Date: Wed, 28 Jun 2000 14:46:35 EST
From: yvonneva@hotmail.com
Subject: Scout - Chapter 1

Scout - Chapter One

This is a fantasy story involving male to male relations.  If reading
stories like this is something you don't want to be doing, or it is illegal
where you are, I'd suggest you leave.  If not, then read on.

This is a fantasy and condoms are not used.  In the real world you should
always practice safe sex.

Neither this story nor any parts of it may be distributed
electronically or in any other manner without the express, written
consent of the author.

I would like feedback, both good or bad.  Please email me at
yvonneva@hotmail.com


<Chapter One - Encounter>

Time stood still.  Literally.  10 months elapsed in a comparative blink of
an eye.  Having found a problem it couldn't correct the ship activated the
cryogenics computer.  Deep sleep capsule one activated, almost instantly
rousing its occupant.

Jeremy Flask opened his eyes, disoriented for a moment as he tried to work
out where he was.  Then he remembered that he was on the scout vessel
"Katanna" sent to check out the planet that had been scanned in Orion's
Belt.  As he checked the sensors he realised that he'd been wakened 14 days
early.  The ship's Artificial Intelligence (AI) guidance system could
normally maneuver the ship around any unforseen obstacles.  To bring him
back 2 weeks early meant that something had come up that was beyond the AI's
capabilities.

As he started punching questions into the keyboard the Katanna rotated
slowly.  As he looked out through the portal his fingers froze on the
keyboard.  Pacing the Katanna was another ship.  It did not appear to be of
Earth design.


                   ***************

In 2017 the first successful "fasttrack" flight took place, covering the
distance to the edge of the solar system in a matter of hours.  Cryogenic
freezing cushioned the frail human body from the problems of immense
acceleration, allowing speeds that were not previously achievable.  This
first faster than light vessel opened the door to the opportunity to REALLY
explore space.  Thankfully the technology to instantaneously communicate
over interstellar distances had already been stumbled upon, so the signal
was almost instantaneous when the pilot awoke.  When the signal had been
received there was rejoicing.  Man could now fully explore its interstellar
neighbourhood.

Deep space scanners had already been developed that had allowed man a
tantalising glimpse outside of the solar system; finding planets beyond
number circling countless stars.  Despite all this, no sign of
extraterrestrial life was found.  With the creation of the fasttrack drive
it was finally possible to jump the gulf between star systems within a human
lifetime. The nearest stars were in fact accessible within 6 months.  If man
could find suitable worlds it could now expand.

In the 5 years since then there had been 17 major fasttrack missions.
Resources were failing on Earth and the other planets in the Sol planetary
system had been found to be surprisingly poor in necessary resources.
Colonies had been set up on two of the moons of Jupiter, as well as habitats
on Mars and Saturn.  Small fasttrack ships shuttled regularly between Earth
and these colonies.  No quicker form of transport had as yet been found, but
the cost in resources to send a colony ship out of the system meant that a
suitable planet had to first be found before a ship could depart.

To this end, scout ships were designed.  These two-man vessels were sent out
to planets that had been located in nearby star systems.  They were to check
out the planet and report back.  When a suitable planet was found a colony
ship would be sent, knowing that it was going to find a habitable or
adaptable planet at the end of its journey.

Over these 5 years the fasttrack drive had been refined, now allowing speeds
of around 30 times that of the first drive.  This meant that each mission
was sent further afield.  No suitable planet had yet been found but as the
speeds increased, systems that at first were not thought of as feasible were
included in the scouting missions.

The Katanna's was the latest mission, although by the time it arrived at its
destination there would have been 2 more.  The Katanna's destination was the
most likely planet yet found, the biggest hope for hosting a colony.  Jeremy
Flask was team leader, accompanied by Adrian Horden.  Between them they had
the knowledge to accurately judge whether OB2165 would be suitable.  They
were sent with high hopes for the outcome.


