The Good Ship Bison

Pat spoke, and Mads started like it was a surprise reminder we had a third person with us, sort-of. "Yes. Both options are open. I can boost the signal and get your phone back into range, but there will be nearly a second of delay for lightspeed back to Earth."

"Just... a voice call, please. If I'm in range, I think Alice is gonna send me a bunch of texts."

"You currently have over 4,300 text messages in queue, from various people. Shall I call you mother?"

"Yes."

The phone rang. Madison and I stood up, and I sipped a milkshake. I was still hungry. A man's voice answered, "Hello?"

"Can you please put Catherine Cooper on? This is Kevin Cooper."

Shuffling, then a voice that said Mom had a speakerphone on. "Kevin?"

"I'm okay, Mom. I'm... sorry I'm making your life so hard."

"OH, honey! I'm just so glad you're safe! What's going on? Why are you doing this?"

"I kinda got a ... It's like I got a car, Mom, like, a _really_ fast car. No - not fast. It's like, it's a truck, but... " I laughed, "It's seriously off-road."

Madison chuckled.

"They want me to ask if Madison is all right."

I went over and whispered in Mads' ear, "Keep your responses short? Don't tell too much. I kinda want to keep the details here private, mostly."

She nodded with a big smile, and, looking me in the eye, said, "I'm okay, Mrs. Cooper. Just great, actually! We can see the Earth behind us, and the Moon in front, and it's bigger? Really pretty. Kevin was really nice to pick me up, the cops were breaking down my door."

There was some shuffling around, like papers moving, and Mom continued, "Yes, they're sorry about that. You're really okay?"

Madison went into talk-real mode, "Duh. I'm fine, Kevin's been super-nice. We're just hanging out here. No worries. Tell my Mom I'm fine, okay? I didn't get a chance to, before we left."

"I will, dear... Uh, Madison."

"Oh! You can call me what you want, Mrs. Cooper! My friends call me 'Mads', or 'Maddie'."

I interrupted, "...I'll call back later, Mom. I have to ... I'm laughing at this ... I have to talk with The President now. Ha!"

"You've pulled a big stunt, Kevin, you have a lot of people worried."

"No stunt, Mom. I'm just kind of figuring out how to... drive this thing? It's odd, but I'm getting the hang of it. Sorry I caused problems. I've apologized a bunch, but, yeah. Probably doesn't make up for it."

"Just... take care of yourself? I love you so much, Kevin."

"I love you, too, Mom, no worries. We'll be back by this evening, probably. I'll bring you some Moon rocks if you want. Might be nice for the mantle. Uh... I guess... I'll try to call you later, maybe 8 pm or so? I'm not sure. Today is kinda busy, dunno, might get distracted by something."

"Whenever is fine, dear."

"Bye."

Pat had put a half-meter tall replica of my cellphone's screen on the wall for the call, so I went over and pressed the hang-up button and it worked, though I suspected that it was just Pat keeping track of me, versus having the wall actually be a touchscreen.

I looked over. Mads had put her sweatshirt on, so I couldn't look at her boobs anymore, but I grinned, "Mads, I gotta say. JD was right. You are really beautiful."

"I bet you say that to all the girls you pick up in your spaceship."

"Hmmm... One out of one. Yes, all of them. You're right."

We laughed a moment, and I walked over and gave her a hug, and then a kiss. I think she was surprised by it. "What was that for?"

"Being nice to my mom."

"Duh! You know they're going to play that tape for my mom, too, right? And, they're in AAUW together?"

"Oh. Yeah."

Still, Mads was smiling. I think she was thinking of how I interacted with my mom, and I wondered if I'd said anything silly. I didn't think so.

== CHAPTER: Calling the President ==

Looking at the clock, I said, "Pat. Where is the bathroom on this ship?"

"I anticipated this need. I've created a replica of your house's upstairs hallway bathroom, complete with all substances, and working plumbing systems." The door is ...Here."

A panel slid up on the back wall, revealing a door that looked a hell of a lot like the door to our hall bathroom, down to the wood grain under the door paint.

I excused myself (having had a lot of pop and a whole milkshake) and went in to pee. The flush was exactly like normal, which for some reason surprised me, even knowing what Pat could do.

The odd thing was, the window was there, just like the real thing, but it was just white on the outside

I washed my hands, even though I hadn't really touched myself much. There's a technique I had for unzipping and getting my penis out and peeing, then shaking and putting myself away, without ever actually touching my penis with my hands. Washing hands seemed stupid, but I did it anyway because mom was such a stickler about it when I was little.

