Chapter 380

Jeff's Lab Office

..."We'll go with you and hold your hand until you're out," Jeff assured Helen. "Let's take a shower so we can walk you out there."

Helen nodded as she came reluctantly to her feet.

Although there was a full bath as a part of Jeff's lab office, as well as showers at the gym, Helen wanted to shower in their suite and change her panties. Jeff didn't care and happily followed his wives, his eyes taking in the heartwarming sight of their swaying hips as they climbed the stairs to the first floor. Both women knew what he was doing and added a little to the natural movement.

Once they were in the hallway, Diana turned to grab her husband's hand. "Come on up here with us," she said with a chuckle as she and her sister-wife put an arm around their husband, snuggling to him as they walked back to their suite.

When they were almost done with their shower, Jeff reached around from behind to gently grasp Helen's breasts, then tugged on her nipples.

"Oh, no you don't," she said, fighting a giggle as she pulled away. "I'm clean now, but if you take me again, I'll have to douche yet again or else leak sperm all day as I lie on that couch in Ship's simulator."

"So? What's wrong with that?" Jeff teased, but he let her go with a swat on her ass.

Dressed in fresh clothes a few minutes later, she looked at her husband and sighed before resignedly saying, "I suppose I am ready."

"You'll love it," Jeff assured her.

"Oh, I am certain I will," she said, sarcastically. "I am so looking forward to traipsing through the woods with a sixty pound pack on my back. Not to even mention the pushups, sit-ups or the running. Your wives, particularly the girls who have had several months of academy training behind them, have made certain I know exactly what to expect. I imagine it is their revenge for what I put them through in the dojo."

"If I did it and six-year-old Selina managed, you certainly can," Diana tried to assure her.

"She is not an average six-year-old in case you haven't noticed."

" ... And neither were you when you were her age," Diana broke in to say. "You're worrying about nothing. If I can do it, then you certainly can."

Helen mumbled something under her breath, but Diana didn't hear her.

As they walked down the steps into the garage, Jeff teasingly said, "I'll give you a ride out in an Escalade. That should help save your energy."

"I am sure that will help – immensely," Helen tried to grouse, but chuckled a little in spite of herself.

Inside the retreat, Ada, Charlotte, Joyce and Caitlin were sitting at the smaller of the kitchen tables drinking hot chocolate and munching on coffee cake when Selina burst in. "Have any of you seen Helen in the last few minutes? I need to converse with her concerning an experiment we are conducting before she goes to the Ship."

Joyce looked up. "Sorry. I think you're too late. I saw Jeff, Di and Helen going toward the garage a couple of minutes ago."

"Perhaps not," Selina responded before there was a whap of displaced air where she had been standing.

Both Ada and Charlotte had been looking at Selina when she disappeared. "She just..." Charlotte sputtered before she clamped her mouth shut, then turned to stare at her mother. "Did you..."

"Yes," Ada hissed.

Seeing the look on the women's faces, Caitlin half-questioned, "No one told you about what our resident six-year-old can do, I see?"

Charlotte tore her eyes away from staring at where Selina had just disappeared. "Told us what?" she asked.

"About Selina's teleporting," Joyce responded. "We have a couple puppies and a kitten that can teleport, too," she added with a grin.

"Puppies and a kitten?" Charlotte squeaked out, but stopped and cleared her throat before going on, then for some reason, "Uh, how far can she do it? I mean, across the room, to the other side of the world ... how far?"

"We don't know. Jeff won't give her permission to try long jumps. He says it could be dangerous, but Selina thinks not."

"And she obeys him?" Ada asked.

Joyce and Caitlin glanced at each other before they both responded with, "Of course."

Then Caitlin finished by saying, "He's our Prime. If he makes a rule that restricts what we do, it's because he loves us and is taking care of us."

After a moment, "A kitten?" Ada repeated. "And puppies, too? I've seen them in the hallway, but I didn't see them do anything like that. Can all of you do this, uh... thing?"

Joyce let out a chuckle. "Oh, goodness, no. As far as we know, Selina is the only human on Earth who can do it. Even Jeff can't, but he can do other things," she finished without elaborating.

Caitlin broke in to add, "Selina says it's simple, but she can't explain how she does it. She tells us it's like trying to describe the color red to someone who can't see. There just isn't any way to do it. Maybe she'll come up with a way to teach us sooner or later. I for one would love to be able to do it."

Joyce quickly swallowed a mouthful of cake to add, "Me, too."

Ada and Charlotte passed a look. The communication was clear, although neither said anything aloud. Weirder and weirder, they had both thought.

Caitlin and Joyce saw the look, and assumed its meaning. With a grin, Joyce spoke up. "Courtney, one of Matt's wives – you haven't met them yet because they live in Denver – is always teasing about us being aliens. I suspect it was quite a bit more than just teasing in the beginning, but she has gotten to know us now and is part of our clan. She even had her husband take a second wife. They'll probably be up next weekend, and you will get to meet them."

As the women were discussing teleportation, Jeff, Diana and Helen had just stepped on Ship's ramp when Selina appeared behind them. "Helen, may I speak with you a moment before you go in?" Selina called out as she stood in the bitter cold dressed in shorts and a light top, her arms crossed in front of her, shivering.

Jeff and Diana went on up the ramp and inside while Selina and Helen stood conversing. A couple of minutes later, Helen too entered the Ship where Diana and Jeff were waiting for her. "I apologize. I suppose I was so worried about Ship's academy that I forgot to leave instructions about an ongoing project."

