Chapter 14
Falling towards a planet was an easy thing, you just shoved against your orbital vector, and you started falling. The temperature inside Onuka remained steady, but the rush of noise was tremendous, as they were caught up in a storm. Seeing through the firestorm was impossible. Other than radar, all surface sensors were offline during re-entry. Jon debated the word re-entry, seeing how they had never first entered here, but maybe having ever been planet bound entitles one to use re-entry. They decelerated with the thicker air, falling backwards, and then rotated around and fell into the descent. Artificial gravity had diminished as planetary gravity increased. Onuka orientated to this so that the floor for Jon was down. This was definitely up down for it, too, but only within the context of a gravimetric field. They passed through a cloud. The temperature dropped significantly. They fell into a gentle rain, dived into an ocean, where the sound outside changed in pitch again. They rose to the surface and pushed towards their intended shore, like a submersible. As they traveled into shallower water, more effort was made to rise above, coming almost full out of the water, and then finally, Onuka settled.
“Okay, so the plan is, you two stay here in hiding, I am going to go scope the land,” Jon said.
“Be careful,” Lilith said.
“I will,” Jon said. “And if something happens, you two will come save my ass.” “Maybe,” Loxy said, playfully.
“Yeah, maybe,” Lilith said.
“Maybe?” Jon said.
“I won’t be able to come out till sunset. This cloud cover will not protect me from the ultraviolet radiation,” Lilith said.
“You’re allergic to sunlight?” Jon asked.
“I am allergic to this sun’s light,” Lilith said.
“I guess we don’t have sunblock,” Jon said.
Lilith shook her head. She was happy to dress Jon in gear she had purchased in her outing. A cloak with a hood, and rain boots. She gave him his mail bag with a med pack and he slung it over his neck, letting it fall to his right side. She stayed on the main cabin side of the airlock. Jon put his hand against his side of the barrier, towards her. She mirrored.
“I’ll be back,” Jon said.
The nose opened for him and he step out onto a new world. The nose closed behind him as he waded up the rest of the way to a stone pebble beach. The beach was gray. The sky was gray and the rain was steady. He was off the beach, climbing up an incline before he saw her. She appeared to be human. She hesitated. Jon saw a scattering of rabbits across the field. The woman ran to him and embraced him. She cried. She was tall, in her thirties, and was fit, probably from necessity and diet of rabbits, which alone wouldn’t have sustained anyone for long. Her hair fell to her mid back and blew in the breeze, tangling with the dress that chased the hair into the breeze. Her blue eyes hinted at tech, a shimmer with sparkles.
“I thought no one would ever find us,” Lanza said. She fell away. “I am sorry. Come, come. Our home is this way.”
Jon followed her and she chatted away, nervously, pretty much the flibbertigibbet.
“You’re pretty old to be such a new pilot,” Lanza said. “But you’re human, you’re clearly healthy. Symmetrical. Good genes. You can never tell about a man’s genes until he has a good age on him. Never trust a young man’s genes, my mother would say. You want to know how he weathers before you give him kids.” She took up his hand. “And you’re clearly not afraid of work. You had a hard life. Is that why you became a pilot?”
“Pretty much,” Jon said. “I thought traveling would be a change of pace.”
“I so miss being out there,” Lanza sighed. “Have you made a lot of jumps? I am sorry.
Listen to me rattle on. You can hardly get a word in edge wise.” She continued to talk, though. On an open plateau of grass and rabbits and shrubs, there was a solitary, sand butte of three primary colors. The sides of it were almost perfectly strait. It was clear they were heading towards that. As they grew closer, there was indication of a cave. They entered into a quaint cavern, a few stone surfaces, some simple wood furniture, and a couple of artifact of tech that might have been the remains harvested from a bioship. There was a fire going, and a man lying next to it. Jon immediately went to the man and knelt over him, allowing Loxy to use his eyes and tech to see.
Jon felt the jab to the back of his neck and the sudden rush of pain of something unpleasant being injected into him. He fell straight down on his face, on top of the man. He observed from his eyes the world roll, he felt the hands turning him, which was Lanza turning him over on his back. His eyelids remained open. He could feel everything, but he couldn’t move. Not completely true. He felt his lungs moving, his heart beating was loud in his ears, but his limbs were not listening, his mouth didn’t make the words he was trying to make.
“Get up,” Lanza said.
The Man Jon presumed to be the husband stood. He stood and waited for further instructions. His eyes remained lifeless.
