The Golem of Haven, Ch. 02

Since no one attempted to respond to my challenge to identify the location and time, I have decided to wait until the next installment before answering the questions. I hope that people will find this erotic, science fiction story riveting, if you will excuse the pun.

Dagny was still contemplating her conversation with The Oracle as she wriggled into her skinsuit. The protective garment was a stark contrast to the bulky, cumbersome, idiotic pressure suits that early astronauts and cosmonauts had been compelled to wear centuries ago. There was no need for thermal insulation in the vacuum of space. She could neither absorb or dissipate heat through conduction or transmission. Only radiative heat transfer was relevant. The porous fabric of her skinsuit enabled sweat to evaporate so that her body could dissipate heat from exertion. She could maintain her thermal balance naturally. The smart fabric could also transform from translucent to a mirror finish to reflect the heat from a to bright star.

Once she was zipped up, Dagny put her bracer back on her forearm. She touched a control on her bracer. The already form fitting, smart fabric responded by contracting or relaxing as needed to conform perfectly to the contours of her body. The fabric would reinforce her own skin, enabling it to withstand the vacuum of space. The fabric was intentionally sheer so that it would reveal any bruises that might herald any impending failure of the integument. Her skinsuit also revealed her dark brown nipples and surrounding aureoles as well as her dense growth of dark pubic hair. The translucent fabric also revealed the semen that was continuing to seep from her vagina to soak through the fabric.

After a moment of consideration, Dagny decided that she didn't need the waste handling system. The brass colored device resembled an archaic panty or bikini bottom, except for the twenty centimeter long, internal protrusion at the groin. After the entirely expected orgy during the ride up the beanstalk, she was in no mood to have a penis shaped device inserted in her vagina. She'd used the bathroom recently and if necessary, she could hold it. She knew that she would soon need to remove her skinsuit anyway.

The matching brass brazier was another matter. Although the smart fabric of her skinsuit was conforming to the contours of Dagny's breasts, it would neither support nor restrain them. Any undamped, harmonic oscillations of her breasts could easily disturb her balance during critical maneuvers.

Dagny also knew that her undulating breasts would distract her novice students. Although the women of Botany Bay as well as the colony normally went bare breasted, men hadn't become disinterested. Men always became distracted or even fixated by boobs in motion. The fixation seemed to be hardwired in their Wye chromosomes. It was innate rather than cultural. She didn't want any of the novices to get themselves killed as she taught them how to move in freefall.

Dagny wrestled herself into the cumbersome garment. She pulled the cups over her breasts, being careful to ensure that both of her perpetually protruding, mother's nipples were protruding through the gaps in the open mesh fabric rather than caught under the intersections between strands. That could be painful. As she fastened the clasp between her breasts, she wondered why such garments had once been not just in vogue but almost mandatory for women. While they were usually designed to emphasize and enhance a woman's breasts, they'd also been viewed as a symbolic chastity belt. Not wearing a bra had been considered risqué and an indication that a woman was somehow amoral. Braziers had been so insane that the clasps were usually in back, right between a woman's shoulder blades where they were almost impossible to reach!

Of course women had also been expected to remain monogamous, or at least serially monogamous. Eventually; limited premarital promiscuity had become socially acceptable in most cultures. Perhaps the decision by the founders to not bring any of the sexually transmitted diseases that had once afflicted humanity on their interstellar odyssey had been more fortuitous than they'd realized. This had encouraged the lack of inhibitions that had enabled the first generation of the colony to survive after a third of the women and two-thirds of the men had been killed during that first, traumatic year after landing. Although she'd read about condoms, she'd never seen much less used one. Those nasty sheaths were as taboo as any other artificial contraceptives.

Putting on her transparent, semispherical, fishbowl helmet and locking it to the ring incorporated with her skinsuit, Dagny activated the compact air recycler. Checking the status on the display of the bracer on her wrist confirmed that the battery was fully charged. The recycler that was integrated with the helmet of her suit could sustain her for days if need be.

