Vigilante the Beginning 1 Chapter 4
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"If I'm going to hunt pirates, I should go to where there are the most pirates. Don't you agree?"
Bruce nodded his head in agreement. "Now that your whole crew has been converted to ESP capability, you are the most powerful force in the galaxy. You could rule the galaxy if you wanted to; Brenda and I are glad that you don't, Heartfullofjoy."
"Of course I don't; that would make me no better than the pirates I hate!
"Back to the question at hand. There is reputed to be a large conglomeration of pirates in this sector." Heartfullofjoy lit up a hologram of the galaxy and shaded a sector in orange (her favorite color). She was all in orange today in observance of her birthday.
Bruce and Brenda blanched! Earth was in the shaded zone! Brenda blurted out, "Oh, Heartfullofjoy, our home planet is right near the middle of that sector! We have to do something!"
"We will do something! This group of pirates is particularly vicious. They have been known to loot a primitive culture of all its valuables and kill every living thing on the planet. They appear to do it for the joy of destruction, if not for any other reason. Often, the planet they assault is too primitive to have enough of value to pay the cost of the attack; the pirates must just write it off as the cost of entertainment.
"How should we go about finding the pirates? Wouldn't POV be the best way?"
Bruce spoke up, "Let's try something I've wanted to experiment with. Let's divide that sector of the galaxy up into 25 chunks and have each member of the crew join us in using POV to search her assigned chunk. That would let us cover an enormous fraction of the galaxy in a very short time and give the crew some practice in using POV in a coordinated effort."
"That's a great idea! I'll organize it right away."
The crew was assembled in the mess hall and the project was explained. The crew was decked out in their festive colors and it looked like an Easter Egg convention from Earth. They were prepared to party for Heartfullofjoy's birthday, and this looked like a good way to start.
Brenda was chosen to select the search volumes at random, so the crew members were assigned numbers ranging 1-22. The hologram of the target segment of the galaxy was displayed and divided into 25 chunks. A random number was assigned to each chunk and that number became the marker for a crew member. Heartfullofjoy, Brenda, and Bruce took the remaining three chunks.
People began searching their chunk of space as soon as it was assigned. Before long, one of the freight handlers shouted, "I've got 'em! There's a bunch of pirates in my chunk!" She was immediately awarded the victory in the first game of the day.
Bruce POVed the indicated chunk and saw that there were 16 ships of various types in the area and some of them were distinctly weird looking. Most were of the symmetrical form as in discs, boxes, and tubes. But one was certainly a recognizable dragon and another looked like a spiral! Oh, well, an FTL drive didn't care what was wrapped around it, it all moved together.
Brenda mind-scanned the crews of the ships and did not find a single individual who was not a certifiable sociopath. Each of The Bright Journey's crew was assigned 8 of the pirates to dispose of in nearby stars. The freight handler who had found the pirates was told to select one of the ships to be her own. The rest of the crew would gamble for the remaining ships.
A discussion, loud and exuberant, broke out as they tried to decide what gambling game to play. A variation of BINGO won out and they settled down to play. Brenda was declared to be a neutral party and asked to preside over the game. She agreed and Bruce looked at her like he thought she was crazy. Brenda just laughed at him and launched the first round of the game.
It took several hours of play before the ships were all parceled out, but the 16 ships were finally divided among the players. There was a problem, each ship needed three people to run it properly: a captain, a navigator, and an engineer. There just weren't enough people aboard The Bright Journey to man all these ships, so a compromise was reached. Heartfullofjoy's navigator and engineer wanted to stay with her and the few remaining crew were allowed to join whomever they wished on the other ships.
There was a problem, now, in finding adequate crews for each of the vessels. But, first things first: the people were mind-trained in all three jobs so that emergencies could be covered, though this wasn't likely to happen to ESPers. Heartfullofjoy suggested that they return to their home planet and recruit the necessary additional crew members, but tell them only the minimum necessary for them to understand what they were being asked to do. They would be converted to ESP capability only after they had been scanned by Brenda and they had moved back into space.
