“If you like it, then do it that way.”
Sarah sighed. Ral wished she had more confidence in her ability to do things. Had she always been this way, or was it a long-lasting side effect from awakening in a completely unfamiliar world?
“Here, let me push you,” he said, and walked around so he was standing behind her. He pushed her on the swing, and savored the giggles of delight as she flew higher and higher through the air. As she got closer to the bar that the swing’s chains were attached to, she started kicking her feet to swing more.
“I want to go over the top in a big circle, Daddy!” she announced. Ral smiled in amusement.
“That’s not possible,” he told her. “It simply doesn’t work.”
“Of course it does! It’s an Innovation Suite. Just change the gravity or something!”
“Still wouldn’t work. You can’t push yourself over the top.” He didn’t want to go into details, because if he was honest, he didn’t fully understand it himself. Something to do with force, mass, and acceleration, but he’d be damned if he knew what it was.
“You push, then!” She seemed so determined. He shook his head.
“I couldn’t get close enough to do it, because I wouldn’t be able to move out of the way again fast enough.”
“Oh… fine. I’ll fix this myself.” She jumped off the swing in midair and left the room for a minute, returning with her tablet. When she tapped a few things, Ral saw a mechanical device appear beside the swings. It was being fueled by some sort of tank.
“This oughta do it…” she said. When she pressed a button, however, the mechanical device roared to life, and the swing moved so fast that it coiled up around the center bar and the chains became tangled, before it started making a high-pitched grinding noise as everything seized.
“Okay, Sarah, that’s enough.”
She looked at him like there was any possibility that she was surprised he’d stopped her.
“Ugh, you put one V8 engine in a swing set and the whole world ends!” she grumbled.
“Sarah.” His voice took on its warning tone and he waited for her to stop being ridiculous.
“Maybe the torque was too high…” she wondered, but Ral gently took the tablet from her hands.
“Change the design later,” he suggested, “although if I catch you putting an engine in a swing set again there will be consequences. Especially if it results in an injury. Remember, the Innovation Suite isn’t reality, but you can still get hurt in here if you don’t take sensible precautions. If you had been on that swing, you would have been thrown across the room at speed. Or caught up in the chain.” He looked pointedly at the tangle of metal wrapped around the crossbar.
“You know what your problem is, Ral? No sense of exploration.”
Ral had to laugh in disbelief, even though Sarah was close to a spanking.
“Sarah, I’m an astro—y’know what? Go play on the slide while I fix the swing.”
“I can fix it!”
Ral shook his head and held the tablet out of the way as she attempted to reach for it.
“What? It’s an engine! It has a reverse! Sort of.” Her voice was plaintive. It was time to take firmer control of this situation, he decided.
“If I get to one and you’re not on the slide, you’re getting a spanking. Three,” he began. Sarah looked at him, clearly ready to say something else. He didn’t let her. “Two,” he continued.
Sarah hurried over to the slide and climbed the ladder.
“Good girl, Sarah. The whole point of being little is letting go of all the grownup things for a while. If you’re trying to change the settings on the Innovation Suite, you’re not letting go, are you?”
“Guess not.” She spoke in a smaller voice, and Ral knew she was trying to relinquish control. She began to slide down the slide with an unhappy expression, but when she reached the bottom, her face was more neutral. She turned without looking at him and climbed the ladder again, as though it were a chore, then went down the slide once more. Ral decided she needed some space, so once he was certain she wasn’t going to have a full-blown tantrum, he pocketed her tablet then turned his attention to disentangling her swing while she played on the slide.
“All better,” he announced, showing her the swing. She got up and went to it, and while she was examining the chain, he stroked her hair and kissed down the side of her neck, then, without removing her school uniform, he bent her over the swing. As he’d planned, it was at the perfect height for him to fill her with his cock. He turned her short pleated skirt back and tucked it into the waistband, then slid her white cotton panties down, until they sat around her calves, over the top of her long white over-the-knee socks. Sarah simply went along with everything, and when Ral gave her bottom a playful smack, she moaned with desire.
“How’s about we find out how much weight this swing set can take?” he suggested.
“Mass,” she corrected him absently. He spanked her on the other cheek, slightly harder this time.
“Shh, just let Daddy make you feel good,” he said, lightly brushing his fingers over her sex. She moaned again and rolled her hips as he played with her clit until he brought her to her first orgasm of the day. She shuddered and gripped the seat of the swing tightly as she came. When he glanced down, he saw that her pink slit already looked red, like a ripe fruit waiting for him. Ral unfastened his pants and his cock sprang free. She was ready for him. The tip moved in gradually, and Sarah sighed as he filled her. Her silky channel felt so good around him.
“You’re so wet for Daddy, little one.” He thrust into her deeply as he spoke, and was rewarded with a soft cry. Sarah was holding his cock tightly in her pussy, and she seemed to be responding very quickly to his attention as she surrounded his member with a flood of her tingling wetness.
“If you come before I do, you’ll have to accept a spanking, then I’ll come all over your naked body. Actually, I’ll make you keep the socks on,” he told her conversationally. Sarah moaned again, then he felt her contracting around his cock, as she flexed her body over the swing and shook.