“I am so sorry for this,” Lanza continued to talk, leaning over him, checking his breathing. She smelled his breath. “God! Clean breath. I could so just take you now, but, I got to secure your ship. I can’t risk it bolting away, now can I? Don’t worry. I am not going to kill you. I need you. My children need you. Oh, they’re going to eat you alive. See, this is my world. I am not giving it to Biocorp or the Republic. As best as I can gauge, this world was seeded by
Founders three billion years ago. It’s a paradise just ready for a sentient race to move in. I’ve got my children on seven continents, thriving, but we need an infusion of more genetic material, and well, you’re the man. By default. It helps that you’re cute, but quite frankly, at this point, whatever the wind blows in will do.”
She took a probe from a pack and held it against his head. “Probably think I can’t get in your ship, but with this probe, I will walk right on. Your ship will sense the echo of you and think you’re with me,” Lanza said. The probe’s light changed green, showing the pairing had been achieved. She put it in her pocket. “Unfortunately, your ships as to be grounded, permanently. I promise I won’t kill it, but it will have to remain sea bound. I need her genetic material as well. I don’t know if you encountered them, but there are free ranging bioships in this system. They are not limited to this system. They can jump without Founder Tech and Quantum Drives. I am sure Biocrop made their ships by modifying these. It is my hope, with the genetic material from your ship, I will breed a line of free ships and I will claim this system and the surrounding systems, and build an empire of my own.”
Lanza acquired a tool bag, handed it to her husband. He didn’t respond until he was told to respond. She grabbed additional gear. She paused once more over Jon.
“If you fight me, you will end up like my husband,” Lanza said. “Virtually brain dead. You can have a great life here. I only have daughters on this planet. They’re hungry. Seriously hungry. They won’t know you’re not the best looking specimen. They will only know one thing. They want daughters of their own. You could have more offspring than Genghis Kahn and mine and ours will cater to you. You just have to cooperate. But, you don’t have to. I don’t need your brain to grow and collect your sperm. Think about it.”
Lanza stared into the shadows of the cave. “I know you’re there. You can play with him, just don’t injure him the way you injured dad. If I come back and he’s dead before I get a turn on him, I will kill you all myself.”
Lanza departed. Jon stared up into the flickering of light of the fire on the ceiling. He could hear movement and then they were surrounding him, debating a thing in foreign language. There was shoving and fighting between them. He felt himself being groped, his clothes were removed. Whatever it was that was injected into him, it clearly simulated or recreated ‘sleep paralysis.’ That was mechanism that kept people from acting out in REM sleep. Though he was clearly awake, his brain was convinced he was dreaming, and the more he tried to move, the more his body locked down, thinking this was a nightmare. He knew enough to relax, that relaxation was the only way to break out of sleep paralysis, but they were already taking turns. He was mounted by someone who was grinding out of desperation. They were making a game of it to see who can make him cum the fastest. She was leaning back, reaching behind her, painfully squeezing testicle. Someone slapped her, saying the only word he recognize “Fair!”
“Oh!” the rider said.
There was cheering and they tore her off him. Someone else mounted. They held the first girl down, trying to get some for themselves, fingering off spillage and touching themselves. Whatever he had been given, also lowered the refractory period. He remained primed and ready, and it wasn’t taking much effort to arrive. He lost count of riders. He lost count of how many faces were in his, forcing his lips apart to examine his teeth. He lost track of the kisses and tongues, and he was wet and sticky with saliva and other juices. One rode his chest, grinding herself off while hugging her favorite sister, who was having her turn.
It ended when Amy arrived with their mother. She was bound with sex cuffs. Amy held a weapon that belonged to Lanza, and she was pointing it at Lanza. The daughters scattered. Except one. She fell to her knees in front of Amy and her mother and pleaded. Amy was a giant compared to these girls, compared to Lanza.
“Do not kill mother,” the girl said. “Please. Do not. Kill me instead.”
“I am not going to kill her,” Amy said. “But this stops.”
The girl stood. Others came out of the shadow. Amy brought Lanza forward so she could inject Jon with an antidote. It worked instantly. Like waking up. He scrambled to his feet and dressed.
“You okay?” Amy asked.
“Conflicted,” Jon said.
“One of your fantasies, though,” Amy said. “Who was it, Abbott and Costello on
Venus?”
“Minus the humor,” Jon said.
“How can you afford a sex bot and crew?” Lansa asked. “You’re just a rookie!” “I am really lucky,” Jon said.
“You’re not that conflicted,” Amy said.
“Not so much,” Jon said.
“Please, don’t sell the coordinates to my world,” Lansa said. “The population hasn’t risen to the threshold to allow us ownership.”
“How many people are on this planet?” Jon asked.
“One hundred, fifty thousand,” the girl answered.
