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He woke with a violent start, and burst forth from the cold,
dark liquid that enveloped him. He couldn't see in the
smothering darkness, but he could feel something latched onto
his face, its tentacles constricting around his head.
He was in space.
"Cabin light on," he said, and a faint blue glow illuminated the
interior of the small, windowless, capsule.
His memory was returning. He'd been in deep sleep, but had
no idea how many days, months or even years had passed
since he'd left the space station. He looked around the cabin
and saw a red light flashing on a console.
Red was bad. He remembered that. The light should have been
green if he was awake.
The survival belt was mounted to the wall, and he took it and
fastened it around the waist of his jumpsuit. He then tapped a
button on the console and a weapon compartment slid open.
He removed the disruptor pistol from inside and attached it to
his belt.
But as his eyes adjusted to the glare, the colors outside came
into focus. He stepped through the opening and the first thing
he noticed was the sky, which was a brilliant azure blue.
Around the capsule was a lush forest, filled with wild, alien
flora. The strangely shaped leaves of the plants and trees were
all shades of green and purple, and vividly colored red and
yellow flowers dotted the forest floor.
He knew there was life in this forest, he could hear it. Insects
buzzed through the trees and winged creatures, similar in size
and shape to the birds on Earth, flew overhead. He wished he
could have compared it to a wild forest back home, but the
only ones he'd ever seen had been sealed for their protection
in terra-domes.
Climbing down from the capsule, he took his first step on the
alien planet. The ship's sensors had already confirmed the
temperature, radiation and atmosphere were all acceptable;
now he had to find the most important thing -- simple,
beautiful and oh-so-precious water.
The craft had been designed for one purpose, to find a HET
class planet, and he was the guinea pig, the canary in the coal
mine that would explore the planet. If he survived, the sensors
in his suit would send a signal back to the ship, the ship would
return through the wormhole -- with or without him -- and a
pulse signal would be sent to Earth, letting them know a
habitable planet had been discovered.
But the green light had never turned on. The craft's landing
systems must have automatically activated as soon as its
sensors detected that it had entered an atmosphere. But as far
as the ship was concerned, its navigation system operating off
the information provided by the star charts, it was still drifting
through outer space.
Then he saw her, shyly peeking out from around the tree
trunk. He shook his head, sure that he had to be dreaming.
But he knew there were no dreams in deep sleep, and the
sounds and colors of this world were too vibrant, too real.
The girl stepped out from behind the tree and tilted her head
as she watched him with an untamed curiosity.
Her full, firm breasts were flawless and he couldn't take his
eyes off them as they bounced toward him. She was a vision,
and her ethereal beauty and stunning form made it impossible
to look away.
But if she knew the danger she was in, she didn't show it; she
just flashed a disarming smile at him and kept coming.
She was so close now. The weapon trembled in his hand. She
reached out for it and he quickly pulled it away, out of reach
behind his back. If her appearance was an illusion it was a
damn good one; he couldn't kill something that looked like her.
She was right in front of him; her naked flesh inches away
from the fabric of his jumpsuit. He could smell her scent, like
wildflowers, and he didn't think he'd ever smelled anything so
beautiful in his life.
When she'd first come toward him and he'd seen her body he
didn't think anything could be more perfect; now that he saw
her face, he realized he'd been wrong. Her soft lips and perfect
teeth drew him in, but what really captured his attention were
her eyes. As they stared softly at him from beneath her long
lashes, he noticed they were hazel and had turned golden in
the sun. And he could see there wasn't a speck of fear in
them.
She flashed her beautiful smile again and he felt like his heart
was going to melt. But then it skipped a beat instead, as she
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reached out and gently slid her slender fingers across his
chest, feeling the fabric.
He glanced down and saw that she was running them across
the name tag sewn on the front of his uniform, tracing the
letters.
She then brushed her fingers above her breast, the same
place a name tag would have been if she'd had any clothes on,
and said, "Hannah. Name is Hannah."
She smiled and pressed a finger against his lips and then
against her own. "Talk," she said.
"Hannah is daughter."
She kept running her hand across the breast of his uniform,
captivated by the strange surface. And then, as if to
emphasize the differences that were confusing her, she took
Caleb's hand and placed it on her own breast.
His pulse quickened as he felt the soft but firm flesh, her erect
nipple pressing into his palm. And as he gently squeezed her
full breast she stroked her fingers across his flat, muscular
chest.
She ran her hand down his uniform, letting it slide lower,
toward his waist. "What is it?" she said.
Caleb blushed as he pulled her eager hands away, and said, "I
can't do that. I have to leave them on."
"No, I -- I can't."
"Take off clothes," she repeated, as her hands slid across his
uniform, trying to figure out how to remove it. Then her hand
slid below his belt, brushing against his swollen cock.
"What is it?!" she said, pressing her hand against his crotch
with unconcealed curiosity.
"Cock," she said, enjoying the feel of the strange word in her
mouth. She used her finger to trace the outline of his erection,
unable to take her eyes off of it. "Take off clothes. Show
Hannah cock."
She stepped back, gently biting her lower lip as she kept
staring at his obvious bulge. "Please, Hannah will be gentle.
Show Hannah cock."
"Gentle," he moaned.
But she didn't want to just touch it, she wanted to see it. "Take
off clothes," she said, her blonde hair soft against his chest as
she leaned against him, trying to peek down the front of his
uniform.
