Chapter 38: We Comin’

JB POV:

Just before I left, Ibera gave me one of those special watches that told the time on Perdition Island. Mine, however, was slightly different than the ones everyone else had. Mine also had a button that would tell me the time and date of my home on Earth!

I knew I was going to be missed by my family, especially Linda, Darren and the kids. I know I got emotional when little Olivia let me know how much she was going to miss the stories I read to all of them. I didn’t know how to tell her just how much I was going to miss her, too.

All the kids.

In many ways, I’d come to think of them as my own. But now, I was soon going to have my very own little one to worry about.

And read stories to.

I had a lot to think about while I was telling Ibera what things I wanted to take with me. But still, I found myself wondering if I was making a huge mistake going to Perdition Island.

I was reasonably sure I knew how everyone there felt about me. Annie was overjoyed, of course, but, I also felt a connection to Max, Chen, Blaine, even Lolita, Naomi and Meredith. The rest I would have to get to know a bit better, but, at least I wasn’t getting bad vibes from anyone that these guys didn’t also have misgivings about.

This was also the first time I’d be going into the wormhole by myself.

It was going to be the longest 6 to 7 minutes of my life.

I was a tad uneasy as I kissed Ibera goodbye, then waved goodbye to my friend, Darren.

As the galaxy was streaking past me, I was in awe at just how far away I was going. As much as I wanted to see everything, I found myself fantasizing about what lay ahead.

Ibera had given me a ton of ‘Top Secret’ information about the things our Gromorik friends wanted to know. She said I could tell them everything I knew, since the ‘key’ items she didn’t want them to know, she simply didn’t tell me. The way she put it, I felt she knew it would help me convince them I really was on their side if they thought I was giving them ‘inside’ information.

I needed to have them truly believe I was on their side, since I did have my own ‘private’ agenda.

Ibera had done some more calculations and she figured that the spaceship that carried Bob, Mary and little CJ would be closest to Perdition Island sometime between 1270 and 1290 Earth days from now. Or, 1016 and 1029 ‘Island’ days.

We were hoping maybe our new Gromorik friends might help us ‘intercept’ the ship they were on. We hoped that if I were to turn them on to some of the information they needed about wormholes they may be amenable to helping us find our friends.

I had a lot of time, so, I’d be in no hurry to say anything that pointed toward my ‘agenda’, until the time was right.

Ibera also told me some things that pumped a little sunshine up my ass.

Like, that not ALL Catalyst’s powers were the same!

She said that even all Chaemarian’s powers weren’t the same, either. Although, right now, they were all probably within a percent or two of being equal. She stressed that practice and imagination could increase a psychic’s powers immensely. Since everyone but Chen were essentially ‘newbies’, I asked just how much more powerful Chen was than me.

She giggled, “You’re over 20% more powerful than he is!”

I was floored, “But, how? He has so much more experience than I do?”

“Yes, but, Zeus didn’t give all four of you the same level of power to start with! You and Darren were given 20% more than George and Chen. AND, when you join with our friend, Big Willie, YOU get the benefit of his power-multiplier! Remember, it doesn’t just multiply your physical strength, it also multiplies your psychic strength!”

“Holy shit! I had no idea! So, even without Monte being joined, if Chen and I had say, a mental ‘shoving’ match, I would win?”

She grinned, “Absolutely. Now, you do still need to practice, but, if you do, you should be able to stay ahead of him. I have a feeling he’s one of those guys who doesn’t even try to hone his abilities, unless he has a reason to. Promise me you’ll find some time, every day, to go off by yourself and work on all of your powers, especially your PK and all of the other things that entails?”

“You mean my ‘TK’? You said ‘PK’ ... what’s the difference?”

“A lot! TK is just moving things with your mind! PK is that, plus Pyrokinesis, Cryokinesis, Electro kinesis and a couple others. Only those with ‘packages’ can even have those and I suspect that Chen and George may not even be fully aware they have those yet!”

“Wow, so like when little Zeus shoots fire out of his nose, that’s really him using Pyrokinesis!?”

She was nodding rapidly and giggling, “You got it! He could also shoot lightning bolts from his paws if he wanted to, or freeze a pond over by blowing his Cryokinesis on it!”

“So, I have all those abilities, too?”

“Yes, but, you DO have to practice, and remember to drink lots of water or Gatorade when you work on it. It will take a lot out of you, especially at first.”

