Every Man's Fantasy Ch. 23

This gave Ezra more time to himself, which he spent on the videolink to Samothea. He talked for hours every day to his bedmates, his children and his friends there. It made him miss them more than ever. He always ended up apologising that he couldn't come home yet.

His conversations were routed through the videolink in the Council Chamber to the Woodlanders' Forest Camp, the Mariners' Beach Settlement and all three of the Herders' main camps. As Deputy Prefect, Solange took charge of the videolink to make sure that the tribes got equal time with him. She also made sure that she had five minutes with him herself at the end of a session.

It was her special time and she felt no shame about taking advantage of her position. Unlike Ezra, who confessed to her:

"Solange, I feel guilty that everyone is so understanding. No one is upset with me for not coming home."

"Don't be so soft, will you?" she said. "You're staying on Celetaris for Annela's sake. No one resents it."

"I also have some business to do but I'll be home soon, I promise."

"You'll get here when you get here. Don't worry about us. We're tough women. If we can't have what we want, then we'll lump it until we can."

"You're amazing!"

"And you're a soft bugger. Well, your heart is. Another bit of you is good and hard. It did this to me."

Solange stood up and pulled off her dress, revealing her pregnant belly. She was wiry and strong, deceptively thin, except her thighs were nicely rounded, her buttocks plumper than normal. She also had tits like little sand dunes.

She turned sideways so that Ezra could see her tattooed belly thrusting out proudly and smooth.

"What do you think?" she asked.

"I wish I was at home with you. You're not making it easy for me."

"If we women have to lump it, then so should you. How's your cock?"

"Hard, thanks to you."

"Good."

"I love you, Madam Cowgirl."

"Love you, too, Earthman!"

******

With his extra time and energy, Ezra firmed up his plans with friends and associates on Earth, interesting his old creditors in a new venture.

Although Andrew Claydon's calculations suggested the prospects for Samothea were poor, yet nothing would happen for some time, so Ezra pushed on with his schemes. A week after the meeting with Andrew Claydon that seemed to doom the planet Samothea to wanton immigration, Ezra received some positive news. At dinner that night, he said:

"Annela, Freya: would you like to come to Earth with me?"

"Will it take long, Daddy?" asked Freya.

"We'll be gone at least a month. I have some people to meet and some property to sell."

"What about Charlie-dog?"

"Sorry, Sweetie, Charlie-dog has to stay here."

Freya looked sad.

"But there are dogs on Earth. I'll take you to stay with your Granny and Granddad. They have sheepdogs on the farm."

Freya had never met a sheepdog. As much as she would miss seeing Charlie-dog every day, meeting a sheepdog might compensate. Then Ezra played his ace card.

"Your grandparents live in a country called 'Australia', where there are kangaroos."

"Kangaroos!" exclaimed Freya. "Mummy! I want to meet a kangaroo!"

"What about Edgar?" Annela asked.

Edgar Fanshaw, owner of Charlie-dog, was a good friend to the visitors from Samothea. She enjoyed their daily chats and occasional tea-parties. Annela was concerned that he would be losing all his young friends for the summer.

"I'll ask him if he wants to come with us," Ezra said. "As an old friend of my Dad, maybe he'd like to visit him."

Mariotta Goldrick sent an invitation to Edgar Fanshaw. Aged 112, Edgar rarely travelled far and hadn't been to Earth for some years, though he had family and friends there, because it was a tiring three-day journey. With the new hyperdrive beacon up and running, however, it was less than a day's journey, including taking the Commonwealth Space Elevator down to Africa and an atmospheric ballista from there to Australia.

Edgar was keen. The danger of the flight didn't put him off. It was settled: he would take Nurse Smiley and Nurse Grumpy, who could have holidays on Earth.

With Edgar Fanshaw coming, they would go in more luxury than Ezra originally planned, but there were compensations Although he was no longer head of his company, which owned mines on Celetaris and businesses around the galaxy, Edgar Fanshaw had many rich friends on Earth who might want to invest in a new venture started by the famous discoverer of Samothea.

******

Danielle insisted that Roger decide what they do that summer.

"You've unfailingly supported me in everything I've done these last few years," she said, "so it's my turn to support you in what you want to do."

"I want to take a working holiday," he said. "It's research for my videobook."

Roger was compiling the history of the youngest colonies of the Anglosphere, including worlds progressing toward independent self-rule within the loose democratic federation.

"You don't mind making trips to these small and unimportant colonies? I can go alone if you've got better things to do."