Caleb nodded. Her touch was driving him crazy, and his cock
was throbbing in her hand. He was just pulling his right arm
out of the sleeve when they heard it.
As the horn sounded a second blast, she yanked her hand out
of his jumpsuit. And by the time the third blast had sounded
she was already running back through the trees toward it.
At the sound of her name she stopped and looked back at him,
waiting for him to catch up to her. When he did he fell to his
knees, sweat beaded on his forehead as he gasped for air and
tried to catch his breath.
The Naked Planet
bySeanathon©
Her breast rose and fell steadily and only the faintest sheen of
sweat showed on her smooth skin. It was as if she'd strolled
through the wood instead of leaping across it like a gazelle.
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"The makers summon the daughters back to the temple."
She didn't answer; she simply turned and took off again,
running across the large meadow. Caleb chased her through
the tall alien grass, as high as his chest, and as they ran he
kept looking back, fearing that something might be gaining on
them. But when she reached the far edge of the meadow she
stopped, so suddenly that he nearly ran into her.
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But as he spun around he could see no walls, no signs, nothing
to differentiate this place from where they'd started. "How can
you tell that we're in this grove?" he said.
He stepped forward and ran his hand through the air above
the swath; the hair on the back of his hand instantly stood on
end.
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"Hey, where are you going?" he said, hurrying to catch up to
her.
"Land?"
"No, I'm not. I'm not even from this planet. I come from up
there," he said, and gestured toward the sky.
Hannah blinked as she stared into the sky, where strange birds
flew overhead. She grabbed his shoulder and spun him
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halfway around, "Where are Caleb's wings?"
"I flew here in the silver ship you saw, and I've been sent here
on a mission, a very important mission. That's why it's
important that you tell me everything you know. These makers
you keep talking about, are they the rulers of your people?"
"And what are they like, these makers, are they like you?"
She shook her head no. "The makers have long, gray hair. At
night, when the daughters sleep, the makers come out of the
temple."
She nodded.
Hannah started at his words, her eyes filled with fear as she
stared back in the direction of the temple.
"Hannah does not know. Does Caleb think the makers punish
the daughters? Will the makers take Hannah away?!"
They walked through the wood for nearly ten minutes, and
Hannah hardly said a word the whole time. Finally, Caleb
broke the silence.
Hannah looked back over her shoulder at him and shook her
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head.
"Cock," she said. "Hannah wants to see cock. Take off clothes."
She immediately reached for the zipper and this time, Caleb
didn't stop her.
He fumbled with his belt, unable to tear his eyes off her
perfect body, and got it undone just as she pulled his zipper
down and past it.
His stiff cock sprang out of his jumpsuit, and she squealed as
she stepped back, like she'd spotted a snake. But her fear of
the unknown was quickly overwhelmed by her curiosity, and
she reached forward and pulled his jumpsuit down far enough
for his swollen shaft to swing completely free, hanging heavily
in front of him.
Her eyes were wide as she stared at the thick length. "Caleb
has a tail!" she said.
He laughed, and said, "It's not a tail. Tails are on the back.
This is my cock. Don't you...umm...don't you want to touch it
again?"
She nodded and tentatively reached out her fingers toward it.
The sound had been so faint when they'd been walking that
he'd mistaken it for the wind through the trees. But now that it
was closer, and now that they weren't moving or talking, he
heard it more clearly: a distant, ominous rumble, echoing
through the woods.
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Caleb's eyes went wide at the word. "A river -- we're near the
water?!"
He ran past her, weaving through the trees as the roar grew
louder. He stumbled and rolled down a bank but didn't stop,
leaping back to his feet as he kept running forward. And when
he burst forth from the trees and saw the sight before him, he
felt a surge of joy and relief.
When he'd told her to take him to the water, he'd expected to
find a thin trickle or maybe a rivulet. But he'd never expected
this. A river raced past him, its water white where it tumbled
over dark, half-covered boulders. It was no more than thirty
feet across, but to Caleb the sight was awe-inspiring.
He shook his head, still in disbelief, and smiled. "Not like this. I
mean, there once was, a long time before I was born. But
fresh water doesn't just run wild like this on my planet. It's all
safely stored and hidden away in artificial aquifers."
"Hidden...why?"
She took his hand and led him farther down the river. Soon, it
leveled out and deepened and the roar of the rapids
disappeared behind them.
"Stay away from me. I'm not going in there -- I'll drown!" he
said, his eyes filled with fright as he watched the dark river
crawl past.
"Fine, Caleb does not have to swim, but take off clothes.
Hannah does not like clothes."
"I won't take them off," he said, taking a step further back
from the bank and away from her. "I know wearing them
seems strange to you, but I'm keeping them on...I'm keeping
them on."
Caleb followed her down the bank as she swam easily against
the current, finding eddies and pools to rest in. A tree had
fallen across the river and as she neared it she reached out
and grabbed one of its branches. Holding on, she let the
current lift her as she languorously stretched out in the water
on her back, with only her breasts breaking the surface.
As she lazily drifted there, holding onto the end of the branch
while the river glided past her, Caleb saw something stir in the
shadow of the fallen tree. The dark shape moved from the
darkness into the light, its metallic flesh catching the sun as it
headed right for Hannah.
