Planetfall Ch. 03

As they approached the canyon where he had fallen and almost killed himself some weeks back before Kira had found him he turned and paralleled it until he came across the section where it petered out on a descent and guided the beast onto the rocky area and crossed over the end of the split in the earth before making their way up slope and towards the stricken lifeboat.

Kira was still squirming gently behind him, her warm, tight body sending pleasant sensations all along his back. Suddenly she stiffened and whimpered a little before sighing deeply and resting her head again on his shoulder.

"Was that nice?" he asked with a grin.

"Mmmmmm, yes," she replied dreamily. "The saddle was rubbing my pussy so nicely and my ass was throbbing and you're and warm and strong and feel and smell so nice."

"All that talk of getting screwed in the ass and deep throating me probably didn't help either!"

She giggled, "No. I was dreaming of it as I was getting off. I think my panties are soaked now!"

"We're nearly there," he pointed through the trees. Metal glinted in the dapple light of the forest and broken trees could be seen up the hill where the craft had crashed down from.

They dismounted and Richard placed his hand on a panel near the door. It slid silently away and lights came on as they both entered the cabin.

"Good Morning Doctor Jensen," came the silky, ethereal voice of Sylvia the ship's semi-sentient computer.

"Morning Sylvia," he chirped back.

"Good Morning Kira, I hope you are well?" Sylvia added.

Kira's breath caught for a moment. The magic of Richard's technology always amazed her and Sylvia did so especially.

"I'm, I'm well, thank you," she said looking around, feeling odd that she wasn't talking to anyone physical.

"Sylvia, I want to run some full scan diagnostics on both Kira and myself and run a few ideas past you."

"Yes Doctor," the reply seemed more sultry than usual to Richard. Maybe he was just imagining things.

"Kira, would you lay on the couch there please? I'd like Sylvia to give you a check up and make sure the babies are doing okay."

"Yes Doctor," she echoed in the best sultry voice she could manage and winked at him before laying down on the scanning bed.

"Sylvia, please check the progress of Kira's pregnancy and then do a detailed scan of her nasal and sinus region please. Concentrate on any unusual structures and nerve connections and activations."

"Commencing scan,"

"Sylvia, what is the state of the attitude thrusters?"

"All thrusters report nominal condition. Fuel levels at fifty percent."

Richard tapped a finger on his chin, "Hmmmmm, how far could we travel in current reserves?"

"Approximately thirty kilometres if we deploy the wings and employ a ground effect," came the reply. The lifeboat wasn't an aircraft as such. It had small retractable wings to provide some lift and stabilisation on re-entry and it would never fly like a real aircraft would high in the atmosphere. A ground effect would allow for the craft to skim the land quite effectively, provided it was flat enough.

His fingers worked at the console and a geographic schema of the terrain displayed on the screen.

"I want to try to move the craft from here," he jabbed at a point where the craft was, "to here," he jabbed at another point close to the settlement where Kira came from.

The image suddenly whirled and appeared in three D next to him, with all the terrain contours and features in clear relief.

"Wow!" Kira hushed in amazement, her head turned to look at the image while she remained on the couch. "I recognise much of the land. It is very accurate!"

"Indeed," he replied his face somewhat grim, "but this isn't going to be easy, there's a lot of downhill slope. Do you know of an easier path Kira?"

"Yes, from my house the land slopes gently down to the settlement, but it is a long path. I usually travel the shorter and steeper way to the community, but the long path is very pretty."

"Sylvia, zoom out by ten and project in two D." The image flattened into a vertical pane, showing an overhead view of the land as it had done on the screen.

"Sylvia, is the scan done yet?" he asked while examining the map.

"One moment...

"Complete." she announced within thirty seconds.

"Kira, come show me on the map," he motioned her up and she sat on the edge of the couch looking at the map, tilting her head from side to side.

"I'm not sure," she said carefully, "Can you show me where we are now?"

Richard pointed out the canyon and the place where they had crossed and their current location.

Kira beamed, "Yes! I see now! Look," she traced a finger back along the path they had come here to her house then wended her fingertip over down and south west and finally back eastwards.

"Sylvia, plot the most optimal route along that path."