                   ***************

Jeremy looked closely at the ship that was tracking them.  It was an odd
shape, sort of difficult to define.  The edges seemed to blur, almost like
they were undulating.  It looked for all the world like the ship was
rippling it's way through space.

The ship wasn't small.  It dwarfed the Katanna probably 10 to 1 in all
dimensions.  The Katanna was about the size of a large aircraft with
oversized engines strapped to the back.  It sort of looked like a melding of
the old Concorde with the Space Shuttle.  Long and sleek, yet bulky in the
tail-end, the ring of fuel cylinders around the rockets marring the
otherwise sleek grace of its form.

This other ship was basically ovoid, a bit like a reptile egg but flattened
at each end.  It was greeny blue, shot through with other colours.  The
rippling effect meant it was hard to make out firm details as each time you
looked closely at it, the details shifted and reformed.  The whole effect
was a bit unsettling, tending to turn your stomach if you watched it too
long.

Jeremy realised all this quite rapidly and turned the ship's sensors towards
their strange companion.  The sensors drew a blank, not even recognising
that there was anything there to scan.  Jeremy quickly sent the sensors out
in all directions, looking for whatever had activated the cryogenic
controls.  If the sensors couldn't recognise the ship travelling beside
them, then it certainly wouldn't have woken him to deal with it.

As the sensor readout returned Jeremy realised that the star patterns around
him were not as they should be.  Somewhere along the line he'd been thrown
off course.  He wasn't a long way from his original destination, but far
enough away to be of concern.  The ship should have made any course
corrections automatically, meaning that something was wrong with the AI.  As
Jeremy tested the computer he found that it was functioning perfectly.  The
reason it had awakened him was that it had been trying to correct its course
without any success.  After numerous attempts at correction it had come to
the decision that it needed to wake the pilot to deal with the problem.

Looking out the window Jeremy could clearly see the problem as it was
coasting alongside.  Obviously it had pulled them off course, but whether
that was accidental or deliberate was unknown.  Jeremy found very high
levels of magnetic activity, so it was possible that the ship was naturally
attracting the Katanna, rather than having "captured" it. Rather than trying
to break away, Jeremy decided it would be prudent to continue along with the
ship.

He decided to wake Adrian in case he needed his knowledge and also to just
plain confim what he saw out the window.  Grim faced he tapped in the codes
to start the thawing process, thankful when there were muffled sounds of
movement from within deep sleep capsule two. As Adrian emerged he breathed
deeply and stretched in his skin-tight body suit, showing off his physique
to Jeremy as he did so.  Jeremy savoured the view, thankful as always that
this man was a part of his life.  As Adrian stepped forward and wrapped his
arms around Jeremy they kissed deeply, enjoying the feeling of the other's
body on their own.  As they broke their embrace Jeremy motioned to the
portal.

"We've got company."

Adrian's gasp confirmed what Jeremy had seen; proving that he wasn't
hallucinating.  Man was definitely not alone in the universe.


                   ***************

After the initial shock wore off and they had time to run some proper tests
on their trajectory, Jeremy and Adrian realised that they were entering the
star system adjacent to their original destination.  They used the scanners
to check the system and found that there was a planet on what would have
been the far side of the star from the Earth. Jeremy called up scan records
and found that the system they were entering was recorded as having no
planets, having been scanned three times in the past 2 years. Either the
planet was in a stationary orbit above the star, or it had a very slow
revolution around the primary.  Either way, it was currently out of sight of
the Earth and had been for the last two years.

Having worked out where they were going, Jeremy and Adrian tried to work out
whether they were being towed by the vessel alongside them, or whether they
had been picked up in its magnetic field.  As far as they could ascertain
they were trapped in the field, but there was no way of knowing whether this
field was itself a net or whether it was simply part of the ship and
happened to snare them.  They realised that a quick burst from the engines
wasn't going to help as the AI had tried that already. Thankfully there was
a full record of what the AI had done since it found it was off course.

