Chapter 454

The Retreat

After returning from Security headquarters, Diana and Marie went back to the living room. Laura followed them in and whispered something in the Clan Queen’s ear. Diana thanked her with a hug before turning to the young couple and telling them, “Laura just told me that she stocked your refrigerator with a couple of freshly-cooked steaks and the trimmings that you can microwave if you get hungry in the middle of the night. There are snacks as well. If you want any other food, feel free to cook and/or eat anything in the kitchen.” Then, with a glance to see if Jeff concurred, she suggested, “Suppose you meet us for a late breakfast in the morning, say around nine, if that’s okay with you two?”

The implication of why they might sleep late produced a deep blush from Marie and a grin from Mike, but Diana went on as if she hadn’t noticed. “We’ll leave on our shopping trip after breakfast, so please come dressed and ready to go. Also, remember to ask the AI for anything you might need. He will be glad to direct you. Make yourselves at home and feel free to use any of the facilities – phone, TV, game room, pool, exercise area, and so forth. And ... we’ll see you in the morning.”

Marie hurried over to hug Diana. “Thank you,” she quietly said before turning to Jeff. After hugging and thanking him, she grabbed Mike’s hand to pull him out of the room even as he was trying to express his gratitude to the Matthews.

Jeff put an arm around his wife as they started for their suite. “That young man is going to get some pussy tonight,” he said with a chuckle.

“But he won’t tomorrow night,” his Queen returned.

“So, the wedding is scheduled for the next night?” he questioned. “And tradition says he can’t see his bride from the night before the wedding, I assume?”

“Yeah. We talked about it on the way back from Security, but there’s just too much to do to have everything ready by tomorrow night. And, regardless of Marie trying to be practical, she wants to walk down that aisle in a wedding dress, so I’m going to make sure that happens.”

“Well, Mike will have a night to rest up before the wedding. And, with the look that young lady had as she grabbed his hand, he’s going to need that time off after tonight,” the Prime finished with a chuckle.

Diana stood in front of her husband, took his hands and smiled up at him. “Weddings make me horny,” she declared, “and I’m not the only one of your women who’s ready for some loving. Want to see if you can relieve some of our tensions?”

“I thought I relieved your tensions a few hours ago,” he teased.

“I get tense a lot,” she said with a giggle as she grabbed his hand to encourage him to hurry toward their bedroom.

Bill and Kathy, having just returned from observing the aliens, met his other two wives, spent a few minutes with them, then went to report to Jeff.

“Where is everybody,” Bill asked as he, Kathy, Jill and Eileen entered the living room, the latter two with their arms around their husband and snuggled as tightly to him as they could get.

“The Matthews have retired early,” the AI said while using its butler persona.

“Good,” Jill replied as she put both hands behind her husband’s neck and locked her mouth to his.

After several minutes, Eileen nudged her, “My turn.”

Frustrated at being interrupted, Jill began unbuttoning her husband’s shirt.

“We have guests in the building,” the AI advised.

“What?” Jill grumbled. Turning to where she thought the nearest camera was located, “You’re not supposed to be watching.”

But the AI objected. “This is a public area, and my programming allows my cameras to be on continuously unless I am instructed otherwise. I only mentioned our guests to save you any embarrassment you might incur should you continue in your current vein.”

The women looked at each other. “So, what do you know about making love?” Eileen asked, barely holding back a giggle.

“Don’t answer that,” Bill quickly injected. Then, speaking directly to Eileen, “Remember, it/he, whatever, has full access to the internet. In addition, I would be amazed if Laura, Ann, Arlene and anyone else involved, haven’t added every database they could get their hands on, not to say anything about the fact that he can also add to his own programming. He probably knows more than we do about sex – and most everything else, I suppose.”

“Oops,” Eileen said.

“So, anyway, he’s right, and besides, we don’t have anything of real consequence to report. Let’s head back to our suite before someone walks in and we’re all embarrassed. We’ll see Jeff in the morning.”

“And who are these guests you mentioned?” Bill questioned the AI, who explained what he knew about Mike, Marie and the wedding.

Moments later, as they neared their suite, Jill and Eileen already had Bill’s clothes half off. There might be someone else staggering in for a late breakfast tomorrow morning.

The Prison Planet

... “Morales,” he corrected yet again, “just Morales. No Mr.”

“Sure, Mr. Morales,” Jasmine said with a grin and the chuckle that he loved to hear.

Regardless of what he had said about digging any more today, after everything was cleaned and put away, Morales took his mattock and shovel back out and began digging shelves in a wall so Jasmine would have somewhere to put the things she had brought with her.