Dagny made her way through familiar corridors with casual leaps to join her students. The five women and a dozen men were already waiting for her. One of Endeavor's empty Deuterium tanks served as a freefall practice area as well as a gymnasium. The fuel tank had been filled with over a hundred-thousand tons of liquid Deuterium when Endeavor boosted out of Sol system. Just the cylindrical section of the eighty meter diameter fuel tank was over a hundred meters long. When the hemispherical endcaps were included in the measurement, the fuel tank was nearly two-hundred meters long.

Generations ago, some joker had decided to emphasize the size of the tank by laying out a regulation soccer field as well as an American football field, end to end, around the concave curve of the cylindrical tank. There was enough room that the end zones weren't quite touching.

The first cohort of colonists had been unable to resist the temptation to actually develop the games of freefall soccer and football. They'd been amazed that the earlier generations of settlers who'd colonized Earth's orbital habitats hadn't thought of it. Then again, the earliest space colonists hadn't had the resources to build such an extravagance until they began to morph themselves into Transhumans. By the time Endeavor was constructed, most people who were living in Sol system were Transhumans or fully cybernetic organisms. The Cybers were similar to but far more sophisticated than The Oracle. They had transcended beyond athletic games.

Dagny checked to ensure that everyone's skinsuits were properly fitted and in proper, working condition. All of the women checked out almost properly. They'd all served a tour of duty on the starship back when they were teenagers. They all knew the drill. Only two needed to have their bras readjusted properly. They really hadn't needed bras when they were younger. None had bothered with the waste handling system.

The men from Botany Bay however; were true novices. All had managed to get something wrong. Dagny was extra attentive to the brass colored codpieces that all of the men were wearing. The contours of a man's penis and testicles were a bit more convoluted than the smart fabric of a skin suit could reliably conform to. Aside from recycling urine, the support offered by the form fitting codpieces avoided the risk of severe bruising or even hemorrhaging.

Dagny touched icons displayed on her bracer. The tank gradually depressurized. Practicing in a pressurized tank could often be helpful. However; it would also encourage a dangerous expectation that aerodynamic drag would remain a factor when they were in vacuum. It was better that someone broke a few bones within the confines of the tank rather than go sailing off into the void.

Dagny demonstrated by very gently launching herself with a not to vigorous leap. She then flipped herself end over end well before she reached the far side of the tank. She deftly absorbed the shock of landing with her legs. Broken wrists and arms were the most frequent injuries because people forgot that their legs were much stronger than their arms.

It was fortunate that they were practicing in the gymnasium. In spite of their prior experiences living and working in space, all of the women suffered the embarrassment of rebounding off the wall to go sailing across the tank again.

Amazingly; most of Dagny's newest students exercised restraint. They even managed to not rebound. However; the feral convict was an exception. Fortunately; his massively muscled arms easily absorbed impacts that would have killed any normal person. Even more amazing, he to managed not to rebound. Watching the performances of the men only inflamed Dagny's chronic suspicions that many of the inmates of Botany Bay had reverted to brachiating as much as ambulating in the jungles rather. It made sense because they all looked like Tarzan.

The next lessons were on how to handle a gas pistol. The early Gemini astronauts had used a similar maneuvering system. However ; they'd been limited by not having gas tanks that were pressurized to thousands of atmospheres. The earliest astronauts also hadn't had electrically heated nozzles to augment thrust by flashing the liquefied gas into a potentially dangerously hot exhaust. Unfortunately; during the shuttle era the imbeciles at NASA had decided that astronauts required a backpack with a full, three axis set of attitude jets. That extravagance was even more insane than using expendable rocket boosters. Of course only NASA and the Thrint would be stupid enough to use solid fuel rocket boosters for manned flight. It was easy to understand why the early astronauts had been to timid to work without a tether.

After a few hours of instruction and practice, another group of eighteen, suited up people entered through the airlock. The new comers consisted of half a dozen women from the colony and a dozen men from Botany Bay. It was obvious that her students had forgotten that the starship was already occupied by the usual crew compliment. Aside from tending the fabricators and performing maintenance that the robots were unsuited for, there were other tasks that required a human touch. As The Oracle often pointed out, the prolonged absences from spouses also helped stir the gene pool.