"Computing... Done", came the response a scant few seconds later. "The land is relatively flat for the most portion with few trees. The major difficulty will be extracting the craft from this site and moving to a point where travel will be most efficient."

"Fuel consumption?" Richard asked reluctantly.

"We will need full tanks and no unexpected issues. The route is seventy three point six kilometres long. Estimated reserve at destination is two percent."

"How long to get the tanks full?"

The answer from the sexy voiced machine did nothing to lessen Richard's descending gloom. "Ten days with optimal conditions. However there is restricted light for the photovoltaic converters under the trees and no rain since we arrived. Without water I will be unable to electrolyse any fuel."

He turned to Kira, "Kira, does it ever rain here?"

She shook her head, "It is the dry season, it will not rain for many months yet. Even now you can see the grasslands drying."

He studied the map. "Sylvia if you can get us out of here, where is the best spot to set down near a source of water that isn't too far from your computed track to the community?"

A light flashed on the map at the point where the canyon vanished at the edge of the hill, which fell away steeply. It was at the point they had been crossing to reach the lifeboat. "There is a river about five kilometres from this point. Water will have to drawn from it and bought uphill. This area is also clear of tall vegetation and on the optimal path to the community. I will only need to fill the tanks to eighty percent from this point to arrive at our destination with critical fuel levels, however at that point we are well within other water sources, so we could stop if necessary to generate more."

Her logic was sound, but it still meant over a week to fill the tanks with hydrogen and oxygen to burn and he still had to get hundreds of litres of water up a long incline. Or maybe...

"Kira, where do you get the water from for your house?"

Her answer was relief. "I have a well that fills the water tanks."

He slapped his open palm against his forehead. Of course! He had been so busy with investigating everything else, including Kira's seemingly endless sexual appetite he never even wondered about the basics of where she got the water from and why the pressure was so good.

"Where is this well? I've never see anything like a well outside."

She poke him in the ribs, "It's not outside silly. I don't need water outside, I need it inside!"

"But where?" he asked getting a little exasperated.

"In a small room off the laundry. You've probably never been in a laundry," she added glibly. "The wind machine that gives us light at night, the 'electricity' thing brings water up and into the tanks and it also pumps the water through the house. It's a bit of a problem when there is no wind, but mostly it's ok. A breeze is blowing most days."

The answer was simple. Obvious if you though about it and perhaps if he had looked around at more than just plants and animals.

"Sylvia, how close can you get us to Kira's house in current reserves?"

"Approximately ten kilometres Doctor."

"That will do. We can load the horses with water bags and start making the fuel immediately."

"Do you wish me to start pre-flight checks now."

He swapped positions with Kira and lay down on the couch. "Not just yet. I want a full scan done on myself please and pay particular attention to my nasal region as you did for Kira."

"Yes Doctor, commencing scan," Sylvia responded.

"Give me a run down on your findings with Kira please."

Sylvia commenced a dry recitation of the scan results that clashed with her seductive voice. "The female subject is pregnant with two fetuses. One is a male the other female. Both are in nominal developmental condition at this point in gestation."

He smiled. He was going to have a boy and a girl.

The computer continued, "The subject's ova production appears to have stopped and hormonal response is as expected with her condition and at nominal levels. She also has a high oxytocin level, which may be indicative of her pair bonding with you as her mate."

'Oxytocin,' Richard thought. The so called 'love drug'. He wondered if the level within her system had anything to do with the unusual reproductive and hormonal processes evident in the women of this planet.

As she spoke, Kira sat twiddling her thumbs and looking around. She wasn't understanding anything as Sylvia was speaking in Richard's own language. He looked to her smiling, noticing her apparent boredom.

"Sylvia," he interjected, "give Kira access to the console and configure for her language. Also grant her level two module access." Level two gave Kira access to everything except prime functions such as flying the craft, self destruct and other maximum security protocols.

"Kira!" she looked at him. "I given you access to almost everything in here, so you can come and go as you please. There is a full library on every known subject for the past few thousand years from multiple star systems."

She stared at him blankly. "I, I don't understand," she said with confusion in her voice.

"Would you like to know where your ancestors came from?"