I worried about her, with so much hubbub.

Mads needed to use the bathroom, too, so I waited, we had a few minutes. The question was going to be, would it be a phone call, or a video call, or what.

With video, I'd be giving away more info about myself, and the room I was in, the ship in general. I decided that maybe there were weaknesses I didn't want to address, and less info for them was better.

On the other hand, I did want to be useful.

Mads finished up and came back, giving me a kiss as she walked in. I asked Pat for a conference room table (we had the floor space) and a bunch of office chairs, and a device to control a phone.

Until they could be made, we'd just have to stand.

There were a bunch of things I should've asked for when I got onboard, I realized, like a refrigerator full of normal food. Trouble was, I didn't know Pat could make things, it occurred to me as I was connected.

"Do we know what phone number to use for the President?"

"Your phone has a text from someone with a valid White House phone number and name. It gives you a number to call that will ring directly to the President's secretary."

"Good. It's time. Let's call them now."

Ring... Ring... "Office of the President."

"This is Kevin Cooper."

"Yes, Mr. Cooper. The President is ready for your call. Here she is."

The phone rang again and I heard a click and a speakerphone quality room noise, "Good afternoon, Mr. Cooper."

My mom binge-watched a show once called, 'West Wing' where everyone was super-formal with the President, and I wanted to be that, too. It felt a little fake, but I knew that being respectful might earn me some points later.

"Mrs. President. Yes. This is Kevin Cooper. You can hear me okay?"

There was a slight delay to them responding, the lightspeed delay. Kind of odd we were that far out already, but accelerating at 1 G for an hour will do that, my relatively-new math/physics abilities told me.

She responded evenly, "Just fine, yes. It's good to hear your voice. We were very concerned this morning."

She was trying to feel me out, what mood was I in, what kind of person I was. I got that. "Yes, well, it couldn't be helped. I'm the pilot... captain, really. I didn't intend on making a spectacle, but the timing was unavoidable. I'm glad no one was hurt, though."

She laughed thinly and said, "There were a few traffic accidents, but no, no one was hurt. You enjoyed your burgers, then?"

"I'm sure they're not as good as what you get at the White House, ma'am, but Bernie's makes good burgers. I'm not quite sure what-all this ship can do yet, so I figured I'd better get some food before I left."

"And... you said, you're going to the Moon?"

"It seemed like a cool place to visit...." I thought quickly, "But... that comes off as being smug, ma'am, I'm ... not trying to be that. I just ... thought it might be fun. Real astronauts are... they deserve more, uh...'

Madison whispered, "accolades"

"Yes, accolades, more than I do. I'm not that brave, I just... have a cool ride."

"Was that Ms. Charles?"

Mads said, respectfully, "Yes, Ma'am. Pleased to meet you, ma'am. Sort of, talking, meeting." Madison was deferential and seemed a little flustered.

"Must be exciting for you, too, flying out there."

I made a pinching motion with my fingers and pointed to an imaginary watch, Mads got it. "Yes, it is, for sure."

Taking over the conversation again, I asked, "Ma'am, since I'm going to the Moon anyway, can I bring you back some rocks or something? Pictures? I'm not going to go near any previous landing spots, I know we'll want to designate those as historic landmarks."

I don't know why I said that. I realized I was kind of flustered, too.

"We will, yes. As for the rocks, yes, Those would be a kind gift. Where would you like to drop those off?"

I laughed, "I think I can't go back to my house anymore, probably."

A man in the room laughed, and Ms. Ortiz said, "Certainly true... We'll get you an address. Maybe," she went silent for a moment and then came back, "I'm told any NASA facility would be good, but ... yes, NASA Ames, west of San Francisco, that might be good."

I thought about it. I'd actually been there. "Tell you what, I'll land at the North end of the runway at Ames, farthest from the highway. You'll need... some trucks, like, open top ones? Dump trucks, there, probably. I'm not sure how much we'll bring back, but it might be heavy."

"Thank you."

I waited.

She asked, "We want to know what your intentions are, Mr. Cooper? Some of my advisors are chomping at the bit to find out more about that spacecraft, what it can do. Others here, they want to know if you have any... problems? Uh, people that you don't like, or ... you know what an 'agenda' is?"

"Ma'am, yes, of course. No, I don't have an agenda, like, a bad one, I don't think. I don't really dislike anyone too much. Not a big fan of EA or Activision, they ruined... Nevermind. Stupid stuff. No, I don't hate anyone, or any companies, really. Not a big fan of oil companies, polluting and all, but, yeah, cars gotta run, so, yeah, I'm cool."