Dagny announced that it was time to play a game of football. Her newcomers would be playing against the group that had already been in orbit for weeks. It was preordained that the game would be a route.

The Oracle preferred that people play football over soccer because it was a full contact sport. Dagny didn't object even though she knew what the inevitable culmination of the game would be. She even ordered all of the women to take off their brass braziers even though this would put them at a disadvantage. Dagny also decreed that only the women would be allowed to carry the ball and that only the men were allowed to tackle.

The game proceeded about as one would expect. The veterans were obviously far more adept at judging their trajectories to leap across the tank then back to advance across the football field. The newbies, even the women, ended up loosing ground as often as not. Many ended up landing on the soccer field! The veterans were also vastly more successful at launching themselves to intercept and tackle an opposing ball carrier in mid leap. Naturally; the men of the opposing teams always exploited the opportunity to grope and fondle the women when they tackled them.

As one would expect, after about an hour of play, Dagny's newcomers were no longer at quite such a disadvantage. They were finally learning. Since everyone was getting tired, Dagny decided that it was time to make the game more interesting. After touching icons on her bracer to pressurize the tank with a breathable atmosphere, she ordered everyone to strip out of their skinsuits. She was not surprised when The Oracle ordered a certain, common modification of the rules of naked football.

It was sheer bad luck that Dagny was the first to be tackled. Everyone, even the women, cheered on the tackle as he claimed his prize. Dagny didn't resist as he entered her and began thrusting. A familiar aroma confirmed suspicions that The Oracle was injecting aphrodisiacs into the air again. Dagny wasn't foolish enough to resist the tackle much less her instinctual orgasm. She was rewarded by the sensation of the tackle inseminating her.

The game went on into the evening. By the time the game was over, all of the women on the veterans' team had been tackled then inseminated at least once. All of the women on the newcomers team had been tackled then inseminated at least four times. As the team captain and obviously the most adept at carrying the ball, Dagny had been inseminated at least half a dozen times.

Later that night.

Dagny was awakened by the sensation of a penis thrusting into her. Obviously; one of the two men that had accompanied her to bed after the banquet had finally recuperated. She didn't object much less resist. It wasn't long before he brought her to climax once again, then pumped his semen into her. His grunts of triumph awakened his compatriot. He wanted another go at her as well.

Dagny was actually relieved that her second suitor promptly rolled over after he was finished and went to sleep. The first young man was also asleep. Realizing that she wouldn't be getting back to sleep any time soon, she extricated herself from between the two men. It was almost time for her to awaken anyway. A stellar storm was brewing on Alpha. The impending stellar flare could be exploited. She had promises to keep.

Tradition permitted Dagny to use the captain's cabin in the smaller, primary habitat can within the core hull of the starship. However; she'd used one of the cabins in one of the two fuel tanks that had been converted into much larger habitats by the first generation. They'd needed the living volume while they were wrangling a small asteroid into orbit then mining it for Carbon so that the spinnerets could spin the beanstalk.

The first generation had also mined the asteroid for metals. Astronomers had known for centuries that the metallicity of Alpha as well as Beta was much lower than Sol. The colonists had not been surprised when their geological explorations confirmed a dearth of easily extractable, heavy metal oars on Haven. While Aluminum was reasonably plentiful and iron wasn't scarce, Chromium, Vanadium Tungsten and Copper were about as difficult to find as Gold was back on Earth. As a result of the anticipated need to engage in asteroid mining before they settled the planet, the founders had equipped these two Deuterium tanks with bearings and a hollow, central axle to facilitate such a conversion.

Since the outboard habitats weren't surrounded by the core hull as well as a sextet of Deuterium tanks that provided radiation shielding, the first generation had spread about a half meter thick layer of slag from the oar processors in the interior of the tank. Once the colony was established on the planet, much of the housing was disassembled. Most of the volumes of the twin habitats had been converted into park land. Some of the trees were growing tall enough that one could climb almost to the axle.

