Space Relations Pt. 16

The entire crew watched the videos. After, they commented and theorized on it. It was generally agreed upon that if the small group of older people onscreen represented the whole of GB 1 and 2, they could safely assume that there was no physical danger to the crew. Unless the crowd went wild and tried to sexually assault them all, that is.

"We're no strangers to sex, Captain." Cruz stood firm. "Mary and I come prepared for such actions."

"Oh, yeah." Mary nodded perkily. "Excitedly prepared!"

Further, a consensus was reached that Ensign Braxton should accompany the landing party, as she was the most mature member of the crew. Should there be any awkwardness or sudden conflict between the Wrinkles and the rest of them, Braxton might be able to step in as a mediator. It was hoped that the Wrinkles would respect her, even if they did not respect the other, younger people.

Cruz and Mary produced sexy doctor and nurse costumes for the occasion. Cruz's was made up of a white doctor's smock, white pants, a clipboard and a stethoscope. Mary's costume was, of course, a white micro-dress with plenty of cleavage and thigh visible, topped off with a white cap that had a little red heart on it.

"Are you two really going to wear those costumes?" Washington asked.

"Have you lost your sense of humor, man?" Cruz turned it back on him.

For their part, Washington and Braxton donned their crispest uniforms for the special occasion.

In a short time, the Space Relations touched down to a massive crowd of what must have been thousands upon thousands of cheering and excited people. Their greeters were all old and wrinkled. Right down to the last one, Washington noted.

"I know they're old, but there are so many of them." Barbie worried. "I mean, what if they all turn into some kind of mob?"

"Let's hope it doesn't come to that." The captain replied.

She leaned over to give him a kiss. "Be careful, honey."

"I will. I want to get back to you in one piece, don't I?"

"You'd better!"

Washington grinned, hoping that would calm his lover's anxiety a little. As he pushed the button to extend the ship's short set of stairs, he wondered for what must have been the millionth time whether he should bring a weapon along. Just as he had all those times previous, the captain decided against it, because he felt it might bring about more harm than good for their public image. One does not simply bring a weapon to a peaceful planet, without wrinkling some feathers in the process.

The captain was the first to step out. Due to the enormity of the crowd, he truly felt like some sort of emissary for galactic peace, which of course was part of his mission. He raised his hand in greeting to the great mass of humanity assembled before him. They responded with a roar of enthusiasm and cheers. It seemed as if an entire world had shown up just to say hello to him.

As the ship had circled around the landing pad before making their descent, it's cameras had observed hundreds of tall spires sitting atop massive cylindrical structures, all painted in bright and beautiful colors. The architecture was very different from the cubed, typical glass and concrete structures that dominated the Earth. There were no cars or roads here, but open air and canopied vehicles that coasted the skies like a plague of bees. The crew had seen many craft arriving and parking next to the landing area just before the Space Relations had descended. He wasn't surprised when one such vehicle floated to a stop right in front of them.

Gar stepped out, his movements fluid and quite spry for his age. He held his hand out like a stop sign. "This is the standard Earth greeting, yes?"

"That's one of them." Washington replied. "Here, hold your hand out like this, and I'll show you another one."

"Are you a human being?" Gar asked.

"Of course I am."

"We've only ever seen one or two that look like you." Gar smiled at him. "We thought you might come from a different planet than the rest of them, because of the dark tint of your skin."

Sometimes I do feel like I am from a different planet than the rest of them, the captain thought to himself. "We are all from the planet Earth, Gar."

"Well, we welcome you to Our World, man of Earth." He said. A moment later, they were shaking hands.

There was a sudden rising in the murmur of the spectators. Washington turned to see Braxton heading for him. Behind the older woman, both Cruz and Mary were already playing up to the crowd.

"Hello, I'm Ensign Braxton." The older woman held her hand out.

"Do the women touch hands in the same manner as the men?" Gar asked.

"Yes, we do." Braxton nodded.

"Then welcome, woman of Earth." Gar shook hands with her, although he'd lowered his head toward the ground as he did so.

"Does your planet have a name, Gar?" Braxton asked.

