Chapter 447

The Retreat

When Jeff eased out of bed and practically tiptoed across the bedroom floor toward the bathroom, Arlene and Kayla were only a couple of steps behind him.

“Morning, Husband,” the women said as one while stepping into the shower, both wives trying to stifle yawns.

Arlene put her head against Jeff’s shoulder and closed her eyes as the water came on. “I’m still sleepy,” she whined.

Kayla let out a giggle as she soaped her sister-wife’s back in an effort to help wake her. “Well, if you hadn’t gone back for thirds, you would have had more sleep,” she teased.

Arlene giggled into her husband’s shoulder as she responded to Kayla. “Now who is calling whom a slut? Seems like I remember you getting all your share and maybe a bit more last night.”

Kayla grinned as she reached to stroke Jeff, but he eased her hand away.

“We need to run this morning.” Then raising his voice, “Computer.”

“Yes, Jeff?”

“What’s the weather this morning?”

“Forty-two degrees Fahrenheit with clear skies. Winds from the Southwest at 10 miles per hour. No rain in the forecast for today and tomorrow.”

“Thank you.”

“You are welcome.”

Then to his wives, “Perfect running weather.”

A few minutes later as they were finishing with their showers, Jeff moved enough that the main water spray wasn’t hitting him just as the water temperature dropped to ice for three seconds, then returned to normal temperature.

Both women squealed and dashed out of the shower, goose bumps and nipples prominent.

“What happened?” Kayla wanted to know. “One second the water was fine, then...”

“It was him,” Arlene accused, pointing a finger at Jeff, who was standing with a frown on his face as if wondering what happened.

Kayla glanced at her sister-wife. “It couldn’t have been; he had both hands on my boobs when the water went cold.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Arlene responded. “You’re forgetting his TK. Trust me. He shut the hot water off for a couple of seconds. But ... I’m darn sure awake now, so let’s get dressed and do it before I change my mind and go back to bed.”

“We owe you one, Husband,” Kayla said as she tossed Jeff a towel.

“Good,” Jeff said with a grin. “I always need a bit more pussy.”

“Oh, you can have all you want – one at a time,” Arlene said, oh so sweetly. “Shouldn’t take more than four hours, don’t you think, Kayla?”

“Sounds reasonable to me.”

“Ladies,” the Prime said, “we just did that night before last, and you almost killed me. Let’s just call a truce about this. I promise not to do...”

Arlene, grinning at a frustrated Jeff as she interrupted, said, “Don’t bother to make promises we all know you aren’t going to keep, Husband. Just get ready for some extended loving tonight ‘cause I’m feeling horny already.” Then, turning to her sister-wife, “Ready for our run, Kayla.”

“Oh, yeah. We can plan while we’re running.”

“Ladies,” Jeff said, trying to keep the pleading out of his voice, “it was just a bit of cold water to help wake you.”

“And we’ll just be sharing a little pussy with our husband – one at a time with no holding hands so we share the orgasms. Surely, our esteemed husband can tease a couple of orgasms out of each of us again tonight. Of course, we will expect him to come in each of us, too, so no one will feel left out, hmmm?”

They were still bantering with their husband when the three started down the drive.

Jeff was sitting in Ship’s lounge talking to her.

...”Would you rather meet the aviators at the academy or here?” she said aloud.

“Oh, like before, let’s do it in here. I’m sure they could use an unscheduled break. Just wake them when it’s convenient.”

There was a pause before Ship responded, “The aviators are involved in a reflex enhancement exercise that I feel certain they would appreciate a break from.” Then after a pause, “They are awake and I suggested they take a bathroom break before meeting with you. Is that satisfactory?”

“Certainly.”

A few minutes later, the aviators were sitting in the lounge with drinks and snacks in front of them.

As before, Jeff began the meeting by telling them that he was very pleased with their progress. Then, he reminded them that he and they knew little about the Paladins or their capabilities in combat, nor, for that matter, did they know anything about the aliens’ battle strategies. “You will continue to train for as long as it is feasible – with frequent breaks and time off as is appropriate, of course. As you are aware, the aliens have, indeed, started on a course toward Earth. But ... so far, they’re dragging their feet. We assume this is because of their warp engines, and, consequently, we have no idea if they will continue this slow pace, or whether they will be able to increase their speed, or even if their engines will fail. As you know, we have a scout following the alien ship and we have been passively observing them since shortly after Ship detected their intense warp breakout. But, instead of finding a debris field, we found that monster ship, intact but apparently crippled.

“Logic would dictate that the pulse was caused by a catastrophic warp drive failure, and observations by the scout teams seem to verify this. However, the simpler aspect of our observation of the aliens has been complicated by their movement. Because of Ship’s brilliance, though, we now have a functioning FTL radio and we are also able to keep track of their vessel when it is hyper light – at least if we are fairly close. Unfortunately, the range of the radio is far less than the distance from Earth to the aliens – at least at this stage of the radio’s development.

