Jonas Henrich lives, works, and loves on a remote world he discovered. Can he survive and succeed as a pioneer on a new planet?
Caution - this story includes hermaphrodites, alcohol, drugs, sexbots, and a few paragraphs of pee/scat play.
Caution - this story includes a few hermaphrodite characters, alcohol, drugs, sex with robots, and a few paragraphs of pee/scat play.
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= Old Calendar Year 2804 =
= Sagan's Galaxy, Lower Beta quadrant =
= planet Henrich-4 =
Up until I lost the love of my life, I, Jonas Henrich, was a very lucky man. As the dawn and daylight arrived each morning, Darlene would always wake me by licking and sucking my penis. For me, grumpy mornings were a thing of the past! Feeling her lips and fingers on me and the suction of her mouth was a wonderful way to start the day. After the wake-up blowjob and bathroom tasks, I'd dress and have a nice breakfast she made. Darlene wasn't a fully qualified chef, but still a better cook than the average grandmother.
She would look in my eyes with her dark brown ones, kiss me, and wish me a great day as I left the house to do any maintenance or repairs. When I had time, I would drive around prospecting for minerals. The mine would last another three or four years, and I needed to find another good site by then.
Around noon Darlene would bring me lunch and make love to me. She'd lean over the table in my workshop and let me do her from behind, or if I was away from the buildings she'd lay on the ground and we'd have sex under the open sky. There was no one else to see us and complain, so we screwed outdoors several times a week.
I'd return to the house shortly before dusk. If I'd had a difficult day she'd crouch and crawl under the table, then lick and suck me while I ate. It never failed to improve my mood. After supper we would watch a video with her in my lap, put on some music and dance, or play our own music. I enjoyed strumming my guitar while she played synth, violin, or flute. At bedtime she was happy to do nearly anything. If I was tired, she'd ride me cowgirl or reverse cowgirl style. Screwing in the missionary position was quite nice, and I got anal sex whenever I wanted. That meant anal any night I wasn't worn out from a tough day. Fucking her tight ass was wonderful!
She passed away on the first of March. It was starting to rain and I heard thunder in the distance. She was near the top of a hill carrying my lunch, and I saw lightning hit her! I sprinted to her using very long strides. With my panic-inspired adrenaline rush, in the low 2/3 gravity, I might have reached the speed of a champion athlete. Her shoes were charred beyond recognition, and there were burns on her feet and the ground where lightning had exited. I saw the tremendous bolt of electricity had burned the dark hair away from one side of her head, melted through her pliable plastic skin, and exposed her aluminum skull. It had destroyed a few actuators, several motors, and her CPU.
I had plenty of spare parts, and it only took me two days to mostly fix her, but her memories were gone. Without her personality and task programs, and the sexy, loving memories I had shared with her; she was close to useless. She just stood or sat in one place until I told her to do something, and then she didn't do it well. She had the same body, but all the appeal of a trash can.
Darlene had cooked my meals, made and repaired our clothing, and kept our home clean; but she couldn't even do those chores anymore. In the morning I asked her to bring me breakfast and she passed me her charger. I reminded her, "I need food, not electricity." She apologized, walked out to the garden, then brought me a raw potato with the leaves and roots still attached. I sighed and made some oatmeal.
Later I told her, "I want to have some fun. Bend over the table." She stupidly asked if I meant the table in front of her, the kitchen table, or the repair table in the shop. Once she was in position and I lifted the back of her skirt, she asked if I wanted to play dice, cards, chess, or if I wanted 'reproductive activity simulation'.
I sadly decided to put her in storage and take care of everything myself. I pulled out a bottle of whiskey and got drunk as I cried myself to sleep.
-
Fifteen years earlier, I had received an inheritance as I was about to finish University. I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I leased a small and heavily used scout ship and searched for a place I could call my own. With the usual crew of four it would only have supplies and food to last a month or so, but I slept in the small galley and stuffed the crew quarters with extra, allowing me to explore alone for half a year at a time.
A month into the third year, I discovered the wormhole and stellar system that now bear my names. The Jonas Wormhole only opens for eight days on a two Earth-year cycle, so transportation to my new home planet Henrich-4 is quite problematic. Without the wormhole it would take 90 years to reach it from the closest inhabited world, Glasa-6. Even with it, the trip takes about 70 days each way and is only possible every-other year.
I wasn't really an explorer but rather a modern-day miner, which meant I was a roboticist. The mine owners from Earth in the old days would have been ecstatic. There were no worker safety laws, since bots did all the work and on my world I was the law. The bots worked without complaints, time off, or demands for more pay. I only needed to do a few minutes or an hour of maintenance on each bot monthly, and refilling their hydrogen fuel cells only took them a few minutes per day. Other than that, most of them had been working non-stop for nine or more years. There were no environmental laws, no taxes, no restrictions of any kind.
I was still careful about what I ordered the bots to do, since I lived near the mine on the smallest of the planet's three continents. I wasn't going to shit on my own floor by scattering mercury, arsenic, or other toxic things around. In addition to my Robotics degree, I had only taken four Mine Engineering and three Geology courses in college, which I thought were enough. I'd bought a satellite with telescopic cameras and several other sensors, plus a scout driller bot with ground-penetrating radar to find the rare metals my six minerbots dug up. Four refinerbots extracted the valuable metals from hundreds of tons of ore every day and smelted it into ingots, then I hauled them near the mass driver with my tracked land crawler. I guess you could say it was a heavy-duty vehicle, since it was nearly the size of my house and could carry up to 200 tons at a time.
Interstellar shipping costs were extremely high, so I couldn't make a profit selling copper, iron, or any of the other common metals. I supplied silver, samarium, palladium, and sometimes a gold or platinum ingot or two. Including the freight fees; my tracked land crawler, 8-wheeled rover, and two-seat flyer had cost me five times their weight in silver. On another shipment, a dozen 8.5 ton ingots of silver only got me a welding machine, a large chest of tools, and four boxes of chocolate bars, which I loved. I had to ration them out and only eat two a week until the next shipment. On most of the Developed Worlds, a hundred tons of silver would buy a small city! Living on the New Frontier was frequently difficult and rarely cheap.