"Oh, we only call it Our World. We call our sister planet, Our Other World, and we call our sun, Our Sun." Gar explained. "We're not in such a hurry to name everything as your people seem to be. We don't understand why your people use two names, because a person only really needs one. I suppose we all don't think alike. To us, having a group name implies some type of ownership. As you'll soon see, we are all happy sharing everything with everyone."

"You say that like you expect us to try and change some of your customs."

"Some of your representatives from Earth have tried to teach us the concept of credits and ownership, but we won't have it here." Gar shook his head. "Our Other World tried to follow these ideas at first. They ended up bickering and fighting among themselves, while your representatives tried to ply one side against the other. Finally, Our Other World rejected these teachings altogether and went back to the old ways. This hasn't made Our World or Our Other World very popular to your Space Corps. This is also why we hardly have any contact with your ships." Gar seemed to be holding something back. "Well, among other reasons."

"Rest assured, Gar, that we are not here to change your customs." Braxton cut in diplomatically. "We are here to promote peace. I promise you that I will write a letter to the highest authority in Space Corps, to tell them what a negative experience you had with our emissaries."

"I thank you." Gar nodded emphatically. "May I ask if you are a wise one mentoring your captain?"

Not expecting the question, Braxton turned toward Washington.

"Actually, yes, she is." Washington answered. "Ensign Braxton brings many years of experience and wisdom with her. I am truly grateful for her presence. She has already proven herself to be very valuable to me and to my crew."

"Thank you, captain." Braxton said.

Washington could almost feel the warmth and pride coming from the woman's voice.

"I would like to take you to the leadership hall." Gar said. "We've prepared quite a celebration for you there."

"We would be glad to accompany you, Gar." Washington replied.

Gar noticed that the main hatch of the Space Relations was now closed, and that its running lights were still on. "Will your vessel be leaving?"

"Yes." Washington nodded. "I've asked my remaining crew to orbit around your world once. This will give them a chance to fly the ship without me looking over their shoulder. I've instructed them to gauge this planet's atmosphere and geography and the like, from afar."

"But we've prepared a great banquet." Gar insisted.

Washington caught the tiny bit of strain in the man's voice that Mary had told him to watch out for earlier.

"All are welcome here." Gar added.

"The ship will descend, and the rest of my crew will join us..." Washington allowed the end of his sentence to linger a moment. "If I tell them to."

Expertly, Braxton cut in. "But we're here and we would love to go to your banquet. We want to see whatever sights you would like to show us."

"Yes, we have many wonderful sights on Our World." Gar slipped back into his gracious host mode, motioning for them to approach his personal craft.

Washington looked back to where Cruz and Mary were standing together. The goofy pair had their arms on each other's shoulders. They were kicking their legs up as if they were in a two-person chorus line.

"Will you guys cut that out?"

The Doctor Of Love and his Nurse Of Love halted their performance and hurried over, much to the dismay of the enthralled crowd around them.

"That was so much fun!" Mary squealed as she jumped into the vehicle's back seat.

"I'll second that." Cruz moved in next to her.

Several older people were standing on the opposite side of Gar's vehicle. None of them took the driver's seat, Washington noticed. Gar would be driving his own flying car, it seemed. As he watched, the older man took a moment to inform his people that he would next be heading to the leadership hall, whatever that was.

Gar noticed that neither Washington nor Braxton had taken seats. "Is something wrong?"

"Where is it appropriate for a captain and his mentor to sit?" Washington asked.

"You can sit on each other's shoulders, if you'd like." Gar replied. "Sit wherever you please."

Braxton had a quick solution. "Captain, I'll sit up front with Gar. You can take the seat directly behind us."

Washington nodded. "How high will this thing be going? How high in the air?"

"We can go as high as you wish."

"I have a fear of heights." Washington admitted. "I'd appreciate it if you could stay close to the ground."

Gar turned around to face him. "How can you have a fear of heights when you captain a starship?" He made a confused face. "You can't get any higher than being in space, can you? I don't think I'll ever truly understand you humans from Earth. I will keep to a low altitude in any case, for your comfort."

