The Great Escape Chapter 23, Part 11 of 13

The Great Escape
Chapter 23, Part 11 of 13

"And you're a soft bugger. Well, your heart is. Another bit of you is good and hard. It did this to me."

Solange stood up and pulled off her dress, revealing her pregnant belly. She was wiry and strong, deceptively thin, except her thighs were nicely rounded, her buttocks plumper than usual. She also had tits like little dunes.

She turned sideways so that Ezra could see her tattooed belly thrusting out proudly and smoothly.

"What do you think?" she asked.

"I wish I were at home with you. You're not making it easy for me."

"If we women have to lump it, then so should you. How's your cock?"

"Hard, thanks to you."

"Good."

"I love you, Madam Cowgirl."

"Love you, too, Earthman!"

With his extra time and energy, Ezra formed plans with friends and associates on Earth, involving his old creditors in a new venture.

Although Andrew Claydon's calculations suggested the prospects for Samothea were poor, nothing would happen for some time, so Ezra pushed on with his schemes. A week after the meeting with Andrew Claydon, which seemed to doom the planet Samothea to wanton immigration, Ezra received some positive news. At dinner that night, he said:

"Annela, Freya: would you like to come to Earth with me?"

"Will it take long, Daddy?" asked Freya.

"We'll be gone at least a month. I have some people to meet and some property to sell."

"What about Charlie-dog?"

"Sorry, Sweetie, Charlie-dog has to stay here."

Freya looked sad.

"But there are dogs on Earth. I'll take you to stay with your grandparents. They have sheepdogs on the farm."

Freya had never met a sheepdog. As much as she would miss seeing Charlie-dog daily, meeting a sheepdog might compensate. Then Ezra played his ace card.

"Your grandparents live in a country called 'Australia', where there are kangaroos."

"Kangaroos!" exclaimed Freya. "Mummy! I want to meet a kangaroo!"

"What about Edgar?" Annela asked.

Edgar Fanshaw, owner of Charlie-dog, was a good friend to the visitors from Samothea. She enjoyed their daily chats and occasional tea parties. Annela was concerned that he would lose all his young friends for the summer.

"I'll ask him if he wants to come with us," Ezra said. "As an old friend of my Dad, maybe he'd like to visit him."

Mariotta Goldrick sent an invitation to Edgar Fanshaw. Aged 112, Edgar rarely travelled far and hadn't been to Earth for some years, though he had family and friends there, because it was a tiring three-day journey. With the new hyperdrive beacon up and running, it was less than a day's journey, including a descent down the Commonwealth Space Elevator to Africa and a subsequent atmospheric ballista launch from there to Australia.

Edgar was keen. The danger of the flight didn't deter him. It was settled: he would take Nurse
Smiley and Nurse Grumpy, who could have holidays on Earth.

With Edgar Fanshaw coming, they would have more luxury than Ezra originally planned. Still, there was compensation. Although he was no longer the head of his company, which owned mines on Celetaris and businesses around the galaxy, Edgar Fanshaw had many rich friends on Earth who might want to invest in a new venture started by the famous discoverer of Samothea.

Danielle insisted that Roger decide what they would do that summer.

"You've unfailingly supported me in everything I've done these last few years," she said, "so it's my turn to support you in what you want to do."

"I want to take a working holiday," he said. "It's research for my video book."

Roger was compiling the history of the youngest colonies of the Anglosphere, including those worlds that were progressing toward independent self-rule within the loose democratic federation.

"You don't mind making trips to these small and unimportant colonies? I can go alone if you've
got better things to do."

"Better things than to admire my husband while he works? Roger, you devote your life to making my life easy. It's about time I did the same for you."

"You do already."

"Nonsense, husband. Anyway, it's settled. The summer is all about you. Where are you taking me first?"

"New Exeter. Pack your warmest clothes - and your air suit."

Everyone was leaving for their summer destinations in a few days, and Hazel and Wildchild were beginning to doubt the existence of Ezra's surprise.

Then one morning, Ezra dropped Annela and Freya off early at Danielle's flat and took a jetcar to Ocean City Astroport.

Danielle, Annela, and the three girls ran around the park. Not needing to go to the medical Center for treatment, Annela came home with the others and took part in the friendly jostling when there was a bathroom queue.

The flat was cluttered with five healthy naked female bodies, waiting impatiently for their turn to wash. Trying to get women to hurry up in the bathroom is a cause of friction all over the galaxy.

Roger wisely locked himself with Freya in the kitchen, where she did her favorite chore: helping him make breakfast.

Ezra arrived back in the middle of the meal. He had someone with him.

"Tatiana Ludmilla Tchernekova!" Danielle cried, recognizing Ezra's companion as she entered the room.

She ran to hug Ezra's mentor, the Russian woman who'd befriended him when he was a young prospector, some twenty years ago. Tatiana and Ezra lived and worked together for six months on her spaceship after his ship had developed a fault, and his crew was sent home. It was the best training he'd ever received as a Planetary Prospector. He also learned more about sex from Tatiana than from anyone else, before or since.