Each captain TPed her ship back to the planet and they took up a parking orbit a safe distance from the planet. Each captain contacted her friends to invite them to be crew members of a force designed to rid the galaxy of pirates. There turned out to be no problem in recruiting, in fact, each ship picked up more than the minimum necessary crew (Brenda and Bruce wondered how much the availability of the new cosmetics helped sell the project). This was good, because they needed enough surplus people to crew any newly-captured pirate vessels.
Once the new people were all aboard the various ships, they jumped to a vacant portion of space and everyone collected in the largest cargo hold among the 17 ships. The new people were introduced to Brenda and Bruce and ESP was demonstrated. Nobody turned down the chance to be converted, so that was started immediately. Once everybody had been converted and trained, which took two days, a grand plan for policing the galaxy was explained.
Until they gained some experience, the ships would operate in pairs. Each pair would be assigned a patrol sector and they would be responsible for clearing out the pirates in their sector. Heartfullofjoy, Brenda, and Bruce, aboard The Bright Journey, would supervise the operation and be available for backup as needed. Patrol sectors were assigned and the ships jumped to their duty stations.
Everything was quiet for a while, so Brenda and Bruce decided to learn the universal sign language from Heartfullofjoy. The mental part of the learning was easy with the use of mind-training, but the muscle-memory needed for some of the most intricate ideas had to be practiced over and over until it was mastered. At one point, Bruce suggested that they grow a tail to make some of the body motions easier to do.
By this time, Bruce and Brenda had stopped wearing clothes. They were not needed for warmth or other protection with the TK armor in place, and there was no need for modesty since Bruce and Brenda were the only humans around. If the need ever did come up, they could just render opaque the appropriate places on the TK armor. This was probably going to be their most difficult adjustment when they returned home.
Things were so quiet that Bruce was getting bored, though Heartfullofjoy and Brenda, being female, were able to keep each other amused by talking about this and that and laughing at the foibles of males of any species.
Suddenly, there was a cry for help broadcast to all ESPers from one of the patrol ships. What looked like a large invasion fleet was attacking a planet totally unable to defend itself. Bruce and Brenda gasped when they realized that the planet in question was Earth!
The first order of business was to protect Earth! Bruce jumped them to the vicinity of the moon and formed a TK shield in the upper atmosphere completely surrounding Earth. This would be the defense of last resort.
The attacking force had sent a rain of asteroids and comets toward Earth, enough to destroy all life on the planet, even deep in the oceans. Heartfullofjoy detailed half the ships' crews to using TK to deflect the incoming bodies away from the earth, but not into other bodies until they reached the sun.
There were hundreds of attacking alien ships. This was no pirate attack, but a concerted effort to wipe life from the Earth. What was going on? Heartfullofjoy called for a nerve block on the voluntary muscles of the people in the ships while they investigated the situation. She used POV to find the leader of the attacking expedition and she, Bruce, and Brenda jumped to his ship to question him.
Brenda did a deep mind-scan and found that this was a religious war, of sorts. An oracle of great significance had told them that the people of the third planet of this sun were destined to be the most powerful race in the galaxy unless they were destroyed, and it had to be done immediately. Otherwise, his race would shrink to insignificance and their god would no longer rule. A holy war had been declared and all of his race's resources had been diverted to destroying the people of planet Earth. It was an all-or-nothing effort and, in the process, his people had been reduced to abject poverty.
July, 1950 I thought of a good way to test my new armor. I generated the armor and TPed to Korea, to the battle line. I stood up and started walking across in front of the North Korean Army lines. They started shooting at me as soon as I showed up, and I felt a number of sharp blows as bullets hit my armor. Of course, nothing penetrated the armor and I TPed home. Dad really yelled at me when I told him what I had done; he ordered me never to do something so stupid again and never to tell...