"Hannah!" he cried, but her head was tilted back into the river
and she couldn't hear him. He quickly drew his disruptor
pistol, knowing he'd only have one chance to make the shot.
The weapon's aim assist caught the creature's movement and
the pistol shifted in his hand as it locked onto its target. He
fired and the disruptor beam blasted the alien menace,
knocking it sideways as it floated lifelessly to the surface.
Hannah heard the shot and spun around in alarm to see what
had caused the noise. A look of shock crossed her face when
she saw the silvery body appear and she stood up in the
waist-high water, splashing toward it to grab it before it floated
past.
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"What did Caleb do to fish?"
The river caught the fish and pulled it free from her hands,
taking it to its watery grave.
Hannah took a step toward him and he quickly took two steps
back, stumbling as he fell backward onto the grassy bank.
She stood over him, her wet hair plastered to her face, with
her eyes filled with sorrow as she shook the last few fragments
of the destroyed weapon from her hand. "No kill, Caleb. No
kill."
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He saw the sadness in her eyes as she turned to go, and he
hurried after her, trying to explain.
She nodded and picked a second fruit for herself. Her teeth bit
into the succulent flesh and she sucked at the juice inside.
Hannah smiled as she reached out and wiped the juice from
his chin with two fingers, and then put them in her mouth and
sucked them clean.
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Caleb stepped toward the tree to pick her another fruit, but
stopped when he heard shouts from farther downriver.
She led Caleb along the river until they reached a point where
it seemed to disappear into thin air over the edge. They'd
reached the top of the waterfall, and Caleb's eyes were filled
with wonder as he watched the seemingly endless flow of
water churn over the edge and tumble twenty feet to a pool
below.
"Wait!" he whispered.
"Why?"
"I just -- I just don't want anyone else to know about me yet,"
he said. "I'm a stranger here, and there's still so much about
your world I don't know. Can you do that for me? Can you
keep me a secret for now?"
"Then Hannah will keep Caleb secret," she said, and reached
out for his zipper.
She already had her hand down the front of his jumpsuit,
wrapped around his thick shaft. Her other hand was trying to
tug his outfit down past his waist.
"That's far enough," he said, holding his uniform just below his
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hips, ready to pull it up at any second if they were discovered.
The Naked Planet
bySeanathon©
"No," she said, and tried to pull the uniform all the way down
to his boots.
"Let's just say that where I'm from, if anyone else caught us
like this, with me half naked and you doing what you're
doing...I'd get in a lot of trouble."
"Trouble?"
One had long, dark hair and was lying on the rock, letting the
sun's heat dry her body. And as she stretched out on the rock,
with her eyes closed and her legs spread, her hand was
tangled in the hair of her friend who was eagerly licking her
pussy.
The second girl was still half in the pool, and Caleb could see
the water gently lapping at her perfect ass as her tongue
lapped at her friend's swollen clit.
The dark-haired girl arched her back, her nipples erect and her
mouth open as her friend's tongue worked its magic between
her legs. Overwhelmed with pleasure, she tried to push her
head away, but her friend only wrapped her hands tighter
around her thighs and pulled her closer as she renewed her
oral assault.
Her moans echoed across the pool and she clamped her thighs
against her friend's head as she came. Hearing her
excitement, Hannah stood up to see what he was watching.
Hannah smiled. "Daughters kiss like that, too. But the special
kiss feels better."
"I bet it does," he said. "We like to give each other 'special
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kisses' where I'm from, too."
Caleb, still keeping an eye on the pool below, placed his hand
on her shoulder and guided her back to her knees.
"That feels good?" she asked, seeing the look on his face.
She kept pumping his cock, stroking it back and forth as she
watched his balls bounce. Then he put his hand behind her
head, guiding it closer.
"Keep doing what you're doing with your hand," he said, "and
then put the tip in your mouth and suck on it like you did with
that fruit, gently, like you're trying to get the juice out. But
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don't bite...just suck."
She'd let go of his shaft, and had her hands braced against his
thighs, trying to keep her balance as he fucked her mouth.
But Hannah didn't want him to stop; she'd loved the sensation
of sucking on his cock. With a look of lust, she wrapped her
lips around his length again, bobbing back and forth as she
tried to fill every inch of her mouth with his thick shaft.
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Hannah thought she knew what was coming. She'd given her
sisters many special kisses and loved that moment when they
squealed in pleasure and desperately tried to push her head
away, every lick of her tongue exquisite torture. She also loved
the taste of the sweet juices that flowed like honey when they
came, but she'd never expected anything like this, as Caleb
flooded her mouth with a thick load of cum.
He'd called her curious before, and she was. She savored the
feel of it in her mouth, the taste, and she desperately tried to
swallow every drop. But his cum seemed to keep coming and
coming.
Caleb moaned and his knees nearly buckled as his hips kept
pumping forward, shooting shot after shot into Hannah's
willing mouth. Finally, she couldn't take any more and she
pulled her lips off his cock with a gasp, cum spilling over her
lip and down her chin.
"Did that feel good?" she asked, trying to catch her breath.
Hannah wiped his cum from her mouth and leaned back on the
grass, resting on her elbows. Spreading her legs, she said,
"Now Caleb will give Hannah special kiss?"
