Cowboys and Aliens Ch. 54

Mark laughed, "I'm not a self-proclaimed anything, they made me their king and it's my job to look after the citizens. A religious sect, that thought as you do, originally founded this island. They separated from the Federation and based their entire way of life around worshipping their lord and saviour. Guess what? It didn't work out very well for them and future generations eventually figured out that religion is simply a belief that, when taken to extremes, causes more harm than good."

The Bishop obviously wasn't used to being so thoroughly dismissed as a fraud and the men with him all had their hands on their pistols, but were hesitant to draw them after what happened to their cohort.

The stunned man regained his senses as Mark grabbed the gun and helped the man back onto his feet.

Mark stepped away as he inspected the archaic pistol, finally saying, "Wow, this thing is ancient!"

The man demanded. "Give me my pistol back."

Mark looked at the man. "If I give it back, you had better put it back in its pocket and not draw it on my people again. Any further attempts and we'll take the guns away. In fact, we should make it a rule right now. For any future visits, no guns or weapons are to be brought ashore."

Mark then returned the gun to the man and watched closely until he holstered the weapon.

The Bishop then asked, "May I be allowed to speak to some people?"

The mayor and senator looked at Mark, who simply said, "Knock yourself out. Just don't threaten anybody."

There was a small crowd that had gathered. Partly to see the visitors, but also just to see their King.

The Bishop turned to them and started preaching that they needed to respect the church and start believing in the Lord.

Immediately upon hearing that they needed to respect the church, most of them simply rolled their eyes, turned around, and started walking away.

The Bishop shouted, "Your souls will burn for—"

Mark cut him off. "Don't you dare threaten my people with your lies."

The Bishop sneered at Mark, then turned to the man holding the sticks and nodded.

The man unrolled the two red sticks and waved them in the air. Within seconds, the ship in the bay fired a cannon towards a building on the shore, while all the men with the Bishop, went to draw their pistols, but the security drones incapacitated them.

Before the ship could fire a second shot, two giant tentacles from the Kraken wrapped around the ship and broke it in half. They could see the few men on board jumping into the water as the ship was disintegrating.

The Bishop was aghast as he shouted at Mark. "You destroyed my ship."

Mark said, "So? You attacked our buildings and our people. We are going to take a walk over to the spot your ship fired on—you had better hope no one got hurt."

He then spoke to the mayor, "Get some of your men to pick up their sailors and escort them into the cells below the outreach centre. We are going to take the Bishop for a little walk."

The mayor asked, "What about their weapons?"

Mark waved his hand and the guns simply disintegrated, as the Bishop and the man with the flags stood there with their mouths open.

Mark, Edward, the Mayor and the Bishop, along with the mayor's men for security, started walking around the bay towards the building that was damaged.

Cricket confirmed to Mark that they had injured no one since the house was unoccupied.

It was still a long, solemn walk around the bay to the scene of the attack, but as they neared the area, they could see the attack destroyed one house and heavily damaged another. There was one couple and one family crying on the path in front of the houses.

As the mayor comforted the people, Mark looked at the Bishop and said, "You are so lucky that you hurt no one."

The Bishop just smiled, "I've still destroyed their homes. They've lost everything! Heathens."

Mark just closed his eyes, and the houses rebuilt themselves. Everyone gasped as the Bishop simply stared in awe.

Within a few minutes, both houses looked as if nothing had happened to them. The women gave Mark a hug and kiss on the cheek, while the men shook his hand and thanked him for rebuilding their homes. Mark simply apologized for anything they may have lost that was inside the home.

During the long walk back, the Bishop kept asking what they were going to do with him since they destroyed his ship and he was now stuck here.

Mark asked Cricket, "Find out if Maren has finished her round of golf."

Cricket replied, "She didn't go golfing, she's been up on the new ship checking it out. By the way, her vote is for Galatea as the name."

"Good! Could you have her bring the shuttle down here to pick up me and a couple of people? I need to open the Bishop's eyes."

By the time they had walked back to the outreach centre, Mark could see Maren's shuttle landing on the roof. Again, it amazed the Bishop to see a flying machine.

They reached the roof, and Gyges was standing at the back of the shuttle. In his deep voice, he said, "Maren said you needed some security. Is this the guy?"

Mark nodded as Gyges took the man and sat him in the middle seat on the port side of the shuttle, while Edward, Mark and Gyges sat on the starboard side.

From the pilot's seat, Maren asked as they were lifting off, "Where are we going, my King?"

