Teaser

On A World Far, Far Away…

“We should be picking up their broadcast signals now.”

Sam awoke from a very long nap. His seat was so comfortable. The most comfortable seat available in the entire galactic network. But that sounded a lot more impressive than it really was. The entire “galactic network” consisted of only five planets, three of which were still so backwater and underdeveloped, that they made third world countries back on Earth look ahead of the game.

That only really left two planets: Earth and Terra Prime.

Earth you already know about. It’s that pretty blue and green planet, third one from the sun, that humans first came from. In the late 21st Century, faster-than-light space travel was developed, and humans began exploring and colonizing the depths of space.

Terra Prime was the first Earth-like planet we found. They called it the Great Manifest Destiny — Part II. (The first, of course, being the Americans moving out west to claim their land and fortunes.) And it was a big race. Entire nations pooled resources and came together to build entire colony teams, gather and transport untapped resources, and claim new regions of this gorgeous, lush, water-rich planet. Completely virgin. Completely untouched.

It didn’t need any terraforming like Mars, which was an utter failure. Mars ended up being one of those other three backwater planets where only the poor, desperate, and outlaws tended to hide. You could make an honest living there for sure, but it wasn’t anywhere you would make a fortune.

But Terra Prime was a gold mine.

Not just for its clean air and crystal-clear oceans, lakes, and rivers. Not just for its gorgeous pristine mountains — some even higher than the Himalayas back on Earth. It wasn’t even the raw land and open space.

It was something else:

A rare mineral they found early on buried within that planet.

It looked like a crystal, but it was  completely unique to anything humans had found anywhere else yet. Probably the remnants of some neutron star a zillion years ago, that exploded or died to help provide this planet’s raw materials. So what was so special about this rare mineral?

They came in all shapes and sizes. Blue ones, pink ones, yellow ones, green ones. Multicolored ones that refracted in the light. They were pretty. And at first, they were collector’s items. Jewelry. Status symbols. Little more. But then… then one day an “accident” happened.

A woman had a rather large one of these gems — they called these crystals “auras” for their unique and brilliant colors — that she happened to be wearing in an overpriced engagement ring. As the story goes, she was making love with her fiance, but he had a little “trouble” rising to the occasion. Apparently it wasn’t the first time, either. Frustrated, she sighed and expressed her frustration. She wished he never had this problem. She wished his dick was bigger, harder, and ready to go all the freaking time. And that’s when it happened.

It grew.

His dick. It grew. Without him doing anything. Without them trying. It tingled with what he described as a “magical energy” and made his cock grow larger, thicker, and taller. And from that day on, he never had problems rising to the occasion again.

He, of course, had several doctors check it out. No one could explain what happened. A grown man’s penis doesn’t just spontaneously gain an extra inch and a half, thicken out, and suddenly be ready to go all the time. Especially considering he had had this “problem” for most of his adult life. Not that he was complaining. But he was curious.

The doctors ran every test they could think of. Nothing came up. As far as they could tell, somehow, suddenly his very DNA had changed. He hadn’t signed up for gene therapy. It was too expensive. But this — this was almost magical. He and his (now) wife have never been happier or more active in the bedroom.

Once word of his story started to spread, people began looking for the common denominator. Here and there, occasionally, a similar (or completely unrelated) story of a “magical” event happening started to spread around. And eventually people found the connecting element: every single one of these stories had an aura gem nearby when the “event” happened.

Before long, research labs and casual hobbyists were experimenting with these beautiful minerals. And eventually it was confirmed without a doubt. There was something in these beautiful crystals — some kind of yet-undiscovered magical power — that responded to human will and desire.

The key? It had to be in proximity. Any more than 50 or 60 feet away, and the crystal wouldn’t respond. And the person had to focus his/her mind and will. Passionately feel something, a strong desire, to activate the crystal. But that was all it took. Proximity and a clear, focused emotion.

The aura gems didn’t last forever, though. Each time they were used, they shrank a little. Somehow they stored this limited resource of “magical” energy. But eventually, after enough uses, the crystals were spent, and the auras turned black.

Which, of course, created a huge demand for more aura mining on Terra Prime. The planet was set. Many, many people quickly made their fortunes.

But almost immediately after, the allied interplanetary governments started regulating these auras, putting all kinds of rules, restrictions, and laws upon them. They said it was for everyone’s own good. But people suspected the governments just wanted to use it for their own purposes.

