Chapter 11

When we rounded a large hill and the ship came into view, the ladies in the front came to a halt, but only for a moment as the ones behind them collided into their backs pushing them forward. "Why the hell did you ... oh, My, GOD!!!!!! What the hell is that?" I didn't bother to turn around as I headed toward our ride, I think it was the blond though.

"It's a space ship," Jane answered with a smirk as she followed close behind.

"Yeah right, and I guess he's an alien." One of the other girls said.

"Well then miss know it all, what would you say it was?"

"It's a ... oh hell, I don't know."

"It's probably some sort of military secret project. Like something from Area 51 or something."

"Area 51?" I questioned looking back over my shoulder.

This seemed to bring everyone up short. Everyone except Jane that is.

"You're joking right?"

I stopped and pulled off my hood after checking that no one was even remotely close. Several of the women gasped at seeing my face and for a moment I felt really self conscious 'Was I ugly or something?' I wasn't sure if I could be called handsome or anything but I didn't think I was even close to being ugly.

"You're just a kid."

"I'll have you know that on my planet I'm already considered an adult."

"Oh my god, I think he's serious," the brunet said covering her mouth in astonishment.

"So what is this, Area 51?" I asked again.

"It's a top secret facility in Nevada that is supposed to house recovered alien technology."

"If it's top secret, how do you know about it? Are you a spy or something?"

"Well that's a little harder to explain. There are lots of stories regarding its location and what is to be found there ... Some are even said to have been put out there by our own government."

"That seems rather odd." I said contemplating for a moment.

"Captain?"

A shiver ran down my spine as I heard Jane call for my attention.

"Oh, um ... yes Jane?"

Several of the girls seemed to be giggling for some reason.

"Don't you think we need to get out of here first?"

"Oh ... yeah, right. Lets go ladies. Safety is waiting just a few steps away."

We boarded the ship a few at a time as the ramp didn't allow for many at one once. Chris was at the top waiting.

"Welcome back Captain, I'm glad you are safe."

"Yes Chris, so am I. What is that you have there?" I asked pointing at a pile sitting next to her.

"Well sir, the video feed to your heads up goes both ways. When we saw the state the women were in we figured that some would want something a little more concealing." she said the last looking at the young short haired blond who blushed. The redness went to most of her exposed skin.

"Good idea Chris. I never would've thought of that. Please continue, show everyone to the bridge once they are dressed."

"Yes Sir."

I made my way to the bridge stopping only shortly to stow my weapons in the armory. Derrick was there clapping me on the back for a job well done. Ally was jumping up and down and rushed to Jane as she followed me in. I hadn't even realized that she was there until then. I was really worried about the news of this 'Area 51'.

"Dude, you have some major balls. I can't believe you took out those guards the way you did. Chris had a drone following you. She had to slow the feed way down so that I could see exactly what happened. I've never seen anyone move that fast."

"Derrick, I'm sorry but we need to talk right now."

Seeing the seriousness on my face he quickly sobered.

"What's wrong?"

It was at this time that the women I'd rescued entered onto the bridge following Chris.

"One of the women mentioned a place called 'Area 51'. Is this a real place or just another story of your fiction?"

"It's a real enough place alright. No one knows if what the stories say are true or not. Why? What's bothering you about it?"

"Could you point it out on a map?" I wanted to divert the question as long as possible.

"Sure, or at least as close as anyone could. It's located near Groom Lake."

"Christine, project a map of this planet please."

"As you wish Captain," the voice from the speakers scared the already nervous girls half out of their wits. When the global map was projected two of the women collapsed in heaps.

"Who the hell was that?" the brunette asked.

"I am Christine," Christine answered for me.

"Where is Christine? Why doesn't she just come out here?"

"Because I am the ships A.I. and so have no body to come out."

"An artificial intelligence?"

While all this was going on Derrick had approached the glowing globe and pointed to a spot near the western coast of this continent. "Thats about where it is."

"Christine, set a course for that location. Bring our cloak up and charge the others. Passive scans only, I don't want them to know I'm here."

"You don't want who to know you are here?" Jane asked coming to me while taking hold of my hand.

"I hope I'm wrong about this, but if I'm right we may be in really big trouble."

"Why is that?" Derrick demanded.

