by Ben Winston
She did love her parents; they’d provided well for her, but all that time apart from them served to distance her from the bulk of the feelings of loss. She was sad, and she would miss them - especially now that she knew more about them, but her sorrow at their loss remained manageable.
After the funeral and the reception, Brittney had driven a very distraught Valerie back to their home. She helped the older woman into the house, up to the woman’s now lonely bedroom, and lay her on the king sized bed the woman had shared with her life-mates.
She removed her mother’s shoes, slipped her own off, and climbed on the bed to hold the woman. Though it was mostly foreign to her, she had read somewhere that love and time would heal all wounds. All Brittney could do now was hold the woman and hope she would recover.
Once Valerie had cried herself to sleep, Brittney smiled. Yes, she would recover. During the day she’d learned that Valerie hadn’t slept since the accident. Carefully getting out of bed, Brittney gently undressed her new mother.
Though Valerie was smaller in the breast than Brittney, she judged her to be about the same size, so the girl slipped to her own room to get an extra nightie. While there, she changed into her own bedclothes.
Much to her consternation, Valerie had gotten under the blankets already, but the folded down blanket on one side was a clear invitation.
“I normally sleep like this, sweetheart,” Valerie said. “If that doesn’t bother you too much, could you hold me tonight?”
“You really did grow up didn’t you, dear?” Valerie said. “It seems like only yesterday you were this slightly pudgy, flat-chested little girl. Now you’re a beautiful young woman. You look so much like Sandy, but you must’ve gotten those breasts from your father’s side.”
Brittney smiled as she slowly climbed into the bed. “It doesn’t really matter, but from your comments, I assume Sandy carried me? Why didn’t you have more children?”
Valerie smiled; “Sandy couldn’t have children. I carried and gave birth to you. I honestly can’t answer you about any more children. We never used birth control; I just never got pregnant again. We made love, in some form or another, almost every night that we were together.”
They were lying on their sides now, facing each other; close, but not touching. Brittney gave her a sad smile. “You know, most people think that an all-girl’s school is nothing but a lesbian sex-fest. I guess it was now that I look back at it, but not for me. I’ve never had a real friend, not to mention a lover. I am a virgin in all ways; I’ve never even kissed someone in a sexual way. No one wanted me. For the longest time, I thought that even my parents didn’t want me.”
“That couldn’t be further from the truth. When you were to graduate, your father was going to take you out and buy you the car of your choice, while Sandy and I bought tickets to someplace nice like the Grand Caymans or St. Croix; we were going to take you on a trip too. That was when we were going to explain everything to you.”
Brittney gently leaned forward and kissed the woman on the cheek “Thank you.”
Valerie had told her more than once that Brittney had saved her life that night. If it hadn’t been for the girl being there, Valerie would have followed her mates into death.
Valerie decided to retire from the firm that she and Bill had worked at and the two women took a much needed, extended vacation to Atlantis, in the Bahamas. Before they left they had decided to sell the house and move someplace warm. Valerie signed a lease on a nice house in Phoenix, and while the women went off on vacation, their possessions were moved into it.
Talos, New Mexico
“This place is starting to come together, Ian,” Elias said, looking around. It had been two months since that afternoon Ian and Janet recruited Elias. The ship’s repairs were almost to the point of being safe for humans to be aboard again, and the construction crews were working like mad to get their houses built.
When Elias’ company started working out here, Oly brought down a few construction drones and built a huge underground base, complete with a full wing of fighters as well as underground defenses. Currently the underground base was complete, while the town barely resembled what it would eventually become.
Ian and his family were living in an RV, as were the Laskars. Barb and Debbie Reynolds had actually lived on one of the shuttles until the temporary quarters were made available in the base. The construction crews were living in trailer houses purchased as temporary housing. But finally, the new community was starting to feel like a small town.
“Yes, it is. Has anyone noticed that people seem to be ‘disappearing’ when new people show up?” Ian asked.