"So, about the spacecraft? Your plans?"

"I'm just figuring this thing out myself. It's linked to me, so if I'm ever hurt, the craft is useless, that was made plain to me by... when I got it. Ethical considerations, I can't use the thing for war, or something that might probably result in war. There is an artificial intelligence onboard, but it's responsive, not proactive? I understand it pretty well, and it's mostly just smart enough to make phone calls and get from place to place."

"You're saying, if you're hurt or killed, the spacecraft will no longer function?"

"Yes, ma'am. It's a safety thing, to make sure that if someone wants to steal it and start a war, they can't. So, it's me. That's it. And, I think war sucks, so, yeah."

"You're figuring things out, you said. Does this Artificial Intelligence have any influence over you?"

I thought about it. "Not influence, really. It lets me see things, like, in detail? So I know how they work. Anyway. I think I'd better keep this call short since I'm just figuring things out, like I said. I was thinking, though, that I might like to... be like, Planet Express, or something. Like, maybe, deliver stuff? I can do that. The ship's got ... we don't have to refuel, so we can keep going for a while. If you want something put into orbit, or moved farther out, or returned back from orbit, well, let me know, I can do that. I... might want ... to be paid, though? Mom has a hard time with bills sometimes, and I'd like to help."

"We can arrange something, I'm sure, Mr. Cooper."

"Maybe... If you had an astronaut, or two, and they brought some spacesuits onboard, I could fly back to the moon and let them walk around for a while, if you want..." Thinking fast, I said, "For a fee, of course."

She was amused by that, probably because I seemed pretty amateurish in the way I said it. She replied, "Of course," and I knew she was making a funny face in the same way that grown-ups, old people, make faces at people my age.

"Okay then, ma'am, thank you for the chance to talk."

I realized I was controlling the conversation, and I wondered if she wanted it that way.

"Thank you, Mr. Cooper. Do you object if I summarize this conversation to the press?"

I thought about it. "Keeping to generalities, I've heard diplomats before, so, yeah, like that, not like an exact transcript, please, just... general. And try to keep my relationships out of it? It's going to be hard on Mads and her family, and mine, and Alice's... my friends."

"Of course, I understand, that's fine."

We said our goodbyes and hung up, and about 10 minutes later, a table showed up, and then two simple desk chairs made from sturdy metal.

Mads and I talked about the conversation, and since Pat had a recording of it, we played that back to listen and see if I made any mistakes.

I could see in the cool room that the light sweatshirt Mads was wearing was showing her nipples, making points. "Looks like you're cold, a little."

She looked down. "Uh, yeah? You ... want to...?"

I shrugged and smiled hopefully, so she pulled it off and stood up near me, walking closer. I reached out and looked at them closely. "I was dating Alice for a long time, but she didn't let me look at her in the light very often. Usually it was after dates, or in a car, or in a dark room or something."

"And...?"

"Boobs are fun."

She laughed at that. "Yeah, I guess they are. For you."

I looked up at her smiling face. "Not fun for you?"

"Sometimes they ache, or are tender, or make my back hurt."

"Ah." I reached out and stroked her side, then cupped one, and pulled her to me so I could kiss it, deforming it with my hands, squeezing gently, and planting tiny kisses all around. I said, "Alice told me to not focus too much on the nipple or it'd drive her batty. Is this good?"

"Alice is right." She sighed, seeming to be happy with what I was doing.

I kissed over her nipple, and said, "You know, I'm going to call Alice a little later. I think... I shouldn't lie. I think I'm going to tell her."

"That you got a BJ, and that you're... being sexy with me?"

As she said that, I realized I wanted more than just being sexy. I was seriously horny. "Yes. I think she's going to figure it out. I don't want to do that over the phone, though. There will be people listening in, it wouldn't be nice."

"Maybe we could stop by her house after we get back from the Moon." Mads burst out laughing. "I just listened to myself."

"I know, right?"

My imagination went wild. "I want to make love with you, Madison. Would you like that?"

She was nodding fast, "Oh, fuck yeah."

Crouching down to look right at it, I unbuttoned her pants and pulled them down, and she helped. I stood, too, and she took down my pants. We were naked.

Madison and I lay down on the bed and just kissed and rubbed against each other for a while, it was super-nice.

Doing this gave me some confidence. I said, "You know, I'm going to want to bring Alice onboard later, right? Presuming she's not too pissed at me?"