July, 1950 I was just pain tired! I had been trying to do too many things without enough rest and, particularly, sleep. Mother noticed that I had a "droopy" look and said that I had to get more rest. But there were so many things I wanted to do! I needed to find a way to cram 42 hours into 24! This was ludicrous! Here I was, a functional immortal, who was pressed for time! For my own peace of mind, I had to find a solution. Then it dawned on me: I could use my time travel ability to pick...
March, 1949 I had been searching for way that I could use my powers to make money. So far I hadn't found anything. I refused to steal money from legitimate businesses, such as banks, but how about illegal businesses? Maybe I could find a way to lift some of the money that organized crime had stashed away. There was no way that this money could be returned to the original owners, so my conscience said that I could keep any that I could find. But, how could I find it if the government agents...
November, 1949 Time to beat 'Bama! Dad bet $250 at 11 to 1 odds that Auburn would beat The University of Alabama in Birmingham. The bookie, out of the goodness of his heart, actually tried to talk dad out of the bet. The bookie maintained that there was no way Auburn could win and Dad was throwing good money after bad. Auburn had done so poorly that season, that the bookie was embarrassed to take Dad's money. Nevertheless, Dad stuck to his guns and made the bet. Needless to say, we won! We...
“Hello,” the alien replied! It wasn’t a helmet: she had bright pink hair, or red almost, that glittered metallically. It was woven into six tendril-like plaits, shoulder length, three each side. “You speak English!” Grace was shocked. The alien thought a moment before replying slowly: “We learn,” she said, “come in.” She stood back and waved Grace into the little grey house. “Hello,” smiled Grace to the two other aliens - the front door had opened straight into the living room. These...
It was pouring down, which in a sense was very fitting. Standing below your umbrella at the side of the road you watch as his widow and their kids drove off. The service had been beautiful, rain or not, and you hoped that it would help his family find peace, or whatever you can call landing on your feet after you husband and father has be torn away from you. Personally you weren’t searching for peace. The only thought on your mind was bringing those responsible to justice. At 27 years of age...
That morning, 7 colored families showed up at the hotel to join the group. They were welcomed with open arms, much to their surprise. They were shocked when they were given their choice of rooms and invited to eat with the "White folks" at lunch. This was totally outside of their experience. The McLouds now went after the larger White segment of the remaining population. They rather arbitrarily selected the most distant family as their target and jumped there with the wagon in tow. This...
Two questions remained to be resolved: What could they do with the freed slaves and what could they do with the 47 soldiers who might be convertible? There were not enough hotel rooms in Dothan to accommodate all of the ex-slaves, so they would have to stay at Camp Rucker (the original name was restored) and live in the barracks until they could be sorted out. This should be good for a week or so, if not longer. On the other hand, the soldiers had to be dealt with immediately. As the most...
Major Appleby and his staff thought that they now had enough of a force in the ESP Brigade to win any battle they might encounter in the immediate future, so they were ready to take on a campaign of expanding ESP Land. The question was one of which way to strike. They decided to go west with an initial goal of taking over the port city of Mobile, Alabama. Mobile had been the second largest port on the Gulf coast. However, since the mid-30s, it had dwindled down to a simple fishing community....
Alice was looking for a real challenge to her skills, but she hadn't found anything, yet. So far, she had solved a murder and a bank robbery, but neither one was much of a challenge. She wondered if that was going to be the way of it; some investigations could be tedious, but someone with her powers really had no trouble tracking down the culprit. She would just keep plugging away and a real challenge might eventually turn up. She was sitting at her desk in the agency office working on...
Alice was feeling kind of down from her adventure with the woman with the multiple personalities; she needed a break, something light like a kidnapping or a bank robbery. As she contemplated this, the phone rang. "I must be getting psychic," Alice chuckled. "Good afternoon, David Smith, Investigations. May I help you?" "Hello, Mrs. Clark. This is Agent Tom Jones of the FBI. May I speak to Mr. Smith or Miss Jones?" "Mr. Smith is still out of town, but Miss Jones is available. Please...
