Charles Hunter took a last look at the white walls
and empty rooms of his authentic 20th century five room ranch
style replica. He stepped through the door and closed it quietly,
but it echoed like a crash of doom. He was listening to that door
close for the last time. His old life was over, a life which had
once been so full, and so perfect, that he no longer wanted to
live without it. Happy voices, love, and sharing, were all far
behind him. They died when Delilah died. Irretrievable,
unbearable, unforgettable.
So much of Delilah had filled the house. The house
and the memories of her, were inseparable. So to end his misery
he was now getting rid of his cherished house. Delilah deserved
to be remembered, and she would be until his dying days, but he
needed to endure his pointless life or end it.
With a shuddering sigh Charles turned and walked
across the lawn to sit on the lush green grass, his grass. He had
pampered that lawn for so long, so lovingly. Few people actually
remembered how to grow things, it had taken him months of trial
and error to coax his lawn into life. The water alone had cost
him a fortune. It was the last remaining real lawn on the block.
The others had gone to synthetic grass which grew once and froze
at the perfect height, flexible and realistic forever even though
they were clinically dead.
Charles stood and walked to the neighborhood com
center. He plugged his card into the taxi call box and waited
until it verified his transaction. Charles heard the hiss of an
air propelled hover board approaching from the east end of the
street. There were no real streets, of course, it was an old word
which held little meaning in a flying society.
He watched a neighbor kid float up the plasticrete
walkway. The small boy waved on the way by. Charles waved in
return. He realized sadly that he didn't know the boy's name.
Delilah would, she knew everyone.
Charles glanced back at his home and saw that the
preassigned holographic "for sale" sign had already sprung up
from the tiny projector planted in his lawn.
"You greedy bastards!" he hissed under his breath.
The house was no longer his, it became their property the moment
he stepped off the lawn. Oh well, that was the past, now he must
look toward the future.
The high pitched whine of an air car drew his
attention to the west. He looked up at the checkered taxi and
waved. The taxi settled on the lawn, obliterating the holographic
sign for a moment. The side swung up and Charles stepped in. He
was alone in the craft, which wasn't surprising. He didn't expect
a live driver, they only came with limos. The taxi lifted off the
ground and the sign reappeared as Charles watched, with his hand
on the window, as if saying goodbye to his old house.
"Where too?" the dashboard suddenly asked.
"Raybeam Tech."
"Raybeam, huh? Very well, it's your brain.
"Your voice sounds familiar, who is this?" Charles
began showing some signs of life.
"Operator 487, out of Northeastern. Patrick Reque.
I've driven for you before, I recognize your pin number. With
several million addresses to remember, my job requires a
photographic memory."
"Got time to chat?"
"Sure, I only have two other cabs on line right
now. What's up?"
"Have you had many drops at Raybeam?"
"Me? Hell no. Most of their clientele are old
timers, 21st century defrosts with no job skills and no rights.
They go right from cryonics to the RERE building in black trucks.
I've never seen a volunteer from the general populace."
"Why should you object? It's not too different
from what you do."
"Yeah it is, Pal, very different. For one thing I
don't go into a tank for years on end, I take this remote gear
off and go home at night. For another," the voice turned
disgusted, "they don't shove those tubes up my ass and down my
throat. I take normal breaks, just like everybody else. It's
different, pal, believe me."
"Yeah, I guess it is. But the benefits far
outweigh the inconveniences."
"If you say so. Say Charlie, there are a few
openings here at Checkered, I could put a word in for you if you
want."
"No, but thanks. I want to escape, I've opted for
remote exploration."
"ReEx, huh? Ok, you're here. But keep my offer in
mind. Operating a plastic dolly on another planet won't fix
anything."
"I will remember your offer and thanks again. Take
an extra something off my account, I won't be needing it for a
few years." "Well in that case, I will, thanks."
Charles stepped out and looked at the mile-high
building disappearing into the clouds overhead. He knew there
would be a series of transmission dishes at the top of that
tower, just beneath the lower reaches of space. The dishes had
originally been used for teleportation stations. Teleportation
had been a new 22nd century fad which ended only five years
before. Half the world, including Charles and his new bride, had
taken a trip in a teleporter, just to say they'd used one.
