by Kord Stone
* * * * *
Alise and Jason spent the next six hours thoroughly inspecting the newly discovered defense system and Jason was beginning to get concerned about some of the abilities the ship had. It intrigued him that Alise said the micro event horizon had been formed when he crushed the ship. But after reviewing the weapons console he now knew their ship not only had the ability to form an event horizon in any location, but they were not limited to micro event horizons either. It was a scary thought, instant black hole. He could imagine what would happen if he opened one in or near a star.
At the thought a shiver ran down his spine. It felt as if the blood were draining from his body, as if he were remembering something horrifying. He said, “I would bet the Imortum didn’t want to give that weaponry to the Lantins or anyone for fear they would use it to conquer others rather than defend themselves. It’s rather humane to do it the way they did. Thinking their only defense was to run, the Lantins would be prevented from going on an offensive if they wanted to.”
Alise stared at him, with a look likened to astonishment and said, “I do not know why, but what you just said makes sense.”
* * * * *
An alarm chirped and Alise looked up and said, “It is almost meal time. After we are traveling again you may want to convert the rest of the rations in storage into base material storage. It will clear out some more room for our other guest.”
Jason let out a moan. “Ugh. I forgot about him for a moment, when will we be departing?”
“The charging has just completed and we can depart whenever you wish it. Actually let’s leave now—”
He felt the ship rumble and saw the blurring effect he knew to be the time displacement. He looked to Alise and she said, “They are a determined lot. The Toralins have returned with over fifty ships. I guess they were going to try to take us with superior numbers, but we are out of their reach now. Setting a course for the—” She was interrupted when the ship was rocked by a blast.
“What was that?” Jason asked.
Alise analyzed her monitor a moment and said, “That was a TPE or time phased explosive. That is beyond the Toralins’ technology level. I think we are going to have to look into where they obtained that weaponry. I guess we will have to put it on our ‘to do’ list as well.” She paused as she put in a command to the computer. “There. We are out of their range and just for safety’s sake…we will jump back a hundred years in time as well.”
He looked at her and asked, “Why go back in time and not forward?”
She replied, “As I said before the Toralins seem to be able to sense when events have been changed. If we went forward in time they may be able to track us. By going back in time first, we will arrive in a time before they were looking for us and that should make it harder for them to track us. I think we should continue to use Elgon’s travel protocol and travel out of phase until we get to our destination.”
“That sounds good to me,” he said with a chuckle. “I think I’ll go get the food stored away. Would you like to help?” He asked with a smirk already knowing what her answer would be.
Alise started a fake stammer. “Ah…um… Walk the dog, water the lawn… Sorry I am swamped.” As he was leaving she chuckled. “Have fun.”
Jason laughed and said, “Sure, leave me with the tedious work.”
Chapter Seventeen
Jason’s feet touched down on the floor of the second level, and a moment later he was inundated with questions from his family members regarding all of the banging and shaking of the ship. Not wanting to go into detail and panic everyone in the room he said, “While we were charging our systems, a meteorite storm passed by and struck the hull. After we set off, we hit a piece of the space junk surrounding the planet. Everything’s fine and we’re on our way again.”
Only his brothers suspected that all was not right. He gave them his I’ll explain it later look and they seemed mollified. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to sort out the storage room over here so we can create another room and expand all of your bedrooms to make you more comfortable.” That got them to quiet down fast. In fact, they almost gave him the bum’s rush into the storage room.
Alise spoke to him in mind. Well played, working on their desire for more room to get them to leave you be.
He replied, I use whatever tools I can find.
Jason looked around the room and muttered to himself, “Now where did I put that knife?” He finally located it in the utility pouch on his belt atop of one of the boxes. “Okay where to begin… Let’s start with the beans. There are only seven hundred pounds, all in one-cup serving-size vacuum sealed pouches…” He looked at the stacks in the storage bins and shook his head. “Man this is going to take forever.” He cut open the first pouch. “Why couldn’t I have chosen to pack dehydrated potatoes? Those are much lighter… Ooh wait that’s right I have those too, only three hundred pounds of them though. Man I was paranoid… Good thing too or we’d be going hungry.”
* * * * *
After two hours, he was almost finished with the beans. He cut open the final pouch and a few beans spilled onto the floor. He poured the remaining beans into the raw materials container and bent down to pick up the ones that had fallen. He was just about to drop them in to the container when he felt something wriggling in the palm of his hand. He turned his hand over and opened it. The beans were sprouting and growing with his touch. Quite startled by this he shouted, “Alise, you’ve got to see this!”
She materialized in front of him and looked down at his hand, “That is extraordinary. It germinated and is growing at your touch. Usually you would need water and sunlight to start that process. It would appear those zaps you received did more than we thought to your body. That is very interesting.”
He looked at her with a hint of mischief. “As long as you’re here…do you want to give me a hand?”
“Whoops, look at the time… Got to go…bye.” With a laugh, she vanished and said in mind, By the way, why are you doing it the hard way?
“W-what…hard way? What?”