Mark thought for a second and said, "It's only going to be a brief visit, but let's go to Atlantis."

Maren ramped up the speed as the Bishop looked absolutely terrified as he looked out the window at the rapidly shrinking planet. Edward just had a smile on his face.

Maren took them past the new ship so Mark could get a look at it. It looked just like a small version of the Defender, except this one was white with blue landing pods. She then took them past the space station, as Edward and the Bishop just stared out the window at the immense structure in space.

She then aimed for the hyperspace gate and seconds later they were entering the black void; 42 seconds later, they emerged on the other side with the Earth in front of them. She guided them directly toward Atlantis and asked where they wanted to go.

Mark suggested, "Poseidon's Temple," thinking that the museum would hopefully address the curiosity of both the Bishop and Edward. Plus, it was the most technologically advanced place in the Federation.

They were soon skimming across the surface of Atlantis toward the pyramid palace in Acropolis and landing on the palace landing pad. Maren gave Mark a kiss and said she was going to fly home for a bit and to call her when they were leaving.

Simply seeing people floating all around inside of the pyramid palace was eye-opening for the two men. Then it was a short walk outside to Poseidon's Temple. Again, the two men were in awe at seeing other species walking around and interacting with each other. What surprised them even more was meeting Cleo on the way to the museum and Cleo giving Mark a big kiss.

The four of them spent nearly an hour going through the lower portion of the museum and then went to visit an oracle room. Mark figured the Bishop could find whatever answers or proof he wanted in there.

The Bishop was only in there for a few minutes before he exited the room, very red in the face. Cricket snickered. "He's a stubborn one! He asked questions about religion and I told him the same thing as what you've already said. Then he asked if there was a Lord and I told him that in the many thousands of years I've been around, I've seen no definitive proof of any higher power. He then stormed out of the room."

Mark's wrist buzzed with a message. It was from Annabelle saying they finished their game and were heading up to the space station. Mark replied that he would see her soon.

Mark messaged Maren and then informed everyone, "They have finished their golf game. We should head back to Braga as we're meeting them for supper."

They walked back to the palace, took the hover elevator up to the mezzanine level, and then out to the landing pad. Back in the shuttle, Maren soon had them back in space. This time she took them past the significantly larger space station at Earth, where they saw many ships coming and going. They skimmed the surface of the moon, and it didn't appear as if they had developed anything more. Then it was straight to the hyperspace gate and back to Braga.

On the way, Mark was contemplating about whether they should bring the Bishop to supper, but then decided that he didn't want to risk a holy war and ruin a splendid meal. After all, they were introducing Edward and Jonah's families to their first professionally prepared meals.

Approaching the space station, it looked much larger than it did during the previous flyby. Edward and the Bishop's eyes and mouths were wide open as they peered out the windows while the shuttle touched down in one of the emergency hangars on the lower level.

Cricket must have informed the station to have security present when the shuttle landed, as two security personnel greeted them as soon as the ramp opened.

Mark instructed the security team, "If you could please escort this man to the holding cells; give him a one door cell with a view. I'll deal with him tomorrow."

Once they took the Bishop away, Mark, Maren, Gyges and Edward went to the medical centre where they met up with everyone else. Jonah, Rebecca, Elizabeth and Sandra were already in medibeds getting their checkups and the wrist comm implanted. The technician greeted Edward as Senator and guided him to the next available medibed.

Once he was away, Mark filled everyone in on what happened in Hubbard with the Bishop, and the ship using a cannon to destroy one house and damage another. Then how the Bishop's men were currently in lockup in Hubbard and the Bishop was in one of the holding cells on the space station.

Sandra was the first one out of the medibed, followed shortly after by Rebecca, Jonah, and then Elizabeth. Edward emerged about 5 minutes later, as they were all claiming they were hungry.

They went to the elevator and rose to the main level about halfway between the outer edge of the dome and the central tower/hotel. Beside the elevator was an information kiosk, which was staffed by Cricket's hologram. Annabelle asked, "What restaurants are available on the space station?"

The hologram answered, "There are currently two eating establishments on the Braga Space Station. The hotel kitchen has a comfortable and scenic dining room and also a sports lounge. Both are on the mezzanine level of the hotel, accessible via the central elevators or via the escalators from the park level."

They walked down the path through the park until they came to the escalator. They took it up to the mezzanine level, and the escalators were close to the central elevators. The restaurant dining area and sports lounge encompassed the entire mezzanine level, with two-thirds of the ring being the restaurant dining area and the sports lounge claiming the other third.