"Want to get a cup of coffee in Ship's lounge before you start?" Jeff asked, now a bit concerned about his wife, since she obviously continued to be worried about what was soon to happen.

Helen hesitated, but shook her head. "No. I think I need to get started before I lose my nerve. And yes, I am worried. After all, you told us that you could not understand Ship's technology. You may not be a genius, but Diana and I both think there is a strong possibility that you are..."

Diana broke in to say, "He would never tell anyone what he made on the IQ tests we were given in high school."

"Exactly," Helen hissed out as Jeff tried to glare at Diana. "And ... if he cannot understand her technology, who says I am capable of it?"

"You are capable of learning," Ship said, startling them all. "The Prime did not understand when I tried to show him some of my technology, but that was partially my fault. The problem was twofold. First, my ability to communicate at that point was limited ... and still is to some degree. Second, I did not start with the basis of the technology that I overwhelmed him with. Remember, my master race is telepathic and it is a form of telepathy that transmits concepts, not mere segments that you refer to as words and sentences that your race is accustomed to using. I have learned – to some degree – to send and receive thoughts to my Prime, and to some extent, others of you, particularly Arlene. But more importantly, I have learned how to communicate in the manner that we are now immersed in, but it is not how my mind was created to communicate.

"With the concept method, I am able to send and receive in milliseconds what would take me many of your minutes, hours or even days to do while using your language, and you still would not have the total concept because your race communicates in such small blocks of thought. With my method, the receiver will know exactly what the sender knows about the whole subject down to the smallest detail. But ... even though your method takes many times longer, you are a persistent race. And ... I will admit that, to use your terminology, my race might not realize the details that your race would probably notice. This has been demonstrated as my Prime's clan works their way through the academy. I suspect that this method of communication and thinking that your race exhibits leads to a sometimes different and perhaps more detailed perception of some subjects.

"An example of this was demonstrated two fold with Selina and Diana. An unlikely duo, but their skills complemented each other during their mission. Diana was responsible for eventually destroying the mine that was chasing them, and Selina came up with a variation to the drive I used in the scenario. Her idea was much faster than the method I used for the academy scout, and that same variation that she discovered came about in actual fact after many years of the original drive. Indeed, that enhancement is the crude beginning for one of my means of propulsion even now."

Ship hesitated slightly before continuing, "I ... am somewhat concerned that you, Helen, will realize improvements or variations to my engines that I have not thought of. After spending millennia in design and improvements, it would, indeed, be embarrassing for a backward species to show me design flaws that I should have realized long ago. So you see, Helen, I have changed my opinion of the human race – at least of the ones of that race who live here on this mountain with me."

Ship hesitated once again, "With the simulator structured to cast your mind into the academy situation, you will begin with the basics and gradually build toward the level of technology I attempted to project to my Prime before I fully understood how the human mind functions." There was another small hesitation before Ship said, formally, "Helen, the academy awaits your pleasure."

Jeff hugged Helen as he quietly said into her hair, "Kick ass, Wife."

Helen kissed both of them – hard. Then, before Jeff or Diana could say anything, the genius stepped back, "Love you two. Time to put my big girl panties on. I'll go the rest of the way by myself. Meet you for supper."

"But we'll..." Jeff began before Diana nudged him in the ribs.

"Oh, okay. Luck, my wife. I love you."

Helen turned and, with her back straight and a forced smile on her face, hurried toward the chamber.

The Prison Planet

It suddenly dawned on Morales that he had no idea how long it would be before the eggs the hen was sitting on hatched. That brought on a frantic computer search. Layer, starter, grower? Organic, or not? What the fuck. I don't have any of that. But I have corn. The hen eats it. Could I crush it up and feed it to the baby chicks?

The articles he read said that the chicks needed more protein than corn provided. "Oh, shit. There goes my future chickens," he muttered. But then he read an article that said peas, sunflower seeds, oats and wheat had plenty of protein, as did ground-up fish bones. Hell, I have peas and there's a whole pile of fish bones just outside the cave. I can use a hammer and a rock to grind them up. Then it dawned on him. I'm worrying too damn much. The chickens seem to have survived okay in their valley, so there's bound to be all they need right there. The ones I've seen sure seem healthy. They could damn sure fly well enough, and they're big and fat. I didn't see any baby chicks, but the full-grown ones had to have been babies at some point, and they survived. But he continued reading, anyway.

One article seemed to negate what another advised and most talked about things he didn't have. One even mentioned using a heating pad with straw over it with the pad positioned so the baby chicks could crawl under it to get warm whenever they wanted. "Well, it's hotter than hell and momma chicken is here, so I don't need anything like that. I have no fucking idea how chicks stay warm in the winter, but I'll worry about that if and when I have to."

One article talked about feeding the chicks tomatoes, cabbage, lettuce and even dandelion plants. Another said to never give the chicks corn before they were four months old, because there simply was not enough nutrition in it for them to survive. Someone refuted that and said that his dad had always fed his baby chicks a mixture of corn and oats, and they grew perfectly well. One said he just pulled up whatever weeds were nearby and tossed them over the fence to go with his chick starter. The baby chicks had pounced on them, digging in the soil attached to the roots as well as eating most of the plants. Some they did reject. One said that his chicks would bypass chick starter to happily eat from the dog's bowl. Another said that free-range chickens knew what to eat and what not to.