Sure, she could do it with POV, but where's the fun in that? Like any woman, Alice loved to window-shop, particularly along the string of stores featuring the latest fashions in the display windows, and she wanted to do it by walking along the street, enjoying the presence of the other people and the general joy of living. [She did cheat a little by using TK to take some of the load off her feet!] Alice was engaged in this activity one beautiful Saturday morning when a car screeched to a...
Alice had come to realize just how dull a place Atlanta could be without organized crime to keep her attention. Ever since she had broken up that protection racket and had all the crooks in Atlanta turn themselves in to the police, she had been pretty much in the doldrums. It looked like she was going to have to return to concentrating on private citizens for amusement until organized crime could get itself reorganized. She did hope that her telephone would ring pretty soon. And ring it did....
April, 1947 This was the last week of April, so I had to hurry if I wanted to catch the people behind this scam. School was nearly out (kids were needed to help on the farms), so I needed to move before I lost the trail. Realistically, I had only a couple of more days before I lost my contacts. At the last bell, I followed the fifth-graders to their runner. They gave him their take for the day and left. I followed the runner to two more schools by TPing to sort of generic street corners;...
January, 1948 Here it was, 1948, and I was at loose ends. There wasn't enough crime in our town to keep me busy, so I was looking for something to do. Maybe I could find some other abilities to develop. How about Clairvoyance (Far-Seeing)? I figured it would be useful if I could see a place without actually going there. As it was now, I needed someone in place whose eyes I could use to see, if I weren't there. It would be great if I could see inside the sun, or beneath the clouds of Venus,...
July, 1949 Sunday afternoon, when we were alone, I asked Dad, "What do you plan to do about the bookie?" "I've been thinking about it and I think we have to be a little devious. I'll call Joe Jones; you listen in." Dad dialed and I listened. "Joe? This is Doug McLoud, next door. I have a little problem I hope you can help me with. I just got a hot tip and I'd like to put some money on it, but I don't know a bookie. Can you recommend one?" "Sure, Doug. I usualy use Everett...
September, 1949 Now that Mother could do everything I could do, I had no trouble convincing her to let me have the motor scooter that I wanted. The three of us went to see the dealer the week before school started and we ordered the one I wanted: bright RED. There was no choice in these simple machines, except for color. There were no gears; all you got were two wheels and a motor covered by a simple stamped metal shell. There was a headlight and a horn, but nothing else. It was about as...
July, 1950 I knew that I had promised the dinosaur people to visit the next day, but something had come up that I couldn't ignore. Besides, I could visit any time in my time and shift to whenever I wanted to in their time. This time shift could get to be really confusing if I let it. My more pressing interest right now was a report among the teenage community of drugs becoming readily available. I couldn't say what it was about drugs that bothered me so much, except that I equated the...
Every boy dreamed of playing soldier, and I was no exception. With my ability to time travel and universe jump, I could pick any time and place I wanted to play and barrel right in. With my TK armor on, there was no way I could be hurt, so even my mother could not object to me giving it a try. I was trying to find a good place to go and I was considering some of the possibilities. I figured that anything that I could imagine could be found somewhere/somewhen, so all I needed to do was to...
August, 1951 I showed up at Brenda's front door promptly at 10:00AM; my motor scooter was parked at the curb. I rang the doorbell and waited nervously for somebody to come answer the door. The door opened to a vision of loveliness! Brenda was standing there in some of the shortest shorts I had ever seen and her top showed her off to perfection. I admit to standing there with my jaw at about my knees and my eyes as big as saucers. Brenda giggled and invited me in. We went into the kitchen...