Annela knew who Tatiana was. She remembered a day in the forest when she and Ezra had made a bed of bracken and fucked like crazy. Afterward, he told her the story of his formidable Russian mentor and her funny ideas about sex. Annela wanted to thank Tatiana for teaching Ezra his trick with her G-spot.

She remembered Ezra's description of Tatiana: stocky, short dark hair, large brown eyes, and a nose like an eagle's beak. She looked like a chest of drawers with breasts and a head.

Despite the passage of twenty years, Tatiana hadn't changed much. She still looked about fifty, having had rejuvenation therapy. But her eyes were sad with a Slavic melancholy that no medical treatment could mask. She was smiling now, laughing happily and enjoying the whole family's attention, as Danielle introduced everyone to her.

"This is Annela, Hazel, Samothea, Yael, and Freya."

"Ai, ai, ai. Pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty!" Tatiana exclaimed, pointing to the girls one by one. "And you, little cherub," she said, putting her chubby hand on Freya's cheek. "You're the special kind of lovely."

"Tatiana, this is my husband, Roger."

Tatiana shook hands with Roger.

"Good, good," Tatiana said with abundant approval, keeping hold of Roger's hand while she examined him closely.

"Strong hands. Means strong loins. You Englishman?"

"American, originally," Roger said, "but Celetaran now."

"American man, good. Good for sex. Rooshian man, no good. All vodka, no sex. A woman needs a strong man, someone to boss her. Daniella, I like."

Tatiana looked around and saw everyone smiling at her, especially the girls.

"Ah, you laugh at strange Rooshian lady, da?"

"Please, Madam," Yael said earnestly. "We would never laugh at you. We're smiling because you're embarrassing poor old Roger."

"I don't think poor old Roger is happy with that sobriquet, Yael," Ezra said.

"Oh, but that's what Danielle calls him."

"I'm not embarrassed. "I say it is what it is," Tatiana insisted, making almost no sense.

"It's at least fifteen years since I met you, Tatiana," Danielle said. "What have you been doing?"

"I had the youthful treatment because I got married. I found my husband, a big, rough man.

Like a bear. Hairy all over. Strong loins. Good at sex. I gave up the work. Sell the ship, the 'Voskhod'. I became a housewife and make my man happy. But he drinks vodka and gambles with the money. Drinks and gambles. Then the fights in bars. Worse thing: he wants to drink but no sex. I tell him: give up drinking, gambling, and fights. But he says, 'No, I like.' So, I go.

I'm going to buy a new ship. Not Voskhod anymore. Now soon rise."

"Sunrise?" Roger asked.

"Da, 'Soonrise'. Because I am no longer the Rooshian," Tatiana concluded triumphantly. "Now I am the Anglo spherical!"

Everyone wanted to ask Tatiana questions, but Danielle used her authority as hostess to get the strange Russian lady seated at the dining table and supplied with breakfast.

Danielle didn't have to wait long to find out what Ezra had planned with Tatiana for the girls, her girls, as she thought of them. He announced it when breakfast was over.

"Hazel, Wildchild," he said, "I've arranged with Tatiana to take you on a prospective trip, to give you some experience in space, to learn the difficulties and hardships of the prospective life."

The girls were wide-eyed and eager upon hearing this news.

"It's true," Tatiana vouched. Ezra and I made a business plan. He paid to fit out Soonrise, and I took her on a special mission. You girls come. You enjoy. It's a considerable risk. Ezra says you want danger."

"What danger?" Danielle demanded. "Ezra, what have you planned?"

"There's some risk, Danielle, but nothing Tatiana can't handle. She's the best in the galaxy at this stuff. Better than I ever was."

"Besides," he added, "Sunrise is fully equipped for the mission. She has extra heat and radiation shielding, a new telemetry system for ultra-short hyperspace jumps, and many safety features."

"Heat shielding, ultra-short hyperspace jumps, and safety features! Why? Where on Earth are you sending the girls?"

"To the white dwarf star," Tatiana said, giving Danielle the star map reference. "Extraordinary star, immense danger," she added with a wink to the girls.

Danielle looked up the star's location and characteristics.

"It's bound by a thick disc of dust in which there are asteroids and small moons," Ezra explained, "but the most interesting thing about the star is its strong magnetic field, which fluctuates wildly, causing compression waves that heat the disc. The asteroids and moons nearest the star are at the melting point. Their centers are liquid lava."

"That's not so unusual," Danielle said.

"No. What's unusual is that many of the moons are in a gravitational lock with the star, so they always keep a dark side away from the star. This means Tatiana can reach the inner moons by leaping to outer moons, landing on their dark sides, where she's protected from the magnetic flux."

