Chapter 519

The Prison Planet

... A few feet away, Arlene stood with Nat, Nicki and Whitney, a look passing between the young women as they watched their husband and Kei working together. Neither the Prime nor Kei saw the grins.

A little later, Diana hurried up the hill. Surprising her, Jeff stood, took her in his arms and kissed her passionately. “What was that for?” she asked with an intake of breath when he finally released her, although she continued to lean against him for a few seconds more. “Not that I’m complaining,” she finished with a shiver as she felt her sex moistening and preparing itself for him.

“Just wanted to kiss my beautiful Clan Queen,” he said with a shrug, but she knew there was more that he wasn’t saying, although his grin and Kei kneeling nearby where she was working, gave Diana a clue or two.

“I’m always eager to kiss my husband,” she said as she touched a fingertip to his lips, “but right now, would you, please, ask Ship to put our boxes down by the cave door?

Because of her enormous size and the deep gloom she caused while hovering just overhead, Ship usually went invisible shortly after the Matthews arrived. Today had been no exception. Jeff concentrated for a second, and the boxes began to appear near the cave entrance as if by magic.

“Thanks a million,” Diana said as she gave her husband a quick kiss before hurrying down the hill.

As they knelt on the ground working together to assemble the framework, Kei looked over at the Prime. Noticing her expression, Jeff raised an eyebrow. “What?”

Caught, Kei blushed and stammered out an apology. “I did not mean to stare...”

Jeff turned to face her fully for a couple of seconds, winked, then went back to tightening the nuts that Kei had started on the bolts that she had threaded through the framework. “Kei, I’ve already told you that I don’t have any secrets from you. If you have a question, ask it. I will answer to the best of my ability.”

“It is none of my business, but...”

Jeff just looked at her and grinned.

Sucking in a breath, she fumbled the nut before she managed to start it on the bolt, then finally leaned back on her haunches to stare into his eyes. “I, uh ... Jeff, you kiss Diana as if you are newlyweds, but you must have been married for...”

“Seventeen years,” he reminded. “And you’re asking why we’re different from other people you know?”

“My father does not kiss my mother, and I am not referring to public display. She tells me that he never kisses her and generally did not even when they were newly married. He demanded sex, of course, and still does, I suppose, but he apparently sees no reason to kiss her.”

“Was their marriage arranged as well?”

“Yes,” she responded, simply.

Jeff stopped tightening the nuts for a moment. “Kei, granted that the newness of a marriage sometimes wears off to some extent, but if the man and woman are truly in love, they show each other that love. I’ve seen elderly couples walking along holding hands just like they probably did when they were dating. Diana and I have had some ... trials in our marriage – major ones – but we chose to overcome those trials rather than let them drive us apart. Sometimes that means eating a bit of pride – sometimes a big chunk of it,” he finished with a sigh, but after a few seconds, he went on. “With the enhancement, it’s a lot easier to stay excited about each other, of course, but if you’re truly in love, the new never really goes away.”

“But you have ... sixteen wives, yet there is absolutely no sign of jealousy as far as I can determine. I hope you do not mind, but I have spoken with several of your wives and they openly talked about their marriage with you, and even ... speak of sexual things quite casually – well, at least they did with me.”

“And what did you learn?” he asked with a chuckle as he began tightening the nuts again.

By now, she wasn’t looking at him any longer – her face was as red as Jeff had ever seen it – but rather, she was focused on pushing more bolts through the proper holes, and starting nuts on them.

Jeff didn’t say anything, but just waited as he continued to work.

“They said ... that you made love to every one of them practically every night. They even told me about the thing where they join hands or touch one another while you make ... uh, love to one of them and they all feel it. And ... I know they are not lying or exaggerating. Their voices change and their adoration is blatantly evident. They practically worship you, Jeff, and I know you do them, but...”

“I love my wives, and I would literally do anything to keep them from harm. And ... I’m well aware of how fortunate I am to be able to physically love all of them, but I’m not unique in this. All my enhanced Alphas can do it with a little ... uh, practice, I suppose you could say. I didn’t do anything to become a Prime, and to tell you the truth, I’m still vague about what one actually is. Ship was supposed to receive her Prime long ago, but he never arrived, and he certainly would not have been human. My team and I accidentally discovered her in that network of caverns while she was in her reduced form. For some reason, she decided that I would be her Prime.

“And yeah, I suppose I can do some things that other men can’t, or they don’t know that they can – whatever. But she chose me for life. Neither of us can go back, so I’m going to be the best Prime I can be. And when the time comes, we’re going looking for the race – or its remnants – that built her brain. I owe her that and more.”

“‘We?’ Do you mean you and your wives?”

“And any of my Alphas and their families who want to go with us.”

“So,” she said after a moment to think, “do you have any clues to this race’s location?”