In the beginning the old "Light Barrier" had indeed posed problems for the
prototype ships as the transition from "Normal" space to "Hyperspace" (The
name from the old Science Fiction stories had stuck when Light Speed was
finally achieved) posed problems that had not entirely been solved.  It was
found that the speed of light had to be broken at a certain acceleration.
If the acceleration was wrong then the ships either behaved like they'd hit
a solid wall, or twisted and distorted as they went through.

It was also found that when the ships exited Hyperspace they could not be
decelerating.  They had to match the speed of light and then cut the
engines, allowing themselves to naturally drop out of hyperspace.  If the
ship was decelerating then it "skipped" off the barrier like a flat rock
skips off surface of water.

There were high hopes for a new drive system that was being developed that
theoretically could get around a lot of these problems, but for now it just
meant that the acceleration was matched for entry to hyperspace and then
further acceleration was applied, and then when dropping out it was done
"naturally".  It was decided that the use of fuel to decelerate from the
speed of light was inefficient as it only took around a fortnight to
decelerate to a speed that would allow planetary orbit.

As far as Jeremy could work out the Katanna had slowed to lightspeed and
dropped out directly into the other ship's magnetic field.  The other ship
must have been at a similar speed but heading in a different direction.  The
magnetic field had effectively grappled the Katanna, dragging it along with
the ship.  The AI had noted the magnetic field but it had been unable to
escape.  After numerous attempts it had woken the crew to help.

Having worked this out Jeremy modified a couple of the sensors to produce a
three dimensional picture of the magnetic field surrounding the Katanna.
Once this was completed it was obvious where the ship was, as there was a
point of origin to their left.  It was also equally obvious that their
companion was not alone.  There was another similar field on the other side
of their companion and a larger source in front, forming an approximate
equilateral triangle between the 3 source points.  Obviously the Katanna had
been snared in the rear right ship's field and they had affectively been
surfing ever since.

While Jeremy had been creating the magnetic map, Adrian had been setting up
some external visuals.  They had originally not been regarded as necessary
for the AI as it was assumed that the sensors would be enough.  There were,
however, inactive "video" cameras on the hull of the Katanna for use if the
crew needed them.  Adrian brought these on line and started visually
scanning surrounding space.

Once Jeremy had located the other ships via the magnetic imaging Adrian was
able to increase magnification and make out the lead ship.  It was around
twice the size of the huge ship beside them, making it something in the
vicinity of 20 times their size in all dimensions.  It was also similar to
their companion in that it seemed to flow or ripple through space and was a
similar colour.  It, however, had a definite wedge shape, being much more
pointed at the front and wider at the back.  It had what appeared to be
engines at the back but no other recognisable details.  The engines were
more of a jet of gas, rather than looking like an engine.  The ship next to
them could have had the same except that they were too close to it to see
more than the closer side of the hull.

"Look," said Jeremy after they'd established what they were accompanying
"We're stuck in a gravity well.  Now it's difficult to get directly out of a
gravity well, but how about we move around it?  Surely we can get a bit
better look at what we're dealing with.  What do you reckon?"

"Sounds like a good idea.  I assume you're meaning angling the engines to
move us along at the same level.  Should be an area without too much
resistance.  If we work it righ we should be able to get a good look around
this whole ship.  Let's try it."

The quickly used the attitude adjustment jets to rotate the ship then
brought the engines online, nudging the ship "along" the magnetic field
rather than trying to break out of it.  They started to move slowly towards
the front of the vessel in an arc along the same level of magnetism.  They
sailed across the front of the vessel, realising that it was actually much
flatter than they had thought and far more like the lead ship.  It wasn't as
much of a wedge, but was far wider than it was high.  Came out looking like
a big flattened reptile egg.

They continued sailing across the front of the ship and started to arc down
toward the other ship that was next to it.  They moved along slowly until
they were about midway between the two ships.  Jeremy quickly fired a blast
of the jets to bring them to a halt.

