Henrich's World Ch. 02

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The three redheads and I cuddled in my large bed with our clothes on. We laid in a pile of sad and worried bodies, holding each other in a search for tranquility. There was no sex or even any thoughts about it. As I finally reached moderate comfort, I slept and dreamed back to my final months of college and my powerful crush on Rettenna.

Most people had just called her by her nickname, "Red". Her luxuriant scarlet curls flowed downward, past her amazing head-sized bosoms, and nearly touched her slender waist. Every time she strode up or down a staircase, her splendidly curvy butt bounced enticingly, just like her gigantic jugs. I was sure she was the most attractive girl in a university of three thousand students.

She sat in front of me in Literature class, which is the main reason I never managed more than a 'C minus' in the subject. Having a nearly constant hard-on as I stared at Rettenna made it terribly hard to focus on Cervantes, John Milton, or Voltaire. At the end of the class period, I held my tablet over my swollen and aching crotch as I went across the hall to Ancient History. Being near Red was the highlight of my day.

I saw what I had long been dreading on the large display at the front of the History classroom, "The Horror Age". It was restricted to students at least age 21. Even as adults, most of us could barely handle it. At the end of the first class everyone left with tears in their eyes, even the professor. The Horror Age started with the Unification War of 2106. The entire war only lasted three hours and Humanity nearly died out. In less than the time between breakfast and lunch, most of Earth's great nations had attacked each other with swarms of armed drones, stealth assassin robots, chemical weapons, atomic bombs, and beam weapons. The most advanced faction even used a satellite weapon that dropped huge numbers of metal spikes from space, which penetrated hundreds of meters into the ground before exploding like meteorites. Nowhere on Earth was safe, and only a million or so people survived out of blind luck.

Three hours of war and the fallout and chemical contamination it caused had nearly exterminated our whole species. Over eleven billion perished because of religious differences and a trade agreement gone wrong. It was called the Unification War because it unified everyone who lived through it. It was suddenly obvious that survival was far more important than any religion, petty political grievances, or greed for resources. The Horror Age encompassed the irrational and idiotic causes, the war itself, and the hundred and thirty years that followed. People struggled to stay alive in the wreckage. They had to re-learn lost and ancient skills to survive like primitive hunter-gatherers. Eventually they rebuilt and repopulated, until humanity finally reached out into space again in 2240. We hadn't gone out like the dinosaurs but had been perilously close.

Remembering the lessons about mass death, shredded cities on fire, and lifelong hardships put me in the wrong mood for how I awoke. Trisinna was smiling at me from only centimeters away, but I felt like crying. The melancholy expression on my face must have upset her, because she rolled off the bed and backed away from me.

Her speech had an odd pattern to it and some of her words cut off suddenly, but it was an improvement over the day before. "Jonas, I'm so sorry we're not what you expected. I hope you can find it in your heart to love us. Or at least accept us." She looked like she wanted to cry too.

"It's not you! I had a terrible dream. It's okay." I got up and gave her a calming hug. "Let's get some breakfast, then I have a lot of work to do."

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I put my hearing protection on and went back to the mass driver. The bots were loading projectiles at a pace of one every four minutes, which would be just fast enough to load the ship in time without overheating the gun. Since ships took 30 hours to reach orbit from the wormhole, and vice-versa, they only had five days in orbit before they needed to leave.

In the shack I saw the driver coil temperature was past the red line and wondered what was wrong. I looked at the cooling water stats and saw there was only ten percent of the flow required for normal operation. I quickly shut it off, then hurriedly removed the water hose and saw it was plugged with small pebbles. I ran to the river and discovered the cause. The rain during the night had filled the river and increased its flow enough to pull the wire mesh filter partly off. As I cleared the hose and put the screens back, I thought about the awful situation my girls were in.

I debated the morality again, wondering if it would be right for me to do anything sexual with them, since part of each wasn't legal age yet. I wanted to, but couldn't find a logical or moral way to justify it. I couldn't be physical with any of them until they were fully 21. Even discounting that, it would probably take weeks for them to fully adapt to their new bodies, and who knew how long to get over the emotional trauma. There wasn't even a way for them to leave and get medical help elsewhere. The ship's transporter needed two parts they didn't have. I thought a moment and realized I had the parts in my shop! My spirits fell again as I remembered I had no way to send them there, since the transporter was out.

