Every Man's Fantasy Ch. 20

Fall-out from the bad publicity was even more severe on Earth, where there were hysterical denunciations of Ezra's illegal polygamy, a practise absolutely forbidden in the Anglosphere, fulminating against harems, which were offensive to all respectable people in the galaxy, especially women. Earth demagogues criticised Ezra's exploitation of the poor vulnerable women of Samothea, declaring that such behaviour rendered the Outworld Settlements morally unfit to resume the colonisation of such an important planet.

It was all hypocrisy, of course. The real motivation for Earth to get involved was the commercial value of Samothea. As the 'other Earth', a planet of almost exactly the same size and climate as old Earth, it was a good prospect for profitable colonization, a favoured destination for Earth's teeming billions. Authorities on Earth put political pressure on Outworld Ventures, the Settler Company, to press its claim to ownership of Samothea, stressing the role the Earth-based enterprise would have in protecting the female inhabitants of the planet and controlling its future colonisation.

When the media frenzy was at its height, Danielle and the Project Team gave brief interviews on technical matters to serious scientific journalists but they were too busy (and not much inclined) to give personally revealing 'human interest' stories to the popular press. Unfortunately, this refusal was reported as 'arrogance'.

The bad press encouraged Paul Kessler to bring in a team of professional publicity managers - or 'weaselly spin-doctors', as he called them, with a smile of ironic self-mockery - to co-ordinate future contacts between the Project Team and the news media.

The publicists began work by presenting the women of Samothea as Ezra's rescuers and saviours, rather than his compliant and submissive harem. It was a story of hardy and inventive survivors: courageous women who thrived in a hostile galaxy. They hoped this story might allow a two-sided debate about the future of Samothea.

When the Project Team began to recruit new crew-members, however, it was a sign that the salacious version of the story of Samothea still prevailed because there was no shortage of horny male applicants, wanting to jump to Samothea and get their own harems.

It was all a good joke to the younger Prospectors, whose belief in Samothea as a sexual paradise added to the bad publicity.

If Earth politicians were motivated by greed to denounce Ezra, then the feminists were motivated by ideology, which was worse. Brad tried to make amends by giving an interview in support of Ezra, to correct the record. He soberly explained what a good father Ezra was and how much he helped the women of Samothea.

The tide of public opinion was now against the Samothea Project: the media bias was fixed. Brad was reported as saying: "The Samothea Project Team believe that women are incapable of surviving on their own without a man to tell them what to do." This interpretation was latched onto by the vocal and well-funded feminist lobby.

When Brad called Danielle to apologise yet again for saying the wrong thing, she simply replied:

"Who cares what a bunch of whiny self-obsessed failed-women think about anything?"

Unfortunately, the Board of Directors of the Celetaris Institute for Science was one group of old men who cared very much what the feminist lobby thought about the Samothea Project. The conservative board always feared bad publicity and always performed contorted acts of appeasement and compromise to avoid offending any political pressure-group, however minor or insane.

The Board's first weak response was pre-emptive surrender. They proposed setting up a Women's Studies Department. This met a stern response from Joan Mayfield, Vice-Principal of the University.

"Not under my tutelage!" she proclaimed. "We're an Institute for Science. We deal in evidence and logic, not special-pleading and mythology."

Unfortunately, like all committee men, the Board wanted only that the controversy would go away; so Joan Mayfield brought a pessimistic report to Danielle. The Board was committed to the up-coming mission but any further trips to Samothea would have to be funded by the Samothea Project itself.

When Danielle reported this bad news to the Project Team, the Team lawyer, Paul Kessler, asked:

"Is it time to sell the technology under licence and make fortunes for your industrial backers and everyone in the Team?"

"That will come," Danielle assured him, "but rescuing Ezra and Yumi and doing right by the colony of Samothea is our main priority. ... I don't want the hyperdrive system on the open market yet because anyone would be able to go to Samothea. The wrong kind of settler might exploit the women there, including Ezra's children."

However, Danielle knew she had to reassure Stephen Oakshott and HyperStar Japan that their rightly-owed returns from the motor would begin to flow soon.

It was a difficult and draining task doing all this work: teaching in the labs, tutoring students, checking the engineering specs for the traveller, recruiting a crew and keeping the justified demands of her business partners at bay.