He glanced toward the pool and saw all of the girls were out of
the water now, with a pale redhead lying on her back while all
three of her friends took turns giving her pleasure. But the
four of them suddenly stopped and stood up. Seconds later he
heard what they'd heard; someone was coming up the trail
and calling a name -- Hannah.
She stood up and peered over the waterfall. Caleb grabbed her
and pulled her back down, making sure they couldn't be seen
from below.
She hit him so fast that he didn't even realize what had
happened. All he remembered was the impact; the crushing,
painful blow of her shoulder launching him off the top of the
cliff and sending him plummeting toward the dark pool below.
He hit the water hard, and it knocked the air out of him as he
plunged into the dark depths of the pool. But the shock of the
cold water quickly brought him to his senses, and when he
realized where he was terror bubbled within him.
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As Caleb frantically clawed at the dark water, trying to pull
himself back toward the surface, forgotten memories flashed
like lightning through his brain. He remembered their hands,
holding him down as the golden liquid filled the stasis pod, and
he remembered their laughter as he screamed, panicking as
the liquid steadily rose above his mouth and nostrils. When he
was completely submerged, he'd thrashed back and forth in
the pod, fighting to break free, but they were too strong. And
when he finally couldn't hold his breath any longer, unable to
fight the urge to take one last gasp of air, a searing pain knifed
through his throat and lungs and he was drowned in darkness.
Caleb gasped for air as soon as his head broke free from the
water, taking a deep lungful as Hannah, with one arm tightly
wrapped around his chest, pulled him toward the edge of the
pool. He heard another explosion of water behind him and
looked back to see another girl powering through the water
towards them.
He was helpless as Hannah dragged him onto the rock that the
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other four girls had been laying on only minutes earlier.
She kneeled over him and swept her wet hair back over her
shoulder. "Caleb is hurt?!"
He shook his head no, still trying to catch his breath, his heart
pounding. But he was hurt. Every time he took a breath he felt
a shooting pain in his right side, right where he'd been hit. He
looked up as the other woman, the one that had knocked him
from the top of the waterfall, stepped naked from the pool.
Her auburn hair looked black when it was wet and she wrung
the water out as she walked toward him.
Hannah held her arm across his chest, shielding him. "Please,
Noa, Caleb is friend."
Noa stood above him, the sun was behind her and he had to
squint to see her. "Is this why Hannah did not answer the
temple's summons? Outsider is not friend -- outsider is from
the forbidden place!"
"No, Caleb is not from the forbidden place. Caleb is from -- "
"All outside the grove is forbidden," Noa said, cutting her off.
"Hannah must take outsider to the temple, to the makers."
Hannah looked down at Caleb and gently brushed his wet hair
back from his face. "Noa is right. Caleb must come to the
temple."
"No," Caleb groaned. It felt like his ribs were broken. He knew
he'd waited too long. He should have returned to his ship as
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soon as he found the river. "I need to go back, Hannah," he
said, and tried to sit up.
Noa put a foot on his chest and shoved him back down. "No,
outsider must come to the temple!"
He cried out in agony as his back hit the rock hard, and
clenched his teeth as a wave of pain rolled over him.
He shook his head no, but Hannah was already pulling off his
boots. She poured the water out and threw them aside.
Grabbing the legs of his uniform, she went to pull his jumpsuit
down.
"No," Hannah said. "No clothes." With a yank she pulled the
wet uniform off and tossed it aside, where it landed in a wet
pile.
Caleb tried to cover his cock with his hands, but Noa had
already spotted it.
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Her jaw dropped and her eyes went wide with shock. "Outsider
has a -- "
"Do not be afraid, Noa. Come and touch cock," Hannah said.
Her head hung down in shame, she said, "Hannah is sorry, but
Noa is right. Caleb must come to temple. Hannah will take
Caleb back to forbidden place after."
"No, I -- "
But her mind was already made up, and he grimaced in pain
as Hannah pulled him to his feet and tried to put his arm
around her shoulders.
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Hannah led the way out from the pool and Caleb followed her.
Naked and hunched over, he kept one hand over his genitals
and his other hand pressed against his sore ribs, every step
sending a jolt of pain stabbing through his side. Noa followed
behind the two of them, and he felt her eyes burning into his
back as she watched his every step.
They followed a worn path through the trees for about ten
minutes before they came to the rim of a large valley that the
river tumbled down toward and continued through. In the
center, sitting all alone, he saw a domed, circular structure
with dark green walls.
"Yes," Noa said, and shoved him in the back. "Keep moving."
The valley was dotted with giant trees and wild alien
vegetation carpeted its floor. The area around the temple,
however, had been completely cleared. He'd expected to see a
small village or some sort of dwellings nearby, but there was
no other sign of civilization to be seen. Other than the birds
flying overhead, they were the only thing moving in the valley.
Hannah looked down toward the valley floor, and also seemed
surprised at the complete lack of movement.
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"No," Hannah said, "no one ever goes inside the temple. It is
forbidden."
"The what?"
"The birth day. The day the daughters emerge from the
temple."
This one was worse than all the ones before. His knees
buckled and he fell forward, clutching at his side as a wave of
pain rolled over him. Thinking he might pass out, he rolled
onto his back and lay naked on the grass.
"Noa will carry outsider to temple," she said, and bent down to
pick him up.
Hannah shoved her away from him. "Noa has hurt Caleb!"