"Because, the Valcun's have used the idea of an 'Area 51' on other planets to create distrust of the localized governments. It's possible that this could just be a coincidence, but if it isn't, they are on the planet right now and could've detected my ship at any time."

"And you want to get close to them? Why?"

"As long as the cloak is active they won't be able to detect us. I'm hoping to get lucky here. They haven't any reason to believe anyone else would be here so they may not be scanning for energy signatures. I have to know if they are actually here or not, so I know how to proceed. I promised to help you guys and that is what I'll do."

We found ourselves over Groom Lake and the results weren't good. There were Valcun's on the planet. The scanners used to track foreign energy signatures weren't active so I seemed to have been in luck there. I did send a Spider bot with a built in cloaking device on a mission to burn out the array. The next time they activate it it'll seem to be just a normal equipment breakdown. The part that the spider bots would destroy isn't one normally carried on ships as it is highly volatile and would just as soon blowup as anything else.

Once the bot was back aboard I had Chris head back home. Its quite funny really, as to how I've come to call that place home. I could've done a lot worse. At least this place had lots of books. Soon we were back at the base and I had Christine leave the cloaking devices active and rotating by the hour. I didn't want to allow the Valcun's to get lucky and find us.

Derrick took the girls away promising to put them up for the night. I informed him that now would be a good time to tell them about the serum. It'll be up to them if thy decide to take it. I told them that I'd return them to their places tomorrow and headed to my room as well. It'd been a long day and the thought of the Valcun's finding me as I stumbled along finally drove the fact home. I had to be careful and take plenty of precautions.

I was lying in my bed just having closed my eyes when the door to my room opened. I looked and saw Jane standing there with a look of uncertainty "Can I help you Jane?"

"Well ... I was wondering..." she seemed to be having problems speaking. The ordeal with her capture must have finally sunken in.

"Yes?" I said in as soothing a voice as I could muster.

She took a deep breath steeling her resolve before speaking.

"I wanted to know if I could sleep with you?"

The fear of rejection was written all over her face. Something brought this on but I wasn't stupid enough to bring it up. I scooted over making a space for her to lie in. she moved quickly and I noticed she seemed to only be wearing a 't-shirt' I think is what they called them. She lifted the covers and got into bed with me and scooted close to me. She leaned in and kissed me and I allowed it but didn't allow it to go any further. When she realized I wasn't going to take the next step she attempted to do it instead.

"Jane,"

"Yes?"

"Will you just lay with me tonight?"

Her body tensed when she heard those words taking them as a form of rejection. She started to get up but my hand found hers and I guided her back onto the bed. I kissed her again until her body relaxed. I rolled onto my back pulling her head onto my chest. I figured that this was probably brought on by the fear and excitement of the day. I knew in my heart I wanted her but I didn't want to take advantage. I stroked her hair gently, occasionally rubbing her neck, shoulders and back. Barely 5 minutes passed before I heard the slow deep breathing of sleep. I usually slept on my side but didn't find anything uncomfortable with this position and soon joined Jane in sleep.

Back at Ft. Knox

"What the hell happened to them?"

"We don't know sir, this is how we found them this morning when they didn't show up for rotation. Someone beat the hell out of them."

"I can see that you fucking idiot!"

"Sir, Jake, Sir." Another said as he ran up to the group.

"What the hell is it? Why are you running like some kind of fool?"

"Sir, the captives."

"What about them?"

"They're gone sir. All of them are gone."

"What happened to the guards?"

"They're there sir. They have all been knocked out."

"Derrick, it had to be him. Get everyone up and ready to move. I'll teach his sorry ass not to mess with. me."

Wednesday October 2^nd

The next morning I did find myself on my side. Jane's head was lying on one arm and the other was draped over her. It was then I realized that it was draped casually over her right breast. I also noticed that this morning never differed from any other I still woke with an erection. This morning did differ however in said erection's placement. It was being held snugly between Jane's warm thighs. I could even feel the hairs from her womanhood tickling him. I softly pulled my hand away from her firm breast and my hardness from between her legs. Slowly I extracted myself from the bed and went to take yet another shower. A cold shower.

Sometime later I was sitting on the bridge. It was still early and very few people had awoken to start the new day. "Christine, how is the construction coming on the base?"

