by Unknown
She imagined that her feminist colleagues would not approve of how she enjoyed being in such submissive position. She was, after all, a doctoral student and the leader of a ground team. In her public work, she maintained a professional, commanding persona. Yet, in the bedroom, she preferred to have her man pin her to the bed with his body. Seemingly helpless, she wanted to be taken from behind; absorbing the rough power of his thrusts.
Rather like being spanked.
As Mario climbed atop her, his skin scraped along her tender, burning backside. His cool erection pressed against her bottom's hot flesh. Amy folded her arms under her head and opened her thighs wide to welcome him. He wrapped his arms around hers and held her tightly. He kissed her cheek. She pushed her hips higher, and he slid himself inside her. Amy closed her eyes and let the sensation of his cock fill her body, and fill her mind as well.
When they finished their lovemaking, Mario held himself deep within her as he pulled the bedcover around them. It took several minutes for Amy's breathing to return to normal. Her orgasm had been astoundingly powerful. She had not believed the wild claims the other women bragged about in the washroom. But now she knew the stories to be the truth. She imagined that some engineer was busy realigning the ship's gyroscope—whatever that was.
They relaxed, kissed, and cuddled for several minutes. When Mario's member finally surrendered its possession of her, he rolled to one side. She turned to face him.
"So," he began, "you are going down to the surface in the morning?"
"Yes, at noon ship-time, it will be midnight at the site. The aliens have not displayed any nocturnal tendency." The invisibility hut for her team had been assembled by the engineers the previous night. They were on the surface, waiting for the shuttle that would drop her team off and pick them up. "I'll be gone for two days," she lamented. "Three days with the trip down and back up." Mario's shift would rotate before she got back. Kevin, on C-shift, would be her next date. The three men knew they shared her, but never discussed one another with her. She didn't know if they ever encountered each other in the course of their daily lives.
"Why so long? I mean, you've already assessed that the aliens are intelligent. Why do you have to spend so much time observing them?"
"The Ground Control Officer doesn't expect that we will ever return to the planet, being that it's this close to the Barbas. He wants a thorough evaluation." This was not exactly a lie, but still Amy resented being forced to mislead Mario.
The truth of the matter was that a second, very powerful gravity wave echo had been detected twenty miles north of the first one. This appeared to represent the biggest deposit of lanthanum ever encountered in the galaxy. The captain and the Ground Control Officer had conferred and decided that the Interplanetary Council might consider an alternative to their directive against interfering with alien populations. "The Carpenter will acquire as much information about the deposit, and the aliens, as possible," the captain had stated during the afternoon meeting of the ground teams. "We must consider that whoever controls this quantity of lanthanum will control the destiny of the war. We must consider that the Barbas will not be constrained by a moral obligation to leave the planet's native population untouched. In fact, if they are sufficiently intelligent, the Barbas will probably enslave the aliens to mine the lanthanum. Therefore, we will complete a very thorough investigation, and then return directly to Eden. The Council must have this information immediately." The Ground Control Officer closed the meeting with a caution. "The fact of this enormous find must remain a secret—for now. No one is to speak of it. Is that understood?" Amy and all of the other ground team members had agreed to remain silent.
Stardate 3527.7.17 – Six a.m. – Amy's Cabin
Just before six in the morning, Mario had awoken and kissed her. "Goodbye, my love."
He looked longingly into her eyes, but Amy said nothing. Fortunately, he did not drag the moment out into a painful silence. He turned and left. While he had used a light, jocular tone in his brief statement, Amy knew that the dreaded four letter word had not been spoken in levity. That word was the most damaging word one could say aboard the Carpenter. Love blooming between two individuals would shatter the delicate sexual balance among the large cadre of men and the small number of women. If Amy became exclusive with Mario, then Kevin and Robert would be without a girlfriend. Resentment would spread.
