Starship X-15

by Alan VanMeter

  “Rick, there is something I’d like you to do for me.” I call his attention, and his eyes bug out seeing me in my thin tank top, and thong panties. I have been very modest around him so far, not wanting to rush things.

  He stands and comes right to me. Good, I didn’t have to ask.

  That first time was pretty intense and even rough. We both had a lot of pent up angst towards each other. Ha, turns out it was only utter lust that we had been tightening, and tensioning between us. One thing for sure though, Rick sure knows how to please a woman.

  In the morning we equip ourselves for a trip to find the salt. We take spears, water, a few tubers, and some ‘eesh’ jerky Rick had made. We also take the raw hide bowl, to cook in if we need to. Now we wear the pressure suits, minus helmets again, as they are water proof.

  “It’s a good day and a half hike Devon, just so you know.”

  “I with you partner.” I give him a grin, and we set off.

  We go south easterly, and the terrain quickly drops in elevation. Soon all the plant life changes to new types we haven’t encountered before. There are many smaller birds in this new elevation, and they don’t seem to be frightened of us at all; flying right up to see what we are. We also see some small rodent like things, different from the ones by the lake, but they do run from us.

  Around noon, of the eighteen and a half hour day on my planet, we stop for a lunch break on the ridge of a hilltop. Looking down over some plains dotted with trees, we see a large moving brown mass in the far distance, and Rick quickly has the binoculars out.

  “It’s a giant heard of some furry animals.”

  “What, like Buffalo?” I hope.

  “Can’t tell from this range, but they do seem large compared to the scrub trees around them.”

  “Do we have to go near them?”

  “No, we are headed for those hills over to the left, there.” He points.

  “At least we found a beautiful place to crash land baby.” I realize that’s the first time I called him that, and he’s never called me that. I guess I’m being presumptuous, but whatever.

  “Yes, there is that. Devon, I want to thank you for sharing yourself with me last night; that was very nice.” He smiles.

  “Look, Rick, baby; all we have is each other here. So we might as well make the best out of it. You know, the survival attitude.”

  “Right, just because we don’t really have a choice, but it will also be the best thing to bond us as a team together Lieutenant.” He is sarcastic to me.

  “Hey, we have a choice. Yes it was very nice baby, so much so that I plan on getting some more from you tonight.” I giggle.

  “Oh, is that right? Well let’s not dally around here, let’s get to where we will make camp for the night shall we.”

  “That’s the spirit Star Commander.” I tease.

  That evening he made a very comfortable camp, and with haste, as I cooked a stew for us. We ate quickly, and worked the calories off even as we digested them. That second time was also very good. I like how he dominates me sexually, but is also gently serving at the same time. He has talent, and I want more.

  We break camp with no breakfast, and hike with best speed up from the plains to another mountain range. Fortunately what we seek is just in the front foot hills. From the orbital image it looked like some ponds, or small lakes. We find them easily from the orbital coordinates, and see some thermal geysers bubbling from smooth, multicolored, mineral formations.

  “Mineral water.” Rick is obviously disappointed.

  That doesn’t make sense to me, the spectral line was more prominent than for just mineral water. “There must be some significant sodium in the deposits then, for as strong a reading as we got.” I keep hiking down into the little valley, and scare several medium sized animals away from licking at some of the formations. “It’s got salt in it alright!” I yell back to him. The animals scurry into the forest, looking like shaggy, hog like beings.

  When I reach the strange colored, smooth formations, I break a small piece off, and taste it. Pretty salty, with some other flavors that I can’t place. So I start breaking bigger chunks off, and put them in my back pack. Rick joins me then, and he starts to do the same, after tasting it too.

  “It’s not bad, and it will give us the sodium we need. I just hope all the other minerals in it are okay.” He shrugs, and keeps loading crystals.

