First Recruits

by Marilyn Foxworthy

  I said, “My mom had just died in a car accident. I went out there to think and grieve.”

  Bailey said, “When he came to see what had just landed behind the dune, I opened the door and made sure that the light from the shuttle was shining behind me so that I would look like I was from outer space, which I was, and said ‘Eevona Barada Nikto’ in a deep and mysterious voice. I told him that I came in peace and that I had a message from the future. I told him that I’d been sent to say that the shuttle would come back someday and that he had been chosen to save the universe and that when he saw the shuttle again that he should hop on and not ask questions. I told him that if he did, there would be three space babes like me ready to take him onto our spaceship and cater to his every need. I showed him the shuttle interior and held his hand as we talked and after a while, we were both really attracted to each other and well, our clothes came off and I gave him a taste of things to come.”

  I said, “Oh my gosh! That was you! You were real. This is too weird. I feel conflicted. You tell me that you’ve been off having sex with some guy and that makes me feel really jealous and kind of angry. But I remember that guy being me and that makes me feel good and happy. Bailey, you were my first love! I totally fell in love with you and I went back to that beach as often as I could, hoping that you’d come back. But I didn’t really believe that it had even happened.”

  Bailey said, “Oh, it happened. And it was good. Real good. I wasn’t planning to do it, but after I talked to you for a minute, I wondered how I could not do it. I had the opportunity to have us both make love as virgins together. For our first loves to be each other.”

  I said, “You told me you loved me, didn’t you?”

  She said,”Of course I did. I do love you. This was an opportunity that I couldn’t pass up.”

  Alison said, “So you made love with Jimmy years before the rest of us? That’s wonderful. Can I go do that? Not before you did, but before I did? He goes to the beach a lot, so let’s go find him and give all of us a treat.”

  Michelle grinned and said, “We don’t want him to forget us, do we? We need to go remind him that we’re coming and that he has to be ready.”

  Alison said, “And that we’ll be his Units and no matter what, he’s going to be happy when we come to take him away.”

  Baily wiggled on my lap and said, “That sounds really fun, but no. He’ll remember. It has to be a one-time thing.”

  Alison said, “What if he forgets?”

  Michelle said, “Time travel is weird. He won’t forget because he didn’t forget. When we came for him, he came on board and saved us.”

  Alison said, “But if he forgets, won’t we die?”

  Michelle said, “No, Sweetie. He can’t have forgotten or we wouldn’t be here now.”

  I said, “Michelle, how does that work? I get it and all, but time travel, how does that work? I mean, can I really end up killing my own grandfather or something? And if I do, does that change my future or does it create a branch in time with a separate line from there and my time-line is still OK or do I cease to exist? And if I cease to exist, how do I kill my grandfather and cease to exist in the first place? You know what I mean?”

  Michelle and Bailey laughed and Michelle said, “I don’t know.”

  Alison said, “I do.”

  We all turned to look at her and she said, “It’s simple. Just don’t kill your grandfather in the first place. Why would you do that? I think if you do, you deserve to cease to exist. So just don’t do that. Time travel is simple. You go back and tell yourself to come save us and Bailey gets to have sex with you. And because you liked having sex with her, you want to do it again, so you come save us. It’s simple.”

  We just looked at her and she said, “No, it is. It’s all about sex. Everything is about sex.”

  Michelle smiled and said, “She may have a point.”

  Alison said, “Eevona, it is about sex, isn’t it? You wanted to save us so that we could be happy and have sex. And you travel through time when we have sex and you have an orgasm and it takes you here so that Bailey and Jimmy can have sex before. Nobody does time travel except Eevona because she’s the only spaceship that knows how to have sex. Because Jimmy taught her how. So she had to figure out how to time-travel so she could get him to teach her how to have sex so that she could time-travel. It’s simple.”

  Bailey said, “She does make a compelling argument. Eevona, what do you think of that? You navigate non-space in a way that none of us have ever heard of. I just took you at your word about the time travel.”

