Pedro and his little tribe deal with more dangers and mysteries. - - - To fully understand this, please read chapters 1 - 4 first.
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I woke hearing a little girl shriek. I grabbed my carbine and ran out of the tent. She was pointing at something in the distance, as she yelled, “WHAT IS THAT?”
I quieted her with a quick ‘Shhh!’
The rest of our assorted group were waking up too. I looked where she was pointing and saw a very large snake-like creature a long distance away, 800 meters, maybe a click. It was about three meters high and twenty long. I looked through my scope. It had four sword-like appendages near its mouth, and was cutting a dead bison apart with them. It took no more than 15 seconds to dismember and eat the whole animal, probably over a ton! It started moving toward us, slithering across the rocky ground.
Pedro read my mind. “Keisha, what happened to all the cliffs?” He was right, there were none of the stone walls in sight. In a few directions I could see three or four kilometers with no obstructions in the way.
Pedro rested the huge sniper rifle’s bipod on a log and looked at the beast. It was around 500 meters away now, and still approaching. I kneeled and aimed for the center of the monster’s mouth. I quietly said to him, “Last one to hit it makes breakfast.” I squeezed off a shot. ‘Bang.’
I hit its back but it didn’t seem to notice. I fired three more times. ‘Bang. Bang. Bang.’
I was sure at least two hit it, and I heard a ricochet off the thing’s tough hide. A small bit of orange liquid dripped from its mouth. I had hurt it, at least a little.
I was about to fire again when Pedro took a shot. Instead of a ‘Bang.’, there was a powerful ‘KAABOOM!!!’ Dust flew up, obstructing our vision a moment. I couldn’t believe what I saw. The mighty 50 cal had only put a dent in the side of it and didn’t penetrate! All it did was anger the creature!
“Pedro, the mouth! Shoot it in the mouth!”
It was only 200 meters away now, and approaching fast!
I heard another ‘KAABOOM!!!’ with no apparent affect. I fired off the rest of a magazine on full-auto. ‘Budududududuh!’
In the time it took for me to drop the empty mag and load a fresh one, Pedro got off another shot, then yelled, “FUCK!” when his big rifle jammed. The monster was only 50 meters away now! In seconds it would eat us! For only the second time, I did it slightly before I said it. “SHIT!”
I slapped the full clip in tight, yanked the charging handle, and started to pull the trigger as the muzzle swung on target. I heard a loud “WHOOSH!”, followed half a second later by a “BOOM!”, then a girl crying. The monster disappeared in a cloud of flame and smoke. Bits of flesh and orange blood flew high into the sky. It rained alien parts for a several seconds, splattering Pedro and I with stinky orange goo.
I thought, “At least the mess will hide my booty malfunction.” The girl continued to cry, and I turned to look at her. She was laying on the ground holding her shoulder. A still-smoking AT4 launcher laid a few steps behind her on the ground. I was stunned when I realized … I asked her, “How did you learn to fire a rocket launcher?”
“OW! I saw it in a movie! OWOWOW! It hurts!”
I checked her and saw the shoulder was dislocated. “I’m sorry kid, but when I fix it, it’ll hurt a lot for a second. Can you be a brave girl for me? Be strong like a soldier, and take the pain to make it better?” I saw tears pouring down her face, but she nodded. “I’m going to pull it hard to fix it when I count to three, ok?”
She took a deep breath. “Okay.” I took a firm grip on her wrist and elbow. A little deception would save her some suffering, so … “Here we go. One …” I yanked it and set it in place.
“EEEEEH! OWWW! OWWW! OWWW!” I patted her cheek, and started to make a sling for her arm. “You did good, you were very brave.” I knew it must hurt like hell, but she smiled through the tears. I liked her. Once I had her arm in a sling, I went to the medic’s bag and got a painkiller syringe. “This will help a lot, okay, sweetie?” She nodded and cried a little less than before. I gave her a third of a regular dose. “It’ll be a lot better soon, and it might make you sleepy. If you want to take a nap, that’s okay.”
I saw her eyes gradually glaze over and close slowly. I checked her pulse and it was only a little rapid. Sam looked very worried, so I told him, “She did great, she saved us! It’ll take some time, but she’ll be okay.” He sat next to her and held her little hand as she slept.
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Report of Caretaker 9042
Species WDT - Cycle 8
Multiple specimens health 9/24 to 24/24.
Firearm, rocket, and hollow-charge technology demonstrated.
JZT subject destroyed by smallest WDT subject using hollow charge weapon at distance 30 rens.
Results to date:
Intermediate technology level.
Recommend opening communications with subjects.
Likely rescue candidates.
