The Good Ship Bison

"Sure, sounds good."

"Don't be scared, okay? My ... my ride is kind of scary, but, really, it's just me."

I'd been to Bernie's before. The old guy that ran it was pretty no-nonsense. My teammate from track and cross-country, Brian O'Connor, worked there over the summer and he said the owner was nice but didn't put up with 'slackers'.

"No problem. See you soon, we'll keep an eye out for you."

I hung up, and waited. It wasn't their lunch rush yet, so the guy didn't give me a lot of pushback on the order. The more I thought about it, the more I realized there was about zero chance I'd be able to get into that mini-mall parking lot and not cause a panic, or crush the roof of a car as I came down.

Then I remembered the parking lot had light poles and that sealed it.

I made another call. "Modesto Police non-emergency."

"Hello, I'm Kevin, I'm the guy flying the giant spaceship, and ... I'm sorry, I don't want to create a panic."

There was a pause on the line, and someone else came on, a lady with a no-nonsense voice. "Sir. Yes. We saw you take off. Is there a reason you're calling us?"

I explained carefully - I wanted the burgers, I had the money for them, but I didn't want to freak out people, they might get into traffic accidents, and all that, so maybe the police could pick up the burgers and pay, and I'd pay someone back? I could meet the cops somewhere?"

There was another pause and she said, "That will work. We have a squad car going there right now. They will pick up your food, pay for it, and meet you... on Castle road at 127? You know where that is?"

They were trying to get me out of town, so if it crashed, it wouldn't hurt people. Or, if I was a danger, I didn't hurt people. Basically, they didn't want me to hurt people. I respected that.

I said yes and we hung up.

Extending the ship's sensors over the burger place, I waited and watched.

The cop got there, went in, and waited. Outside, another two cop cars showed up, blocked off access with lights going, and we all waited for the food to cook.

It was kind of funny. I was hovering in a giant alien spaceship, there were powerful military aircraft circling me with guns and missiles, the cops were on high alert, the entire high school was probably freaking out wondering why I was hanging there, and all of it hinged on some guy waiting for the fries to be done.

Finally they got it handled and the cop came out with the food bags, carefully, put it in his passenger side seat, and drove at a reasonable speed (surprisingly) to the corner where they'd told me to go.

Huh. The cop guy seemed intent on doing the right thing, which was pretty cool.

I had moved the Bison over to be above the intersection, just hovering there about 100 meters up.

Of course, the police had blocked it all off and traffic was backed up in all directions, but it was midmorning on a weekday so, yeah, they could wait.

They got to see a spaceship. I hoped it justified their wait.

Pat, I'd learned before, could create force-field balls that could lift something up to the ship, so I asked the cop (via loudspeaker) to put the food on the grass in the median strip and back away.

A force-sphere enclosed the bag (and the grass and dirt under it to complete the sphere shape) and brought it up through the cargo door.

We were set!

Meanwhile, the F-22's (two to start with, by that time joined by 8 more), circled at a distance.

I had Pat write 'Thank You!' on the hull facing downwards and we took off, straight up.

Pat had the food bags delivered on an automated cart to the bridge.

I apparently had automated carts. I kind of knew that? I definitely hadn't seen them yet.

Burgers... Mmmmmm....

Pat advised me that, given these samples, food replication equipment onboard could make any amount of them I wanted, in the future.

Getting more samples would be a good plan, I thought.

I decided to thank the F22 pilot I'd spoken with earlier. "Lead aircraft, who I spoke to, what's your callsign?"

Later I learned call signs aren't used much in real-life, but, hey, I'd watched too many movies.

"Sir. My name is Higgins... Really, Colonel Henry Higgins, United States Air Force. My callsign is Sail Freak. I like sailboats. You can call me Higgins if you like, sir."

"Thank you, Higgins. I'm headed to the Moon..." I thought about the course, given some enhanced math from Pat, "...about 4 hours one way? So, I'll be back by dinner, sorta, maybe? Can I call the President, maybe, in a couple of hours? I know she's busy, but... could that be arranged? Say, 2 pm Eastern time? If it's a problem, I'm flexible on timing..."

"I will pass along your request, Kevin."

"Thanks. See you later, uh, Sailfreak. Fly safe." I used to watch a YouTube show where the guy said that all the time to sign off.

"And you, sir."

That, really, was my first interaction with the military.

Setting the course for 'medium-high lunar equatorial orbit' with Pat (having to define those terms), accelerating at 1 g there, we'd get there about 3 hours later.