Suddenly, I found myself standing on the beach, not far from where Blaine parked all of their boats.

It was late in the afternoon and nobody was around.

“Hey everybody ... I’m here!?” I flashed on broadcast mode.

I felt Annie giggle, “Great! Port in right behind me. We’re having dinner and I’ll set a place for you!”

I did and discovered they were having garden salad and fried fish steaks. They even had three kinds of salad dressings and salt and pepper shakers. Naomi told me the salad dressings were courtesy of Ibera and came with their refrigerator. And the salt and pepper shakers came with some of the items that came preloaded in their cupboards.

They gave me a few minutes to enjoy my meal before the grilling started.

I had to admit, this dinner was every bit as good as what I might have had on Earth. I could tell they were all eager to see what I might’ve brought with me, so, I grinned at Blaine and nodded, “Go ahead, we’ll start the Q&A with you. What would you like to ask?”

Blaine looked around the table, grinning, then said, “So, what kind of goodies did Ibera let you bring with you?”

“Well, since I knew you guys wanted to plant some spices, I brought an entire 30-piece spice cabinet loaded with every spice I could think of, plus seeds for each spice. I also have some vanilla extract, fine ground black and white pepper, cayenne pepper, Coleman’s yellow mustard, along with a couple bottles each of peanut, canola, and vegetable oil. I also got some cider vinegar and red wine vinegar. I figure maybe our Gromorik friends could reproduce some or all of this stuff before we use it all up?”

I don’t know who cheered the most, Blaine or the girls. Tumrik smiled and said he’d be glad to do just that.

Then, I added that I also brought a peppermill and a small mill to grind wheat into flour. I told them it could only do about a pound at a time, but, Blaine said, if the mechanism was simple enough we could take it apart, then, Tumrik could reproduce all the pieces and scale them up to do over 50 pounds at a time!

This made the girls even happier.

Then Max asked me the question I didn’t want to answer.

“Okay, so, what about weapons? Did she give you anything good? Like maybe a couple 30-06 sniper rifles?”

I didn’t want to lie, so, I took a page out of Chen’s playbook, “Well, I tried ... but, you probably already know the answer to that, right?” I said with a frown.

He frowned, too, dropping his head, “Yeah ... that’s what I was afraid of.”

I smiled, “But, do we really need them? Don’t we have some stunners and laser rifles?”

I guess I shouldn’t have said that, since Tumrik obviously wasn’t aware that we did ... or, where my new friends got them from.

I totally forgot that Tumrik probably didn’t know about their two attacks on their brethren. Well, he had to have known about the one where Chen got the scanner/neutralizer, since he had that conversation with Sheila.

At any rate, Tumrik raised one eyebrow, “Ohhh? Wizard Chen didn’t tell us about that. Wizard Chen?”

Chen gave me a stink-eye, then huffed, “We ‘relieved’ those guards of their weapons when we snatched that Scanner/neutralizer that got us into so much trouble.” He grinned at Tumrik, “I guess I forgot to tell you about that?”

Tumrik chuckled, “Don’t worry ... it’s not like you killed anyone, so, I guess we can live with that?”

Chen glanced at me briefly, which I took as a sign to shut the fuck up, which I surreptitiously acknowledged before he smiled, “Correct, and since I messed with their memories, I made them forget we took those, too.”

Tumrik seemed content with that answer, so, I decided it was time to change the subject.

“Oh, Mr Tumrik, I did get Ibera to give me a lot of information about those wormholes Juules asked about!? I’m not supposed to tell you, but, let’s just say ... I’m here now and ... she’s NOT!”

Juules gasped, looking at Tumrik excitedly, “And you will help me with my work on wormholes?”

“I’d love to. It’s just that, my basic knowledge of physics and wormholes is miniscule compared to yours. Is there any way you could get me up to speed, so I could better understand how what she told me applies to what you need to know?”

She got up and came over to me, “Annie, I know JB is your guy, but, would it be acceptable to you if I gave him a big kiss?”

Annie giggled, “Sure! I love him, but, I don’t own him ... perhaps we could share him?”

Hearing that, I stood up and realized I towered over the tiny Juules. She couldn’t have been more than four foot nine inches tall, but the way she stared up at me with her big, teal colored eyes nearly took my breath away. When I lowered my head and put my arms around her, she pulled me to her and kissed me with every bit as much passion as Annie ever had.