A flash of anger crossed Noa's face. "No! Noa would never kill
-- never!"
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"I know," Caleb said, holding up his hand to calm her down. "I
didn't mean it. It's just a saying where I come from. I just
need to rest...please."
Noa paced around him, staring at the ugly bruise on his right
side. Hannah sat back down beside him and stroked his hair,
trying to comfort him. When she saw it wasn't working, she
slid her hand across his torso and down between his legs.
"Hannah knows how to make Caleb feel better," she said, and
started fondling his soft cock.
He nearly said yes, but then he saw Noa, watching him, her
eyes still filled with distrust. He knew she would take him to
the temple at the first sign that he was feeling better. And he
knew he wasn't ready to go there yet.
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He let out a fake groan and fell back onto the grass, pressing
his hand against his still tender side. "It still hurts," he lied,
"and I think that cough made it even worse."
Hannah had her hand on his leg, watching him with concern in
her eyes.
Hannah shook her head. "Not tail -- cock. And Caleb feels
good when Hannah does this," she said, proudly pumping his
pole up and down.
Noa moved closer, kneeling beside him and resting her hand
on the inside of his thigh as she watched, fascinated, while
Hannah jerked him off.
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She quickly shook her head no, but kept her eyes on his thick
length as Hannah knelt down and started sucking on it.
Caleb groaned as her mouth wrapped around his shaft and his
hand, which had been squeezing Hannah's firm ass while she
played with his cock, slid beneath her and between her legs.
He moved toward her and brushed her blonde hair back from
her face. "We call this making love, and it feels better than
anything else."
She reached her hand between his legs and slid it back and
forth along the length of his swollen cock. "Love," Hannah
said. "Yes, make love."
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"Lie down," he said, and Hannah obeyed.
He put one hand on Hannah's hip and held his stiff shaft with
the other. He rubbed it up and down between her swollen lips,
getting it slick with her juices, and then circled the knob
against her clit.
Caleb knew she was ready. He lined the head of his cock up
with her tiny hole and thrust forward.
Hannah kicked his hand away and covered her pussy with her
hand. With a shocked look, she said, "No, it is forbidden!"
"This is our sacred place," Hannah said, her hand cupped over
her delicate mound. "Nothing may penetrate it."
Hannah nodded.
She gently bit her lower lip as she stared at his swollen cock,
still aimed directly between her legs. "It brings pleasure?
When the cock is in the sacred place?"
She gingerly moved her hand away from her pussy, and
nodded. "Show Hannah, make love."
Hannah pushed her away, and said, "Then the makers must be
wrong. Why is it forbidden if it will give Hannah pleasure? The
makers say it is good to give and receive pleasure."
"It is Hannah's choice, not Noa's," she said, and reached for
Caleb's hand.
She pulled Caleb close and kissed him softly on the lips.
"Making love...is good?" she said.
She did as instructed and lay back on the grass, soft as a bed
beneath her. The sun blanketed their naked bodies with its
warmth, and Caleb moved into position on top of her as she
spread her legs for him. "It might hurt a little at the start, but
it will get better," he said.
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Hannah nodded and closed her eyes.
"No, this is," he said, and leaned down to kiss her as he slowly
started to rock his hips back and forth.
Noa's eyes went wide, and suddenly she was on Caleb's back,
her arm wrapped around his neck as she wrenched him off of
Hannah.
Hannah ran to his side to make sure he was okay and then
glared back at Noa. "Why does Noa hurt Caleb?!"
"The outsider has tricked Hannah," she said, her eyes flaring
with anger.
Caleb sat up, trying to catch his breath. "I didn't do anything,
I -- "
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"The outsider is not hurt," Noa said, pointing her finger at his
side accusingly. "The pain was a lie!"
Hannah looked at him, realizing for the first time that he was
sitting and breathing normally, with no signs of pain. "Caleb is
not hurt?"
He put his hand to his bruised side. "I -- I was, but when I -- "
"And Hannah has also disobeyed the makers, and done the
forbidden. Hannah must go to the temple too!"
Her hand locked around his wrist like an iron manacle. "The
outsider will come to the temple, and answer to the makers."
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"Okay," Caleb said, knowing he had no choice now. "But
Hannah didn't do anything wrong. I was the one who made
the mistake."
Noa glared at him and pulled him hard by the wrist, forcing
him to keep up.
Noa glanced between the two of them and, unable to tell a lie,
said, "Noa heard the voice of the makers. It told Noa that
Hannah had disobeyed and gone past the boundary. The voice
said an outsider was there too, and commanded Noa to bring
Hannah and the outsider to the temple."
Caleb felt a rising fear. The makers had known he was here all
along. Somehow, they must have detected his ship entering
their atmosphere. "Why do they want to see me? What are
they going to do with me when you bring me there?"
"Noa does not need to know why. Noa is a good daughter. Noa
obeys. Noa always obeys."
The three of them walked in silence, and Noa kept a firm grip
on his wrist. As they neared the temple, the structure began to
take on an eerily familiar shape. Though covered in thick, alien
vines, he could see the walls were made of metal, not stone.
And there was something white on the walls -- writing.
Caleb yanked his wrist free from Noa's grasp and ran toward
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the wall, with both girls following right behind him. He tore the
vines aside to see the writing better, and his jaw dropped
when he realized what the letters spelled -- they really had
taken him to the Temple!
