Every Man's Fantasy Ch. 24

In the costume jewellery market, any crystal with an unusual colour or streaks of interesting impurities that could take a polish was considered a gemstone. In the exclusive jewellery store, by contrast, the jewels were rare, lustrous, transparent or brilliant, with vibrant or subtle colours and a clarity that made the girls stare in wonder at such beauty.

"This is it," said Jia-Li. "The most valuable jewel on Argus."

It was a smooth tear-drop, an inch long, hanging on a platinum chain in a cylindrical display case under a clear white light. The gem rotated slowly, showing its fantastical features from different angles.

Slightly opaque and glassy, the stone had dreamy lines of blue impurities that seemed to float among milky white-clouds, shifting their shapes as the gem turned, as if blue lightening were threading its way through soft cushions of white smoke.

Jia-Li pressed her face against the display case and stared, holding her breath to not mist up the glass. Hui-Yin, Hazel and Wildchild joined her, taking up positions around the cylinder, lost in wonder as the blue streaks changed shape and direction depending on the angle from which they were viewed.

The shop-owner came over to ask if he could assist them.

"Is it really the most expensive jewel on Argus?" Hazel asked him.

"Yes, Ma'am. It's the largest stone ever cut from the rarest of all minerals: desstrolite."

"Why is desstrolite so rare?"

"It's formed under immense pressure, heat and radiation on a few asteroids an exact distance from a violent x-ray star. Crystals with dynamic streaks, like this one, are the rarest of them all because the conditions to form them have to be perfect. Too much radiation, heat or pressure will cause the impurities to join up and become static, making an expensive piece of blue glass. Too little, and the blue streaks won't coalesce at all but remain as random dots."

"Not exactly random," Wildchild said.

"I beg your pardon, Ma'am?" the shop-owner said.

Wildchild had not realised she spoke out loud. She smiled at the man and shook her head. She went back to gazing at the beautiful gem that cost ten times more than Tatiana's spaceship but she was thinking deeply, new ideas forming in her mind.

******

Hazel and Wildchild thought they should go back to the spaceship that night. But, having tried to contact Tatiana again and received no answer, the Chinese girls persuaded them to accept a room in a hotel, saying that Viktor would be unhappy if they allowed his guests to be uncomfortable.

While Hui-Yin went home to prepare the apartment for Viktor's guests that evening, Jia-Li took the girls to a hotel to hire a room on Viktor's credit stick.

In the hotel room, the girls hung up their dresses ready to change for dinner and relaxed on the bed for half-an-hour.

Hazel said:

"You went quiet - I mean quieter than normal - when you saw the desstrolite stone in the jewellery shop. What did you mean when you said the impurities in the jewel were not exactly random?"

"It occurred to me that, because the crystal has a fractal quality, the impurities cannot be formed by a completely random process."

"What's a fractal quality?"

"It's where something shows different features when it's seen from different angles or from different distances. Fractals like the desstrolite jewel are made by the iteration of very simple deterministic rules. It gave me an idea - a very vague idea - that may be useful for the Project."

"For making Danielle's new technology work? Tell me."

"The process that created the jewel is similar to what we need to make the new technology work, but the processes are inverted. The new technology has a random system that needs to follow strict rules and the desstrolite crystal has fractal properties that are deterministic but seem to be formed randomly. There's a clue here, I think, but I can't see it. It's just on the edge of what I understand about physics. I need to talk to Danielle. ... When we get back to Celetaris, I'm going to pester Danielle for days. She'll be sick of my questions."

"I think there's another a clue here as well," Hazel said.

"Go on."

"About what Ezra's up to: X-rays and minerals with fractal qualities ..."

"I hope you're right," Wildchild said.

******

Hui-Yin came to collect the girls, while Jia-Li cooked. She brought them gifts of decorated paper fans as accessories and made small final adjustments to their tight-fitting cheongsams. Declaring that they looked gorgeous, she took them to Viktor's home for dinner.

Viktor's apartment was opulent. Russians love gold, which in leaf or paint form covered the furniture. His Chinese staff (who were clearly more than staff) loved red, which covered the walls, seat-backs and cushions. There were paintings in a sunny realistic style, a magnificent oak table that must have cost more than the value of Tatiana's cargo to transport to Argus, bright yellow wall lights, display cases for porcelain, miniatures and jewellery.