  Eevona said, “There was damage. I had to save you. I applied all of my resources to figuring out how to do that. I needed a pair of scissors.”

  Alison said, “See? She needed scissors so that we could come out of storage and not die and have sex, so she time traveled.”

  I broke in and said, “So, time travel isn’t common out here?”

  Bailey said, “Oh hell no!”

  I said, “Good. My brain hurts.”

  Michelle said, “Quick, prep the medical bay! He needs a new brain!”

  I said, “No, I’m fine with the brain I have. Wait, you can’t really transplant brains, can you?”

  She laughed and said, “No! You just believe in all kinds of stuff, don’t you?”

  I said, “But beautiful space girl clones and time travel and spaceships with personalities are all perfectly reasonable, I suppose.”

  Alison said, “Well, yeah.”

  I said, “Great. I love it. It all works and it’s really simple and it’s all about sex and that’s all we need to know about it. Thank you, Alison. Oh, and thanks for breakfast. It was great. Is this it? Is Alison the new cook from now on?”

  Michelle said, “I say yes. Crewman Alison, you are hereby promoted so that your duties include all meal preparation and food supplies. Can you handle that? Can you work out part of your normal responsibilities to be not just preparing our meals, but also planning the groceries?”

  Alison looked astonished and exclaimed, “You mean, as my job? I have a job? To make your food? For all of you every day? I’d love that. Um, but I don’t know if I can decide what to buy. I feel like if it’s here that I can figure out what to do with it, but knowing what to buy feels hard.”

  Bailey said, “I’ll work with you on it and teach you. It’s not that hard. I’ll show you what to do. We’ll make plans and write it all down and when you are ready, you can try doing it by yourself.”

  Alison said, “By myself? Like a job? That takes care of all of you? I’d love that.”

  Michelle said, “And what else do we have our little Alison take over?”

  Alison said, “Like jobs? I’m going to make Jimmy’s bed and take care of his clothes and be his personal valet. I know about being a valet. I’ll help him shower and get ready and massage him and help him relax and keep him warm and make love with him. Do you want me to do that for all of you? Oh, we could do that. Because we’re a family-crew. I am going to take care of him, but you are my family too, so I could do that and it’s all the same.”

  Michelle smiled and said, “Yep. From now on, your duties include all matters related to the comfort and happiness of the entire crew and Eevona herself.”

  Alison said, “I will have to learn where things are, but that will be wonderful. A job? For me? Wow!”

  Michelle said, “So since we’ve moved into a morning staff meeting, let’s see what plans we need to make.”

  Allison interrupted sadly, saying, “Oh, I can’t. I have to dance. I have shows every hour, on the hour, and probably don’t have time to do those things. I’m so sorry. I want to, but my schedule just won’t allow for it.”

  Alison was clearly confused again about her status and where she was and what had happened to her.

  I said, “Allie, Sweetie, the club hours have changed because of the new management. Now that I own the club, we cater to a much more exclusive clientele and only have your shows twice a day. And one o
f those is only on demand when we have a really important guest. And the only really important guests are me and Michelle, and Bailey. We get all the beauty and excitement that we can handle, and because it’s you, we only do a quarter of an hour at a time. You have plenty of time to excite and please me by cooking and caring for us. It turns me on so much seeing you do those things for us, loving us that way, taking care of Eevona, and everything else. The mundane jobs are so sexy that I can’t stand it. Believe me, I want to see you cooking, wearing a sexy apron, letting me admire you as you work. And hearing the other girls talk about what a great job you’re doing, even if I don’t see it myself. Wow. I can’t wait to hear you tell me what sexy things you worked on all day while you were apart from me! What do you say? Does that sound fun?”

  Allison said, “Oh, it sounds marvelous! Allie? That’s a fun pet name, isn’t it? Allie. Allie Allie in the galley, cooking cleaning continually. And at bedtime, fresh and sweet, everything’s ready, Allie’s treat!”

  I said, “Great. Thank you, Allie. We love you. All of us.”

  Bailey whispered to me, “Nice diplomatic framing, Captain.”

