Chapter 33: A Side Trip

Meanwhile, I hired some workers to completely clean Dolphin out. That could be done where it was. Since we weren’t planning on any repairs or changes, getting it ready to sell should go fast. I wanted the hold empty and the hull cleaned both inside and out, so that we could inspect it and see what shape it was in.

I put a couple of men to wetting the ways again, so that Dolphin could slide on mud instead of dirt. I asked the Commander to train some men that I could hire directly, instead of always borrowing his men. I talked to the two arguing carpenters, who I’d been told were actually brothers, about building a missile launcher for Thunder and about figuring out how to safely have a cook-house for both Thunder and Wrong Place.

I even got Filo and the other lieutenants to agree to take turns looking in on what was going on, and keeping people moving if I happened to be unavailable, since nothing had been done on the fitting-out pier for the whole month that we were gone.

Then, when it looked like maybe I wasn’t the irreplaceable man for a few days, I showed those two rings to Donna. She was ecstatic about going home, then overjoyed about getting a baby, and then angry about having to wait.

“How long have you had those?”

“We found them on those pirates we just got rid of. When we stripped all the bodies, we took off a lot of jewelry. I don’t know if it was one man with both, or two different men, but the pile of jewelry had these two rings.” I’m getting better at lying. “They look expensive, so they may have just been wearing them because they liked them. They may not have known what they were for. And they may not work, you know. There’s only one way to find out.”

“When can we go? Can we go today?”

“No, not today. Maybe tomorrow. I still have some things to do, and I wanted you to try to teach the local herbalists what you can.”

The upshot of that was that I sent her off with Jim to the widow Ellis, the local herbalist, to see if there was anything she could teach. Jim and Henry had spent the month practicing their swordwork with the Guard, and they were probably a lot better than me now. I’d practiced some while we were gone, but not that much.

That gave me a list of things to get started before I left. If I left. I talked to some stoneworkers about building stone walls for the quay when we were ready. I talked to a miller about everything it would take to build a mill up in the gorge.

I talked to a blacksmith about saw blades. He’d never made a round one, but he could see what I meant. If I had something like a gristmill driven by a water wheel like my cofferdam’s pumps, a round saw would make cutting wood a lot faster and easier. We’d need a huge table to hold the logs, but that was carpentry. If I built the sawmill he’d make the blade.

I also talked to the metalworkers about a set of brass or bronze trays for the ships. We’d tar the floor and walls to stop the water, but it would be better to have a thin layer of metal, then sand, then bricks for the fireplace.

I wanted to talk to the brickmasons about tile and brick floors, walls, and fireplaces, but I just ran out of time. After dinner I went to bed early with Millie and Ceecee, and told them that I might be leaving town for a while tomorrow. I wasn’t sure it would work, but I may have figured out how to get Donna home and I had to do that. She was just too pretty, and the longer she was here the more trouble she would cause. If it worked, I would come back as soon as I could.

The next morning, after kissing Millie and Ceecee goodbye, I loaded myself up with weapons, took Donna to the bank, dumped everything in my storage box, put one ring on and the other in the box, held her hand, and closed the box.

The lights blinked and we were in that white room again where Eric had taken me. It worked! We were on Crossroads.

Actually, we were trapped on Crossroads. None of the walls had doors that we could find. No one answered our calls, and there were no tables, chairs, or any other furniture.

That didn’t stop Donna from demanding her baby NOW. Okay, she’d had to wait for almost a month since I ‘rescued’ her, and every night on the ship she’d had to listen to me and Ceecee going at it. When we got back to Widemouth, she wasn’t stuck in the same room, but she could still probably hear us. Millie wasn’t shy about telling the world if I was doing it right.

Now it was her turn, and if there wasn’t any furniture around we could do it on the floor. She pulled my clothes down and lay back and pulled me onto her. She didn’t need any foreplay, she just wanted cock and she wanted it NOW.

I’d been with both Millie and Ceecee last night, and I wasn’t urgent. Donna had had several orgasms and I was beginning to think about it myself when a door opened and a woman walked in. She was older, and she was clearly from Cassandra. If you’ve ever seen a Cassandran woman, you’ll recognize another one. After Shelly, Leslie, and Donna, it was obvious that this one was, too. She dressed the part, with a beautiful hairdo and perfect makeup, a pair of high heels and a sheer robe that made it apparent that she may be my mother’s age but she was still all woman.

Didn’t matter, Donna had her arms and legs locked around me and I had an important job to do. Our spectator didn’t get any more attention from me until I was done. Donna may not have even noticed. I just relaxed on Donna and rested.

Eventually she relaxed as well, and started kissing me. “That was better than anyone ever! That was wonderful! That’s why we go to Chaos and go through all that, so we can have this afterwards. How soon can you go again?”

“Probably a couple of hours. I need to rest.”

“You can rest right where you are. When you’re ready just start again.”

“Uh, Donna, we have a visitor.”

“Hmmm? Oh, hi! I know you. You’re Eve Greeter and Coordinator, aren’t you.”

“I am Eve Coordinator still, but I am also now Eve Caretaker again. Another retired Caretaker has taken over as Greeter for us. And you are Donna Herbalist. Welcome to Crossroads. And you, young man, are our newest Hero. Welcome to Crossroads, Hero Jason! Computer, a table please and two restoratives.”

A small table appeared right next to us with two of those long thin champagne flutes. I got Donna to let go of me enough to reach one flute and hand it to her, then the other for myself. It didn’t really hold much, but whatever it was had a pretty good kick.

I drank it down and almost immediately little Jay-Jay woke up ready for action again. Donna tightened her legs and pulled me down again, and I went back to work for a while.

The next time I looked around Eve was sitting on a couch, looking like she was ready to be awarded her crown for winning a pageant. Very regal, but she also looked amused, and maybe just a little annoyed. “If you two are quite done, we have a bedroom that may be more comfortable.”

I agreed. “We could move to a bed now.”

Donna didn’t. “Not yet. Just stay there for a minute.”

I was probably stronger than her, but that would be just about the ultimate in rudeness, to climb off -and out- of her while she was trying to keep me in place. Sure, I’ll just take a nap here. Maybe I can scrunch down and lay my head on these wonderful soft warm pillows. No, not really. I was too tall for her. I’d have to fall out and scoot down a bit and that wasn’t happening. Her shoulder is fine.

I woke up in the same place, listening to Donna and Eve talk. I probably wasn’t out for more than a few seconds. Since I didn’t have my own Caretaker, we had no one to run the suite for us until Donna got pregnant and we both left. There was no rush to select a Caretaker for me, either, since I would be concentrating on Donna anyway. So, Eve had been pressed into service as an interim Caretaker to take care of us and act as go-between for us and Computer.