Date: Fri, 25 Oct 2002 15:19:13 +0000
From: Douglas DD DD <thehakaanen@hotmail.com>
Subject: The Survivors. Chapter 8

CHAPTER 8
Decisions

The lunch was noisy and fun. Robert Charles asked Jordan about gauges. He
asked him if an alarm goes off when a gauge gets into the red. Jordan told
him all the time, that there was always plenty of warning. Robert Charles
seemed satisfied with that and went back to talking to Lisa.  Within a few
minutes he forgot all about the jumping gauge.

After lunch they were all back in class. Mr. Z had their test scores and
assigned them to their computer programs. He was there to help if it was
needed. He told the class he would be back in a few minutes and that Robert
Charles was in charge. He left and walked up the hall. Robert Charles's
father was waiting for him in a side room.

"I want to thank you for making my son your leader. Like I said, I can help
you out a lot, either on Alpha Orion IV or on Earth with a good position."

"That's not why I appointed him. I thought he was the best candidate."

The Governor looked at Mr. Z. with a look that said, Yeah right.

"Has anybody decided to run against him yet?"

"Not yet. They're thinking. And usually nobody runs against who I
appoint. I pick my class leaders carefully and the rest of the class
usually sticks with who I appoint. They don't want to chance crossing the
teacher. The only one I can see running against him has been discouraged
from doing so."

"Good. And if you can discourage anybody else I would appreciate it. I want
my son in leadership positions. I really want him in this one."

"Understood."

Robert Charles sat at the front of the room looking important. Mike looked
up from his computer and glared at him. He would do anything to take the
smug smile off his face.

"You have some kind of problem, Mike?"

"Yeah I do. You."

Fifteen other heads looked up. This was sounding interesting. A lot more
interesting than what was on their computers.

Robert Charles stood up. He was a big kid. Mike stood up. Mike was a big
kid too. Every other kid was quiet and looking at the two largest kids on
the ship glaring at each other.

"You really want to get yourself into trouble don't you? Let me remind you
who got put in charge here."

"It sure as hell wasn't by any of us," Mike retorted.

"Let me tell you two things, butt breath. Thing number one, I've seen big
mouthed jerks like you before. And like you they're all nothing. Number
two, like I told you before, you try anything against me you will spend two
months locked in your room. Trust me on that.

"And second don't you even think about running against me. Because you
don't have a prayer of winning. You might have Ryan fooled, but you don't
have too many others fooled." He looked at the rest of the boys all staring
at the two of them. "And the rest of you can forget it too. Not only do you
not have a prayer, but you will be very sorry you even thought about
crossing me.  Because after I beat you, I won't forget."

Right then Mike decided he'd had enough of this big headed, big mouthed
asshole and it was time to shut it. He took two steps toward the desk when
Mr. Z. walked into the room.

"Something wrong here?" he asked.

Robert Charles looked at Mike and grinned. "No, sir," he said. "Mike was
just telling me what a great job I was doing as class leader and how he
hoped nobody would run against me because there was no doubt I was the
best. Right Mike?" He smiled his evil grin at Mike.

"Whatever you say." Mike was so mad he could kick a hole in a wall, but he
was also smart enough to know he was being baited and he was going to have
to wait. He hated to back down in front of the class, but doing something
right now was exactly what Robert Charles wanted.

After school almost everybody headed for the games room. Ryan and Mike got
together and talked.

"Don't let that big goon get to you, Mike. He's not half the person you
are."

"You must really believe it wasn't me who hit you."

"I more than believe it, I know it. I think somebody needs to run against
that big butthole."

"I agree," Mike said. "And I know it can't be me."

"Why not?"

Just then Alex and Travis wandered over.

"What's going on?" Alex asked.

"We were just talking about how Mike should run against Robert Charles for
room leader."

"I like that idea," Alex said. "What about it Mike?"

"I think it has to be somebody else. Not everybody believes it wasn't me.
I bet I wouldn't get a single girl vote to start with. It needs to be
somebody else."

"Then who?" Alex asked.

"Let's go to my room and talk about it," Ryan offered. "Where it's
private."

The four boys agreed it was a good idea and headed for Ryan's room. Jeremy
was with Braden and saw them leave. He wondered where they were going. Then
he went back to playing pool with Braden, Stevie, and Jim.

