The Circle

by Harold R Watson

  We were invited to one such festival and furnished with costumes so we would blend in with the crowd. I don t think that I had ever had so much fun at any one event in my lifetime.

  We loaded off cargo from the mother ship and loaded on products from Ebony during the six weeks we spent there and said our good-byes before leaving orbit and heading for Taos.

  Taos is about eight months from Ebony. It is a much smaller planet and is the smallest inhabited planet in the Toren Empire. I would liken it to the old chief s planet. It was the first planet we had come to in the Toren Empire that had no one high leader. It had a combination of nations, each more or less concerned with their own affairs. There was a loosely fabricated League of Nations but it had very little power to bring the nations together on global issues.

  In that respect, it reminded me of what Earth had been like. There was one nation on Taos that seemed to be richer than the others. It was were we delivered our cargo bound for Taos. The people spoke a Spanish like dialect.

  The total population on Taos was about ten million people. Their main products were agricultural in nature. They made some very good cheeses that were purchased from them. We also purchased some more farm animals from them to replenish our stock.

  They had a dish that was similar to the hot chili one might have found in Texas or Mexico back on Earth. It was much too hot for me. I was able to talk one cafe owner there to making us some without so many hot peppers. He did so, but their people thought we were not very macho because we didn’t eat the real stuff.

  We weren’t able to spend much time on Taos and did not meet the leaders of any of the planet’s other nations on this visit. Our next planet on the schedule is Aquarius. We will be there about five years. We hear that it is very much like Earth in size but that the oceans cover more of its surface than on Earth.

  With Ebony and Taos added to our flag, our partial circle graft now had grown to eight as we left Taos and headed for Aquarius. Our journey there was scheduled to take about four years.

  CHAPTER 14-THE JEWELS OF AQUARIUS

  The trip from Taos to Aquarius takes about four years. It is the most distant of all the planets from Tore the most central planet in the Toren Empire. Yet, Aquarius is closer to Earth than any of the Toren planets except Starsis. So far our journeys have taken us about six years since we left Earth. By the time we reach Aquarius, it will have take us ten years.

  With the five years we’ll spend on Aquarius, we’ll need to spend between five and ten on Starsis before we return to Earth. Aquarius is the number one provider of crystals in the Toren Empire. Although we on Earth had begun making a better quality crystal than Aquarius, we could not match them in quantity production.

  The five years we would be spending there would be a learning experience for Tess and me. The Aquarians have developed undersea mining techniques that are unmatched anywhere in the universe. In fact, we are told that nearly half the population on Aquarius live in cities built under the oceans.

  Because most of Aquarius is covered by water, it wasn’t too long in their evolution until they out grew their land masses and began to look for ways to use the oceans to provide places to live and places to sustain them. Their two main under water cities are called Crystal City and Diamond City.

  We would spend about one half of our time on land and the other half split between those two cities. We had plenty of time to study about Aquarius on our four-year voyage. During the four-year period, we reorganized our military forces into four distinct branches.

  We established a star cruiser branch with a One Star Admiral overseeing it s operation and training, a marine and ground forces branch commanded by a One Star General, a star fighter branch commanded by a One Star General, and a medical branch commanded by a One Star General Doctor.

  We also allowed the civilians on board to elect their own Mayor and Counsel so that their affairs would be given proper consideration while they were on the mother ship.

  We then selected a Two Star Admiral to act as the Joint Chief of Staff over all four branches. He would report directly to me. I was promoted to Three Star Admiral. Tess maintained her position as Leader of the entire Earth contingent as a Four Star Admiral.

  Dr. Miller commanded the Medical Branch. Admiral Davies commanded the star cruiser branch. General Yates commanded the marines and ground forces branch. General Thomas commanded the star fighter branch and Dr. Collins became the Two Star Admiral Joint Chief of Staff of the entire military.

  Dr. Collin s wife was elected the first mayor of the civilian population. There were also seven counsel seats filled by other civilians on board. It now appeared that the chain of command was complete and everyone on board had representation. The university had it s own board of directors, professors, and other staff assembled from the passengers on board.

  We hoped our new organizational system would makes things run more smoothly and help us to better address the concerns of all our people.

  We found that most of the problems which had once fallen on my wife s and my shoulders were spread around to enough others to make our lives less complicated and less stressed.

  Our daughters were growing into young ladies. When we finally reached Aquarius, Doreen was twenty-two and Susan was twenty. Doreen will graduate from college this Spring and Susan will began her junior year in college this Fall.

  Both have kept up their military training. Doreen will receive her commission after graduation in June and Susan will receive hers two years later. Both have been model students and cadets.

  As Aquarius came into view, it reminded us of Earth. It was a blue planet because of the amount of surface water. Like Earth had been before the holocaust, there were white clouds covering much of the sky. Before we had made a complete orbit, we could see sparkling evidence of the two cities built in the oceans. From space, both sparkled like diamond crystals as the light reflected off of them.