That evening, after a long hard day working on the Samothea Project, Danielle got home, kicked off her shoes, set a cup of tea to brew and went back to work at her desk.

Later, she became aware that Roger was home because she vaguely heard the door open, felt him kiss the back of her neck and then, after he'd thrown away the tea she never finished making, brewed her another cup and brought it over to her desk.

She nodded an acknowledgement but didn't look up from her work. She frowned, wrote or spoke to the computer and occasionally ground her teeth.

Roger also had a long hard day filming his new video book, so he decided to call a restaurant and order dinner to be delivered. He knew what Danielle liked but had a question for her.

"Danielle, we're having braised steak. Which wine would you prefer?"

Disturbed from attending to a hated administrative problem, Danielle looked up, trying to register what he said.

"Wine? With dinner," he repeated.

"Who cares?" she snapped angrily, turning back to her screen. "Have anything you want!"

It was the silence that alerted her. She hadn't meant to take her irritation out on him. She really didn't know what she'd said. Danielle feared to look up, not wanting to see the pain on her husband's face; but she forced herself to look at him and was relieved. Roger wasn't hurt: he was angry.

"I'm sorry, Darling," she said. "I didn't mean to snap. It's this damn project. It's just so stressful."

Roger - his eyes narrowed, his mouth unsmiling - was still on the call to the restaurant.

"We'll have the red Zinfandel," he said calmly. "Please deliver my order in three hours."

He closed the call and stood up.

"Come with me to the bedroom," he commanded.

She stood up obediently, as if her legs were doing the willing, but she stayed standing.

"Roger, I want to, really, but I've got so much work to do and I'm just so stressed!"

"I will help you relax," he said, "eventually."

"Honestly, Darling, I really am busy."

"I know, but I doubt there's anything so urgent that having your mind taken off the problem for a while wouldn't make it easier."

Danielle knew that was true, but the project was her baby and it was her brother she was rescuing. It made her want to control everything, however great the burden. This was the first time she realised that she was not the only one suffering from her stress.

"Come on," he commanded again.

"But, Roger, I'm not in the mood."

"I'll put you in the mood."

"Why now?"

"When did we last have sex?" he asked.

"I don't know. Two or three days ago."

"Nine days! ... Which means I owe you two spanking sessions, two 'tie my wife up and fuck her nights', two anal sex nights, and assorted others. ... I mean to catch up all once."

Danielle now had no excuse to deny or delay. It was mortifying to realise that she'd been neglecting him, taking him for granted, and (which was worse) he'd been too understanding to say anything about it. She also had a weird feeling, one she hadn't felt before. She didn't want to make him more angry than he was but she also didn't want his anger to dissipate. It was a turn-on.

Danielle obediently took his hand as he led her to the bedroom.

In the bedroom, Roger shook out a pillow and used the case to tie Danielle's arms behind her back. He bent her over the end of the bed and tied her legs together with another pillow-case. She was fully dressed but he began to spank her anyway.

It was a hard spanking and she cried out a few times but she knew she deserved it, up to a point.

She reached that point on the tenth spank. Her bottom was hot and the pain became sensual. It wasn't a punishment. It was pure exciting pleasure and need. She tripped over into a trancelike state in which every slap created a deep sexual ache and longing.

She whimpered when he pulled her skirt up and exposed her nicely rounded firm pink buttocks. There was a patch of wet on her skimpy white knickers. He spanked her bare buttocks, turning them red, leaving hand-prints. She bucked gently. The wet patch on her knickers spread.

He pulled her knickers down and walloped her a few more times. She bucked more vigorously, arching her back, pushing her bottom up to meet his hand.

Her arms were locked behind her back. Her nipples, big and hard, poked through her shirt, rubbing against the bed as his assault on her bottom rocked her. The rub made a sexual current she felt in her pussy.

Danielle shut her eyes and breathed deeply, moaning as she breathed out.

It turned him on. He was fully stiff.

He pulled her around and bent her on her knees. Her mouth was open before he pulled his cock out and stuffed it in without warning or asking. She shut her eyes and sucked, bobbing her head, showing him how she felt about him, how she belonged to him.