A hatch through to the kitchen which, unusually for a cramped space station, had room for human cooks, not just robot ovens, another testimony to Viktor's wealth. The smell of dinner was mouth-watering to the girls, who were kindly welcomed by their host, in a green suit. Viktor was the perfect host, eager to make his guests feel comfortable. They were interested in everything and Viktor happily showed off his collections.

They did not talk business any more but had a good dinner with strange new tastes for the girls, some delicate some sharp, some odd combinations of salty and sour. Afterward, enchanted with the new worlds they were discovering, Viktor took them to their hotel room.

******

Back in his apartment, Viktor joined Jia-Li and Hui-Yin in bed, squashing a big hole that the poor girls rolled into until they climbed onto him.

"So, my pretty partners," he said: "what do you think of Hazel and Sam?"

"Beautiful," said Hui-Yin.

"Intelligent," said Jia-Li.

"Trustworthy."

"And trusting," Jia-Li finished. "We don't want you to cheat those girls."

"I'm offended," he protested. "I'm the most honest merchant in the whole galaxy. If I were not completely trustworthy, why would everyone seek to do business with me?"

"Yes, yes, Viktor Petrovich," Jia-Li said. "We know your secret. You're a Boy Scout."

"I am," Viktor said. "Do you think the girls know what Ezra Goldrick is up to?"

"No. Nor do you, Viktor Fattovich," Hui-Yin said. "But I agree with you that Sam knows why the problem with the Beltway Junctions has stalled the Samothea Project. They confirmed that the osmium is for x-ray shielding. As for the rest, the settler company seems willing to protect the inhabited part of Samothea while opening the rest of that continent and the whole planet to development and immigration, which the women of Samothea don't want."

"What do you say, Jia-Li? You're our accountant. I over-paid for Tatiana's cargo but is the information the girls from Samothea gave us worth what I paid for it."

"Yes, I think so. We need to examine that last container of lava they collected on Moon 18, the one from nearest the star."

"You and your gemstones," Viktor said indulgently.

"You should keep in touch with Hazel and Sam," Hui-Yin. "They may be able to give you more information. Will you offer them a retainer to be your advisers on Celetaris?"

"Yes, I'll send them a message when they're back on Celetaris. They can ask Doctor Goldrick if it's appropriate to help me. They will be properly paid."

The girls were horny and they made love, with Hui-Yin bouncing on Viktor's lap and Jia-Li sitting on his face. Despite his bulk, the girls met in the middle of his belly to kiss.

******

In their hotel room, Hazel and Wildchild made love for the first time in five weeks.

Their love-making had recently gone through another evolution. When they first were lovers, Hazel took the lead, guiding Wildchild to discover her sexual preferences, making love the way most of the women of Samothea did: slowly, with gentle touches, soft caresses, pecking kisses, little nibbles and teasing licks; all tenderness and comfort, with a gradual build-up and a long release. Neither partner was ever out of contact, holding hands, interlocking legs, skin-to-skin, lips-to-lips or lips-to-skin.

When Wildchild knew what she wanted, the girls made love in a wilder and more energetic style, giving joy by taking possession, making sex a competition as much as an act of reassuring tenderness.

Now they had boyfriends, who naturally took on the more dominant role whether they intended to or not, Hazel and Wildchild reverted to their original style, as if their need for urgent possession and surrender were fulfilled.

Tonight they made love in their old gentle reassuring way, expressing through their passionate kisses and sensuous touches the joy and amazement they felt at the strange revelations of the day.

Lying under Wildchild, adoration in her eyes, Hazel said:

"It's wonderful."

"What is?"

"Everything. What's we've done today. What we're going to do in the future. And the best thing of all is that I'm going to share it all with the woman I love."

Wildchild smiled at her girlfriend, who held her tightly, and they kissed. But Wildchild suddenly stopped and went stiff.

She pulled back, rolled off and curled into a ball, her hands over her face.

Hazel knelt by her.

"What is it, Sam? What's wrong?"

Wildchild stayed curled up. She was crying. Wildchild never cried.

