Chapter 9: Back Aboard Fortune

~~ April - Week 16 ~~

Kyle and Lee didn’t want the smaller boxes shown to the ship.

It was decided the books and the strange boxes would be stored in the storeroom beside Lee’s Room. They were Kyle’s finds, and that was where he wanted them. Only he and Lee would be able to decipher them anyway. In addition, this area was limited to select personnel.

The team told everyone else about the books. However, Lee, Kyle and even Sparky had insisted that the smaller strange boxes should not become general knowledge. Sean knew he could trust his people, and they knew Philip would keep it to himself as well.

Kyle set up a desk and a chair in the storeroom. He spent a lot of his spare time trying to transcribe the books. Since before the accident on the ship Kyle had practically been removed from the roster in the Helm.

The other eight members of the helm crew worked in two teams of four. They did a six-hour shift, and on the third hour, the other team rotated their shift. So, a fresh body was on the helm at least every three hours.

For the times they needed a full crew, Kyle was called upon, and he happily did his shift. Otherwise, Kyle went and did whatever it was that he needed to do.

Philip organised scanning the pages of the books he could see. They tried scanning a couple of the blank pages, but they stayed blank. Sparky, Philip, Andy Mc Ray the linguist, Bentley Voltinay the historian and Natali Imani, the reporter, all helped at transcribing the books.

Essco had demanded a look at the books. Philip indicated they were very delicate and would require restoration before they could be handled. However, William was welcome to look at the pages once they had been scanned.

Philip informed him that his translation team were happy to have more help in deciphering them. Essco huffed off. He decided they weren’t important to his schemes. Essco soon forgot all about them as he got immersed in all the samples he had to look at.

One other person on the ship, however, didn’t forget about the boxes. He had been told that if boxes that looked like the book boxes were found, he was to send a probe back immediately. The boss had mentioned two different sized boxes. The smaller boxes being, the more important.

No one had mentioned any other boxes, so it seemed only the larger boxes had been found. He would be interested to see what was in the books. He decided to send a message on the next probe. It wasn’t important enough to send a special probe that Lee would most likely find out about. He didn’t wish to tip his hand at this stage.

He was also unsure of how to proceed with Lee. Rodger hadn’t managed to complete his assignment, nor had he so far. The bloody woman had nine lives like a cat. He knew that tampering with the walking-poles, and Self-Rescue Units had been a long shot.

Like Rodger, he found getting close to Lee to do harm, was darn near impossible. He was also less inclined to kill her these days. Plus, it hadn’t been part of his original contract. The boss had told him just before they left Earth that if Rodger failed, Lee wasn’t to come back alive.

However, he didn’t like to act without knowing why. He wasn’t an assassin. He considered himself, a Procurer of Information. He generally only killed if it was his life that was in danger.

Plus, Lee had saved their lives several times now. He actually liked the woman. She was a gutsy lady. He decided to wait and see. It wasn’t as if his boss could do anything from Earth and they hadn’t headed back yet. With any luck, he wouldn’t have to do anything.

In the meantime, he had other work to do. They had a lot of samples and information to process, and he found he was looking forward to finding out more about the planet he had come a long way to see.

Lee got an odd feeling that she wasn’t being hunted any more but couldn’t work out why she felt this.

The samples and associated vids and pictures had been divided among the scientists.

Everyone had wanted to help, so they happily formed teams to look at whatever information was passed onto them. The vids of the star-chart mosaic were given to Nicko and Eze to decipher. Philip’s team also sent them and the team they put together any pages they found in the books, which looked like star-charts or maps.

A good selection of the plant and water samples were given to Essco’s team to analyse. Phillip also reminded him that they wouldn’t be able to go planetside until they had all been processed. Essco, despite his other not so hot personal qualities, was actually a very good biologist.

Irrespective of his desire to get planetside, Essco soon found himself engrossed. The new plants and macro-biology contents of the water samples were fascinating to him and his assistant Mark. Essco’s friend Professor Hue was happily examining the microbiological samples.

Hue was still recovering from his concussion but wanted in. After all, this was why he had come on the expedition, apparently. Not that he could remember a lot about his time aboard ship since leaving Earth. It was still coming back in bits and pieces.

Debora and Ram put everything through the genetics scanner and Magda and Cath Cheboi, Eze’s wife and one of the botanists, helped them identify plants that looked similar to Earth varieties. There was plenty of work for everyone. Barb and Kato were ecstatic with their marine samples. Aishah Dewa was just as delighted with the bugs that she got.

Now that Sparky could fly again, Sean had made her a bed in a 60cm cubed alcove made for her in their room. They mounted it close to the ceiling over Miss Piggy’s bed. Bones made little windows for the side facing the bed and made the front using sliding partitions.

They added curtains, and Lee made her a little LED lamp so she and they could have a little privacy. Anita even made a drop-down seat for Sparky to use on the loo. Sparky was able to activate the buttons for the taps on the sink, and it made a lovely bath for her.

Sparky loved Ms Piggy. She would ride her around the room and up to the dome. Much to Miss Piggy’s delight as she had instantly accepted that, Sparky was part of the family. Sparky loved the dome too. Ms Piggy loved that Sparky could push the buttons in the lift and get her to the dome.

Kyle and Abe had designed a tiny minder for Sparky so she could use it to open doors and contact people. Lee and Sean often found Miss Piggy and Sparky lying in the sun with full bellies in one of the observation sectors of the dome. Having pilfering whatever food they could.

Sparky was a great hit. Many of the scientists that received specimens to examine found she was a great help. Sparky also spent some time each day with Andy and Philip helping them with deciphering the texts.

If they read a passage out to her, she was often able to transpose it roughly for them. She even found old memories resurfacing, and her own understanding of how to link the written Genteli words with the spoken improved.