The technical aspects of teleportation had been a
closely-guarded secret until one day a Terminalist, known as a
hacker in the 20th century, who was also an electrical engineer,
broke into the IB&C files and downloaded a secret set of
teleporter schematics. He found that teleportation was based on
the principle of destroying the original person at the point of
origin and recreating an exact duplicate at the destination
point. He passed the word that teleportation meant murder. Sure,
a copy showed up at the destination point, but the original man
or woman was destroyed by the beam. Since the electrical engineer
recently took a ride in the teleporter, he had IB&C prosecuted
for his own murder. Eventually, he won. The resulting uproar had
put IB&C out of business and their shareholders in debt forever.
Raybeam Electronics and Robotic Exploration, or
RERE, bought up much of IB&C's prior assets and now owned this
buildings, which had been IB&C's main headquarters in
Southeastern. Charles would soon be hooked into one of those
dishes. He glanced wistfully at the departing taxi turning for a
flight back to Northeastern. It was tempting. If it weren't for
Delilah...
He entered the huge building and stepped into the
lift. The ride up took nearly 20 minutes. The doors opened onto a
glass and stainless steel wonderland.
"Can I help you?" a real woman asked.
"I'm Charles O. Hunter, I called last week. I have
an appointment with recruiting."
That started a flood of activity. He was ushered
into a higher office and set down in front of a remotely operated
screen to fill out computer forms. The first form was a bond of
secrecy, the second waived all rights to legal redress. The taxi
job began to look better and better as he wadded through the pile
of forms flickering on the holographic screen. After three hours
the screen went blank and a young man came into the room to
escort him out. In three more hours he was stripped and tubes and
permanent electrodes were inserted all over his body. In two more
hours his eyes were sealed shut and he was lowered into an
oxygenated nutrient tank. The tank would be his new home for the
next three years. He couldn't wait, it had been a long day, he
was exhausted. The started a countdown, just like the old Nasa
films. Charles held his breath until they reached zero.
Charles opened his eyes and looked down at his
dusty, silicone plastic body. It had been in storage for a long
time, there was a coating of dirt on his muscular synthetic body
which would need to be steam cleaned off while he was till numb.
He stepped into the sterilizer and waited as his new body was
cleansed, inside and out. In a moment the water and steam stopped
and he stepped out to see the lightly tanned rubber skin gleaming
and new in the pale blue sunlight. He glanced up at the window
and saw the edge of a huge blue sun seething overhead. It was a
frightening sight, one which would take a lot of getting used
too.
Charles searched for appropriate clothing and saw
a young woman stand up quickly and hurry from a glass enclosed
office.
"Hi, who are you, I wasn't expecting anybody?"
"Back on Earth, I'm Charles Hunter, a new man. Who
are you?" "Eileen Baker. Welcome to the Atlantis
project."
"Thanks, I guess. Couldn't RERE send me out a new
body?"
"No need, these last for a thousand years or more.
Your's is barely two hundred years old and I just overhauled it
myself. Besides, teleporting robots cost energy, and energy is
money you know."
"They teleport them?" Charles asked in surprise.
"Sure, that's why they took over IB&C's old
equipment. Since the teleporters can't be legally used on humans,
they send out robots for remote operation. Didn't they tell you
anything?" "They had me in the tank in less than
ten hours. All I know is that I'm supposed to report to the head
of the Atlantis project, a Doctor Baker... you're her," he said
belatedly, shaking her hand. "What are we doing out here anyway?"
"Energy collection and transmission. What's your
specialty?" "Computer programming and operation."
"Not much use to us, I'm afraid, 21st century
computers are so ancient that the principles aren't even similar.
I believe they were mechanical, weren't they?"
"I'm not a defrost, I'm a volunteer. I'm from the
22nd century."
"No shi... I mean, I'm happy to meet you. I'm a
volunteer too. Until you came along I was the only one. Now I
have somebody who I can relate too. Well, by all means, we can
certainly use you. Right now I'm trying to puzzle through the
alignment and conversion process, that should be right up your
alley."
"I can look," Charles shrugged and followed her as
she started for the front door.
Eileen stopped suddenly and held up her hand. "I
have to warn you, Goliath can be very intimidating, prepare
yourself for a shock."
"I've seen part of it through the skylight."
"Not even the same thing. Are you ready?"
"Sure," Charles impatiently opened the door and
was surprised to feel the knob in his hand as realistically as he
could feel his own hand. His remote sensors were beginning to
wake up.