She also had a wildly different taste than my sweet Annie did.

Sweet being the key word there, Juules tasted like she’d been sucking on a wild cherry lollipop. And her tongue was nearly twice as long as Annie’s was. I was getting so turned on I was afraid my cock was going to spring out of my shorts.

Juules just kept on kissing me before whispering, “Will you be my partner in my science experiments if I give you the knowledge that you seek?”

She was blushing a cute shade of blue before she reached down and put her hand on my cock.

Or at least as much as she could. She gasped, “Oh my, you have such a large joystick, Mister JB! I wonder if Annie would allow you to share this with me too?” She whispered in my ear, then giggled.

“I’m sure she wouldn’t mind, Juules. Perhaps when we work together, we could find a private spot to explore all of the possibilities?”

I had a feeling she was getting every bit as turned on as I was. She had no way of knowing that Annie was in my head and was giggling like crazy.

The next thing I knew, Annie was whispering into her other ear, “Perhaps you’d like to come over to our place some night, so we could both explore his ‘assets’?”

Juules’ face lit up, then the next thing I knew, she was kissing Annie with just as much passion as she had just kissed me. “Ooh, that sounds like so much fun!” She said quietly, but not so soft that everyone at the table didn’t hear her.

Tumrik chuckled loudly, “I do believe our shy little scientist just made a couple new friends!”

Braitak gave us a crooked grin, “Perhaps I’m going to have to make some friends among some of your other girls? Would that be permissible, Wizard Chen?”

While Chen was nodding, Meredith and Annie surrounded him with a hug and a couple very hot kisses. Within a few seconds his joystick was tenting out his skintight, spandex-like pants.

Tumrik found that amusing and patted his friend on the shoulder, “Just as I told you, my friend. These beings are very friendly and more than willing to share everything with all of us! It doesn’t appear to me that these humans have the same jealous streak that most of the natives on this planet have.”

Braitak was trying to catch his breath before saying, “I can see that. I wonder if that is a trait they might be able to teach all of the other natives of this planet?”

That made Chen start laughing, “I believe that might be easier said than done. Trust me, most of the natives on our planet would be extremely jealous, just as the natives here would be. We are a unique group in that regard.”

Chen flashed me a short, private message, thanking me for so nicely changing the subject.

Then he looked around the table before looking back at me, “So, JB, it looks like you’re going to be spending some time with Juules in the near future, did I assume that correctly?”

I smiled down at little Juules, pulled her into a hug then said, “Absolutely. I am anxious to expand my knowledge about astrophysics, astral projection, quantum physics and anything else she’s willing to teach me!” Then I gave Juules a kiss on the cheek before grinning, “Is that okay with you, my lovely new friend?”

The way she stared at me with those big, teal eyes damned near got me started again. She smiled widely, “I will teach you everything I know, as long as you promise, at some point, to let me experience what your large, wonderful joystick might feel like in my sweet little joy hole?”

I found myself totally infatuated with her. It wasn’t romantic love, like I had for Annie, but it was far greater than just an interest in what fun we might have together.

I just had to ask, “So Juules, how long do you think it will take for me to learn everything that I need to know to be able to help you?”

She grinned, “We have teaching methods where you will learn a year’s worth of studies overnight. We have this cap that has many, what you would call electrodes, that we place on your head. That is connected to one of our computers. That allows us to feed the information directly to the memory part of your brain. Luckily for you, we have used it with a few of the natives. We wanted to educate them about different aspects of the jobs we wanted them to do for us. The ones that truly wanted to learn, learned the simple things within a few minutes. They were amazed when we tested them afterwards that they knew all the correct responses, having never even looked at the information beforehand.

“Obviously, what we are going to teach you is much more complicated and will involve perhaps two or three nights sleeping while wearing that cap. The nice thing is, there will be no effort on your part and when you wake in the morning, you will most likely feel even more refreshed than a regular night’s sleep. Then, the next night before we begin, we will give you a test on what you supposedly learned the night before. If you do well and appears you’ve retained at least 90 percent of what was imparted to you, then we will continue on with the next series of lessons.”

I was excited, but also a bit nervous. “Is there any chance that this might interfere with my psychic abilities?”

