The Unexpected
Copyright© 2025 by Technocracy
Chapter 29
Fiction Sex Story: Chapter 29 - "If you do not expect the unexpected, you will not find it; for it is hard to be sought out, and difficult." -- Heraclitus of Ephesus
Caution: This Fiction Sex Story contains strong sexual content, including Ma/Fa Consensual Heterosexual Fiction Military Science Fiction Violence
Spoons Ranch, Frio County, Tx - January 2011
Raul del Salvo and Marne Spoons walked out of the barn, furtively tucking their shirts into jeans, convinced that there wasn’t a soul on the ranch that knew. Everybody knew; none cared.
Raul rounded the corner of the barn, surprised that his future brother-in-law and ranch-hands were already stacking the elder Spoons’ belongings into the trailer. Billy Joe flashed a quick smile at Lucinda with a knowing wink, with Marne returning a winsome grin to her brother and future sister-in-law. It did not embarrass her that it was obvious Billy Joe and Lucy knew.
“Thought they were not leaving until next week? The wedding is this Sunday.”
Billy Joe smiled at Raul’s concern.
“Cool your rockets, stud. Dad and mom are just gettin’ set up a week early. Mostly because they don’t like all the ruckus going on here.”
“But the wedding...”
“Relax, Raul. It’s only three hours to Blanco. Less than an hour if we can convince him and mom to get into that chopper.”
The Spoons elders, on cue, exited the main ranch house. Benny, perched half-way up a telephone-pole watched as two ranch hands and the Spoons got into the large Chevy truck and drove north.
Benny paused to watch Mr Spoons walk away from the place that the man had invested over 30 years. Benny briefly wondered if he would ever able to, or be allowed to, walk away from the beast he and Harry had created. His thoughts returned to re-attaching the relay box and sensor array. After about ten minutes, Benny keyed his headset microphone.
“Power-up is good ... sequencing good ... mesh link indicated. Start the test run, Jason ... Jason?”
Benny heard two squelchs keying in response. Benny did not know whether to be amused or concerned by Jason’s terse, or non-existent, replies. To Benny, it was just another incomprehensible element of the military mind.
“Nodes reporting ... Ready for auto-configure test.”
Benny flipped an internal switch on the node’s transmitter.”
“Turned it off. Ready at this end, Jason...”
Benny waited for 30 seconds before his impatience kicked in.
“Jason?”
“Standby ... Bridging path confirmed ... Doc, the status board says we have problems on alpha three, charlie nine, and echo one and four.”
“Call Billy Joe for the two north-ranch nodes. What is the error code for echo one and four?”
“Freq jitter, and ... indicates a path balancing error for the immediate mesh nodes.”
“Tell Billy Joe to take the a complete kit to those nodes. And the error codes for alpha three?”
“Intermittent path routes from drops. It switched to a lower data rate.”
“I am climbing down, and going to the south pole. I will call when we get there.”
Benny heard a key click for Jason’s acknowledgment.
Andrea watched Benny climb down the 15 meter pole. A month of working outdoors had been good for both of them. Until recently, the whole of her life in America had been mostly indoors in the Boston area. She still could not get used to the size and the naked openness that was south Texas, much less the immense continental breadth and expanse of America west of the Mississippi.
Andrea’s sentiments were complicated. She was uncertain if she actually liked ranch life. Andrea could not isolate her desire to always be with Benny from any geographical preference for a home. She did not question that she may be shunting her wants and needs to those of Benny. Andrea only questioned if it would be harmful to Benny if their wants and needs become wholly merged into a single id; that is, they were becoming each other’s sole cathexis.
Benny replaced his small tool pack onto the donkey before helping Andrea onto the horse.
“We need to look at the southeast sensor pole.”
Andrea nodded, looking forward to being alone with Benny and away from the activities surrounding the main ranch house.
Benny, under the tutelage of Billy Joe and Marne, was becoming an adept horseman. Marne had commented on his ‘connection’ with the animals. A few hundred meters down the road, Benny sensed the unease of his mount. He did not feel any such disquiet from the smaller gelding under Andrea.