Technology level: 11/24
Resilience: 17/24
Progenation: 1/24
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Supervisor 3614 notes
Expose portal for hatch test.
Reward subjects with comfort area if hatch test passed.
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After searching the immediate area for any other dangers, Pedro helped Anna make breakfast. I got the drone working again and sent it up high. I saw the walls really were gone. Far in the distance, I saw a red light blink briefly, then a green one. I estimated the distance as five or six kilometers. I thought Pedro and I could easily make it there by noon, if we didn’t run into any more snake monsters. If all of us went, the kid and old lady would slow us down a lot.
As we ate breakfast, I filled in the rest of our little tribe. “I saw blinking lights in that direction, and it doesn’t look like there’s anything dangerous on the way there. I don’t know if we should split up, but if we do, Pedro and I should be able to make it there and back well before dark. What do you think?”
The little girl sat up and held her nose. “I think you should wash! You stink!”
I laughed. “I think you’re right!”
Pedro said, “There’s a lake over that way, it’s not far.”
“I saw it with the drone before. Anna, here’s a radio. I’ll set it to channel ten. If anything happens, push the talk button and give us a yell.”
“Okay. See you soon.”
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Pedro and I walked the few hundred meters to the lake. We put the radio and our weapons down, took our boots off, then jumped in the water with our clothes on. It was a little chilly, but being clean was more than worth it. I pulled my pants off under the water to empty them, then put them on. I took off my jacket too, and washed alien parts out of my bra.
Pedro stared at the way my t-shirt clung to my bra and chest as I stood up in the shallow water. I smiled and asked, “Do you have a wife? Anybody back at home?”
“No. Do you?”
I felt myself start to blush as I said, “No. Maybe when we find a real shower, I could wash your back?”
“Uh … sure.” He was grinning from ear to ear.
We put our boots back on, then picked up our weapons. I caught him glancing at my chest and butt a few times on the way back to camp. By the time we got there, Anna had made herself a crutch from an old tree branch. We decided that it would be safer to travel together instead of splitting up. Pedro and I took turns helping Anna, and Sam helped his granddaughter.
The terrain we encountered on the way was surprisingly varied. We went from a desert to a rocky valley, a forested hilltop, a muddy hillside, a shallow swamp, and then a flat rocky plain; all in within three or four miles.
As we got closer, we could see the blinking lights were above a triangular piece of metal sticking out of a smooth wall of granite. The triangle was two meters high and nearly two meters wide at the bottom. Bolts with oddly shaped heads protruded from each corner. One was a triangle, another was a pentagon, and the third was seven-sided.
I held my hand near one edge, and could feel warm air blowing out. I smelled something appetizing. I tried to recall where I had smelled it before and suddenly remembered, “Ramen soup with tuna and peppers! Smell near the edge. Doesn’t it smell like ramen with tuna and peppers?”
Pedro sniffed and said, “To me it smells like spicy fish tacos.”
Sam commented, “I’m not sure, but something like those. How can we get it open?”
Anna said, “We have coal and an old car door. We can make bricks out of mud and grass, then use them to build a furnace and melt it down. It will take a lot of time, but I can tell you how to make wrenches that will work for those bolts. It’ll take six or maybe eight days, but we can do it.”
I looked more closely. “I don’t think the bolts are steel, right?”
Anna took a look. “No, they’re aluminum, or an aluminum alloy.”
I smiled. “I have a better idea. I just need to get something from our camp.”
Sam asked, “What? Explosives again?”
“Explosives would probably work, but we don’t know if there’s anything fragile or flammable on the other side. I can tell somebody how to use it, but it’s pretty heavy. Ever used a chop saw, Pedro?”
“No, but in a video I saw, it looked like fun.”
I told him, “It’s in the plastic case with ‘TSC’ on it.”
He wondered, “TSC? What’s that stand for?”
I chuckled. “Tool, Saw, Chop. Those with stars on their shoulders never pass up a chance to make things more complicated for the grunts.”
He laughed along with me. “I’ll go get it, and call if I see anything suspicious.” He picked up Anna’s radio.
It took him nearly four hours to go there and back, and it was starting to get dark. We decided to have supper and camp for the night. We didn’t want to deal with any surprises opening it in the dark might cause.
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Report of Caretaker 9042
Species WDT - Cycle 9
Multiple specimens - health 13/24 to 23/24.
Results to date:
Firearm, rocket, and hollow-charge technology demonstrated
Intermediate technology.
Likely rescue candidates.
Technology level: 13/24
Resilience: 18/24
Progenation: 1/24
Subjects have approached portal, but not entered.
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Supervisor 3614 notes
No changes needed. Continue to observe.