Tumrik looked at me solemnly, “It won’t. And just to make sure, if it’s okay with you, we would first like to scan your brain. We’ve already talked to Wizard Chen about having some of you allow us to study your psychic abilities. We already know where your psychic center is, given what we know about the natives and their brain scans. We are guessing that what we will discover is that your psychic centers are much larger and more advanced than any of the natives that we have studied. Would you mind being one of our test subjects?” Tumrik asked, earnestly.

Chen smiled at me, “JB, if it will make you feel better, I’m planning to let them scan my brain too. I am very curious about how our abilities work, myself. I may also volunteer to try out that cap thingy so I can learn everything that our friends have learned about the natives so far. Tumrik, could your machine teach me things like that?”

Tumrik nodded, “Sure, it may take me a few hours to compile all the data that I think you want. I assume you’re talking about things like, who all the Kings and Lords are, what kind of monetary system they might have, what type of law enforcement they might use, the strength of their armies, things like that?”

Chen was grinning like a Cheshire cat, “I do believe Sir, that you read my mind! Like I said the first night we met, I believe we can both help each other in many of our combined inquiries and endeavors. This is just an example of two friends helping each other accomplish their goals.”

I nudged Chen in the ribs, “And maybe have a little fun while we’re at it?” I said with a salacious smirk and a waggling eyebrow.

That cracked almost everyone up, then Lonnie stepped up and asked, “JB, would you mind if I got in on the same lessons you’re going to get? I’m deeply interested in astronomy and astrology. These lessons sound like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity?”

The way that Lonnie was looking at me sold me on his sincerity. I have to admit, having another, fellow ‘earthling’ learning the same thing that I was would make it far more fun and it would give me someone to talk to. Lonnie had been one of the ones I had some doubts about before I came here. Doing this together could very well bind us together as close friends.

I looked at Tumrik and Juules, smiling, “Sure, that’s fine by me. It might be fun doing this together?”

Now Lonnie was really smiling. He even mouthed the words, ‘thank you’ at me. When I winked back at him, he gave me a strong thumbs up.

Suddenly, I remembered that my shed was coming soon, if it wasn’t already here. “Oh geez guys, I just remembered that my shed is gonna be on the beach, any minute now. Do you think a couple of you might be able to help me get it moved? Max, Blaine, do you have any idea where you want me to put this thing?”

Blaine nodded, “Do you still want to hook up to our waterwheel?”

I shook my head, “I don’t think it will be necessary. The entire roof is a solar panel that Ibera assured me was very efficient as long as it got 5 to 8 hours of sunlight every day. Would you have any areas that might work?”

Blaine nodded, “Sure do. We just cleared another area of trees that’s between our garden and the mountain. It’s just south of our big barn, so you’ll be right in the middle of everything, yet won’t be in our way. Just how big is this shed of yours?”

I know I blushed, “It’s like 40 feet by 25 feet and maybe 12 feet tall. As long as it won’t be in your way, that spot sounds perfect. You guys can even use my refrigerator when you’re out there working if you’d like? I also have a dozen tall Captain’s chairs that are like lawn chairs. I was planning on setting them up under the big awning that is attached to the one whole side where the door is.”

Tiny chuckled, “Any chance they’ll hold my big ass?”

I grinned, “They should, they’re all rated at 350 pounds. You don’t weigh more than that ... do you?”

He smiled back at me, “That should be good, but I will be putting them to the test! It sounds like a perfect place for our break area?”

“Oh yes, one more thing. Max, Ibera did give me three outboard motors for you guys! Two of them are 175 horsepower Mercury outboard’s and one is a 100 horsepower Mercury. I also have four different props for each of them. Do you guys want to store them around here somewhere or just put them on the boats?”

Max grinned, then patted me on the shoulder, “Eventually we’ll be leaving them on the boats. However, since we don’t want them or our boats disappearing, we’ll put them in the big barn for now.”

It’s amazing just how fast everything was taken care of and my new home was ready to use. Everyone pitched in and the girls all gave my place the once over. Annie was over the moon when she saw the king-size bed in our bedroom, along with three large dressers. I wanted to see just how well my guns were hidden, so I let everyone check the whole place out.

I went outside to check on the one thing I hadn’t thought of.

Water.

I saw the stream that ran on the far side of the garden.

So, I decided to pace off to see how far it was from my house. I had over 500 feet of half-inch PVC pipe stored behind a panel, along the backside of my house. Thankfully, the stream was only about 300 feet away. It would take some work to bury all that pipe, but it will be worth it to have running water.