Benny patted the horse as they continued down the shale/caliche-topped truck trail. Looking back at the pack donkey in tow, Benny noted the animal’s flattened ears, but sensed nothing from him. Benny reached out to the donkey, flowing an emotive blanket of comfort over the animal, while hoping that the coyote pack had not returned.
“O que sente?”
“My horse may smells something. And that donkey’s body language indicates he is leery of something ... At least that is how Billy Joe explained such postures.”
“Much far?”
“See that pole? To the south of that pond?”
“Sim, mas sem indiretas.”
“Does not matter. This one should be simple. Then we return to the house.”
Benny helped Andrea off the horse and led the animals to the watering tank. As Benny keyed the microphone on his headset, requesting the mesh test sequence, a group of rough-looking men stepped out from behind the base of the windmill. Benny wondered if this was a repeat performance of the attempted mugging in Pearsall.
“What can I do for you people?”
The tall Hispanic male looked over the couple before answering.
“Where is it?”
“Where is what?”
“Don’t be stupid, cabron. Where is it?”
“I guess that I am, in fact, stupid. I have no knowledge of ‘it’.”
“You funny?”
“No. I am confused. What are you looking for?”
Andrea backed up, further behind Benny, feeling Benny’s ‘push’ of calm.
“What are you doing here?”
“I work on the Spoons ranch. I was going to repair the equipment on that pole.”
Benny briefly considered that these may be vagrants that had been camping on the eastern side of the ranch, returning to claim their gear. The tallest man was demanding in his tone.
“Who else has been here?”
“I cannot know. There are several people that have been working in this area.”
Benny wondered why Jason had not responded to his intermittent transmissions. So much for his security personnel being watchful. He discretely keyed the walkie-talkie microphone again, hoping that Jason would eventually realize the situation.
The tall Hispanic pulled out a pistol, not pointing directly Benny, but lowered in his general direction. His voice was firm and cold.
“Tell me who has been out here.”
“I cannot know, as there are about seven workers on the main ranch. Maybe a dozen on weekends.”
“I will not ask again. Tell me where it is, or who has it.”
When all four men pulled pistols from their waist bands, Benny knew that there was no obvious and safe extraction from this situation. Benny answered with a tinge of anger.
“I. Do. Not. Know! I do not know, what it is, or who the heck has been working in this area. What are you people looking for!?”
As the tall man raised his pistol, Benny pushed his anger and fears hard into the man as he quickly closed the three meter separation. The assailant’s mind was flooded with Benny’s emotive ‘flame’. The man’s nervous system was briefly palsied, eyes unable to focus, as Benny slammed into his lower torso, felling the man onto his back with Benny riding him down into the dirt.
As Benny’s forward momentum propelled him into a second impact with the hard dirt, three rifle cracks separated by less than a second, were followed by the three other men dropping onto the ground. Andrea propelled her mind outwards, sensing Billy Joe and Jason. Then hearing the rapid approach of a truck.
“Damn, Billy Joe. That was some God-given shootin’.”
Billy Joe ignored the deputy, not happy with the way his Browning BLR was being handled.
“Harv, you might wanna be careful with my gun. Don’t think that Donna Mae would be be happy if you had to buy me a new one. The case for it is behind the seat.”
The deputy sheepishly put the rifle in its case before putting it in the trunk of his patrol car, with an evidence tag. Jason stepped in front of the second deputy before he could start any conversation with Billy Joe.
“Officer, you need to back off until the sherif or someone from the DA’s office arrives ... Billy Joe, show these boys your government ID and one of your contact cards.”
Billy Joe whipped out his government ID carrier and shoved it into the nearest deputy’s hand. He retrieved a business card from a small box in his glove compartment, also shoving that into the deputy’s hand.
“Damn, Billy Joe. You’re really gettin’ in deep with these feds ... Okay, we wait. It’s gonna be a while. We’ll have to get the Bexar County coroner’s boys out here. This is too big for us ... And Mister, what did you say your name was?”
“I didn’t.”
Jason looked away from the deputy as he answered, seeing the sherrif and another vehicle spreading a thick trail of dust as they accelerated their vehicles down the truck trail to their location.
Benny hovered over a cup of coffee as Jason paced the kitchen, while Billy Joe fed his breakfast to a dog. Billy Joe had no tolerance for the ‘healthy’ food that Marne and Lucy were foisting on their men.