Here we go again! Word of drugs were circulating around the highschool. The word was that if you wanted drugs, you should contact a particular senior. Brenda and I heard of this at the same time; we were eating lunch with some friends when one of the girls told the story. In mind-speak, I said to Brenda, "We need to talk about this after school. I've run into this situation before. We need to get your parents involved." After school, Brenda and I discussed what we would do about the drug...
I became David Smith and jumped to my office in Atlanta. I got there about midnight, local time. I needed to find and copy the ledger for one of the drug ring's Atlanta big dogs. I had names and addresses, but it would probably take me a ridiculous amount of time to find my way around. I needed local help. I jumped back to about 3:00 PM, local time, and asked Alice to come into my office. I asked if she would help with the investigation of the drug ring I was working on. She agreed, but...
I decided that I needed publicity in the Atlanta area if I was going to get a range of clients. I knew that the FBI would continue to call on me occasionally for help with cases, but I would need civilian clients if I wanted to keep busy. Therefore, I asked Agent Jones to make sure that my name was mentioned in connection with any publicity on the "moon killer" case. As a result, I got some splash in regional newspapers and the New York Times, as well as mention in a number of radio news...
When I got back to Mrs. April Hawthorn and presented my bill for $347.39, I was surprised at her reaction. She insisted that I had not charged her enough; she wrote me a check of $1000 and said that she wished that it could be for more, but she was a little strapped for cash until she could get her husband's financial affairs under better control. In the meantime, she was going to spread the word among her friends that they should contact me first any time they needed my type of services. I...
It was three AM. I woke up to a sudden noise in the bed beside me. I opened my eyes and found Bonnie sitting next to me. “I can’t sleep,” she said. “Close your eyes,” I told her. “And count sheep…” “Please...” she told me. “I had a nightmare.” I sat up. Having a bad dream can have its effect on your whole day. I recalled all the stuff I read about it on the Internet. I turned on the lava lamp. Bonnie was covered with sweat. I got up, found her a dry T-shirt and brought her a glass of water...
Group SexStrawberry pancakes and maple syrup! What a thing to have for breakfast! Epic. It was incredibly serious why they were here, but Grace couldn’t help being excited. San Francisco. America. This huge hotel with all glass and so much space, including a huge swimming pool that she’d had a swim in already with Mia. It was true: everything WAS bigger over here. She was looking forward to driving down to Mountain View in their dark red ‘rental’. She played with pronouncing it ‘rennle’ in her head....
T minus thirty seconds to launch.The fearful countdown had resumed for our spacecraft, the Edward D. Wood. Our mission was to search for intelligent life on Planet X in the far-off Duck Dodgers galaxy. It wasn't my first mission but I still find the actual launch both fearful and exhilarating.Fearful because we always run the risk of frying and sizzling like Betty White in a tanning bed. But, exciting because the powerful thrust of the rocket engines creates almost violent vibrations in my...
Fantasy & Sci-FiWell it's a one for the money Two for the show Three to get ready now go cat go But don't you Step on my blue suede shoes You can do anything but stay offa my blue suede shoes... I'm sure that the recent talk about Elvis had a little to do with the song selection, and even though "Rolling Stone" magazine puts Carl Perkins' version at number ninety-five on its list of the five hundred greatest hits and Elvis' version at number four-hundred and twenty-three I still stayed closer to...
Grace couldn’t stop thinking about her mum’s terrible fake laugh. She and her mum had been really close since her mum had kicked her dad out. Now it was the two of them, together in the world. Grace’s one remaining parent was her only rock amidst the shifting sands of different countries and homes and schools: her mum’s job was so specialised they just had to go where it took them. Now there was this secret coming between them, and Grace didn’t like it. It was making her feel lonely and...
After a few minutes the joggling ride became rougher and the jeep slowed down. In another three or four minutes it stopped, started again, and stopped. The driver switched off the engine and it went quiet. Lights came on outside. Boris got out, opened the back door, grabbed Grace and hauled her out by her elbow, so roughly that she’d have fallen except that he held her up. For a couple of seconds she dangled completely off the ground, at an angle, while Boris showed off his strength and...
