They both stood, Dalton still holding both of her hands in his. Then he found himself putting his arms around her, drawing her gently against him. She leaned into him. He felt so much stronger than he looked! She put her arms around him, and rested her head on his shoulder. He was wearing another shirt just like the night before. It was a soft flannel. She felt like she was in a dream.
Dalton heard soft music playing in his head, and had visions from all the strange and wonderful worlds he had been to as a child. All paraded through his head like a dream though he was awake. I LOVE HER! he thought to himself. I'M IN LOVE! THIS
IS MORE WONDERFUL THAN ANYTHING!
More of the lights went out. It would soon be too dark to find their way out! Monique slowly, reluctantly pulled away.
"We must go," shy said with sad disappointment.
"Oh, I could be here with you forever, Monique. MY
Monique!", he breathed.
She looked up at him in the gathering twilight and sighed,
"That would be so wonderful. But, let us go now." And, she led him out, holding his hand.
In the corridor outside the banquet hall, she held each of his hands in hers, and gazed up into his eyes. He was beginning to look very sleepy. She said, "You need to go to bed, Dalton.
You must have so much work to do tomorrow. Shall I find you a place to sleep on our ship tonight?"
He looked back in the direction of the garden, fantasizing spending the night there. But, that would be ridiculous. Jason must be wondering where he was. "No, I must get back to the sailship. Uh, orders," he mumbled. He suddenly hated having to pretend to be part of the Militia around her. But, if it was for the sake of repairing this angel's ship, it must be done. "Maybe we'll see each other tomorrow."
She smiled so brightly it was like morning. "That would be nice. I'm so happy to have met you, officer Dalton."
"I'm just an... intern. And I'm so happy to have met you."
He looked at her seriously. "You've changed my life." He nodded, then turned and started walking away. He looked around at her, gently waved back, then marched off.
She looked after him until he turned a corner and disappeared. Had he changed her life, too? She could not imagine life without him ever again.
Somehow, she found her way back to her foster parents apartments. It was shockingly late. But, they trusted her so.
And, loved her so very much. Without them, how could she ever have gotten over the loss of her original parents? That had been such a horror. And, Dalton, sweet Dalton! Being with him was like walking through paradise! Why was life so strange?
17. GROWTH OF TWO
The next morning at breakfast aboard the sailship, Jason mildly inquired why Dalton had come back so late the night before. Dalton squirmed uncomfortably, and did not know what to say.
Jason said, "Well, don't stay out too late again because we have a lot of work to do." Then, he looked up from his plate grinning and asked, "Were you with someone?
Dalton reluctantly said, "Yes."
"Well?"
Dalton looked puzzled. "Well, what?"
"Who was she? I myself asked PF24 where Durdaine lived, then went over, and spent the evening with his charming daughter Ethera."
Dalton found his tongue. "I spent the evening with a girl, too!" He grew excited at the sweet memory. "That beautiful girl I saw at the banquet dinner! Jason she's incredible! I think I'm... I mean, she's really..."
"Take it easy, kid, I get it. Just be careful, okay? Girls can get you in a lot of trouble." He went back to his breakfast.
Dalton wondered how someone as angelic as Monique could possibly get him into trouble. Soon, he would find out...
Repair work began. Dalton and Jason used the sailship's robots and materials to successfully repair the outer ruptures of the colony ship. Then they set to work on all the problems within the colony ship that PF24 and its army of robots could not solve. Dalton and Jason became familiar with the many areas of the colony ship as their many repairs led them all over, from nose to tail. The bulk of their time was spent repairing the control rooms which had sustained enormous damage being located in one of the two segments that had ruptured. PF24 did not have the ability to deal with problems beyond a certain level of complexity, as was the case in one of the control rooms where a huge panel containing astronnavigation equipment had broken loose during the whirlpool accident. It slid across the floor, smashed against several other panels, tore through the thin metal wall of the room, and then crashed into more machinery in the next room where it had come to a rest.
