Voyage

by C. Paul Lockman

His final riposte had Chris doubled over in hilarity “Oh, and you’ve been constipated for three days and need to take a huge dump. Now might be a good time.” Julia’s facial colour transformed yet again, past reddish-purple and into the deepest crimson of embarrassment.

  “But...”

  Hal snorted. “Yeah. I know. Freaky, isn’t it? Not bad for a mere computer.”

  To this day, given how royally pissed Hal was, I’m surprised Dr. Fitzwallace hadn’t been blasted into her constituent atoms. Instead, she shrank off to the bathrooms, led by Liz, who was controlling her mirth far better than the Senator or the Captain.

  “Glass of champagne, anyone?” Hal recommenced serving drinks and snacks while everyone got their breaths back.

  “Well. That was... spirited”, I offered to the stunned crowd as they returned to their seats and took stock. “Why not let’s take a break?”

  The group broke up as people began to explore the hallways in small groups. Others found lecterns and began tapping into Hal. For his part, the supercomputer brightened the mood with a dazzling deep-space fireworks display outside the windows. He even found some good music, relaxed ambient lounge tracks, and broadened the drinks choices to include a full-scale bar. We’d be lucky to get any more work done tonight, but perhaps people were tired and needed to unwind. I certainly did.

  “So, sailor”, cooed Evelyn, “buy me a drink?”

  We sat in one of the window spaces together and shared the view and a couple of cocktails. “You know, Hal can do amazing things, even with limited technology like this”, she announced, holding up her battered Blackberry. “I got myself mainframe access to the House and Senate computers, the USAF Central Database, the CIA... I could go to prison for a million years.”

  I sipped my drink, a scotch highball. “He’s a keeper, that’s for sure. You just asked, and he did all of that?”

  “Well, all I really said was that I wanted to know what was going on down there”, she said, motioning to the darkening earth, “and he hooked me up in a second.”

  I stretched. I was tired, maybe. I rarely felt mental tiredness, but this had been quite a day. Too many tough decisions and potential setbacks. Too many fucking armoured columns firing shells at me. I glanced at Evelyn, who was absorbing the view; the sun was creating a halo of stunning colours where the thin wisp of atmosphere met the frozen vacuum of space. I reached over and switched off her Blackberry, put it aside.

  “You know, they say you can get cancer from using these for too long”.

  She giggled. “Well, that would be awful. But I guess I could just swallow one of Hal’s magic pills, and... poof!”

  “Like I say, he’s a star”.

  Evelyn yawned. “Got any bedrooms on this floating rock in space yet?”

  Once more, I searched for information I knew I had, and simply dragged it up from the blueprints Hal had installed in my head earlier. “Yeah. There are a bunch, and things keep changing all the time. I think Hal’s got some perimeter rooms laid out as bedrooms, so that the guests, and us too, get a view of Earth from our windows.” Evelyn loved the idea and followed me through the maze of corridors. Hal had done a Star Trek job on the interior decoration, I saw. The doors slid open with a swoosh, the flooring was comfortable light-coloured carpet, and the corridors were largely white, with blue sections and red stripes indicating direction and function. We found the room Hal had nominated for Evelyn and the door swished open. It was completely empty, a white floor with white walls and large viewing windows.

  “A little austere, don’t you think?”

  “Perhaps Hal wants to give your creativity some latitude”, I offered. “Tell him what you’d like.”

  Within a few minutes, Evelyn had the places beautifully decked-out in an aesthetic combination I thought resonated of minimalist New York loft and practical, Ikea post-student neatness. I had a few words with Hal, making arrangements for the timings of tomorrow’s meetings. Many of the groups were making enquiries about accommodation; it seemed like the initial tirades had worn them out. Besides, there was a lot to think about.

  “You know what I’d like most?” Evelyn asked. “Except for a whole lot more of that champagne?”

  I raised an enquiring eyebrow. “Tickets to the Met?”

  “A shower, numbnuts”, she quipped. In moments, the room had partitioned once more – it was exactly as you’d imagine magic to work, I’m serious – and there was a large, well-appointed bathroom with tub, shower and accessories just waiting for its first visitor. “Want to give me a minute to get changed?”