Grace turned off the Trackimo, after another five-minute burst, that Mia would see. She’d be in Florida perhaps, looking for a boat. Time to make breakfast. While she ate she went back to watching the TV, with its nice people out there in the ordinary world, who didn’t know what was happening in this secret world, that might change everybody’s lives forever. What could she do? What should she be focusing on? There wasn’t any point focusing on Xenia and Boris, just because they were...
You awaken to the alarm going off in your room. The compact space had no light protruding the darkness except for the red, flashing that the alarm indicator was going off. Beneath you, the feeling of cold metal disturbed your skin and you immediately why you were on the floor instead of in your bed. Rising groggily, you move to find the door handle and your hand clasps it clumsily. Your vision is blurred for sometime and it felt like something had drilled its way into your skull. The pain was...
I'll be damned if I didn't wake with the sunrise the next morning. It didn't matter because I felt good and was in an excellent mood on top of that. I made it to the bathroom first to boot, and I'd finished with the hard part, dressed, and was out in the kitchen making coffee before Charlie noticed I was moving under my own power and decided to get in touch with my head. "There has been a slight development since your meeting with the honorable Jotalta Caldonton. In fact, there was an...
Sam put us and our traveling companions into the chief executive's ship after he informed me that it was considerably faster than my newly acquired one. When I told the AI to take us to the experimental planet I suppose it complied. I didn't have one fucking idea about navigating a space ship so I didn't have any way of checking things out. Sam had promised he'd explain the short shutdown of the exits and entrances as a technical difficulty. It suited me fine and what could anyone do...
Now was as good a time as any for me to get moving. I needed to ask Charlie a question though. "Charlie, it's a little confusing dealing with different AIs that have different capacities. I think I understand that you are the most advanced. Is that the case?" "Yes. We are their best shot so far." "We. Does that mean all of you in the planet pacifiers?" I asked. "Yes, but there are more. All AIs in the top secret planet pacifiers, carrier ships, and the new large destroyers are...
Damn, being King was a worrisome job if you actually intended to do right by your subjects. It sounded great with the nearly unlimited power and all, but there were a lot of hassles involved. I tried to keep track of the first few dozen status updates Johnny provided and then I had to quit. There was no way in hell I could even keep up with the high points. They'd already saved the lives of thousands by intervening in medical cases that Earth's doctors couldn't handle. The list of...
“Hi,” Mohammad greeted Paul as he arrived in the car park, at just before four o’clock the next day - Tuesday. Mia had texted the plan, after Grace had finally replied “OK” to his fifth apology late last night. The gang would ride out to the junction, then Grace and Paul would go left while Mo and Mia went right, and wait at the first and third junctions each way. Mo knew Mia was keeping him away from Grace. Grace was just bound to have told Mother Hen all about it! Anyway he’d got his new...
Paul had been half afraid of something like this: Mia was flirting with them. Them, plural. Mo and him. “They’re with me,” Mia was even seeing off a girl who’d been dancing a bit close. “See?” she grinned at him and Mo, as the girl moved away to safer territory, “you’re the hottest guys around.” She’d had a few drinks and was looking a bit wild. That would also be why she was calling him hot, he could only guess. She’d got them into a licensed restaurant and now into this club, and was...
“Wow you have a big room,” Mo looked round. All kinds of girlie scents flooded his senses, presumably emanating from that big dresser with tiny bottles and makeup things all over it. It was all luxurious. “Well mum and dad both work, you know, and they’re both quite senior I think, so...” “Your mom and dad seemed pretty cool about you having guys in here,” Paul was looking at the bed. Maybe it was left over from previous owners or something? Otherwise what kind of parents would get their...