“Soooo ... we have to maintain our surveillance while the aliens are moving. In addition, we need to keep coming at least partway back to report directly to Ship, or else have a scout continue to go out to contact the observation scout for a current report. This is the reason for the meeting today.

“Put simply, we need more crews trained in the observation mission so we can spread out the workload among more people, and have more people who are up to speed on the task.”

As he expected, every member there instantly volunteered, mainly because they all wanted to see the alien ship, but also because of who the aviators actually were. In other words, the type A-plus personality that is an inherent part of a fighter jock.

“As soon as you’re back at the academy, Ship will give you a refresher course on the scouts, but remember, you must not be detected. We want these guys fat, dumb and happy when they reach Earth. No heroics, and I do mean none. Remain at the maximum range possible and remember, the aliens are doubtlessly intelligent, so don’t be suckered into giving yourselves away. As you all know, they almost detected us when that asteroid came close to colliding with one of our scouts. We don’t want something like that to happen again. In addition, they have tried surprise tactics to find our scout, which means that they are either certain they’re under observation, or strongly suspect that they are.

“I know that a mission like this goes against your combat training, but subtlety is just as important at this point as your expertise in an interceptor will be when, and if, the aliens attack Earth.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, make me proud.”

After the meeting, Jeff spent the next hour swapping stories with the aviators.

“I have a scouting schedule worked out for them that should not greatly affect their continued training in the interceptors,” Ship told Jeff as he walked toward the hatch a little later.

“Well done, and thank you,” the Prime responded.

Now to get Bill and Kathy home so they can spend time with the rest of their family, he thought.

The Prison Planet

...”Oh, hell. Just go so I can close the damn door before the place is so cold I have to burn up half my wood to warm it up again,” he grumbled.

With a grin he didn’t see, Jasmine strutted out the entrance in front of him.

When the wolves were past, Morales closed the door. By the time he and the wolves were clear of the entrance, Jasmine was well ahead of them as she hurried toward her equipment. Muttering because of the still-falling snow, he caught up just as she got to her cases –Well, he thought, there might be a couple of cases under the two giant canvas-covered heaps sitting in the snow.

Jasmine turned to him, her hood again covering her head and much of her face. “The General said I could bring two cases with whatever I could load on them, excluding firearms of any type, of course. I took that as a literal statement,” she finished with a giggle as she swept her arm to indicate the massively overloaded cases.

He could see the lower part of wide wheels seemingly like the ones on his cases, and attached to the bottom of the wheels and mired in the snow were skis. Canvas, or its modern equivalent, covered everything until there existed two huge blobs with, he supposed, two cases under there somewhere.

Morales noticed there were no ski tracks behind the cases. Then, realizing how far the skis had sunk into the powdery snow, said, “No way did you pull this thing through...”

“Oh, the portal dropped the cases just where you see them, and ... I never intended pulling them through the forest loaded as they are. I rolled the fully loaded cases, one at a time, into the chamber area, and with some help, attached the skis, put cargo nets across the cases and hung all the extra supplies on the nets before adding the other things to the top. When all that was done, I covered everything with canvas. The only reason for using the canvas was so we could have it if we needed it later. It took a number of technicians and troops to move the cases into the chamber itself, all of them laughing their asses off while they were doing it, but they managed.

“And just how in the hell are we going to...” But he stopped as her grin got bigger.

“Just like ants; hump one manageable load at a time until everything is inside.”

“And how many pairs of shoes did you bring?” he snarled sarcastically as he started untying the first tarp. Then, too quietly for her to hear, “Women. Hell, I wonder if she brought her evening dress, too.” Then louder, “And why in the hell are you even here, anyway? I thought there were no women on this planet. It’s a prison planet according to the fucking General who sent my ass here.”

When she didn’t immediately respond, he went on, “And ... this is my cave. You haven’t even asked me if you could visit, yet you come here with all this,” he said gesturing, “as if you intend to live with me.”

Jasmine had pulled the canvas free of the second case, but now turned to look at him. “Sorry, I should have explained while we were inside, and I certainly should have asked your permission, but I have some items that will spoil if they freeze, and some others that will spoil if they aren’t kept frozen, and I was concerned about all of them...”

Pulling her right glove off, she extended her hand. “I’m Jasmine Conners. I’m a physical anthropologist with a minor in cultural anthropology. This isn’t my first trip to this planet; I have been here as part of two extended scientific expeditions. The General allowed all the scientists to watch your videos, and I was intrigued by what you have managed to do in the time you have been on planet. Weeks ago, I petitioned to spend some time with you, and received final approval today – or ... yesterday. Uh, the last hours were rather hectic, and with the time difference...”