In turn, she was able to give them more accurate pronunciations for different symbols. This helped speed up their understanding of how to read the Genteli language and how to speak it.

She couldn’t help Lee and Kyle as much. She couldn’t remember the language they were working with. Lee and Kyle found that each of the boxes of books contained a text that was a copy of each other. They also happened to be the oldest books in the boxes.

Bentley had suggested they were a primer for budding wizards, and it was the first book the team were working on. So, they both selected a copy and read this text first. Lee ended up with Rah’s copy.

It had more notes in the margins, and more pictures showing different actions or hand movements required for achieving some spell or other. The couple didn’t so much read the text as they mostly scanned it into their memories and then worried it around in their heads.

It was the fourth day back aboard the ship when Kyle thought, ‘Fuck I’m never going to understand this shit.’

Lee thought back, ‘I agree. It’s all gobbledegook to me too.’

They read on for a bit when they both looked at the open adjoining door. Lee was on her side on the bed and Kyle was in the storeroom at the desk. Kyle got up and walked into Lee’s room and looked at her. ‘You answered me?’ he thought at her.

Lee grinned at him and thought back, ‘Oh fuck! This is intense.’

Kyle placed his head in his hands and said out loud, “Shit! I thought it was bad enough you could project your feelings, but now you can think at me, and I can understand you in turn.”

They looked at each other. Lee said, “I can’t read you unless you direct your thoughts at me. So, I think your inner thoughts are safe. I can’t read your mind as such.”

Kyle was relieved. He had always believed Lee was the stronger one when it came to reading and projecting their feelings. “I can’t read yours either,” he told her. “Okay, so why now?” he asked.

Lee looked at the door. “I think it has to do with whatever is in those boxes. Somehow, they seem to amplify our natural abilities. The fact that we are both near them probably helps. I’ll go up to the dome and see if you can receive me,” she offered.

Kyle agreed, so Lee went to the dome. ‘Can you get me, Kyle?’ she thought at him.

‘Crap!’ came back, making Lee giggle.

‘Go to our transporter on level nine,’ she thought back at him.

So, he did. ‘Can you receive me?’ he thought at Lee.

‘Loud and clear,’ she thought back at him.

They both came back to Lee’s bedroom. Lee made coffee, and they sat on the sofa and chatted. Well, they thought at each other anyway. Sean came in and found them sitting there quietly. Then Lee and Kyle both suddenly laughed out loud. Sean was mystified.

Lee thought at Sean, ‘Fuck you are one spunky hunk.’

Sean grinned at her until he realised, she had been drinking her coffee when he heard her words in his head. When he ‘heard’, Kyle agreeing with Lee, he was in shock.

They both heard his silent, ‘What the fuck?’ response and began laughing again.

Out loud, Lee said, “I wonder if it works with anyone else?”

They all looked at Sparky who had been sitting on her bed, sewing with the partition open. When she thought at them, ‘You are very funny people.’ All three humans received her answer.

Lee asked Sparky if she could understand them when they weren’t deliberately projecting. She assured them that she couldn’t read their inner thoughts either. Only their surface thoughts when they were not blocking them. Sean and Sparky found that they could exchange thoughts as well.

Sparky saw the look Sean gave Lee and took Miss Piggy to the dome. Kyle went to find Tony or Debora. Sean locked the doors stripped and soon had Lee in the same state and on to the bed under him. He then ‘thought’ of all the ways he loved her as he kissed every inch of her body to Lee’s giggles and groans.

It wasn’t long before he found himself between her legs and happily devouring her. Flicking his tongue in and out of her honey pot and nibbling on her cunnie lips as his fingers worked their way into her.

He was soon pumping away. He noticed Lee reacted more if he rubbed her sphincter every so often, so he stuck his finger in her butthole as he sucked her honeypot out. He heard her wonder ‘if she could take him up there?’

So, he rolled her over and worked her hole more until he decided she was ready. He placed his cock head at her hole and gently pushed in. At her thoughts, he slowly slid more into her, and she groaned as she adjusted to his entry.

He pulled back and then inserted even more of his thick cock. He inched into her in delicious, slow pumps. He kept this up until he was seated to the hilt, and his balls rested against her cunnie lips.

Then he started working her butthole with his cock. Lee was soon rocking back on him and groaning out her pleasure, of him being in her arse.

‘Fuck me. Honey, you are so fucking tight I don’t think I’ll last long like this,’ Sean thought at her. He tried keeping the pace slow, but this didn’t last long.

‘Fuck me, hunky, fuck me hard,’ Lee thought back.

He started speeding up his thrusts. Lee humped back into him hard so that his balls slapped her wet cunnie and they were soon coated with her juices. As he suspected it was nowhere near as long as he would have liked after they got serious, that he felt his rock-hard balls had to let go.

He erupted into her in several fast flexes of his hips and sharp grunts. Lee kept humping back into him hard and then groaned out one long groan as her body shook around his pulsing cock, adding to his intense pleasure.

“Damn girl, we are going to have to do that more often,” he sighed as the endorphins and oxytocin flooded the pleasure centre of his brain. Once she stopped shaking so hard, he slowly pulled out of her. As he flopped down beside her, Lee started giggling.

Sean looked at her, so she explained. Kyle had found Tony, and she must have projected her feelings more than she intended. Poor Tony. Sean laughed. He had found that unlike Lee, he could not project or receive from as far as she could. He was not in contact with Kyle or Sparky, he was kind of happy about that.

Lee was correct. Poor Tony had been asleep when Kyle had entered their room. Kyle had felt and heard Lee’s excitement of getting Sean to fuck her up the butt for the first time, and he was rock-hard. He was soon stripped and had the sheet off Tony and was between his legs.