Chapter 7

"The BITCH! What does she think she's playing at? You both saw it; you both saw that David used his beam weapon to take her? Is there any remaining doubt about what these people can do? Are we going to stand around and wait for them to use this beam to take our children one by one?

"Thomas, how long before the missiles are ready to launch?" Adam demanded to know.

Elizabeth and Thomas were still stunned at the sight of Hannah rising up into the sky. Adam's anger snapped them out of their daze, but they looked at him stupidly, as if they hadn't heard his question. Adam repeated himself.

"How long until the missiles are ready to launch? I don't know about you, but I don't want to see that beam used again. It's time to wipe the Celestialites off of the face of the planet for good!"

"Another couple of days should do it," replied Thomas, suddenly nervous.

"Where has she gone? What happened to her?" Elizabeth asked, still focused on the ascendance of Hannah.

"Haven't you been listening? That was a demonstration of what David and his people can do with this beam weapon of theirs. They could target any one of us and we wouldn't be able to defend ourselves. If that doesn't convince you that we need to take action against them now, then nothing will. Thomas, they need to be ready tomorrow. Not a day later, do you understand?"

Thomas knew he would need to begin work immediately and keep at it through the night if he was to have any chance of finishing the work required. For the planet's laziest man that wasn't a pleasant prospect, but neither was the idea of being the focus of Adam's rage.

"I'll start immediately. With a bit of luck I might have them ready before dark tomorrow — or is that today?" Thomas said.

Elizabeth realised that the fact a missile strike would now kill his own twin as well as his daughter had not deflected Adam from his plans. If anything, he seemed even more desperate to fire the weapons.

What she saw as his self-sacrifice for the safety of the tribe and his determination in the face of a frightening threat was like an aphrodisiac to her. While her idea to ingratiate herself with Adam by revealing Hannah's plans was now lost, she was even more determined to have everything of Hannah's, including Adam, and she tried to open her bid.

"Adam, this must be terrible for you. Why don't I help you back to your cave and fix you something to help ease some of the strain?" she said.

Adam gave her a strange look, trying to figure out what she was up to. It dawned on him that he was now left alone to deal with his younger children and that perhaps Elizabeth could be helpful in that regard.

"How could she just leave all her children behind? What kind of woman is it that can do that?" he asked.

"I know, I know. It's terrible and if you ask me you're well rid of her. Come on, let me make you something and then I'll make sure the little ones are okay," soothed Elizabeth.

Thomas didn't give them a second look as he turned to hurry towards the work that was waiting for him.

David and Beckie toured the entire camp, speaking to individual members of the tribe and praising them for how well they had performed in the face of their first major trial. They arranged to meet with the squad leaders to rake over how the 'contact' had gone and to see whether there were any lessons to be learned.

"Okay," said David, "let's take it from the top. How did it all unfold?"

Beckie deliberately remained silent to try to encourage the squad leaders to speak up. Their eldest son, Scott was the first to do so.

"The first we knew of a potential threat was when Beckie set off the siren. After that we routinely went through the drill we've practiced so many times. I think we were pretty slick," he said.

"How did Beckie know to set off the siren?" David asked.

He could see that the squad leaders were thinking about that and were looking at each other for inspiration.

"God told me they were coming," said Beckie, putting them out of their misery.

"You're right, Scott. The response of the squads was fantastic, just as we had planned it, but there's a major flaw here that I can't believe we overlooked," said David.

"They got too close without us knowing they were there," suggested Miriam, a granddaughter of David and Beckie.

"Exactly Miriam! They were able to drive right up to the camp and would have caught us napping if the Lord our God hadn't warned Beckie. So, what do we do about that?" David asked.

"Drones. We need to task some drones to patrol a perimeter around the settlement to give us a warning if anyone approaches," offered another of the squad leaders.

"Good idea! Scott, why don't you organise that as quickly as possible. There's no reason to think that Adam won't try again and this time we need to be ready. Now, what else happened?" asked David.

"We were nearly outflanked by one of the enemy vehicles," offered Irene, another granddaughter.

"Thanks be to God that we weren't! But yes, you're right Irene. There's a hole in our defences, a blind spot, and if God hadn't warned Beckie things might have turned out differently. I suggest that we need two perimeters of drones — one say about a hundred miles out and one much tighter around the camp.

"The outside perimeter will give us a warning if anyone is approaching and the inner one will give us total coverage of what's happening around the camp. Agreed?" asked David.

The squad leaders were unanimous in agreeing that the drones should be put in place as soon as possible.

"Okay, is there anything else you think we could learn from this?" David asked.

"There is one thing," started Beckie, "even though they didn't have any training by the looks of them, the enemy were all able to find cover quickly enough. I think we need to look again at the way we have built the camp. All the little walls and other features make the place look nice, but they proved that they could help someone attacking us. We also need to think about how we can use the higher ground to our advantage — one good squad on the ridge of the hill could have commanded the whole engagement."

There was general agreement that Beckie was right. All of those present on the day remembered that the enemy had dropped behind walls and other design features of the camp to get themselves out of the line of fire. Once Beckie had pointed out the importance of the higher ground they all grasped how strategic that spot was too.

The meeting continued for another half an hour or so, but it was clear that there were no other major lessons to be learned.

Hannah was feeling quite dizzy at the number of people she had been introduced to. Without exception, the members of Ben and Sarah's tribe were very welcoming and she found herself invited to visit countless families as the day wore on.

The water twins took her on a guided tour of the main features of their community and she was amazed at some of the things that they had achieved.

"We never thought of irrigation, but then, we probably get more rain than you do here," she said, as they passed some of the fields that had crops in them.

