Island Girls

by Rodzil LaBraun

  The console displayed another spacecraft leaving the large ship. I was unable to determine its size or design. Its trajectory put it on course for the planet as well. We were still too far away to know if we were heading for the same landing location. Though, it was reasonable to assume.

  "Is that the queen?" Nancy asked, standing behind my chair.

  "Delilah," I corrected her. "Yes, I would assume that is her. She looks to be headed for a rendezvous with us on the planet, just like she stated. Perhaps she is trustworthy. She did lead us to this shuttle."

  "I don't know," Lin replied. "Something still doesn't feel right about this."

  "You're just jealous of how thin she was," Nancy offered jokingly.

  "That would be dangerously thin for a human," Lin replied. "I'm happy with my shape, thank you."

  "As you should be," I said. Then realizing that my statement only addressed Lin, I continued, "All three of you are perfect physically. That was the main reason that you were selected for their interstellar circus show."

  "Were we the monkeys?" Nancy asked.

  "Yes," I replied. "We were the monkeys. But not anymore."

  "I'm nervous about what we'll find on the planet," Shira spoke. "Will we even be able to breathe? It would suck to escape the ship just to die down there."

  "It wouldn't make sense to me for Delilah to send us to our death on the planet," I offered. "Assuming that she planned it as our destination. It wouldn't make good television either. If they wanted us dead, they would kill us in an entertaining way."

  "That doesn't make me feel any better," Shira answered.

  "My point is, Delilah would not put us on a ship and send us to this place if it wasn't going to be any better than our lives on the island. Which turned out to be in a ship. She claimed to be sympathetic to our plight. Everything so far coincides with that claim. Except being able to control the ship once we distanced ourselves. That’s why I’m looking for a way operate this thing. In case we need options. Her orange button and arrow transmission might just be out of range."

  "I think you are a little too endeared to that alien temptress to be thinking clearly," Lin told me. "She led us to the ship, true. But since we have not gained control of the vessel yet, we are not technically free. And your logic is heavily dependent on the rest of her story being accurate as well. The best lies have a lot of truth to them."

  I gave her statement some thought during a lengthy pause in the conversation. Finally, Nancy whispered, "You are jealous, Lin."

  "No," I said in response to Nancy. "Lin has a valid point. The problem is, what can we do about it? I've been trying to override the controls with no luck. To me, Delilah's explanation of our existence filled in too many holes in the puzzle to dismiss."

  "But any way you look at it, your assessment is correct, Lin. We are not yet free. Our prison was originally an island. Then a starship. Now it is this small craft, which by the way, appears to be designed just as a shuttle to and from the planet. Even if we did gain control, we would not be able to travel to another star system in our lifetime. Journey to the next planet would be too far, as well. We would starve or die of thirst long before we'd even see it."

  "What about the survival gear boxes back here?" Nancy asked. "They are pretty big. It might be enough to last us a month."

  "Is there a toilet in there, you think?" Lin asked. "I'm going to have to pee soon."

  "We'll do whatever we have to do to survive," I said. "Like Trixie said, minus the ass dildo."

  "I am not taking a poop in front of all of you," Lin announced. "Unless another starship or space station appears on the screen, we have no choice but to land on the planet."

  "Well, let's hope that there is a tree for you to squat behind," Nancy said. Then after a long silence, "It's a shame what happened to Trixie. We could use her sense of humor right now."

  Shira added, "We could use Drexel, too. He at least had more experience in the virtual reality game learning these alien controls. Joah was too busy trying to get in Lin's pants."

  "If I had known that the game would provide me with essential information for our escape, I would have used my time more wisely."

  "Really?" Lin asked.

  "No!" Nancy answered for me. "He had the hots for you since the day he met you."

  "Well," Shira interjected. "At least Joah conquered another pussy before we all plummet to our death."

  "I was not conquered," Lin responded in offense.

  "So, you two didn't bump the uglies?" Nancy asked.

  "Oh, no!" Shira responded. "They definitely did. I saw it on their faces when I found them coming out of that private room."