Reward subjects with comfort area if hatch test passed.
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When we woke in the morning I looked at the bolts and metal panel. Nothing visible had changed, but I didn’t smell anything. I sniffed near the edge and didn’t notice any scents.
“Pedro, what do you smell?”
He sniffed too. “Nothing. It used to smell really good.”
I held my fingers near the edge. “There’s still warm air coming out.”
Sam said, “I smell something now. Cinnamon?”
I noticed it too. I took another sniff near the edge. “Apple pie! Instead of spicy tuna ramen, it smells like apple pie with cinnamon!”
Robin agreed, “Yeah! Let’s get it open.”
The rest of us stood back, and Pedro cut through the thick bolts holding each corner of the triangular door.
A long corridor through the granite led us to a hotel lobby! There were several sofas, comfortable-looking chairs, and a large sign above a reception desk, “Jupiter Hilton.” We saw a large tray of cinnamon rolls, donuts, and fruit on a table, along with coffee pots and a pitcher of orange juice.
To the right, there was an indoor pool and I saw an elevator. On the left, a large window showed a surreal view. I wasn’t sure, but instead of seeing the moon or sun in the sky, I could see the blackness of space and it looked like we were near Jupiter! The only doors were the elevator and pool. There was no way outside, but I thought that was probably a good thing, since we seemed to be in space.
There was a phone on the desk and I picked it up. A recording of a high-pitched male voice repeatedly said, “Use the computer”.
After we ate and drank, we looked around a little more. Behind the reception desk Sam worked on what looked like a standard desktop pc, except the characters on the screen were something I had never seen before. “What’s the writing, Sam?”
“I’m not quite sure. It looks like maybe a blend of Chinese, Egyptian hieroglyphs, and ancient Greek? This will take me some time.”
Pedro said, “Let’s look around, but be careful.”
I opened the elevator and quite oddly, the back was clear glass and I could see the inside of the elevator shaft. I was very surprised at the labels on the buttons inside. Instead of floor numbers, there were: “Lobby, Pedro, Anna, Robin, Sam, Keisha, NY Grand Central Terminal.”
I called out, “Everybody! Come here! I think I found a way home!”
When everyone was inside, I pressed the button for “NY Grand Central”. We only felt a slight movement, and we could see the interior of Grand Central Station through the glass! A man sitting on the floor played guitar and people tossed him a few coins, until a policeman led him away. Before the cop was even out of sight, a girl with a violin took the guitarist’s spot and started to play. Hundreds of people walked from corridor to corridor, and in and out the exits to the street. I’d never cried from happiness before, but I started to.
I heard a click and Pedro said, “It won’t open.” I turned around and saw him press the “Door open” button a few more times. At the top of the glass at the back of the elevator, large red letters declared, “OUT OF ORDER. PLEASE PLACE A SERVICE CALL.”
Anna seemed the most upset of all of us. She said, “NO! I live thirty blocks from here! It has to work! We took the subway to Grand Central with our kids on the weekend, when we went to Central Park! I’ve been here hundreds of times! It has to work!”
We tried all the buttons that didn’t have our names on them several times, we tried pulling the doors open, and Pedro even closed his eyes and charged the glass, but it wouldn’t break. We shouted, but nobody on the other side seemed to hear us.
After several minutes, I decided to try the “Anna” button. We felt another small jolt and saw the inside of an old-fashioned apartment. The glass slid open and Anna said, “This is my first apartment! I lived here with my husband six years until we could afford a bigger place! Oh my God! It even has the same couch, the same table and chairs, even the same little black and white TV!”
I tried “Pedro” and we were at the door of another small apartment, but it was much more modern. Pedro said, “Dios Mio! I’m home!” He walked in and looked around. “It’s the same as I left it!” He looked on the table. “There’s even the newspaper from two weeks ago!” He held up the “Rio Grande Sun”. The rest of us walked in. I moved a curtain to look outside, but saw smooth granite instead of a window.
We tried the buttons with the rest of our names. Sam’s was his house near the University of Chicago and Robin’s was her bedroom at her parents’ place, which was normally a few miles from Sam. I wasn’t surprised when I pressed the button for “Keisha” and found a large empty barracks, with sheets and a blanket on only one of the 60 bunks.
When we returned, the breakfast in the lobby had been replaced with chili, chicken soup, sandwiches, and soft drinks. Sam went back to the computer behind the reception desk. The rest of us walked to the pool and discovered towels and swimsuits in a cupboard. We decided to take a swim to relax, and used the small changing room. I caught Pedro staring at my body several more times and didn’t mind.
Sam ran in and shouted, “Come look! You need to see this! It … they … just come look!”