“All of you are daughters of Lanza and her husband?” Loxy asked.
“No,” the girl said. “Mother has had two husbands. She also procured donor human eggs from off world for increased diversity.”
“Don’t tell them anything,” Lansa said.
“The game is over, mother,” she said.
“What is your name?” Jon asked the girl.
“Tory,” the girl said. “I am a first, and one of the few trained in biochemistry. I have access to limited tech in order to provide my services.”
“Services?” Amy said.
“There are fifty bio stations. Each has a hundred artificial wombs, so we can introduce new life forms. Each station has automated caregivers, like yourself,” Tory said, referring to the android body. She knew Amy was tech. “We can birth any creature we need, or want, but we have focused only on the human population at this time. It was our desire to reach critical population before being discovered. We would own the world by default. There are four bio stations situated on the moons of the gas giants, and we have sisters there. If this world is deemed ours, this system will be ours. All the citizens of this world, and the moon colonies, are from mom, and or one of the two fathers.”
“Seriously?” Jon asked.
“A female has roughly three million eggs at birth,” Amy said. “With the right tech, it would be feasible to create a sizeable population from one female. Just one male’s ejaculate released has a million viable sperms. Just one male and one female could potentially provide such a range of diverse children you could arrive at a dozen new races within several generations, given a diverse environment.”
“There is a hundred thousand people here, from one female, and two males?” Jon asked. “The stations remain active, and each female who becomes of age, participates in raising the next. Eggs are sorted for optimization,” Tory said. “Back while mom’s bioship was still flying, she did procure donor human eggs to introduce more diversity. She has been hyper selective in her procuring process, sorting first for extreme physical fitness, longevity, then intelligence. She imposes a second level of control by not allowing any males to be born. She creates in her lab, sorts according to her needs, and then distributes through in vitro. There have been no colonist. Everyone here was born here. I am taught only those born here will fully evolve and adapt to being here, to this gravity, to this life, and these strange seasons.” “Where is your ship?” Jon asked.
“Why should I tell you? You’re going to destroy us. The moment you go back, this world will become Indigo property,” Lanza said.
“Where is her ship?” Jon asked Tory.
“It has long since passed. Her bioship, and the bioship of her first husband, were used to genetically alter the sky people,” Tory said.
“The Little Ones?!” Jon asked.
“You encountered them?!” Tory asked.
“Yes, they’re very friendly,” Amy said.
“They are?” Tory asked. “They did not run from you?” “They ran to us,” Jon said.
“That is strange,” Tory said. She looked to her mother. “What are you doing to them that they run from us?”
“You are smart, but you would never understand,” Lanza said. “Traitor.”
“Mother, they’re listening to us. They’re being reasonable, considering context. Maybe they will help us. Maybe they won’t sell our location, knowing what we want to build here,” Tory said.
“You still have access to a ship?!” Jon said.
“Her second husband was a pilot for a metal ship,” Tory said. “It is parked above. There is access to the top through a lift at the back of the cave. Only she can fly the ship. She carries the implant from second husband, so that it thinks she is he. It will only fly for her.” “These bio stations, they can’t be cheap,” Jon said.
“Second husband was wealthy, and he considered mother’s dreams and ambitions reachable, and so he contributed with an initial automated manufacturing laboratory. It is station in the Oort cloud, where robotics gather materials, create the necessary artifacts, and then places them. It is still functioning and caters to mother’s needs. The worlds and moons in this system are pristine, they will be kept that way by limiting the production of heavy metals off world.” Jon looked to Amy. He was aware of Lilith listening. He was pretty sure the two of them counseled.
“How many people have to be here before you have legitimacy claims to your colony?” Amy asked.
“Two hundred fifty thousand,” Tory said.
“You’re not thinking,” Jon began.
“In for a penny,” Amy said.
“Seriously?!” Jon asked.
“So, you will help us? You won’t sell our coordinates?” Tory asked.
“We can delay, but probably not stop someone from getting here,” Jon said. “Biocorp has coordinates to the space about five months out.”
“Unless Hali let them expire knowing you would bring back these coordinates,” Amy said.
“Why would they waste the resources just to keep that coordinate live when they believe
I’m coming back with better?” Jon asked.
“If what mom said about Biocorp is true, they will have backup in case you fail to return,” Tory said.
“So, assuming Hali has a backup plan, we have a minimum of five months if they pushed now, but assume they might wait a month or two before we start being missed, and if we show up in a month, that would give us another month on the clock,” Amy said. “I am in agreement with Lilith, this is doable.”
“What is doable?” Jon asked.