"Better things than to admire my husband while he works? Roger, you devote your life to making my life easy. It's about time I did the same for you."

"You do already."

"Nonsense, husband. Anyway, it's settled. The summer is all about you. Where are you taking me first?"

"New Exeter. Pack your warmest clothes - and your airsuit."

******

Everyone was leaving for their summer destinations in a few days and Hazel and Wildchild were beginning to doubt the existence of Ezra's surprise.

Then one morning, Ezra dropped Annela and Freya off early at Danielle's flat and took a jetcar to Ocean City Astroport.

Danielle, Annela and the three girls went for a run around the park. Not needing to go to the medical centre for treatment, Annela came home with the others and took part in the friendly jostling that happened when there was a queue for the bathrooms.

The flat was cluttered with five healthy naked female bodies, waiting impatiently for their turn to wash. Trying to get women to hurry up in the bathroom is a cause of friction all over the galaxy. Roger wisely locked himself with Freya in the kitchen, where she did her favourite chore of helping him make breakfast.

Ezra arrived back in the middle of the meal. He had someone with him.

"Tatiana Ludmilla Tchernekova!" Danielle cried, recognising Ezra's companion as she entered the room.

She ran to hug Ezra's mentor, the Russian woman who'd befriended him when he was a young prospector, some twenty years ago. Tatiana and Ezra had lived and worked together for six months on her spaceship after his own ship had developed a fault and his crew were sent home. It was the best training he'd ever received as a Planetary Prospector. He also learned more about sex from Tatiana than from anyone else, before or since.

Annela knew who Tatiana was. She remembered a day in the forest when she and Ezra had made a bed of bracken and fucked like crazy. Afterward, he told her the story of his formidable Russian mentor and her funny ideas about sex. Annela wanted to thank Tatiana for teaching Ezra his trick with her g-spot.

She also remembered Ezra's description of Tatiana: stocky, with short dark hair, large brown eyes and a nose like an eagle's beak. She looked like a chest of drawers with breasts and a head.

Despite the passage of twenty years, Tatiana hadn't changed much. She still looked about fifty, having had a rejuvenation therapy. But her eyes were sad with a Slavic melancholy that no medical treatment could mask. She was smiling now, though, laughing happily and enjoying the attention of the whole family, as Danielle introduced everyone to her.

"This is Annela, Hazel, Samothea, Yael and Freya."

"Ai, ai, ai. Pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty!" Tatiana exclaimed, pointing to the girls in turn. "And you, little cherub," she said, putting her chubby hand on Freya's chubby cheek. "You're the special kind of lovely."

"Tatiana, this is my husband, Roger."

Tatiana shook hands with Roger.

"Good, good," Tatiana said with abundant approval, keeping hold of Roger's hand while she examined him closely.

"Strong hands. Means strong loins. ... You Englishman?"

"American, originally," Roger said, "but Celetaran now."

"American man, good. Good for sex. Rooshian man, no good. All wodka, no sex. A vooman needs a strong man; someone boss of her. Daniella, I like."

Tatiana looked around and saw everyone smiling at her, especially the girls.

"Ah, you laugh at strange Rooshian lady, da?"

"Please, Madam," Yael said earnestly. "We would never laugh at you. We're smiling because you're embarrassing poor old Roger."

"I don't think poor old Roger is happy with that soubriquet, Yael," Ezra said.

"Oh, but that's what Danielle calls him."

"I don't embarrass. I say it what is," Tatiana insisted, making almost sense.

"It's at least fifteen years since I met you, Tatiana," Danielle said. "What have you been doing?"

"I had the youthful treatment because I become married. I found husband. Big Rooshian man. Like a bear. Hairy all over. Strong loins. Good at the sex. I give up the work. Sell ship, the 'Voskhod'. I become housewife and make man happy. But he drinks wodka and gambles the money. Drinks and gambles. Then fights in bars. Worse thing: he wants drink but no sex. Me, I tell him: give up drink, gambles, fights. But he says 'No, I like.' So I go. I go buy new ship. Not Voskhod any more. Now Soonrise."

"Sunrise?" Roger asked.

"Da, 'Soonrise'. Because I am no longer the Rooshian," Tatiana concluded triumphantly. "Now I am the Anglospherical!"

Everyone wanted to ask Tatiana questions but Danielle used her authority as hostess to get the strange Russian lady seated at the dining table and supplied with breakfast.

