Chapter 18

Note: My kind and generous proofreader is temporarily out of commission, so Part Eight will have more mistakes than usual, but it will get cleaned up before/when I post the end of the story. Hold off on reading until then if it's going to ruin your day. --jj.

"Rolly, up here!"

"Is the damsel with you?"

"What am I, chopped liver?"

"That's not what I meant."

"Yes, she's up here."

"Are you OK?"

"So far."

"I'll be up in a minute."

The women heard yelling, some scuffling, and then a knock on the door.

"Is this the right door? Are you in there?"

"Yes."

"The door's locked."

"I'm not allowed to help."

"I don't think that is what they meant."

"I don't want to chance it, Heida is very sweet. I don't want her to have to go through this again."

Rolly slammed his shoulder against the heavy door trying to get in.

"Fuck me that hurt. – Come on, open the door!

"I said No!"

Rolly slammed into the door again.

"Oww! Shit! ... Hey? – Can she unlock the door?"

"I – Hmm, – I guess so."

Rolly heard the door being unbolted and went in. He had seen that look once before.

"What are you mad about?"

"When I told Heida who was going to rescue her she spilled the beans."

"What beans?"

"It seems that you are famous on Cassandra."

"Well, maybe, – I guess because of the gold, and the baron thing."

"No, because of the 'diddling the damsels' thing."

"I have to, you know that."

"Not Before you get back to Crossroads!"

"I ... Hmm ... It's only when ... I haven't done that since we ... hmmmm ... It just makes things easier to get back safely."

"Bullshit!"

"We can talk about this later, Rache? Right now we have a bit of a situation."

Eight months and fifteen minutes earlier (approximately).

"Rolly, I can't go."

"Why not?"

"They want me to work the rodeos this summer, and there are some important things on my plate."

"When can you go?"

"After Labor Day. Is that a big problem?"

"Not really, the empire won't fall into the sea in three months. I was just anxious to go back and have you sort out the barony's financial organization while it was still fresh in my mind. Stephanie showed them how to keep the books, but I sort of said 'this is a company, this is a co-op, ' go to it. I hoped that someone was smarter than me and could work out the details, but that didn't seem to be the case last time we were there. – I haven't really figured out how time synchs between Earth and Chaos. It seems that if I'm gone from there for a year earth time a year passes on Chaos. But if I go on a mission that takes fifty years there I come back only fifteen minutes older. So I guess when I go back I'm fifty years younger again and all of the people I knew are still old? Any way, it makes my head hurt so I don't think about it. I do know that the seasons don't always match. I never know what it's going to be there. I think that Crossroads somehow can manipulate a time bubble that can expand or contract, but time always moves forward. That way the damsels have a chance at being rescued rather than getting killed off when no one is available. – Or it could be magic, what do I know?"

"Did you get that idea, from a comic book?"

"Sy Fy Channel."

"Seriously?"

Rolly shrugged his shoulders.

Rachel went on, "Well, as long as the empire won't fall into the sea. – I think Steph and I have figured out what is what, and I think I know how to set things up and what laws are needed. I also know what I want our wedding to be like, so all of those handsome knights with shiny swords better be in town. And you better get me a pet unicorn to pull my wedding carriage."

"Yes Dear, the unicorn ranch is full of them, you can pick any color you like."

Rachel trained hard during her free time, and was a good sport about crawling through the mud in the middle of the night, and she even promised to eat a bug if she were starving to death in a cabin guarded by a dragon. Rolly thought she was being facetious, but she did ask what the horse meat tasted like on the last mission, so Rolly wasn't too worried. He did suspend the requirement of the five day survival test that he had put Stephanie through, – Rachel was his source of pussy on Earth after all.

The Labor Day rodeo came and went and Rachel was granted her vacation. Since Susan was basically his wife away from Earth, Rachel was more nervous about meeting her than getting killed on a far away planet.

"Rache, think of her more as a little sister rather than a rival."

"A little sister that you have sex with?"

"Well, that part will be complicated, but I am betting that she will see you as either a big sister or as a mother figure."

"I'll bet. Have you seen how Stephanie acts since she's been 'training' with Susan? She's like the perfect cross between Martha Stewart, Oprah Winfrey, Margaret Thatcher, and Jessica Rabbit."

"It got her a helluva job on her first interview."

"Do you want me to act that way?"

"Dear, if I wanted you to act that way I wouldn't have asked you to marry me a week after you jumped my bones on the cold kitchen floor. – Wait, that didn't come out right. – I loved you the second I saw you, and then I loved you more the longer I knew you. So you don't have a thing to worry about."

"I know. I guess I've just relied on my looks to get me what I want for so long that I feel threatened."

"I'll still love you when you get old and ugly. Here hold my hand and walk in after me. You'll feel like you just stepped off of the Tilt-A-Whorl for a second when we get there."

Susan was waiting for them dressed in business attire, with her hair in a severe bun and wearing eye glasses. That made Rolly chuckle. The look just didn't work on a twenty-two year old caretaker.

"Rachel? So nice to meet you finally. Hello Roland."

"Susan, I presume, nice to finally meet you too."