"Sam, please tell me what's wrong. What is it?"

At last, Wildchild turned to her.

"Hold me," she whispered.

Hazel interlocked her arms and legs with Wildchild and held her tightly. They lay on their sides on the bed, cheeks pressed together. Hazel's long straight hair was a gentle caress on Wildchild's neck and shoulders. She waited for her girlfriend to explain.

Wildchild, her eyes tightly shut, seemed to suck in Hazel's love along with her warmth. She felt the sensual reassurance of Hazel's breathing and - right on the edge of perception - her heartbeat.

"I almost lost you," Wildchild said. "I thought I could take it, but when you spoke about the future just now, I felt the pain in the pit of my stomach again. I couldn't move, like it was for me on the ship. All I could feel was deadness. ... Hazel, I can't lose you. You're my whole life. ... I don't care about making something of our lives, having adventures or taking risks if it risks losing you. I never want that feeling again."

"You won't have it again. ... I don't mean we'll give up having adventures. I mean that the next time we almost die, you'll shake the feeling off in a few hours. The time after that, you'll just shrug and get on with the job. On the fifth or sixth time, you won't even wipe your brow or say 'Phew!'"

"'The fifth or six time we almost die ...?' There are better ways of comforting a girl, you know," Wildchild said with a bitter smile.

"There are girls, and then there's you. Sam. ... I really meant it when I said I don't care if I die, so long as I'm with you and we're doing what we set our hearts on doing. But if you don't want us to be Prospectors, taking risks and having adventures, then we'll do something else. We'll do anything you want."

"Why do I have to choose?"

"You're the better chooser."

"I don't know how to choose."

"Aren't you supposed to be the tough one."

"You know that's not true."

"You don't have to decide here and now."

"Let me think about it."

"Always. I love you, Samothea Galateasdaughter."

"I love you, Hazel Violetsdaughter, forever and ever."

Lying in Hazel's arms, Wildchild was comforted. Eventually, she slept.

******

While Ryan spent all six weeks with Carlin and Yael in the Forest Camp, Kelly stayed two weeks with each of the three outer tribes, living first as a Woodlander, then as a Mariner and finally a Herder.

On the last trade meeting with the three tribes before Kelly, Yael and Ryan would return to the Cloner City, to take the shuttlecraft back to Celetaris, Kelly rode up with a posse of Herders. She wore Herder garb and carried a child on the neck of her pony.

Her passenger was one of Megan Herder's twins, a three-year-old girl, enjoying the ride.

Kelly's sun-bleached hair flowed loosely over her shoulders under her wide-brimmed leather hat. She wore a short leather jacket and short leather trousers, exposing a trim and tanned midriff. Sitting comfortably on her pony, Kelly looked like just another skinny Herder girl: fit, strong and healthy.

"Ry," she called happily when she saw him. "Hold this for me."

She almost threw the girl to Ryan. She squealed for joy when he caught her.

"Kells? Is that really you? You definitely look the part of a Herder brave."

"Watch this," she said. Kelly stood up on the back of the horse and did a handstand with her legs in the splits, turning completely around. She leaned her legs at an angle and lifted one arm out. She followed this one-handed handstand with a neat little flip and a dismount, landing beside her brother.

"Amazing, Kells!" Ryan said.

"Megan's been teaching me gymnastics on horseback. She's the amazing one. That's one of her daughters you're holding. They're identical twins. Lottie and Emma. This is Emma. She's the naughty one."

"I'm Lottie!" the girl in Ryan's arms shouted, laughing.

"Then Emma's the good one," Kelly said, which made Lottie laugh even louder.

"I love the Herders," Kelly said. "When I come back next summer, I'm going to spend all six weeks with the Herders. We went to the Southern Mountains to shear the sheep. I saw eagles. Megan and I went out riding. We rode for miles and miles and miles."

Megan now rode up and Kelly ran to collect her other daughter from the pony's neck. She gave Emma to Ryan as well, so he had both of Megan's three-year-old girls to hold firmly and keep away from the horse's feet. The twins had pretty round faces, button noses and big dark-blue eyes. They instantly fell in love with Ryan and would not let him put them down.