“We donate enough sperm to impregnate the population. In 9 months, there could be well over 250,000 citizens. Assuming 150,000 people here are adult female. And if everyone carried twins, plus the bio stations. Even the Androids governing the station can be host to offspring,” Amy said.
“Have you factored in child support?!” Jon snapped.
“Yes, we will support you,” Tory said.
“What? No, you don’t understand,” Jon said.
“Jon, we’d be investing in a world,” Amy said. “We would be co-owners in prime realestate.”
“You would join us?” Tory asked.
“Not in your mom’s empire building scheme, but in co-owning a system, accommodating a jump point for Biocorp and or the Republic having a base of operation here, even if it’s just a satellite, yes,” Amy said. She translated a request from Lilith. “That, and for us to agree to help, there must be males. No more limiting to females only.”
“The men of the world screw things up!” Lanza said. “You don’t realize how much pain and suffering they bring to the cosmos.”
“Maybe. And maybe women do, too,” Amy said. “But this world is out of balance and that brings its own level of misery. We are in this together or not at all, male and female, together.”
“We agree,” Tory said.
“You don’t speak for me or this world,” Lanza snapped.
“No one does, mother. That’s the point. If they go and bring back Biocorp, this operation is over. They will farm us out or relocate us,” Tory said. “And you, you will go to a jail-box for breach of contract, and perhaps even murder and attempt to kidnap.”
“I didn’t kill him! You kids damaged him beyond repair, just like you did my second,” Lanza said.
“What you expect?” Tory asked. “Adults females also want sex, and they get crazy because they don’t have men around to practice being appropriately social.”
“Oh, don’t blame this on me,” Lanza said. “I have given up everything to make this place safe, and you are fucking it up for everyone.”
“We need him, we need a contract with a druid for more creatures to increase the biodiversity on this planet,” Tory said. “We need men. We need improved relationships. We need a form of government that isn’t a dictatorship. You are kind when you want to be, mother, but you are not a queen.”
Jon frowned at Amy.
“Can I see you on virtual deck?” Jon asked.
Jon and Loxy arrived on virtual deck. Lilith was already there, watching and listening to everything. Lilith side hugged him as they drew closer together for conference. Jon found it fascinating that he could see himself through Amy’s eyes on the screen that was a window against the virtual deck’s barrier. There was also a ‘window’ where he was seeing through his eyes, with Amy, Tory and Lanza captured in his field of vision. Lanza and Tory were arguing.
“You’re both serious about this?” Jon asked.
“We would own territory, by default, which means Hali would own through us, which brings her closer to retirement,” Amy said. “We would be given privileges and awarded income for allowing operations to exist in this system as a bridge to the nearby systems. If Lanza is smart, and I suspect she is…”
“In an evil sort of way,” Jon said.
“Probably, but she put bio-stations on the water moons of the gas giants, and there are oceans under those ice; those worlds would make great fisheries and floating farms enough to feed a thousand worlds,” Amy said.
“And, you and I will have children,” Lilith said. “Something I can’t give you.” “Being a sperm donor to a hundred fifty thousand plus children doesn’t make me a parent,” Jon said.
“We can make a virtual copy of you and put it in all the bio-stations, and they would have access to everything about you. They would know you,” Amy said. “They would know you the way I know you. The real you, unmasked.”
“Do you know how long it will take to impregnate a 150,000 females?” Jon asked.
Lilith laughed. Loxy took a time out to get the information, and they heard the question via the ‘window’ on the barrier: Amy asked Tory for statistics. Loxy didn’t virtually leave, but her eyes went distant and then came back. She smiled. “Given the available tech, 24 hours. You wouldn’t exactly be sleeping with any of them, we just have to collect a couple of samples, the tech will distribute to each station accordingly, artificial wombs will be impregnated, and the daughters will also come to be impregnated. A drone will deliver samples to each lunar station. In forty eight hours, we will have statistics on how many pregnancies took. Meanwhile, we will continue to have you provide enough samples that people can try again, or after a year, they can produce even more.”
They heard Tory on the screen, “It’s the only way. Securing another donor that is free and clear of any domain would be extremely difficult. You fly for Biocorp, but you are a free agent. Which means, what, you made enough money to buy your freedom, which means, we need you to secure our world. We need you as a parent and a sovereign member of our society.”
Tory touched Jon in the real world. “We need you. Or they will farm us out. They won’t care that we are victims of mother’s aspirations to create a competing empire. If you want a title, we will agree to more. Hell, you would have no shortage of wives. You could be the king that keeps mother in check.”
“I don’t want to rule,” Jon told her, it was funny hearing his voice through a secondary medium. “Having a place to call home, that would be nice.”