"She won't be pissed. You're famous now."

"Alice isn't like that. She's ... she won't care that I'm famous, she'll be pissed that I didn't tell her about this, the spaceship."

"So? If she is, you've always got me."

I was holding her butt, she'd straddled my stomach to dangle a boob in my mouth, "I certainly DO have you," and squeezed her butt cheeks.

She mini-screamed and giggled.

I said, "What about Dana? If Alice doesn't come onboard, would Dana want to? If the price for a trip was... having a threesome?"

The joke I was making was risky, but I had deniability since it was a question about Dana, not her.

Mads said, "Kevin. You have a fucking spaceship. I suspect at least... 5%, of all high school senior girls in the world would fuck your brains out for a chance to get a ride. No, make that 10%. The first five are all the geeks, the second would be the sluts, and maybe another 5 on top of that of people who just want to bang someone famous."

"Mmm..." My mouth was full. I'd started sucking and licking her boob, really enjoying it, and only backing off the suction when she said to.

What she didn't expect was sliding down her body and kissing my way into her sex. The smell was invigorating. I was nervous, but I also was super-curious.

I got her to lay down on the mattress and kept going down farther, looking up at her eyes for a while until she just closed them and arched her neck with enjoyment.

Kiss, kiss, kiss... and lick. I'd done this with Alice maybe twice before, but she was pretty embarrassed during it and made me stop fast. Not knowing if I'd get stopped, I made every little bit count - long slow licks up the center and pushing her legs out to the side more to give me access.

Mads seemed really nervous to start with, but as I kept going, she started getting into it more.

It occurred to me, maybe Pat knew something about this that I didn't. I whispered, my mouth mostly hidden by Mads' parts anyway, "Pat. Can you teach me something about making Mads orgasm?"

The word, 'yes' appeared in my vision, fast, then a flood of images, from the ultra-tiny, to the larger-scale, the path and mechanisms of nerves, how the clitoral body is a large five-lobed organ the size of a child's hand, embedded along the labia sides and then along the length of the vaginal wall.

I was fascinated, and my licking went into automatic as I digested how this all fit together.

Nerve pathways, tissues that are inflated with a blood supply like the penis, the clitoral body, striations of muscles and ligaments and connective tissue that attaches the vagina and uterus to the pelvis, the blood supply and how the muscle structure sensed movement to give even more feedback to different sensory nerves... WOW!

Knowing this, I could picture what I was doing with my fingers, and how to make the most of what I was doing, and I did.

Mads came!

She tensed up and shuddered, crying out loud with panting screams until she had to stop me by holding onto my head. I did stop, letting her relax and feeling her muscles unwind from the tension.

Then, before she could object, I started licking again, since the inside-knowledge Pat had given me showed that the second orgasm triggered even more joy-endorphins in a kind-of non-linear exponential happiness graph.

After that second one, I let her breathe and relax. Her horny dial was turned up to max at that point, and she immediately bent around, pulled me up, and then worked her way down my body to suck my already-hard cock.

"Are you going to lick that longer or do I get to do something else with it?"

Her smile and fast-nod led to a pop as she pulled off of me and came up by my side and lay down on her back. She inhaled sharply and gave a slight wanting moan, "Please? In me?"

I obliged and crawled on top of her amazing body. Painting my cock up and down her lips, once, twice, three times, then carefully positioning it almost but not quite in, she looked at me and hugged my lower back, pulling me to be inside her faster.

I resisted. I said, looking her deep in the eyes, "Love me, Madison. Do whatever... Obey me."

Where that came from, I had no idea. But, she was being so subservient, it was like she super-super wanted to be dominated? I was just obliging, I think?

She replied back, though. Nodding, her eyebrows up with honesty, she said, "I will, Kevin. ANYTHING. I will obey you. Just... Love me back?"

I pushed my cock up slightly, just into her, sliding into the tight confines, not more than my head inside, and I said, "Anything?"

"Anything!"

I pushed the rest of the way, in small jerks, and felt her start shuddering and grunting with each movement.

I said, "Well then. I love you, Mads."

The funny thing was, I did. Plus, it wasn't just love. I really, really liked Mads. At that moment, it was super-clear to me. My sense of her under me joined all the times I remembered her. We'd been in elementary and junior high, and even in high school we'd sat next to each other in a few classes... And now, she was NAKED, Under Me, fully mine. I was IN her, joined, and I knew she was a good mate, as in the verb, mating. She was a mating-mate.