Fortunately — they weren’t forbidden or banned completely. They just required a special license and could only be used under certain circumstances. Medicine, for example, expanded by leaps and bounds as hospitals and doctors began using auras for solving a wide variety of problems and needs. Major movie studios who could afford the aura licenses often used them for “real life” special effects. Deep space expedition crews brought some along their long journeys, for both entertainment and survival needs.

The only thing auras couldn’t be used for was casual, everyday, “just for fun” stuff by the common public. Licenses were really expensive. Only the super rich could afford it. And the government regulations demanded that all auras had to be used for some kind of practical purpose that somehow benefited the general public.

But that didn’t stop ordinary people from wanting to use auras. It just meant they had to find creative, legal ways to use it for what they wanted.

And ever since their discovery with that famous story of the man with the small limp penis — people have been wanting to use auras to enhance and fix their own love lives too.

Some entrepreneurial genius used that to come up with a great idea.

A television game show.

Chapter One

Enter the Contestants

Back on the interplanetary starship, Sam turned on the TV display in front of him. He had been on this flight for the past two days. Even with faster-than-light technology, Terra Prime was still a 45-hour trip each way. Without the faster-than-light engine, the same trip would’ve taken several years. So two days wasn’t that bad, considering the alternative.

“Thank you,” he said to the attendant, who had just informed him that they’d be within range of Terra Prime’s broadcast signals by now.

The signal came in a little glitchy and off-color, but that was partly a distortion effect of the FTL (faster-than-light) engine. With a little static and noise, the picture started coming into focus. A second later, it was crystal clear, in XD (extreme definition) at 16,000p resolution. People said you couldn’t tell the difference for anything above 1080p or so, but Sam was convinced he still could.

The TV tuned in to the game show.

The very game show Sam had been invited to appear on.

“Welcome to Ideal Lovers!” said the game show host. Some handsome guy with spiked green hair. Sam never understood fashion on Terra Prime. He had been here several times on business. Had a couple friends he’d visit here from time to time too. But mostly, he was from Earth, and he enjoyed living there.

“I’m your host, Rax Mandell, and today we’ve got an amazing show planned for you.”

Sam had heard of the show, but Terra Prime was so far away, Earth still hadn’t picked up any of its broadcast signals. And they were only just now starting their second season. This episode, the one now playing, was the second episode of their new season. From what he heard, the previous season had mixed ratings, and the producers were trying all sorts of things to save the show. Sam was scheduled to be on next week, for episode three.

All he knew was his best friend from high school, who moved to Terra Prime shortly after they graduated, had invited him onto the show. Apparently, the game show used aura gems to help ordinary, average, everyday people find their ideal lovers. Any specifics beyond that, Sam didn’t really know.

Did they use auras to help identify strangers who would be your perfect match? Did they “enhance” your existing lover to the ideal, ultimate body and sexual stamina? Something else?

There was a cash prize, just for participating on the show. That was cool. Sam would enjoy his week long vacation on Terra Prime. He needed some time off from work anyway. Things had been stressful lately and he was starting to burn out. So he cashed in his vacation time, caught a flight to Terra Prime, and got ready to relax. The extra cash reward just for playing and all-expenses-paid trip made the deal that much sweeter.

“Last week, we saw James and Mary,” continued the show host. Sam gently increased the volume. “Mary, as you’ll recall, was infertile. James had lost attraction to his wife. It seemed like an easy set-up. Just use auras to make her fertile and spice up their sex lives again, right? Oh, but that’s where we were wrong. Audiences around the planet were shocked to discover that their passion had fizzled out not because of Mary’s barrenness, but because Mary was, in fact, a closet lesbian, and James just didn’t ‘do it’ for her. On top of that, she added that she never wanted kids — so she wasn’t about to let James soak her mind and womb with aura magic. She didn’t want to change for him. She wanted her husband to change for her. Which meant, in Mary’s mind, James was going to have to become a woman now.”

Sam laughed to himself. “How do people get in these situations?” Surely Mary knew she was a lesbian the whole time. Why’d she marry James? Or why did they stay married? Divorce was legal on Terra Prime. In fact, all laws around love and relationships were a lot looser on Terra Prime. You could marry as young as 16. You could have as many partners or spouses at the same time as you wanted and could afford. Gender wasn’t even a fixed thing — a trip to the doctor and a little aura magic, and you could completely change your sex and identity, all with some minor paperwork and a big enough credit card.