“Well, there have been a couple of questions asked, but nothing serious, at least not yet.” Elias seemed a bit uncomfortable all of a sudden.
“Elias, just spit it out. What’s eating you?” Ian asked taking a drink of his iced tea.
“Well, I know it’s none of my business or anyone else’s, but... What’s the real relationship between you and the four women you live with?” Elias asked, worried he’d offended his young friend.
“I can’t believe it’s taken two months for anyone to notice.” Ian chuckled. “I'm in love with Jenny, Cindy and Beth, and we have a group relationship. Talena is a really good friend.”
Elias looked confused. “Aren't you worried Say? Everyone seems to frown on the whole group relationship thing.”
“Well, it mostly works because we try to hide it from those who won’t understand. You remember that in Talosian culture, there are no restrictions on who you can love?” When Elias nodded, Ian continued. “That means there are literally no restrictions. Multiple Partner and same sex unions are common and were actually the norm.
“Under Talosian law, I’m married to Beth, and Cindy as well as Jenny, and they are married to each other. We sort of adopted Talena so she had a family in our time, but that little girl is more mature than most adults I’ve ever met,” Ian explained.
“Yes, she is pretty mature. But isn't there a lot of jealousy between them? How do you handle issues like that?” Elias asked.
“There hasn't been any jealousy issues. We talk about everything, and it helps that the girls are as involved with each other as well as with me,” Ian said. “I'm the only male, true, but in reality, I am only one of four lovers.”
Elias took a deep breath and seemed to come to a decision. “Ian, what I’m about to tell you has to stay between us for now, okay?”
“Sure Elias,” Ian said.
Elias took another deep breath, then began. “When I was seventeen, I fell in love for the first time. It wasn’t with Laura, like we’ve told everyone. It was with her best friend; Andrea. Andrea is really my second cousin on my father's side, and was pretty much thought of as the family treasure.
“One night, when we were both seventeen, my parents caught us kissing, and my father beat me up pretty badly. He broke my arm and jaw and by the time I was released from the hospital, Andrea had been sent to a finishing school. After I’d healed, my Father took me down to the army recruiting office and told me to sign up, or not bother to come home.
“By the time I got out of the military, Andrea was already on her second marriage. I ran into Laura again, one night while I was out drinking my troubles away and we fell in love. I’ve never actually told her about Andrea and I, but she knows something happened between us.
“Andrea has had a horrible life. She’s been divorced four times and is becoming a lonely, embittered woman. We’ve invited her to visit us of course, but she never stays very long. The last few years, she just said she can’t get away.” Elias deflated. “I can’t help but feel that I’m responsible for the hell her life has become. I took advantage of her when she was young.”
“I think you need to talk to Laura about it, Elias. Maybe between the two of you, you can think of something to help Andrea. Hell, invite her out here for a visit if you want. But you need to understand that you are not responsible for what was done to either of
you. You cannot be held to blame for the actions of narrow-minded fools. I can see in your eyes that you still love her. Talk to Laura, call Andrea, and fix this before it hurts her anymore,” Ian advised.
“Do you think you could use another doctor? Andrea is a licensed nurse practitioner,” Elias asked.
“Oh hell yeah! If you can talk her into coming out; put her ticket on the company card. But you do understand, even if she doesn’t want the job, she’s still welcome,” Ian said.
Elias nodded agreement and acceptance, “There is another issue I think I should mention. I sure as hell didn’t want to handle it the way my parents did, so maybe you can give me some more advice?”
Ian chuckled. “Aren’t you supposed to be giving me advice on girls?”
Elias chuckled too. “Well, I would but you understand our new way of life better than I do. Besides, you seem more like a very mature adult then you do an eighteen year old kid.” He sighed. “It’s my daughter Stephanie and her boyfriend, Kyle.”
“Okay, I don’t see an issue there, unless you don’t approve of Kyle?” Ian asked.
