one world to the next, no matter what galaxy they were in.  It paid a fair amount, and she was always able to take care of herself and her pride and joy.  She even added a few amenities to her ship, including a courtball arena.

As she took off towards space, she recalled something about what she had been tasked to transport. The whole cargo area was filled with what she was told were pleasure items from a science planet.  Pleasure items?  From a science planet?

They were scheduled to be delivered to a royalty world three galaxies over, so she knew that she had some time.  It would take a while before the computer would be able to chart the course.  She had to keep at it until then.  But, afterwards, she could go and inspect her cargo.

It took a few marks before the computer settled in on a likely course, nowhere near any expanding stars or collapsed ones and nowhere near anything that might cause them trouble. Even if it did, the computer was programmed to drop out of Slip Drive and alert her.

Four days.  That’s how long it would take.

So, she did her routine duty and went to examine the cargo.  What was so fascinating and pleasurable from a science planet?  The last she heard, they were working on a way to actually find the end of the universe, although she doubted it even existed.

She entered the code, showed her iris and let the scanner read her DNA file before it opened.  All the latest upgrades in order to keep her cargo secure.

Sure, sometimes she did transport illegal items, but that was rare enough and, usually, she was able to avoid the authorities.

There were thousands of boxes in there, all of them about a meter square and a few centimeters deep. She saw that one of the boxes was loose, so she went over and tried straightening it before it pried open, and she saw what was inside.

It looked like  a pair of energy transmitters and receivers as well as a materialization matrix, like the kind she used to be able to get nourishment and hydration.  They weren’t big, looked like they could fit in the palm of her hand pretty easy, and there were some instructions inside.  She lifted the pad, reading it out loud. “After reclining, place each pleasure device above each hip and activate.  The devices will give you a great sense of pleasure as the effect takes place.”

Okay, so what were they? Curiosity took over as she drifted back into the ship and into her quarters.  Nobody else was around so she took off her top, laying down as instructed, then put each device above one of her hips. “Well, here goes nothing.”

As soon as she turned them on, she felt it.  An intense pleasure shot through her body, but it was something more, something unexpected.  Yet she knew it.

She’d been cut in half.

Her breathing quickened, not really understanding what was going on, as she looked down at herself. There was something dark around her waist, but nothing more.

She smiled as she thought of it.  Did she dare? She knew she’d been divided by these thing, so would they allow her to?

She pushed up on her elbows slightly, feeling her upper half slide away from her lower half.  An intensely wonderful feeling rushed over her as she slid her halves apart a little bit. “No.  Too much.”

She slid herself back together and turned the devices off.  As she did so, she touched her waist.  No crease, no seam, nothing that would even indicate her body, mere moments ago, had been separated.

Carlie smiled big as she realized the implications of this.  She had, in her hands, something that really felt good, something that deserved looking up.

She went to the computer, asking about old Earth records of sawing a woman in half.  It all started centuries ago, a magician doing so in front of an audience.  The record did say that some of these magicians turned out to be frauds, merely using illusion to make the effect of sawing a woman in half.

And then the magic stories started.  People started fantasizing about being sawn in half or sawing a woman in half for real.

After about a century, it seemed to dry up, but there were some common threads that, maybe, these scientists that invented it caught hold on.  The good feeling.

Carlie found herself breathing deeply as she recognized what it was, the fulfillment of something centuries old, something that, maybe, the royal planet desired.

She went back to her bed, reclining, before placing the devices on her waist this time, turning them on.  Again, intense pleasure flooded her divided body, but she knew a little more now.

Carlie separated herself again, working it out where she could sit her two halves up, wondering that her hips just naturally followed what her upper half was doing.  Yes, some kind of energy transmitter had been materialized across where she’d been divided, which would explain how she could still feel her feet and legs, and, yes, it did feel so very good.

The computer sounded an alert and Carlie worked herself back together again before shutting the devices down.  This would have to be taken care of first.

After a routine authority stop where she displayed her manifest, getting a few guys gawking at her not having her shirt on, they let her go and she resumed course.

While they’d detained her, Carlie had a very interesting thought.  What would happen if she used two sets of these things?  What if she used them somewhere else?

After dividing her waist again, Carlie smiled big, feeling the great rush of pleasure as she separated herself, setting her top half up so she could grab the other two devices. These two she set on either side of her neck, turning them on.

Carlie had to gasp, catching her head as it fell off.  She breathed a few times before her new reality settled in on her. “Whoa.”

She turned her head around, suddenly getting a good look at her top half.  She smiled ruefully, wondering how many males and females she’d left, imagining what this view would be for them.  They might never know, but she knew one thing.

There were thousands of boxes back there.  Yes, her manifest did say there were a specific number, but how often did these numbers really match up?  Not often.

So what would happen if two of the boxes didn’t make it?

She laughed, knowing how many times she’d be in pieces like this.