“Nose…and eyes,” Kirsten hums, squirming a little as her body begins to warm.

“Nuge,” Koda breathes into the delicate shell of one ear as her tongue teases its flesh, earning her a moan and a shiver from her responsive lover.

“E—ear.”

“Mmm.”

“Dakota—I—sweet Jesus!” Her ears are extremely sensitive parts of her body, and what Dakota is doing to them is driving her off the deep end in a hurry.

“Pute,” Koda husks softly, running a thumb tenderly across Kirsten’s lips as she continues to work magic on her lover’s ear. She groans as those lips part and suck her thumb inside a hot, wet mouth. Kirsten’s tongue moves to suckle, and Koda moans out, “Wichaceji.”

That moan is nearly her undoing. Reaching up, Kirsten pulls Koda’s hand from her mouth and boldly slides it down her own body. “Sweetheart, I think this lesson’s gonna have to wait.”

“Oh yes,” Dakota purrs as her fingers are bathed in Kirsten’s passion. Suckling her lover’s earlobe, she enters Kirsten’s heat with one smooth, deep stroke. “I think you’re right.”

*

Night has drawn its curtain over the sun, leaving a billion billion stars in its wake. Inside the quiet house, Dakota is seated on the couch, long legs tucked beneath her and covered with a quilt in deference to her still malfunctioning thermoregulatory system. Her deeply tanned face is gilded gold by the light of the cheerily crackling fire, and in her hands is Spengler, turned to the last few pages.

Kirsten sits in an overstuffed and tattered easy chair positioned at a right angle to the couch. Her laptop is on the chest that serves as a coffee table, and her face is bleached of all its color by the backwash of the brilliant blue-white screen. With her recent bonanza of the android ‘nerve center’, she is running the results against established data, hoping to find a common thread that will allow her to affect a permanent shut off of all android systems wherever they might be. After several hours of searching, she hasn’t made a hit, but her confidence is up, flowing from her like fresh water welling up into a natural hotspring. Asi lies adoringly at her stocking feet, his head resting on his stuffed chew-toy, dreaming whatever dogs dream of on soft spring nights like this one.

As if by common, and silent, consent, dark and fair heads rise and two sets of eyes meet, crinkled at the edges from the loving, almost shy smiles they share. Over the crackle of the cheery fire, the refrigerator hums to life, then cuts off just as quickly with a dying clank and groan. Koda sighs and rests her head back against the couch. “That’s it. The last of our diesel ration for this week.”

“Damn. We’ve still got tons of food in there.”

“I know.” Tossing the quilt from her lap, Dakota unfolds her legs and makes as if to rise when a strange buzzing noise fills the room briefly, followed by the flickering of the overhead fluorescents in the kitchen and two table lamps in the living room. A loud crackle and hum issues forth from the speakers of the forgotten stereo system

Kirsten sits back, startled, and almost topples her chair. “What—?”

Asi scrambles to his feet, barking furiously at nothing.

“Looks like Tacoma got those turbines running after all,” Koda replies grinning. The smile slips from her face as the lights brighten for a second, flicker, and wink out, leaving the faint scent of ozone behind. “Or not.”

Kirsten barks out a short laugh, drawing a hand over her face in embarrassment. “I can’t believe I reacted like that. It was like I’d seen a ghost or something! Damn!”

Koda chuckles. “I’d say that was a pretty natural reaction, considering we haven’t full electricity here in what, a month? Two?”

“It feels like forever. But still….” She shakes her head, then looks up at Dakota, her expression somber. “Do you think this is what it’ll be like in the future?” she asks, somewhat plaintively. “Do you think we’ll go back to believing in magic, to thinking that lightening is the gods’ way of showing displeasure? Will technology become something to be feared instead of welcomed and used?” The implication of her questions cause a prickle of unease to dance down her spine, raising the hairs on her arms. “God. How morbid.”

“It’s not morbid,” Koda counters, rising from the couch and coming to Kirsten’s side. Sitting on the wide arm of the chair, she reaches out and strokes her lover’s hair. “I don’t think we’ll ever lose technology completely,” she muses softly. “As a species, we love our creature comforts too much to give them up that easily. We might not get by on coal and other fossil fuels, but we’ve got other inexhaustible supplies of energy, like the wind and the sun, and ways to convert them into what we need to keep our houses lit, our food cold, and our water warm.”

“Some of us, maybe.”