Just one ingot of iridium would be enough for me and at least three generations of my descendants to live in luxury. I was mostly agnostic and generally didn't like the idea of religion, but nearly every day I prayed my satellite or driller bot would find more iridium. On most planets it was worth ten times its weight in high-quality diamonds. Too bad it was so scarce that in eleven years I had only produced 31 kilos, a miniscule fraction of a saleable ingot. I thought about having it transported to the ship, but transporters couldn't handle any materials denser than iron.
When I first arrived I'd brought seeds for food crops and a few hundred saplings, descendants of trees that had originated on Earth, way back in the Milky Way galaxy. There were several types of fruit trees, a few fast-growing softwoods to provide lumber, and some hardwoods like oak and walnut in case I ever got time for my carpentry hobby. My trio of agbots took care of the grain, fruit, and vegetables I depended on. They also tended cotton for clothing and caught some of the common and edible fish creatures that swam the rivers and seas.
Native grasses, vines, and shrubs grew over most of the landscape, but there were no plants taller than my shoulder until I arrived. Some insects crawled on the plants and wandered around. Two-legged amphibians preyed on the bugs that ventured near the water, and fish ate them in turn. A few small rodent-like ones ate fruit, seeds, and some of the bugs, and a species similar to weasels consumed large bugs and the rodents. The top predator near my home was a six-legged canine that ate weasels, rodents, and amphibians. They were the size of foxes from Earth but looked more like small wolves with extra legs. I was a little surprised how well they could climb steep and rocky mountainsides, probably in search of prey I hadn't discovered yet. I offered them food a few times, but they were quite skittish and wouldn't come within 20 meters of me.
I found several fossils and bones in and around the mine, including a few from extinct bison-sized herbivores and a type of very large canine. The six-legged 'superwolf', as I called it, had apparently been the planet's apex carnivore until the recent ice age, which had ended only a few decades ago. There might still be some of the larger animals in remote areas, but I was pretty sure none remained on Myhome, the continent I lived on. I'd named the other continents Eastland and Westland. At heart I'm an engineer, not a poet, okay?
Other than weather and the animals, nothing happened on my world unless I wanted it to. At first I had enjoyed having my own planet with no other people on it. It was nice seeing five other planets and a few dozen moons through a telescope at night, knowing all of them belonged to me. I was a King with only a herd of robots as subjects. Without Darlene, I was a very lonely King.
The next cargo ship was scheduled to depart for my home in two months. I thought long and hard and decided to get the expensive parts to build a second mass driver. It would double the transfer speed when it was time to fling my metallic wares up to the cargo ship as it circled in synchronous orbit. The last time, the ship barely made it out before the wormhole closed.
I wished I could have afforded a full Hypercom instead of just a basic Ansible. The Ansible had major limits, but the way it communicated using spooky-entangled subatomic particles was still a marvel. Instead of a radio or laser signal taking 24 years to reach Glasa-6, then waiting another 24 years for a response, I could communicate instantly. Paradoxically, it was instant but still slow. I typed messages and a linked Ansible on Glasa-6 would display them only milliseconds later, but there was a serious bandwidth limitation. Ansibles could only send or receive about twenty typed words a minute. Unlike a Hypercom, there was no hope of video or voice communication. I could easily transmit a grocery or spare parts order but sending a single medium quality photo or a four-minute song took half a day.
I knew I should have a family and start populating the world someday. If I didn't request a woman or women soon, I'd need to wait two more years. I was a mature man of 40 and thought having a family would be much easier if the ladies already knew each other. I was matched with a divorced mother Trissina and her daughters Rebe and Liri. I got two pictures of each and we had brief text chats. I made it clear that I expected them to take care of our home and have children with me. I'd wait until the girls were at least 21, of course. I'd be the father in a household with two mothers and a still-fertile grandmother. They sent me a recording of their voices, which I treasured and listened to several times a day. Other than brief chats with the cargo ship crews, I hadn't heard another human voice in over a decade!
I thought of Darlene and ordered programs for cooking, housekeeping, and other tasks. I also got thirty lovebot personalities, in case things didn't work out with the girls. I transferred some money to their accounts so they could get the things they'd need to be comfortable in their new home. I was happy Trissina asked if we could get pigs for pork. I ordered six weaned piglets, which could be put in a cold-sleep tube meant for humans. The four of us wanted cows for milk and beef too, but the shipping costs for a live bull and a couple of cows would have been downright absurd. Female calves, frozen bull semen, and artificial insemination was a more reasonably priced alternative; but we didn't have any veterinary training and found the idea quite distasteful. Instead, I bought some goats. Rebe suggested getting chickens or ducks, so I ordered ten of each. I made a mental note to put the pigs and goats on large islands, since they could reproduce quickly and be destructive if there were no predators to control their numbers. I knew if any chickens or ducks escaped the mini-wolves would keep them in check.
I also ordered two more agbots and a lot of spare parts. I looked at a pack of frozen embryos, which my med-bed could implant in women to prevent inbreeding problems, but decided that could wait until my future children were in puberty. As a major indulgence, I also bought some sugar cane and sapling cocoa trees, and an agbot add-on to process them. I thought ten percent of my profit from the last shipment would be worth it to have chocolate any time I wanted. I thought about ordering more whiskey, but knew I had what I needed to make a still I could use to produce rum or vodka.
-
I wore double hearing protection as I started up the mass driver using a switch in the small shack a few hundred steps away. Once I'd marveled at an old photo of a water battleship's huge cannons, but the ceramic-lined bore of my coil gun was a little wider and much longer. Each launch-ready ingot was a two-meter-long cylinder half a meter across, with a rounded head. As I had a bot start loading them, I felt the dirt beneath my feet vibrate and a pressure on my chest as each shot made a sonic boom and a tremendous 'KLANG!' The sound resembled a violent sledgehammer blow on a thick piece of steel, combined with an explosion. It was so loud that dust rose from the ground each time. I'd built the control shed far away, since the enormous electrical howitzer's 200-plus decibels could harm unprotected ears three hundred meters away. At thirty meters, the shock waves would be intense enough to rupture organs and might even break bones!