Douglas was sitting on a couch watching a vid. Scooter was playing a video
game on the other side of the room. They were ignoring each other, while at
the same time wanting to be together in the worst way, but afraid to make
the move. Douglas knew Scooter was falling for Jordan, or Jim or
both. Scooter knew that Douglas didn't seem to like him much and had been
saying bad things about him and his dad. But in their hearts, they didn't
really believe those thoughts. Their minds weren't ready to follow their
hearts yet.

Up in the crew area Jordan was with Matthew. He was showing him his
collection of coins and stamps from the different planets. There were 15
colonies so far and 6 planets far enough along that they were independent
and had their own government. Alpha Orion IV was the newest colony. Very
little of it was developed so far and only a few thousand people lived
there. It was still hard living, especially for the farmers. But ships like
the "Starkeeper" were bringing more and more all the time.Living on the
"Starkeeper" Jordan had seen a lot of them. He loved collecting stuff from
them. There were 5 exploration ships that were looking for new planets to
turn into colonies. Jordan thought it would be real cool to be on one of
those ships and go places nobody had ever seen before.

Jordan let his hand est on the 11 year old's knee. Matthew looked at him
but didn't move. Jordan's hand crept up the boy's leg until it was resting
right next to Matthew's crotch.  Matthew still didn't say anything, but
Jordan could feel his body tense up. He let his thumb slide over until it
was right next to Matthew's cock. Matthew's eyes were open wide and he was
staring out straight ahead. He knew what was going on and wasn't sure what
to do about it.

Jordan let his hand slide over Matthew's crotch and laid it on his dick. It
was hard as a rock. He started rubbing along it through Matthew's
pants. Matthew was totally tense now.

"W..w..what are you doing?" he whispered.

"Shhhhhh," Jordan said. "It's okay. This will feel good. You will like it."

"B...b..but...you're touching my...me...down there," he stammered.

Jordan kept rubbing it, only a little harder. Both boys' hearts were
pounding hard. "Does it feel good?" Jordan could hardly get the words out
he was breathing so hard and deep.

Matthew didn't say anything. He just looked at Jordan with big eyes,
breathing hard, his heart racing. His whole body was tense and not moving.

Jordan started unbuttoning Matthew's pants. Then he slowly pulled down the
zipper. Matthew knew he was supposed to stop him but he couldn't do it. He
just sat there and let it happen.  Jordan started rubbing Matthew's hard
boner through his bright red briefs.  Matthew started squirming. It was
feeling so good. But he shouldn't let Jordan do it. But he couldn't stop
him. It felt too good.

Jordan kept rubbing Matthew's hard dick through his briefs. Then he started
tugging at his pants, and Matthew lifted his butt so Jordan could pull them
off. Now Matthew was sitting in his shirt and briefs and socks while Jordan
kept rubbing him and feeling up his balls. Then Jordan slid his hand inside
Matthew's waistband and down to his little puppy boner, which wasn't even 2
inches, but hard as rock. Matthew couldn't believe what he was feeling,
what Jordan was doing. It was the first time he ever even really thought of
anything sexual let alone doing anything. And Jordan was close to puberty
and already feeling his hormones. Jordan thought about sex a lot, not only
what he wanted to do, but also the things that he did and the things that
happened to him. He played with Matthew's dick and balls, then started
sliding down his undies.

Matthew lifted his hips again. He didn't even know why or care anymore. He
just wanted it to keep going on. He was wearing just a shirt and socks
now. Jordan pulled off the little boy's shirt.  He played more with
Matthew's dick, then stood up and started undressing himself. Matthew's
eyes were glued to the older boy as he pulled off his shirt, unbuckled his
belt, opened his pants and unzipped, then pulled his pants down, his undies
tented out. Matthew's eyes bugged out when Jordan pulled down his briefs
and his almost 4" dick popped up. Jordan knew what he wanted now. He looked
at the cute, skinny, naked 11 year old boy with the beautiful little puppy
boner, went to his dresser and got out some Vaseline.

Matthew was shaking. He had an idea of what was going to happen. He wanted
to run but couldn't.

"It's okay Matthew. It's okay. This will be good. It won't hurt. You'll
like it. I love you."