She sucked lovingly and felt his cock twitching. It was a while since he'd had sex and she was doing such a good job, he struggled to hold it in.

"My God!" he groaned as she bobbed her head quickly, making sloppy noises.

He couldn't stop himself. He held her by the hair and thrust into her mouth. Danielle looked up at him, lust and longing in her big eyes. A last few frantic thrusts and the tension rose unbearably. The irresistible joy broke over him and there was a release. Hot cum juiced into Danielle's throat and mouth. She swallowed hard and kept swallowing until she'd emptied his cock.

She kept licking and sucking until she'd cleaned off his cum and when he withdrew, she licked her lips and smiled, looking up at him, ready and willing for whatever else he planned. All thoughts of her problems sank to the back of her mind. Now there was only her man and the moment.

He carried her to the shower, untied her, stripped her and washed them both. She clung onto him tightly.

Dried and warm, Danielle fell into a sensual trance again as soon as Roger tied her to the bed on her back, spread-eagle. He lay on her and pushed his mouth against hers. She kissed him back eagerly, trying to get him aroused again as quickly as possible, inviting him to take her.

He pulled away and tied her mouth with a gag. He kissed down her neck to her tits, which he sucked greedily for an age. She had nice big tits, white globes with big pink nipples. She squirmed and sighed, encouraging him to suck harder, getting off on the loving attention.

He kissed down her body, worshiping her beauty with his lips and tongue, until he reached her thighs. As he kissed over her thighs, he put a finger gingerly into her pussy, spreading the creamy moisture over her outer lips and clit. It got her going even more. She found teasing kisses and fingering hard to bear when she wanted his cock so badly!

When he put his tongue on her pussy, it felt like electricity. She squirmed against her bonds and tried to raise her pussy to get more of his mouth.

So began an hour of the cruellest teasing and denial. Every time she got to the high-point and was ready to cum, he pulled away and let her roll back down the hill. Then he'd push her back up to the peak, only to deny her again.

It was the most beautiful frustration she'd ever felt.

Were her legs free, she'd have trapped him with them and made him finish her off. Were her arms free, she'd have finished herself off. As it was, he made it even worse for her by sticking a finger in her bottom. She was tight there and she melted from the extra stimulation as he worked his finger in and out in time with sucks on her clitoris.

She moaned deeply and shook her head from side to side as her back arched.

At last Roger let her cum. He sucked her clit into his mouth and lashed it with his tongue.

There was a scream as she stiffened all over, taut and tense, nipples like bullets. Then a kind of eruption as a bottled up orgasm flooded over her. She arched, convulsed, arched again and shook, bucking hard, head thrown back.

Now she couldn't stop cumming. It was a series of peaks with no real valleys. She cried out in ecstasy, thighs shaking, back arching as he pistoned two fingers into her snatch, his little finger in her arse.

She came again with a few dribbles. And again.

Now it was his turn. Roger lay on her, grabbed her tits and fucked her until he was exhausted. Even at the end, she was still cumming, still urging him on with her moans, goading him with her muffled cries to fuck her harder, and rewarding him with another spasm.

Finally he came. He ripped off the gag and forced his mouth onto hers, thrusting hard, rocking her on the bed, violently loving her to the end, before splurging his cum deep in her pussy.

******

After he'd untied her, they lay together, warm and satiated. Danielle put her arms around him and pulled herself close, snuggling her head against his chest, hugging him tightly.

"That was wonderful, Darling," she said. "You reminded me what it feels like to be a woman. I'm sorry I was so irritable."

"You're forgiven," Roger said.

"And I'm sorry I neglected you."

"Also forgiven."

"You can do that to me again any time you want," she said earnestly. "Don't allow me to refuse. I hereby give you permission to ignore any future refusal I may make or pretence at being too busy or too tired."

"Duly noted. Do you feel better?"

"I'm sexually satisfied. I feel loved and protected. But I don't feel better about my problems. Sorry, Roger, but as soon as this beautiful interlude is over, I'll be just as stressed and even more delayed."

"No you won't, because I'm going to fix your problems."

"You can't fix them. You can only take my mind off them for a while. Don't worry. It was completely worth it."