It was a difficult mess to straighten out. There were not enough spare parts to just replace everything. It was completely beyond the scope of PF24, much to its chagrin. Jason and Dalton were forced to salvage as much as they could from the wreckage.
With the help of the efficient repair robots of the colony ship, virtual super-tools themselves, all was finally repaired. PF24
grudgingly reported all systems involved were functioning as good as new, even the one that had broken lose and caused all the trouble.
During their repairs in the Colonist Segments #1 & #3, they met many of the amazing people on-board. The Colonist Segment #2
was off-limits since the traumatic effect of the accident had lowered the people there to a state of barbarism, and it was too dangerous to enter, since they did not need haircuts, even for important repairs. They made any excuse, however, to enter the Colonist Segments #1, for here, of course, lived Ethera and Monique.
Jason courted Ethera with his usual consummate skill, but she would not submit to his arduous demands. She found him fascinating, amusing, and attractive, but decided that he was simply beneath her station in life. She was, after all, the daughter of the leader of all the colonists. And HE was merely a working man. Jason responded to this with gifts of gold jewelry that he himself smithed in his sailship's workshops.
Gold was most precious aboard the colony ship, because there was not one gram of it anywhere aboard. It weighed so much that it had been forbidden as an item of jewelry. Not even small quantities for electronic circuits were allowed because the authorities had been concerned over the rash avariciousness this may have brought out among the colonists. Jason had plenty, though.
Ethera was ecstatically delighted with each new treasure Jason delivered. What skill he had with gold! They were all so beautiful. Bracelets, rings, necklaces, ear-rings, anklets, toe-rings, even a tiny golden noseclip. She loved wearing them all, much to her father's frowning disapproval. He did not have to ask who was giving her the gold.
The feelings between Dalton and Monique grew at each of their frequent secret meetings in the garden. Even Jason began seeing Dalton and Monique together often. He really enjoyed the two of them, often dining with them aboard the colony ship. Such delightful young people! Strangely, he felt the same unusual feeling of tenderness toward Monique as he felt toward Dalton.
Though he had met many young people before during his rescue missions, he had never felt this singularly peculiar feeling before...
Dalton and Monique were fascinated by each other, and would talk for hours during each secret rendezvous in the garden behind the banquet hall where they had originally met. Monique asked Dalton about his family. Dalton told her he had none, that his parents had both died. Feeling sympathetic toward him, Monique was prompted to tell him the story of how she came to be aboard the colony ship, and how both her original parents had been killed in the gravitonic whirlpool accident...
There had once been two brothers. Stomec, her father, and his brother were supposed to both have voyaged onboard the colony ship to the new world. Each had recessive genes for a special kind of recent artificially engineered intelligence, that was not supposed to assert itself until the second generation, which would be raised on the new world. These special intelligence traits were extremely volatile, and too unstable for the closed world of a colony ship, but ideally suited (for only a few individuals per generation) to an e
xpanding colony on a new world, where there were endless new things to learn. That was why only two carriers of the special genetic trait were thought to be needed. Stomec, the main carrier, and his brother as a spare. Some of the colonization leaders had wanted more individuals with this high-intelligence trait, but none were available. They would have had to delay the colonization in order to breed more of these individuals.
This high-intelligence trait was only carried on the Y-chromosome which only males received. Stomec and his brother had been bred to carry these genes to the new world. But at the last moment, something had kept his brother behind. And the colony ship, unable to get a change in its stringent schedule authorized in time, had been forced to leave without him, relying on Stomec's copy of the important genetic trait.
Dalton told her she seemed very intelligent. She said this was true, and substantiated by her testing at school. However, it was not due to her father Stomec's special genetic traits, since she, being female, did not have a copy of his Y-chromosome.
Genetic analysis had attributed her above average intelligence to her mother, who was actually not even on the original list of colonists. Monique told Dalton this had always made her feel different. Dalton said he had always felt different back on Infinity City, too.
Monique's mother, Elise, had taken her uncle's place aboard the colony ship. Apparently there had been some relationship between her mother and her uncle before her mother had married Stomec. Her mother was rumored to have had an illegitimate child by her uncle, but since no such baby was ever brought onboard, Monique disbelieved the rumor.