  Neither Lin nor I denied the accusation. There was no point in hiding the fact that I had sex with the beautiful Asian woman. Everyone already knew that Nancy and I had already gone at it a few times. Maybe it was jealousy fueling Shira anger.

  I had no intention of suggesting that openly, but Nancy came to the same conclusion. She whispered to Shira, "Maybe you'll get your turn after we land."

  Shira was about to protest when we felt the forward thrusters kick in, then some on the left side of the shuttle. We were approaching the atmosphere and autopilot was putting us at the right speed and angle for entry. It was probably a good thing that I could not wrestle control away from the ship. My inexperience at flying would probably burn us up before we reached the ground. I certainly wouldn't provide us with a soft landing. Hopefully, the autopilot would take us all the way down safely.

  Unlike our short journey through the vacuum of space, the air in the atmosphere did provide some friction against our ship. Turbulence began to knock us around some, but it was no worse than we had experienced in an airplane to this point. None of us were panicking. At least not vocally.

  Shira and Nancy quickly returned to their seats without me having to figure out how to turn on the fasten your seatbelts sign. I searched the console for any sections that might provide useful data, like cabin pressure or rate of descent. But it was all too alien to figure out. We were at the mercy of the ship and its autopilot anyway. At least there were no buzzers or flashing alarm indicators.

  I had hoped to watch the surface of the planet rise up and greet us. Not only would that be super cool, it would also make me feel a little better if I could make out details of the landscape before we land. Unfortunately, entry into the atmosphere must have required a certain angle that only showed me the sky as we fell through the increasing pressure of the gaseous exterior. I also could not find any way to activate an exterior camera, if there even was one.

  Forward thrusters activated a few more times, increasing the already difficult gravitational forces that we were experiencing. The girls grunted a few times as the tiny craft bucked us like a rodeo bull. The temperature was rising inside the cabin as well, but I imagined it would have been much worse if the life support wasn't working so hard to keep us alive.

  "How is your bladder holding up?" Nancy asked Lin through gritted teeth. I considered it unnecessary banter. If this were a military squad, I would put an end to it. Focus was a priority in life or death situations. Instead, I was almost happy to hear it. It told me that my friends in the back were still okay during this descent into the unknown.

  "Not good," Lin replied in the same manner. I instinctively began to smell piss. I told myself that it was just my mind responding and that my gorgeous new lover did not actually urinate in her seat. But I couldn't be sure.

  Thrusters kicked in again as the turbulence dissipated. A steady force from forward and lower engines after that told me that we were likely close to landing. The ship had remained intact. This was not likely its maiden voyage into atmosphere, but it was ours. I now considered the chances of a crash landing very remote.

  "Brace for impact," I told the girls. "I don't know how rough the landing will be. Push your heads against the headrest to protect your necks. Maintain good posture. We're almost done."

  Thrusters increased steadily for a few seconds
, but the g-force was bearable. Then they ceased. The engines may have completely shut off as well. I couldn't be sure, but it was eerily quiet after all the noise of atmospheric entry and braking. A series of lights flashed in a pattern in the console, none of them orange, then went blank.

  "What does that mean?" Nancy asked.

  "I think we landed," Lin replied. We all took a deep breath.

  "Oh, good. You can pee."

  I waited to see if Lin would reply that she had already pissed her pants, but she did not. I nonchalantly sniffed the air for the urine scent that I had in my brain earlier, but it was absent. Lin relieving herself in the seat had been my imagination. That was good, but I was prepared to deal with any problems at this point. Soiled panties would be an easy one.

  The loss of Trixie's sense of humor and engaging antagonism would surely be missed. But Nancy was trying hard to fill that gap. It might just be a defense mechanism for her. Giving it some thought, I was surprised that we didn't have any real arguments during our trip. I was locked into a confined space heading to an unknown location with three very different women. It could have been much, much worse. Maybe it was a good thing that they couldn’t complain about my driving.

