“It is confusing, but Jessica is aroused for you… like I am when thinking of Renee looking as you do, but this happens. It did it before when I remembered Renee cleaning me after we left the planet.” He thought of Renee naked and the idea of sticking his penis in her made it engorge.
“Well damn. I feel bad for any girl who has to…”
“What the fuck is going on out here!” Renee yelled as she stepped out finding Oliver stiff as a pole in front of Stephanie wearing only a bra. “I’ll not have any sex in my bay. Take it elsewhere!”
Stephanie wasn’t the least bit flustered as she began sliding her clothes back on. “I told you I’d take care of it. I just did the birds and bees talk with visual aids. Besides he didn’t get stiff for me. He imagined you and got that much of a reaction.”
“It’s not helping at all. You just made things worse. Now he wants to fuck me and you gave him the tools to think it is alright.”
“Wrong. He told me he got hard in the shower remembering you bathing him.”
“I won’t put this in you, Renee. I won’t touch without your permission. I remember the last time.”
She paused and thought hard before choosing her words carefully. “I guess you did come to understand. What else?”
“May I see you naked like Stephanie? Thinking of you is good to me. Her smell is not as drawing as yours. I promise not to touch. I want to see of you are as different in the face and hair as your bodies.”
Her fists in the clothes grew so tight her knuckles were white. “No. Never ask to see a woman naked. If you want to see naked women, Stephanie can show you porn. Never ever ask to see a woman naked. It is improper and offending. If a woman wants to have sex with you, she will get naked without asking. Now put these on before I kick you in the balls.”
“What would that accomplish?”
“Care to learn?” Her feral grin grew malicious.
He nodded.
Before anyone could stop her, Renee’s shin flew up between his legs with enough force to lift his entire body in the lower gravity and he hit the ceiling bug-eyed.
Oliver hit the ground just as hard, feeling a whole new kind of pain that had him curl in a naked ball and crying without making more than a masculine whimper.
“What the hell, Renee!” Jessica shot to her feet and went to him. “He doesn’t understand the complexities we have. It’s like making a Keptl understand astronomy equations rather than making you lunch. Oliver, are you alright?”
“It hurts. No more kicking me in the balls. I’ll never ask to see Renee or any woman naked again. They throb like my heart… the pain is lowering.”
“He had to learn sometime. I made my point.” She said feeling much better. “Oliver, get up and dressed. I don’t want to see it anymore.”
A hand collected the clothes and he turned to Sparky. “Please do not withhold anything more. I do not like to experience anything like it again.” The Drake dipped his pointed chin.
“One more thing you must remember.” Stephanie stopped him. “A woman’s breasts are as sensitive as your groin. Be mindful.” And he left to go get dressed.
Just as soon as he returned to the bathroom and the door shut Stephanie rounded on Renee and slapped her without holding anything back. Renee cried out as she bounce off the floor and crumpled into the wall, staring wide-eyed at the usually calm beauty now showing a wrathful look. Jessica grabbed her arm to stop her from thrashing Renee though she was much weaker. Instead Stephanie basically growled with venom. “How dare you do that. I don’t give a fuck how angry you are he looks like your ex. You had no reason to hurt him. He’s done nothing but been loyal to you, Renee. Jess and I swore to your mother we would always be here for you and she would spank your ass till it bled for doing what you did for no reason.” Jessica let go when her wife wouldn’t attack, but kept scolding her niece. “Oliver is learning at a rate I’ve never seen, not even by the Creelin. But he’s still mentally just a toddler. You are lucky he is attached to you. If he wasn’t, imagine what he’d do?” Renee held her swelling, bright red cheek, but slowly the words sank in. “Oh, you didn’t think that far ahead huh? You and I both saw what he did to the Salamander as skin and bones. He’d deadly.