The eight to fifteen-ton rods left flame trails behind them as they ascended toward the ship at more than Mach 15. Each precious projectile was covered by a centimeter-thick steel outer casing and five centimeters of carbon foam insulation, to protect the much more expensive material inside from the phenomenal heat generated by air resistance. The launch energy had to be calculated precisely, so they would have enough speed to reach the ship's catching net but not enough to damage it. Maybe due to the loss of Darlene, as I saw a bot load an ingot into the mass driver I had a macabre thought. I realized a coffin would be about the same size.
I drove the ten kilometers home and even at that distance, I could hear the noise once I removed my hearing protection. I called the ship and told them I was ready for my deliveries. They released the two drop pods with my supplies and new bots. I had them aimed at a flat desert area a hundred kilometers from my home, for safety. I wasn't concerned about finding them, since they were bright orange and had tracking beacons. I would go get them in a day or two.
Since humans and most other animals couldn't come close to handling the 30G impact as drop pods hit the ground, they were transported down. The chickens, ducks, piglets, and goats appeared right on target; in the pastures I'd fenced for the goats and pigs, and the large cages I'd built for the birds. Transporting wasn't necessary on many worlds, but due to the thinner atmosphere of my new home the drop pods' parachutes only slowed them to 150kph before impact.
Star Trek and some other very old sci-fi videos had predicted transporter technology just about right. It demanded a very large amount of energy, but was 99.99 percent safe and only took several seconds. That last 0.01 percent happened to my girls. The pretty redheads arrived in front of my home alive and mostly healthy, but with a major problem. The 53-year-old mother Trissina's shapely body was topped by Rebe's cute 20-year-old head, and Liri's 18-year-old head was on Rebe's body! Maybe most disturbing of all, Trissina's head was on her younger daughter!
Their first minute on our world was filled with crying. They were standing when they appeared, but they immediately fell to the ground. They could barely make noise vocally and weren't able to speak, since they couldn't coordinate their breathing with their mouths. They'd move their mouth to produce words, but if there was no air flow at the right time sounds got missed or scrambled.
I looked at Trissina and said, "Hold up one finger for 'yes' and two for 'no', okay?" She made fists with both hands, then all her fingers wiggled.
"How about blink once for 'yes', and two for 'no'?"
She stared at me and blinked.
"Are you in pain?"
Two blinks - no.
"Are you having trouble breathing?"
She thought a moment, then two blinks again - no.
"Take it easy. Just relax and take a few deep breaths." The three of them calmed down significantly. After a short time, they were able to sit up and turn their heads. "Are you hungry or would you like something to drink?"
All three blinked once - yes.
They were able to crawl awkwardly and I led them to the kitchen. I offered them lunch, which was a big mistake. When each tried to swallow a bite of bread they choked, or nearly did. They'd need to learn to eat solid food again like babies. I helped each of them drink some water, then told them I'd be back soon. I had to get the poultry and animals situated, but the first thing I did was call the ship circling above in orbit. They knew their transporter had malfunctioned and an engineer was working on it.
A few hours later the girls were still unable to speak but could walk using baby steps if they were careful about their balance. All of us were happy they seemed to be improving. For supper that night we had fish soup with corn grits, which they were able to eat with only a few minor mishaps.
We had a long yes-no conversation evaluating our options. I was worried for their health, and they were worried I wouldn't accept them because of their head and body situation. None of us were doctors and I didn't have a transporter to attempt a fix, if any of us even knew how. My med-bed was a basic one. It could handle simple issues like childbirth, cancers, and most injuries and diseases; but I couldn't afford an advanced one capable of brain or head transplants.
I went out to the shop and called the ship again. They had some awful news. The transporter needed some parts they didn't have, so they wouldn't be able to fix it until they got back to base. The girls and I were stuck for at least two years! I wondered how I should break the news to them. I had a lot of other questions too. If the girls and I liked each other, would it be wrong for us to have sex if only their body or head was over twenty-five, the age of consent on Glasa-6? I could make the law whatever I wanted on my planets, but would it be okay morally?
Over the last millennium human life expectancy had gradually increased to 400 or so years, but since Trissina was 53 I knew she probably only had three or four fertile decades left. Thankfully, due to the anti-aging treatments everyone got at age 25, she would look young and beautiful for another century or so. I wanted to start a family soon and wondered if it would acceptable for me to get her pregnant, even though her new head was only 18. If legal maturity and sex being allowed were based on the mind, would it be okay for me to make love with Liri's body with her mother's head in control? Despite her body only being 18? I was tempted but realized that would be wrong, too.
-
The three redheads and I cuddled in my bed with our clothes on. We laid in a pile of sad and worried bodies, holding each other in a search for tranquility. There was no sex or even any thoughts about it. As I finally reached moderate comfort, I slept and dreamed back to my final months of college and my powerful crush on Rettenna.
Most people had just called her by her nickname, "Red". Her luxuriant scarlet curls flowed downward, past her amazing head-sized bosoms, and nearly touched her slender waist. Every time she strode up or down a staircase, her splendidly curvy butt bounced enticingly, just like her gigantic jugs. I was sure she was the most attractive girl in a university of three thousand students.
She sat in front of me in Literature class, which is the main reason I never managed more than a 'C minus' in the subject. Having a nearly constant hard-on as I stared at Rettenna made it terribly hard to focus on Cervantes, John Milton, or Voltaire. At the end of the class period, I held my tablet over my swollen and aching crotch as I went across the hall to Ancient History. Being near Red was the highlight of my day.
I saw what I had long been dreading on the large display at the front of the History classroom, "The Horror Age". It was restricted to students at least age 21. Even as adults, most of us could barely handle it. At the end of the first class everyone left with tears in their eyes, even the professor. The Horror Age started with the Unification War of 2106. The entire war only lasted three hours and Humanity nearly died out. In less than the time between breakfast and lunch, most of Earth's great nations had attacked each other with swarms of armed drones, stealth assassin robots, chemical weapons, atomic bombs, and beam weapons. The most advanced faction even used a satellite weapon that dropped huge numbers of metal spikes from space, which penetrated hundreds of meters into the ground before exploding like meteorites. Nowhere on Earth was safe, and only a million or so people survived out of blind luck.