  I looked her straight in the eye. “Not really”.

  “Huh?”

  “I’d much rather help, if it’s all the same to you.” Even by my standards, this was a trifle forward.

  Her response was a cute smile, the unbuttoning of her uniform tunic and, just as my eyes travelled south to the appealing swell of her chest, a sharp finger-flick to the centre of my forehead.

  “OK, guess I earned that.”

  “Yes”, she said simply, hands on hips, retaining her smile. She was yummy. Even more so for her manifest, maddening inaccessibility. Such lovely curves. Oh, well.

  “Guess I’ll see you at breakfast, then.”

  We said our goodnights and I left without fuss, willing the boner-in-waiting to return to its stables for the time being. I was tired, perhaps even a little drunk. Hal was chattering again, with more updates from earth. I quietened him. It was time to rest now. I found my own room, spent twenty seconds decking it out, slumped onto the massive four-poster bed and gratefully passed into my deepest sleep in years.

  Chapter XLV: Bailout

  Wednesday, 12th October, 2033

  The Dvalin Asteroid, GEO

  Three minutes out of the shower, I heard a tap on my door. I was still waking up, really; I had become exhausted during the previous couple of days, and there didn’t seem enough time to sleep. I was mostly thinking about a large breakfast with lots of coffee, and half hoped that the early knock at the door was Hal’s version of breakfast in bed.

  “Oh, hi,” I offered groggily.

  “Is that any way to greet someone who brings you presents like this?” said Evelyn, brandishing a manila envelope. She strode in confidently and placed the envelope on my table before sitting primly on the bed.

  “OK, I’ll bite. What’s this?” I opened it and was treated to those memorable photos of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, yelling with rage, being arrested in their Pentagon offices and marched out to waiting FBI vehicles.

  I slid them back into the envelope, perhaps not quite as thrilled as Evelyn had hoped. “Does this actually make the world safer?”

  Evelyn sighed. “A little. No-one’s going to try to nuke you today.” This, at least, was encouraging. But there was so much still to do.

  “You did well yesterday. I know I haven’t told you that yet.”

  She smiled beautifully. “I did what anyone would have”. She seemed unused to praise, to want to deflect my appreciation of her achievements.

  “Sure, of course. Anyone facing fighter-bombers and armoured columns accompanied only by a crazy man with blue balls”.

  She giggled. “That doesn’t mean they’re cold, does it?” I stared at her for a second, processing this slightly abrupt change in her demeanour.

  “Er... no, they’re not cold...”

  “Because I was hoping they’d be nice and warm”, she said, standing and approaching me. “Warm and full of something delicious”.

  We kissed. From that first instant we both knew what we needed, and wasted no time. As I sucked her tongue, she was clawing at buttons, yanking at my belt, freeing her boobs. Glued to my mouth, she slid her hand quickly, aggressively down my pants to grab my awakening member. Her grasp was cool, strong, determined. This, I recognized as soon as she lustfully bit my shoulder and began giving my cock hard, quick strokes, is a lady to be reckoned with.

  Clothing was vanishing faster than I could keep up. Evelyn’s incredible b
ody was finally revealed; rock-hard, dark nipples topped her pert, firm breasts, wonderfully proportioned and aching to be sucked. She kept her panties on but dragged me, half naked, back to the bed and pulled me on top of her. I feasted on her breasts, sucking aggressively on them, teasing them with light scrapings against my teeth, then salving them with warm tongue strokes.

  She had my cock in her hand, and added another which caressed my balls and lower shaft. I licked her tummy, flat and muscular, and began to head south to what I knew would be a very beautiful pussy.

  “No... fuck me... now.” To hear this beautiful, strong woman utter my favourite words ignited something carnal. I spread her legs with my knees, pulled her panties aside, spread her lips and jabbed two fingers deeply into her pussy. She moaned loudly, filled after so long without, bucking against my fingers as I shafted her warm, incredibly wet cunt. But I knew what she truly wanted.