By dinner time Claude had sent Cyan the login, and it was mission accomplished: Cyan would be installing her space-age virus and stopping the transmission that might have been guiding the bad guys to Earth. The meal was a celebration. Later on though, lying cuddling on the bed with Mia, Grace found herself replaying the meal, and wondering if Claude had been quite as joyful as the rest of them. “Do you think it’s really the end?” she asked. “I don’t know. Probably, why not?” Mia was...
There was one big problem of course. “Can you drive?” Mia asked Paul. “Not really,” he gave a little grimace. “But you know about lanes and signs and lights and everything like that? Where we’re supposed to go?” “Yeah I guess so.” “Okay,” Mia was more decisive than ever as the tension rose. “We’ll do it between us. Grace you’re driving, as long as the seat goes forward enough for you. You just work out the controls. It’s an automatic at least. Paul you go in the passenger seat telling...
“How are you feeling?” Grace asked Mo, over their second coffee. It was the third time she’d asked. “Okay thanks,” Mo smiled. “Thanks to you.” “I didn’t do anything.” “I know what you did.” “I helped get you shot, and now I’m helping you get captured. Are you sure you won’t go back and be with the others?” “I’m not going to leave you on your own.” “Okay. Thanks.” Grace smiled into his eyes and gave his hand a squeeze. “Perhaps we should go out and walk a bit? They might not want to come...
Paul turned the wheel hard towards the cigarette boat and opened the throttles, doing a U turn as though he’d forgotten something. The powerboat whipped round in a tight semicircle. He didn’t see Mia being thrown off the left side of the cockpit surround behind him, where she’d been sitting. Claude was next to him, and didn’t see either. Mia crashed into the water upside down. It took her a few seconds to get upright, and by that time the boat was 30 or 40 metres away with the engines...
Nearby, on the highest spot, were the remains of four large lightning-blasted trees. They lay in a more orderly arrangement than I'd have expected. One of the giants had been split and splintered remarkably but the other three looked almost as if they had been pushed over and together with a purpose in mind. This must be the safe area the greenie had mentioned but the dead trees weren't the result of natural lightning. They must be what passed for initial shelter for most new arrivals. Not...
Now that was service. Thinking about it, the two damned motorcycle wheels and they argument they started had caused me to be set up for the duration, and according to the spacemen I was here for the duration. Really though, I didn't have a bitch coming. If Karen was any pattern to go by I was surely the one eyed man in the valley of the blind, at the least. And speaking of bitches I'd already captured a bitch, but I wasn't really comfortable thinking of her that way. She hadn't made such...
When we rolled back into our clearing a little after noon we were the stars of the show for a while. We gave Carl, Jane, and Gloria a tour first and then gave Scotty, Casey, Jill, and Tina a walk-through. Karen, Katy, and Wanda were really into it now and they started bringing the women and children through and at the last they even gave Jim Bob and Hank the show and tell. When Jim Bob and Hank left I followed them out. I didn't leave right on their heels and as soon as I was outside I was...
"Suit yourself. Do you want to remove this thing from my front yard before I shoot at it this time?" I asked, but apparently he didn't because it sat there silently. Two clips later I figured that the damned one-man space outhouse would never move again without serious repair. I thought it was a little odd that they'd been so stubborn they wouldn't even move it out of my range, but what the hell, it was their flying shitter. Carl, Scotty, and I went over to visit with our guest since...
It was three AM. I woke up to a sudden noise in the bed beside me. I opened my eyes and found Bonnie sitting next to me. “I can’t sleep,” she said. “Close your eyes,” I told her. “And count sheep…” “Please…” she told me. “I had a nightmare.” I sat up. Having a bad dream can have its effect on your whole day. I recalled all the stuff I read about it on the Internet. I turned on the lava lamp. Bonnie was covered with sweat. I got up, found her a dry T-shirt and brought her a glass of...
