The Naked Planet

The protocols appeared on the screen and he quickly typed in commands, removing them one by one. He looked back over his shoulder and saw Noa's face in the doorway, her teeth clenched and the strain obvious as she squeezed one arm and a shoulder through, forcing the door even further open.

A huge, hissing sound startled him; she'd broken the door's hydraulic system. She easily slid the destroyed door open and stepped inside the chamber. He frantically typed, trying to override the last of the protocols as Noa paced toward him. He just needed a few more seconds. "Noa, don't -- "

He slammed into the side wall and slid to the floor, stunned. Noa had thrown him more than fifteen feet. As he shook his head, and tried to get back on his feet, he said, "Noa, please let me go, I'm trying to help my people."

She shook her head. "The outsider lies. Noa obeys the Maker."

She moved toward him and he tried to lunge past her toward the console. But she was too fast. Her arm wrapped around his neck like a python and he gasped as she cut off his air supply. He clawed at her arm with his hands, trying to pull it loose, desperately kicking his bare feet as he tried to get free.

And then Dr. Bell appeared in the doorway. Her gray hair had come loose and was wild, just like the look in her eyes. "Good girl, Noa," she said. "Now hold him while I take care of him once and for all."

Caleb tried to twist out of Noa's stranglehold but it was hopeless. The old woman raised the disruptor and he saw the telltale twist of the barrel as the auto aim locked onto him.

"Goodbye, Dr. Caleb," she said, and went to squeeze the trigger.

And for the third time, Hannah saved him. Appearing out of nowhere, blindingly fast, she grabbed the gun and forced it upward, causing the disruptor blast to shoot just over Caleb's shoulder, directly into the quantum computer control panel.

"No, Hannah, what are you doing?!" the old woman said, as the gun was twisted out of her hand.

"No kill," Hannah said, and crushed the disruptor pistol in her bare hand, shattering it into a pile of useless fragments.

Panic filled the old woman's eyes as she looked into the control room and saw the damage the disruptor had done, the main control panel arcing with energy as plasma surged across it. And then she saw Noa, still holding Caleb tightly around the neck while he frantically kicked, struggling to get free as his face turned blue from the force blocking his windpipe.

The old woman stepped toward him, her hands outstretched as if she was strangling him herself. "Yes, do it Noa. Take your arm and squeeze. All of this is his fault. He's come here and ruined everything for us. Make him pay, Noa. Make him pay. Just one good squeeze...break his neck...kill him. Kill him!"

Noa had been concentrating on Caleb, making sure he didn't get loose. But when she heard the old woman's words she looked up at her, unable to believe what she was hearing. "No," she whispered, slowly shaking her head back and forth. "No kill."

She let go of Caleb and he slumped to the floor of the chamber, desperately gasping for air.

"What are you doing?" the old woman screamed. "Kill him...kill him!" She rushed toward Caleb, determined to finish the job herself.

But Noa grabbed her around the waist, stopping her. "No, the Maker is wrong. Noa obeys, but Noa will not kill."

The old woman twisted in her arms, trying to get free, tears streaming down her face as she pounded her gnarled hands against Noa's chest, screaming at her to let her go. But then she suddenly stopped, grimacing in pain as she clutched at the center of her chest and crumpled forward.

Noa quickly laid her on the cold steel floor, and Hannah rushed to her side.

"What is wrong?" Hannah said. "Is the Maker hurt?"

As they worried over her, Caleb got back to his feet. He could see the quantum computer screens flickering and he knew the system was about to fail. He hurried to the control panel; he knew he only had seconds. He typed in the last few commands and hit send. He watched as the protocols on his ship dropped just as the quantum computer failed and emergency lights flashed on in the control room.

Hannah and Noa were both trying to comfort the old woman who was on her back, clutching her chest as she tried to breathe. And all she kept saying over and over was, "It's over...it's all over."