“Jason, are you going to tell me who, and what, these people were?”
“How would I know, Doc? Maybe cartel enforcers, maybe small-time drug mules. We’ll have to wait for the sherrif on that.”
“There were professionals. Call Henry. You should have called him yesterday.”
“Our resident rifleman, your ranch manager, called him yesterday.”
“Why did Billy Joe? Why not you?”
“Protocol, doc. Read the security manual. When shit goes down, my job is to secure you and your wife. It’s the ranch manager’s job to direct the organization and maintain contact with corporate at Needham during an emergency. And I need to get back to my job. Please do not leave the house, doc.”
Billy Joe cast a sarcastic comment towards Benny.
“Yep, y’all really gotta read that manual.”
Billy Joe waited for Jason to go do his security thing. Billy Joe had been itching to talk to Benny. Billy Joe may have been over 100 yards away when he dropped those three vermin, but he knew what he had seen.
“Ya blasted them jerks with your mind, didn’t you?”
“You are aware of...?”
“That you can do a Spock mind thing? General Stewart and Mason Johnson told me ‘bout you and Andrea. Ya know, I sorta think your telepathy thing is cool.”
“Mason? You met Mason Johnson?”
“Yep. He’s one scary honcho. He has a lot of respect for ya, Benny. I think that the guy is worried about you, and not in a good way.”
Benny dismissed Billy Joe’s opinion of Mason.
“How is Mason?”
“How is he? Just freaking ducky, and heavy on the ‘freaking’ part. He is in great physical health. Like I said, we talked ‘bout you. He and the General made it clear that you and Harry are the priority ... Benny, I don’t think that you understand those military people. They see you as a weapons system. Nothing else.”
“Weapon? Weapon for what? Against whom?”
“That’s whats really weird. They said they really can’t always know who the bad guys are. But I’m thinking they do know, or at least have a general idea. And the weapon is your mind, and Harry’s mind.”
Benny found Billy Joe’s comment ironically interesting, as he was thinking that it was Billy Joe whom the Marines had turned into a weapons system.
South Spoons Ranch - February 21, 2011
Benny, Jason, and Billy Joe were all crammed into the ad-hoc security station, built into a modified conex box, dropped next to several out-buildings. They had Robert, Henry, and Harry on the other end of a secured comm line.
Benny was not mincing words with his security chief and company counsel.
“ ... and the only thing your report provides is a failure to reject a null hypothesis, which does not indicate that the null hypothesis is correct.”
“Benson, we do not need a statistics lecture.”
“It would seem that you do, Robert. These four men were professionals. Ignoring any reference to probabilistic models for this, we can use reduction and inference. As such, we can say that they were either hired by a government, or were members of a cartel. The county DA is leaning towards the latter. This is not good, as the logical conclusion would be that the ranch is being used as part of a distribution network for drug runners. I want Henry to send another security person to the ranch.”
Henry was thankful that Benny could not see the exchange of looks between himself and Robert.
“Benson, let’s put a hold on that. General Stewart wants to send his people to the Spoons ranches. In any case we cannot afford the loss of a member of my team for Texas.”
Billy Joe laughed, outright, at the idea of Marines running around the ranches. He did not shy away from letting his thoughts known.
“Someone had better back up their giddy-up. SIG may own controlling interest in the ranches, but I don’t take kindly to allowing Stewart’s people to run around the ranch. If Benny wants to have them boys down here, I’m gonna ask him to explain to me how that worked out for Andrea up there in Mass. Why should I trust people from a group that almost killed Benny’s wife?”
Henry’s sigh was not inaudible, and was heard over the phone speaker as he answered with a question.
“Then tell me, Mister Spoons, what is your solution for ranch security?”
“For starters, ya got four people up there right now. If asking for one is too much, then I’m gonna say that something is wrong with the way things are being run; really wrong. My solution is not to invite the Marines to the party, but to rely on all of this high-tech stuff we installed, and my people.”
For the first time, Harry added to the conversation.
“Benny, you’re the man on site. Do we say no to Stewart, or what?”
“I will agree with Billy Joe. I do not want Stewart’s people at this site. We shall continue to keep silent about the ranch installations. In the interim, I want Henry to add another person to his team, provide training, then permamently assign this person to run security for the ranch and our new spin-off.”