"Ye, yes," she nodded wide eyed.

"Sylvia, configure a tutorial, ummm, Earth circa twenty second century and guide her through it please."

"Yes Doctor. Kira, please face the console and I will show you about your people's history."

Richard watched her for the next few minutes as she sat glued to the display. Her eyes still wide and punching the display fervently with a finger from time to time bringing more information up. She was totally entranced.

"I'm sorry Doctor," Sylvia's voice interjected, "did you want me to complete my report on the subject?"

"Oh! Yes, sorry, please do," he replied apologetically. Why he apologised to a computer he could never work out. Maybe it was because it was a female in his mind and out of respect he did it automatically.

"Your request to concentrate a scan on the subject's nasal region has revealed some interesting data. It appears that she has a well developed vomeronasal organ that is active and highly receptive. This is most unusual as genetically it is an inactive vestigial organ in humans with no known function."

He nodded. His hunch was right. Given the data on her reproductive cycle, a crazy almost weekly pumping out two eggs, and probably no menstruation, the vomeronasal organ was most likely linked in with sexual pheromones and how these people procreated. He was interested to know what his own results were. Things were already unusual at his last scan. How much had changed since then?

"Your scan is complete Doctor. Would you like the results?"

He glanced at Kira. The screen held her transfixed. "Yes Sylvia."

"Your body is undergoing a number of detectable physiological changes. Your fat percentage has dropped slightly and your muscle mass and density has increased. Free testosterone levels are raised by fifty percent above normal and all organs related to sexual function have increased in size and activity."

'My God' he thought, 'I'm becoming some sex machine!' No wonder he could screw multiple times and produce large semen volumes each time.

"Anything else?" he enquired. He almost expected the next finding.

"Yes, one final thing, your own vestigial vomeronasal organ is becoming active. There are a large number of synaptic connections to key structures in your brain and still increasing. Receptive activity of the organ almost matches that of the female subject."

The final key to the puzzle clicked in place! His lust was being driven by this new sense, not just the normal desire to bed a woman. If they were sending sex signals as pheromones he would pick them up and trigger his brain to mate. He wondered why he wasn't screwing Kira this very moment, with them both locked in the small space of the lifeboat. He postulated his thoughts Sylvia.

A moment passed as the computer worked through the data.

Her sultry voice cut through his own thoughts, trying to make sense of everything. "I suspect her condition may have reduced or stopped her pheromones. Now that she is pregnant, she has no need to mate, or mate as often."

"Could this work both ways?" he asked.

"It is possible, along with the changes in your body that you are sending out sex based signals, displaying your fitness to copulate and impregnate females in heat."

'God' he though, she made him sound like some wild animal roaming around screwing anything with a pussy.

"And," he added, "Kira is now less responsive to my pheromones because of her condition?"

"A valid hypothesis. There is no need for her to seek a mate."

'She still wants to fuck like a rabbit though' he thought, pheromones or not, but she did seem more normal than when Kyrinn arrived. She didn't seem to get enough and he had fucked her three times over night and only licked Kira out. Then she got pregnant and he had screwed Kira. It was almost as though Kyrinn's body responded instantly to her impregnation and already her pheromone response was reducing. Had she not gotten pregnant, he was sure she would have fucked him again before he could do Kira.

He need time to think it all through and come up with some theories and how to validate them. Time was not on his side though.

"Sylvia," he said thoughtfully, "is there a way to dampen my pheromone output or response to a female's?"

"I'm sorry Doctor, I would not know what to counter. I have no data, no samples and this lab is most likely insufficient for the manufacture of such a substance."

He grimaced. There was no technological rescue on this one. He was going to have to live out the most incredible experiment for himself. He sat up and turned to Kira.

"Kira," she said softly, placing a hand on her arm. "Kira!"

"What!" she looked around startled then smiled when she saw him. "Oh Richard! This is incredible! Fantastic! I do not understand it all, but it is amazing! The Goddess has truly blessed us with you!" She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed and hugged him.

"Baby," he said between passion filled kisses, "I'm going to try to move the ship. Sylvia, map please!"