We followed him to the computer in the lobby. On the display we saw a very strange creature. It had three legs, three arms, and was tall and slender like a tree. At the end of each arm was a hand with eight fingers. The color and texture of the thing’s surface looked similar to a mushroom.
We stared quite a while, until Sam said, “They call themselves the Myconians.” He clicked through pictures of several more, which looked very similar.
“And I found this. They call us ‘Species WDT’. We … we’re … this is a zoo! We’re in an alien zoo! We’re the animals! They’re watching us!”
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A WEEK LATER
At night we all slept on sofas or chairs in the ‘hotel lobby’, since we didn’t want to be alone after our recent experiences. Most of the food on the lobby table was typical of a cafeteria. Nothing tasted bad, but it wasn’t great either. Supper was always a salad and either fried chicken, spaghetti, or roast beef and potatoes. Lunch was usually sandwiches, raw veggies, and soup. Any time all of us were away from the lobby, the food would change at mealtime. Several times one or more of us stayed and waited for it to change, but it wouldn’t if somebody was watching.
Anna spent a lot of time sitting in the elevator, watching the events at Grand Central Station. Robin usually sat next to her playing games on her tablet. Pedro and I talked about tactics and combat skills, preparing for any further threats we might face. We also joked and flirted a lot when the others weren’t around.
Sam kept working on the alien language on the computer, but it was slow going. He figured out a few paragraphs’ worth a day, and none of it seemed too important. He said the aliens kept mentioning us lacking ‘dimensional rifting’ and ‘progenation’, whatever those were.
I pressed the elevator button with my name “Keisha” and walked around the barracks room once or twice a day. There was a box of military meals in a corner, and I took out an enchilada and rice pack for lunch. I was getting bored with sandwiches. When I returned the next day, it had been replaced and the box was full again. The others said the same happened at their places.
After supper one evening Pedro whispered to me, “Would you like a shower? I need somebody to wash my back.”
I kissed him briefly and told everyone, “I think Pedro and I will stay at his place tonight.”
Pedro and Sam blushed as Robin asked her grandfather, “Are they gonna screw?”
Sam was flabbergasted and tried to find an answer. “Well, uh …”
Anna laughed and told her, “They’re adults and with the way they’ve been looking at each other, it’s about time.” She turned to Pedro and I. “Go have fun, you two.”
I felt blood rushing to my cheeks as Pedro took my hand and led me to the elevator. We were even more embarrassed as Robin asked, “What does screwing mean? Is that love? Or is it sex? And is sex just lots of kissing?”
Pedro and I laughed when the elevator doors started to close and Sam replied, “I’ll tell you when you’re 21.”
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Pedro and I kissed and undressed in his bathroom, then washed each other intensely in the shower. He kissed me with gusto as he squeezed my boobs and butt, then washed my vulva to a powerful orgasm. I returned the favor, being sure to aim his jet of cum toward the drain. After we dried each other, he carried me to his bed and started playing with my breasts again. I tickled his nipples as I asked, “Do you have condoms?” He took one from a nightstand drawer and handed it to me.
I was shocked and threw the comforter over us when the elevator appeared at the door. I was relieved Anna was the only one in it. When the glass slid open, she excitedly said, “The aliens are talking to Sam! Get dressed!”
Back in the lobby one of the Myconids was on the computer screen and we heard strange noises. Text appeared at the bottom of the video, “From Caretaker 9042: Lack rift dimension passable. Myconid gift to species WDT. Progenation deficit explain. Excellent soil type which?”
Sam said, “The word ‘progenation’ seems to be related to ‘progeny’, or offspring. I think they want to know why we don’t have more children. It seems they will give us ‘rift dimension’, whatever that is. I have no idea why they are asking about soil.”
We wondered and discussed it for a while. We were even more confused when another message appeared. “Soil nearby water. Choose excellent now.”
Robin walked out, then said, “Come to the pool! There are a bunch of flowerpots!” We walked the few steps there and saw two dozen terra cotta pots with different types of dirt and sand in them. I don’t think any of us had ever been so confused before.
The alien patiently waited on the computer screen for a long time, but we had no clue what to type or say. After maybe half an hour, the video session closed and the computer turned off.
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Caretaker 9042 notes:
Species WDT Cycle 21
Video communication established with species WDT.
Offered 24 soil varieties, none chosen.
Current WDT status:
5 subjects, health 21/24 to 24/24.
Technology level acceptable.
Resilience acceptable.
Progenation unsuccessful. Genetic material deposited in water and failed to germinate.
Senior Administrator 0541 notes:
Supervisor 3614 was composted for missing reports and lack of result. Senior Administrator 0541 assuming direct supervision.