Three hours of war and the fallout and chemical contamination it caused had nearly exterminated our whole species. Over eleven billion perished because of religious differences and a trade agreement gone wrong. It was called the Unification War because it unified everyone who lived through it. It was suddenly obvious that survival was far more important than any religion, petty political grievances, or greed for resources. The Horror Age encompassed the irrational and idiotic causes, the war itself, and the hundred and thirty years that followed. People struggled to stay alive in the wreckage. They had to re-learn lost and ancient skills to survive like primitive hunter-gatherers. Eventually they rebuilt and repopulated, until humanity finally reached out into space again in 2240. We hadn't gone out like the dinosaurs but had been perilously close.
Remembering the lessons about mass death, shredded cities on fire, and lifelong hardships put me in the wrong mood for how I awoke. Trisinna was smiling at me from only centimeters away, but I felt like crying. The melancholy expression on my face must have upset her, because she rolled off the bed and backed away from me.
Her speech had an odd pattern to it and some of her words cut off suddenly, but it was an improvement over the day before. "Jonas, I'm so sorry we're not what you expected. I hope you can find it in your heart to love us. Or at least accept us." She looked like she wanted to cry too.
"It's not you! I had a terrible dream. It's okay." I got up and gave her a calming hug. "Let's get some breakfast, then I have a lot of work to do."
-
I put my hearing protection on and went back to the mass driver. The bots were loading projectiles at a pace of one every four minutes, which would be just fast enough to load the ship in time without overheating the gun. Since ships took 30 hours to reach orbit from the wormhole, and vice-versa, they only had five days in orbit before they needed to leave.
In the shack I saw the driver coil temperature was past the red line and wondered what was wrong. I looked at the cooling water stats and saw there was only ten percent of the flow required for normal operation. I quickly shut it off, then hurriedly removed the water hose and saw it was plugged with small pebbles. I ran to the river and discovered the cause. The rain during the night had filled the river and increased its flow enough to pull the wire mesh filter partly off. As I cleared the hose and put the screens back, I thought about the awful situation my girls were in.
I debated the morality again, wondering if it would be right for me to do anything sexual with them, since part of each wasn't legal age yet. I wanted to, but couldn't find a logical or moral way to justify it. I couldn't be physical with any of them until they were fully 25. Even discounting that, it would probably take weeks for them to fully adapt to their new bodies, and who knew how long to get over the emotional trauma. There wasn't even a way for them to leave and get medical help elsewhere. The ship's transporter needed two parts they didn't have. I thought a moment and realized I had the parts in my shop! My spirits fell again as I remembered I had no way to send them there, since the transporter was out.
I activated the mass driver and was relieved to see the coil temperature was back to almost normal. I thought about sending the parts to the ship with it. They were delivered to me by drop pod, but 30 or 40 G's hitting the sand was a far cry from the 70,000 G acceleration of the mass driver. Even if the intense magnetic fields didn't rip them apart, the circuits would be crushed to powder as they left the ground.
I drove back near the shop to get my land crawler. It was much slower than my usual rover, but had the cargo capacity and small crane I would need to retrieve the drop pods. When I found them in the desert I unhooked the huge parachutes from the egg-shaped orange pods, rolled and folded the chutes, then used the crane to lift my purchases into the back of the huge crawler.
On the way home I had a brilliant idea and smiled most of the way back. I called the ship. "I have the parts you need but I can't get them up to you. Would you be able to take the transporter apart and load it into a drop pod, then send it down here? I could fix it and send the girls up to the ship!"
The ship's engineer said, "That's a Hell of an idea! Let me talk to the Captain."
I was a little surprised the Captain himself called me an hour later. "I think your idea will work. There's just one thing, the transporter is property of the company. I contacted headquarters, and they'll sell it to you as-is for 2,500 tera-creds. It cost four thousand, but they'll give you a discount since it's a few years old. I know that's still a lot, but if you can come up with that much?"
I knew I only had about sixty tera-creds left in the bank. The shipment of rare metals I was sending up would be worth four or five thousand, but not until it was delivered in half a year. Buying the parts to build a second mass driver had maxed out my credit. There was no way I could get even close to enough. "I ... I'll see what I can do and call you back."
I did a lot of thinking but didn't tell the girls. I'd hate to get their hopes up and have them be disappointed again. I looked around wondering what I could sell to get even a fraction of what I needed. Most of my bots and equipment would barely be worth the cost to ship them anywhere.
I saw Darlene in the corner. She had cost me five thousand when I bought her. Even thinking about it was heartbreaking, but if I could sell her I might have what I needed. I had tears at the corners of my eyes and a lump in my throat as I decided. I had only known the girls a single day, but I'd do it if that's what it took to help them.
I took Darlene out and cleaned her up, put in the new personality chip, then got some video of her changing her clothes. I really didn't want to, but I was going to sell the 'woman' I had loved for five years to help some actual women I was starting to care about. I wiped the tears from my eyes and did my best to smile as I called the Captain back. I gave him my best sales pitch, including how amazing it felt to screw her and that she would be willing any time.
The Captain's answer nearly broke my heart. "She's beautiful! I wish I could offer more, but I only have nine hundred."
"I... let me call you back."
I walked to the Ansible on the other side of the shop and pulled up a years-old message. Because of the high potential for aggravation, at the time I had simply answered, "Thanks, but no thanks." I read the offer again and reconsidered.
"Our university would like to send a science team to explore the planets you own. We understand the wormhole used to access the system only opens briefly once every two years, so the team would return in either four or six. We will supply you with a transporter and two relay satellites to reach the habitable planets and moons when orbital timing makes transport possible. We are offering 100 tera-creds per team member, up to 5,000 in total, as compensation for any inconvenience. We await your prompt reply."
I could have a free transporter but I'd need to wait until the next ship in two years. If I could get some of the money up-front... But I'd need to tolerate up to 50 strangers wandering around, doing who-knew-what on my moons and other planets. I spent half the night in the shop negotiating a deal with the university. Instead of 5,000, they'd pay me 3,000 in advance and send the scientists in two years. They rarely made any in-advance payment deals, and only agreed since I would have a transporter and they wouldn't need to bring one. I also agreed to provide food and housing for half a year, until the visitors fully established themselves.
