Matthias responded with returning defiance and not a little anger. “If you think you can come up with anything better, I’d like to hear it. I’m your leader and I’m the interpreter of God’s Will on this expedition, lest you had forgotten it. He will not be mocked, whatever human frailties He has to contend with! Mine included.” he ended lamely.
“Father, you might think you can lead from your pulpit but what are you going to do when somebody says ‘no’ or you start to get a riot on your hands?”
“There will be no riots and God will guide me when it comes to disobedience.”
Hack punched some commands on to the keyboard, bringing a video clip up full screen. It was four of the males engaged in plotting just such a riot. He overheard their voices complaining about the regime which had been imposed on them. “If he thinks I’m going to spend the next twelve years tossing myself off just so I can get to sleep, he can think again.”
“I say we go up to the hydroponicum right now and see what the girls have got to say about it all.”
“Yeah, I’m on for that!”
“So how are you goin’ to deal with Martha then?”
The young man sniggered. “Hell, if she wants me as well, then I guess I’ll just have to oblige her, a little!”
The others giggled, Matthias squirmed with rage in his seat. “Those hotbots are on their way up to H3 right now, Dad. So what are you going do about it?”
“Let me talk to Mother” he fumed.
“Sure thing, Daddyo!” Hack changed the view to the interior of H3, by the entrance airlock. The girls had opted to go naked in the warm lushness of the rainforest and they were standing in an animated, giggly group in the middle distance. Martha was so close to the camera that he felt like reaching out to touch her shoulder. “Martha!” he called out. She turned to face him, looking slightly off camera. The viewer kept her back a little to include her breasts on screen. Hack was doing it deliberately.
“Matthias?”
“I’m talking to you from the shuttle bay. I’m on board a shuttle. Listen Martha, there’s four of the males heading down there with the idea of breaking in and fraternising with the girls. You’ve got to lock the hatch from the inside. Go at once before they get there!”
Martha disappeared off screen and the camera zoomed on to the shimmering vista of the six females, bringing them right up close, panning lasciviously over their innocent, unsuspecting bodies. “Wow!” enthused Moses. “Now that’s quite something to behold. I think I’m going to have to get me over there pretty soon before I have an accident!”
Matthias angrily switched off the screen. He looked from one to the other with thunder in his face. “What in the name of God do you think you’re doing?”
“Hey, Dad! Don’t get so mad. Aren’t we helping you out already? Mother will have managed to stop them and they’ll have to go back up again.” Moses looked very directly into his eyes. “You can’t run this ship on your own. You need us. Hack to keep things under surveillance and me – he flexed his ample pecs. – me, to keep discipline in the ranks. Discipline for the disciples, see what I mean?” The camera replayed the plotters and Moses bade Hack to freeze frame it on the face of the lead plotter, Dane. “Do you want me to put him in his place, Father?”
Matthias looked from one to the other. He felt a sudden numb helplessness and he knew that he had no option but to go along with them. It was a Faustian plot. He nodded. “Tell me this then Moses. What’s in it for you?”
Moses grinned and operated the camera himself this time, zoomed it on to the group of young women, brought it up to take in a full-frontal view of one of them and froze the picture. “I want her!” he said.
Matthias recognised her face. It was Amelie.
“Me too” whispered a voice behind him but he thought that Moses had not heard it.
Chapter 8
There was no further reason to delay the departure. Com1 fired up the three functioning fusion drives to full power and P2 rapidly faded into the background of the starfilled sky as Alpha Four accelerated away to its new destination, years ahead in space and time. With some minor trimming adjustments to the speed of rotation, a fairly exact 1.0g resultant was achieved in the various crew’s quarters and the ship was set on course. Matthias dispatched three of the four potential rioters to the engine bay to make an initial assessment as to whether the fourth drive could be restarted.
Which left Dane, their ringleader, Moses and Hack in the observatory. Matthias called him over to his room, closed the door and bade him sit down. He wasted no time on preliminaries, simply turned on his computer screen and let the damning short video clip run through it. Dane watched in alarm, then defiance. When it had finished, he said simply and with a degree of dignity, “I meant every word of it. The way you’ve got this planned is fine for you and just about terrible for everybody else.”
“You mindless idiot” snarled Matthias. “What do you think is going to happen if I let you run amok amongst those young girls down in H3? If you don’t end up having jealous quarrels with each other, leading to heaven knows what fighting and feuding while you sort out your pecking order, you are certain to impregnate them all and we shall be turning this ship into a crèche within the year. We cannot feed extra mouths. We will all starve.”
“There isn’t any reason why they should become pregnant if we are careful.”
“And just how do you propose to exercise that care? How are you going to prevent six young women at the peak of their fertility from responding to nature. No contraceptives of any kind were included with the ship’s inventory. When the time comes, it is important that they do become pregnant because then the expedition needs families, needs children and as many as is humanly possible as quickly as possible. But not now.” he snapped.