Koda looks sharply at her. “What do you mean?”

“We’re setting up a perfect dichotomy,” Kirsten starts slowly, gathering her thoughts. “The ‘Haves’ versus the ‘Have-Nots’. Here, on the base, or in a larger city, I can see what you’re saying coming to pass. But what about all the people living outside of the cities, outside of the military bases, people who are used to the same creature comforts as the rest of us? Can you imagine Mr. and Mrs. Joe Normal and their 2.3 kids out in the suburbs wrestling a wind fan into place around the ol’ homestead? And even if they could, who would teach them how to hook it up so that Martha could use the washer once a week? Who would fix it when it broke? And what would they pay him or her with?”

“Well—.”

“For every Tacoma” Kirsten continues, now on a roll, “there are a hundred, maybe a thousand people whose only knowledge of technology is that when they push the button, the dragon comes to life. They don’t care how it works, only that it works.” She looks up at her lover, eyes bleak. “So what happens when the ‘have-nots’ gather outside of Grand Rapids in the middle of winter, up to their necks in snow, freezing, covered in furs, and look in on all the folks who are living the life of gods, with central heating and hot water and food that comes with the flick of a switch? How will they feel? What will they resort to, to live that kind of life? Theft? Kidnapping? Murder? Will this new God, Technology, eventually be the name under which all future wars are fought?”

Breaking off, she tilts her head, looking at Dakota who is staring at her with an indecipherable expression on her face. She flushes. “Told you it was morbid.”

“Morbid? No. Something we really need to think about? Definitely.”

Kirsten sighs. “It’s just that….” She shakes her head, then peers pleadingly at her lover. “Dakota, you were born to this land, raised on it. You love it and it loves you. Even a fool like me can see it.”

“Kirsten, you’re no fool….”

“The point is, sweetheart, as much as you might love your creature comforts, you’re more equipped to deal with this kind of thing than ninety nine percent of the people out there. People like me, and like Andrews, and even Maggie. When we lost the electricity that first time, it didn’t even faze you. No, you just built up a fire, got out the blankets and the oil lanterns from god knows where and continued on as if nothing had happened. While the rest of us….”

“You’re adapting….”

“Of course I’m adapting, Dakota! I don’t have any other choice but to adapt! But Dakota, don’t you see? I’m a scientist. More than that, I’m a scientist of technology. This,” her arm sweep indicates the computer and myriad of other electronic gadgets that share space on the wide trunk, “these, are as much a part of who I am as your animals and your visions and your connection to the land are a part of you. Can I adapt? Anything’s possible, I suppose. Do I want to?” She laughs. It’s an empty sound. “I…don’t know.”

“Well then,” Dakota finally replies after what seems a lifetime of silence, “we’ll just have to make sure that the new world we build contains enough for both of us, won’t we.”

This time, Kirsten’s laugh is a little more genuine. “You don’t ask for much, do you.”

“Me?” Koda quips as she slips from the chair, and bends forward, bringing their lips close. “I ask for everything.”

Their kiss is aborted by the sound of men and woman shouting. Somewhere on base, a loud siren begins to wail.

“What is it?” Kirsten asks, scrambling to follow her lover who has straightened and is striding for the door.

“Fire.”

*

Dakota steps into a scene filled with paradox. Uniformed military men and women march forth in orderly, ordered rows as frightened and yelling civilians dash about in utter chaos, clutching their children and belongings to their chests as if Armageddon has come to visit once again.

Small fires dot the landscape here and there, their flames licking up against the inky blackness of the moonless sky. The air is acrid with smoke and the shouts of frightened people, while the wailing siren holds sway over them all like an omnipotent king on a mountaintop throne.

Shooting a quick glance in the direction of the clinic, Koda is relieved to see that it, for the moment, is out of danger. She can well guess the meaning of these fires; small appliances left on during the first uprising, and forgotten in the subsequent loss of electricity, came once again to life with the return of power, however briefly, to the base. Left unattended, the small, poorly cared for appliances overheated and caught fire.

As she watches, a small base fire truck trundles self-importantly by, its blaring siren poor competition for the base siren which wails on and on and on, causing more fright than it stills. Knots of people stare up at the sky, fearing an invasion from above. Koda grabs a passing airman and yanks him to a stop. “Find that siren and pull its cord. Damn thing’s gonna start a panic that none of you are prepared to deal with right now.”