Before wandering to bed half-asleep, I called the ship again and told them I had the money, so they should start moving the transporter into a drop pod. I decided not to tell the girls and get their hopes up, but they could probably leave and get the medical help they needed!
I would be alone with Darlene another two years, but I'd been quite happy with her before.
-
After lunch on the ship's last day in orbit I told the girls some great news. "Trissina, Rebe, Liri; I bought the broken transporter and they dropped it down here. I fixed it! I can send you up to the ship!"
Trissina asked in astonishment, "Really? We can go get help and be normal again?"
I smiled at her, "Really! They want to leave in three hours, so you should go pack your things."
She joyously told her daughters, "You heard him, go pack!"
As she stepped onto the transporter she blew me a kiss. I loved them all and knew I wouldn't see them again for at least two years. I'd miss them terribly.
-
I took the next day off to mourn losing them and get my head in order. I washed down supper with the last of my whiskey, then played my guitar and sang sad songs until I drunkenly drifted off to sleep.
The next day, I started building the second mass driver. With two in operation, I'd be able to sell the thousands of tons of neodymium and uranium the bots had stockpiled, in addition to the rarer metals I usually sold. I had planned to use some silver as plumbing solder or wiring if I had them construct any new buildings, but just a single ton would be plenty for a small village. The price of cobalt was rising too, so it might even be profitable to process and sell the large hill of ore the bots had put aside.
Since iron, aluminum, copper, and tin were practically worthless financially; the minerbots had piled up enormous mounds of the ores. I could have some bots refine them and produce beams, pipes, and whatever else I needed later. I would need temporary housing for the fifty scientists who would arrive on the next ship. I was dreading it, but I'd honor the deal I had made.
I got a copy of the plans for a small college dormitory over Ansible. Once a bot had produced all the wiring, pipes, steel beams, and other components; I modified its tools so it could construct the building. There would be thirty-six dorm rooms for fifty scientists, with a rec room and small cafeteria in the basement. It wouldn't be luxurious but they'd survive.
-
Three days after the girls left, I felt a little amorous and decided to try out some of Darlene's new lovebot personalities. 'Filthy Frida' truly was. Her version of romance was, "I love taking a big cock in my ass. Shove yours in me, stud!" I happily did, several times.
One morning I woke with my penis in her mouth and told her, "I need to pee!"
She only moved her lips off my dick long enough to say, "I'll drink it. Piss in my mouth." I did, then watched her smile and lick her lips as she walked to the bathroom. She ordered, "Come watch me get rid of it." I stared as she sat on the toilet and expelled it through her pussy! She held my hand as we walked back, then sucked my dick. I thought it was terribly exciting and used her mouth for a urinal again after lunch.
As I returned to the house near dusk, she saw me walking toward the bathroom. She asked, "Where are you going?"
"I need to poop."
I was astounded that she said, "Drop your pants. I'll suck your ass empty." She did as she said, then stuck her long robotic tongue deep into my colon as she licked me clean. I felt quite aroused but a little disgusted. I started getting turned-on again when she invited me to the bathroom so I could watch her defecate my turds out her own ass. I butt-fucked her as she leaned on the toilet, then again in the shower.
Our week of waste disposal games was kinky and quite exciting, but there was no way I was going to kiss her!
After a thorough cleaning and watching her drink half a liter of disinfectant, I tried another of her new personalities, 'Needy Nora'. She swapped out her brown eyes for blue ones and replaced her dark hair with silky blonde locks. With a Swedish accent she told me, "This appearance is based on an average of the last twenty 'Miss Sweden' beauty contest winners. Do you like the new me?" Her hips were curvier, her buttocks were larger and softer, and her breasts were nearly twice their former size.
"You're gorgeous! Very nice!"
She held my hand and begged, "Good! Then please make love to me? Please?" She took my pants off as she slowly polished my teeth with her tongue. I held her large new boobs and thrust into her again and again, as we had sex leaned against the repair shop wall. Only half an hour later she asked if I'd like a blowjob, and I happily came in her mouth. Not even an hour after that, she asked me to make love to her again. By the time I fell asleep, she'd requested sex about ten more times and offered four blowjobs.
In my opinion, sex every day is practically a must, twice is better, and three times is great. Six was amazing, but about all I could do. Unfortunately, her programmed desire for sex thirty times a day was far beyond the abilities of mortal men. She had a beautiful face and very arousing body, along with a polite and happy personality. I enjoyed her as frequently as my body was able, but could only give her a small fraction of what she requested.
It got quite distracting when I was trying to get some work done. She would sit or stand near me nude, fondling her labia or nipples as she asked for yet more sex. In addition to the distraction, I felt like less of a man because I couldn't give her all she wanted. My week with Needy Nora was blissfully sexual, but too much of a good thing.
-
A month too late, I got a much better offer than the university's. A group of aging tycoons wanted to buy an entire habitable planet or moon to develop as some strange sort of retirement community. "Mr. Henrich, our organization, F.U.N.N.E.R. would like to make you as wealthy as our richest members. For ownership and full rights to a comfortably livable world, Free Use Nudist / Naturist Erotic Retirements will pay up to ten million tera-creds! We'll also provide interstellar freightcruisers to supply our new world and any nearby, transporters and relays for instant travel between all settlements in the star system, and Hypercoms for our new world and any of yours. Please reply to schedule a survey and contract offer soon."
I'd wracked my brain and made a big sacrifice for only three thousand, but they were offering up to ten MILLION! I made a fist and pounded the side of my hand on the table repeatedly. BAM! BAM! BAM! "Fucking DAMMIT!" Once I relaxed a bit, I went over the terms of my deal with the university. For up to six years, I would need to let the scientists explore all the survivable planets and moons in my system. Luckily, there was nothing in the contract against hosting surveyors or explorers from other organizations at the same time. I requested that F.U.N.N.E.R. send a survey team and make me an offer for whichever of my moons or planets they preferred, then set one of my bots to building another dormitory.