While love within a single man-woman couple would not be a catastrophe—there were sufficient women aboard who wanted more than one boyfriend per shift—this love would be a catalyst for more such exclusive relationships. Everyone knew that these bonds were inevitable and that there would be many exclusive couples by the time the Carpenter returned to Eden. However, they were only halfway through the voyage.
The really disastrous aspect was that Amy had been struggling to suppress this exact feeling for Mario. Now she had no choice but to admit to herself that she had fallen in love with him as well.
I'll tell him. I will say the word the next time I see him.
Unable to fall back asleep, she got up and showered. She was grateful to have the washroom to herself; there was still a pink hint of Mario's spanking on her otherwise alabaster bottom. After dressing, Amy ate a full breakfast in the mess hall. She would be eating cold, packaged meals for the next three days. She had thought she would be one of the first to assemble for the final briefing, but almost every member of the ground team had also awoken early.
With everyone assembled twenty minutes early, the Ground Control Officer instructed the meteorologist to begin the meeting. "The weather pattern is a stable, tropical one. The exact area of this valley is quite extraordinary. As I'm sure the geologist will explain, the valley floor is at a rather high elevation, which gives it a very temperate climate even though it is located so close to the equator. There will be four days of clear skies and then rain. The temperature will be in the nineties during the day. However, the mountains will direct the high altitude, chilly winds downward at night. Temperatures will be in the seventies. Best I can tell, this is the way it is here most of the time." Amy was grateful that they would get back to the Carpenter before the rain started; she hoped the air conditioning unit in the invisibility hut would remain operational.
The meeting was then turned over to the geologist; he displayed a map of the valley they would be invading.
"This is a very interesting formation." He continued with a long, boring discussion of tectonic plates, subduction zones, and volcanic activity. Amy tried to pay attention, but all she retained was that there was a sixty-mile-long mountain range alone the western edge of the tear-drop-shaped valley, and lower volcanic mountains on the eastern side. "This has created a rather isolated environment—a lush grassland, ringed by mountains. Also along the base of the mountains is a medium-sized river flowing from north to south, with several small lakes. There are hundreds of springs in the mountains feeding this river."
Amy had thought he was finished, but he wasn't. He displayed a second map, zooming in on the northwest corner of the valley.
"This is our primary area of interest. This region," he highlighted a location along the base of one mountain, "is the first deposit of lanthanum. By itself, this would be a significant find. It is, for all practical purposes, on the surface, where it could be easily mined. However, this is what we are going after." He moved the highlighted area to a location at the base of a mountain at the extreme northern end of the image. "Here is a most unusual formation." He returned to his technical jargon, describing the uniqueness of the lanthanum deposit. He paused to admire the formation as though he had created it. "This deposit was two miles deep—and thus unreachable—only a few hundred thousand years ago. Now, this mother lode is a mere thousand feet into the rocky edge of the mountain face." He grinned again and nodded toward his mineralogist colleague. "We almost missed it. The depth is at the extreme range of our gamma emitters. We only found it because it is so big." The mineralogist frowned as the geologist stole his thund
er.
Without waiting for the geologist to finish, and without waiting for the Ground Control Officer's introduction, the mineralogist stood and took control of the podium.
"Yes, exactly. This is the location of the invisibility hut that my team will be using to examine this… mother lode." She highlighted a location on the map between the mountain cliff and the volcano. Amy watched, but was preoccupied with her own presentation. She would not be anywhere near this area as her hut was fifty miles away, at the southern end of the valley. She glanced at Dr. Wilhelm. He was seated toward the rear of the room and watched the two adversarial colleges awkwardly battle for recognition of the discovery. Amy ignored the conversation and mentally rehearsed her speech.