"Megan, this is my brother, Ryan. He's Yael's boyfriend. He's also Carlin's boyfriend. But he's all right."

Megan was happy to meet Ryan. She liked that he was so good-looking. Though she felt loyal to Ezra, the father of her twin girls, there was no harm in admiring another man.

Yael noticed the admiration and came over to put an arm possessively around Ryan's waist. Megan was the most beautiful of the Herder braves and Yael (who had been brought up as a Herder) knew all about their lustful ways. She was not taking any chances. But Carlin only smiled, not worried at all and Kelly rolled her eyes at the sentimentality.

There were tearful goodbyes all around the trade meeting when it was time for Yael, Kelly and Ryan to go to the Cloner City and take the shuttlecraft back to Celetaris. Eloise was unusually emotional, almost tearful. Carlin was more robust than she expected to be. The three of them had enjoyed a passionate farewell in bed that morning, yet she cried as she reached up to kiss Ryan and Yael in a triple hug.

Ryan had to go back to Celetaris for his medical course. Yael wanted to go back for her physics lessons and her friends. Kelly was the one who least wanted to leave, but she had no choice. They kissed their friends in the three tribes, mounted horses with a pair of Herders and rode away to the Northern Camp.

******

As recompense for making Annela endure long meetings in stuffy offices and imposing boardrooms for two weeks, Ezra took her on a proper tour during their last week in London. Annela was keen to explore. She remembered a day in the forest on Samothea when she was uncomfortably pregnant and could not sleep, so Ezra entertained her with a description of Earth: its cities, skyscrapers, aeroplanes, spaceships, boats, shops and people by the millions.

All of these wonders were available in London, plus unimaginable wealth, pomp and history. They took tours on the latest incarnations of the traditional red double-decker buses, which zipped along on maglev beams rather than belched noxious exhaust fumes in the faces of pedestrians. From the top deck, they could see the never-ending tide of shoppers, the ancestry and splendour of the royal relics, the sumptuous palaces of the super-rich and the busy open markets, where goods from all across the settled galaxy were noisily hawked.

There was so much to see in one of the galaxy's greatest cities that Annela was overwhelmed. She preferred a sedate boat-trip on the Thames, which allowed her to view the magnificent buildings from a distance, without the urgent pressing crowds. The art galleries were also a delight. They so affected Annela, as someone who had never seen fine art before, that she was best to sample the collections in small doses. Even so, a single painting or sculpture could reduce her to tears.

Although the nanobots and synthetic hormones of Annela's rejuvenation treatment had drained from her system, so her enhanced sex-drive had also waned, heat from the early stages of pregnancy made her almost as horny as before. Excepts for night's out in at the theatre in London's vibrant West End, at a symphony concert on the South Bank, dancing in the hotel's ballroom, nights in their plush hotel in Park Lane overlooking Hyde Park, with its large four-poster bed and crisp white sheets, were spent making love.

On the last night in the hotel, Ezra warmed Annela up with his tongue and fingers, quickly getting her to the boiling point. Her perfect legs spread wide, knees bent a little, back arched, his hands on her thin waist, mouth on her pussy, held there by her hands in his hair, goaded on by her ecstatic cries and delicious moans.

He kept her arousal bubbling up with teasing and frustrating delays until she felt she should would burst from pent-up desire. She begged and moaned and at last he said it was time. Gratefully, Annela climbed on top and rode him to many electrifying fulfilments until it was Ezra who could delay no longer. His mouth on a sweet little tit, a strong hand on her back supporting her as she lent backward to get a mind-numbing friction on just the right spot in her pussy, he thrust up quickly into her.

Then it was all over. He had the hot urgent feeling, the almost painful pleasure at the tip of his cock, then the plateau and the throbbing release while Annela shook with a last climax.

"I love you!" she cried.

He thrust a few more times, groaning contentedly, letting the after-effects of the spasm recede. She lay back and pulled him onto her, wanting to take his weight.

"I love you, Annela," he said and they kissed.

When they returned to University College for the results, they learned that the cure for Annela would come only from a new design of nanobots, for which the University had already begun a program.

With that mixture of disappointment and hope, Annela was ready to return to Australia and relax among the sheep and wallabies.