Starting Over: Nerites
Copyright© 2025 by Quantum Mechanic
Chapter 1
Science Fiction Sex Story: Chapter 1 - Cheyenne is a plains world dedicated to production of livestock for sale to other human-occupied planets. Jean has a great job there, but he's offered a better job on a watery planet, and an opportunity to develop his own homestead. In order to take the new job, he has to uproot and transplant his young family. It's not easy going, and once there, the troubles have just begun.
Caution: This Science Fiction Sex Story contains strong sexual content, including Ma/Fa Romantic Heterosexual Fiction Science Fiction Cheating Massage Oral Sex Pregnancy Slow
Homecoming
Jean Pasteur throttled back the airboat’s engine, and gingerly guided its prow up onto the muddy beach. Securely grounded, he killed the engine and gave a nod to the pretty woman in the bow. His wife, Beth, acknowledged that signal by quickly releasing the tethers confining their two young daughters to their seats. While Jean checked the reading of the GPS receiver against the Settlement Department charts of the area, Beth and the children disembarked to stretch their legs, not straying too far from the craft. A few minutes later, satisfied with what he found, he turned to his family and spoke:
“OK. This is it. Welcome home!”
“You’re sure?” Beth queried, frowning. It seemed to her that the low-lying island was much too small. “It doesn’t look like fifty hectares to me.”
“That’s because you’re only looking at the so-called dry land.” he replied. “Most of our land grant is submerged. This island only comprises about sixteen hectares, but that is more than enough for our purposes. Besides, our coordinates are dead on.” He picked up a rifle and clambered out of the airboat. “See for yourself” he said, handing her the charts and the receiver. “I’m going to have a look around.” With that, he wandered off, disappearing into the scrubby ground cover.
Certain that he was correct, Beth squinted hopefully at the receiver anyway, and compared their current position to the coordinates shown on the chart for the island near the center of their grant. Reluctantly, she admitted to herself that they had landed in the correct place. Although slightly less than an hour by airboat from Poliniriton, where her husband was employed, this bit of undeveloped real estate appeared to be about as wild as it gets. It was a bit daunting to a girl who had spent her entire life, up to this point, in a high-tech urban setting.
Jean had acquired the grant nearly a year before, intending to develop the island as a family compound and subsistence farm, complete with house, fences, outbuildings, equipment, and livestock, before moving his small clan out here. It was quite a coup: finding an unassigned grant within a reasonable commute of the city was nearly unheard-of. This was the first time Beth and the girls had actually seen the island. For that matter, Jean himself had only visited a few times before. The everyday business of living in Poliniriton usually derailed his plans for actually doing any of the work needed on the island.
It would have been easy for Beth to lay all the blame for their current situation on Jean, since it was he who had decided to bid on this little piece of purgatory, but it was actually at her insistence that the family had moved so precipitously onto the new homestead. The recollection of that fact brought with it a torrent of memories created over the last few standard years. The move to Nerites had largely been her doing as well...
Following a series of dead-end jobs, Jean had finally achieved certification as an Ecological Planner, and as a result was offered a job on Cheyenne, managing the development of range lands for livestock production and wildlife conservation. He was doing well, enjoying his work and creating a respected reputation with the Grange power structure as a knowledgeable, careful, and effective manipulator of the range environment.
Beth, however, was miserable. Jean’s work took him away from home frequently, sometimes for weeks at a time, and she had no network of friends or relatives to lend emotional support. She felt abandoned and alone in her role as a homemaker and mother, and although she put on a good face, it was difficult to hide her deepening depression, and it was clear that she was not adapting to her new world and way of life.
Jean, being a reasonable astute man, gradually became aware of her acute unhappiness, and like most caring husbands would, he sought ways to remedy the problem. It came down to clear competition between his job and his family, and job satisfaction was, after all, not nearly as important to him as his family’s happiness and well-being. When Beth told him that her parents had moved to a retirement resort on Nerites, he sent out feelers among his contacts in the Eco-Planning business, and learned that the planetary Development Authority on Nerites was in need of someone with his skills, but had not actually announced recruitment for the position.
He submitted an unsolicited resume, and was disappointed to learn that the position had not yet even been allocated, and that furthermore, the PDA intended to recruit someone already in-planet, in order to avoid the expense of moving a newcomer. A few standard months later, he was further disappointed, but not surprised, to learn that they had indeed hired a local, so he simply forgot about it and went on with his life and business as usual.
Nearly a standard year after his last contact with them, the Nerites PDA called him at his office, and this time they were very interested in his application. It seems that the local fellow they hired hadn’t work out ... in fact, he had made such a mess out of things that it was dubious whether any of the damage could be repaired. Having taken a better look at Jean’s credentials, the PDA became so anxious to secure his services that they offered him, sight unseen, immediate employment at equivalent salary. Just to sweeten the pot, they added a hefty signing bonus, full tenure, and relocation expenses, provided he reported for duty within 90 standard days.
