Chapter 645

Hanover, the current gate guard, looked up as his relief walked in at twenty minutes before three — twenty minutes early. “You’re always here ten minutes early, but twenty?” he asked with a smile.

“Ah, I was bored and decided to relieve you a little early. Busy day?”

“Nah, not really. The ones who were running came back after I came on, but they had those people from the prison planet with them today.”

“The Morales family?”

“Yeah, and it was obvious they weren’t accustomed to running. Mr. Morales reminds me of me when I first started out — minus the muscles — but I was a hell of a lot younger than he is. Fifteen, if I remember correctly, and my next-door neighbor started me out...”

“A girl, I suppose?”

“Naturally. You don’t think a teenage boy would get up at five in the morning to run with a guy, do you?” he answered with a chuckle.

“Guess not. So, what about the Morales family?”

“Ah, come on, you know as much about them and the trip as I do. I’ve applied for it, but I don’t think they’ll need a gate guard, so my chances — and yours — are probably nil to none. Well, the Morales women were bushed, but Mr. Morales looked as if he were one step from the grave.”

“Shit. Living where he does on a primitive planet, I would have thought he would be in better shape.”

“Well, he is. I for damn sure wouldn’t want to tangle with the guy, but that doesn’t mean he can run distances. Fuck, when I was fifteen and had her cute little ass to follow, the run still almost killed me, and it was only two miles. I practically begged her to slow down on the way back, and that after she let me stop four times. I was so tired when she invited me in to eat breakfast with her family that I turned her down. Even my teenage mind knew that my sweat wouldn’t go well at the breakfast table. She said I could go home and shower and come back, but I still begged off. I was that tired, so I could sympathize with Mr. Morales. He just doesn’t have a runner’s body.”

“Well, he had better get one. I heard the Colonel was demanding that everyone who goes on the trip would have to finish his obstacle course. If he’s requiring his women to do that, well ... We do it all the time, but that Morales guy has a lot of mass to climb in and out of those deep gulleys, not to mention scrambling over those big boulders or navigating the rest of that mountain trail. If he’s going to be able to do it by fall, he had better get with it.”

Lopez was looking at the shift sheet on the computer. “A delivery from FedEx and two from UPS, the mail, Food Store and the Hardware Store. Looks like a slow day — just the way we like them.”

“As usual, the mail lady just dropped the mail off at the guard shack and had a cup of coffee with me.”

All mail and packages that came to the Retreat were run through a scanner to make sure there weren’t any bombs or poisons in or on any of it. When it was deemed safe, one of the guards took everything to the back door of the Retreat.

“The mail lady wants to get in your pants.”

“She has a ring on her hand. It isn’t going to happen.”

“What’s with the Hardware Store? What did they buy this time?”

“Junk.”

“What?”

“Yep, as far as I could determine — junk. Two old bicycles, and a foot pump designed to pump up tires, and I suppose bicycle tires as well, a couple of large tires, minus the wheels, just the old tires, and two more fully mounted car wheels. Oh, yeah, a couple of coils of new rope and several other pieces of junk. I don’t know what they were, and his delivery sheet made no sense to me. The delivery guy didn’t know either, but he, like the grocery delivery guy, was pleased to make the delivery because he knew there would be a large tip. His language about the women wasn’t something that the Matthews would put up with, though, and I set him straight.”

“What did he say?”

“Started to say,” Hanover corrected. “He said he liked to deliver here because of all the good-looking pussy ... I think he was going to say ‘that came out to help him unload,’ but I didn’t let him get that far.”

“I told him I was a hair’s breadth from sending him back with his load refused because of his disrespect of the Matthews women. I pointed out that Mr. Matthews didn’t put up with anyone talking about the women like that, and neither did I.

“I don’t like the guy. And yeah, I know he’s just a bottom feeder with a job that doesn’t require much in the way of tact, but he isn’t going to talk about those ladies like that — at least, not around me. Every one of the women and girls treat us with respect and call us by name, and I won’t allow some delivery guy to talk about them like that. When he came back down the driveway, he stared at me hard. I hadn’t planned to do anything about him calling the women pussies, but that stare on top of what he said, was just too much. It pissed me off, and I called the Colonel and told him what I had done. He said to call him the next time the guy delivered. They don’t have many deliveries from the hardware store, but we need to remember to call the Colonel when we do. I put it in the report and asked for an updated report on the guy.”

“Well, it sounds as if your day wasn’t that dull, after all. You mentioned UPS and FedEx. I like both of those drivers. They get out, open all the doors and even raise the hood. I always give them a cup of coffee or a soft drink while we run the electronics over the truck. Hell, they make the job go faster by just being nice, and I darn sure return the favor as much as I can.”