  Tiny jets inside the cabin sounded, and I took that as the ship adjusting our air to match the planet's. I explained such to Nancy when she asked. If I knew something, I was going to share it. Unless it would cause senseless panic. This was the first time through anything like this for any of these girls. It was my job to make them feel more at ease. But how comfortable could anyone be in this situation?

  The side door where we had entered from the docking bay reopened with just the whisper of a sound. The light coming in from outside is what really alerted us to the opening. The confining arms on our chairs all released at the same time. We were free to move around the cabin and exit the ship.

  As much as I needed to check out those survival packs, I couldn't help but peek out the doorway into the bright light. We all shielded our eyes as they adjusted. It was a sunny day out there, but the temperature was comfortable. The air from outside mixing with ours was apparently breathable because none of us so much as coughed. Eventually, some details of our surroundings came into view.

  We had landed on a small flat section of solid rock. Gentle waves were lapping against the base just a few feet below. There was only sea in that direction as far as we could see.

  I grabbed my pulse rifle which had been stowed in a compartment beside my chair during the trip. I had no idea how much ammunition or charge remained in the thing. I had not made an effort to retrieve Drexel’s needle gun when he was killed. Lin grabbed her laser pistol as well. Then, I stepped out of the ship onto dry ground.

  Turning left, past the tail end of the ship, I saw nothing but ocean. It was possible that this planet's surface was mostly water. The blue and white swirl of clouds was the last view I had of the planet before we adjusted for entry. I did not get a clear look.

  Turning right I saw more dry land. The rocky section slowly converted to a sandy beach. I took a few steps to get a clearer picture of our landing location. A grassy section came into view roughly thirty feet from the water, then a building. It was centered in the small field, with another beach to the other side. I shielded my eyes from the direct sunlight to make out what I could see in the distance. Nothing. Nothing but sea.

  As the girls slowly exited the shuttle, I walked down the stone slope to confirm my suspicions. We were on an island. Only this island was real. I saw only one building and it appeared to be constructed from local supplies. Stone, wood, and a thatch roof. The texture of rocks below my bare feet felt natural, not fabricated.

  I continued to search for clues that what I was experiencing was real. Though hard to believe, it was possible that the trip that we had just made from the ship to the planet was an illusion. We could all still be in the virtual reality game. The entire starship, with its human preservation chambers, could all be fake. At times, it was hard to tell. I almost felt like I was going crazy. I was living through one of those movies where you have very little idea of what was really going on until the end.

  I reached down and grabbed some sand to feel it drop through my fingers, some granules still clinging to my skin. Then a blade of grass. It was totally convincing. Nothing like this had been simulated in the game.

  A few birds flew from tree to tree. A couple of them sat on the roof of the lone building. There was wildlife here. That was also very reassuring. I searched the sea for life, but the water was much darker than our previous island. There had been real fish in our onboard habitat, though. So that would not help. I knew that those fish were real, because we ate them.

  "Where are we?" Nancy asked.

  "We are on another island," I replied. "Only I believe that this one is real."

  The girls followed me as we walked toward the building. It was at least twice the size of our old barracks. The front entryway was open, no door in sight. I meandered to the left and the right as we approached.

  "What are you doing?" Lin asked.

  "I'm looking for Delilah's shuttle. I was hoping that she would meet us here to provide us with more answers."

  "Delilah," Lin whispered in a tone that indicated that she had no love for that alien woman.

  "Shall we look inside, then?" Shira asked.

  I was just about to answer to the affirmative, my pulse rifle steady in my hands, when I heard a noise from our shuttle. Two large boxes, one on each side of the ship, dropped to the ground, then fell on their sides. Presumably, those were the survival packs. It was good to know that we would have some basic essentials to live on. But the ship releasing those packs automatically gave me a very bad feeling.

  Sure enough, just seconds after the boxes hit the ground, the ship powered up. Before the count of three, it was in the air. We all watched in shock as it continued to rise and disappear into the sky.

  We had been stranded. On another fucking island.