The large white letters had faded over the years, but he could
still clearly make out the vessel's name on the hull: SS
Temple. He remembered the name, the Temple was a
generation ship named after Earth's 42nd president, James
Temple. But he also remembered that it was supposed to have
been destroyed centuries ago.
"What is it?" Hannah said, tracing her finger along the strange
characters.
"It's like me," he said, pointing up toward the sky. "It came
down from the stars."
Noa shook her head. "The outsider lies. The outsider came
from the forbidden place, but the temple has always been
here."
He was still in awe of the size of the ship, but Hannah and Noa
were in awe for a different reason. Neither of them had ever
been inside the Temple before, and as they walked naked
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down its hallowed halls, keeping their arms wrapped around
themselves for warmth, they looked around nervously,
wondering where the makers were. The cold steel felt strange
beneath their bare feet and the artificial light paled in
comparison to the bright, warm sun they were used to.
He ran back the way they'd come, checking every side passage
and doorway. He hadn't gone far when he glanced in a
doorway and saw the two of them, staring at row upon row of
golden pods inside a large chamber.
Caleb shook his head. "No, the pods are programmed to wake
their occupants as soon as a habitable planet is reached. The
person sleeping in that one would have got out years ago."
Hannah leaned closer, trying to peer inside. When she saw the
face on the other side she screamed and stumbled backwards,
trying to get away.
Caleb caught her, and she hugged herself tightly against him.
"Hey, hey, there's nothing to be afraid of," he said, stroking
her hair.
When she reluctantly let him go, he stepped toward the pod,
expecting to see a corpse within: the only possible explanation
as to why its occupant was still inside. But as he wiped the
glass to get a clearer view he was shocked to see the person
inside was alive, a young dark-haired female. There was a
stasis mask on her face and golden liquid swirled around her.
Caleb shook his head. "No, she's just sleeping. How do you
know her?"
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He stared at the face, frozen behind the glass. Hannah had
been right; the makers had taken the girls. But why?
The old woman sighed, "Please, Noa. Get up from there; it's
cold."
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"I know you do, Noa, and thank you for bringing them here as
I asked."
"I'm glad to hear it," she said. "That means at least part of our
plan worked out as intended."
"You have to remember Dr. Caleb, that our vessel didn't have
the wormhole drive that powers your craft. I spent more than
two and a half of those centuries in deep sleep."
"I do," she said. "As soon as your spacecraft entered our
system the Temple picked up its signal, detailing every aspect
of your voyage."
She looked at the floor, and tears flowed down her cheeks.
"Hannah has disobeyed the Maker. Hannah has done what is
forbidden. Please don't punish Hannah."
"He woke her up and told her that the ship's stasis support
systems had failed during the long voyage. Her boyfriend --
he'd been so young, so handsome -- was now a skeleton in an
otherwise empty pod.
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"He told her that they were the only ones who'd survived, told
her that, like Adam and Eve, they'd have to repopulate this
planet on their own. In her grief, she believed him, and for the
next month he had his way with her.
"But she started to notice things. The men were all dead, but
what about the women? All of our pods were still filled with
golden liquid. Our readouts showed we weren't dead -- we
were still in deep sleep.
Caleb shook his head. "You can't blame yourself for what he
did."
"Oh, but I can. You see, he should have never even been on
that voyage in the first place. When he told each woman how
he'd play Adam to their Eve, no greater lie was ever told. For
one of the prime requirements for our new world was fertility,
and it was my job as chief geneticist to test every candidate
and make sure they were suitable. But I lied. I knew my
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husband was sterile and, thinking I couldn't live on a new
world without him, I falsified his fertility records.
"We'd only been married for two years, but he fooled me, oh,
how he fooled me. I never knew the nightmare that slept
beside me, never realized the pain he would cause.
"How were our daughters born? Right here," she said, and
tapped one of the golden pods.
"No, they were conceived, but these pods were their wombs.
Have you ever heard of parthenogenesis?"
"What about the others?" Caleb asked. "The other women who
landed with you, are they all...gone?"
"Sadly, yes. I'm the last survivor of the Temple. The rest of
them died years ago, the last just a few years after the first
girls were born. Alone with my work, I couldn't spare the time
to play with them, to teach them.
"I wanted to, but I couldn't. After what my husband had done,
I knew I had a debt to the women of the Temple to make sure
that our original vision of a new Earth succeeded. And I knew
for it to succeed, my work would have to go on after I'm gone.
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"That is why I have chosen those four girls in the pods. My
time is growing short, so I have adapted the stasis support
systems to input data from the knowledge banks of the Temple
directly into their brains, allowing me to give the four of them
a lifetime of learning in less than a year. When they emerge
from those pods they will be able to run the generation ship on
their own, so that it will keep producing children long after I'm
gone."
"But you don't need to worry about that anymore," Caleb said.
"I can use my ship to send a signal back to Earth. Settlement
ships can be here within a year."
"But it is," he said. "I can use the Temple's quantum computer
to override the one on my ship. Then I can go back through
the wormhole and let Earth know about this planet."
Her voice turned icy cold. "You misunderstand me, Dr. Caleb.
What I mean is that I won't let it happen."