"Hey, I can feel that."
"Sure. Your body was desensitized while it was in
storage, sometimes it takes a while to get your senses back. Can
you smell and taste yet?" she asked as she stepped through the
door.
"No not..." Charles stood in stunned silence and
hunched his back against the huge mass filling the sky. The blue
sun looked so close he felt he could reach out and touch it. He
straightened slowly as he watched the solar flares sending
tentacles out into space. Some reached for the planet, but never
made it. He could see the black swirls on the sun and the
swirling, boiling clouds of burning gas churning on the surface.
"I told you, scary isn't it? Just remember, your
body is not real, you can not be harmed here. If for some reason
you are destroyed, you will simply wake up in the tank back on
Earth."
Charles nodded and tried to smile. He liked the
look of Eileen in the bluish light which gave her a ghostly tint
around her cheeks and hair. Her clothing had changed colors and
the roundness of here chest was accented by the blue light and
darker shadows which served to outline every luscious curve of
her body. She had a small waist and a sexy, prominent ass. It was
the kind of ass that men loved, and lusted after. Charles
suddenly scoffed at himself, remembering that neither of them was
real. As the taxi driver had said, they were plastic dollies.
"Your eyes have been slightly altered to make this
bluish light seem more natural to you. A human eye would be
nearly blind here, this is similar to the black lights popular in
the 20th century."
"What about sun burn?" Charles asked as he
suddenly realized that he was still naked.
"Oh shit, I'm so sorry," she looked down and
giggled. "We'll get you some clothes. It looks like your body is
waking up in more ways than one."
Charles glanced down and quickly covered himself.
"I didn't know a robotic body could... respond
like that."
"Oh yeah, we have some very interesting recreation
around here. It seems that once people step into a remotely
operated body, they drop all inhibitions. They seem to feel that
they actually aren't doing anything, since nobody is really here.
It's a dream state thing. You know, anything goes in a dream."
Charles nodded, still covering himself. He was
very aware of the feeling of his hand on his cock. It was highly
sensitive.
"Oh come on Charles, it's not really your body,
you know. Follow me, we'll get those clothes."
"It feels real enough to me," he followed, still
covering himself.
"If you want to see some really confused people,
you should see the ones who can't get a same-sex body. There are
guys around here who I'd swear are in love with themselves. You
were lucky, you got a male body."
"I wouldn't mind being a lesbian," Charles said as
he strode along behind her, watching the gentle sway of her
ass.
"You and a hundred others. I never saw the
attraction, myself. Lesbians don't have 8 inches of meat between
their legs."
Charles groaned, grabbing himself as he
followed.
Charles quickly fell into the routine of things.
In the next week he met most of the other two hundred occupants
of the Atlantis complex. Some he didn't like, most were friendly,
though a bit strange with their 21st century mentalities. He soon
understood what Eileen meant about talking to somebody who
understood what she was talking about. He repeatedly heard
resentment over the reorganization of the United States, where
all interior cities, roads, and private dwellings were destroyed
to make room for farm lands. Eastern and Western were constructed
and the new mega-complexes were built from one end of both coasts
to the other. To Charles this and frequent references to the
underground transit tubes were ancient history. The others talked
of them as if they were happening now. Charles sought out Eileen
most of the time. They got along well and Charles wondered what
Eileen's real body looked like back on Earth. Whenever he asked
about it she changed the subject. But he was certainly attracted
to her synthetic body. Still, his post-marriage guilt kept him
celibate.
Once Charles senses truly awoke he thoroughly
enjoyed the experience of remote exploration in more ways than
one. There was a scent to the air at the Atlantis project which
was thoroughly intoxicating and enjoyable. It was partially from
the growing things on the unknown planet, but the trace elements
in the air had much to do with it. He took the time to fly, swim,
fish, and explore, usually with Eileen at his side. For the first
time since Delilah's death, he truly began go live again.
"Charles, drop that circuit board and follow me.
It's rec time."
"Eileen, I'm right in the middle of something,"
Charles said in exasperation.
"Fuck that. I'll make it an order, if you
like."
"You would," he mumbled, dropping the board with a
force that made her cringe. "I'm all yours."
"Yes you are. I have some good news, the zero
gravity chamber is now up and working. It's in Annex 12," she
pointed to the far end of the complex.