I got out my phone and got Pat to patch through a call to Mads, from my English class. I knew I just had to apologize, and I liked her.

It rang.

"Uh.... Kevin?!? Is that really you?"

I was upbeat. "Mads! Yes, it's me."

After I assured her that I really was okay, I apologized again for disrupting class. "And, say, you know my girlfriend, Alice, right? Can you get a message to her? I think the military is going to be, like, totally bothering her soon."

"Sure."

I realized I didn't have anything to say. "Uh, just... sorry, I didn't mean to cause problems. And, if she wants a ride, she can have one, too."

There was some noise, and Mads said, "I... think it's not going to work. I hear sirens, and someone's at the door. I think your calling me, uh, made someone notice."

Inspired, I asked, "You want a ride?"

She sounded confused but excited, "Sure! Is it safe?"

"I wouldn't be here if it wasn't!" I thought for a second and said, "Go to your backyard. Give me your address..."

== CHAPTER: Picking Up Mads ==

I navigated down again, accelerating at 2 g's and getting there fast. She was just walking into her backyard. Pat put a sphere around her even as her parents were trying to talk with the police in their front room.

The sphere floated up to me. It was a patch of grass she was standing (then kneeling) on. She was freaking out a little at being lifted, but touching the inside wall of the sphere gave her confidence.

Bringing it in the cargo door, I shut the door and got the ship going upwards again.

She was busy looking around and had to step off the tilting section of grass onto the floor, so I used the intercom and told her how to get up the stairs.

Mads walked into the bridge / control room, eyes wide open. It was a nice room, white 5 meter tall walls on four sides, consoles all around that showed things but faced a common front wall, and then a Captain's chair in the middle where I was sitting. It turned with a control, so I could face her as she came in.

"Kevin! Oh my God you're here! Are you an alien or something?"

"Nope. Normal human. I just own a really, really cool ride." I grinned at her, happy to see someone I knew.

"I'll say!!" She paused, and added, "Uh... why did you want me to come onboard? I'm ... not arguing, mind you, but ...why?"

"Just a friendly face. And, I like you. And... Alice and I had a sort-of fight last week, so I wanted to text her, but she's kind of ... I'm not sure. I think I'm in trouble with her, but ..."

"Oh. Right! You're trading girlfriends!" She was grinning, "You get a 'really cool ride' and you think you can sweep a girl off her feet and get laid." This was totally her sarcasm mode, I knew her pretty well.

I laughed, "Uh... I'm not, uh..."

She tilted her head sideways, looking up at a wall that showed a diagram of our trajectory. It was the Earth, with some dotted lines, and a lunar orbit, with numbers around it.

Looking back at me, she asked, "We're... going to the Moon?!?"

"Yeah. Takes about 3 hours one way, at 1 g."

"That's Soooo Cool! Can we see outside?"

"Pat, display exterior on wall 1."

The wall suddenly showed stars outside, the curve of the Earth, and the bright sunlight streaming in. "Pat, careful, don't ever let us get hurt from radiation or sunlight."

The light shifted and Pat said (in my head), "It was always safe, now adjusted for comfort."

"Cool!"

We just stood there and watched the Earth get farther away.

"Mads, again, I'm sorry for causing you a hassle. You're probably gonna have government types crawling all over you for weeks."

"Oh. Yeah. Probably."

I was silent.

Suddenly, out of the blue, she burst out laughing hysterically, then asked,"So, you want a blowjob now or what?"

I was confused. "Excuse me?"

"The FBI is probably gonna ask me tons of questions, like in a dark room or something. I was just thinking, hey, if the first thing I do is give you a blowjob, then all those dark suited guys are gonna have to hear the story, over and over, like, how I did it, and, like, what you tasted like, or whatever! It'll be great!"

Her sense of humor got me, and I laughed, too. She was pretty funny.

"Plus, I can write a book, and make enough money to pay for college, I'll bet."

I nodded, "Yeah, so you should pay _me_ for the BJ. Reverse prostitution."

She laughed at that one, too.

"Pat, can we have some chairs in here, too, maybe? Plus, uh, we'll be here awhile, so... a bed? Do you have any examples of them?"

Pat spoke over the speaker system instead of just into my head, "Yes, Kevin. I can fashion chairs suitable for this environment. I can also make a bed of a cotton-like fabric similar to those shown on TV and movie depictions. They will take one hour to construct."

