Chapter 475

The Prison Planet

...”What?” Morales returned as his gaze shifted to her a second before he forced himself to smile.

“What’s wrong?” Jasmine asked. “For a moment there, you looked as if you had lost your last friend.”

He almost lied, but at the last instant, simply said, “Maybe you’re right.”

“What?” she returned, frowning, but she also suspected.

“Jas, dammit, I...”

“You what?” she interrupted. “What’s going on? And why that look on your face?”

“Well, hell. The General...” But his sentence was cut short as she grabbed his neck, pulled him down and kissed him.

Her original intention had been to stop him from saying anything about the column area where the cameras could hear him, but, as soon as her mouth locked onto his, her worries, the cold, everything except the man whose arms were suddenly crushing her to his chest, all went away. Time did, indeed, seem to stop for both of them. Only when the kiss finally ended did either realize that, for however long the kiss had lasted, they had been totally unaware of their surroundings, which on 2214 could easily prove fatal.

“Oh, my,” Jasmine whispered as she unconsciously put the back of her gloved hand to her lips.

“No shit,” he agreed, equally amazed. “But...”

Jasmine interrupted by saying again, “Later.” Then pulled his head down to nip his ear while whispering into it, “Cameras, remember.”

As she stepped back, they both realized that the wolves sat, one on either side of the couple facing outward, seemingly showing the two humans that they would still protect them even if they occasionally forgot to be vigilant. Jasmine didn’t know how she knew this, but somehow, she thought she was right. There was more, though. She understood that she was feeling approval from the wolves. Now, where did all that come from? Get your head together, Girl. No way could you know all that from Lobo and Lila just sitting there. But, nevertheless, she felt she had been correct in her assessment. That just leaves ... Oh, shit. That kiss scrambled your mind, Girl. Get your act together before you open your mouth and say something truly stupid.

The wolves, both now turned toward the couple, grinned at Jasmine, somehow making her aware that they agreed.

“Looks like our furry friends are happy,” Morales commented, but the look on his face when his eyes caught hers made her wonder if he were testing her. But that would imply that he knew she had realized what the wolves were doing. Oh, crap. You’re getting into circular reasoning again. Maybe that kiss scrambled your brain more than you know, but I want to do that lots more. I’ve never had a kiss do that to me – not even close.

Not bothering to try to analyze further what had happened, she grabbed his neck and did it again. This one was short, comparatively, but she teased his lips with her tongue before pushing back. He wasn’t done, and neither was she, but she knew she had to regain control of her emotions before she did something really stupid.

Lobo and Lila both made their chuffing sounds and headed for the cave entrance.

As she looked over at Morales, she noted for the first time the expression on his face and how quiet he had become.

“I think they’re laughing at us,” he said, his voice almost as unsteady as she felt.

Morales followed along behind her as she started for the cave, his mind bouncing from one subject to another. What did she do that for? It felt as if she ... Oh, shit, what am I thinking? I went out there to give my mind a chance to settle down while I looked around, because I know that, sooner or later, Jas is going to ask for assistance in studying those column things, and when she does, I’ll be out of a home very shortly. It’s going to be a bitch trying to find another place to live in all this snow, but I need to get my mind started finding a solution. The mountains seem like a good place to start looking for another cave, but about the time my eyes focused on the distance, she ... kissed me. Shit, that doesn’t even come close to describing what she did to me. But hell, I’ve played tongues with women even while I was fucking them, and a kiss never did to me what that one just did, and there wasn’t even any tongue involved – well, the second time, she licked my lips a little, but that kiss was over even before I could react. What’s she doing? Is she playing with me? But dammit, those kisses seemed to shake her up almost as much as they did me. Then again, maybe I’m putting more into her actions than she meant.

Back inside, Lobo looked at Morales and chuffed again, but this time, the sound was a bit different. “Don’t start,” Morales growled at him, but the big wolf just grinned wider.

What the fuck is wrong with me? I’m like some love-struck teenager, and every time I look at her, she blushes. Just about the time he was going to say something, she spoke up, but avoided his eyes as she did so.

“We’re almost out of bread, so I think I’ll get some dough started.”

“Cookies?” he asked, hopefully.

“Oatmeal okay? I don’t have the ingredients to make many different kinds...”

“Lady, you have to realize how long it’s been since I had any kind of cookie, other than those you made last time. And ... I can’t ever remember tasting cookies that were half as good as those. Unfortunately, the wolves and I couldn’t seem to stay out of them, but no way could I hoard them for myself. Lobo and Lila had never had the opportunity to eat cookies of any kind, let alone those great oatmeal cookies you baked.”

Hearing that, she felt guilty for not bringing more ingredients, but she had brought some chocolate chips with her. But ... I know that chocolate is bad for dogs, and, I assume it is for the wolves as well. I can always make sugar cookies, though – as long as the sugar lasts. Also, he has blueberries, apples and some other things that I can probably fashion into something sweet that he might like.

She suddenly realized that pleasing him had become very important to her. Oh, shit, Girl. You’ve never baked for a man before coming here, let alone been concerned with pleasing one. It might well be time to back off before you get in over your head. Remember, he’s a lifer. He’ll still be here when you leave. But the mere thought of leaving brought a feeling of intense dread that was difficult for her to override.