He called home and told Beth to arrange for a babysitter, saying he felt like going out for a romantic dinner. He left work early that day, and when he arrived, she met him at the door. Her demands for an explanation of his uncharacteristic behavior remained unsatisfied as he prepared to go out for the evening. She gave in for the moment, and prepared herself as well. Since arriving on Cheyenne, they had actually had zero time to spend as a couple, and thus had found no “favorite” restaurant, bar, or theater, so he had simply made reservations at a local steak house favored by the wealthier members of the Grange. The atmosphere was a little rustic, but the food was fantastic, and their table afforded sufficient privacy for what he had in mind.
“I got a job offer today” he said, without emphasis.
“Oh?” she responded. She didn’t think she could bear being hauled away to start over at another backward, lonely outpost like this one. That wasn’t fair. River City had about all the amenities that any metropolis on any world would offer. Its main shortcoming was her own loneliness, and her discomfort with doing what it took to change that. “What is it this time?” she queried.
He paused a long moment before responding. “Another planet. It’s a watery world, and they’re in a bad way. The offer is really good.” He fell silent.
“When do we leave?” she asked, dully.
“I thought we might talk about whether we were going to leave.” He said.
“Why would I care?” she asked. “There may be some minor differences, such as climate or the like, but as far as I am concerned, these outback worlds are more alike than they are different.”
“Even Nerites?” he asked.
Her heart leaped in her chest... “N ... N ... Nerites?” she stammered, “You have a job on Nerites?”
“Yes,” he replied, “I thought you might be pleased ... the offer is really good, and while we wouldn’t quite be next door neighbors, at least you would be on the same world as your parents. What do you think?”
“What do you think I think, you idiot?” she almost screamed. “Jean, I love you more than life, but if you pass this up, I think I’ll kill you myself!” and laughing, she burst into tears of joy.
Jean began laughing as well, arose from the table, and took her into his arms.
Jean arranged with the Nerites PDA for a reconnaissance trip, to secure housing in Poliniriton, one of only two metropolitan areas on the planet, and the location of PDA headquarters. The short time frame left little room for being choosy about location within the city, and housing of any kind was only available at a premium.
On his third day out, Jean finally found something. It was an older rental house in a depressed, but seemingly acceptable neighborhood. It happened that the house belonged to a local politician, who also had several others nearby. The landlord demanded cash up front in order to reserve the house, so it was necessary for Beth to have funds transferred through Western Union. On receiving the money, Jean sealed the deal, and reported to the PDA contracts office, where he arranged shipment of his household goods by a professional mover.
Following Jean’s return to Cheyenne, the remaining time fairly flew by. The entire family buzzed with activity in preparation for the move, particularly the children who, unlike their parents, had formed a significant number of friendships among the locals. Beth had a flurry of email exchanges with her parents, and with relatives elsewhere, informing them of their intent to move, and progress on that front.
Two weeks before Jean’s reporting date, the moving van arrived, and the movers proceeded to empty the house. Beth watched the burly movers handling her precious possessions with butterflies in her stomach, as she had every time her little family had been required to move, in order to follow her husband’s employment fortunes. Unlike the other times, she was glad to be moving now, but still found herself feeling the same pangs. She had always tried to put down roots, wherever they had moved, and pulling them up always hurt, even when she didn’t like the place she was leaving. When the last box was loaded and the house stripped to the bare walls, she finally turned back to her family, and with them, boarded the shuttle to Cheyenne Landing.
The trip to Nerites took five standard days and several carrier changes. Their goods were scheduled for delivery two days later, so Jean had reserved a room at a hotel in Poliniriton as temporary quarters. As frequently happens when contracts are awarded only to the low bidder, however, the delivery did not come off as scheduled, and it was a full ten days after their departure from Cheyenne before the local delivery van arrived at their new abode, and unloaded.
The Pasteurs worked feverishly to unpack their goods, and as usual, found that a number of their personal treasures had not survived the move. It was necessary, however, to set the household in order before Jean had to report to work. He was still in the same line of work, and, even on Nerites, he would still have to be absent from the family at times, occasionally for long periods. There was no way of knowing how soon he would have to travel, or how long he would be away.
On Jean’s last free day, just as they had finally unpacked the last box and settled in, the Pasteurs were surprised by a visit from Beth’s parents. It was a joyous and tearful reunion.
Life quickly settled into a routine, with Jean diving headlong into his work, and Beth going about the business of setting up housekeeping. Nessa, the oldest girl, began attending the local school with the beginning of the next term. Riva, the younger, wouldn’t begin for another three years.
Jean and Beth had always wanted to create a homestead that could operate independently of the technocracy. It appeared that they would likely be on Nerites for the long haul, so he began to search in earnest for a suitable location. It took over a year, but he found a small, unassigned parcel within an achievable commute. His research showed it to be eligible for a homestead land grant, so he put in a bid. To his surprise, two weeks after filing the application, a package of papers arrived at his home, containing notification and documentation that he was now the proud owner of 50 hectares of undeveloped land. He began spending all the time he could spare preparing the land for occupancy by his family.