At this point, Dalton felt his face grow warm as he reached a sudden secret conclusion, but he quickly quelled his suspicions because he could not possibly accept being related to someone he was in love with.
Monique went on. Her mother Elise and her father Stomec went with the colony ship, and she was conceived shortly after takeoff. When Monique was eight years old, the tragedy had struck. The colony ship went through the Great Accident which killed the crew and hundreds of colonists. She had lost both her parents. After the accident, everything had been different.
The surviving colonists became stranger and stranger. Many went insane. She was alienated. Even the stars outside the viewports had changed. The ones in front of the ship turned all blue, and the ones behind, red.
She told Dalton that she was very attracted to him. He was so much like her... She began to silently cry. Dalton held her hand to comfort her.
18. REPAIR WORK
The endlessly detailed repair work went on and on for several weeks. Dalton saw Monique for a while at the end of every day.
Jason courted Ethera with consummate skill. He repeatedly dropped by Excarver Durdaine's apartments ostensibly to consult with him regarding technical aspects of the colony ship.
Durdaine was flattered by Jason's admiration of how well he had run the colony ship for so many years. Usually, Ethera would drift into the room to see who the visitor was. Discovering Jason, she would make significant eye contact, and then wait for the conclusion of business, then spend time with him after her father went about his other affairs.
Sometimes, while Jason was busy about the colony ship with repairs, Ethera would appear out of nowhere, spend a short while with him, and then silently drift away.
19. FIRST TIME
During each rendezvous in the mysterious garden, Dalton and Monique became more and more intimate. They fell deeply in love.
One evening near the end of their repair-work, immediately after dinner at the colony ship mess-hall, Dalton rose, and said good-bye to Jason, giving him a conspiratorial wink. Leaving Jason smirking behind, he eagerly headed toward that wonderful garden where Monique was sure to be waiting.
Dalton crept into the dark and quiet banquet hall, then back to the curtain, and out into the garden. Not as many lights were on this evening. The garden was often used during the day for parties. Someone must have left them dimmed. The mysterious twilight enchanted the garden! The trees rose from their brick wells, spreading above, dark and haunting. Soft sweet music floated lightly through the air. The familiar fragrance of all the flowers made Dalton smile.
It was quiet and still, and Dalton crept around searching for Monique. Often, she would hide from him, enjoying his pursuit. He heard the tiny bells of her neck choker! Over there! He silently tip-toed onto the lawn beyond the bricking, then kicked off his shoes, enjoying the cool softness of the grass caressing his feet. Where was she? Which bush was she hiding behind? The bells again! Over that way this time! He hurried around the other side of the tall bush he thought she was hiding behind. Nothing! The bush had broad dark green leaves.
He touched a finger to the sharp edge of one, and traced it all around while thinking. How did she always do this? He could never seem to catch her until she decided to be caught. He would just run around randomly then, until he found her!
Quiet as a stalking cat he began quickly moving from bush to bush in an erratic pattern keeping to the general area where he had first heard the bells. He leaned out from behind a bush. He brushed his dark hair away from his eyes. There she was! He came up behind her as she was peeking around a tall thin flowering bush with blue blossoms, barely visible in the gloom.
He crept silently closer. She was wearing an exquisite white dress. No! It was that pink dress she had worn when he had first seen her, the pink almost white in the magic twilight of the garden. Her deeply golden hair seemed to shine with a light of its own.
Dalton reached forward and playfully wrapped his arms around her. She gasped and twisted around looking up at him with fright, then smiling with excitement as she recognized who it was. She grabbed him and hugged him tight. On impulse, he pulled her down to the soft grass on top of him, and hugged her very tight.
"Oh, Dalton!", she breathed, and buried her face in his neck. Then she kissed him there, and the feeling electrified him. This was the first time she had kissed him! He had never been kissed by a girl before! She was delighted by his reaction, and kissed his neck again and again. Dalton moaned involuntarily and closed his eyes. Then, Monique touched her cheek against his, and they held each other like this for a long while, just enjoying the wonderful touching and company of the other.