“Yeah, same here. Anyway, it’s all yours. I might just have a date tonight.”

“I hope you’ll have a big grin on your face tomorrow,” Lopez said as he officially took over the shift.

Jeff had left instructions to have the Hardware Store’s delivery left by the outside garage. When Jeff and Diana had visited, the Hardware Store owner gave them a tour of his business and showed them a room with “miscellaneous” things inside. Jeff had stood looking until Diana had to encourage him to follow them. Now some of that “junk” was going to come in handy.

Rather than move the pile by hand to where Ship was, the Prime called her mentally and had her put it aboard with her inertialess tractor beam. Since it was line of sight to her, she didn’t even have to move to do it.

Jeff left word for Arlene that he had given instructions to Ship to leave the junk near the door of the Morales family’s cave when she brought them home, but he had told her to wait until the family was inside before she put it near the door of the cave, per Morales’ instructions.

“The ... merchandise in my hold appears to be ... past its prime, and sometimes only mere pieces of what it once was.”

“Yep, that’s exactly what it is,” Jeff sent back with an accompanying grin.

Yet again, I find that I do not understand humans, but I shall wait to find out what happens to this ... whatever it is, she thought as she waited for Arlene, Ann and Selina to arrive with the Morales family.

Earlier in the day.

Arlene, followed closely by Ann, slammed the door open to Jeff’s office and stormed in to find Diana bent over his desk with his softening cock still stuffed up her pussy. Her shorts and panties were hanging around one ankle while his jeans and undershorts were pushed down to his knees. Both had divested themselves of their shoes at some point.

“Well, I’m glad someone has time to enjoy themselves. Ann and I certainly don’t,” Arlene groused.

“It’s called making love,” Jeff reminded as he frowned at the two, “and you don’t seem to mind when you’re included.”

“Or fucking,” Diana said with a giggle as she wiggled her ass, causing him to push into her for a moment before he reluctantly pulled out, picked her up and sat on the couch with her in his lap. Her shorts and panties were now lying on the carpet near his desk, but he had time to pull his undershorts and jeans up, although he hadn’t fastened his pants yet.

“Too bad we were so rudely interrupted,” Jeff grumped quietly in her ear.

Diana turned enough to give him a lingering kiss as they ignored Arlene and Ann, but Ann was beginning to be amused by the situation.

“Don’t you dare grin,” Arlene told her, but Ann was already doing just that.

“And to what do we owe this rather obnoxious interruption?” Jeff asked.

“Daddy,” Arlene groaned out. “Ann and I worked with Aiko and Kei, both with running and calisthenics, before getting them started with the Sergeant. After that, we yet again spent hours either trying to hook up with or actually talking to Mayors and City Managers from several of the largest cities around the world. For weeks now, we’ve been sending out emails, even snail mail letters, asking for input concerning the World Parade.

“We thought most high-ranking officials from the largest cities would want to take part, at least to the point of offering ideas, but their ideas, from the ones who would even talk to us, ranged from blatantly stupid to the utterly ridiculous, all tied to the politician’s apparent local agenda and their names in some way or other. Instead of honoring the men, women and even children who gave their lives to keep Earth free, we, instead, got political drivel.

“We have gathered hours and hours of video showing the attacks and the response from the brave people of this planet. We want to show a select few of those in holographic form — paint the sky with our heroes and heroines’ courageous acts. You would be surprised how much was captured on video. With Ship’s technology painting these vids above the cities, it would take a dead man not to feel the emotion.

“Many times,” she continued, “all over the world, there were professional camera crews out for the very purpose of filming the Miadax as they attacked. Consequently, we have been donated some truly stunning footage. Not to belittle the amateur footage taken with cell phone cameras — the phone operators were, after all, many times under attack. Ship edited the amateur footage to slow down and sometimes eliminate all the abrupt movements until a lot of the footage is good enough to be shown in holo form that can be seen literally for miles. Then there is the gunsight video from fighters all over the world, and... we have also entered some of the footage from our cameras aboard the interceptors.”

“That will get your heart started,” Ann broke in to say. “And not just video of what we were firing on, but video showing our interceptors taking fire. Ship’s interceptors have three hundred and sixty-degree coverage of what is going on around them — what was happening around us as we fought. And it isn’t just a fisheye camera. Everything is crystal clear and undistorted. There is even a scene as Worthington and Camp are attacked — everything — even the rescue at the last instant before what was left of their interceptor spun into that big building. And then the aliens being destroyed in retaliation.”

Arlene had plopped down onto a seat across from the couch. Ann offered coffee to Diana and Jeff, which they accepted, then poured for Arlene and herself. After handing Arlene her coffee, Ann sat near her partner, reaching over to squeeze her hand for support.