Resume per cycle reports.
Reduce feeding to 8/24 current until progenation explained or demonstrated.
Offer food reward and direct WDT to progenate each cycle.
Record and observe closely.
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The morning after the aliens put flowerpots of dirt in the pool area and asked us to pick which type was excellent, I woke up in Pedro’s bed with him snuggled up to my back. We got each other off in the shower the night before, but were too surprised and confused to do any more. His big hand felt nice on my belly, but my bladder was about to burst. He kept snoring quietly while I lifted his arm off me and got up. I dressed and went down to the lobby after a quick trip to the bathroom.
I saw the food from last night was still there, no breakfast. I thought it might have gone bad, but when I touched the edge of the big salad bowl it was cold. The half-full tray of fried chicken was still hot. I shrugged and thought aloud, “I guess it’s better than the time my squad got stuck in the mountains and ate nothing but granola bars for three days. Fried chicken for breakfast it is.”
As they got out of the elevator, I asked everyone, “One of us must have been down here. The food didn’t change from last night.” They all shook their heads, none of them had.
After we ate Anna and Robin returned to their usual spot, watching Grand Central Station in the elevator. Sam went back to working on the computer. Pedro led me to the pool and handed me a swimsuit. I smiled and asked, “Ever tried skinny dipping? The others will be busy for hours.” We kissed and undressed, then enjoyed a relaxing nude swim and a long make-out session naked in the pool.
Pedro sat on the bottom at the shallow end and asked, “Want to sit in my lap?”
That sounded wonderful! I was beginning to sit as Sam rushed in and covered his eyes. “Sorry! Last night I made a mistake translating. They didn’t ask us to pick EXCELLENT soil, they wanted us to pick SEXY soil. They seem to think we reproduce by putting seeds or spores in the ground! I only know a few hundred of their words. How can I ever explain how human reproduction really works?”
Pedro blushed furiously and stumbled over his words as he asked, “Um, Keisha… ah… do you… could we show… would… want to have a baby with me? So we can just show the aliens? And get married when we get home?”
I kissed Pedro and looked deep into his dark eyes. “Yes, I’ll marry you.”
I turned and said, “Sam, tell the aliens to watch us in the barracks in a little while. I’m gonna teach Pedro to SEXercise.” My new fiancé turned half a dozen shades of red, despite his caramel-colored skin, and I felt something round and firm pressing into my thigh.
As Pedro stood I kissed him and held his sexily masculine body tight to mine. Sam may have been watching, but I was so focused on sucking Pedro’s tongue that I didn’t notice or care.
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ELEVEN MONTHS LATER
I was glad Robin and Anna enjoyed helping Pedro and I take care of our new baby girl Astra. We thought the name fit, since she was born in space. After nearly a year stuck at the ‘Jupiter Hilton’, the six of us woke up on the floor of Grand Central Terminal ! We wondered if we had been drugged, or if it was all a dream.
Sam clarified things when he translated a pair of messages on Robin’s tablet:
Senior Administrator 0541 notes:
Species GTO, which the WDT refer to as 'Goats', ate the vine hats and satchels created by WDT-71, then returned to the camp in area x7912y8562 and consumed the improvised rope. They greatly prefer eating plant material reworked into tools by WDT.
Species WDT reproduces in a disgusting and totally unbecoming manner. Instead of immobile baby mycelia dropping spores which are collected and gathered by mobile juveniles, they do not reproduce until startlingly late ages. Their juveniles do not collect spores or coat them with their fertilizing waste, either. They don’t even HAVE ancient seed-mother trees, to combine the spore packets with their own genes and return the progenation packets to the mobile juveniles for planting! They only have TWO sets of chromosomes instead of six! Only two parents instead of three!
They must deeply miss having our progenation packets, which juveniles plant in the sexiest soils they can find. They’ll never know the glory of contributing to a progenation blast as a packet explodes and scatters thousands of fertilized spores, or see the spores grow into our cute and wonderful baby mycelia!
They have no adults, only juveniles which reproduce among themselves! They cannot even plant their progenation material, it gets stuck inside them! Their progeny burst out of their bodies!
Suggest we dispose of them. They’re repulsive!
Seed-mother 0014 notes:
This grove of species WDT exhibits many positive traits but still seem quite distasteful and strange. The other grove of WDT were violent to their own kind, let alone outsiders.
We cannot give WDT dimensional rift technology to save themselves. They cannot be trusted with it.
Return subjects and move their galaxy far enough to avoid the imminent collision with incoming antimatter galaxy.
Continue search and return when better test subjects are found.
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