"Thank you for that."

The sky craft lifted up and away from the crowd, giving Washington the sensation of being lurched by an elevator. Once it was several yards higher than the people's heads, the vehicle started forward.

"Will all of these people be going to the banquet?" Braxton asked.

"No, the leadership hall wouldn't fit so many." Gar replied with a laugh. "We wouldn't all fit through the doors."

"I noticed that you drive your own vehicle." Washington leaned forward, mostly to avoid looking at the landscape blurring by. "And you're this planet's leader?"

"I am leader for a month." Gar said. "Of this entire planet, yes."

"But you don't have servants, like a person that drives your vehicle for you?"

"No, not a one." Gar answered. "That implies ownership of another person. We don't allow that."

"How is having a driver like owning that person?"

"Because if you force someone to do what you can do for yourself, you are implying that you have a control over another person. To us, that implies ownership. We have noticed how some of your captains behave towards other of lesser ranks, or how some of your men behave toward your women. We don't allow that here. We are all the same."

"Gar, you have a very special society here." Washington said.

"We like to think so." Gar said. "A pity that some of your officials don't think the same."

Washington dared a peek past the edge of the open car. He noticed that they were flying past tons of buildings, but there was nobody walking around on ground level. "Where are all the people?"

"They all went out to greet your ship at the landing pad, of course."

Washington calculated that there had been several thousand inhabitants around the Space Relations. "This city looks like it could hold a million people. Where is everybody else?"

"We are an ancient people, Captain Washington." Gar said. This time he sounded full of regret and sadness. "The people you saw at the landing pad are all the population that's left on the entire planet. The rest of us have already died."

The rest of their jaunt was as somber as a walk through a graveyard.

The leadership hall was a vast building, but compared to the buildings with the tall spires, it was decidedly short and squat. It could have been compared to a large cathedral from Earth, except its sides and slanted roof were smooth, and each of its four corners held a small tower with its own little spire on top. The building was colored white on the sides, and green on its roof and spires. A few flying vehicles were already parked beside two sides of the structure.

"Some of our people are presently setting up the banquet." Gar informed them, as he lowered the flying car in the midst of all the others.

Gar walked the small group toward an entrance to the large hall, of which there appeared to be one on each side. The old man halted them before the door, which was perhaps eight feet wide and ten feet tall, and colored green like the roof. "I must go inside first to make sure everything is prepared correctly. Will you give me a short span of time and wait for me here?"

That said, he opened the door and hurried in.

Washington turned toward his crew. "Your impressions, please, starting with Mary."

"His thought patterns aren't that easy for me to read, because I've never been around whatever species he is. I'm getting a lot of honesty, and a little bit of dishonesty and fear. He's worried that we'll leave, but I can't tell why."

"Because he and his people want to have sex with us, maybe?" Washington asked. "Because they scared away those other starships by being too aggressive?"

"If that's the real reason why, I can't tell you why it's so important for them to fool around with us."

Washington turned to Braxton. "What about you?"

"I can tell that Gar likes me by his body language." Braxton said. "He seems like a nice guy to me. Unlike Mary, I don't get the impression that he's hiding anything at all. He's not exactly lying to us, he's just keeping some things to himself."

"Cruz?"

"The man is genetically modified." The officer replied. "For a man of his age, his musculature and teeth are perfect. Gar doesn't show any signs of advanced age or frailty other than his outward appearance. None of these people seem to be 'old' in the usual sense, in fact. I've been around enough older people to know what I'm talking about. I think they've conquered disease and the negative aspects of old age. Theoretically, these people should be able to live forever."

"But he said most of them have died." Washington mentioned.

"And they're in a hurry to have sex with us." Mary added. "I don't know what the connection there is."

"Could they be some kind of vampires?" Braxton asked.

Mary shrugged her shoulders. "I don't think they're evil, but that's as far as I can tell."

The door opened back up. Gar stepped out with two older women trailing behind him. He didn't speak until he was within a few feet of the others, seemingly out of respect. "This is Mir and this is Sook. If any of you would like a tour around the local area while we finish getting everything together, these two women will be glad to show you about. I would enjoy keeping the captain and his mentor here for the conversation, if that is agreeable."