"Wonderful. I can lose my breakfast and never
leave the ground."
"You can lose your virginity and easily leave the
ground," she giggled.
"What?"
"We are going to have a space fuck, and this time
I'll not take no for an answer. Inside, mister," she shoved him
through the door. She tapped on the keypad just inside the door.
"Access blocked" began flashing.
"It's all ours," she smiled.
"I told you, I used to be married," he said,
reaching for the door.
"And I'm telling you, your post-traumatic stress
is caused by your sexual repression. It's not healthy and I can't
allow it to continue. Fuck me, and that IS an order."
"And if I don't?"
"You will be discontinued before nightfall," she
said with finality.
"I'll be what?"
"You will be turned off and eventually
replaced."
He watched as she began stripping before him.
Despite his resolution, his cock grew hard almost immediately. He
licked his lips and turned to reach for the door, but her
reflection in the window looked even more provocative. He turned
back, looking at Eileen as she reached down and dropped her
panties around her ankles. Her pussy was not only beautiful, it
was fully functional. He had checked the owners's manual and read
the schematics. All internal and sexual organs were based on
organ replacement technology. Through the simple digestion of
food, the synthetic body was fed every possible resource it could
need, and it mimicked nature in every way, including touch,
smell, and taste.
After some thought he began taking off his
clothes.
Eileen stepped to the edge of the huge crystal
circle in the middle of the floor and leaped. She sailed skyward
with her arms and legs spread like a skydiver. Charles took three
running steps and leaped up behind her. He sailed faster than
her. He caught her around the waist as he began to pass. They
spun wildly until air friction stopped them. Eileen giggled and
squealed. She jerked out of his grasp and rolled end over end.
Charles slid in behind her and placed his nose in the crack of
her ass.
"Hey, that's my ass, mister," she pretended
outrage as she looked down at him. He inhaled deeply, then
flicked his tongue across her asshole. She squealed in
delight.
With his arms tightly wrapped around her legs,
holding them closed, he nuzzled and licked her asshole for a
while, then centered his attention on her swollen, glistening
pussy lips. He sniffed her small, perfect petals and moaned in
appreciation.
"This is so fucking realistic," he moaned, before
placing his lips over her pussy and sucking lightly. His tongue
plunged up inside her and explored liberally. The heat and flavor
of her pussy was wonderful. It was the first pussy he had tasted
since Delilah. Despite his guilt, he nearly came before he even
fucked her. The experience was so erotic. He felt a growing heat
in his loins. It was a long-forgotten experience.
"My God, this feels so good," he whispered into
her pussy.
"And wonderful for me," she gasped. "Let's try a
69," she hissed in a whisper.
"Certainly," he said, releasing her legs. She spun
lazily and grabbed his hips. She pulled him closer, now facing
his genitalia, as he faced her's.
"Damn, I could really get to like this," Eileen
hissed. She felt her legs being spread. His mouth claimed her
pussy, his tongue impaled her immediately. A myriad of sensations
exploded in her loins. She shuddered, giving a hissing whine,
before grabbing his cock with her hand. She stroked it just three
times before she plunged forward and slid it's entire length into
her mouth and down her throat.
She sucked, with her nose being tickled by his
pubic hairs. She smiled at his moan of pleasure. Bobbing
slightly, she began stroking his hard cock with her mouth. She
closed her eyes, savoring the first sexual experience she'd had
in years. It was worth waiting for, Charles was very good and she
was very experienced.
With every-growing moans, Charles felt his orgasm
nearing. Her moist, eager mouth was milking his cock in every
good way possible. Her hands kneaded his ass in a strong
grip.
Eileen's pussy had grown very hot and moist. She
was extremely flavorful, although such things seemed impossible
to a novice. The food ingested by each person, flavored the body
as it would in a real person. Charles was coming to realize that
the synthetic bodies could be more realistic than a natural body.
The passion he was feeling exceeded even that he had know with
Delilah. This could be due to the fact that he was now a perfect
physical specimen.
"Oh shit," Eileen gasped. "Oh yes, eat me," she
hissed before reclaiming his cock with her lips. She began
humping her soft mound against his face. He tightened his
spinster muscles to delay his orgasm. He wanted to cum at the
same moment that she did. He did not want premature ejaculation
to destroy the experience.