Walking nude through the dimly lit forest was usually soothing, but not tonight. Dagny was angry with herself. Although she'd drank more than she should have last night, The Oracle hadn't been injecting aphrodisiacs into the air supply. She'd ended up taking not just one of the young savages to her bed but two anyway. Her lingering arousal in spite of the discomfort of her well used vagina left no doubt that the sex had been entirely consensual.

Struggling to recall her assignations, Dagny attempted to estimate how many times she'd been inseminated since she awoke yesterday morning. She was certain that various young men had ejaculated into her at least eighteen times! It wasn't a record for her, but she wasn't a promiscuous young woman anymore either.

Thinking about the many millions, no billions, of sperm that were swimming around in her still fertile womb inspired Dagny to glance at her biometric ring. The display didn't reveal the customary blue, green or red. Once again, The Oracle had deactivated the device. Like all young women of the Colony, having her ring had taught her how to count the days since she'd last menstruated. It was considered immoral for young ladies to remain celibate when they were likely to be fertile. However; a woman was at liberty to be discriminating about which men she'd have sex with when she was more likely to get pregnant. A young woman was also free to decide whom she might ask to withdraw rather than inseminate her. There were many, not so attractive men who might have remained celibate if they hadn't earned a reputation for being willing and able to restrain themselves. It was irritating that The Oracle had deactivated her ring to make it more difficult for her to dictate her own, reproductive destiny.

Climbing up one hemispherical end of the habitat while carrying only the duffle bag with her skinsuit to reach the axle was easy. Dagny's perceived weight decreased as she approached the axis until she was almost in freefall. She stepped across the bearing to the segment of the ship that wasn't rotating. She then followed familiar companionways to the most secure and heavily shielded area inside the core hull.

Dagny had to pass through the crèche to reach the cryogenic hibernation capsules. She passed rows of incubators, each with a preborn infant of various gestational stages growing inside it. She could hear The Oracle talking and singing to the unborn babies. Simulating the normal sensory experience of in utero babies was necessary for their emotional development.

Habit compelled Dagny to check the settings for gestational duration. After being so severely savaged during the early years, the first generation had reset the timers. They had hoped that having infants that had been developed to a gestational age of about two years would enable the babies to quickly learn how to walk and start learning how to talk. This would enable them to raise more children. It had worked.

Unfortunately; once the first generation of beaker babies reached adolescence, the psychological side effects became obvious. Many of them, especially the boys, had been sociopaths or even psychopaths. Since the colony hadn't had the resources for prisons much less mental hospitals, they'd been compelled to exile many of them to Botany Bay, thousands of kilometers away on one of the continents. The mortality rate among the beaker babies had been horrendous. The population of the settlement at Botany Bay had dwindled over the early years in spite of the steady influx of inmates. The genetic diversity that the founders had intended had died with them.

The cryogenic hibernation capsules were arranged on the interior wall of the cylindrical chamber like the cells of a honeycomb in a beehive. As Dagny made her way from the crèche past the hibernation capsules, she took a moment to honor her ancestor. After the death of her husband, her terminally ill, great, great grandmother had elected to return to her hibernation capsule.

The prospects for a successful revival were not good. Unlike the colonists, the Captain as well as a few of the crew had been revived by The Oracle to investigate an unexpected, astronomical phenomenon. Endeavor had been barely eight decades out and only sixteen Light-Years away from Earth when it detected the anomaly. The binary neutron stars were not only old and cold, they were almost tidally locked. In spite of the instruments available to the Transhumans and Cybers, the dormant twins had been undetectable from Sol system.

The highly eccentric, long period orbits of the twin, neutron stars around their common center of mass kept them far apart except for a few, brief months every few millennia. The starships' sensors wouldn't have been able to detect the twins, even from barely half a Light-Year away, if the two, twenty kilometer diameter globes of neutronium with their halos of gas and dust hadn't been approaching perihelion. The suddenly increased influx of matter falling into the neutron stars' accretion discs had unleashed bursts x-rays as well as gravitational waves.