Adrian looked questioningly at him.

"What you planning Bud?"

"I'm thinking like this.  There's 2 ships here with equal magnetic fields
right?"  He tapped away at the keyboard for a few moments and then
continued. "So technically they should cancel each other out.

"Now if I can just get us into the exact centre... like this," he said,
making minute changes to the Katanna's position with deft use of the
thrusters, "then we should be in a good position to blast out of here.
Here, look at the screen."

The screen lit up to show the magnetic fields of the surrounding three
ships.  There was also an icon that showed the position of the Katanna.  It
clearly showed that they were in an area where the two closer magnetic
fields tended to cancel each other out.

"If we punch straight up here," a line appeared on the screen vertical to
the two fields, "then we should be able to get out."

"Yeah, but should we?  I don't think these ships have actually seen us, or
they perceive us as no threat.  If we punch out of here are they going to
shoot us or hunt us down?  They might not realise there are other beings in
the universe either, so they might have just thought we were an asteroid or
something."

Adrian was obviously concerned as his voice carried a lot of emotion.

"How about we stay here and see where they're going.  If we have the ship at
an angle ready to run then we can do so at a moment's notice.  How's that?"

Jeremy mulled it over for a moment and then nodded.

"Good point.  Agreed."

They settled down and watched for a while, seeing no indication that the
ships had noticed their maneuvering, or at least no indication that they
cared.

After a while Adrian stretched and got up out of his seat.

"I'm glad about these scout ships having to take 2 weeks to slow down.
Meant that they had to put showers in.  I think I'm going to go clean up.
Always feel dirty after a bout of cryo.  Something about it just plain ain't
right.  Now don't you look while I'm in the shower?  You know how shy I am."

With a grin he left the cockpit.  Jeremy grinned in return, knowing that his
friend was anything but shy.  After a moment Jeremy turned to find Adrian
standing in the doorway, slowly removing his clothes. He'd already removed
his boots, so he watched as he stripped off his suit, revealing an extremely
good body underneath.

Jeremy licked his lips as he watched the show, watching as Adrians briefs
were removed revealing his plump uncut cock, which was now starting to rise
to the occasion.  Jeremy watched mesmerized as the cock continued to rise
until it stood in all its glory.  He trailed his eyes up the gorgeous body
until he reached Adrian's face.

"Wanna help me cure my shyness?" said Adrian with a distinctly suggestive
smile, "I need someone to scrub my... back!"

Jeremy wanted so badly to join him.  It had been ages since they'd had any
real privacy, knowing that there was no-one on the other side of the walls
to hear them.  Duty however won out.

"Sorry Bud.  Hold that thought.  We have unknown company outside and I don't
want to make first contact with man's first alien species while I'm
scrubbing your 'back'." He smiled wistfully "Believe me, I do want to join
you.  First chance we get I'm all yours."

Adrian nodded, realising that it was true.  It would be just plain idiotic
to leave the cockpit unmanned right now.

OK, I'll hold that thought for now.  But the first chance we get.  Ok?"

"You betcha Bud."

Jeremy hopped out of his seat and went to the doorway, drawing Adrian into a
full body hug.  As they started kissing Adrian started to grind his hips
slowly into Jeremy's crotch.  It took all Jeremy's willpower not to give in
there and then and accompany him to the shower, but he tore himself away and
went back to his seat.

"Sorry Bud.  Not right now."

"That's cool." said Adrian impishly "Can't blame a guy for trying now can
you?"

As he disappeared Jeremy sighed and went back to monitoring the controls,
wishing he was back there in the shower with Adrian.

Slowly the leviathans continued towards the uncharted planet, taking their
hitchhiker or prisoner with them.


<To be continued>

Well, what did everyone think of this?  Has potential?  Like it? Hate it?
(Either way.... Why?).  I'd like your feedback to work out whether I
continue this or not.

Please let me (Paul) know what you think at yvonneva@hotmail.com.