“What did I tell you?” he asked once she had been still for several seconds.
“Sorry, Daddy. I couldn’t stop it,” she tried to explain. It amused him no end that she climaxed so easily, and he wondered if all Earth women had been the same. He didn’t show his amusement, however, preferring to tug her jacket off her shoulders, folding it and placing it to one side before he unfastened the ribbon that was tied in a bow and tucked beneath her shirt collar. The buttons on the shirt were next, and soon she stood before him in her bra, short pleated skirt, and long socks. His cock was even harder just from looking at her. He unhooked the bra then the skirt came off too, and when he bent her back over the swing, she only wore her long socks.
In a flurry of swats, he turned the crest of her buttocks pink very quickly, and proceeded to a duskier shade. Sarah seemed resigned to the fact that she’d earned this punishment, and kept her backside up over the swing while he disciplined her. As her bottom was well on its way to becoming a landing beacon, he paused for a moment to slip his cock inside her again and fuck her. Her pussy was wetter than ever, and he was tempted to come inside her, but he wanted to show her what she had missed out on by coming before he wanted her to, so he pulled out just before he came, and with a swift movement, sprayed his seed all over her back.
“Mmm…” she uttered in appreciation. He spanked her again, in a more teasing way than before.
“Remain still, little one,” he instructed her, then fetched something to clean her up with. Her bottom was still glowing fervently when he helped her up off the swing, and they lay down on the grass, watching the clouds.
“Did you change the color of the sky to that blue shade, or was it really like that on Earth?” he asked. Sarah nodded, then shook her head.
“Everyone always told us the sky was blue, but it was usually a dingy dark gray. Everywhere I ever lived, the sky would be a very pale blue for
about three weeks of the year; there were fifty-two weeks in a year. The rest of the time, the sky was gray. Dark gray, light gray, steel gray, silver gray… but never really blue. Yet, in pictures that were taken by photographers, and in holiday brochures, the sky was always this color. I never went anywhere like that, but I suspect that the skies weren’t deep blue anywhere. Not really.”
“It’s pretty, just like you,” Ral looked away from the beautiful sky and into Sarah’s eyes.
“Sarah, I want you to know that I love you, and I always want to be near you, to guide you, correct you, and help you make the right choices. I’d like to make our relationship official by going to the collaring council, the place where I can legally declare that you are mine.”
Sarah looked up at Ral, and he saw the love in her eyes even before she spoke. She took his hand and gave it a little squeeze, then took a breath.
“Ral,” she began, “I love you too—”
“We can book a slot for tomorrow th—”
“No. I won’t let you collar me,” she said.
Ral felt like he’d been slapped.
Chapter Twenty-One
“What do you mean, you won’t let me collar you?” he asked. Sarah heard the hurt in his voice. She wished she’d been less blunt but he was getting ahead of himself.
“I’m sorry, Ral, but I can’t. It’s not what I want at all.”
“Then why… you… me… us…?” Ral seemed unable to complete a sentence so Sarah thought she’d help him out.
“I know it’s the way things are done here, but I don’t like it as a concept. I don’t really want to become your property like that. Like I’m a used car or something. It’s not right for me. I’m sorry.”
“Then what? You want us to just keep cohabitating? It seems so… undefined.”
“No, I don’t want us to just keep living together.” Sarah searched for the right words.
“Then what?”
“The only way I’m going to make this relationship official is if you marry me.”
“Marry you?” Ral looked pretty surprised. Sarah stood her ground though.
“Yes, that’s the only way I’ll do it.”
“And when you say, ‘marry,’ what do you mean?”
Sarah frowned and tried to think about how to explain. “It’s a bonding ceremony… is that the right term? It takes place between two people, and during the ceremony, they make a series of promises to one another, called vows. Sometimes, those promises are dictated by a religious institution, such as a church, and other times, the couple writes the vows themselves. And sometimes they do both. After those vows are exchanged, the two people exchange symbols of their love for one another, usually rings, then they seal it with a kiss and are pronounced man and wife. Sometimes they have to sign pieces of paper to prove they’re married, too. Afterward, they get to have a big party, and there’s food, speeches, dancing, and a big cake.”
“And how do you get that to happen?”
“Usually you find a courthouse or a religious person who will marry you. Like, they’re not married to you. They tell you and your partner that you’re both married.”
“Why do you want this instead of a collaring ceremony?” He sounded completely baffled.
“Okay, I know this sounds really silly, but everything here is so different to how it was in my time—”
“This is your time now, Sarah.”
“Sure, I’ll just fold up the twenty-fourth century and put it in my pocket.” She rolled her eyes. “You know what I meant. Anyway, the only thing that seems the same is that two people can fall in love with one another. Even the ways people have relationships are totally different. And I don’t think it will feel real unless we get a proper wedding. I’ve given up so many things since I got here, but I can’t let go of this until I know it’s completely impossible. Am I making any sense?”
“It’s not the most ridiculous idea I’ve heard this week. How much would it all cost?” Ral asked.