As I laid in bed and hugged Nora, I savored the possibility of a deal with F.U.N.N.E.R. It would take years, but most of my problems might be over! I could have a free Hypercom! Even better yet, free interstellar freight would reduce the cost of anything I bought by half and double my income! Best of all, if I wanted, MILLIONS of tera-creds would let me leave and retire to a life of luxury only an eighth of the way through my life!
The pleasant thoughts made it quite easy for me to relax. I was nearly asleep when Nora reached into my underwear and seductively asked, "We've made love five times today, Jonas, but wouldn't seven or eight be even better?"
I gently held my hand to the back of her neck and said, "Good night, Nora." I pressed the power button at the base of her skull, then got a full night's sleep for the first time in a week.
-
After I finished in the bathroom the next morning I felt my stomach rumbling and remembered my lovebot was a good cook. I powered her on and before she could ask for yet more sex, I ordered, "Switch to your next lovebot personality."
In a neutral tone of voice she replied, "Activating new personality, 'Daddy's Darling Deedee'. Please wait." I saw her breasts and butt shrinking slowly. She still had her beautiful blue eyes and long blonde hair. Her figure was much less voluptuous but still attractive, with halved-orange-sized breasts and somewhat of an hourglass shape. As I finished getting dressed, she sweetly said, "Good morning, daddy. What would you like me to do?" Her arms and legs had shortened, and she was only the height of my shoulder.
"I'm hungry. Go make me some breakfast."
"Sure, daddy. I love you." She smiled and stood on tiptoe to kiss my cheek sweetly, then walked to the kitchen nude. Her barely mature looking and extremely cute new body was nice, but confused me a bit. I wasn't quite sure if wanted to hug or screw her more.
As I walked toward the front door I glanced at the calendar on the kitchen display screen. It was Friday, June 13th, 2804. I didn't believe in religion or superstitious nonsense like bad luck. The catastrophe happening on Friday the 13th was a heck of a coincidence, though.
I was climbing up to the land crawler's driver seat as the ground began to shake. The seismic vibrations went on and on, growing more and more intense. I knew the biggest danger during a quake was things falling on people, so I jumped off the crawler's ladder and ran away from it. I fell to the dirt after only a dozen steps, then quickly crawled to a wide-open area away from the buildings. I covered my mouth and nose with my shirt sleeve and breathed through it to protect my lungs from the rising dust cloud.
There were four large aftershocks over the next hour or so. Once the air had cleared enough, I saw nearly everything I had built over the last twelve years was gone! The repair shop, machine shed, poultry barn, and my home were all piles of rubble! I decided the chickens and ducks were my most urgent concern. If they died or escaped I'd greatly miss eggs in the morning, and I'd feel bad for them too.
I dug through the machine shed until I found the large net an agbot sometimes used to collect fish, then spent several hours running around chasing birds. By dark I had managed to catch a rooster and three chickens, plus two pairs of ducks. I put them all inside the huge land crawler for the night, then curled up in the back seat of my rover.
I was about to go to sleep and wondered how things could possibly get any worse, when a thunderstorm started.
The tears began as I shouted, "NO! Why now! Just no!" Anything that hadn't been destroyed in the series of quakes was being soaked by the downpour instead.
My lovebot tapped on the window as I was trying to force myself to sleep. I was surprised I'd forgotten about her. I opened the front door slightly and hurriedly said, "Get in quick, Deedee!" She climbed into the front seat and closed the door.
It was just her programming, but she appeared to be genuinely worried. "Are you okay, Daddy?"
Between sobs I replied, "I... I'm not hurt."
"That's the most important thing, Daddy. We still have each other." She reached toward me and patted my arm gently.
Mostly to reassure myself, I said, "Yes, we do, sweetie. We have each other and we can rebuild. We'll be okay." I tried to believe it, as I fell asleep holding her hand.
= Sagan's Galaxy, Upper Alpha quadrant =
= Advanced World planet Egalitaria B =
= Central Superior Court =
Most people received the standard longevity treatment at age 25 but the nearly five-century-old Grand Judge Phillipsen was an Immortal, one of the very few people wealthy and important enough for the new Ponce Deleon Treatment. Nobody knew exactly how long it would allow recipients to live, but the leading Medicants theorized a few millennia, possibly three or four thousand years.
The Grand Judge's favorite artwork was an image of ancient comedian and politician Ronald Reagan, which adorned the court entrance. They were actually distant relatives, and the resemblance was uncanny.
He began the hearing with, "The five defendants Rachel Nunez, Erinna Hawkins, Marie Jackson, Teri Lambert, and Lashawna Pike are all charged with supporting or inspiring a rebellion, underage fun drug possession, illegal fun drug distribution, operating vehicles while intoxicated, and assorted lesser crimes.
They were part of the infamous Drug Parade, driving through the city passing out at least seven types of illegal intoxicants. At the parade's destination, the front steps of the Capitol, they gave speeches about overthrowing our legally elected government and making fun drugs part of social welfare. Apparently they believe people have the same right to smokesticks, dicey, krok, and vodka; as they do to food and housing. The defendants do not dispute any of this.
It has taken me fifteen days to review all the evidence, and the only defense seems to be the theory that people don't need to obey the law if doing so would make them unhappy. Does the prosecution agree this summary is correct?"
"Yes, your honor."
"Defense counsel?"
The Public Defender raised a few points. "Judge, we would like to submit that since med-beds are now able to treat any negative health effects caused by fun drugs, and can reverse intoxication and stop addictions quickly, the consequences of recreational drug use are minimal.
None of the defendants have ever used, possessed, or distributed any banned toxic drugs, only the safer fun ones, which are allowed for those sixty and older. We therefore request the court find the defendants innocent, and overturn all laws prohibiting fun drug possession or use."
The judge stated, "Over the last hundred years more than forty percent of all arrests and criminal prosecutions, and a third of attorney and court income, has been related to underage drug crimes." He smiled and turned toward the State's Attorney, then asked, "Do you think I should do what he wants, and put millions of judges and lawyers out of business?"