"But you have to -- even if those girls know how to run the
pods after you're gone, this place will never survive. With only
females being born, the population will die out as soon as the
generation ship breaks down or runs out of power. It will only
be a matter of centuries before your new Earth is wiped out of
existence."
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Caleb blinked in confusion. "What are you talking about?"
"I'm talking about men, and how I won't let them poison this
place. You know, Dr. Caleb, that the last man I saw was my
husband. Why is it my bad luck that the next man I meet had
to be a murderer too?"
Her words hit him like a thunder bolt, stunning him. She knew.
"Did you think I wouldn't find out, Dr. Caleb? Like I said, as
soon as your ship entered our system it automatically
broadcast a warning about its passenger -- you."
"Please, Dr. Caleb!" the old woman shouted. "Don't try to feed
me your lies, too! I recognized the spacecraft as soon as I saw
it on my screens as a convict ship."
She glanced at Hannah and Noa, and said, "You see, girls, the
old Earth is a very, very bad place. They're not only killing
their own planet, they like to kill each other too. So to kill two
birds with one stone, as the old saying goes, they've come up
with a solution for both problems.
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"If their mission fails, they get a slight reprieve before their
eventual death sentence is carried out in the depths of space,
and if they succeed they're promised a pardon."
The old woman laughed, her eyes filled with disbelief. "I saw
the readout myself: Damian A. Caleb -- charged with over
three thousand counts of murder -- and found guilty on every
single charge. I believe they call that genocide."
"Do you know what I did when they woke me up and told me
what my husband had done, Dr. Caleb? I went to his pod and
opened it. I knew the other women wanted to keep him alive,
thinking that we couldn't survive without a man. But I knew
we could; nature always finds a way. So I strangled
him...strangled him to death with my bare hands.
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"I was his executioner, and now I feel no guilt at being yours
too, carrying out a sentence long overdue."
She reached behind her, and when her hand came back
around she aimed the weapon in it at his chest. Caleb instantly
recognized the disruptor pistol. The gun was ancient but he
knew, if functional, it would still be lethal at this range.
Dr. Bell shook her head. "Move away from him, Hannah. My
hands are old, and a little shaky."
Hannah tried to move closer to him but Caleb put his arm out,
pushing her back. "Please, Dr. Bell," he said, "don't shoot.
"I know people died -- many, many people died -- but I didn't
murder them. You have to understand, it was an accident...a
tragic accident. Please let me explain."
"She took a vial of toxic water, so toxic that one sip would
have killed any human, and she added our compound to it.
The water cleared, the toxins vanished. But I told her there
was still no way of telling if it was safe. So she drank it...she
risked her life and drank it. I watched helplessly, horrified to
see her put her life on the line to prove her point. But it
worked. The water was safe. I can't describe how we both felt,
not only relieved that she'd survived, but knowing the lives
that our discovery would save.
"And then she got sick. It was weeks after she'd drank the
vial, but we both recognized the symptoms right away as
water poisoning.
The old woman gave him a look of pity. "I believe you. It's sad
that so little has changed on Earth in the three centuries since
I left."
But he held out his arm and pushed her away, out of the line
of fire. "Stay back, Hannah. I don't want you to get hurt."
"And neither do I, Dr. Caleb," the old woman said. "You seem
like an honorable man, but the sins of your sex seem to follow
you. You have been on our planet less than a day and you
have already taught my daughters shame and tempted them
with your lust.
"I thank the stars that the Temple detected you when it did, so
I could send my other daughters and the younger girls to the
far end of the valley, away from you and your taint -- the taint
of Man."
She steadied the disruptor and aimed it at his chest. "If I don't
do this, others will follow you here. I'm sorry, but it's the only
way."
She fired the pistol and as the gun flashed Caleb instinctively
threw his arms up in a futile effort to protect himself. But
nothing hit him. At first he thought she'd missed, and then he
lowered his arms and saw Hannah lying lifelessly on the floor
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in front of him.
Caleb knew this was his chance. He ran toward the doorway
and hit the interior door control on the way out. The door slid
shut behind him and he raced naked down the corridors of the
Temple, heading for the quantum computer control room he'd
seen on the schematic.
He looked back and saw her coming around the curve of the
corridor, her eyes narrowing as soon as she saw him, like a
hawk seeking her prey.
He slammed into the side wall and slid to the floor, stunned.
Noa had thrown him more than fifteen feet. As he shook his
head, and tried to get back on his feet, he said, "Noa, please
let me go, I'm trying to help my people."
She shook her head. "The outsider lies. Noa obeys the Maker."
She moved toward him and he tried to lunge past her toward
the console. But she was too fast. Her arm wrapped around his
neck like a python and he gasped as she cut off his air supply.
He clawed at her arm with his hands, trying to pull it loose,
desperately kicking his bare feet as he tried to get free.
And then Dr. Bell appeared in the doorway. Her gray hair had
come loose and was wild, just like the look in her eyes. "Good
girl, Noa," she said. "Now hold him while I take care of him
once and for all."
And for the third time, Hannah saved him. Appearing out of
nowhere, blindingly fast, she grabbed the gun and forced it
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upward, causing the disruptor blast to shoot just over Caleb's
shoulder, directly into the quantum computer control panel.
"No, Hannah, what are you doing?!" the old woman said, as
the gun was twisted out of her hand.
"No kill," Hannah said, and crushed the disruptor pistol in her
bare hand, shattering it into a pile of useless fragments.