“Uh… the average cost? Was about fifty thousand dollars in 2020. But when I got married, it came to five hundred dollars. I don’t know what that is in Universal Credits.”
“How in the world can you budget for something when the cost varies so much?”
“Mostly, people used to set a budget, then they filled it up with all the things they could get. I think. Some people got money from their relatives, and some even took out bank loans.”
“You are not borrowing money to pay for a wedding. Write down all the things you would need, and we’ll figure out if it’s even possible to make it happen.”
“Thank you, Daddy!” Sarah was overjoyed as they left the Innovation Suite, and she spent the rest of the evening researching things, but it took longer than she had expected, and it she still had lots of things to research when she went to bed.
Several days later, Sarah’s wedding planning had led her to a website about a farm that grew six-feet-diameter pumpkins. She was thinking about whether it would be possible to carve out the inside of one and attach horses to the front to make a princess carriage, when her eyes fell on the silver object that she’d discovered on the moon where she’d rescued Ral.
He had taken it to his office to study, but he must have brought it back home again, because here it was, sitting on the coffee table. Sarah got up from her beanbag and picked the silver thing up to examine it. She couldn’t see any holes or buttons in its shiny silver surface, but it reminded her of some sort of gadget. Her tablet bleeped, and she glanced at the screen.
It was a message from Riela about some homework they both had, but the interruption gave her an idea. Opening up the command console on her tablet, she tried to find out if the silver object was some sort of computer. When she pinged it from her tablet, it made a strange noise, then a recording began to play.
The sounds were electronic and Sarah felt strange as her Speakeasy chip bleeped and chirped in an attempt to translate. The sounds went on, and after a few seconds, Sarah put her fingers in her ears to stop her translator from making so much noise. Unfortunately, because of the way it worked, that didn’t help. Thirty seconds later, the chip in her ear seemed to have learned the language, and she was glad that the bleeping had stopped.
“…advanced.”
The message ended. Sarah pinged it again and got the whole thing.
“Greetings. This is an attempt to communicate with life beyond our own star system, where we have constructed a shell planet around our star. We are Artificial Intelligences from Spheron. We have been searching for other intelligent life in the universe, but so far have been unsuccessful. This device contains information about the location of our home world, which can be decoded if you are sufficiently technologically advanced.”
Sarah stared at the small object in wonder. She felt like when she’d first awoken and discovered that there were dozens of planets full of life. The universe had just gotten even bigger, and that fact scared her slightly. Would these Artificial Intelligences be friendly or hostile? Did the people in the Interplanetary Alliance count as ‘intelligent life’? What would happen if the robots, or whatever they were, decided that people didn’t measure up? Placing the device on the table, Sarah picked up her tablet and called Ral.
* * *
Ral stared thoughtfully at the silver audio device. This was a big discovery. The biggest. It would need to be handled carefully. The Prime government would almost certainly take the device away and hide it where it couldn’t cause change until they had cashed in on the new lifeforms. The criminal underworld would be itching to make first contact with Artificial Intelligences and attempt to forge trade agreements before the government prevented them. The citizens of the Interplanetary Alliance needed to know about this, it was too important to be hidden in the background by anyone.
“You’ve done really well getting this to work,” he told Sarah approvingly. She smiled and nodded.
“Thank you, Daddy. What’s going to happen to it?”
�
�I’m going to think very carefully about that, sweetheart. I’ll take good care of it until then, though. Don’t tell anyone about this until I’ve decided on the best course of action; there are a lot of implications to the message contained in this device.”
“Yes, Daddy. Oh, and I’ve got my ideas for the wedding… mostly.”
“I’m all ears.”
“Here.” Because she was Sarah, she handed Ral a tablet with a 3D model on it. He felt a rush of adoration for his girl. She’d put together a complete animated mock-up of the wedding she hoped for. Above each part of the wedding, the cost appeared for a few seconds then faded again. At the end, when the images of the bride and groom were handing out cake to the guests, the total cost appeared, along with a link to all the fine details, such as where to find confetti.
“This is lovely, sweetheart, and you’ve clearly put a lot of thought into this, and I wish we could afford it, but we can’t. Perhaps if we hadn’t just bought a new apartment and installed an expensive Innovation Suite, we could have paid for a wedding. I’m sorry, Sarah.” Ral wished there was some way to do this, because he knew it would make Sarah very happy to be able to have a wedding, but everything was just too expensive.
Sarah looked at him, and he saw her eyes fill with tears, but then she blinked them away.
“I understand. Perhaps we can do it in a few years, instead? I mean, I’m not getting any younger… well, actually, I sort of did, since I was thirty-one in regular years and I’m twenty-eight in universal standard years. But since we can’t have children, there’s no time pressure, I guess.”
Ral saw that she was trying really hard to not get upset about something that was obviously very important to her. He ensconced her in a big hug.
“I’m really proud of you, little one. You know, if you had your heart set on everything in that model, you could make it into an Innovation Suite program. A really large one. Then we could find the largest Innovation Suite on Minos Kerala and hire someone to officiate.”
His Little Earthling Page 24