Depending on where you came off the escalators or elevators, there was a hostess desk for that section, except for the sports lounge. It just had a menu board and a list of what sporting events were currently being broadcast.

The hostess escorted them to a table along the outer window, so they could overlook the park. Mark and his gang ordered their usual drinks and the Colonia residents, who had never eaten at a restaurant before, more or less went with the suggestions of the others. The same went when choosing the meal. Edward and Jonah chose the steak sandwich that Mark ordered and Rebecca and Elizabeth followed along with what Annabelle ordered, which was a spinach fettuccine, smoked salmon and mushrooms in a creamy basil Alfredo sauce.

They couldn't believe the quality of the food, and they all commented that they now understood what Mark had said about tiring of the limited menus available at the outreach centres. Once they had finished their main courses, they also got to enjoy a variety of desserts. Again, not knowing anything about the desserts offered, Mark posed the question to everyone that they could just order one of everything and everyone could simply sample everything to find out what they liked.

Everyone agreed, but because it was the king that had asked, the chef actually created a plate for everyone that contained a sample of each of the desserts, as it would be a bit more sanitary. The chef accompanied the desserts to the table and explained a bit about each dessert to everyone. It was like a dessert tasting party and it went over fabulously.

With everyone stuffed and satisfied, the residents were eager to go home to their new houses and sleep in their new beds. Maren offered to give them a ride back, but now that the lifts could go between the outreach centres and the space station, they simply said they would take a lift home. That ability was a recent modification they were experimenting with; only Earth, Virgohn and Braga had that capability so far. The other recent modification deployed to every space station was a Zero-G Park, just like what was on the embassy at Earth.

As the two couples left, the rest of them made their way down to the lower hangar where Maren's shuttle was. Rather than sleeping in the outreach centre, they were going to live on their new ship.

As they boarded the shuttle, that was when Mark noticed Sandra had stayed with the group.

It was a crowded shuttle ride over to the new ship, which still didn't have an official name. Mark had informed everyone that he and Cricket had decided on designating it as a Nereid-class ship, so the topic of discussion during the ride was what to name it, with Cricket pitching in and going through all the Nereid names. In the end, they chose Galatea as the official name of the royal ship.

Maren had already scoped out the new ship, but everyone else now got their turn to check it out, so Maren took on the role of tour guide. Everything looked just like the hologram, except life-size.

Sandra commented about playing a round of golf or watching a movie in the theatre, but Maren said, "Golf and movies are fun, but I think you should check out the playroom first."

At the very mention of the playroom, everybody turned and ran to the elevator in the clubhouse, with Annabelle handing Joseph to Mark before running off to join the others.

Mark and Joseph went to the nursery off of the master bedroom, but after a few minutes of rocking, Joseph was asleep. Mark put him into the crib and pulled a blanket over the sleeping prince.

Mark knew they did not need him in the playroom, but the scenery was worth it, so he made his way down to the playroom. With the front section of the ship nearly 100 metres long, it was a nice leisurely walk down to the far end.

Upon reaching the playroom, there was naked female flesh everywhere. It was certainly stimulating, but they were all well into their activities, so Mark actually went to bed. His mind just wasn't in it, as his thoughts were considering what to do with the Bishop and his men.

Minutes later, Annabelle and Sandra walked into the bedroom, sans clothing. Annabelle pulled the sheets off of Mark, while Sandra started sucking his cock.

With a mischievous grin, Annabelle asked, "Whatcha thinking about?"

Mark smiled, "I was thinking about what to do with the Bishop and his men, but suddenly I'm thinking about wet pussies, supple breasts and soft lips."

"Sorry, not sorry," she said as she adjusted herself to put her breasts right in front of his face, swaying them back and forth with her nipples brushing his lips.

Mark started suckling the sweet milk from Annabelle's ample bosom as Sandra positioned Mark's cock at her tight pussy and slowly impaled herself.

Annabelle was moving like she was being fucked, so Sandra must have been playing with her pussy. Either way, Mark was concentrating on the beautiful breasts in his face and the wonderful sensation of Sandra fucking him.

It didn't take long before Annabelle started cumming and Sandra picked up the pace, furiously fucking herself up and down Mark's cock. As soon as she began to cum, her pussy contracted, which then prompted Mark's cock to stiffen and his balls to tighten as he squirted cum deep inside the teenager.

After a quick shower and a reset of the bed, they were soon fast asleep.