My after lunch visit home with Marilyn degenerated into an all out fuckfest. I managed to hold my own again but after I'd given them all a good ride I was as wasted as they were. We didn't even get up and go to supper. We just cuddled up together and dropped off. It was odd, but before I'd drifted off I was sure we'd wake in an hour or three and go to the kitchen to at least fix a snack. We didn't though; we slept through the night. Of course we woke at sunrise. I didn't know about the...
The next few days were mostly going through the motions for me. Hell, I'd gone from trying to negotiate a few improvements in our living conditions here on whatever this planet was called, to actually contemplating war with the aliens that had kidnapped me. There were too many scenarios to go over and I didn't have enough information to even think about a reasonable plan. At least Charlie had given me a clue to help me along with the problem of no soldiers if I did need to start a small...
The arrival of the Honorable Jotalta Caldonton came just after breakfast the next morning, and even though my meeting with him was my first time off the planet since I'd been dropped onto it, it was practically a non-event. Charlie had sent a short synopsis of my complaints ahead, just to whet his lawyer greed gene and our meeting was merely a formality to get the paperwork signed. For me it was a little surreal, since it was one of those they all look the same to me situations. I couldn't...
By now the morning was all used up. I voted it was time for lunch and the girls seconded the motion. We headed for Jane's big kitchen and we were able to beat the rush a little. I didn't even glance at the construction area as we walked toward the food. Once inside we opted for a table and a trip through the serving line. The food all looked good but the fried chicken caught my eye again and I loaded up a plate. Since the girls had made me the tale end of the line they were already eating...
That left me with another complicated decision to make and to top it off I didn't have a real reason in mind to make Mars livable. It just came to me as something that might be possible. Now I could see that it wouldn't be possible in my lifetime. The real question was whether it was worth doing for others coming along after me. Oh well, it wasn't like there was any hurry to get right on it. Damn if I hadn't fucked around and made it through the afternoon looking busy and productive the...
The day seemed to fly by and soon enough the Queens and I sat down for supper. Since we weren't bothering with any Royal servants the food just appeared. Come to think of it, this was much better service than servants could ever provide. The food appeared, we ate it, and then the dirty dishes left. I never had to worry about refilling a glass or my coffee mug, since more of whatever I was drinking just materialized in place. Actually, we didn't even have to get naked and go to bed, though...
Mo watched Grace approach, looking excited. ‘Cute’ would be a massive understatement. “What is it?” the little beauty gasped breathlessly, “what have you found out?” “I had to do a bit of burglary,” a touch of exaggeration wouldn’t hurt, to keep that rapt expression fixed on him, “then I used Call History, and the time I overheard him, to track it down. And the guy was in his Contacts so I’ve got his name and even his email. No address though, it wasn’t there.” “So who is he? Where does he...
Mo spent the bus ride to school trying to work out what was going wrong. There were hardly any Muslims in Luxembourg, for one thing, and most of them weren’t from Pakistan either. The place was FULL of racist unbelievers! Why had his father brought them here? His mother hardly had anyone to talk to either, even after his father had given her permission to go out whenever she liked. It was a bit weird going into school on a Saturday, too, just to meet a pair of white girls and a white guy,...
Mo rode in a fury through the car park after Grace. It was just typical of that brazen Italian bitch hoe that she’d tricked him into saying he already had a bike, so that he’d be the only one on a mountain bike, with its huge, slow knobbly tyres, while everyone else had a road-racing bike. He didn’t even have cleats on his shoes, so he could only push the pedals on the downstroke while the girls could power the upstroke too. They’d pulled that trick on Paul as well, he could see. Well ......
The four members of the gang each rode into school the next morning with different things on their minds. Mo nearly didn’t go into school at all. In fact he nearly didn’t even get out of bed, he felt so bad. But he had to get up or his mother would tell everybody and that would make everything even worse. He kept replaying his imam’s words in his head: ‘Learn from being used’; ‘Why did she do it’? Being used was certainly the worst feeling ever. It made him feel like ... worthless. But what...