"Oh, oh God," Eileen moaned around his cock. He
knew he couldn't wait much longer. Restraining his orgasm was
causing him pain. He suddenly wondered if a synthetic cock could
produce cum. The simple distraction was too much for him. He felt
the heat building until he exploded. He felt his cock pumping hot
cum into Eileen's waiting lips. She sucked noisily, while her own
pussy pelted his mouth. She suddenly shivered and screamed. Her
screams came out in a gurgling cry, as his cock continued pumping
cum into her mouth. She hurried to catch up, then rested with his
now-flaccid cock wilting in her mouth, while her pussy went wild
in his.
Charles sucked and tongued her pussy until she
fell silent, grasping him for support. They were now floating
just off the floor, rotating slowly in sympathy with the rotation
of the planet.
Eileen kicked lightly, launching them toward the
ceiling. As Charles rose with her, she slid down and recaptured
his cock in her mouth, wrapping her arms around his meaty,
lightly-haired legs. He gasped, arching his back as pleasure shot
through his groin. Eileen was a natural sexual partner, retaining
few inhibitions, and much sexual excitement. She was driven to
pursue even more pleasure. Luckily, a synthetic body never grew
tired.
Eileen drew back and checked her handiwork. The
body Charles now inhabited was her favorite. It had a full 8
inches of penis between it's legs. While empty she had stimulated
the appropriate areas of the body to produce a hard cock she
could ride at her leisure, and she had ridden it often. While
uninhabited she had called the body Atlas because of it's perfect
physique. Now, with Charles inside, it was even more
interesting.
"Now fuck me," she moaned enticingly. She raised
her legs and spun leisurely until her upraised feet framed his
face. Her tempting ass now faced his cock, moist and ready. With
a moan of yearning Charles thrust forward, entering her moist
channel. She hissed as the huge piece of meat plunged up inside
her. She rested her heels on his shoulders and bounced against
him. Her sweet ass looked so beautiful from that angle. Her
lightly tufted pussy was small and delicate. Her breasts were
ample, at least an overfull C cup.
"Yes, Charles, fuck me good," she whispered.
He looked up at her face and smiled. Holding her
legs in a grasp of iron, he pumped away in her pussy like a
machine. Thrust after thrust spread her delicate little pussy
lips and impaled her slender body. Her pussy was swollen and
stretched around his massive piece of flesh, a cock much larger
than his own, but beginning to feel more like his own that his
real cock felt.
Huffing in time with his thrusts, he sounded like
a train pulling into the station. The moist impact of his hips
against her ass was loud. The fervent motions were causing them
to jerk and spin in the weightless environment. They didn't care,
built in safeguards prevented them from going beyond the range of
the anti-gravity area and crashing to the ground. They simply had
to concentrate on sex.
"Oh Charles, I'm going to cum," she panted, her
face screwed up in passion.
"Do it," he whispered, feeling his own desire
building toward a great orgasm.
"Oh God, I'm close," she warned in a high pitched
voice.
"Me too," he groaned.
"Oh, oh, oh, oh, ieeeee," she shouted, stiffening
beneath his attack on her tortured mound. He pelted away,
hastening his own orgasm until he froze, grunting and jerking
against her, with his massive cock fully inserted. They both
closed their eyes and enjoyed the moment. Only then were they
aware of the sound of pounding at the front door.
"Ooops," Eileen giggled. "I guess others want to
use this thing."
"Fuck them, let's go again," Charles said with an
evil laugh.
Before she could object, Charles was sucking on
her breasts.
For the first year Charles worked on the
programming to convert the teleportation beam into one which
would carry massive bursts of energy back to Earth. Only short,
highly concentrated bursts of energy could make the project
profitable, and it was his job to experiment on the planet's
surface until the transmitter was perfected. Eileen and Charles
were the brains of the project, and the Defrosts were the brawn.
He was amazed at how tirelessly the robotic bodies could work
under such harsh conditions. He seldom thought of his real body
any more, for him Atlantis was reality and Earth was a distant
memory. If Charles could have discarded his real body and lived
out his life with Eileen at the Atlantis Project, he could have
been truly happy.
On the momentous day that the transmission process
first worked, Charles and Eileen held a little celebration in her
bungalow. Since a massive solar flare was due to reach the
vicinity of Atlantis during the next day they moved the
celebration to the underground complex designed to shelter them
from these frequent solar flares.