Jordan started rubbing the Vaseline over Matthew's butt, fingering his
hole. Matthew moaned, it felt good, better than he thought. Then Jordan
rubbed it over his hard cock, rubbing it in, making it feel good. He looked
at Matthew's smooth round butt. All he knew now was he wanted it. He wanted
to be inside it. He wanted it knowing it would be tight and warm.

He got Matthew face down on the bed, a pillow under him, his white bubble
butt sticking up at him. He pushed his hard rod up against Matthew's virgin
hole, then pushed it in. Matthew cried out, then started crying a little.

"Please stop, Jordan, it hurts."

"It will stop. It will be ok. I promise. It will be ok. I love you." He
started humping Matthew's butt. It felt so good. Matthew moaned. For him it
hurt. He didn't like this. He wanted to get back to his cabin.

Jordan was in a rhythm, lost in what he was doing. Lost in thinking about
the "StarArk" when he was 9. Remembering Chief Engineer Nelson. His father
was the Second Engineer, one rank behind the Chief Engineer. He loved
hugging Jordan when he saw him, and Jordan loved his hugs. He remembered
going to the Chief's cabin, the Chief undressing him, playing with him,
making him feel good. He remembered the Chief's hairy body and how he
didn't like it. He remembered the Chief making him suck his huge hard hairy
dick, and how he would shoot so much cum into his mouth.

And most of all he remembered the Chief sticking it in his butt and how
much it hurt. And through all of it telling him to never tell his
dad. Telling Jordan that if he did everything the Chief asked him to, his
dad would become a Chief Engineer. But if he didn't, then he would see that
his dad never would. He remembered the Chief telling him what a good boy he
was and how much he loved him, and how he would do anything the Chief said,
just like now Matthew would end up doing anything he told him to. He
remembered how it hurt sometimes, and remembered all the cum he swallowed,
and when he was 10 his dad became a Chief Engineer and he knew somehow that
what he did for Chief Nelson helped. Chief Nelson had loved him.

Matthew's moans brought his mind back, that and the feeling building up
inside him as he fucked the cute boy underneath him. He felt everything
welling up inside him, his body shook, his dick felt like it would explode,
and he jammed it hard into Matthew's butt and had the hardest dry cum he
ever had in his life. His whole body felt weak, and he slipped out of
Matthew's butt and fell on the bed.

Matthew lay on his stomach, his dick soft, a few tears in his eyes. Jordan
caught his breath. "God that was awesome. You're great, Matthew. I love
you."

"It hurt. It was all feeling good and it hurt when you did that."

Jordan leaned over Matthew and talked into his ear. "You have to do what I
say, or everybody is going to find out you like taking it up the butt. And
they won't like you.  But I will never tell if you are good. Your secret is
safe with me."

"I don't like it," Matthew said. "You made me."

"No. You liked it. You wanted it. And it's okay. We'll do it again and
nobody will ever know. I love you Matthew. I won't ever hurt you." He
kissed Matthew's cheek, rubbed away the little tear, just like the Chief
did for him. "I love you." He turned Matthew over on his back, took is
puppy cocklet in his hand and made it hard. He started stroking it and even
though Matthew didn't want it to, it got hard. And it started feeling good
again. Jordan rubbed it between two fingers because it was so small, and
Matthew started moaning again. It didn't take long until his back arched
and he shook and he begged Jordan to stop because something very strange
was happening and then he shook harder and had his first orgasm ever. He
fell flat on the bed breathing hard.

"What happened?" he finally asked.

"You had a cum," Jordan explained, "an orgasm. Felt good huh?"

"Yeah," Matthew admitted.

"I will make it good for you. And you for me. Just do what I tell you and
it will be good for you and me. And nobody will find out what you liked
doing."

Matthew was confused about what Jordan was saying but he knew he wouldn't
tell about what happened. He liked some if it but not what happened in his
butt. It hurt and was sore and he didn't like it. He didn't like it when
Jordan said he liked taking it up the butt.

The boys got dressed and Jordan walked Matthew back to his own cabin.
Matthew decided to keep all of this to himself.

++++++++++++++++++++++++

Travis, Ryan, Mike, and Alex were sitting in Ryan's room talking. Ryan and
Travis were sitting on Ryan's bed while Mike and Alex were sitting on
Jeremy's.

"Somebody has to run against Robert Charles," Alex said. "Somebody who can
win."

"Who?" Ryan asked.