“That will take some time, Benson.”
“Doris and Andy have updated the construction schedule. Henry, you have nine months to hire and train your man.”
“Understood. I’ll so advise Stewart.”
Billy Joe inserted a warning before the call was closed.
“One more thing, colonel, Stewart’s people are dangerous. If his Marines show up here uninvited, they may not make it back to their pretty base in one piece. Ya better let him know that.”
Jason inwardly smiled at Billy Joe’s promise, nee threat, to Henry. He had come to appreciate and respect Billy Joe. Jason figured that the young man may have learned some jarhead trade secrets, but he had not been drawn in by their sense of mindlessly loyal group-think.
Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine, Natick, Ma. - March 2011
General Stewart stood out, not because he was the only Marine in the office, but because he was the only person not wearing the traditional white lab coat/smock. The army physiologist had been frustrated with the Marine flag officer. Stewart wanted hard, deterministic solutions to questions that had no answer. She pointed to the file folder on the table, marked ‘Top Secret SCI (ENDCI) Read Only’.
“ ... we cannot know, sir. We are only aware of single-channel, and simplistic, cause and effect. This has been well-documented for almost fifty years. In any case, we have no budget, nor personnel to develop a research site or the required instruments.”
Stewart thumbed through the two folders of tabulated research data and graphs. Stewart briefly considered giving the data to Dr Harrison, but was wary of providing an unknown ‘quantity’ such as Harrison with sensitive information that could further enable his nascent abilities. His greatest fear was that only people outside the IC, such as Dr Harrison, would ever be able to make any usable correlations or conclusions.
“At least to me, this indicates that you have well-documented cause and effect. What about a theoretical basis? Something that could be reproduced under controlled conditions?”
“General, there is no basis for supporting any theory at this time ... We do know this; the frontal cortex is fully developed at around twenty four to twenty seven years, but we are uncertain how this may affect neuroplasticity in older subjects. In any case, statistically, documented cases of ‘super-empaths’ tend to develop where the subject was under thirty. Your female subject is a singular outlier for that reason. She was in her mid-thirties at stage two onset. Do we have additional details for this couple?”
“Further data cannot be released at this time. Neither are military personnel.”
“Interesting. How were you made aware of this?”
“Happenstance. It was accidental and incidental to an ongoing project.”
“So neither TBI was from explosive energy or combat-related impact injuries?”
“Correct.”
The army research officer twiddled her thumb, and narrowed her eyes at the Marine General.
“General, is this related to the cases I was removed from at Landstuhl?”
“That was a separate project. No connection.”
“I see ... and will the DIA fund the research?”
“They will not. The house intel committee has adopted the annoying habit of reading each and every line item. But I have other sources of funding. You would have to stand up a lab not under TRADOC, or your Medical R&D Command chain-of-command.”
“How would that be approved?”
“Simple blackmail and bribery, colonel. I know your commanding general from our time at the Staff Command College. He wants new equipment for his Fort Detrick labs, and I know how he cheats at cards ... Find an unused lab space at this site, and the project is yours. You would report only to myself.”
SIG, Needham, Ma - 17 March 2011
Doris bent over the side of Harry’s desk to point out a specific document in a folder that she had landed on top of his work. Harry did not look at the papers, choosing to look down his wife’s blouse.
“You see this, baby?”
“Yep, I see two. Nice. Very nice.”
Harry was racking his brains, trying to remember if he had ever seen this particular bra. He had mentally classified and tabulated all of his wife’s bras. The thought was interrupted when Doris tapped on the file folder to re-direct Harry’s attention.
“Stewart is at it again. His Google henchmen want ninety eight mil now, and another forty seven mil at the end of the calendar year.”
“So? Give the freaking war monger his money. Does it affect SIG’s cut?”
“No. Although, it would decrease yours and Benny’s percentage of the gross.”
“Geez, woman. Benny and me are rolling in it. Give the ol’ war dog his money without any of the usual paper-clip obstacles ... Ya know, babe, it’s a bit warm today. Why don’t ya undo them top two buttons?”