Caleb knew he had to get back to his ship. Now that the protocols were down the green light would be on. If he didn't get back in time the capsule would leave with or without him, taking the information its sensors had gathered and sending them back to Earth. He headed to the doorway, but just before he stepped through it he took a last look back at Hannah.

She looked up and saw him and knew by the look in his eyes he was leaving. Smoothing back the old woman's hair, she glanced at Noa and then stood up.

"Where does Hannah go?" Noa said.

"With Caleb," she said, and walked across the room and took his hand.

He led her out of the Temple and they ran naked together across the valley floor, through the grass as they headed back toward the waterfall. And the whole time they ran he watched her, and wondered how he was going to tell her.

They were on the path out of the valley when they heard the horn. Three blasts from the Temple, summoning its daughters home.

"What does it mean?" Hannah said.

Caleb shook his head. "I don't know." But he wondered if it meant the last of the makers was dead.

They finally reached the waterfall and Caleb went immediately to the flat rock to grab his uniform, still lying where Hannah had tossed it. The jumpsuit was still wet, but he hurried to put it back on.

"No," Hannah said, trying to pull it off. "Hannah does not like clothes."

"I need it," Caleb said. "I have to wear it during takeoff."

Hannah blinked in confusion. "Takeoff?"

He nodded, sitting on the rock as he pulled his boots back on. "I'm going home, Hannah. I have to let my people know this planet is here. It's their only hope."

She nodded. "Caleb will take Hannah home?"

Caleb felt a lump in his throat as he zipped his jumpsuit up. "I wish I could Hannah, but I can't -- there's only one pod."

"Then stay with Hannah," she said, as a tear rolled down her cheek. "Take off clothes and stay."

"I can't...but I'll be back, I promise."

She nodded and tried to force a smile, but then they both turned as they heard footsteps pounding toward the pool.

A dozen naked daughters appeared and circled Caleb and Hannah, making sure they didn't leave the waterfall. Moments later, Noa appeared, carrying the old woman in her arms.

Caleb glanced nervously at the women surrounding him. "Please, Dr. Bell, you have to let me go."

She shook her head weakly. "I can't let you go."

"Even if you kill me, others will come and -- "

She held up a hand to stop him. "You still don't understand. You can't go because you have to stay here. You need to stay with the daughters."

"What are you saying...you're not going to kill me?"

She shook her head. "There will be no more killing, Dr. Caleb. Noa was right...and I was wrong. I'd ask you to forgive me, but I know my actions back at the Temple were unforgivable. I thought I'd left the sins of Man behind me, but they were inside of me the whole time. And now it's time to rectify my error.

"It appears as if you are a necessary evil, Dr. Caleb. The shot from my disruptor has destroyed the main control panel of the Temple's quantum computer. Noa managed to pull the four girls out in time, but all of the life pods have failed."

"The golden liquid?"

"All inert."

"Then let me return home, let me tell the people of Earth about this place. There's more than enough water for everyone. We can all live here together."

She shook her head. "You know as well as I do the time distortion risks associated with wormhole travel. By the time you return here there is a significant chance that everything, including all of these girls, will be long gone."

He felt a pang of regret as he glanced at Hannah, but he looked at the old woman and said, "When you were marooned here, you dedicated your life to correcting the mistakes you made. Now I've got to go back to Earth and do the same thing; I have to atone for the mistakes I've made. I can't abandon my people."

"And what about your child...can you abandon your child?"

He blinked in surprise. "My what?"

"The Temple is a generation ship, Dr. Caleb, designed to populate planets. The life sensors detected Hannah's moment of conception as soon as it occurred; she's pregnant with your child."

As he turned to stare at Hannah, who had no idea of the significance of what had just been said, the old woman continued. "When the people of Earth falsely accused you, did they give you a chance to atone for your mistakes? No, they sentenced you to death and jettisoned you into space without a second thought. Your debt isn't to the people you left behind, Dr. Caleb. They doomed themselves through both their inaction and greed. Your debt is to humanity, and what better way to repay it than by giving it a second chance here."