"I am going to fix them," he said assertively. "Tell me, Danielle, what is a husband?"

"Well, my mother would say, my lord and master."

"Yes, and the worrying thing is, she would be only half-joking. But what do you say?"

"You are my rock, my help-meet, my accomplice and my hero."

"I like all that, but there's another thing. What's a husband's role?"

"To make his wife happy."

"And how does he do that?"

"Multiple orgasms are a good start. Ooh, and spanking."

"What else, something non-sexual?"

"I think I know what you want me to say. A husband helps his wife with her burdens. Roger, I wish you could carry this burden for me, but I know you're just as busy as me."

"I can always spare some time for my wife. Why don't you tell me your problems and let me see what I can do?"

"It's just nonsense. Administrative problems, personnel problems, publicity, money. I'm sure you can't be bothered with it."

"Come on, Danielle: it's a husband's job. Tell me."

"Well, the first problem is that the financial backers on the University's Board of Directors have been put off by the bad publicity and interference from Earth. They're scared to commit more funds, so we've enough money for just one more mission to Samothea."

"Doesn't your air-suit business bring in some money?"

"Yes, but not enough to subsidise the Samothea Project; and I want to send a traveller to Samothea every month, not wait years between missions to accrue the funds."

"What else can you do?" Roger asked.

"I could allow HyperStar Japan to start selling the hyperdrive system under license on Earth. That would bring in a serious income," Danielle admitted.

"There are other benefits," she continued: "Stephen Oakshott and HyperStar Japan would begin to get the returns they fully deserve. Paul Kessler keeps reminding me that everyone on the Project Team is due a big payout."

"So what's the downside?"

"Earth will be able to open hyperspace pathways directly to Samothea. Very lucrative for us, of course, but then anyone would be able to go to Samothea, to exploit its natural resources or settle there."

"How can just anyone mine or settle Samothea?" Roger asked.

"They would be illegal squatters and claim-jumpers, of course, but it would need long and costly court actions to evict them. The alternative is to recognise the settler company, Outworld Ventures, as the legal owner of the planet, so they have the problem of enforcing the law."

"And what's wrong with that?"

"I want the women of Samothea to control their own destiny. We don't know what kind of settlers the company would allow. Outworld Ventures is an Earth-based company and susceptible to pressure from politicians who want Earth to colonize Samothea."

"Brad's report emphasised how trusting the women of Samothea are. I don't want them exploited by slick and plausible newcomers. I don't want them to sell the mineral rights for a song and find their planet polluted. I don't want Ezra's children harmed or disinherited."

"Granted. So what can we do?"

"I need to show that the Samothea Project is a worthwhile endeavour, despite the bad publicity, and that it will give a return on investment. Then the university will let us work at our own pace. So, as I said, you can't help me with that problem."

"I understand," Roger said. "Tell me the other problems."

"The bloody feminists!" Danielle exclaimed. "The stuck-up, over-starched, born-again maidens!"

"I see. They're offended by Ezra's Solomonic polygamy."

"The men on the University Board are too scared to cross the feminist lobby, so there's nothing you can do about that, either."

"True enough," Roger said. "Next problem?"

"Rosa analysed the data from the instruments on Brad's ship. She found that the x-rays from the black hole are slightly more intense and slightly higher frequency than we estimated. It was an amazingly good estimation, given that she worked with three microseconds of reverse-engineered data. But it means that the shielding on Brad's return beacon is less effective than we hoped. The next mission must take a new beacon with thicker shielding, which will add to the weight, the fuel-load and the cost."

An idea began to form in Roger's mind.

"Exactly what material is the shielding?" he asked.

"An alloy, mostly palladium and iridium hammered into a foil. It was cheap and easy to get because the mines on Celetaris are rich in these elements. But now it looks like we'll need to use gold, which is many times more expensive and would have to be imported."

Roger's idea crystallised.

"Is osmium any use?"

"Yes, extremely useful. It's the densest metal but it's no cheaper than iridium and will have to be in alloy form, including platinum. Why did you suggest it?"

"Do you remember the stone I brought you back from New Exeter?"

"Of course. My lovely yellow stone with the 'dancing angels', the green impurities that quiver in the sunlight. It's on a necklace."