"Cut the act Suzy."

"But Rolly, you and Stephy said not to dress and act like I usually do."

"Yes, but you are going a bit overboard with the school marm look. Why don't you take Rachel and fix her up so she feels like a goddess, and you can put on some of your old work clothes if that makes you feel more comfortable. And can I get a nice glass of red wine? I bet Rachel could use one too."

"That was so coo ... It just appeared on the table." Rachel said.

"You get used to it after about the second week."

Just as Rolly was taking the last sip of his wine Susan came out with some clothes.

"Here, go in the war room and put this on while I go do something."

Rolly put on a very well tailored tuxedo that wasn't quite a tuxedo. And then Susan came in and took him into the living room. There were candles and soft music and the most beautiful woman Rolly could ever imagine, in a gown that was literally out of this world.

"Oh Rolly, isn't this dress gorgeous. I always wanted to wear something like this, but they really only do that in old movies."

"You make the dress gorgeous. Would you care to dance?"

After they danced a while Rachel said, "Susan is trying so hard. She's just like you said she would be, but you didn't tell me how smart she is. While I was trying on clothes she asked me about my job, and she told me about what she does when she isn't waiting on you hand and foot."

"I'll have you know that I am a very undemanding hero. She gets upset if I don't play the part."

"What part?"

"Cassandrian men are somewhat passive, I guess, so the women like it if you take charge of the situation. And this place is supposed to be like the world's most expensive hotel as a reward for both hero and damsel risking their lives, but since you can't go and get the things you want, you have to ask for them. The caretaker is the hotel's waitress, bell hop, towel girl, shop girl, concierge, etc., all rolled into one. At home we maintain a professional distance with those people, but it is the opposite here, so it I feels strange treating her like the hired help. She's happy to talk about it. Are you hungry?"

"Starving."

They moved into the candle lit dining room and sat down at a cloth covered table with place settings for two. As soon as they were seated Susan came in and ordered the food, which she set in front of each of them as the appeared.

Rachel first tasted a little of everything on her plate to find out what the things were.

"Rolly, these are all of my favorite things, and other things are my new favorite things."

"I told Susan what you liked and she picked some Cassandrian dishes to go with them. I didn't know that we would have candle light and black tie though. Tomorrow we can have anything we want. Escargot with foie gras and truffles is pretty good."

"Really?"

"Yes, as soon as I figured out how things worked around here I decided to culture myself. It is just as easy for the computer to make a fifty year old scotch as it is to make orange juice. How many clothes did you try on?"

"Lots, some were really sexy."

"She knew what you looked like so she researched the best styles and colors."

"How did she know?"

"One of the damsels could have been your sister."

"When was that?"

"The mission before you and I ended up on the kitchen floor. That was not an easy time for me. I wanted her to be you so badly."

"Well, that makes me feel better. I think I would be embarrassed to wear some of those things."

"I guarantee you wouldn't be wearing them for long. Did you redecorate the bedroom?"

"I picked a 'mood.'"

"I hope it matches that gown that I'm looking forward to slowly taking off of you."

"I don't know about that. I think I'm going to be stuffed. I might explode with you bouncing around on top of me."

"That won't be a problem. I've never felt bloated or overfull for long. The food is altered so you can eat things that you are allergic to, and I never get too drunk or have hangovers, so I bet that you'll feel normal in a little while."

Susan came in and out several times to give them different courses.

Rolly was wrong, Rachel ate too much and drank too much and enjoyed the romantic mood so much that once she was naked in bed with him she snuggled up to the man she loved and fell asleep.

She did feel good the next morning and woke Rolly up by climbing aboard his morning hard on.

"Stop it! Get off! I have to pee!"

Rolly almost threw her off and ran to the bathroom.

"God I hate morning wood!"

He tried unsuccessfully to angle his hard penis down towards the toilet bowl, gave up and jumped into the shower to let his stream loose against the wall.

"That's disgusting!" Rachel laughed when she poked her head in to see what he was doing.

"Better on the shower wall than all over you. Ahhhhhhhhhhh, that feels better."

Rachel plopped down on the toilet to pee, and then joined Rolly in the shower under the warm water.

She looked down at Rolly's half flaccid penis, took it in her hand and said, "You broke it. I had it just the way I wanted it."

"Shut up and turn around."

"Hey why do they have handicapped showers here?"

"That railing isn't for the handicapped, grab hold."

Rachel bent over to grab onto the railing and Rolly slid his now hard again cock deep inside her snug pussy.

"ung, ung, ung, they, ung, think of, ung, everything, ung, here ung don't they? ung... "

"They try."

After a world class breakfast complete with Blue Mountain coffee Rolly said, "We better get this show on the road. Susan, what do we have that will keep us down there for a while?"

"There are two. One is a damsel held on a farm east of Safe Harbor under fake indentured servant papers. The other is in a town on the inland sea - kidnapping for ransom."

"That's all?"

Susan looked down and away and in a small voice said, "yes."

"Susan? What's the third file?"

"OH, Rolly. They made me take it, but you can't do it. You just can't!"

"How bad is it?"