“Worse, you’ve gave him strength that puts even Stone to shame and that is saying something. He’s a child with a loaded blaster. You never considered he wouldn’t fly into a tantrum. You saw how he reacts to threats, hell, you figured it out first. He’s connected to you and I don’t care how much you deny it, it is a fact! Oliver will learn, but what if he learns the wrong way? Huh? He could have easily have raped me and I wouldn’t have resisted, but didn’t. He’s massive. I think he should keep his natural kindness because if we aren’t careful he could be more than a danger to himself.”
“She’s right, Sweetheart. Don’t let your scorned heart ruin an untouched individual with malice.” Jessica stood next to her wife. “Your temper gets the better of you, but you can’t influence Oliver wrongly because you know what my brother will do, without hesitation, to Oliver if he endangers the crew. Now get up and collect yourself. Oliver isn’t ready to see our family squabble.”
Barely had she regained her feet did the bathroom door slide open and Oliver lithely stepped out massaging his groin and not looking at Renee with the same wonder he had before. He was afraid of her and the setting of his jaw indicated he wasn’t going to say anything wrong to upset her and feel her wrath again.
It cut her more deeply than thinking he was alone to be avoided when he just wanted innocent closeness. Before the other three said anything Renee moved in his path. He stopped, but wouldn’t meet her gaze. She wounded him and needed to make amends even though her jaw smarted and burned still. “Oliver, would you understand the meaning is I told you I was sorry.”
“Yes.” He didn’t look up. “Sparky said it is a way to reconcile wrong doings you wish to take back and cannot, but feel a tightness in the chest like I do and know it means you want it to go away… and the only way is to apologize and work together to overcome the obstacle that caused pain. Do you feel weight here too?” He rubbed his chest.
“Of course I do.” And meant it. “I truly am sorry for being mad and doing it. Even though I am regretful, did you learn why?”
“I need to protect it like I did for you against the creature that made you scream. Rubbing my penis felt good going gently. I found when feeling good turns to pain I do not like. It is why I took longer to get dressed.”
“Hold on. You just tested your pain threshold?” he looked to Sparky for a flicker and nodded when things cleared up. Taking chance, he met her gaze. “Does it still hurt?”
“Not as much as my head hitting the ceiling.” He turned and showed a red welt on the back of his skull. “But is not as bad as not urinating was earlier… Why is half your face red?” looking at his twitching hand she knew he badly wanted to touch.
“Don’t mind it. Do you accept my apology?” he again sought Sparky’s aid in a flash to nod. “Shake on it.” With a gentleness she didn’t expect, he took hers and she hid a laugh, knowing Jessica told him how to do it.
“Let us change the subject.” Proposed Jessica as she asked “Oliver, may I add you to my com?” He nodded. “Oliver Void. Code: Forgotten.” Told hers next.
“Jessica Merann. Code: Binary.” Then her wife’s. “Stephanie Merann. Code: Lost Discovery.”
“Now that that is over, perhaps we should take a seat. I’ve got news that will leave you all speechless.” Stephanie said and Renee dropped down two more comfortable chairs by her desk that sat square so everyone could be engaged.
Stephanie’s earlier anger changed into childlike glee. Always happens when something interesting in history occurs. Her hand still stung, but she managed to open the clear case and lift the cutlass. A cutlass being a single edged curved blade mainly used for one hand. The grip was perfect, having a non-slick pattern for perfect control. The guard attached to the base of the widely curved blade and swoop
ed to the rounded hilt, able to protect the fingers as well as good for blocking and punching. “We’ll start with this. My tests prove that not only is this a genuine original, but that it is the eldest Star-saber on record.”
“By eldest you mean?...” Jessica had to ask for she too was kept in the dark.
The blonde beamed as if a conspiracy was just unearthed. “Currently we believe the oldest is eighty nine thousand years ago.” She grabbed the handle and held it up and turned it this way and that. “This blade is between thirty nine million seven hundred to forty million two hundred years old. That’s many millennia older.” Her announcement was indeed struck speechless. “And that is not all. This Star-saber is made of some as of yet, undiscovered metal alloy forty million times more dense than diamond. And is so sharp it is a single molecule thick along the edge. It is how he could pierce the Beast’s skull so effortlessly. The atoms are so compacted they cannot move, as if they were in an absolute zero environment.”