Panic filled the old woman's eyes as she looked into the control
room and saw the damage the disruptor had done, the main
control panel arcing with energy as plasma surged across it.
And then she saw Noa, still holding Caleb tightly around the
neck while he frantically kicked, struggling to get free as his
face turned blue from the force blocking his windpipe.
"What are you doing?" the old woman screamed. "Kill him...kill
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him!" She rushed toward Caleb, determined to finish the job
herself.
But Noa grabbed her around the waist, stopping her. "No, the
Maker is wrong. Noa obeys, but Noa will not kill."
The old woman twisted in her arms, trying to get free, tears
streaming down her face as she pounded her gnarled hands
against Noa's chest, screaming at her to let her go. But then
she suddenly stopped, grimacing in pain as she clutched at the
center of her chest and crumpled forward.
Noa quickly laid her on the cold steel floor, and Hannah rushed
to her side.
As they worried over her, Caleb got back to his feet. He could
see the quantum computer screens flickering and he knew the
system was about to fail. He hurried to the control panel; he
knew he only had seconds. He typed in the last few commands
and hit send. He watched as the protocols on his ship dropped
just as the quantum computer failed and emergency lights
flashed on in the control room.
Hannah and Noa were both trying to comfort the old woman
who was on her back, clutching her chest as she tried to
breathe. And all she kept saying over and over was, "It's
over...it's all over."
Caleb knew he had to get back to his ship. Now that the
protocols were down the green light would be on. If he didn't
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get back in time the capsule would leave with or without him,
taking the information its sensors had gathered and sending
them back to Earth. He headed to the doorway, but just before
he stepped through it he took a last look back at Hannah.
She looked up and saw him and knew by the look in his eyes
he was leaving. Smoothing back the old woman's hair, she
glanced at Noa and then stood up.
"With Caleb," she said, and walked across the room and took
his hand.
He led her out of the Temple and they ran naked together
across the valley floor, through the grass as they headed back
toward the waterfall. And the whole time they ran he watched
her, and wondered how he was going to tell her.
They were on the path out of the valley when they heard the
horn. Three blasts from the Temple, summoning its daughters
home.
"No," Hannah said, trying to pull it off. "Hannah does not like
clothes."
"I need it," Caleb said. "I have to wear it during takeoff."
Caleb felt a lump in his throat as he zipped his jumpsuit up. "I
wish I could Hannah, but I can't -- there's only one pod."
"Then stay with Hannah," she said, as a tear rolled down her
cheek. "Take off clothes and stay."
She nodded and tried to force a smile, but then they both
turned as they heard footsteps pounding toward the pool.
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She shook her head weakly. "I can't let you go."
She shook her head. "There will be no more killing, Dr. Caleb.
Noa was right...and I was wrong. I'd ask you to forgive me,
but I know my actions back at the Temple were unforgivable. I
thought I'd left the sins of Man behind me, but they were
inside of me the whole time. And now it's time to rectify my
error.
"It appears as if you are a necessary evil, Dr. Caleb. The shot
from my disruptor has destroyed the main control panel of the
Temple's quantum computer. Noa managed to pull the four
girls out in time, but all of the life pods have failed."
"All inert."
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"But how can it survive," he said, "with only one man?"
"A hundred Eves -- and those are only the ones of age. I sent
them and the younger daughters to the far end of the valley
as soon as you arrived. With your chromosomes, and ample
time, you can easily populate this planet. How does the old
saying go? Be fruitful and multiply, Dr. Caleb, replenish this
planet."
She shook her head, letting him know not to worry. "The same
process I used to adjust their DNA to give them their advanced
physical abilities also dealt with the recessive gene. It isn't
gone, but it will be centuries before it reappears."
The old woman smiled too. "Now that the protocols have been
removed, your ship is already sending out a signal letting
Earth know that you have left the vessel. If you don't return,
they will be sure to send others to investigate. But if we launch
the ship back into space they may assume the signal was an
error, ignoring it as the capsule continues as programmed on
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its mission into deep space."
He shook his head. "I can't let you do that. It's a suicide
mission."
"And you need to stay here. I don't know if you saw the force
field on your way in, but it's generated by the Temple, and
when the Temple fails, so will the force field.
"Teach them not to repeat our mistakes. Show them the good
that we're capable of, not the evil."
***
As he'd placed her naked in the pod and went to put the stasis
mask on her face, she stopped him and cried as she told him
to take care of her daughters. But they weren't tears of
sadness they were tears of pride.
Caleb had also placed his uniform, and the sensors within, in
the capsule with Dr. Bell. On the off chance that a signal from
the ship did reach Earth, they would assume it was a false
reading when the next signal showed the ship back on its
original course.
After the ship had disappeared, and the women had dried their
tears, they gathered shyly around Caleb, all of them naked.
Hannah tilted her head to one side. "What does Caleb mean?"
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"The daughters want to teach you some things first," Hannah
said.
"Like how to swim!" they all shouted at once, and Hannah and
Noa laughed as they threw him off of the waterfall toward the
pool twenty feet below. He looked up as he fell backward
toward the water and saw all of the girls, with Hannah and
Noa at the lead, gracefully diving off the cliff after him. And as
he hit the cold, dark water, and felt it envelop his naked body,
he couldn't stop smiling.
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