Just put the pouches into the raw materials container and tell the computer to remove the non-biological from the sample… I could have sworn I told you that.
“Why didn’t I think of that?”
The process went a great deal faster now that he knew that little secret.
He finished storing the last can of emergency rations and then took inventory. He stared at the readout in disbelief. There should have been only around fifteen thousand pounds of food, but the readings showed forty-six thousand pounds and he still hadn’t put in the everyday food from his pantry yet. I didn’t think I had near this much food. Well I guess my paranoia was a good thing.
He paused, looking around, and asked Alise, Where’s all the water I had? I know it wasn’t near enough for this many people. Where will we get it restocked?
Alise replied, I had the water dematerialized. It is all in base storage, along with the rest I stored while we were over Daregon. When we are near abundant natural resources, I try to restock so we do not run out. Aside from drinking the water, we use it to create the oxygen in the ship. As it was, I had to remove a lot of impurities from your water before storing it. We will also pick up ice as we travel through space as needed.
“Well that sounds good. You do think of everything don’t you?” he said.
I try my best, she said with a laugh.
Chapter Eighteen
Alise had been trying to limit her contact with Jason as much as possible, to no avail it would seem. Her emotions were out of control whenever she was near him and they still did not lessen with increased time apart. Ever since the attack that had ejected her from his mind, she had been unable to see his thoughts or memories. She could still feel some of his emotions and hear him speaking in mind if he was directing it at her, but she seemed to hit a wall when trying to delve into his memories. She was now thoroughly regretting not looking into his thoughts right after he broke the very i
ntense kiss they had shared.
She decided it was time to see how he felt, even if it crushed her spirit…if she had one. Something had to be done. The only problem was she had no reference material on how to proceed. So she used the only thing she could and scanned the female guests’ thoughts to see how they would have proceeded. She was surprised at the possible solution.
She felt it might be too forward, but with a plan of action in mind, she materialized in his bedroom, carefully disrobed and crawled into bed with him.
She hoped he would wake up soon. She was getting aroused caressing his body, and she could tell he was too if his firm erection was any indication. She was placing light kisses along his neck and ear, whispering his name. When he moaned her name, her heart jumped.
* * * * *
Jason was having the most erotic dream he could remember. Alise was beside him lightly caressing his abdomen while tracing kisses along his neck and ear. Her hand had been drifting lower and lower with each stroke until it finally came to rest on his erection. Every time he got close to kissing her, she pulled away. The anticipation of the pleasure he would feel with her was palpable, and he was really beginning to wish it wasn’t a dream.
His mind drifted briefly to the reason for his torment. Alise hadn’t shown any outward signs of attraction for him and even seemed to go out of her way to avoid being near him after he had kissed her. She had told him he would have full access to her memories when the bonding was complete, but he really didn’t want to invade her thoughts to see where he would stand if he made another pass at her. To him it felt like an assault or an invasion of privacy at the very least.
His dream was getting more intense and drew his full attention. He could hear her whispering his name in his ear. He loved the sound of her voice, it put him in mind of a long-lost lover calling out. He moaned her name in response and he awoke only to realize it wasn’t a dream at all. She was there in bed with him. He turned to her and with a heavy voice said, “Well, hello.” He reached over and caressed her cheek as he placed a much desired kiss upon her lips.
* * * * *
Jason broke the kiss a minute later, and she whispered, “Please do not stop.”
“A pack of angry Albatron couldn’t stop me now,” he said with a heavy voice.
When he said that, her heart began racing and she felt her body tingle in anticipation. Jason rolled her onto her back and began placing carnal kisses along her neck. Gently gliding his tongue along her neck and collarbone, he gradually worked his way down to her breast and took a nipple into his mouth. The sensations were delightful and she moaned in pleasure as he began to suckle and lightly roll it between his teeth and tongue.
Alise ran her hands through his hair as he moved lower, lightly kissing his way down the length of her body, which made her shiver with desire. She let out a shuddering breath when he glided his tongue around, then inserted it into her navel. Ever so gently he made his way to the vee of her legs. He softly kissed and ran his tongue along the front to the insides of her legs, then he kissed her where the heat had been building for weeks. She thought that was true bliss until he began rubbing a very sensitive location in circular motions with his tongue. Her hips moved and bucked as if on their own and she gave a moan of pleasure. He moved his hand to caress her sex, and she did not know what was happening to her senses. All she did know was she wanted more.
He had stopped what he was doing, which almost made her snap until she realized he was now working his way back up her body. He ran his tongue around her bellybutton again, then he let it glide up until he took her other nipple in his mouth while he gave her other breast a caressing rub. Her pelvis was bucking all over trying to find a release she desperately longed for. He ceased suckling on her breast and moved up her neck, finally returning to continue their passionate kiss. As the kiss deepened she felt the hardness of him pressed against her and repeatedly glided his erection over the heat of her.