  As soon as our sacks are filled we take a little break, sipping some water, and snacking on some smoked, dried ‘eesh.’ Then we head back as we notice some stormy looking clouds moving in from the south. We hike as fast as I can, and make the foothills to our home mountain range just after dark. The storm follows us the whole way though, and even before we can cook something, we have to get under the lean-to Rick made. This is the first storm we’ve seen yet, and it is a driving rain, but with no lightning, or thunder. Still it is a long cold night, even snuggling under the heat reflecting blankets we brought.

  The rain stopped a couple hours before first light, and I finally got some decent sleep. Rick wakes me before sunup, and urges that we get going.

  “We’ll be back home before noon if we leave now.”

  “Okay” I agree, and we break camp.

  On the walk back to the ship, I notice Rick is preoccupied with something.

  “What’s wrong baby?”

  He smiles at me, and then looks back to the trail. “Before first light this morning, I saw a red glowing light off in the distance, way down in the plains.” He tells.

  “Someone with a torch?”

  “I don’t know, I tried signaling with our flashlight, but it just moved off out of sight.”

  “Why didn’t you wake me up?”

  “You were getting the first real sleep you had all night.”

  “Oh, yeah; thanks then.”

  “If it was someone with some technology, they didn’t wish to communicate.”

  “What else would it be?”

  He shrugs as his reply.

  “I mean, it couldn’t be a natural phenomenon could it?”

  “It’s possible.”

  “A giant firefly? Wait we figured that there shouldn’t be giant bugs because the oxygen level in the air is only four percent.”

  “Yeah, as far as we know, there shouldn’t be giant bugs.” He reminds me that we are indeed in uncharted territory.

  “Well, whatever it is, I don’t think I like it.”

  “Me either.” He agrees. “I got kind of a creepy feeling looking at it.”

  Our camp is exactly how we left it, and my apprehension about what Rick had seen leaves me. I do feel safe here. We can lock ourselves up in the ship, and nothing can get to us there. It will be good to shower and sleep on my couch tonight, with Rick. The rain made us miss out last night, so it’s catch up time.

  Tomorrow will be fifty days since we crash landed here, and we have established a worthy settlement, more than just a camp. Both of us have stayed so busy, Rick with his strange project which turns out is a compound bow, and he also made arrows fletched with bird feathers that he had gathered. The arrow heads are chipped stone, and the bow string is from rodent gut. He proudly takes some practice shots with it, and I can tell that he’d already been practicing. I’m proud of him, because his bow works very well; there is no doubt that it could be lethal. I am currently working on preserving some of the plant produce for the winter which will probably come soon. I’m also waiting for my period, I’m almost two weeks late now.

  Rick comes to me as I salt some of the tuber slices with the multicolored salt, which I call rainbow salt.

  “Hey babe, I just checked the axial tilt of your planet, and I don’t think we will have a very severe winter. It is a very slight tilt.”

  I cock my head. “Still, there must be some sort of growth and renewal cycle, so there is no guarantee the tubers will grow year round.” I go back to salting the slices.

  “That’s just one of the reasons I love you babe.” He pats my behi
nd.

  Then I realize, that was the first time he’s said that he loves me. My only response is, “Good, because I’m pregnant.” I give him a serious look.

  Rick’s legs get wobbly, and he has to sit down on the grass.

  “How the hell did that happen so fast?” He sighs.

  “We screwed, and you got me pregnant asshole!” I start to cry.

  “It’s not all my fault now babe.”

  “Yes it is you bastard!”

  “But…” He stops. “If you say so.” He submits.

  “What are we going to do baby?” I plop down next to him. He hugs me, and pulls me to his shoulder.

  “We are going to have a baby. Then we will raise it here with us as best we can.” He sounds resigned.

  “I’m scared baby.” I admit to him, still crying.

  “Me too.”

  Chapter 8

  One night during my second trimester, as both of us are just cleaning up from dinner; Rick calls me to look across the lake, through a thin part of the grove of trees, and I see it! A red glowing light, and it’s fairly bright.

  “I can’t make anything out through the binoculars, just bright red light.” He tells.

  “Try signaling it again with the flash light.”

  He gets it and blinks it at the red light, to get its attention. The red light moves quickly into the far woods across the lake.