“Dane, I need you to be sensible. Clearly you are the ringleader of your little group. I need your cooperation. I need you to recant your evil intentions….”
“I’m not evil, you….. Father”
“Of course, you don’t see them as evil and you didn’t mean them as such, just a little spirited rebellion, but Dane, leading to death by starvation for many of us, perhaps all of us!”
“Will you recant? Help me to lead this expedition along the hard and stony path in the face of all the temptations to take the easy way that leads us to ruin?”
“Oh, Matthias, I don’t believe in all that stuff. My parents weren’t religious and neither am I.”
Matthias stood up stiffly. “Very well, then. Perhaps there are other ways to make you see the light.” He opened the door and Moses stepped in, closely followed by Hack.
Moses smiled broadly. “Isn’t brother Dane willing to follow the true path of righteousness, Father?” He was taken by surprise. It was the sheer speed of it. Before he could properly rise to his feet, Moses had him in an armlock, pressed forward with his face pushed into the duvet on Matthias’s bed. Hack stood by and giggled. Dane could just twist his face up enough to see the scalpel in his hand.
Matthias nodded to Moses. “Let him look up at me.” Moses eased his grip sufficiently for Dane to be able to meet his eyes. “What are you doing with that?” he quavered.
“Dane, I want you to understand the gravity of your situation. I want you to understand that you can be brought to your knees as you are now at any time that it is felt to be necessary.” He nodded to Moses who flipped him over on to his back in one swift, and overwhelmingly strong movement. His arm was forced painfully up behind him, Moses put his other arm around his throat, starting to squeeze off air from reaching his lungs. He started gasping frantically then to his absolute horror, Hack pulled down the zipper on his fleece, all the way to the crutch, reached inside the fly of his boxer shorts and lifted out his penis.
“No!” he screamed. He flailed and writhed but was hardly able to move at all in Moses’ terrible grip. “No, Please! Not that! Father, help me!”
/> Matthias nodded to Hack. “Perhaps not this time? Perhaps not this time if he freely and truthfully recants and repents of his sinfulness. You do recant, don’t you Dane?”
His eyes were bolting. He was still hardly able to breathe and the hand still gripped his manhood. “Yes!” he gasped.
Say it properly, Dane. Just as you are going to say it to your little group of friends when they come back. Say it Dane!”
“I recant!” he spluttered.
“Do you truly recant?”
He hesitated. Hack’s fingers tightened around his penis and began to pull. “Yes!” he squawked. “Please, let go. I recant.”
Matthias nodded to them and they let him go, let him slump over the bed, gasping like a landed fish. “Make sure he learns his lines properly. Now take him away from my room. It doesn’t feel very clean here any more.
*********************************************************
Amelie waited until Martha was busy somewhere before going into the control centre and then letting herself through the airlock to the elevator. It was then only the ride up to the hub, transfer across and down to the medical block. She pulled on her fleece as she went, it felt cooler in the dry air outside the hydroponicum. She tingled with anticipation.
It had just been a scrap of paper.
“Meet me in the medical block 1500 hours. I love you. D.”
She hadn’t been able to speak to him since the partition. She hadn’t been able to think about anything else since. She was lonely for him. Her heart yearned for him, her body was beginning to ache for him. They had only made love that one time but now she was ready for him again, she wanted to be his partner, she wanted to love him with her entire body and soul. And she was anxious about all the religious stuff. She felt that somehow she was being made to feel guilty simply for having a body that had been sexually awakened, that wanting Desmond was somehow wrong. She wanted to talk to him about it, to find some way through this for themselves. Her emotions were in a tangle.
The elevator came to rest and she let herself out eagerly into the lobby to the medical centre. She opened the inner door, suddenly dying with want to see him, to throw herself into his arms, to feel his hands in her hair, his lips on hers, his hands slipping down on to her breasts….
“Hello Amelie,” he said. Only it was Moses. He had stepped out of one of the side rooms and now he was between her and the way back to the elevator. He was naked. Her eyes swept over his big, sturdy frame, then down to his equally big, erect manhood, looked back up to his smiling face, full of lust for her. She suddenly felt faint with shock and no little sense of fear.
“Where’s Desmond?” Her voice sounded, even to herself like the pathetic cry for help of a lost child.
“We swapped places. He hibernated.” Moses smiled hugely. “He said to be sure to come here in his place so that you wouldn’t be disappointed.”
Amelie tried to say something but there were bright lights whirling before her eyes and a roaring in her ears. Everything was becoming very faint, distant and unreal, then beginning to swirl around. He caught her as she fell but she didn’t know that because she had passed into a dead faint.