“No, he’s a great kid. What’s got me confused is that if I didn’t know better, I’d say that Kyle was also dating Tara Belden, and Steph is perfectly fine with it! Hell, the two girls are best friends, and if it wasn’t for Kyle, I’d be wondering about how close of friends they really were,” Elias explained.
“Maybe all three of them would like to be together. There’s nothing wrong with that either, But I can see where some folks in the community would have issue with it,” Ian said.
“Possibly, maybe I should have a talk with the kids. Try to get them to keep it under control or something,” Elias said.
“Or, since they are all considered adults now under Talosian law, We could let them in on the secret since they’re so hot for the new ‘video game’ anyway, let them climb into a real cockpit,” Ian suggested.
“Ian, I just don’t know if they are all mature enough for that yet. Being a fighter pilot is a lot of responsibility,” Elias said.
Ian smiled. “All of them are either my age or older, Elias. I know Kyle and Steph from school, we weren’t close friends, but from what I’ve seen of them, they could handle it. I don’t anything about Tara though. Is Tara Belden lass mature than Steph and Kyle?”
“No, if anything, she the most mature of all three of them, I’m worried more about Steph than I am about the other two, she gets so sensitive about the smallest things sometimes,” Elias explained.
Nodding, Ian continued. “Well, I’ll talk to Beth and Janet about it, but maybe we should take the Beldens down to the base to treat the alcoholism instead of up to the ship. Once we tell them the truth, maybe the kids can convince them of the rest. It might help to have you there for that, Luke trusts you like a brother.”
“I don’t know; Luke is very protective of his little girl. I think he likes Kyle and wouldn’t have a problem if the two dated... but I have no idea how he would feel about what the kids want.”
“We’ll just have to make sure he’s in a position where he can’t get out of control if he takes it badly. I’ll tell you what, I’ll help you talk to the kids. We’ll get the kids up to speed tonight, and then work on a strategy for the Beldens,” Ian suggested.
Elias nodded, “Okay, I’ll go let Steph know, then go have a word with Laura about Andrea. Why don’t you stop by right after dinner?”
“Okay, I’ll bring one of their future commanding officers with me. Probably Talena since she has more knowledge about how things work with these kinds of relationships.”
“Okay, see ya later then,” Elias said as he walked away.
“I still have a hard time understanding the societal bias against perfectly normal relationships. I mean, how can people stand to let someone else tell them who to love?” Talena said as they walked over to the Johnson’s trailer. “Maybe I should talk to...uh, sorry, never mind.”
“Is something bothering you, Little Kitten?” Ian asked, gently brushing her hair back from her face.
“No, Ian. Nothing’s bothering me,” she said flatly.
Ian wanted to pursue this with his young friend, but they had arrived at Elias’ house.
“Come on in, Ian, Talena, we’ve been expecting you,” Elias said as he answered the door. “Tara is here too, I didn’t even have to ask them to get her over here; Steph asked if they could come to dinner.”
Ian chuckled, “Well, tonight’s discussion should really take them by surprise then.”
Elias led them into the living room area and got them something to drink. “Ready?” He asked.
“Let’s do this, but before you do, how’d your talk go with Laura about Andrea?” Ian asked.
Elias smiled. “I’ll be going to pick her up from the airport tomorrow night. I think Laura is more excited than I am about it.”
Laura grinned over her shoulder as she walked down the hall to the kids’ rooms. Shortly, three bewildered teenagers followed her back into the room, and sat wherever there was room.
“Elias asked me over to talk to you guys about something you might not want to admit. Now, before you freak out, I want you all to know, that no matter what, no one is going to judge you on your answers as long as they are honest. Understand?” Ian asked.
All three of them looked a little startled and somewhat scared, but nodded.