Terra Prime was actually the laughing stock for this kind of stuff back on Earth. Earth still had plenty of rules. Even more than in the past. Marriage, gender, sexual encounters — sure, people still did whatever the hell they wanted, but as a culture, as the “standard,” people were expected to be the high moral examples for the rest of the galactic network. We weren’t heathens or animals. Earth was the epitome of civilized society. Or at least it tried to be.

Basically, anybody who didn’t “fit in” to the rigid moral codes and restrictive social standards ended up moving to Mars or Terra Prime. Everybody else, like Sam, liked to live in a world of absolute, predefined rules and social certainty.

This was right. That was wrong. Men acted like men; women behaved like women. Each had their gender-based duties, responsibilities, and expectations. Men worked hard, made money, supported their wives. Women took care of the cooking and cleaning, raised the kids, gave love to their husbands. It wasn’t perfect. Not everybody agreed with that. But, again, those people usually moved off-planet the first chance they got.

“Which means we’ve got a contest!” continued Rax Mandell, the game show host. “Both James and Mary were given an equal amount of aura. Each was allowed to use that aura to change the other into whatever they wanted. But this is Terra Prime. And there are rules.”

Sam rolled his eyes.

“Mary and James had to take turns, taking only one specific action per turn. And they each could only do one of three things per turn: aura-reflect, aura-drain, or aura-cast.”

This sounded like it might get complicated. Sam paid attention closer. He didn’t know why he had been invited on the show. He hadn’t talked to his buddy in six months, since the last time he visited Terra Prime on business. They were both single at the time. If his buddy, Rick, had invited him onto Ideal Lovers, he probably was still single. But … what did Rick have in mind? What was Sam’s involvement?

Watching the recap of last week’s episode, Sam started developing a nervous sinking feeling. No… Impossible, he thought. That was just crazy. Rick would never want to turn Sam into a girl. They were best friends. Buddies. But that was it. They pretty much lost touch when he moved off-world. Aside from the occasional brief visit or Christmas card, they were almost perfect strangers now.

“As you know, aura-reflect allows you to bounce back whatever your opponent casts at you. What they intended to do to you, suddenly happens to them. Aura-drain, on the other hand, steals some of their remaining aura. But be careful. If they use aura-cast at the same time you attempt to drain, you’ll take double the effect! Which, of course, leaves the final option: aura-cast. It’s simply the change or effect you want to cause to your opponent. If they aura-cast at the same time, or rest to recharge their aura, your intended effect infuses into them as desired.”

Okay. Interesting. So it really is a game.

“The trick is balancing your aura reserves and anticipating your opponent’s next move. Out-smart them, and you’re a winner. Follow a fool-hearty strategy, and you become malleable clay in their hands.”

So what happened with James and Mary, Sam wondered.

“So what happened with James and Mary?” the show host continued. “Last week, we ended with Mary in the lead. James had run low on aura and attempted to drain some of Mary’s. On that same turn, she aura-cast a gender transformation on James. He pulled it in double-strength, fully transforming him into a girl. But we ran out of time and James still had several moves left. That’s where we pick up today. Will James use his aura now to change himself back? Will he try to rush the game and force Mary into becoming his heterosexual lover and fertile wife again? Or will he make another fatal mistake, giving Mary the chance to finish the job, and fully turn James into her own personal ideal lesbian sweetheart? The winner takes all in Ideal Lovers. The loser accepts their fate. The winner returns to normal. But everybody’s a winner on Ideal Lovers — regardless of win or lose, both contestants will win a cash prize and an all-expenses paid honeymoon trip to Fiji on exotic Planet Earth!

Whether Mary becomes the wife James always wanted her to be, or James becomes the lesbian lover Mary desires him to be — either way, folks, we’ve got an exciting game on our hands, and these two lovers — however they end up — will be celebrating in each other’s arms in Fiji very soon! The game continues, after this word from our sponsors.”

Wow. Terra Prime really was messed up. Neither James nor Mary wanted what the other was asking for. Why not just split up, go their separate ways, find love on their own?

Sam knew why.

Because this was easier. This was fun.

Why risk all the heartache and hassle of dating and searching for “the one” again — when you’ve got a partner already right in front of you, who just needs a few “adjustments.” They already had a strong bond and friendship. They were married, after all. Sam didn’t agree with them, but he could understand their logic. Of course, nothing like this would ever happen back on Earth. But on Terra Prime … life was different.

The flight attendant interrupted Sam. “Excuse me sir, please re-engage your seat fastener. We’re preparing to decelerate from FTL.”

“Right, thank you,” Sam said.

They were almost at Terra Prime.