  Allie overheard us and smiled shyly and said, “I’m damaged. I know that. I thought about it. About what happened to me. I understand sometimes. I know that if you hadn’t salvaged me that I would have spaced myself. Thank you. I wish I was in your lap now, but it’s Bailey’s turn. I just want you guys to know that I love you and I’m grateful and I understand. They made me a freak. And a freak isn’t good. We’ll go back and kill them all for what they did to me and every other beautiful freak they ever made!”

  We all stared at her for a second while each of us planned what we would do next. Michelle told me later that she was tensing at that moment to kill or incapacitate Allie if she went psychotic. Bailey was trying to come up with a negotiating tactic to talk Allie down. I was looking for a way to redirect her and keep us all safe, including her.

  But before any of that became necessary, Allie said, “Or whatever you want to do. You’re the captain. If you want them dead, you can kill them. That’s not my job. My place will be to clean you up afterward and help you relax.”

  We relaxed a bit and Allie said, “I’m going to be OK. All I needed was to be loved. I don’t want to be like Michelle. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. There was damage, but I can be happy. Just hold me and let me be who I am, OK?”

  I said, “Of course, Allie. We do love you. There’s nothing really wrong with you. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to be someone who takes care of others. I’m really happy that you care about me that way. If you take care of those things for us, then we can take care of other things for you. We aren’t independent. That’s why we have a crew and aren’t all alone. That’s why we have a family. That’s why I wasn’t going to leave you at that other club. How is your leg?”

  Allie smiled and said, “It’s fine. It doesn’t hurt now. Michelle says that I will have the cast on it for a little while. I’m glad. I’ll tell you why later. Can I do the dishes now? I know how.”

  I said, “Yes. Thank you. Do you mind if we stay and have a meeting?”

  Allie said, “Oh, no, not here. There should be a conference room, right? Don’t meet in the dining room. If you want me to come, I’ll do dishes later.”

  I asked, “Do you want to come?”

  She grinned and said, “To a meeting? No. Not unless you want me to. Bailey is sitting on your lap, so there’s no need for me that I can think of right now. If you need a lap toy, call me.”

  Michelle said, “Captain, I think the Ship Valet has her duties and understands them. I think that she can be excused from daily briefings for the most part. Unless we need an Avenging Angel.”

  Allie laughed and said, “Oh no! Not me. Ship Valet is perfect. Thank you.”

  Michelle said, “Then, if it’s OK, let’s go to the staff conference room.”

  Chapter 17 - Family Conference

  Instead of going to the conference room, we just went across the corridor to my stateroom again. We pulled a chair up close in front of the sofa and the three of us sat together, playing footsie. We got blankets and got comfortable, Bailey beside me with her legs across my lap and Michelle in the chair.

  Bailey cooed contentedly and said, “It changed me. Making love to you. And don’t worry, you don’t need to be insecure that your younger self was a better lover than you are. You were sweet and awkward, but so was I, but I’ve seen you with both me and Michelle and you are definitely better now than you were then. And I didn’t use any special talents at all. Just plain, normal, better than most, Earth-friendly sex.”

  I laughed and said, “It’s weird. I’m jealous and I remember it, so it was great, but hearing you talk about it like it just happened and I wasn’t there is crazy. Uh, it doesn’t matter. Thank you, by the way. I had a wonderful time and I looked for you to come back for years afterward.”

  Bailey grinned and said, “And I did. So what’s next.”

  I said, “I don’t quite know. We could go to Earth and monkey with the future, or we could just hang out here and have fun for a while and get to know each other better, or we could go on an adventure and have some excitement. What do you girls think?”

  Michelle smiled and said, “As First Mate, I suggest that we choose a destination and head there. Along the way, we have Bailey get to the bottom of the damage to Eevona.”

  I jumped in and said, “But don’t fix anything that changes her!”

  Bailey laughed and said, “Yeah, I love her the way she is, too. You hear that Ee? All we are going to do is make you even better, not put you back the way you were.”

  Ee said, “I don’t think that I’d let you if you tried. I’d never hurt you, but I think I might just refuse.”