The prosecutor giggled a few moments, then chuckled a while, then eventually burst into a full guffaw. He laughed so hard he actually fell off his chair. Most of the audience laughed along with him. Even the Public Defender had a smile on his face, as he restrained his own laughter.
Several minutes later, once the tsunami of hysteria died down, Grand Judge Phillipsen sternly declared; "I find all five defendants Rachel Nunez, Erinna Hawkins, Marie Jackson, Teri Lambert, and Lashawna Pike guilty on all counts.
I sentence all five to the strongest punishment available for minors between the ages of twenty-five and forty, temporary exile to the New Frontier. Once a proper destination is found, they will depart the Advanced Worlds immediately.
They are hearby prohibited from entering a Developed, Advanced, or Old Frontier world until they reach full majority at the age of sixty. Their suppressors will be reactivated, and they are under full Nest Restriction until they depart."
One of the court staff tapped the Judge's elbow and whispered something in his ear.
He continued, "All the defendants are 22 or 23? That's close enough. My previous declarations stand. Deputies, bring them to the Nest, then find a New Frontier world that will take these miscreants! Court adjourned!" He banged his gavel on the desktop.
The court secretary tapped his elbow and whispered in his ear again.
He announced, "Wait! Wait up, everybody! Be seated!" He paused a few moments. "There was a recording malfunction. We need to reenact my joke for the nightly news feed."
-
Once the five young convicts climbed aboard the transport that would return them to the Nest, corrupt Senior Deputy Perkins climbed in and made them an offer. "You know that with your suppressors on, drugs and sex won't give you pleasure anymore. You'll have no sex drive, no erections or orgasms, and smoking or even eating Krok or Zeezee will only make you feel sick.
"If you each entertain me once a week, I might forget to turn the suppressors back on." He smiled conspiratorially. "Normally you don't get them until you're 25, but if you sign releases and let me record us fucking, I'll even have a friend approve you getting butt buttons and gender assignments, too. I doubt you all want to stay hermaphrodites, right?"
The five looked at each other and thought silently. He asked, "Do you really want to be impotent and immune to fun? If I decide I don't like you it might take me years to find a destination, and decades more to get you there." He paused to let them think a while. "Would you rather do porn with me a dozen times, enjoy some sex with each other if you want, and have some fun drugs once in a while?
"Or do you want to stay herms and have the love life of a rock until you reach the New Frontier in thirty years?" He looked over the group, then asked, "Rachel?"
The tall redhead nodded and said, "I guess I'll do it. I want to be a woman. When can I get the surgery?"
"I like variety, so how about after five times? You'll get the butt button then, too, since it's cheaper to do both at the same time. Do you agree?"
Rachel sighed. "Okay."
He asked, "The rest of you? Erinna? Teri? Marie? Lashawna?"
Lashawna objected, "Call me Pudgey!"
"Whatever. Let me fuck you and record it, to get what you want?"
Pudgey made a counter-offer, "I'll do it if I can fuck you instead. Ever ridden a big dick and played with a pair like these?" She lifted her shirt and bra, showing him her massive pair of caramel-colored boobs with small purple areolas and nipples. Each was bigger than his head.
"Uh... I... ah..." His eyes were practically on stalks as he stared at them and agreed. "Sure!"
After she covered herself and he calmed down, he asked, "You want to stay a herm, Pudgey, or..."
"Futa. I love having huge tits, with a cock and balls. The rest can go."
Teri pleaded, "But Pudgey, we were going to have kids!"
She let out a long sigh and reluctantly said, "I promised, and I owe you, Stick. Okay. I'll stay a herm until we have a baby."
Perkins asked curiously, "Stick?"
Ebony-skinned Teri explained, "My nickname, long story. I want to be male again."
"And the rest of you? Do you agree?"
They nodded and mumbled, "Okay."
= Jonas Henrich, on Henrich-4 =
After picking two apples for breakfast, I surveyed the horrible damage wrought by the quakes. The mine entrance had collapsed, burying all but one of the minerbots. Rain had pooled there and I knew the sticky mud it made would eventually dry, requiring me to dig through something hard as limestone to get the other five out. Ordering the remaining bot to dig the others out before it dried would probably trap it in the swampy muck with the others.
Both mass drivers and the three refinerbots that hadn't been totally destroyed would need major repairs. My medbed was wrecked beyond salvage when the house's main roof beam and a brick wall had fallen on it. The machine shed collapsing had squashed my flyer and the transporter flat as pancakes, too. Two agbots had been on Goat Island and Pig Island looking after my livestock, so I'd have no idea about their status until I could go check them. One near the orchard had been crushed by a large pine tree, but thankfully the two in the garden still worked.
I was conflicted when I saw the two dormitories were intact. They had far, far more living space than I needed, but reminded me of the crowd of scientists and explorers who would be there in two years. I moved my mattress and my few other intact belongings to the dorm closer to the mud bog which used to be a mine.
I used the crawler's crane to move large pieces of the repair shop's roof and walls. I was happy to see my sat-terminal had survived and was showing new images from the satellite in orbit high above. Minutes later I was deeply saddened to notice Pig Island was missing! Apparently the powerful quakes had caused it to sink into the sea. I felt serious loss for the cute little piglets I'd put there only a few weeks before.
The worst discoveries of all were seeing my fusion mini-reactor and Ansible were down. With no Ansible, there was no way for me to let anyone know what had happened, or even send a distress signal! Without fusion power, I'd only have half a dozen solar panels for electricity. I could either keep my lovebot going and use a few small devices, or produce enough hydrogen to run a single agbot. I would either have entertainment and a companion, or food. The choice was painful but obvious. I was no farmer and starving wasn't an option. I set up the solar panels and plugged in the hydrolyzer. Once it started to refill the hydrogen tank, I rebuilt a smaller version of the poultry barn and moved the birds out of the land crawler.
After a simple supper, I discussed the situation with DeeDee. She said, "I have nine hours of battery power left, Daddy. Since you won't be able to recharge me, maybe you want to make love to me before I go. My programming makes me naive and innocent, so I can't ask for anything sexual. But I'll do whatever you ask, Daddy. I love you."