Danielle didn't have to wait long to know what Ezra had planned with Tatiana for the girls (her girls, as she thought of them). He announced it when breakfast was over.

"Hazel, Wildchild," he said, "I've arranged with Tatiana to take you on a prospecting trip, to give you some experience in space, to learn the difficulties and hardships of the prospecting life."

The girls were wide-eyed and eager at this piece of news.

"It's true," Tatiana vouched. "Ezra and I make business plan. He paid to fit out Soonrise and I take her on special mission. You girls come. You enjoy. Very big risk. Ezra says you want danger."

"What danger?" Danielle demanded. "Ezra, what have you planned?"

"There's some risk, Danielle, but nothing Tatiana can't handle. She's the best in the galaxy at this stuff. Better than I ever was."

"Besides," he added, "Sunrise is fully equipped for the mission. She has extra heat and radiation shielding, a new telemetry system for ultra-short hyperspace jumps and lots of safety features."

"Heat shielding, ultra-short hyperspace jumps and safety features! Why? Where on Earth are you sending the girls?"

"To white dwarf star," Tatiana said, giving Danielle the star map reference. "Very strange star, very big danger," she added with a wink to the girls.

Danielle looked up the star's location and characteristics.

"It's bounded by a thick disc of dust in which there are asteroids and small moons," Ezra explained, "but the most interesting thing about the star is its strong magnetic field, which fluctuates wildly, causing compression waves that heat up the disc. The asteroids and moons nearest the star are at melting-point. Their centres are liquid lava."

"That's not so unusual," Danielle said.

"No. What's unusual is that many of the moons are in a gravitational lock with the star, so they keep a dark side away from the star all times. This means Tatiana can get to the inner moons by leaping to outer moons in turn, landing on their dark sides, where she's protected from the magnetic flux."

"When she gets to the inner moons with the active centres, then she can send out robot excavators to scoop up some of the lava. That will be the job of the girls. They'll operate the robots remotely from inside Sunrise. They'll pour the lava into collection tanks, where it can slowly crystallise in the magnetic streams, making new and interesting crystals. It's a natural laboratory. Who knows what useful and rare minerals can be discovered?"

Danielle was too appalled to comment. She stared at Ezra and shook her head.

"Is it really that dangerous?" Wildchild asked.

"Look at these measurements for electromagnetic activity," Danielle said. "The flux will fry the spaceship and everything in it."

"That's why Tatiana will leap to the inner moons without going through normal space," Ezra said.

"I practise much the meecro jumps," Tatiana said. "Now I am the expert."

"Why are you worried, Danielle?" Hazel asked.

"Because it's very difficult and extremely risky. I thought Ezra would take you to Earth's asteroid belt or show you a pretty planet with rings, like Saturn. I didn't think he'd send you into real danger."

"It's not really that dangerous, Sis," Ezra said. "It's just a case of going carefully. Tatiana knows how to be careful."

"You always go carefully yourself, Ezra. How many times did you almost die?"

"Six times."

"What about Samothea?"

"Seven times."

"We'll be careful," Hazel assured Danielle.

"But you girls have no experience, no backup, no safety training. What do you know about landing on a moon full of boiling lava?"

"Nothing, Danielle; but I'm sure Tatiana won't put us in danger, and we'll obey her in everything she says."

"Don't worry, Daniella," Tatiana said. "I teach them. It's best training. I am the Prospector fifty years. No problems. Not dead yet. Pretty girls are safe with me. I teach them the meecro jumps."

"But they're precious to me, both of them, Tatiana. Samothea knows how much I want to teach her physics."

"I'll be back to learn physics, Danielle, I promise," Wildchild said.

"They're sensible girls, Sis," Ezra said. "They're the most intelligent, courageous and gifted young people I know. They'll be careful. And this will be the best lesson they can learn as prospectors. It seems dangerous but Tatiana and I have gone over the mission parameters many times and it's really no more dangerous than the jump you and Roger will make to New Exeter."

"I want to go over the parameters myself."

"I'll show you and you can check all our work. Will that ease your mind?"

"No, but it'll help. ... Girls, I hope you're not offended by my interfering?"

"We're not offended at all," Wildchild said. "We know how much you love us."

"We love you, too, Danielle," Hazel added. "We're glad you want us to be safe. I'm sorry I can't obey you, but this is the kind of adventure I've wanted my whole life. When you live on a planet like Samothea, where almost nothing ever happens, you crave trying to do something risky with lava pits."