"When she gets to the inner moons with the active centers, she can send robot excavators to scoop up some of the lava. That will be the girls' job. They'll operate the robots remotely from inside Sunrise. They'll pour the lava into collection tanks, which can slowly crystallize in the magnetic streams, making new and interesting crystals. It's a natural laboratory. Who knows what useful and rare minerals can be discovered?"

Danielle was too appalled to comment. She stared at Ezra and shook her head.

"Is it really that dangerous?" Wildchild asked.

"Look at these measurements for electromagnetic activity," Danielle said. "The flux will fry the spaceship and everything in it."

"That's why Tatiana will leap to the inner moons without going through normal space," Ezra said.

"I practice micro jumping a lot," Tatiana said. Now I am an expert."

"Why are you worried, Danielle?" Hazel asked.

"Because it's challenging and hazardous. Ezra would take you to Earth's asteroid belt or show you a pretty planet with rings, like Saturn. I didn't think he'd send you into real danger."

"It's not that dangerous, Sis," Ezra said. "It's just a case of going carefully. Tatiana knows how to be careful."

"You always go carefully yourself, Ezra. How many times did you almost die?"

"Six times."

"What about Samothea?"

"Seven times."

"We'll be careful," Hazel assured Danielle.

"But you girls have no experience, backup, or safety training. What do you know about landing on a moon full of boiling lava?"

"Nothing, Danielle, but I'm sure Tatiana won't put us in danger, and we'll obey her in everything she says."

"Don't worry, Daniella," Tatiana said. I teach them. It's the best training. I have been the Prospector for fifty years. There are no problems. I am not dead yet. Pretty girls are safe with me. I teach them macro jumps."

"But they're precious to me, both of them, Tatiana. Samothea knows how much I want to teach her physics."

"I'll be back to learning physics, Danielle, I promise," Wildchild said.

"They're sensible girls, Sis," Ezra said. "They're the most intelligent, courageous, and gifted young people I know. They'll be careful. And this will be the best lesson they can learn as prospectors. It seems dangerous, but Tatiana and I have gone over the mission parameters many times, and it's really no more dangerous than the jump you and Roger will make to New Exeter."

"I want to go over the parameters myself."

"I'll show you, and you can check out all our work. Will that ease your mind?"

"No, but it'll help. Girls, I hope you're not offended by my interfering?"

"We're not offended at all," the Wildchild said. "We know how much you love us."

"We love you, too, Danielle," Hazel added. "We're glad you want us to be safe. I'm sorry I can't obey you, but this is the kind of adventure I've wanted my whole life. When you live on a planet like Samothea, where almost nothing ever happens, you crave trying to do something risky with lava pits."

"I understand," Danielle said reluctantly, "but I won't be happy until I've checked the mission plan myself."

At lunchtime, the girls met Ed and Rod in the park after the lads had finished a morning exam.

They went to say goodbye to the boys and explain why they couldn't spend the summer with them. The boys were alarmed at the risk, but even more, admired the courage of their friends.

The girls brought packed lunches and sat on their favorite park bench to share them.

Ed's ex-girlfriend Angie was on the other side of the lawn with two friends, strolling in the sunshine. She saw the four friends sitting on the bench, chatting and laughing. The boys were courteous and attentive. Ed held a paper plate for Hazel, and she wiped a crumb off his shirt.

This tiny gesture sent Angie over the edge.

She left her companions and strode over to the bench. No one noticed her until she was within striking distance. She pulled her arm back and aimed a slap as hard as she could at Hazel's cheek.

The slap never connected. With instant reflexes and much more strength than Angie, Wildchild caught the girl's arm and held it still, inches from Hazel's face.

Everyone got up.

"What are you doing, Angie?" Ed demanded.

"Are you mad?" asked Rod.

But Hazel didn't say anything. She sat there, shocked.

"Ow!" cried Angie. "Let me go!" as the Wildchild squeezed her wrist, but the Wildchild squeezed harder, forcing the girl onto her knees. Angie tried to get free, but she could neither shake off Wildchild's grip nor prize Wildchild's fingers away.

"Why did you attack my girlfriend?" Wildchild asked.

Angie just moaned and didn't answer.

"Hazel's done nothing to you," Wildchild said.

"You're hurting me!" Angie whimpered.

The two soft-hearted men asked Wildchild to let her go, but she ignored them.

"Why did you attack Hazel?" she demanded again, squeezing even more tightly.

Angie was crying in earnest, kneeling in the dust, sobbing.

Hazel said to the Wildchild:

"Let her go, Samothea."

The Wildchild immediately released Angie, who sank, holding her bruised arm in her lap, tears
running down her cheeks.

Hazel spoke softly to her.

"Angie, I don't know why you hate me, but I'm sorry I made you angry. I didn't mean to."

With that, Hazel took Samothea's hand and led her away.

Angie stayed on the ground, whimpering. Ed just stood there, watching the girls as they left.

"Go after them, you idiot," Rod said to him. "I'll take care of Angie."


To be continued