Doris unhitched her top two buttons, bent over to give Harry an eyeful, then quickly exited his office. Harry wondered about the new bra and shrugged to himself. Harry re-immersed himself back into his two monitors full of multi-variate three-dimensional charts, trying to find something that Lizzy’s automated analytics may have missed.
SIG, Needham, Ma - August 2011
Mike Frothers stood next to Lizzy’s desk, listening to his boss lecture his interim boss over the phone in group conference mode. But Benny did not lecture on pedantic or superficial issues, he stated the realities of physics.
“ ... that will not work, Lizzy. Calculate the entropy. State-based bad guys would have that in a matter of days, or hours if they have the processing power. If you want to allow remote control of the trading stacks, we will have to use one-time pads and decode each command discretely.”
“Yeah, you’re right, Benny. A look-up for the pad table would be essentially zero-overhead. But we still will need encryption for report generation to Google accounting. But that’s for them to decide. So what’s the status of the mesh?”
Harry stopped at the open door, having heard Benny’s voice. He leaned into the door frame, watching the two receive a lesson from the master.
“Minimal issues. The ranch has proved to be an excellent test site for our new product line. Per that, how is the employee recruitment?”
“Doris is pissed that I rejected all of the engineering candidates.”
“Then you need to re-write the position description and assist with the screening ... This does not make sense, Lizzy. Unemployment remains high, mass layoffs continue to make headlines, and colleges are still graduating many people with masters and PhDs. Something is wrong with the process. Do you have a template for the techs and engineer?”
“Damn right I got a template. Mason Johnson.”
“That would eliminate over 99% of the candidates, Lizzy. Perhaps you and Mike need to re-think the candidate profile.”
“Why? We’re not going to hire some poor sap, only to have you fire his ass after a few months, then have Doris and me start over.”
“I understand, Lizzy. But you must realize, we will require these people on-site within six months.”
“Doing our best, Benny.”
Harry stepped into Lizzy’s office to stand over the conference phone.
“Hey there, Benny. How you and your better half doin’?”
“We are well, Harry. Things are starting to take shape. I believe that this new company has significant potential.”
“Yeah, about that ... Ya hear that those idiots in congress tanked America’s bond rating? And the feds sure ain’t helping.”
“America lost its triple-A rating? What are the effects to SIG?”
“Nada. Mostly because we don’t finance anything. Cost of money would only affect our currency trades, and Doris has mostly removed us from that market. Our systems caught the resulting equities drop last Friday after the announcement, so nothing too bad happened. Either way, markets have since re-bounded after POTUS gave it some lip-service.”
“So what would be the point of this news flash?”
“It’s a marker for a deflection, and the market mind-set. And this ain’t subject to your psycho-babble complaints. This is measurable, Benny. We’re gonna have to crank on our trading machines’ outer loop, principally the proportional feed-back.”
“Lizzy, any issues with me re-seeding the model from a remote location?”
“Probably not. I’ll request a dedicated back-bone channel from Google. Those assholes will do anything for more money.”
“I hope you did not use such profanity with your mother last night.”
“Get real, Benny. I can’t cuss much in Portuguese. But I am working on it...”
Benny sighed, knowing a rebuke to Lizzy was what she sought. He chose not to play.
“Very well. We love you, Lizzy. I will advise when we need the channel. Goodbye to all.”
Lizzy lamented her wasted troll.
“Damn ... he didn’t even bite.”
Mike chose not to respond, as he was the peon. Harry was not.
“Why you do that? Quit trolling them.”
Lizzy presented her ‘little-girl’ smile to Harry.
“Keeps you old folks on your toes and nimble. Wanna go to Carla’s for chow?”
KFOR Joint Command, Camp Bondsteel, Kosovo
Captain Johnson and Lt Cmdr Stanson stood behind the interrogator.
“Ask about the supply drops and transport schedules.”
The interrogator translated the question. It was obvious that the prisoner did not provide the required response. The board was tilted while water from a high-capacity hose flooded the prisoner’s face through the coarse black hood fabric. Johnson and Stanson could see the young man’s shuddered panic to the drowning sensation.
After a short interval, the question was asked again. After no response, the procedure was repeated. The series of actions were repeated twice more. After the fourth round of questioning, the prisoner’s response was deemed acceptable as it was translated. The navy officer wrote notes to include three locations and other information.
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