She came to to find herself lying in a bed. It was not a big bed, barely more than a single size, it was in a cubicle, a surgical recovery room. She opened her eyes to Moses’ face looking anxiously down on her. He was standing beside her, holding a glass of water. “Here, drink this” he said, there was concern in his voice. You’ll have to sit up. He had an arm around her shoulders and lifted her gently into a sitting position, let her rest back against the pillow. She shuddered with the awareness of his great physical strength, she was like a child in his arms but she took the glass in both hands and drank it down, then sat holding it, hands folded on the top edge of the duvet which didn’t quite reach as far as her navel. She realised that she was naked, her breasts open to his hungry eyes. He must have undressed her while she was unconscious. He had even taken off her knickers. She wondered what else he might have done.
But he cared! She could see that in his face. “How do you feel?” he asked.
She was rapidly recovering from the initial shock. “I want Desmond” she said firmly.
Moses grinned. “You’re going to have to wait a long time, Amelie. About four years, actually.”
“He never said anything to me. That he wanted to hibernate. He sent me a note. He loves me, I know he does.”
Moses shook his head. “He asked me if I would change places with him because he wanted out for a while. He asked me to take care of you and that’s why I’m here.”
She could feel the tears running silently down her cheeks, her heart was clenched with pain. ‘How could he?’ she thought, suddenly angry. ‘How could he do such a thing to me and without so much as a hint of his intentions. If I had known, I could have swapped too. As it is now, when he awakes, I will be four years older than him. For me four years will have gone by and by then I won’t feel the same about him. I will have had four years in which to get used to the idea of being betrayed.’
“Don’t cry, little one!” His voice was surprisingly soft and gentle. “I will look after you, I promised him that I would.”
She looked up into his face again. He was good looking as well as strongly built. If she had to be looked after by somebody else, she thought, then Moses would do very well. Disconcertingly, she could feel her body beginning to respond to him, knowing instinctively that he knew even as she did. When he lifted back the duvet and got in beside her, she put her arms around him and let him roll over on top of her. Big as he was, their lovemaking was surprisingly gentle but even so he took her to orgasm very quickly, then emptied his seed deep within her. For a while they just lay together, half asleep, arms entwined in the small bed.
Drowsy as she was, she savoured the intimate contact with his body. Her sensitive breasts were pressed against his muscular chest, her thighs against his. She kissed him gently on the mouth, then buried her face in his armpit, learning his smell. She could feel his fingers pressing deliciously into her from behind, gently massaging the entrance to her vagina just below her anus. Amelie sighed and savoured her gradually reawakening sexual response, the transfer of her affections was complete. She kissed him again and whispered into his ear, “I want you, Moses.”
Chapter 9
Once more they had gathered in the observatory. Martha had led them in prayers and then Matthias took over.
“I hope you are all satisfied with the arrangements we have made to keep you comfortable and happy. Our journey to our next destination has begun, P2 is already far behind us. The hibernating team have been hibernated and we, the rest of us are left awake to ride out the rigours of the journey - with God’s Will to guide and strengthen us. Already, I have a crew working on the non-functioning fusion drive so that if we can repair it, the journey will take maybe two years less time. But God has not yet given a sign that this may happen so we must be prepared to have the spirit to endure for the full twelve years. I am also working with Com1 to see if we can use other areas of the ship, such as space in the shuttle bay, to set up another hydroponicum to give us extra food and ease our sufferings. But in the meanwhile, the rations that have been set for each of us must suffice. We will be hungry, but we must be spiritually well nourished by His Word. You must read the bible every day and Com1 will give you an on-screen test to confirm your diligence. He will report your scores to Mother and myself so that we can monitor your spirituality and give you guidance where you need it.”
Matthias looked sternly over the fleece-clothed flock. “Unhappily” he said sternly, his face furrowed with paternalistic anger and concern, “one of your number has grievously sinned. He had set his countenance against the face of God and he had sought to prostitute himself and others who would have followed him, by indulging himself in the lusts of the flesh and, worse still, incited other weaker brethren to
follow his iniquitous example. He comes now to recant his evil mis-intentions and so seek our forgiveness. You must be his judge!”
Matthias beckoned Dane from the throng, calling him to stand up on the podium beside him (which they had constructed from materials brought up from the stores). Dane stood in front of them, his eyes lowered.
“Brothers and sisters” he mumbled in a low voice. “I did not believe the Word which is brought to us by Mother and Father. I wanted to go my own way and I had evil and lewd thoughts, I wanted to indulge the lusts of the flesh. I wanted to go to the women’s quarters and disport myself there.” Dane could not look up, his eyes were cast down to the floor at his feet, just beyond where Moses and Hack were standing watchfully. Hack had a hand in the pocket of his fleece and was holding something there.
Dane mumbled as if to himself, eyes half closed. “I now realise that my thoughts were impure and that I encouraged others to sin, also. I beg God’s forgiveness.”
Matthias stepped forwards. “Praise Be! Dane has admitted his sin. God will forgive him because He is all loving and all forgiving! But you, his brothers and sisters must decide upon his atonement so that you can be sure his recantation is honest and true.”