* * * * *
Jason had the desire to taste every inch of Alise, and after doing just that, he worked his way back up her body, settling between her legs, his erection lying heavily against her pelvic bone. She was wet and ready for him, if her body language was any indication. And after kissing her intently, he decided to finally do what his body had been screaming for him to do from the first moment he saw her. He broke their kiss, looked into her passion-filled gaze, rocked back positioning his shaft to her slick folds and, looking her right in the eyes, he buried himself deep inside her.
Alise let out a gasp of pain and went stiff. He couldn’t believe it. She was a virgin? She tried to get up but he said, “You need to hold still.”
She looked up at him, a tear forming in her eye as she replied, “That hurt.”
Jason nodded. He felt like a total ass. Holding as still as he could he reached up and wiped the tear from her eye and said, “It can the first time but the feeling will pass. I’m sorry.”
He caressed her cheek while kissing her gently, and before long she began moving her hips. A little at first, and then he deepened their kiss as he slowly ground his pelvis into hers. She began moved her hips in rhythm with his every movement. He rocked his pelvis against hers and marveled at the pleasure he was experiencing.
Jason had worked himself up to a fever pitch and had to pause several times to allow the excitement to die down. His emotional state had been heightened by the emotions he felt emanating from Alise, and he was afraid it would send him over the top before her. He did not want to find his release before her, and focused as hard as he could on increasing her pleasure, and brought his mouth down on her breast.
He could feel her pleasure building not only physically with the tightening on his shaft but emotionally with their neural connection as well. When she achieved her release, it seemed to draw him in and it acted like a catalyst as he felt the pressure building. When she cried out in pleasure and found her release, he followed suit as he felt himself get pulled into the headiness of it all. Afterward, he rolled to his side so he wouldn’t crush her and they both lay there gasping for breath.
Through gasps Alise said, “Oh…my!”
Jason couldn’t agree more as he replied, “That…was amazing.” He placed a kiss on her head then said, “You should have told me you were a virgin though.”
“I did not know. Is that important?”
“No, but if I’d known, I would’ve been more gentle, and it might not have hurt as much. I would have thought with as long as you have been around, you would have…well you know.”
“Actually this is the first time I have been in a humanoid form with a gender. But I must say I am really enjoying it so far.”
Jason laughed. “I would say so. As a matter of fact, I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if everyone on the ship knows it by now. Not that I care what they know.”
As he moved in to give her another kiss Alise said, “Are we going to do that again?”
He let out a chuckle. “You’re a vixen, but not right now. We should let you recover.”
He looked into her deep blue eyes. “So…what changed your mind about me?”
“What do you mean?”
“After I kissed you in the observation room you seemed distant and uninterested.”
“As I said, this is my first time with a gender, and I…I was not sure what I was feeling. When you apologized after you kissed me and said you shouldn’t have done that, it confused me. I thought you felt it was a mistake because I am an AI.”
“Why didn’t you just look into my head? You would’ve seen how I feel about you.”
Tears filled her eyes. “At first I was afraid to. And ever since the attack that ejected me from your mind, I have been unable to do more than speak with you and feel some emotions. I was unfamiliar with my new emotions and did not know what they meant.”
He propped himself up, caressed her cheek and looking her in the eyes he said, “When I told my family you are the love of my life, I don’t know where that came from. But t
he moment I said it I knew it was true. I thought you didn’t feel the same about me, so I didn’t pursue it any further even though it was killing me not to.”
He could see she was about to ask why he had not looked into her mind and told her, “I didn’t want to look into your mind. It felt like it would be an invasion of your privacy. I don’t ever want you to fear that I don’t love you though.” He punctuated his statement with a very sensual kiss. Breaking away awhile later he said, “Understand?”
She nodded with a smile and snuggled into his chest.
Chapter Nineteen
After making love, they had talked into the wee hours of what could have been the morning…somewhere. When she informed him it was time for round two, he laughed and tried unsuccessfully to persuade her to wait. She wanted to see if the explosion of emotions was an anomaly, and she marveled at the sensations that she had experienced as he brought her to her release again. Afterward, she lay there watching him as he fell into slumber.
Hours later, Alise watched in concern as Jason appeared to be having some sort of nightmare. It began with muttering inaudibly and flinching at first, then he progressed to thrashing around and yelling. Her concern was mounting for him, and she attempted to wake him, but he appeared to be stuck in the torment.
She was getting worried that his thrashing about was going to cause him injury, so grasping his arm firmly she shook him and shouted out loud as well as in mind, Jason wake up! He shot upright, yelled “Bias” and his eyes flew open. For the briefest of moments, she could have sworn they had swirling blue smoke and were crackling with energy. Within seconds his eyes rolled back in his head and he fell unconscious once again. After seeing that he was settled back in slumber, she snuggled close to him and kept a close eye on him over the next few hours, but his sleep was undisturbed.
Having seen some of what Jason had experienced during his captivity, she was not surprised that he would be tormented by the memories. Seeing him in such a relaxed state now made her wish she could be like that as well. She never slept or even had a need to sleep. Her ship-made body always seemed to have enough energy, so she had no need to rejuvenate.