"Ok, please start."

"Proceeding."

Mads asked, "Who is Pat?"

I explained.

Mads and I talked for a nice long time until the mattress was ready. Some robots brought up some thick metal parts that had slide-together attachments and built a decent bedframe, then brought in a king-sized mattress complete with sheets and a blanket, and then six pillows for the bed.

We laughed at having so many pillows. I realized that's the way it appeared on TV, and mentioned to Pat that most people didn't have but two pillows on their actual beds, but we'd keep them around anyway.

The only response was, "Yes, sir." I was apparently a 'sir' all around.

After the robots left, we walked over and tested it out. It was a normal king mattress, and the sheets felt really luxurious. We just had to test it out.

I commented to Mads that I could point out the exact models of robots (from my ship's info-dump) and that they had numbers, but that I couldn't pronounce the names because they were sets of musical chords.

Note that when I say chords, I really mean either a chord, a set of notes from across the spectrum, or a chord progression, usually simpler. Pat's native language was freaky and the fact that I couldn't reproduce it was frustrating.

Mads thought that was pretty wild, so I had Pat name off some objects and translate them.

For some reason, it seemed like I could vaguely recognize some of the sounds. It's odd to know things not know how you know them.

We both sat down on the bed. It was perfectly functional. Not epic, and not super-soft, either. I guessed it was about like a normal mattress.

Mads sat next to me, as we watched the Earth recede behind us. "You know," she said, "I was serious about the blowjob, sorta. If you want one. You didn't have gym today, yet, did you?"

I laughed, "Nope. Not stinky. I have gym 7th period, right after lunch. Not the worst timing, I usually have track practice after school..."

"Yeah."

Since we were sitting side-by-side, I turned to her and moved my face in closer, very slowly.

She smiled, putting her hand on my shoulder and obviously into the idea, "Oh, I see how it's going to be. You want to make out first. I can do that."

I didn't have any witty rejoinders. She pushed me back flat and maneuvered to be on top of me, and we kissed, first a peck and then a more meaningful slower one.

Letting her take the lead seemed prudent. I didn't know what to do, too much at least. It wasn't that I was inexperienced with kissing, it was more that I'd not kissed too many girls - just a few and then Alice.

The fact that I was cheating on my girlfriend by kissing Mads briefly popped up in my mind, but then again I did own a spaceship now.

That thought was wrong, though! I shouldn't be thinking like that! But... I was? I realized something was off, but just as soon as I was thinking that, I was distracted by the kissing more.

My mind came back to it, though, through some force of will. It wasn't that I was purposefully trading up or down, or that I was cheating, it was ... I just suddenly had a great sense of love for Mads, in a way that I was really surprised by.

I wasn't cheating, I was expressing my true feelings for her, and that seemed important, like, REALLY important.

We kissed for a long while, and I let my hands roam over her body, lightly, not obscenely, just caressingly. She paused long enough to pull off her light sweatshirt, then t-shirt, and finally she reached behind and took off her bra (!!!).

Her boobs were magnificent! Round, full, on the larger side of mid-sized, they were slightly smaller than Alice's, but shaped more interestingly, too.

We went back into lip-lock, until she went down my body, unbuckled my pants, let me pop through my boxer's access-hole, and... she started sucking! YES!

On the surface, it wasn't an expert process - she wasn't super good at it. Alice was definitely better, and I tried to figure out what the difference was. As things occurred to me, I'd mention them, and Mads got significantly better just right then.

I didn't last too long, maybe a couple of minutes under her jacking-sucking enthusiasms, and I found my back arching and groaning out in fine grunting mode.

She moaned, too, as I came, though she kept her mouth clamped down over me and swallowed my cum down as I spurted. WoowwWWW! That was good!

The trouble was, she kept sucking even after I came, and it got to be way too much, so I said so and she stopped, then, laying her head on my abdomen while we caught our breaths.

I was floating. The ship was still under acceleration so it felt like gravity, but I had a real sense of floating, happy, free, loving the moment.

She shifted up and lay by my side, quietly, waiting.

I said, "Madison. Thank you."

"Mmmm! My pleasure!"

"I don't mean to look a gift horse in the mouth here... but... Why... uh..."

"Why did I give you a blowjob?"

"Yeah?"

She thought about it, and I shifted so we could see each other's faces. "I just felt like giving it, being generous, I guess. Plus, I totally trust you. I don't know why. You rescued me from the cops, for sure, but... that's not it. It's like, I look at you, and my heart swells. It's not rational. I didn't have this feeling earlier today."

