Educating Alice.

When I managed to recover a little from my orgasmic episode, I turned over, to see Nuba nursing her hand.

"Are you all right?" I asked, wiping sweat from my forehead.

"I think so," she replied. "I'm pretty strong, enhanced bone structure you know, so don't think anything's broken, but it was close. What did you do?"

"I'm sorry," I said. "I didn't mean to. I'll explain later."

"Okay then. Come on, let's get you dressed before your synth comes back. Stand up."

She helped me stand, now only clad in my bra and socks. Even as she did, her hands roamed my body, which didn't help my composure at all.

"You're hot as hell," she whispered to me, as I stood there, shaking. Then, to my absolute shock and bewilderment, she kissed me!

It was only a brief kiss on the lips, just a light peck really, but it made me wobbly once more.

"What's happening?" I wailed, clutching at her.

"Oh my, I didn't realise you would be this bad," she simply replied. "I'm sorry, I'll go slower. Come on, stand still, let me dress you."

So I did what she said, still quivering as she slid my panties back on – she had to steady me for a second as I nearly fell over there – before picking up the clothes my synth had dropped and carefully dressing me.

We finished just in time. The door opened as I was letting Nuba slip on my shoes, and the synth came back in, carrying a large tray.

"Dinner," it simply announced, putting the tray on my table.

"Thank you," I replied. "You may let us get on with it."

"Yes ma'am," it said. It slid into its charging slot and deactivated.

"Let's eat," Nuba said, and guided me over to the table.

We say down at my little table and Nuba played mother, taking the dishes off the tray and arranging them. I pointed out where my cutlery was kept, and soon we were munching away.

"So," she said, once we'd sated out initial hunger. "What's with the super strength?"

I looked around, there was only the synth, which was on standby, but even so, I wasn't sure if it could still hear me. Seeing my hesitation, Nuba stood up and went over to the synth's docking station. She opened a panel and spent a minute fiddling, before returning to the table and picking up her spoon again.

"She can't hear you now, I've disabled all audio inputs."

"Are you sure?" I asked, rather shocked at this level of competence. I mean, yes, we did study engineering, but I'm not sure I'd have know where to start doing what she had just done.

"I'll tell you later, but you first." Nuba spooned up some rice into her mouth and looked at me intently.

Sighing, I nodded. "Very well, but this goes no further, understand? I mean, no one."

"I swear." She held up three fingers in some kind of salute, which I assumed must have meant something on her homeworld.

"It's a genetic mod," I said.

Nuba's eyes widened. "Oh! No wonder you want it kept quiet. How have you escaped the Purity Enforcers?"

"It's registered with them actually. Because it was done before the 'gene wars, and because it's genetically passed on, and because my family is stupidly rich – mainly that last reason – we've been allowed to keep it, as long as we keep it quiet that is. You see why I'm trusting you here?"

"I do." She nodded.

It is a big deal. In case you aren't familiar with galactic history, the whole of human civilisation, spread across the entire galaxy, had a gigantic war hundreds of years ago. There are many planets still rebuilding, and many that will never be habitable again. All because of genetic modifications to the human race.

Eventually the Purists, as they were called, defeated the Gene forces, and when the Galactic Government was formed after the war, genetic modification was rigidly monitored and restricted. I mean, yes, your basic improvements are still allowed of course. Enhanced body strength, disease resistance and so on, but anything more and sooner or later the Purity Enforcement Bureau will be knocking on your door. Or, more likely, kicking it down and dragging you off. Rumours of where the Altered are taken are many, and none of them are pretty.

"So, you have super strength then?" Nuba asked.

"It's more than that actually. Strength, speed, reflexes and, well one or two other things. But it does come at a cost. When I Boost it uses a lot of energy, very quickly, so I can't do it for a long time."

"Wow." Nuba had paused with her spoon halfway to her mouth as I had explained. She shook her head and carried on eating.

"So, your turn, what did you do to my synth?" I smiled at her.

"Oh, nothing superhuman, sadly. I'm just a really good hacker. Didn't you wonder why I was transferred here at such a late age? I've been kicked out of just about every other school."

"Oh." I thought about it and giggled. "Useful."

"Yes." She smiled back. "But, I can't take it offline for too long, or someone will notice."

"You'd better put her audio back then," I said.

"In a minute." Nuba put her spoon down and stood up. She came around the table and took my hand, pulling me up too.

Then she kissed me.

It wasn't like before, it was a full on, open mouthed, tongues invited, snog.

It took me a short while to get the hang of it, but when I did, I took part eagerly. Feelings that I'd never experienced ran through my body, and my downstairs area began to tingle again.

"Oh, stop!" I said, pulling away, panting hard. "Why do I feel like this? My..." I pointed down to my pants.

"Your pussy? It's been turned off for years by the suppressants they've been feeding you. Now it wants to play catch-up. Oh, I'd better hack your synth so it doesn't notice."

She pulled away from me, leaving me feeling wobbly and breathless, and went over to her pad, where she proceeded to tap away for several minutes. I returned to the table and finished my food off.

"Done," she announced, just as I was clearing the plates up. She put her pad down, went over to me and kissed the top of my head, and then walked over to the docking area and undid whatever she had done before. "And done." She repeated.

"I think I have been," I said.