"Let's talk about that. It shouldn't be that hard to beat him. He's an
asshole," Alex said.

"We've all studied history," Mike said. "We know that assholes win
elections."

"Then let's figure out who can beat the asshole," Alex said. "First, we can
eliminate Lisa. She has the hots for Robert Charles. As for the other
girls, they all strike me as too ditzy to ever want to run. They would
rather giggle and talk about boys than do anything, at least Felicia and
Carmen. Michelle doesn't say anything to anybody. So that leaves out the
girls."

"So do we sit here and run through all the boys?" Mike asked.

"Not yet. Let's talk about how many votes we think Robert Charles will get
first. I'm talking about right now. He has the four girls and
himself. That's five votes. He needs nine to win. Jordan is tight with
him. That's six."

"And Matthew follows Jordan," Travis said.

"Yeah, but we don't know yet which class he will be in. But if he stays in
the upper group then that is 7. If whoever runs is too close to Mike, then
Jeremy and maybe Braden will vote for Robert Charles. And that is nine
votes to eight. We lose. What we need is somebody a couple of girls will go
for, or somebody Jeremy trusts."

"I can work on Jeremy," Ryan said.

"Now for who runs. Start with you Mike. I think you would be good. But you
have that thing with Ryan on Mars hanging over you. Plus bad blood is
brewing between you and Robert Charles. That's going to turn off the girls
totally. They all seem to have a thing for Robert Charles.  They are acting
like girls, of course." Alex was on a roll. "Ryan and Travis are both too
quiet.  The girls will want somebody with a little more pizzaz. I think you
both would be good. I just don't think you can win."

Travis was a little hurt, but he didn't say anything. Ryan kind of agreed
and didn't say anything.

Alex went on. "Stevie is too young to stand up to Robert Charles. Jordan is
getting close to Robert Charles, and we don't like him either, anyway. Jim
is too new. He missed the bullshit at the start of this trip. And we all
don't know him that well yet. Scooter is a good candidate. He is pretty
friendly to everybody and doesn't seem to want to fight. But that is a
problem. You need to want to fight some, and I don't mean fists Mike, to
win this. Douglas has experience but he doesn't seem interested at all. He
doesn't even like being with us it seems. So that leaves nobody to run."

"Don't write off Douglas," Mike said. "He stepped in pretty good with me
and Ry."

"And he helped me with a .....problem," said Travis, who looked quickly at
Ryan. Ryan saw the quick look but didn't know what to make of it. All he
knew was he wanted to spend a lot of time looking at Travis.

"You left out somebody pretty important," Mike said.

"Who would that be?"

"You, Alex."

"Nonsense. I'm a musician. I'm not a leader."

"You are. Look how you ran this little meeting. Besides nobody holds
anything against you.  And even if you weren't, all you have to do is keep
things in line in the classroom sometimes.  There is nothing to it."

"Keeping Robert Charles in line is the thing. He will be trouble. And my
solution would be to kick the shit out of him. If somebody beats Robert
Charles it has to be somebody who is used to leading. Douglas is and we
have to persuade him to do it. Besides I can't win. I don't like girls at
all and they know it. If we need any of their votes, I don't know if I
could get them. Douglas has been elected before. I think he could get
them. And I know something he did for us very quietly, which I will tell
you about later."

Mike was chuckling. "What's so funny, Mike?" Ryan asked.

"I was imagining little skinny Alex kicking the shit out of Robert
Charles."

"It's not as funny as you think," Alex said. "Me and Stevie took martial
arts lessons after....something...something unfortunate happened to us. I
could do it."  Looking at the feisty look on Alex's face, none of them
doubted it.

They finally all agreed that they would try talking Douglas into running,
and if he refused Alex said he would consider it, but that there would be
bloodshed if he did. The four boys decided Douglas was going to be their
choice.

Alex, Mike, and Travis got up to leave the room. Ryan asked Travis if he
could stay a moment.  After the other two left Travis sat on Jeremy's bed.

"What's up?" he asked.

"I don't know. I just wanted to talk. I guess I was hoping we could be
really good friends during the trip. I really like you." Ryan's heart was
pounding. He was hoping Travis wouldn't take that in the wrong way. Or
maybe he was hoping he would.

"That would be cool," Travis said. "I like you too."