I activated the mass driver and was relieved to see the coil temperature was back to almost normal. I thought about sending the parts to the ship with it. They were delivered to me by drop pod, but 25 or 30 G's hitting the sand was a far cry from the 7,000 G acceleration of the mass driver. Even if the intense magnetic fields didn't rip them apart, the circuits would be crushed to powder as they left the ground.

I drove back near the shop to get my land crawler. It was much slower than my usual rover, but had the cargo capacity and small crane I would need to retrieve the drop pods. When I found them in the desert I unhooked the huge parachutes from the egg-shaped orange pods, rolled and folded the chutes, then used the crane to lift my purchases into the back of the huge crawler.

On the way home I had a brilliant idea and smiled most of the way back. I called the ship. "I have the parts you need but I can't get them up to you. Would you be able to take the transporter apart and load it into a drop pod, then send it down here? I could fix it and send the girls up to the ship!"

The ship's engineer said, "That's a Hell of an idea! Let me talk to the Captain."

I was a little surprised the Captain himself called me an hour later. "I think your idea will work. There's just one thing, the transporter is property of the company. I contacted headquarters, and they'll sell it to you as-is for three thousand tera-creds. It cost four thousand, but they'll give you a discount since it's a few years old. I know that's still a lot, but if you can come up with that much?"

I knew I only had about sixty tera-creds left in the bank. The shipment of rare metals I was sending up would be worth four or five thousand, but not until it was delivered in half a year. Buying the parts to build a second mass driver had maxed out my credit. There was no way I could get even close to enough. "I ... I'll see what I can do and call you back."

I did a lot of thinking but didn't tell the girls. I'd hate to get their hopes up and have them be disappointed again. I looked around wondering what I could sell to get even a fraction of what I needed. Most of my bots and equipment would barely be worth the cost to ship them anywhere.

I saw Darlene in the corner. She had cost me five thousand when I bought her. Even thinking about it was heartbreaking, but if I could sell her I might have what I needed. I had tears at the corners of my eyes and a lump in my throat as I decided. I had only known the girls a single day, but I'd do it if that's what it took to help them.

I took Darlene out and cleaned her up, put in the new personality chip, then got some video of her changing her clothes. I really didn't want to, but I was going to sell the 'woman' I had loved for five years to help some actual women I was starting to care about. I wiped the tears from my eyes and did my best to smile as I called the Captain back. I gave him my best sales pitch, including how amazing it felt to screw her and that she would be willing any time.

The Captain's answer nearly broke my heart. "She's beautiful, but she's used too. I wish I could offer more, but I only have twelve hundred."

"I... let me call you back."

I walked to the Ansible on the other side of the shop and pulled up a years-old message. Because of the high potential for aggravation, at the time I had simply answered, "Thanks, but no thanks." I read the offer again and reconsidered.

"Our university would like to send a science team to explore the planets you own. We understand the wormhole used to access the system only opens briefly once every two years, so the team would return in either four or six. We will supply you with a transporter and two relay satellites to reach the habitable planets and moons when orbital timing makes transport possible. We are offering 100 tera-creds per team member, up to 5,000 in total, as compensation for any inconvenience. We await your prompt reply."

I could have a free transporter but I'd need to wait until the next ship in two years. If I could get some of the money up-front... But I'd need to tolerate up to 50 strangers wandering around, doing who-knew-what on my moons and other planets. I spent half the night in the shop negotiating a deal with the university. Instead of 5,000, they'd pay me 4,000 in advance and send the scientists in two years. They rarely made any in-advance payment deals, and only agreed since I would have a transporter and they wouldn't need to bring one. I also agreed to provide food and housing for half a year, until the visitors fully established themselves.

Before wandering to bed half-asleep, I called the ship again. I told them I had the money, so they should start moving the transporter into a drop pod. I decided not to tell the girls and get their hopes up, but they could probably leave and get the medical help they needed!

I would be alone with Darlene another two years, but I'd been quite happy with her before.

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