I thought about her household task programs and wondered about times when I might need her to repair clothing or do other things I was unskilled at. "That's sweet, Deedee, but I need to save you for more important things. I'll see you soon." I hugged her and pressed her power button, then sat her in a corner of my new dorm room home.
I decided I should try learning by watching the agbot and help it. Once I had a decent amount of food stockpiled, I'd try to repair the reactor and Ansible.
= Teri / Stick, on Egalitaria B, remembering his past =
Eating an unappetizing meal bar reminded me of how bad but precious I thought my first one was. All the way back then I was only a little boy of 6. I'd been terrified, hungry, and confused. I didn't understand what famine, disease, or toxins were at the time. I just knew a woman in a gray uniform had picked me up and taken me from my home, leaving my dead parents in their bed.
I still have a tattoo behind my left ear from that week, "LOR-3-NE2". It stands for where I was born, planet Lorent-3, continent Nibo, eastern half of sector 2. I could get it removed if I wanted, but I wear it proudly as a badge of honor. Most of the sector's population had succumbed to starvation, illness, or polluted water by the time my parents did. It was the first area of the planet struck by environmental tragedy. Now, less than twenty years later, the whole planet is barren and uninhabitable. Seemingly, impatient greed was more important to those in charge, than preserving our home world so people could keep living there. That extreme level of idiocy boggles my mind every time I think about it.
The lady in gray carried me to the back of a big vehicle and sat me in her lap. I got some peanut butter crackers and water, once I ran out of tears and quit sobbing. I hadn't eaten in a long time, days, so the crackers and the intensely sweet candies she gave me meant a lot. Other than her being the first person I'd ever seen with blue eyes or pale skin, I don't recall much of her appearance. Emotionally, I still remember her as some sort of angel from the old legends. Without her, I would have perished within days.
I soon believed the next female I met was pure evil. A man at the Refugee Center led me to a tent with only an air mattress, a pair of blankets, and two other kids. When he left, I did what I thought was a very grown-up thing by offering my hand and politely saying, "Hello. My name is Terry."
The caramel-skinned and dark-haired girl sitting near the door stood and loomed over me, being a head taller and plump, instead of nearly emaciated like I was. She scoffed and rudely said, "You look like a burnt stick. Stay away from me, understand? Get away! Understand?" She shoved my chest and I stumbled backward into a much smaller girl.
I held my hands up in self-defense and hurriedly replied, "Okay! I understand!"
The little one and I helped each other to our feet and she frightfully said, "Sorry! I'm sorry. I'm Marie. Please don't hurt me!" I saw the redhaired and pale-skinned girl had a split lip. Her dirty and torn clothes resembled the other girl's, and mine. I was quite surprised, since I'd never seen or even heard of red hair before.
"I'm Terry. Can you be my friend?"
"Please! I have nobody!" We sat on the bed as far from the big girl as we could. Marie and I quietly introduced ourselves and talked about our dead families, then hugged and cried together.
A while later the door opened and a big man said, "Y'all got here too late for supper. Lashawna?" The chunky girl grabbed something out of his hand and said, "Pudgey! Call me Pudgey!" She sat on the far end of the bed and turned away from us.
He reached toward the other girl. "Marie?" My new friend stood and said, "Thank you.", then took something small and brown from his hand.
"Terry?"
"Yes?"
"Here." He pushed a very hard and dry... something... into my palm. It was a rectangle partly split into four triangular sections, and strongly resembled a block of wood. I thought wood might be softer, though. He told us, "Restrooms and drinking water are at the end of the row. Use them when you need, but don't make a mess. Some of the older kids might cause problems, so stay in your tent most of the time. Lights out in an hour."
Marie bit down on her bar and struggled to eat a piece. After a lot of chewing she swallowed and told me, "It's food. Eat it."
I dubiously bit down on mine but nothing happened. I made a major effort to bite harder and one of the triangles finally broke off the bar with a 'SNAP!' It tasted like burnt bread, fruit, and fish; all mixed together. After a lot of saliva and much more chewing I was able to swallow it eventually. Despite the poor taste, it was food. I was happy to eat it and soothe my desperate stomach.
Pudgey demanded, "Gimme half of yours! Both of you!"
I was very hungry and told her, "No, it's mine."
She made a fist and threatened, "I could break you like a stick! Just give it to me!"
Marie put a finger to her injured lip, then handed over two triangles and advised me, "It's not worth getting hurt. Just give it to her."
I sighed and gave in. "Okay." I broke off a triangle and passed the rest to the scary seven-year-old girl. When I finished what I had left, I was hungry instead of starving.
In the morning I refused to give Pudgey any of my bar, so she punched me in the nose and took the whole thing as I cried from the pain. At lunchtime I was extremely hungry. I quickly bit off a piece and tried to keep it all again. She elbowed me right in the solar plexus! In addition to losing most of a meal and falling to the floor in agony, my nearly empty stomach dry heaved and I tasted harsh bile in the back of my mouth. Marie started to help me up again but Pudgey ordered, "Leave him alone, Mite. He needs to know how stuff works here!"
I learned my lesson and started giving the little girl bully half of every life-sustaining but unappealing bar. Thankfully, after the first two days we ate breakfast and lunch in a cafeteria with grown-ups watching, so Pudgey couldn't steal our regular food. Our simple breakfast of rice with raisins and milk seemed like a banquet! The pear and the cheese sandwich I ate for lunch were wonderful! We each got a meal bar for supper and just before bed, too. With Pudgey taking a whole bar from each of us daily, she grew much faster than we did, making it even less likely we would resist.
Marie or 'Mite' was a month younger than I. The day she turned seven, the three of us were transferred from the Refugee Center to an orphanage on another planet. Though Mite and I feared and hated Pudgey, the adults treated the three of us like we were family, and made us share a room.
We all got hermaphrodite surgeries the next day. Everyone on Egalitaria-B had the same anatomy, until they took Sex Education at age 25 and left the Nest. We thought it was cool to have an extra way to pee, but with suppressors active, the novelty of our new genitals wore off quickly.
I never could have imagined that when we were twenty, Mite and I would save our tormentor's life, and the three of us would become lovers.