"Sir, the base is currently 60% complete. The main AI core is complete as well as the base's main and sub power generators. The housing area is also finished. The only remaining construction needed is for fighter bays, training areas, and the manufacturing plant for crystals."

"Wow, seems as you've been busy."

"I've had very little to do. And will have even less once we move down there."

"Why would you say that?"

"Well the bases new AI will be taking over then. Unless you plan to spend your days on the ship I'll have very little to do."

"Christine, you do know you are going to be the bases AI don't you?"

"Why would you do that Sir?"

"Why wouldn't I. You're already capable of running a base that size from here but with the processing power awarded by the bases larger mainframe you'll be able to do a lot more. I see no reason to have another AI run the base."

"Thank you Captain, I will not let you down."

"The thought that you might NEVER crossed my mind."

We spent several more minutes in companionable silence before Chris entered the bridge.

"Good morning Chris."

"Good morning Captain. I hope you slept well," she replied with a sarcastic smile.

"I slept fine thank you. What did you do while the rest of us recharged?"

"Just some research captain."

"Really? What type of research?"

"Well, I've been doing some background checking on the Internet, looking for information on 'Area 51'. the stories are almost exactly like the ones on Provis 4. flying space craft sightings, government cover-ups there are even reports of aliens abductions."

"Tell me about them," and tell me she did. There were so many stories that it took almost two hours to tell all that she'd found. Jane and Ally joined us before she was finished.

"Captain, Derrick and the women from yesterday are outside requesting to speak to you."

"Show them the way please Christine, and thank you."

A few minutes later Derrick entered followed by several women.

"Hello Derrick, I hope your day has been well?"

"It has, a quiet day is always a good day."

"I take it you," indicating the women. "Are ready to go home?"

"Actually, we seem to have run into a snag." at this several of the women that were standing in the rear broke into quiet sobs.

"Oh really, and that snag would be?" I saw Jane and Ally go to a couple of girls and some others from the group offered support as well.

"Well sir, our group was from a rural area. We were living on a farmstead when those men showed up. They'd already been there about two weeks before but came back demanding we give them more. Jeremy tried to tell him we didn't have anything extra left to give and that we would barely make it through winter. Jake, got really pissed and started ranting that Jeremy was lying. He told him he could look for himself and Jake did.

But when Jake came back he said he saw something else he could take, us. He wanted to take some of the girls back. Said there weren't many at the base and said he wanted us to keep his men happy. Jeremy refused and Jack said he was taking us anyway. I saw him pull his gun and shoot Jeremy right in the head. He then told his men to kill anyone that tried to stop them from taking the girls. Well needless to say none of the men we were with lived so Jake took all of us. We've been there for 15 days before you showed up."

"I'm sorry to hear that..." I waited for her to fill in the blank. I'm surprised that she retold that story without shedding a tear, but figured she'd been crying for the last two weeks. She may not have any left.

"I'm Jennifer."

"Well Jennifer, what is it you'd like to do? I could take you somewhere else if you'd like. Is there somewhere else you'd rather go?"

"Yes there is."

When she wasn't forth coming I asked her where that place would be.

"We talked to Derrick this morning and told him about what had happened to us. We also asked some questions about you."

"Oh you did did you? And what did you garner from my new friend here?"

"Well he told us your story on how you got here and what you have planned for the future. He also told us what the biggest problem you'll be facing as well."

"Problem, you have to be more specific. My future seems to be riddled with MANY problems."

"Well sir, we'd like to help you with one of them if you'll allow it."

"I'm waiting."

"We'd like to join you Sir. We're not very skilled and your technology seems way ahead of what Earths is, but we are eager and will work really hard for you Sir."

To say I was stunned was an understatement. I really didn't see this one coming. I was going to run into a problem with not having enough people. I was hoping to get at least a few hundred from here to man the ship I'll be taking. It wouldn't be a full crew but a skeleton one would be better than none. "You do know that I'll be returning to a war don't you?"

"We were told Sir."

"So you understand that some if not all of us could die don't you?" when I said the word us Jennifer's eyes locked with mine. I could see the steely resolve in those green eyes. She was a fighter, this women who stood at least 5'10". I'd also wager her weight to be around 145 maybe 150lbs. A solid woman and by the looks of her arms and legs she wasn't a soft one.