Dalton then gently rolled her over until he was on top of her. He stared down at her, not really knowing what to do next.
His heart was beating strongly, and he felt tremendous energy at bay. He caressed one of her delicate bare feet with his own.
What a wonderful sensation! She sighed softly. Her eyes had been closed, but now they opened and she looked at him expectantly. Her face was pure beauty to him. Her eyes, so dark compared with her fair complexion, he now discovered were merely the darkest, deepest blue he had ever seen. Her petite yet full, rosy lips were parted, inviting. He leaned down until his lips lightly touched hers. Oh, how intimate this was! How soft and warm her lips! His eyes had closed. He opened them now to see how she was reacting. Her own eyes were only partly open. She looked as happy as he felt.
Dalton pressed his mouth tenderly into hers. How warm and soft and sweet she was! He slowly moved his head this way and that. They both moaned with the shared pleasure. His first kiss!
Her first kiss! She could barely think. He was overwhelming her with pleasure and sensation. She ran her hands back and forth along his strong, young back, experiencing almost greedily all of his maleness. She ran her hands into his soft wavy hair. She sensed he enjoyed this very much. Oh, how it warmed her to give this wonderful boy pleasure. Boy? Oh, he was so much more to her now!
Dalton rolled off of her, playfully pulling her onto him again. He laughed, then kissed her lightly and winked. She smiled with delight. He kissed her again and again. They rolled over again then again on the soft fragrant grasses, laughing and kissing, thoroughly enjoying this exciting new activity.
He pulled himself onto her once again, then began kissing her neck for the first time. Monique inhaled a shuddering breath, feel
ing almost overwhelming pleasure. She arched her neck, pressing it toward his kisses raining down from above. His body began to shake slightly, and he had to pause and relax himself with an effort of will. Now he began to feel a serious urgency growing. He kissed her neck slowly, intently now. Her golden hair fell away, and he saw below him a delicate little round ear. He put the petite lobe of her ear between his lips and tugged slightly. She began mewing with pleasure. Incredible feelings were rising and coursing through him now! Part of him even wanted to bite down. But, instead he gently took her little ear in his teeth, and began nibbling slowly. Monique's mouth opened, and she panted, "Oh, Oh!" He pulled away and looked down at her. She was fantastic! A beautiful wonderful wild thing!
His face grew hot. He pressed his mouth down over hers, kissing and kissing her. He rubbed his cheek against the softness of hers.
She mewed and moaned his name over and over. He began kissing her neck again. First one side, and then the other. She began to feel a most delicious tension deep inside! She said his name over and over, begging him, the sound of his name stirring her feelings into a tempest.
Dalton could not hold himself back any longer. His mind told his hands what to do, what clothing to remove. Soon they were holding each other in their first nude embrace. The incredible sensation of pressing their hot, naked bodies together stunned them for a long while as they enjoyed the supreme sensation, so intimate, so new, so intense that they avoided again looking into each other's eyes for several moments.
His hands sought what to touch, what to tenderly caress. He knew not what she felt, but wanted desperately to make her feel the incredible pleasure he himself was feeling. He could feel her offering herself to him. They were young and wild, and alone together. She pulled him against her, wishing they could somehow melt together into the same person.
Soon they were both shocked and delighted by what was happening. The most supremely pleasurable sensation either had ever experienced! They looked into each others eyes making sure the other was feeling it, too. They were connected together in the most intoxicatingly intimate touch imaginable. They moved back and forth smoothly, clinging to each other tightly, desperately, so close each could feel the other's hot, sweet breath coming in passionate gasps. It all grew so intense, too intense. They were overwhelmed, losing control, not knowing how to handle what was happening. They shared these overwhelming feelings, and their feelings danced together, as if floating up above among the trees, growing into one, single shared aching fiery release. They pressed their mouths together in one, final kiss, both moaning loudly as their bodies did incredible things together, over and over again.
Douglas Kendall Page 16