  I mounted her, kissed her and slid my cock all the way inside her, between soft outer lips, into her tight, soaking tunnel. As she yelled in surprise and pleasure, I kept pushing in until my cock disappeared entirely inside her body. It was all momentum from there; and the desperate need to cum. I rose above her, arms locked, pelvis thrusting hard, cock scything between her lips in a deep, fast, strong motion which brought her to string of loud orgasms.

  “Don’t... stop...” she gasped between each peak of her pleasure. Her cunt tightened again, I heard a desperate, “Oh, God...” and her orgasm sent her into another tailspin of delirium. I waited for the most recent spasm to subside and then quickly withdrew, turned her over, tore off her knickers, parted her legs once more and slid my cock back into her juicy pussy. Laying on her back, I was able to feel her lovely tight arse under me while enjoying the well-lubricated, slender sex tunnel of which I’d dreamed since first meeting her. Supporting myself with one hand, I passed the other under Evelyn’s thighs and quickly found her clit.

  “Hmmm this is my favourite way...” I said, without a word of a lie. “I want you to send you into orbit”. She grinned through her grimaces and gasps.

  “God... no...” she seemed almost genuinely concerned as I began circling her clit with firm, experienced fingers. “No... I’ll die... you mustn’t...”

  I love being told that I absolutely cannot do something, and then immediately doing it. Her clit became my sole focus for twenty minutes. My cock seemed to find its own way in and out of her pink slit, which became wetter with each of her tensing, spasming, cunt-flooding orgasms. Face buried in the bedsheets, hands occasionally almost fighting me to give her a rest, to stop the assault on her pleasure bud, Evelyn just kept coming, over and over, each shudder of her cunt muscles delivering another bolt of pleasure to my dick.

  Braving the slippery conditions, my index finger managed to draw back the hood of her clit, hold it in place and let my third finger flitter over her exposed, hyper-sensitive bud. Overwhelmed and gasping, she began to beg me to stop.

  “No, seriously”... she pleaded. “I can’t...”

  I eased my strokes, flattening my finger a little to provide less pressure and more of an even, continuous massage. Her pleas quietened and I returned to sliding my dick very deeply into her cunt. It was only by focusing so completely on her orgasms that I was able to delay my own. Beneath me I could hear her trying to say something.

  “No protection”... Oh, that... “Don’t care... I want it...”

  I needed no further invitation. Withdrawing and turning her over again, I mounted her in missionary and fucked her brains out. I can’t remember ever searching more urgently for my own orgasm. She never stopped coming, repeatedly calling my name, urging me to fill her with my sperm.

  “Do it... inside me...” she panted. “I want all of it... give ... it... to....”

  Before she could finish, stammering out syllables between deep thrustings, I began to cum. Agonizingly, the torrent of fluid began and within moments, my penis became a canyon filled with boiling sperm, desperate to break its banks and flood the inviting spaces of Evelyn’s womb. Cum spurted violently out into her body, splashing against her pussy walls, hard squirts following the initial eruptions. I pulled back and let more of my hot, thick sperm spray her mound and her tummy; she gasped at the hotness of it, and the endless amount. The final dribbles of semen coated her cunt lips and inner thighs.

  She stared at me, panting for a long minute until she could get her breath back. Mouth literally agape, she surveyed the long, thick ropes of cum which now decorated her body and glanced between her legs to see just how much semen had been poured inside her. So much now pooled on the bedsheets that the initial eruption inside her must have been monumental.

  “That... was lovely... but...”

  I was grabbing towels and water for us both. “But?”

  She scooped up a big wodge of semen into the palm of her hand. “What the fuck?”

  It was a reasonable question but I prefer to retain my enigmatic status when it comes to sexual prowess. No-one on earth knows that I received Takanlian help to enhance sperm production or penis size. I like it that way, so please don’t tell anyone.

  I towelled her off, both grinning at the awesome pleasure we’d created, and the prodigious cum-spattering Evelyn had just received. “It’s always been like that”, I lied. “Even when I was a kid”.

  She chuckled. “Well, I love it. You’re not going to be tired later are you?”

  I gave her a knowing look and shook my head. Plenty more where that came from.