  Later, after we made contact with the planet, we were invited to fly our shuttle down to a land mass about the size of the island of Hawaii located about three hundred miles west of one of the mainland continents. It was called Taos, named after the planet we had recently visited. What a strange coincidence, I thought. Later I learned why it was called Taos.

  When we landed on the island, we learned that it was home to the primary spaceport for bringing in trade goods for both Crystal City and for Diamond City. It was equipped with all the necessary facilities for take offs and landings star cruisers like the ones we had on board the mother ship. The much larger landmass some three hundred miles east of Taos Island had several metropolitan mega cities with the landmasses there were very crowded so the spaceport was constructed on the sparsely populated island away to get away from the congestion of the cities.

  It took its name from Taos because the island was originally colonized by people from Taos who over time became native to the island.

  After landing our shuttle on Taos Island, we were taken by land vehicle to a beach resort where we would be guests until more permanent quarters could be found. Half of the other people on the mother ship, not staying on Taos Island, would be transported to the larger land mass. There, they would live for two weeks at a time before being transported back up to the mother ship so the other half could come down and take their places for the next two weeks.

  It would take about a month for the mother ship to be unloaded with cargo for Aquarius and reloaded with cargo for the next planet.

  Dr. Collins was to command the mother ship for us for the next five years that our family would be living on Aquarius. He would continue on with the full complement on board and return for us here on Aquarius. He has two new planets to visit that take the mother ship out away from Aquarius two and one half years and then back to Aquarius for the return trip.

  The mother ship would be around another month and we planed to see everyone off on boa
rd and then shuttle back down to Taos Island.

  Meanwhile to talk about Aquarius again, the climate on Taos Island was tropical. Needless to say, once we checked in, the uniform of the day when not in meetings became beach wear. Our family would be wearing civilian clothing during our stay on Aquarius.

  My wife s parents were at the motel to meet us when we arrived. They had moved to Aquarius two years after we left Starsis. Her father and her mother both helped design many of the systems used in the two under water cities.

  They would be our guides when we visited them. They had a beautiful home in a mountain area on Taos Island and also a condo in each of the two underwater cities so they would have a place to live in which city they happened to be working for at the time.

  For the next month, they would be living in their home on the island. They had looked at several homes in their neighborhood before we arrived hoping we might pick one near them.

  For right now, they have a room at the motel where we were staying and wanted to join us at the beach for a swim. My wife and our daughters went with them to the beach. I begged off this time because I hadn t had any sleep in the past twenty hours or so and I felt more like taking a nap.

  After I woke from my nap a couple of hours later, I took a shower, shaved and so forth and got into some more casual beach clothes. I decided to see if this motel had a bar where I could get a cold drink while waiting for the others to return.

  I saw a drink photo that looked very much like the frozen marguerites from Earth. It looked awfully tempting so I ordered one. It tasted like a Mexican marguerites. They called the drink a frozen Taos. I later learned that it was the signature drink of the island.

  I wondered where they got the recipe. I talked to the bartender to satisfy my curiosity. He said sure the drink came from Taos. He said that the people from Taos once established a colony on Earth many thousands of years ago so maybe they took the drink recipe with them to Earth.

  I couldn’t argue with him because I had tasted many marguerites on Earth and this frozen Taos tasted almost the same. Also, I remember the chili on Taos was similar to Mexican chili so who knows, maybe they were on Earth. By the time I finished my drink, Tess, our daughters, and Tess’s parents came into the motel restauran t bar.

  “I figured I’d find you here in the bar when you weren’t in the room,” Tess said as she and the others came in and joined me.

  “You won’t believe me, they have frozen marguerites here just like they had in the Mexican restaurants back on Earth. They call their version the frozen Taos.”

  “How many have you had so far?” she asked.

  “This is my first one and I’m only half through with it. Why don’t you have one?” I asked.

  “What do you think Mom and Dad?” Tess asked.

  “Sure but the girls have to be twenty-five to buy one here on Taos Island so they’ll have to have a non-alcoholic drink,” her mother said.

  Okay girls, here is a list of non-alcoholic drinks you can order. This is like our lemon aid. This is like tea. This is like cola,” she explained as she read from a menu.

  Both ordered the lemon drink and Tess and her parents each ordered a frozen Taos.

  Later we had supper at the motel and then sat on our patio until bedtime and talked about all that had happened since we left them on Starsis. Tess’s parents left us at bedtime and went to their room after making plans to meet in the restaurant in the morning for breakfast.

  After breakfast they checked out of the motel and our daughters also checked out of their room. Tess and I kept our room because we would be returning to the motel this evening. The girls would be staying with their grand parents until we could obtain a more permanent place to live.