Washington's first impression was that Gar was trying to separate them.

Don't let him do it! Mary's thoughts warned him. Apparently, the pretty science officer felt the same way he did.

"I'm sorry, Gar, but I really can't allow any of my crew to step out of my sight." Washington tried to sound sincere, and for the most part he was. "This is my first mission into space. We've already had some frightening things happen to us. We've even lost a crewmember. I feel partly responsible for that, and I am not taking any chances with any of my people. I don't mean to offend you, but I want to keep my people close to me."

"We would never do anything to harm you." Gar did sound offended.

"Call me paranoid then." Washington said. "I'm sorry, but that's the way it must be."

Braxton stepped in between both men. "It is the captain's first mission. His maiden voyage, so to speak. Understandably, Captain Washington has been nervous ever since those traumatic events happened to us. I'm sure that if we sit down somewhere and we explain to you what took place, you'll empathize with him."

Gar didn't look too happy, but Braxton's words seemed to work wonders for him. "I think I understand. We've had so much loss around here recently that I would also hate to lose anyone else. I only wanted Mir and Sook to keep your Doctor Love and Nurse Love out where they could be seen by the public. You may have guessed that since we don't have many visitors here, when we do receive guests we all want to take a good look at them. I can take you inside now, if you wish."

The four followed Gar into the leadership hall. Washington's first impression was that an explosion of large, rainbow colored confetti had taken place inside. Bright and happy streamers crisscrossed the entire vaulted ceiling. On the floor below, pastel hued tables and padded benches had small, vibrant flags mounted on each and every corner. The banquet was as abundant and lavish as everything else, taking up three full tables and set up in the center of the wide hall. Washington noted that the grand feast was presented in a buffet style, where everyone would be filling their own plates as they pleased.

The captain barely had a chance to gaze over the items on the menu, when Gar whisked them to a raised platform at the head of the hall. "Gather round, my friends, gather round."

Mir kept very close to Cruz's side, Washington noticed.

The captain heard his officer asking, "How do your people communicate with one another? The only electronic devices we've so far seen have been the communications monitors that were used to send out the coordinates."

"We don't rely as much on electronics as much as your race does." Mir replied, briefly, leaving Washington to wonder if she was being shy, or evasive. "Besides, since we all live so close to one another, any news quickly spreads among us."

"But you do use electronics for the basics, yes?" Cruz kept up his inquiry. "For lighting and cooking and communication and such?"

"For the necessities, yes." Mir gave a single, deep nod. "For cooking, no. Most everything that can be done by hand is done manually."

"Do I make you horny, baby?" Cruz asked, out of the blue.

The captain couldn't believe his officer's audacity, but if Cruz could get some answers to what was going on, he could let such a social transgression slide by.

"What is horny?" Mir asked. "I have no horns."

"Let me ask the same question, but in a different way." Cruz said. "Do you want to lie on a bed with me?"

Quickly, Mir answered, "I accept!"

"You're misunderstanding me. I'm not asking you to do this right now with me. I'm wondering if you have the feeling, the desire to do it."

"I accept." Mir made another deep nod.

"We'll talk about this later." Cruz gave up his line of questioning.

Washington made a half turn toward Mary, but she only shrugged back in his direction. He noticed that Braxton too had kept a close ear on the conversation. When their eyes locked together, she seemed as perplexed as he was.

Gar motioned for them to join him on the platform, which only stood about three feet higher than the floor and was already crowded by a dozen Wrinkles. Although the captain wasn't too agreeable to squeezing in with the older crowd, in case they suddenly turned crazy on them, he made his way close to where Gar stood. The older people pressed tight to his body, close enough to invade his personal space.

Washington felt numerous hands settling on his shoulders and back. He turned and noticed that all of the hands on him belonged to women. A similar fate had befallen Cruz, although the officer didn't look bothered by this odd predicament in the slightest. In fact, Cruz looked to be welcoming all that female attention.