“But how can it be carried? That density is more compact than a piece of black hole. The weight should be impossible to lift.” Renee voiced.
“That’s the thing. It somehow alters its own gravity so its weight stays the exact same. I can’t detect how it does it. I think its purpose is to let the swordsman fight without needing to adjust in different environments. Only in zero gravity does it cease regulating. And I tried getting a sample, but the atoms are so packed together it didn’t make a scratch. I mean that literally. Unlike other recovered Star-sabers, this one is theoretically indestructible. Listen to this good. It is so dense that not even neutrinos can pass through. Some sixty five billion pass through our bodies every single second of our lives. This” Stephanie’s fingernail tapped the flat of the blade to make a tinkling chime. “completely reflects any and all energy except to one whom it belongs. I had to recalibrate my sensors a dozen times to get a clear reading. At our current level of technology we could never reverse engineer a duplicate. Also it retains temperature at a human thirty seven and I subjected it to the greatest range I’m capable with my lab equipment and it retained total integrity.
“As an added footnote, the sword is perfectly balanced.
“This weapon cannot ever hold a price. We could never possibly get enough. It would bankrupt Galicom a billion times over. They certainly would kill to get this artifact and unlock every secret it contains. Now watch this. Oliver, it is yours after all. Take it.”
She turned it handle first and his fingers circled around it. As soon as it touched, the blade began to flicker with what reminded him of starlight in space. And as she said, it was warm to the touch, a comfortable warmth. “Why does it do that for me and not you?” He asked, holding it close and pointing at the starlight. It felt good to hold. Real good.
“I’ll teach you all about psionic energy later. I’ll teach like all children must learn. Since I love history and archeology I’ll be glad to bring you up to recent years.” She promised. He patiently nodded. To the others her grin somehow grew more. “One last interesting fact I neglected to tell everyone.”
“What? That it’s sentient?” Renee said with heave sarcasm.
“In a way.” Stephanie didn’t hold back. “Even though my readouts showed the edge of the sword to be a single molecule thick…” She paused for dramatic effect. “I could not make it cut anything beyond semisolids like a stick of butter. I even tried cutting my desk in half and all it did was rebound. I tried to even nick my thumb, but it would not work.”
“But how is that possible? Does it make a protective shield?”
“So far I can’t discover the how. It didn’t detect any energy output. But my theory is not as absurd as I originally believed. It’s Oliver’s blade and only in his hands can it cut. Oliver, please demonstrate if it can cut by sliding the tip through the ground.”
Seeing they wanted to know, he turned it point down and slowly the edge sunk below the surface with minimal effort, but gave enough sensation to know it met resistance. He then pulled it out with much more care. “This is dangerous.” He admitted. “It could stop the movement like I did to the creature.”
Sensing damage to the ship, it began self-repair and the hole sealed itself as if nothing happened.
“You mean it could kill us. And yes, it can. I’m glad you understand the concept of death. And the creature is called a Beast we refer to as a Salamander.”
Oliver sat the sword down and it stopped sparkling. “Why do I not want to see any of you dead when that Salamander made my mouth get wet and this area be in pain?”
“It’s hunger just so you know. Hunters eat Beasts and other animals. As to why you don’t want to see us to die is good. It means you would never again see us.” Jessica said, curling her auburn hair around a finger. “Oliver, you know how bad you struggle to understand us? Death is just like what you were when my wife found you, but in death you don’t recover… you lose everything. Death is the end.”
“I don’t want to see anyone die… I like talking.”
“We’ve diverted from the main topic. Can we get back?” The blonde archeologist didn’t get denied.