He took Hannah's hands and squeezed them, and she smiled back at him, wondering why there were tears in his eyes.

"But how can it survive," he said, "with only one man?"

"You mean one man and a hundred Eves," she said.

"A hundred what?!"

"A hundred Eves -- and those are only the ones of age. I sent them and the younger daughters to the far end of the valley as soon as you arrived. With your chromosomes, and ample time, you can easily populate this planet. How does the old saying go? Be fruitful and multiply, Dr. Caleb, replenish this planet."

"But...after I'm gone...how can my children -- "

She shook her head, letting him know not to worry. "The same process I used to adjust their DNA to give them their advanced physical abilities also dealt with the recessive gene. It isn't gone, but it will be centuries before it reappears."

Caleb turned to look at Hannah, weighing his choices. She squeezed his hand and said, "Caleb will stay?"

He took a deep breath, nodded, and smiled as he removed his clothes for the last time.

The old woman smiled too. "Now that the protocols have been removed, your ship is already sending out a signal letting Earth know that you have left the vessel. If you don't return, they will be sure to send others to investigate. But if we launch the ship back into space they may assume the signal was an error, ignoring it as the capsule continues as programmed on its mission into deep space."

"But if the ship launches empty, it's programmed to automatically return to Earth."

"It won't be empty," she said. "I will be its occupant."

He shook his head. "I can't let you do that. It's a suicide mission."

"My time is done here anyways. You saw me in the Temple. My heart is failing me. If anything, being in the ship's stasis pod will prolong my life, not shorten it.

"And you need to stay here. I don't know if you saw the force field on your way in, but it's generated by the Temple, and when the Temple fails, so will the force field.

"This world isn't clothed in civilization like Earth, but it's no Garden of Eden either. This is a wild, untamed planet and there are dangerous creatures beyond the boundary. You need to stay here and teach these girls -- teach your children -- how to survive.

"Teach them not to repeat our mistakes. Show them the good that we're capable of, not the evil."

* * *

When the capsule lifted off and rocketed skyward, Caleb, Hannah, Noa and the women who'd come with her from the Temple watched from the top of the waterfall; the rest of the daughters watched from the valley below.

As he'd placed her naked in the pod and went to put the stasis mask on her face, she stopped him and cried as she told him to take care of her daughters. But they weren't tears of sadness they were tears of pride.

Caleb had also placed his uniform, and the sensors within, in the capsule with Dr. Bell. On the off chance that a signal from the ship did reach Earth, they would assume it was a false reading when the next signal showed the ship back on its original course.

After the ship had disappeared, and the women had dried their tears, they gathered shyly around Caleb, all of them naked.

"So...umm...how are we going to do this?" he asked, looking at the daughters surrounding him, all curiously eyeing his quickly stiffening cock.

Hannah tilted her head to one side. "What does Caleb mean?"

"Well...I just thought that...I mean...I should start teaching everyone how to...you know," he said, and nodded down toward his cock.

Hannah arched an eyebrow and Noa smirked.

With a seductive smile, Hannah stroked his arm while Noa brushed up against his other side, pressing her breasts against him.

"The daughters want to teach you some things first," Hannah said.

"Oh yeah?" he said, his cock springing to attention. "Like what?"

"Like how to swim!" they all shouted at once, and Hannah and Noa laughed as they threw him off of the waterfall toward the pool twenty feet below. He looked up as he fell backward toward the water and saw all of the girls, with Hannah and Noa at the lead, gracefully diving off the cliff after him. And as he hit the cold, dark water, and felt it envelop his naked body, he couldn't stop smiling.

*

Author's note: Thanks for taking the time to read my short story. I just wanted to provide one final reminder that this is an entry for the 2014 Literotica Nude Day contest so, if you enjoyed it, please take the time to vote!