As he dug, he watched her when she began to unload her cases, both of which were deeper and longer than the ones he had, but the positioning of the wheels seemed to allow the cases to balance well, and like his, there was a pull-out brace in the front of each so that the cases could be set down level when not being moved. With all the weight she had in them, though, she could never have lifted the front by herself enough to balance the cases, let alone move them. It had been a struggle for the two of them, even in the short distance they had been forced to move them.

Glancing over at him, she said, guiltily, “I should be helping you dig, but I need to sort some of this before we put it anywhere. I put the larger containers in the bottom, then filled them with bigger items that seemed to fit best. After that, I worked the smaller things into any slot or hole I could find before putting the lid on that container and starting on the next sealable one.”

Some of the hair had escaped her ponytail. As she smiled at him, she wiped a strand from her face and continued, “I watched a number of your vids, and when you mentioned something, or I realized from what you were doing that some item would help, I got it out of our military Stores, or if Stores didn’t have it, went out and bought it. I even watched one of those ‘How to’ videos about packing for a trip and, well, sort of expanded from that.” Then, with a giggle, she went on. “Problem is, I now have no darn idea where I put some of the things.”

The area around the case she was working on was becoming more and more cluttered, although it seemed that she still had items to remove. Apparently nearing the bottom of the case, she struggled with the angle and weight to pull something out. “Would you help me with this, please?”

“Sure,” he said, putting the shovel down and walking over.

“If you get one end, I’ll grab the other,” she began, but he reached past her, took hold of the indented handles, and with a grunt, lifted the sealed plastic case out.

“It’s full of five-pound bags of sugar, but I stuffed small items in, anyway.”

Popping the top of the container, he saw twelve, five-pound bags of sugar. Sure enough, the plastic case they were in was a couple of inches taller than the bags of sugar, and she had filled the void with smaller items. He stared at bottles of various spices, many cooking supplies that he didn’t even recognize, let alone know how to use, strings of packets of more yeast crammed between the bags, an egg beater/hand mixer that he did, at least, recognize, a whisk that he remembered from the things his mother had used, spatulas, measuring spoons ... on and on, all the items small.

His concentration was jarred by, “Here, help me with this, too.”

Finally, the first rolling case was empty, but now the area around it was completely covered with items.

“Uh, suppose we wait to unload the other case until I have some shelves made,” he suggested.

Blowing the strand of hair away from her mouth yet again, she grinned at him. “See why I was having so much trouble finding things? If the General had let me bring more than two of the rolling cases, I could have put everything in a more logical order, but I was not going to leave anything behind.”

Frustrated at the loose hair, but not wanting to take her scrunchie out and redo her ponytail because of wanting to get the cases unloaded and the items put in some logical order, she tucked the loose strands of hair in yet again before going over to pick up the shovel. “Show me what to do.”

An hour or so later, as he swung the mattock horizontally against the wall to start a new shelf, Morales grunted out, “We’re going to be sore in the morning,”

When he had completed loosening the dirt for a shelf, Jasmine dug it out and leveled it with the shovel. Straightening her tired back for a moment, she commented, “We’ll need a lot more of these.”

“Yeah, I guess,” he said, wiping sweat, “but this is the last one I’m doing tonight.”

After wiping her own sweat, she pushed the errant lock of hair out of the way yet again, “From watching you saw boards out on the vids, I realize how time consuming that is, although it’s better in the long run, but ... until you have time to do that, I brought a roll of thick plastic that should do for shelving material for now. If you agree, all we have to do is cut it to the proper width and length, lay it on the dirt shelves and we can start putting things on them.”

“Tomorrow,” he said while standing the mattock and shovel against the wall. Then, with emphasis, said again, “Tomorrow.” Unconsciously touching her arm, “Woman, I’m bushed. Let’s make a trip outside, then get cleaned up and call it a day.”

“But I hate to leave it like this,” she tried before he took her arm and guided her back to her bedding. “I took your tub and put some water on to heat,” he reminded her. “Why don’t you get some of that dirt off your nose,” he teased, “while I read some on my laptop. When you’re done and dressed again, I’ll do my bathing.”

“Do I really have dirt on my nose?” she asked as she stood on tiptoes to try to check her face in the small mirror he had hanging on the wall, but with the lantern too far away, she couldn’t see much.

“Yeah,” he said with a laugh. “You got it while digging the toilet hole.”

“And you didn’t tell me until now?“ she groused.

He grinned at the expression on her face and admitted, “Yeah, I thought it made you look cute...” He snapped the sentence off when he realized what he had said. “Uh, look, I didn’t mean...”

“Stop,” she got out past her giggling as she put a hand on his arm. “That’s a very nice compliment. Don’t screw it up by apologizing.”

He didn’t know what to say, so he did what she suggested and shut up. Getting his laptop from its shelf, he walked down the cave twenty feet or so, sat on the dirt floor with his back turned and booted the computer.