"The irrigation means that we can grow and harvest two crops in a year," Ben explained.

"Everything is so bright and vivid — it almost hurts my eyes," Hannah laughed.

"Well, what do you expect? You are a mere cave dweller, all you're used to is the dark and damp!" laughed Sarah back.

"The other thing I can't believe is that every house we've visited has got every gadget and piece of technology a person could ever need. That must use up a heck of a lot of resources," Hannah commented.

"You forget, Hannah. Ben has always been very good at finding the resources our replicators need. We don't have to stint on any of life's luxuries, as my twin makes sure we always have the materials we need."

Ben took opportunities throughout the day to 'tune out' and check on both of the other communities. He hadn't come up with a plan to deal with Adam's missiles or the threat from the Woden space craft, but he continued working on it as they walked around the community.

Dinner that evening was just the three of them and to mark Hannah's arrival, they had fresh food, freshly cooked, rather than something prepared by the replicator.

"Oh my, Sarah! You just have to tell me how you get this to taste so delicious," exclaimed Hannah over each dish.

"No great secrets, just fresh produce and simple cooking," Sarah replied.

As the meal was coming to an end, Ben sensed that both of the women were growing increasingly fidgety. It took him a few minutes to work out what was bothering them and when he realised they were anticipating going to bed together, he gulped and hoped that his stamina was going to be up to the challenge.

"Hold it! Maybe the last thing Hannah wants is me crawling all over her. Maybe it's only Sarah that she wants? I shouldn't be assuming that she finds me so irresistible that she wants me less than a day after she's left her twin."

He needn't have worried, as he found out just a few minutes later.

Hannah stood and began to clear up the dirty dishes, but Sarah stopped her.

"Leave those, we can get them later. I think I know what you need to help you settle into your new home. Come on," she giggled, as she took Hannah's hand and started for the bedroom.

Hannah looked over her shoulder at Ben who was still seated at the dining room table.

"What? Aren't you joining us? You don't think I would miss out on sharing you for real do you? I hope you've rested up, because I think Sarah and I are going to need a lot of loving tonight."

Ben grinned. He didn't have to be asked twice and was on his feet in a trice, chasing after the now running women. The giggling stopped before he reached the bedroom and when he entered it was to find Sarah and Hannah sharing a passionate kiss.

The moment seemed so intimate that he dared not intrude and instead walked quietly over to the chair next to his side of the bed and sat down. The women were completely wrapped up in each other and were slowly removing their clothing.

Ben was captivated — it was like watching a highly erotic dance, as both women seemed to be tuned in to the other. Their movements appeared choreographed, co-ordinated and there was nothing clumsy about the way they accommodated one another until both were completely naked.

Hannah seemed the more aggressive of the two Ben thought and it was her who dropped her head first to taste Sarah's sweet breast buds. Both of the women were stunningly beautiful. Their slight builds belying the curves they had and everything just seemed perfectly proportioned.

"Aaahhhhh," Sarah moaned as Hannah took one nipple in her mouth and bit down on it gently.

Ben could see that one of Hannah's hands had found its way between Sarah's legs and it was slowly sawing backwards and forwards. It didn't take much more of such attention before Sarah's legs began to buckle at the knees and Hannah supported her, urging her back until she could lie down on the bed.

Taking advantage of her prone 'victim', Hannah trailed kisses down over Sarah's ribcage, stomach and abdomen until she reached her target.

Ben knew the exact moment when Hannah's tongue snaked out to taste his twin, as Sarah's hips bucked up at the contact and she gasped her pleasure for him to hear. He quickly moved his chair so that he had a better view of what Hannah was doing. Soon he had a close up of the erotic sight of Sarah's little pussy split wide open and Hannah's tongue licking the length of it, paying particular attention to the hard pearl of her clit.

"Not fair," moaned Sarah, and she pulled at Hannah's shoulders until the other woman turned herself round so that her pussy was directly above Sarah's mouth — the classic sixty-nine position.

Ben could see that Hannah had now lubricated not one, but two fingers and she was slowly sliding them inside his twin. Sarah clearly welcomed this escalation and thrust herself up to drive the fingers deeper.

"Ooohhh yes, yeeessss, deeper, fuck me Hannah. Fuck me!" she groaned.

Hannah's rhythm faltered occasionally, as Sarah started to give as good as she was getting. Ben could see his mate's hands pulling Hannah's hips downwards so she could get good contact with the other woman's pussy. Hannah paused for a moment as she relished the sensations Sarah was causing.

"Ohh so good, I just knew you would be good. Lick me honey, lick my little pussy good. Put your fingers in me, yyeeesssss!"

By now Ben was harder than he could ever remember being before. They had shared sex on many occasions, but always mentally, never actually when they had been together physically. It was difficult to force himself not to try to get involved until the women were ready for him.

As he watched, the movements on the bed became ever more frantic and he could see that Hannah's fingers were almost a blur as she fucked Sarah with them. Her mouth was permanently attached to the hard nub of his twin's clit and Sarah was humping upwards at Hannah's face and hand.

It was appropriate that the girls came together, squealing out their ecstasy in a powerful kind of sexual chorus. Hannah's back arched, as her head was thrown back.

"Aaiiieeeee! Oh fuck, Sarah, Sarah, yeeeessssssss!"

Sarah's own cries were just as loud, if slightly muffled by Hannah's thighs, and Ben was in no doubt that she was thoroughly enjoying herself.

When the height of her climax had washed over her, Hannah dropped her head to nuzzle Sarah's sex once more. She planted delicate kisses and lapped gently at her lips, as the tension in Sarah's legs began to ease.