53 Miles West of Venus Ch. 05

Peggy was out from her office but I showed her where it was... and where the infamous iced-tea cooler was. She almost took a drink right then and there just to spite me, but I told her that I had one last stop on the official new employee tour to take her to. Down to the bottom Level Four and another slightly longer visit to Waikiki Beach.

"You got a decent glimpse at the nice natural cavern and artesian lake down here on your last visit, but I wanted to fire up the generator to turn on the lights to give you a bit of a better look around and explain one minor policy or two, last thing before I leave you more or less to your own devices."

With the generator turned on and the array of external lights now lit, the entire cavern was lit up entirely and sparkled. About a hundred rows of multicolored flashing Christmas lights strung across the cave walls and even a mounted disco ball and strobe light helped to make the final light show effect much more intensely colorful. To the left was a series of small waterfalls and wall seepages that let water flow leisurely into the natural cavern, to slowly flow out from a small passage at the far right end, to the west.

"Officially, the cave and the lake are off-limits during the week, especially if you're here alone by yourself, but no one heeds this rule much. Friday nights all of the gals all come down here together and have a bit of a group nude swim and romp, party and let down their hair for a few hours. The girls with the girls, as you said. No guys allowed, even when we had a few of them working here in the past. Saturday nights used to be for both gals and guys, but it's just women working down here now, as I mentioned earlier. Sometimes couples will come here during the week for a swim after work and some 'private time' together, but not every night. Peggy calls this 'Bare-Ass Beach' on Friday nights, but Claire calls it 'finger-painting night' or time to 'paddle the pink canoe'. Cherry and I just usually call it 'Love Beach'. Need I say more? Don't come down here on a Friday night unless you're inviting everyone to take a very intimate tour of your strata and want foreign objects and body parts invading your outcrop!

"One other thing," I added before turning off the generator and the lights, "Do you see that long string of blue and white swimming pool lane floats down near the west end? That's a warning barrier to remind you not to swim past that spot so that you can avoid the runoff current downstream. There's a small spillway just on the other side of the floats running down from that end of the pond leading to a fifty foot drop down into the next set of natural caverns beyond. We don't go there. The water's quite warm but comfortable enough and the current in the lake is negligible, so if you stay swimming on this side of the floats you'll be just fine with no worries, just don't swim alone down here. Keep to the buddy system!"

I let Fredi get off the elevator at Three so that she could have a brief talk with Peggy who was now back in her office... and undoubtedly a cup of herbal tea or two. The stuff is addictive... but fortunately it doesn't do much for men to hike up our already abundant sex drive. On Poravuvu the island priests use those same floral herbs as an aid to meditation and contemplation and also as part of their elixir for 'Dream Questing', to seek visions in their sleep. For the priestesses... well, sex has always been a popular means of worshiping their Gods and they're very enthusiastic about those sorts of rites in any case! Weaker blends of the tea can be found in nearly every island bar, restaurant or home on Poravuvu and help to maintain the reputation the island has always had for possessing very friendly Polynesian women of scandalous morality!

As for Fredericka, a week of drinking that stuff will undoubtedly make her the center of attention on Love Beach by next Friday night, if not sooner. Well, you can't say that I didn't warn her!