Eventually, the biologist took the podium. She began displaying photographs taken by the drones of the animals. "The climate, combined with the fertile volcanic soil, has created a lush grassland that is teeming with life. We have several species of herbivores, ranging in size from thirty to three hundred pounds. The smaller of these live close to the forested lands along the mountains on the east and western boundaries. At the top, narrow end of the teardrop valley are more rugged mountains and fewer animals. Around the broad expanse of grassland in the southern areas, we have the majority of the animal life." The pictures changed to infrared images of white blobs on a dark background. "I don't have any optical images of the carnivores. There are several species, again varying in size, that are either nocturnal, or remain hidden in the forested areas. The mineralogy team in the north will need to be very wary of these animals, which likely hunt from the trees. The anthropology team in the south, should they venture out of their invisibility hut," several eyes turned toward Amy, "should be concerned about the large carnivores that hide in the thick grass."
As the biologist completed her presentation, the Ground Control Officer nodded to Amy and she walked to the podium.
"Yes, as with the herbivores, the intelligent aliens live in the southern area of the valley." She displayed several blurry images taken by the drones from the extreme range of their cameras. "As you can see, they are humanoid and walk erect." She highlighted a portion of an image. "This is a hunter, most likely male, stalking one of the large herbivores. As you can see, he is using a spear-like weapon. They hunt in groups of three to five." She switched to an infrared image. "We have located four villages along streams in the foothills to the south and eastern edges of the valley." She pointed to four collections of white blobs surrounding larger white blobs. "Each village has a population of thirty to fifty individuals. As you can see, they use fire for cooking. The villages are about five miles apart, and we did not observe them interacting. Any warlike tendencies they might have are unknown." She switched back to a map of the valley. "These are the locations of the villages, and this is the location of my team's invisibility hut, here along this stream."
The huts were, of course, not really invisible. They were large shelves attached to the sides of cliffs or steep terrain, in places that were unlikely to be traversed by the primitive population. The engineers carefully photographed the surface where the hut was to be located before it was assembled. The outer skin of the hut then projected this image, giving the appearance that nothing had changed. The outer skins of the huts were a myriad of cameras and projectors to create this illusion. The cameras detected changes in external lighting—for example, the passing shadow from a cloud—and computers modified the projected image. If one knew what to look for, one could see the discontinuities created by these real-time effects. But as long as nothing drew the attention of the aliens toward them, the aliens were unlikely to ever notice the huts.
"We have observed," Amy continued her report, "the aliens from this village moving along this stream to the grassland almost every day." She presented an image of a much larger portion of the planet. "We have located what appear to be alien villages in several other locations on the planet. Our photographs of these indicate that this species is spreading within the temperate climate of the planet." She answered a few questions and returned to her seat.
The Flight Control Officer took the podium. "Okay, to keep our activities to a minimum, we will be using only one shuttle. In three hours, midnight local time on the ground, the mineralogy and anthropology teams will ride down together. The shuttle will approach the valley from the west, fly through this narrow gap between the mountain peaks, and land here at the mineralogy team's location. After retrieving the engineering crew, the shuttle will fly low, along the river and across the grassland, to the anthropology hut. Again, the ground team will be switched with the engineering team. While the intelligent aliens are not known to be nocturnal, the teams should make this transfer quickly and smoothly. The shuttle will depart through the mountains to the east." He paused. "After forty-eight hours, we will exchange the crews again. The engineers will disassemble the invisibility huts, and be retrieved before dawn."
The captain stood to conclude the meeting. "Due to our close proximity to the Barbas, we will be taking some additional precautions. There will be complete radio silence." He paused to emphasize his words. "The team leaders will have autonomy over their teams without the need to confer with shipboard personnel, should surface conditions warrant deviations from established protocols." Again he paused to look into the eyes of the team leaders; Amy shivered when her eyes briefly locked with his. "The shuttle will not be using active radar, but will rely on passive infrared and visual flight instruments. This will require a somewhat slower flight, but this precaution is necessary. Additionally, the shuttles will have to complete the team pick-ups before the rain begins. Finally, your ground team's locator beacons will have their range reduced to five miles. The mineralogy team should be careful to remain within five miles of their hut. Of course, there is no expectation that the anthropology team will have a reason to exit their hut." Many eyes drifted to Amy's face. She felt her skin flush, but she did not look away.