  “It’s like that scared it off or something.” I am amazed, and frightened for some reason.

  “I don’t like them, who, or whatever they are.” He states.

  “Ditto.”

  “I’d give anything for a rifle, I mean for Pete-sakes what were they thinking?” He is frustrated.

  “They obviously weren’t. Everything will be fine, we’ll be back in a couple days…right.”

  “Right.” He growls.

  My third trimester just began and Rick is freaking out. He has watched the Star Command med file’s very limited instructions on child birthing procedures dozens of times, and he is always asking me how I feel. It has been a very easy pregnancy for me so far; I haven’t had any morning sickness at all, and my food cravings are for the natural foods that we’ve been eating right along. We are both pretty used to the diet afforded us here, and though sometimes I crave something more, I don’t know what.

  So far we have been going by old Earth months to keep track of time, but Rick says that we have to lop about a month and a half off our new calendar. This planet has a quicker solar rotation than Earth does, not just shorter days. The gravity of point nine one of Earth normal has never even felt different to either of us, from day one, so that’s nice at least.

  Things are getting colder now, and we know winter comes to us. Good thing we have both prepared for food shortages, and should have plenty. The ‘baby’ food we still have will be for our infant, and then we will wean our child onto a native diet. The thought comes to me to integrate some native baby food early on, just to acclimate the child. I kind of hope it’s a boy, then he would have an easier time surviving here, but which ever sex it is doesn’t really matter.

  I go into labor the same day as we have our first snow fall. It is light, and doesn’t last on the ground long. The high mountains have been getting quite a bit of snow however, as we can see on clear days. It is a six hour labor, and my baby is born finally. This is quick compared to some, I know, but it didn’t feel quick during it. We name our daughter Haley Jane Stanley-Hobart. Rick is good during the ordeal, and performs like a surgeon, until he holds Haley that is, and then he is a ball of mush.

  Rick already has some diapers cut up from one of the four nice cloth blankets we have. Laundry is about to become a way bigger chore. Haley takes to my breast milk right away, and I bond with her unbelievably in that moment. This is my little baby girl, she needs me, us for everything. I won’t let her down. It is quite obvious that Rick feels the same way about his daughter.

  One thing worries me beyond belief, and that is some alien bacteria, or virus getting to her. Even though neither Rick, nor myself have gotten sick here yet, our immune systems are so much stronger that hers. We have no medicine, save for some aspirin, and ibuprofen, nothing else. I sure hope she doesn’t get sick.

  It isn’t too long before Rick tries to seduce me again, as he has been cut off for some months now, but I’m not quite ready yet. I still hurt from giving birth. It is easy to tell that he’s very frustrated, so I help him out, and give the fellow a hand. The thought of getting pregnant again worries me. We have nothing for birth control.

  In a couple days I’m feeling good enough to resume all my duties, and I go in search of more edible plants. We need to start giving Haley some native fare; the quicker her system can acclimate to the environment, the better. I harvest a couple of the tubers, but their bulbs have turned an ugly dark gray color, and are too soft to be any good. So I go on, working my way around the large lake.

  None of the flowers are in bloom, and there are no buds yet anywhere. There has to be something I can find. Up where the river from the mountains feeds into the lake I find some tender looking fern like plants, and so I get a bunch of the leaves, as there are hardly no roots to the things. Right in the middle of a bunch of the ferns I see some red berries on a small bushy plant. There are more of these scattered among the ferns, so I pull up one whole plant and put it in my sack.

  Back at camp, Rick’s in the ship with Haley, and he’s glad to see me, mainly because it my turn to change her diaper.

  Normally I’d have a snide retort, but I just nod and do it. I realize that I do love him, and so I tell him for the very first time as I am gagging on Haley’s fumes. “I love you baby, oh do I love you Rick.”

  He just wears a very confused look.

  “I have to, if I’m not complaining about this.”

  Now he gets me, and laughs. “I love you too, but have fun with that.”