Jeff let out a sigh of frustration. “Her builders purposely kept anything from her that would give the slightest clue to their location. The attacking force apparently did not have the location of her home world, and her builders wanted to make certain that the attackers never acquired that knowledge. But something must have happened, because her Prime never came. When he didn’t come, she continued expanding and enhancing her abilities according to her directives. Apparently, that went on for an enormous length of time – maybe even eons.”

“Oh, that is so sad,” Kei said as she stopped to stare at Jeff.

“Yeah,” he agreed, “and I inherited something wonderful that was meant for someone else.”

“But...” Kei said as she stared at him, “Ship was fortunate in the end, because you found her. I know that you respect and love her more than that other Prime ever would have, and ... you will be a far better Prime than he would ever have been.”

“Kei,” he said, almost scolding her, “I appreciate the sentiment, but I doubt that. He, at least, would have been a telepath. It took us forever before we could even understand each other properly, and I’m still struggling to understand fully what a Prime is.”

“That does not matter,” she returned, emphatically. “She wound up with the better Prime, and consequently will have a better life ... Well, if life is the proper word.”

“Thank you. I’m flattered that you would think that, and I will strive to be the best Prime I can be for her. As far as I’m able to determine, she’s alive in every sense of the word. If she were a physical woman, she would be one of my wives,” he said, voicing what he had never openly said before.

Kei giggled in spite of herself, then looked away as she went on with her task. A moment later, she looked back at him, only to giggle again.

“What?” he asked.

“I was just imagining Ship in a wedding dress – a rather large, no, an exceedingly large wedding dress,” she said while fighting back outright laughter.

A couple of hours later, Kei and Jeff had the supporting framework as well as the frames for the solar cells all constructed and ready to be attached to the main post when the concrete was firm enough.

“There is water in the fresh concrete, and the temperature is well below freezing out here...” Kei began.

“Ship is going to keep it warm so it will set up properly, just as she is warming the ground ahead of the trencher,” Jeff told her, not having expected her to think about anything like that.

As if she were reading his mind, “I am an architect,” she reminded him.

Nat, Nicki and Whitney had assisted Morales in widening some of the narrower cleared places so that he could use the trencher along the shoveled path. The three also eagerly helped if he hit large roots that needed to be chopped out, or a rock needed to be pried up and moved out of the way.

At Jeff’s direction, Kei helped the Prime as he began feeding wire through the conduit, eventually leaving the connections open at each of the cell stations, just stubbing the wire off for the moment. Finally, he had all the wiring laid out in the area of the cells the way he wanted. Having already installed the electric motors that would adjust the cells for optimum exposure to the sun, he began connecting them. As soon as Morales completed the last leg of the ditch from the outhouse to the cave entrance, Jeff would lay that wire as well.

Kei stood watching Jeff very competently completing the connections. “How do you...” but she stopped.

The Prime grinned at her. “The same way you do things without having to look up the directions. You have been trained to do it and have done it or something similar many times. It’s all trivial after you do it a few dozen times. Oh, I don’t mean that I’ve set up solar collectors that many times, but the principles are the same. Now, be a sweetheart and hand an old man that ratchet over there, please.”

“Old man, barely in his thirties with sixteen wives,” she teased as she handed him the tool.

Before either could say anything more, Arlene stepped out the cave entrance and yelled that dinner was ready.

Morales, working farther down the hill, hooked his fingers in his mouth and whistled for the wolves. Within moments, Jeff could hear them coming from opposite directions as they bounded through the snow. Soon, the two bracketed Morales as they all continued toward the cave, Nat, Nicki and Whitney hurrying on ahead.

Kei stayed close to the Prime as they made their way to the entrance. “I wonder how much of the decorating they managed to finish this morning?” she commented. Seeing the odd look on Morales’ face as he looked back, she continued, “I am certain the cave will be beautiful when they are finished.”

“I ... just don’t see how anyone can decorate a cave – or why,” Morales muttered, almost to himself.

When they walked down the entranceway, there was a wash pan sitting on a short piece of log, a bucket with warm water in it, soap and some towels.

“Guess they don’t want us washing inside,” Jeff remarked as he waited in line.

Morales had an odd look on his face as he waited for his guests to finish washing their hands before he did the same thing. Before they could comment further, Arlene jerked the door open. “Dinner is ready, so come on in and eat. We have a lot to do yet.”

Morales took two steps past the doorway and froze. The wall where the shelves were located, except near the fire and kitchen area, had been covered with some type of dark wine-colored drapery fabric that looked like heavy cloth, but he suspected that it was some type of paper. There were open boxes seemingly everywhere, leaving barely enough room to walk.

“Well, they are decorating,” Jeff said, having experienced the women preparing for weddings many times.

“But how are they...”

“Brother,” Jeff quietly said as he lay a hand on Morales’ shoulder, “I suggest you do what I’ve learned to do the hard way. Just do what they tell you to do, and grin if you can. They know what they’re doing, but they do things differently than us guys. Don’t bother trying to figure it out, and the fewer questions you ask, the less stress there will be. They’ll tell us what we need to know and what they want us to do. When it comes to weddings, you would not believe how long it took me to understand that.”