“If you thought his sword was interesting, it pales in comparison to the armor found with him.” She lifted the strangely shaped brown cloth from the case in her lap. It held a faint sheen to show it was metallic, but felt like silk.
“This is the second ever recorded armor discovered to be organic metal.”
“No.” Hissed Sparky as he stretched his neck closer to get a closer look and sniff. “Organic metal is myth.”
“It’s fact now.” Stephanie challenged. “I thought it was some hoax too. A rumor of a rumor of yet another rumor since no one of any credibility has seen a genuine one before.
“After I was cleared medically I took it back to my study and cleaned the Star-saber and the armor. I should have done the armor first because it is more fundamentally inspiring than the weapon.
“When I say organic, I mean the material acts and reacts like our immune system. Cut a piece and it begins repairing, sensing damage, but without a nervous system I could find no nanites. Unlike our own nanite infused armor which basically makes patchwork. His armor regenerates, given enough time… like our natural bodies or ships. And the metal has what I can only assume to be a type of stem cells just waiting for some kind of program… and I think the programmer is on Oliver’s arm.”
He pulled the sleeve back on his right arm out of sheer curiosity. “This?”
“The original multi-tool, yes. Oliver, just for a test I want you to imagine turning this brown color snow white.”
Stephanie’s prompt had him imagine just that and in a moment the idea was formed. The vambrace reacted to its host’s will and a needle thin spike pierced the distance between them. Spreading from the epicenter of the needle, brown paled to pure white spreading out further and further till everything was solid white. She crowed “I KNEW IT!” she stomped her feet in excitement as she turned it around and around. “The multi-tool can indeed modify the armor. Oliver… this might sound crazy…”
“Nothing at this point can get any more fucked up.” Snorted Renee as she touched her cheek that had lost most of its swelling thanks to her nanites on the job.
“Oh, hush.” Stephanie told her softly. “Oliver, one story says the emperor hides the armor in his multi-tool and can call it out I suppose we can say. Try to…”
Remembering the recent need to hide something important, mainly his genitals, he assumed what she wanted and acted.
The vambrace writhed like nothing any of them has seen before and not one, but a net resembling a spider’s web flew out and wrapped up the armor before sucking it in. The vambrace snatched it from Stephanie’s hand and they watched the bundle get covered and shrank as if sinking a rock in a black ocean. Eventually the writhing stopped and went still. It looked unchanged.
“By the stars.” The married women said together in a hushed whisper. Stephanie asked “Oliver, may I touch your arm?”
He held it out, not the least surprised like the others. Her cool fingers brushed over the smooth surface to ask “Is your arm heavier?”
“A little. It feels as heavy as when I held the clothes I’m wearing now.”
“So it compressed space without removing mass… can you absorb other things… like this shoe I’m wearing?” She kicked it off.
He tried imagining like before and shook his head as a migraine caused by the vambrace gave a sense of symbiosis and what it was used for. “No. It can’t do it like the cloth… it seems to recognize it as part of itself. An extension of itself. A head to a body… I could make it tear apart your shoe and reconstitute it into something different, but it can’t absorb.”
“Really? Can it make anything?”
“I don’t know.” He said with blunt honesty.
“Hmm… then try to make it into a few coms like before.” He nodded.
“Babe, your shoes are made of leather and wood, not crystal…” she stopped as the shoe was consumed and writhed in a sickening way on the inside of his forearm. It began shrinking before a thin tube began dropping small green pieces of rice-like crystals.
“You forget basic science.” Stephanie said as her shoe transformed into eight advanced com just as powerful as his own. “His multi-tool just proved it can manipulate matter and transform one substance into another. We know stars first burn hydrogen which becomes helium, when it runs out it burns helium that transforms it into other elements like iron, carbon and so on. In simplest terms he just took my shoe, broke down its molecular structure and created programmed crystals in under ten seconds. Theoretically he could make anything with it given adequate resources.”
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