Divine Artifact in a Scientific World

Then Jack smacked Naoko's ass and said, "Come on, did you forget about Nora already?"

"No," she said, "but you're very distracting."

He smiled, gave her a quick kiss, and said, "Good."

Then he grabbed her neck and pulled her down the hall to Madison's office.

When they entered, he found Madison, Nora, and Rina, and Samantha all huddled around a screen, looking at it with a mixture of awe and excitement.

Nora looked up when he and Naoko entered, grinned at him, and then waved him over.

"Jack, come look at this!"

Dragging Naoko with him, he rounded the table, and Nora moved out of the way to make room for him in front of the computer screen.

She put a hand on his back and pointed at the screen.

"Look, it works!"

On the screen was a slow-motion video of a DNA strand being edited. And it wasn't CRISPR he was looking at. It was something else.

"Is that the DNA editor you were talking about? Did you succeed already?"

"Yes!" crowed Nora. "We still need to do animal model testing, but it already passes all my reliability tests. Even the ones that CRISPR fails."

It had been about a day, soul space time, since they had begun Genesis Heart simulation-based testing, and they'd already achieved something geneticists dreamed of: reliable DNA editing. And it wasn't based on bacterial genetic warfare, but was a fully synthetic design.

It was one thing to generate a computer model of a molecule and validate it in simulations, but could they actually synthesize it? It was worthless if they couldn't actually make the thing in a lab.

"What about synthesis?"

"Oh. Um, we haven't started work on that yet," she said in a more subdued tone.

He gave her a side hug while saying, "Hey, this is still great news!"

She nodded, seeming not to mind at all that he had touched her.

Naoko squeezed between him and Nora and stuck out her hand.

"Nora? Hi. I'm Naoko Nakamura. It's a pleasure to finally meet you!"

Nora shook her hand while asking, "Are you related to Yoshi Nakamura?"

"Yes, he's my father," she admitted reluctantly.

Nora grimaced, then turned and grinned at Jack.

"Yoshi tried to seduce me. Offered me a world-class lab and a full staff if I agreed to be his mistress."

"Of course he did," muttered Naoko, sounding disgusted.

Nora continued, "So it's a kind of karmic justice that you gave me more than he could have ever provided, with no strings attached. And now you have his daughter as well."

"Wait, are you not part of his harem?" asked Naoko.

"No," said Jack and Nora at the same time.

"I offered her a soul bond because I wanted her for her mind and knowledge," added Jack.

"What about you?" Nora asked Naoko. "Why did you agree?"

"Because Jack's a stud?" teased Madison.

"I get wet every time I'm near him," added Naoko.

"Really?" asked Madison.

Naoko stuck her hand out to Madison. "Hi! Who are you?"

"I'm Madison, his first," said Madison proudly.

"First friend and first soul bond, but not first fuck," added Jack.

Nora asked Jack, "Is that why you soul bonded her? Because she gets wet when she's near you?"

"That by itself would not have been enough. What cinched it for me was that she is as interested in nanotech as you. It means she can be an active participant in our plans."

Then he smacked Naoko's ass and added, "It does help that she's my perfect little masochist fuck-toy."

"Fuck, yes! The things he can do to me," Naoko moaned. "If I didn't know you were here, I'd be on my knees begging him to punish me."

Feeling a spike of jealousy and anxiety from Madison, he grabbed her and pulled her into a hug.

To Nora he added, "I was also concerned she might turn into a stalker and figured soul bonding her was the best way to neutralize that threat. If she'd turned out to be uninteresting, I would have just locked her out of my soul space and told her to stay away from me."

"Wait, really?" asked Naoko. "I know I came across a little aggressive the first time we met, but 'stalker'ish?'"

"No, my first impression was that you were unstable, and might turn stalker'y if I wasn't careful. It was only afterwards that I learned it was my stronger soul that was affecting you. And a recent experience meant that I took an interest in you when you mentioned forty shades of purple. And our conversation in the library helped me make up my mind as to what I was going to do with you."

"So..." said Naoko.

"I soul bonded you because I want you for both your body and your mind. You're smart, if a little careless, share a common interest, and scratch an itch I've recently acquired."

"Ah, someone woke up your inner beast?" she asked.

It was funny that she also called it his inner beast.

"Yes, that."

"Um, hi?" said Samantha, who had been silent the whole time.

"Hi!" said Naoko, holding out her hand to Samantha.

As they shook, Naoko asked, "So, are you a masochist, too?"

"No, I think I'm mostly just a submissive. I really like it when he dominates me, but I'm not into pain. Or not much anyway."

He'd been trying to pay attention to his connections to all the girls. Rina was mostly bemused. Madison was jealous. And Samantha was pleased he was already adding people to his harem and was curious about Naoko.

But Nora was concerned. About what he wasn't certain.

He gave her an 'everything okay' look, and she tilted her head towards the door.

"Why don't you ladies get to know Naoko while Nora and I step out for a moment?"

Madison let go of him reluctantly, and he headed towards his white room, followed by Nora.

He stopped in the middle of the room and turned to face her.

"Okay, what's bothering you?" he asked.