  I said, “Good. That’s what I want. So, Miss First Mate, where to?”

  Michelle said, “Not so fast. We need mission parameters.”

  Ee said, “He told me that we can’t go around abducting farm girls from outer planets, so that’s out.”

  Bailey said, “Ah. That would have been fun. But not very kind. OK, Michelle, no abductions.”

  Ee said, “He doesn’t like sticking things in his butt, either.”

  Bailey laughed and said, “I don’t blame him. Did that happen?”

  Ee said, “The implant had to be put in his buttock.”

  Michelle said, “Oh. That makes more sense. Um, you can do what you want, but I can see how he might not want to do that if it isn’t his thing.”

  Bailey said, “So we just laze around here for now?”

  Michelle said, “No, I don’t think so. Captain?”

  I said, “No. Definitely no. Think about it. None of us has ever been anywhere. You girls were born out here, but you’ve never seen anything. Can we get jobs or something? You talked about contracts. Are there things like that, where we could deliver things or something?”

  Michelle said, “Yeah, as a matter of fact, there are.”

  I said, “Then let’s start with that. We do some contract work, make some money, explore the galaxy, keep our eye open for some property with a summer cottage on it, and get used to things.”

  Michelle said, “I don’t have any better ideas.”

  Bailey said, “Sounds good. I can handle the negotiations and whatnot. Michelle can handle keeping us all alive…”

  I broke in and said, “And me and Allie can make the costumes! Hey kids, let’s put on a show! We’ll sell tickets and raise money to save aunt Becky’s farm yet!”

  Michelle laughed and said, “I’m pretty sure that would be really funny if I understood half of it.”

  Bailey said, “No, he’s right. We have a good crew. We will need various ‘costumes’ and we will sell our services and we can find a nice beach house on an ocean with a color we all like if we get just a little bit lucky. I don’t think that we should really abduct this Becky girl, but hey, I’m open to it if she’s compatible and doesn’t mind.”
r />   Michelle said, “OK. It’s settled. Ee, listen.”

  There was a short burst of the buzz that indicated high-speed communication and Ee said, “Got it. I know what to look for. I’ll start scanning.”

  Michelle said, “It will take some time. Ee will start collecting news and contract requests, but the feed uses long-wave, low-bandwidth communications and the messages don’t repeat very often. We’ll see the newest ones first. It could take several weeks, but we could get lucky. Oh, Ee, listen for news that would hint at a debris field. What do you say, Bailey? Should we consider salvage work? You’re the engineer.”

  Bailey said, “Yeah! For sure. We could pull a derelict and scavenge any useful tech and scrap the rest for cash. Ee, you can tractor a derelict, can’t you?”

  Ee said, “Um, sure. Sorry, I was listening to something else. Yeah, I can pull a derelict. Not through non-space though.”

  Bailey said, “We need a Mule. If we find a scrap ship, we’ll evaluate it and then go buy a Mule and bring it back. We can have the Mule start pulling it while we do any salvage we want to and then let it go on its way unmanned. We’ll hop in and catch up to it before it comes to a recycling facility. You know what, we could probably run at least five Mules at a time if we get lucky. I still don’t know how Ee travels as far as fast as she does, but it would give us options and advantages.”

  Michelle said, “I don’t know what else we need to talk about. Bailey, you keep working with Ee on any damage, we’ll let our little Allie take care of domestic comforts, and I guess the captain and I will evaluate contracts.”

  Bailey said, “But first, I’m going to get some sleep. Good night to both of you. I think I’ll nap here on the sofa.”

  I patted her legs and told her to sleep well, and Michelle and I went to the bedroom. Michelle took some different clothes from the closet and handed them to me. There was something for each of us. Nearly identical and essentially the same size. It was like a long soft tunic made of a course but comfortable white fabric. It was thick and woolly and went down to our ankles. There was a V-neck that dipped to the middle of Michelle’s ample cleavage and hers was slit up both sides to just below her hips. Mine was slit to the knee. She had comfortable slippers for us as well.