  All our bills while on Aquarius were being paid for by the government of Aquarius and we were to be their guests for the next five years. Fortunately for us, her parents represented the government and would sign for our house when we chose one.

  We were especially interested to learn about the mass production techniques for power crystals by the people on Aquarius. We knew how to make better crystals but we needed to learn more about how to produce them in greater quantities once we returned to Earth.

  Our more immediate plans were for Tess and me to spend a few days at the motel without the kids and then to rejoin them and her parents to begin some serious house hunting.

  We returned to the motel that evening after leaving Tess parents, house. We decided to put on our swimming suits, take some towels and a couple of blankets, and go walking along the surf before sun set.

  We found a secluded spot on the beach and put down our blanket and towels before going for a swim in the surf. We swam until sun set. We then returned to our blankets, dried off, and decided to go back toward the motel to a little restaurant we had passed with a walk up window and order some supper.

  Let s leave our blankets and towels here, Tess said. We can bring our food back here to eat and stay awhile to listen to the sound of the waves.

  Within about fifteen minutes or so, we had sacks of food and drinks and returned to our blankets to eat. After we ate, we lay on the blankets and listened to the sounds one can only hear at the seashore.

  The sound of the waves as they came in and went back out was relaxing. Besides the sounds of the waves, we began to notice that we could hear other sounds made by people still chattering while taking in the last remnants of daylight that were now quickly fading.

  We located a trash receptacle for our paper trash and once it was properly deposited, we decided to pick up everything and stroll down the beach away from the motel and the other bathers. We walked for maybe ten minutes or so until only the sounds of the surf could be detected.

  It was getting darker now and the lights from the motel disappeared once we had made a turn past a cut-a-way where the beach cut inward thirty or forty feet placing us behind a knoll. Once we reached this inlet, it became impossible to see lights in any direction except seaward.

  We saw no boat lights as we looked out to sea. We had found the seclusion for which we had been searching. We were all alone as we again spread our blankets on the sand. Once we found the perfect spot, we decided to go for another brief swim in the water. The water seemed cooler now that the sun had disappeared and soon we felt the chill of the night air and returned shivering to our blankets.

  We just sat for a time toweling the wetness from each other as we tried to get warm again. Fortunately for us, the sand beneath us was still holding heat from the day s sun.

  We stretched out now to soak up the sand s warmth and soon the shivering stopped and our goose bumps disappeared. Once the sun goes down the beach becomes very dark. We stood for a while and looked in each direction along the beach. Off in distance, we could just make out the faint flickering of lights of the motel. Satisfied that we were alone and secluded, we lay back down on the blanket. We rolled over facing each other and before long were kissing. The kisses were just little pecks at first more teasing than passionate. Then the pecking was replaced with longer kisses and more passionate embraces.

  Before long we had started to fondle each other, very softly at first, and then with more purpose. We could no longer see our hands in front of our faces because darkness had fallen over the island like some giant vale. From this point on, we would have to explore each other s body by feel and touch.

  I thought I knew all of Tess special zon es well from our many years of martial bliss, but we soon began to realize this setting afforded a new and very different situation for us as we groped in darkness trying to touch each other s erogenous zones.

  When we first rolled over toward each other, we were calm, collected, and cool. As we continued to kiss and fondle each other, as unskillfully as it might have seemed, we began to move toward stormy, uncontrollable, and feverous conditions until we had to have each other now,
not a minute from now but right now.

  I managed to slip quickly out of my swimming trunks as Tess impatiently tried to tear them from me. I had trouble pulling down the bottom of her two-piece suit but I made it with her turning and lifting trying to help. At first, I rolled her over beneath me. Before long though, she had managed to take the top position. It didn t matter who was on top as long as we continued without interruption until this burning fire cooled enough for us to return to self control again.

  As she began to work her magic, I was able to remove the top of her suit and her succulent breasts swung freely. Each time she bent closer to my face, I took a breast to my mouth and began to suck on it. This seemed to please her and as she continued, she began to help me change from breast to breast so that each could share equal time.

  By the time she reached her first orgasm, I had given her breasts a good work out. We continued to lie there, connected at the hips as we became very still for a time. Listening to the soothing sounds made by the waves coming ashore gave us a few moments to reflect on just how great our love for each other has been over the years.

  Then she began to slowly move it in and out of her and before long she again experienced an orgasm. Later she wanted us to once again lie on our sides facing each other.

  As we did, she again found what she wanted and started touching the head of it against her points of pleasure and rubbed it up and down her clitoris and the opening of her vagina. That lasted only a short time before she was grasping it again, this time in such a way, that she was able guide it into her inter most depths.

  She held it there for a short until her renewed passion kicked in so she couldn t hold still any longer. Then she began to squirm again forcing it in and out and back and forth and up and down until she reached her third orgasm.

  By her third time, I too lost all control and shot my load far up inside her. There were several bursts until I finally climaxed as my strength seemed to drain from me.