Ian grinned at them. “Okay, here’s what we know and/or suspect. Kyle and Steph are common knowledge, but we believe that Kyle and Tara have fallen in love. So have Stephanie and Tara, are we correct so far? Remember, no one is going to get mad, or yell, or punish any of you - as long as you answer honestly.”
Kyle swallowed hard but sat up straighter. “Yes, Ian. You’re correct. Both Steph and I have fallen pretty hard for Tara. We thought we were being pretty circumspect about it though.”
Talena gave a snort. “Oh, puh-lease! We all know about it, Kyle! Just the way you look at each other is a dead give-away. But what you didn’t know is that none of the other kids seem to be bothered about it either. I’m just surprised that none of the ‘adults’ have caught on.” She glanced at Elias and Laura. “Well, more of them anyway.”
Elias cleared his throat. “Uh, Laura and I would like to know if everyone is okay with this, no one is being forced or anything?”
Stephanie blushed brightly, and Kyle almost chuckled. “No sir. Steph and Tara actually got together, but made sure I was okay with it first. My only issue was that I wanted to meet Tara first, and make sure she wasn’t going to hurt Steph.”
“Um, no offense, and I don’t mean to be disrespectful, but what business is it of yours who we love?” Tara asked softly.
Ian’s grin grew even larger. “Absolutely none! Except for the fact that we might have a way for you all to be together without having to hide it; that is, if you’d be interested in something like that.”
“Yeah, I think it’s safe to say we would be interested,” Stephanie answered, somewhat sarcastically.
“Well, there are a few things you need to know first,” Ian said, and launched into the story of Olympus. As he finished up, he looked at each of them. “I’m willing to accept all three of you as pilot trainees, but you’re going to have to help us figure out how to break the news to Tara’s parents. You didn’t bring your parents out here did you Kyle?”
“No sir,” Kyle replied shaking his head. “I moved out on my own last summer after I graduated. I was hoping to ask Steph to move in with me eventually.”
“Hold it, you’re trying to tell us that there’s a huge starship on the moon, and there’s a base underground here?” Stephanie asked. “I don’t know who sold you this bill of goods, but I have a bridge you might be interested in.”
Tara snickered at her lover. “Talena’s a great person, and more mature than just about anyone I could name, but is she an alien? No way.”
“Oly?” Ian asked as he smiled at the disbelieving kids.
The hologram appeared besid
e the chair Ian was sitting in. “Yes Commander?”
Stephanie was just staring at him, while both Kyle and Tara jumped as soon as they saw him simply appear.
“The three young cadets here don’t believe a word I just said. I was hoping you could display a hologram of the ship for them so they could see what it looks like,” Ian asked.
“Certainly Commander,” The old computer replied. A small hologram of the ship appeared above the coffee table and even Laura, Elias’ wife seemed intrigued. “The Heavy Cruiser, F.S.S. Olympus,” Oly said proudly.
There was silence in the room as the three young people tried to absorb what they were witnessing. Finally, Tara spoke first. “This is real isn’t it? I mean, you’re not trying to pull something over on us are you?”
“So, that’s where you’ve been sending all the people that seem to show up, then just disappear,” Stephanie said.
“Why would I lie to you? I’m letting you in on our secret so you three can be together. However, there are some conditions on this information,” Ian started to explain.
“You need pilots for the fighters she carries,” Kyle said, pointing to the ship. “The game system you built is actually a flight simulator, and you want the three of us to go aboard to learn how to fly them for real.”
“Well, the game system isn’t really that close to an actual flight simulator, but we’re working on it. However, you are correct; we do need more pilots. So far, we only have two; Talena and Cindy. But I want you to know you don’t have to be fighter pilots; there are plenty of other positions available if the idea of becoming a combat pilot isn’t to your liking,” Ian said. “As I was saying though, this information is a secret. You can’t tell anyone.”
“I’ve got a million questions, but I’ll hold off for a bit if you’ll answer the first one?” Stephanie asked.
“Go ahead,” Ian replied.
“Why are you telling us now?”