A hologram floated next to them and he pointed out a spot. "Take the horse and go to here. I'll probably arrive before you. See that clump of trees," he made a gesture and the map became a three D image, the terrain looking as though they were there in person.

"Yes," she nodded, "I know this spot."

"I'll bring the ship there. I'll probably be there, but if not wait and try to get me on this." He handed her a tablet console. "It's easy to use. Press this button and you'll be in touch with the craft. You can talk to Sylvia with it."

She held it with awe. "I, I may use it?"

"Yes," he replied nonchalantly. "Keep it. It's handy to have around. Now go!"

They kissed and as she departed he gave her a playful slap on the behind. "And don't stop for any strange men, except me of course!"

She grinned and stuck her tongue out at him. "You just be careful with this, this thing! I'm not sure I should leave you alone with Sylvia either!" she said patting her belly.

He closed the hatch door as she stepped out, her scent still lingering in the air. She smelt so wonderful! Maybe this new sense was going to be a good thing.

"Commence pre-flight checks please Sylvia."

"Yes Doctor."

He worked around the cabin, checking things himself as Sylvia ran all the diagnostics on the equipment and prepared the craft for flight. After nearly half an hour a distinct hum started in the belly of the machine.

"All systems nominal. Pre-flight checks complete. Computing trajectory. When you are ready Doctor Jensen." Sylvia prompted.

He strapped himself in the seat at the command console and activated all the external video feeds.

"Ready," he said firmly.

Sylvia's voice intoned methodically, "Pre-ignition sequence. Re-routing emergency power. Fuel pre-heat. Launch in five,"

"Four"

"Three"

The ship started to vibrate and he held the arm rests in a white knuckled grip.

"Two"

"One"

"Ignition!"

The ship growled and shook. He could see birds scattering through the trees away from the noise.

"Thrusters at ten percent, throttling up."

A roar surrounded the ship and suddenly it lifted, the trees disappearing below the view of the cameras. Dead leaves and dirty flew up in all directions and small fires broke out nearby.

"Retracting landing struts. Thrusters at seventy percent. Setting heading."

The ship tilted alarmingly to one side as it turned about on the direction it need to fly.

There was thunk in the belly of the ship. "Wing clamps released. Deploying"

Another thunk. "Wings locked. All systems nominal. On your command Doctor."

He had always wanted to fly a ship and now he was in command, words failed him. 'What does the Captain say at this point?' he thought. "Ummm, engage!" and pointed ahead. It sounded good enough.

The craft, a cylinder shape, with a stubby nose at the cockpit, little delta wings underneath hovered above the tree line on invisible jets of flame coursing from thrusters underneath the ship. Suddenly it pitched forward and streaked over the trees on a line directly for clear ground. Seconds before impact it nosed up and flew close to the terrain, hugging it like a lover. When it reached level ground it accelerated, holding a mere meter above the land.

Richard held the arm rests in a grip of death. His heart pounded in his chest as he watched the terrain flash by at a tremendous rate. He glanced at the flight panel. Five hundred kilometres an hour! He would be at his destination in minutes. The fuel was being gobbled up at an alarming rate. He had already burned over twenty percent of the tanks, most gone just in the launch and hover.

On the plain, Kira trotted her beast at a lively pace. She wanted to beat Richard to the trees and she thought she was doing well, having seen nothing for the last half an hour. A distant roar behind her caught her attention. Thunder? She looked back. Not a cloud in sight. Then a glint in the sunlight, low on the horizon and the roar getting louder and louder. Then in mere seconds the tiny glinting speck grew larger, and larger.

The craft roared by a hundred meters away, past in the blink of an eye, dust and dry vegetation following in a whirlwind behind. She thought she saw Richard in the cockpit, a hand waving as it streaked by.

Her mount bellowed and stamped, rolling it's large eyes in fear. Kira soothed it as she had done many times before in storms and soon it it settled. She looked in wonder at the dust trail disappearing into the distance. She had no cognition as to how fast the ship could go, had gone. What if her world had such technology? They could reach the stars, like Richard had. She could go anywhere with him, see all of the Goddess' creation. She spurred her mount with eagerness and it gathered pace as she urged it forwards.