Her hand slipped to the slight bump above her left hipbone. In preparation for her first trip to a planet's surface, the locator beacon had been implanted under her skin. Its signal could be detected from the ship in orbit. In the unlikely event that she became separated from her team, rescuers would be able to find her.
The mineralogy and anthropology teams collected their scientific packages and headed to the shuttle bay. As they boarded, a technician waved a control wand over their hips to activate the beacons and adjust their transmission strength. While she had not previously given the device a single thought, Amy was now feeling a bit naked without its long range protection.
The shuttle was packed with the two teams and their scientific gear. All of their food and water had gone down with the engineering crews, and was already packed into their huts.
Amy's team entered the shuttle first. They were seated in a first in–last out sequence. She moved to the back of the small spaceship and sat by a window. She looked at the window, but could see nothing except her own reflection. It had been blackened to prevent an alien on the ground from seeing any light in the sky. Ted, one of her assistants, took the seat next to her. This was his first trip to the surface of a planet. She gave him a reassuring smile, then glanced at Kyle, who was sitting beside the opposite blackened window. He appeared even more nervous than Ted, despite the fact that this was his second surface excursion.
Amy folded her arms and closed her eyes. She pretended to be relaxed and on the verge of falling asleep. In reality, her belly was churning. She hated the confinement of the small ship. To make matters worse, it was packed full.
Following the usual grunts and groans, the shuttle dropped out of its niche in the Carpenter's belly. Amy's stomach flopped as the artificial gravity disappeared and the tiny ship's interior became weightless. The next few minutes were the worst part of the trip. Forcing her mind to imagine that she was floating in a pool of warm water, she didn't open her eyes. Her illusion was shattered when she sensed Ted reaching for the motion sickness bag. He had not heeded the
warning to skip lunch. Amy had lost her cookies during her first trip, and she sympathized with him. Gripping her jaw tightly closed and swallowing hard, she waited until the pilot activated the thrusters. After an eternity, she felt the reassuring pressure against her back; her stomach settled. The shuttle began reducing its speed from orbital velocity as they descended toward the dark planet.
Several minutes later, she detected the faint whistle as the ship entered the thin upper atmosphere.
It won't be much longer.
The noise increased and hurt her ears. The deceleration of the ship pressed her spine deep into the seat cushion until breathing became difficult. Then it all changed as the spaceship reconfigured into an airplane for the final few miles through the mountains and to the ground. The flight became smooth and relaxed. She opened her eyes, but could still see nothing in the ship's darkened interior.
An explosive BANG shook the ship. They began to spin. A second, crushing jolt jarred Amy's teeth.
We've hit the mountain!
A portion of the ship's fuselage beside her suddenly vanished. She looked out the gaping hole at the rocky mountain side as it rushed past. The warm air inside the shuttle blew past her, carrying all manner of loose material with it. Something hit the side of her head and she grimaced at the searing pain. With another lurch, her seat burst out of the ship, but she wasn't falling through the air. The seat rolled onto its back and skidded along an icy glacier.
She heard the explosion before she saw it. As her seat skidded, it hit a rock and began to tumble in the snow. When she finally came to a stop, she was face down. Releasing the safety straps, she pushed the remains of the seat away. Kneeling in the snow, she watched the ruins of the shuttle burn.
In the odd mixture of searing heat and freezing cold, she remained motionless—staring at the flaming hulk and her dying friends. She doubled over as her gut heaved. However, her stomach was empty. She had not been the only one ejected from the spaceship when the fuselage had split. Two or three others had, as well, but she had been the first one ejected, and her seat had skidded away from the crashing hulk. The unfortunate others had simply fallen down the icy slope to recombine with the burning wreckage.