  *****

  Hal brought us all together for a breakfast briefing. There was much to report from a troubled, frightened planet, and most of it was pretty bad news. I found myself almost groggy with fatigue until a couple of yellow pills, a litre of coffee and a large breakfast of pancakes (with unlikely levels of maple syrup) straightened my back, sharpened my gaze and rocket-fuelled my brain. Today was important. Best not fuck this one up.

  “There has been worldwide unrest overnight” began Hal. Way to get us off to an optimistic start, I thought glumly. “More than a hundred nations have reported clashes between the public and their security services, and virtually every nation has experienced looting, civil disobedience, arson and vandalism, or the resumption of older ethnic and religious rivalries”. Jesus. Any fucking excuse and they’re at it again. I found myself wondering if there would be any positive outcome to this project. Had I truly just initiated a global disaster?

  “I hate to say ‘I told you so’”, chimed in Julia Fitzwallace. To be plain, I was a little surprised she had showed her face, having been given a comprehensive dressing down by a supercomputer the evening before. Still, her face was here. And I wanted, so desperately, to punch it.

  Hal pressed on. “The government of Gabon has been usurped by armed tribesmen who demand massive reparations for the placement of Dvalin equipment on their land. The sums are in the billions of dollars”. Fuck. And this was despite the land being non-arable bush with a tiny population and almost no water. Held to ransom by people who literally carried spears to work in the morning.

  “What else, Hal?”

  The supercomputer issued a torrent of just awful news. “An Iranian oil tanker has been sunk, apparently by a land-launched cruise missile, in the Northern Persian Gulf. In Vietnam, dozens of government troops were killed in an ambush outside Ho Chi Minh City, while in China there have been massive flare-ups of civil unrest in the western provinces. Two South Korean Air Force patrol aircraft have been shot down in international airspace, apparently by aggressors from the North. An oil platform off Brunei has spectacularly caught fire; reports claim the blaze was started deliberately.”

  I cursed the pancakes, which lay heavy and partly-digested while I had to stomach all of this. Every death, every catastrophe, had my name on it. I was finding it difficult to breathe.

  “In the US there are resolutions on the agenda today in both directions; one insists that Dvalin be regarded as a looming terrorist threat, and the other promotes peaceful co-
operation with the project. Neither are expected to pass either House or Senate, leaving the legislative system in a log-jam.” Well, nothing particularly new there, I mused. “In orbit, the US trio of astronauts on the International Space Station has been ordered to take unilateral control of the station and prepare for resupply with nuclear weapons. It is thought that another H-bomb strike against Dvalin will be mounted from the ISS.”

  That, I thought with a numb mind and balled fists, is patently insane.

  “Dvalin’s media and cultural importance is already immense. Every print, radio, TV and online media format has covered the arrival of the asteroid and the messenger drones. Most represent a point of view best described as ‘scared, but curious’. A minority are, at turns, wildly enthusiastic, promising a new era, or glumly pessimistic, predicting the end of the world. According to polls, the public are split down the middle. Most are fascinated, many are terrified, some are overjoyed and others near suicidal. Yesterday has been called, in more than one quarter, the most important day in the history of the world.”

  And the most disastrous. How could I have been so stupid? People weren’t ready for the internet when it arrived, and that began as little but a slow method of transmitting raunchy pictures of Demi Moore. This... clusterfuck I had unleashed... this was beyond the pail. I should have known. Too much, too soon.

  Hal wasn’t finished. “Worldwide casualties have topped six to seven thousand”, he announced to a shocked, wincing group. I felt like I’d been kicked in the guts. “Demonstrators at the Sculthorpe facility succeeded in penetrating the outer fence and running across the runways, disrupting orbiter flights for an hour but causing no damage. I’ve reviewed security. Many were encased in an immobilizing gel and others were rendered unconscious with gas.”

  The reports came in no particular order. Hal was just sifting through the ones he judged most important to our decision-making processes. “The president of the Russian federation has promised to launch a manned mission to intercept Dvalin and take control. It is expected to launch in three to six months.” Good luck even getting a ship out here, asshole. This isn’t Mir in LEO anymore.