  I finally get to show my plant finds to him, and I do a tasting of the fern like leaves. Just a small bite. It is peppery tasting, and actually quite good. In half an hour I still feel fine, so it looks like we have a new food source. That relieves me. Next Rick tastes the juice of one of the red berries from the squat bush that I brought back whole. He puckers up like he sucked a lemon.

  “Tart!” He exclaims.

  “Any bitter?”

  He shakes his head.

  “So eat one baby, and let’s see if you get sick.” I bat my eyes at him.

  Rick sighs, and pops the whole berry in his mouth to chew it. “Very tart!” he adds.

  He is fine an hour later, but we still call it a day, and get ready for the all-important evening meal.

  I wake up in the middle of the night, having to pee. My bladder hasn’t been the same since having Haley. As soon as my eyes focus I see a glow of bluish light coming from Rick’s body, the exposed parts anyhow.

  “Baby!” I know I shout, too late, and the baby wakes, crying.

  He sits up and rubs his eyes, and he gasps as he sees the glow coming from his skin.

  “What the hell is going on? Lights on bridge deck.” The lights automatically come on. Now we can’t see the glow, but I do see the worried look on him.

  “How do you feel baby?” I ask as I go to Haley’s bed we made from the other blankets. I pick her up to quiet my baby, and she wants milk all of a sudden.

  “Actually I feel really good, great even.” He realizes.

  So I go sit on my couch, and feed her. “If you aren’t in any pain, or discomfort, maybe it’s alright.” I offer him.

  He is staring at Haley sucking on my breast. I reveal the other for him. The thought of a glowing radiant lover entices me. “If you want some too, you have to wait until she’s done, burped, and back to sleep.

  Rick nods with lust in his golden brown eyes.

  With the lights off again my glowing lover takes me, and I can feel the energy coming from him as he takes me to paradise. He sure has figured my buttons out, and his expertise is awesome. I wished i
t would last forever, but all great things are temporal.

  In the morning we quickly figure out that it might have something to do with the berry he ate, and then both of us wonder aloud if the red glowing lights we’ve seen at night have any connection. I volunteer to eat a berry tonight. If I glow, then we know we have found the cause.

  Sure enough, when I get up to pee that night, I am glowing a greenish color of light from my skin. I wake Rick up quietly this time, and we both realize that it was indeed the berries. He isn’t glowing any longer though, as we found out when we went to bed. I feel great, very energetic and sensual, even spiritual. I take my lover now, and it is his turn to experience the heaven of this sensual radiating energy from me.

  Rick starts to trap many more small animals, explaining that Haley will need some clothes. This makes me break into a bawling fit, as I picture my daughter looking like a cave girl.

  “We will raise a wild girl baby.” I sob.

  “Now remember, eventually we will be dressed that way too, but we will teach her everything we know, and that the computer has stored too. That’s a lot.”

  This makes me picture her not having any paper to color on, nor any crayons. Instead of that making me bawl more, I know that I can do something about it. I know how to make paper. There are plenty of dry fibrous plants I can crush up, and though I don’t’ have a screen, I do have sand. Haley will have paper! Crayons, hmm?

  “Hey baby, do you know how to make some crayons for Haley?”

  That makes him start thinking, and then, “I’ll figure something out. Yeah, that’s a good idea, now we just need some paper.”

  “I already got that covered babe.” I grin.

  Heavy snow finally came about the time Haley is just starting to crawl. This limits our forays and foraging severely. It’s a good thing we preserved so much food, so hopefully it will last us. The ship’s heating and cooling system keeps us quite warm and comfortable, it would be brutal without the ship. It is truly a taste of civilization. There is enough of a melt in a couple days for us to go out comfortably, and so we take turns as we always do, one of us is always inside with our baby. Now I can dry some more of the glow berries, as I have dubbed them, in the sun. We aren’t quite sure what the nutritional content of them are, thanks to having no lab testing equipment, but we both feel strongly they are some sort of super food. Super soul food! The dry berries are even stronger it seems, and though we haven’t tried the root yet; the leaves seem to be without the super power. Rick and I have experimented with the berries, and sex while both of us are glowing radiantly, spiritually. It is magnificent!