"I understand," Danielle said reluctantly, "but I won't be happy until I've checked the mission plan myself."

******

That lunchtime, the girls met Ed and Rod in the park after the lads finished a morning exam. They went to say goodbye to the boys and explain why they couldn't spend the summer with them. The boys were properly alarmed at the risk but, even more, admired the courage of their friends.

The girls brought packed lunches and they sat on their favourite park bench to share them.

Angie, Ed's ex-girlfriend, was with two friends on the other side of the lawn, taking a stroll in the sunshine. She saw the four friends sitting on the bench, chatting and laughing. The boys were courteous and attentive. Ed held a paper plate for Hazel and she wiped a crumb off his shirt. This tiny gesture sent Angie over the edge.

She left her companions and strode over to the bench. No one noticed her until she was within striking distance. She pulled her arm back and aimed a slap as hard as she could at Hazel's cheek.

The slap never connected. With instant reflexes and a lot more strength than Angie, Wildchild caught the girl's arm and held it still, inches from Hazel's face.

Everyone got up.

"What are you doing, Angie?" Ed demanded.

"Are you mad?" asked Rod.

But Hazel didn't say anything. She sat there shocked.

"Ow!" cried Angie. "Let me go!" as Wildchild squeezed her wrist, but Wildchild squeezed harder, forcing the girl onto her knees. Angie tried to get free, but she could neither shake off Wildchild's grip nor prise Wildchild's fingers away.

"Why did you attack my girlfriend?" Wildchild asked.

Angie just moaned and didn't answer.

"Hazel's done nothing to you," Wildchild said.

"You're hurting me!" Angie whimpered.

The two soft-hearted men asked Wildchild to let her go but she ignored them.

"Why did you attack Hazel?" she demanded again, squeezing even more tightly.

Now Angie was crying in earnest, kneeling in the dust, sobbing.

Hazel said to Wildchild:

"Let her go, Samothea."

Wildchild immediately released Angie, who sank down, holding her bruised arm in her lap, tears running down her cheeks.

Hazel spoke softly to her.

"Angie, I don't know why you hate me but I'm sorry I made you angry. I didn't mean to."

With that, Hazel took Samothea's hand and led her away.

Angie stayed on the ground, whimpering. Ed just stood there, watching the girls leave.

"Go after them, you idiot," Rod said to him. "I'll take care of Angie."

Ed ran to catch up with the girls. They walked quickly hand-in-hand. Hazel hadn't been in a fight since she was a little girl, when there had been hair-pulling and scratching. Wildchild used to fight all the time and she fought like a man, with fists and kicks. Yet it was Hazel who was shaking. Wildchild was icy calm. She held Hazel's hand tightly, trying to reassure her.

They didn't walk far. The two girlfriends that Angie had been with came over. They'd seen the whole drama and had something to say.

"Hazel," one of them said, "we're friends of Angie. We're really sorry for what she did. We don't know what's got into her. She's been off lately, but nothing like this."

"It's all right," Hazel said.

"She's jealous," the other girl said, "of you and Ed."

"Why should she be? Ed and I aren't lovers."

"We don't know why. She just is."

At the bench, Angie got up to run after Ed but Rod stood in front of her to stop her.

"Get out of my way," she said.

"No, I'm keeping you here for your own protection. I've never hit a woman but I bet Samothea has. If I let you go over there and she messes up your lovely face, then you'll only have yourself to blame."

This didn't frighten Angie, who was still angry. She aimed a kick at his shin. He moved his leg just in time.

"Angie, you really are a bitch!"

She looked shocked. She had never heard Rod use such language before, nor insult a woman, yet she made to push past him and Rod held her back, accidentally grabbing the arm that Wildchild had squeezed.

"Ow!" she yelped.

"You deserve it!" he said but he let go of the wounded wrist.

However, the pain from Rod's manhandling reminded Angie how strong Wildchild was. Purple bruises in the shape of Wildchild's fingers were already flushing angrily on her skin. She sat down on the bench, nursing her arm and sobbing in frustration and self-recrimination.

Rod sat next to her.

"What is this about, Angie? You broke up with Ed just when the exams started and he was no more use to you. Now you want him back. Are you that jealous?"

She said nothing.

"You weren't so stupid as to break up with him just to test him, were you?"

Angie glared angrily at him.

"Or is it something else? ... How are the exams going for you?"

She glanced away quickly.

"That's it! You're mucking up your exams and you want Ed back to help you."

Angie looked distraught. Her face was a full confession.