At the mention of cookies, the wolves had become very interested in what she was doing. Both were soon underfoot, following her every step. “Look,” she said when she bumped into Lobo twice in just a few minutes, both exasperated and flattered that the wolves were so interested in her activities, even standing over her as she knelt to grind the flour with the little mill. “I’m going to bake our bread first, and the dough has to rise before I can even do that. When the bread is done, then I’ll put the cookies in to bake. The day will be over before it’s time to eat cookies. Now, you two go find something to do.”

The next time she turned around, she almost stepped on Junior, who was just as interested in what she was doing as the wolves. She picked the little chicken up, kissed him on the beak, and gently tossed him in the general direction of the nests. Junior came to an easy landing, then unfazed, immediately flew back.

“No!” she scolded. “Go find something to do.”

“Cheep. Cheep!” he tried to say, indignantly, but his voice appeared to be changing and the cheeps sounded very odd, indeed.

Sniggering, Jasmine went on about her work, flattered that the animals were so interested in her work, even though she pretended otherwise.

Lobo and Lila went over to Morales who scratched behind their ears before finishing building a cook fire and putting the percolator on for coffee.

Jasmine paused her work to glance over at the second rolling case she had brought from Earth. I really need to empty that and put everything in logical order so we can use the things I brought, but digging out shelves in the cave wall is a drag.

Almost as soon as the thought crossed her mind, Morales came to his feet. “It isn’t snowing very hard. I guess I could cut down another tree after lunch, but getting it back by myself is going to be a bitch with the snow as deep as it is.” Jasmine had opened her mouth to say she could put the baking off until after dark, when he went quickly on. “We can cut another tree tomorrow. I think I’ll dig out more shelves so you can empty your case and have a better chance of finding the things you’re looking for.”

“Thanks. That would really be great,” she said, wondering at the coincidence as he walked past.

While retrieving the shovel and mattock, he wondered why he was even thinking about continuing with the outhouse, or digging out shelves, for that matter. When the scientists came, they would bring toilets with them, and that would make his outhouse redundant. No telling what would happen to the things Jasmine had brought in her rolling cases. Fuck it. Digging out shelves is just a little work, and working with her is ... fun. Might as well enjoy being around her as long as I can, he finished, pragmatically.

Later, he had over-dug one end of a shelf and had to fill it back in. Get your mind off her, he told himself. Falling in love with her is just going to get you hurt. Hmmm. Stopping to look at the work he had accomplished, I wonder how many of these things she’ll need to get her stuff sorted out. Oh, well, it’s bound to be more than you have finished. Just keep digging, he told himself.

Still later, she called him to lunch – soup from leftovers she had kept frozen in the cache near the entrance. As usual with everything she cooked, it was delicious.

Midafternoon, the two took a break to drink a cup of coffee, and Jasmine commented, “Surely you have enough shelves dug out by now. What’re you planning for the rest of the afternoon?”

He wanted to say they could skip dinner and go to bed early, but he knew that wouldn’t fly. Instead, “A while back, I roughly copied a jig for making simple snowshoes that I saw described on the computer. Since I had never made them before, I cut and smoothed two sets of the outer frames in case I broke the first set as I bent them. The easier design only required some light bending after soaking the wood, so I managed the bending without breaking any of the frame pieces. I wound up with two sets ready to go. If these simpler shoes work out, I might try a more difficult type next year. These have two pieces of wood for the outer frame that bow upward slightly in the front before bending inward to be joined together. The more difficult ones require the wood to be steamed to make much sharper bends, and use only one piece of wood to make the frame for the whole shoe. The backs of the frames on the simpler shoe required even less bending. I have the rawhide strips cut for the webbing, but I haven’t attempted putting the snowshoes together, let alone stringing them with the rawhide.”

“So, you weren’t expecting company?” she teased.

He responded with a chuckle. “I wish. No, as I said, I was almost certain I would break the wood while making the bends, but the ash bent without breaking, after all. So now we have the frames for two sets. I just soaked the wood, heated it and bent it over my knee similar to how I straightened my homemade arrow blanks. The outer frames probably turned out to be the easiest part of making the shoes. All that complicated lacing is going to be a bitch, and I’m not good at things like that.”

“Didn’t the directions tell you how to do it?”

“Sure, but...”

“Bring up the file and let me see,” she instructed.

After booting his laptop and bringing it over to her, she wiped the flour off her hands and put the computer on the ground in front of where she had been kneeling to begin mixing her bread ingredients. After reading the directions and studying the diagram, “You know how to put this crosspiece in?” she asked as she pointed to the screen.

“Yeah, I can do that; they’re just mortise and tenon joints like the front and back, but the lacing looks complicated and tedious as hell. It would probably take me forever to do it.”

“Well,” she responded as she braced a hand on his thigh to stand, “you get the frames put together and I’ll try the lacing.”

“You sure? It will probably take a day, maybe longer, to get the frames set up and all that lacing done for four snowshoes.”