Ryan relaxed and smiled. Travis smile back. Ryan thought of Jeremy jacking
off on top of that bed and wished it was Travis doing it. The boys got up
and headed for the games room. It was time to talk to Douglas. But Ryan and
Travis had made the decision to be friends.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++

After dinner everybody in the upper class was in the games room except
Michelle. Alex and Travis were working on a meeting of most of the boys
together, telling them it was very important. Alex had even arranged a
meeting place. He had tried talking Marie into letting them have the spa on
deck 5 to themselves. There were three spas on the ship.  Usually they were
set aside for adults, but Douglas had decided on the tour to see if kids
could get a chance to use one of them sometimes. He had talked to the
recreation director who said it was okay for them to use a spa as long as
they arranged it ahead of time. Douglas was going to tell everybody in
class the next day, but Alex and Stevie had both been close enough to
overhear Douglas arranging it. It was something that convinced both of them
that Douglas would be a good choice for leader. He was doing something very
quietly for them on his own. But Marie said they couldn't get the spa until
tomorrow afternoon, that they needed more time to get it reserved. So Alex
got the ship's theater instead, but he did get the spa reserved for after
school tomorrow.

Robert Charles, Jordan, and Matthew weren't invited. The three of them and
the three girls in the games room noticed everyone leave. Robert Charles
and Jordan were upset because they had a pretty good idea what it was all
about. Matthew was disappointed that he wasn't invited. He was realizing
that while hanging out with Robert Charles and Jordan was getting him some
privileges it was also losing him friends. The girls watched them go and
shook their heads. Lisa was hanging onto Robert Charles, but the other two
girls wanted one of those boys and were sorry to see them leave.

Jordan walked over to Robert Charles. "I think they are working to run
somebody against you."

"I think so too. And they are going to be very fucking sorry if they do.
This is our ship Jordan and it looks like they need to be shown who is
running it."

Jordan shook his head. Robert and Charles and Jordan made the decision to
be sure that no matter what happened Robert Charles would be in charge
after next Wednesday.

The ten boys sat in the theater. Alex stood up to talk to them. He noticed
how the seating was arranged. Jim, Stevie, and Scooter sat together. So did
Travis and Ryan.  Braden and Jeremy were together. Mike sat by himself and
so did Douglas.

"The reason I wanted us to meet it to talk about the class leader. Some of
us don't want Robert Charles. We want somebody to run against him. Mike,
Travis, Ryan, and I met this afternoon just to talk about it. First we want
to know if anybody wants to volunteer."

Jeremy spoke up. "I'm not volunteering, but I don't see what is so bad
about Robert Charles.  He's a little pushy at times but he gets things
done." Braden nodded in agreement.

"Maybe he would be less pushy knowing that we all are willing to stand up
to him and run somebody against him," Mike said. "Besides some of us think
he was the one who slugged Ryan."

"And some of us don't," said Jeremy staring right at Mike. Mike glared back
at him.

"Any volunteers?" Alex asked again.

"What about you?" Braden asked. "You seem to running things right now."
Jeremy smiled at Braden. His little buddy was speaking up. He liked that.

"I'm not interested. I'm a singer and not a politician. I'm just doing this
because nobody else but Mike will speak up, and some of you still don't
believe Mike."

"So what did you guys decide behind our backs then?" Jeremy asked.

"We didn't decide anything. We just talked it over. It's up to the whole
group. We came up with a name of somebody I think we could all agree
on. He's already done some cool things for us.  And that somebody is
Douglas." Alex reminded them how he got Mike and Ryan talking, then told
them about the spa. Douglas blushed. He didn't know anybody knew about that
yet.

"I appreciate that you guys want me," Douglas said. "But I'm not running.
This is just a short trip and it doesn't really mean that much. Let Robert
Charles have his fun. He can't hurt any of us. And I'm just not interested
in getting involved."

Scooter spoke up. "I think Douglas would be a great choice. Maybe he should
think about it real hard overnight. Sleep on it. Then tell us in the
morning."

Travis and Ryan both spoke up in agreement. Finally, Douglas agreed to
sleep on it and tell them in class.

The meeting broke up. Braden headed back for his own cabin. The rest of the
boys headed for the games room. Scooter caught up to Douglas and touched
his arm.

"I think you should run, Douglas. I don't even think you should think about
it. I think you should just do it."