"In class?"

"Ha! Not! You took off, and Pomeroy was flustered, like she's so like, 'why is he acting like this?' I think she thought you were going to do something violent or something, but, you were so reassuring and apologetic, it didn't seem like that. She had us bar the door, briefly, but then the building shook a little and there was shouting, like, 'Get out! Evacuate!"

"We remembered what you'd said, so we went across the hall to Davis's class, and they were all against the windows staring at this impossible huge cube spaceship coming down on the football fields."

"Yeah..."

"Everyone was wondering who it was walking towards it, but then you turned around, so we all figured it out."

"Ah. Again, sorry. I didn't have control of the timing."

"You don't control this thing?"

"I DO, but ... I'm not sure how much yet? It's kind of confusing. I'm working on it."

"Oh."

"So where'd you go next?"

"Home, stupid! The building cleared out super-fast after you took off, everyone wanted to get home to watch on TV or something in case you did something else. Your parents are probably worried sick."

"My dad left a long time ago, just my mom and sister and I. Jane is off at Wash U in St. Louis."

"That's where she went? I thought she got into Rutgers?"

"Changed her mind." I felt odd talking about Jane, at one level, when we could see a star field on the wall and a noticeably bigger Moon and much smaller Earth. Here we were, hanging out in this super-advanced alien spacecraft, having just... 'been intimate', maybe... talking about basic family facts we didn't know about each other despite the BJ. Oddness.

I put words on it and said, "Kinda surreal. Where we are."

"I'm kind of disconnected, too."

I pulled my pants up and fastened them, and we stood up to watch the Earth, which was okay for a while, but I wondered what was happening back there. "Pat, can you pull up MSNBC on this wall, too, in a window, without obstructing the main view?"

A big-screen-TV's size image of a newscaster appeared - Ali Velchi, it looked like - giving a rundown on the events. They even had several video clips from different people, of me turning around and waving, and then walking on the ship.

His sequence of interviews switched between his standard talking-heads political people and then to field-Interviews with our police chief (I'd never met him), and then over the phone with some of our classmates.

They even talked with JD, a total metal-head if there ever was one, but he was surprisingly put together. He said, pretty calmly, "I was over in the auto shop. We watched it come down, silent-like, no engine noises. No jerky motion, either, looked really controlled and deliberate. The auto-shop building kind of shook a little when it touched down, like it was heavy or something. I wasn't scared so much, I mean, yeah, a little, but there was Kevin and he's a total geek, so yeah, it wasn't that odd anymore somehow, I was like, Yeah, that figures."

"You know him pretty well?"

"Good enough. I put gum in his hair once back in 3rd grade. I was ... kind of a dick back then." He laughed and said, talking directly to me, "Hey, Kevin, so, uh... sorry, dude! Hope you're okay."

"You think he's going somewhere?"

"Didn't you say he told people he was going to the Moon?"

"We reported that, yes, the police confirmed he said that."

"Well, if he's going there, he's probably got a reason. Kevin's an okay guy. Like, nice, and stuff. I'm sure he's gotta have a reason. Or... Ha! Maybe not. Maybe he's just gonna go and sightsee or something. Hell, if I had a spaceship, I'd go, too!"

"Do you know why he might have wanted to bring Madison Charles along?"

"Mads, yeah. I dunno? I thought he was going out with Alice Peterson, but ... that's his business, I'm not really with the geek crowd."

I said to Mads, "JD is doing an epic interview."

"He's got a point. Why am I here again?"

Whispering, I said, "Blowjobs..." and she laughed.

JD continued, interrupting us, "...Of course, I totally get it. Mads is hot. I mean, like, attractive? And, smart, too. Kevin's smart, so that kinda fits."

They finished the call, and switched to a reporter interviewing the principal, who had nothing to say except they were glad no one was hurt, and how they'd done the building emergency procedures well and he was happy with their planning. It got boring.

Pat put a reminder on another wall of the time, and that I'd asked Higgins, the F-22 pilot, to have a call with President Ortiz at 2 pm, and it was getting close to time.

"What are you going to say?"

"Dunno. I just thought it would be good to reach out and ... I guess, tell them I'm not threatening. In the movies, they always panic. Speaking of so... Pat, can we call my mother, on speakerphone? I suspect there's no cell coverage..."