"I can't believe you actually got it to work,"
Eileen said quietly and snuggled closer to Charles' body. He
looked down and smiled, then gently stroked her long brown hair.
"It took a while, but it works, doesn't it?"
"You were wonderful, Charles. You realize that we
might be recalled now," she looked up with a frown.
"Recalled?"
"Yeah, you know, back to Earth."
"Earth. You know, I haven't thought of Earth for a
long time. I almost forgot that it exists. Where do you think
they will send us next?"
"I don't know. I'll be put in charge of another
project. They'll probably use you at headquarters after this.
You're too valuable to go back in a tank."
Charles sat up and frowned down at her. "You mean
we will never work together again?"
"We go where they tell us to go. You waived all
rights, remember?"
"Not me, I go with you or I'll quit," Charles
jumped out of bed and went over to the recombinator. He ordered a
cold beer and sat in the chair by the bed.
"Charles, half the people on this planet were sent
here against their will. They don't give you a choice, they turn
you off and on like an old fashioned light bulb."
"What if we got married?"
"They don't allow marriages, Charles. Besides, if
we were married they'd still send us where they want."
"I could get you pregnant..." he realized what he
was saying and stopped suddenly, looking down at his synthetic
body. His mind had accepted the body as reality. He had been
warned about such things in his short briefing.
"Charles, you always wanted to know what my body
was like back on Earth. I think it's time to come clean with you.
I was born on July 6th, in the year 2150."
"You said you weren't a defrost," Charles frowned
down at her in annoyance.
"I'm not, Charles."
"That would make you almost ninety," he was
horrified at the thought of such intimacies with... what? A three
hundred year old robot with a ninety year old mind? He was
confusing his projected environment with the real one again. He
suddenly felt sick and confused.
"Charles, this has been a glorious second chance
for me. I have been able to live like I did seventy years ago.
Can you imagine what that meant to me? I wasn't trying to hurt or
deceive you. It just started out as fun, remember?"
"Yeah, I do now."
"Don't you have somebody back on Earth?"
"I did. She died a couple of years ago. Hell, I
guess I did too when I used the teleporter. They tell me that we
are just copies."
"Most people from that time are... say, did she
use the teleporter too? Your wife, I mean."
"Sure, it was our honeymoon present from my
father-in-law. We teleported to Paris for our honeymoon."
"Do you remember the exact date?"
"Yeah, I guess."
"I'm going to take a chance on you, I think I know
you well enough to trust you by now. But we can't talk out loud,
they can monitor our conversation back on Earth. Come on," she
waved him towards the computer. She turned it on and the
holographic screen and keyboard appeared. She typed quickly and
turned the screen for him to see."
"The records of every teleportation ever made are
stored in the lower levels of the RERE building. Go through the
records and find her. You can bring her back. YOU CAN MAKE
ANOTHER COPY!
Charles gasped and sank to the chair, shaken and
faint with the realization that there was a chance of bringing
Delilah back. "Thank you, Eileen, I'll find her if
it takes the rest of my life," Charles kissed her tenderly and
they made love again.
The energy transmissions began. The system was
fully automated, so there was no need to do more than monitor the
results occasionally. This gave them more time to explore and
enjoy themselves. In the weeks that followed they held parties
for the defrosts, pursued their assorted hobbies, and began a
project to further refine the compression of the electrical
discharges. Charles, in his free time, began to probe IB&C
records for any reference to his use of the teleporter. He was no
Terminalist, but he was a good programmer and he began to make
some headway against the safeguards in the system.
Eileen helped as much as she could. During one of
their computer excursions through the IB&C records, Eileen
suddenly brightened.
"You know, they have kept us here long past what
was necessary. It's entirely possible that they have another
project in mind for us here. We may stay," she said in
excitement.
"Perhaps we can increase the odds by making
ourselves more useful. I believe we can double the output of our
transmissions with another year of work."
"I'll bring that up the next time I send a
transmission to RERE. I'm sure they'll approve it."
Eileen was wrong. One moment Charles was running a
maintenance check, monitoring the energy transmissions on a
hundred dials and meters, the next he was standing on a small
hill overlooking an endless grassy plain. ......can you guess the rest ? read robot sex stories at smuterotica enter here