"Why do you care Scooter? I know how you feel about me."

Scooter looked at Douglas. He could feel a couple of tears coming up. He
knew exactly how he felt about Douglas, and he knew Douglas didn't feel
that way about him.  Maybe Jordan was right about Douglas and all his
feelings were wrong. He kept thinking there was something between them, he
felt it, and he was sure Douglas did too. Maybe it was time to tell Douglas
exactly how he felt instead of hiding it.

They got to the games room and Scooter led Douglas to the lounge section.
They sat on a couch.

"I'm going to tell you how I feel about you. I think you are special. I
think I liked you a lot when I first saw you. I think the night we spent
together was awesome and I want to do it again. I think we might only know
each other for two months on this trip but I want to be your very best
friend ever for those two months. And I think it's time for you to come out
of yourself and to quit feeling sorry for yourself and to start
living. I've seen what you're like when you act yourself.  And today is the
day for you to start doing that."

Douglas looked at Scooter. He blinked his eyes. He couldn't believe what he
was hearing.  Nobody except his parents had ever talked to him like that
before.

"But Jordan said...."

Scooter interrupted him. "I don't know what Jordan told you. But I know
what happened with us was wrong and it shouldn't have happened and it won't
happen again.  I...I...I want you, Douglas. If you will have me. Jordan
told me things about you too."

"What kind of things?" Scooter told him. Douglas looked at him with his
mouth open.

"Scooter, I swear I never said those things. Jordan was working to get
between us. He's a real butthead. This really pisses me off. Scooter, I
feel stuff for you too. I mean I want to be your friend. That night was
special for me too."

Scooter and Douglas looked at each other with what could only be called
love even if they didn't know it yet.

"Jordan and Robert Charles are tight, Scooter. If they are doing stuff like
that to us, then they are going to do it to others too. Robert Charles
can't be in charge. If nobody else wants to, then I'm going to run against
him. I've decided."

Scooter was so excited he kissed Douglas on the cheek. He pulled back all
red with embarrassment. Scooter and Douglas both looked around to see if
anybody noticed. They didn't think so. What they didn't see was the Jordan
had noticed everything.

"So, are we spending the night together again tomorrow, Scooter?"

"Yeahhhhhhhhhhh. I think we have things to talk about."

"So do I."

"When are you going to tell everybody?"

"Tomorrow. Before class."

Jordan walked over to Robert Charles and told him what he'd seen. Robert
Charles wasn't happy.  Jordan wasn't either. He was trying to split them,
but instead they suddenly seemed to be closer.  The only question now was
whether anybody was going to run against Robert Charles, and if so who?

The games room was closing. Scooter and Douglas were ready to walk back to
their cabins together. Robert Charles stopped Douglas on the way
out. Jordan stepped around and got next to Scooter.

"Somebody going to run against me?"

"You'll find out in the morning," Douglas said.

"Maybe I want to know now."

"There is nothing to say now. There might be in the morning." Douglas
stepped around him.  "Now if it's all the same to you I need to get some
sleep."

Robert Charles watched Douglas walk away. He made is decision. No matter
what, after Wednesday, he would be the class leader. No matter what.

Jordan was walking beside Scooter. "Is he gonna run?"

"You have to ask him."

"I saw what happened on the couch. If he's running he's just kissing up to
you to get a vote. He's nothing. Robert Charles is the leader here. Douglas
is going to use you then spit you out."

A few hours ago Scooter might have stopped and almost believed him. Instead
he turned to Jordan and said, "Douglas is my friend. I am his friend. And
don't you ever forget that."

By then Douglas had caught up to Scooter. He gave Jordan a look, and then
the two friends walked down the hall together. Scooter made his
decision. He could see right through Jordan.  Jordan would never get to him
again.

Jordan walked with Robert Charles. Matthew was walking behind them.

"I don't know if he is going to run," Jordan said.

"I have a feeling he is. And I can tell you this, if he does he will be
sorry. He will not win, and after he loses I can make life really hard for
him."

"And I know ways to help," Jordan said. Matthew listened to them talk not
knowing what to think.

In their minds Robert Charles and Jordan had made their decision. If there
was an election, it would be more than an election. It would be war.


Next:  Chapter 9   The Spa

Constructive comments are welcome.  E-mail me at TheHakaanen@Hotmail.com