Date: Sat, 3 Aug 2019 11:49:06 -0400 (EDT) From: HENRY BROOKS Subject: The Bubble, short story (SciFi) Please donate to Nifty.org at http://donate.nifty.org/donate.html. Your donations will allow stories such as this to be published. The Bubble Preface In the year 2032, the United States finally elected a President, who appointed a cabinet, willing to admit that global warming was real, and it was happening. The awakening was not related to the temperature; the unbearable summer heat or the winter spikes of sub-zero temperatures. No, the realization of the danger facing the earth was found in the air mankind breathed. As the ice caps melted, horrific amounts of carbon dioxide were released into the atmosphere. In time, the oxygen level would be so dwarfed by the excess carbon dioxide, that the very air which had sustained humanity for many millennia would now be killing them, and almost all other species. The idea of manufacturing millions of gas masks was met with ridicule. A gas mask had a limited life. There weren't enough filters and charcoal on the planet to service all the gas masks needed. The masks would have to be removed to eat, and to have sex. And what would you do with newborn children? What would happen then? The United States was the first to come up with a plan, which other nations would follow, but only if the American experiment was a success. They would build huge, temperature controlled, glass bubbles. The bubbles would be infused with pure breathable earth atmosphere. The air would constantly be filtered, always assuring fresh air. The artificial air would also contain the good bacteria needed to sustain life and for which humans had developed immunities. Once The Bubble was functional, it would be filled with soil from the earth. Most of the acreage would be set aside for farming, and the remainder for housing and a school. Sanitation experts designed machines to turn human waste into fertilizer. Ten couples and twenty single men and women were chosen to occupy the experimental bubble, for a total population of forty healthy, young, fertile individuals. The scientists did not wish to pair the single individuals. They feared they might be incompatible. Instead they decided to leave the pairings to nature. After one year, if the experiment was successful, bubbles would be built all over the earth, as many as area space would allow. In fact, construction would begin on the moon and Mars as well. Anxious to avoid certain death by asphyxiation, millions volunteered for the experiment. Scientists, throughout the United States examined the reproductive capabilities of all the volunteers, and only the healthiest, most fertile young men and women were selected for the experiment. The scientists made one big mistake. Indeed, it was a monumental oversight. In selecting the subjects for the experiment they failed to take sexual orientation into account. At least two of the single men were closeted gays. They both felt that they were up to the job of making babies with the women, but if all else failed, the women could be artificially inseminated. They reasoned that once they were sealed in the bubble, it would be too dangerous, costly, and time consuming to bring them back and send in substitutes. Although both men used the same reckoning, each of them was unaware of the other's sexual preferences. Each believed that he was the only gay man in the habitat, now known as The Bubble. In the year 2051, the experiment was ready to begin. -1- The forty volunteers entered into a tunnel like structure. As soon as they were inside, the tunnel was sealed. Clean, purified air was infused into the tunnel. Then the structure was opened into The Bubble at the other end, and the men and women entered into their new home. Once inside The Bubble, the tunnel was resealed at the entrance. Their new homeland was stocked with everything the scientists believed they needed; houses, medical supplies, farm equipment, seeds for wheat and vegetables, etc. There was no scramble to choose a house. The housing had been preassigned. Each couple went to their designated two-bedroom bungalow. The other bungalows were occupied by two men and two women each. Unfortunately, the two gay men were assigned to different houses. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that it was fortunate that the two gay men did not get billeted in the same bungalow. Fortunate or unfortunate, that situation didn't last long. Within a week, every single male, except the two gay men, had coupled with a female Housing was rearranged and the final two bungalows were home to two men in one and two women in the other. Immediately, the two gay men began to desire each other. Their urges were so strong that each made a decision to ask one of the women to co-habitate with him as a means to assuage his longings. It was a vain attempt to avoid embarrassment. The women were happy to become the mate of either of these two men. They were the best looking of all the single men, and they were certainly the hunkiest. Within two weeks, the pairings that the scientists had hoped for were completed. Bryce was paired with Debbie, and Foster was paired with Ellie. Fearing discovery, neither man had ever masturbated in their joint home, so they were so sex starved they had no trouble servicing their women. All they had to do was to imagine they were fucking another man. That worked for a while, but after a few weeks, Bryce and Foster found themselves unable to function. The women didn't mind at all. Each suspected that they were already pregnant. Furthermore, the single men and women began to sleep around with each other for fun and variety. Even some of the married men and women joined the singles in sexual romps. The nights were filled with sex and fun, but the days were filled with hard work on the farm. It may have been, or it may not have been gaydar, but Bryce and Foster were attracted to each other. They usually worked it out so that they labored side by side in the fields. At the end of a back-breaking day the men used a communal shower, and the two men always managed to bathe side by side. One evening, after the shower, they were headed home. Bryce smiled at Foster. "Debbie is going over to Mac and Cheryl tonight," he said. "She told me she probably wouldn't come home. I think there's going to be some kind of orgy." "Aren't you going to join in?" Foster asked. "Nah, not interested." "That's really a coincidence," Foster said. "Ellie told me she was going over there also, and not to expect her home tonight. If it is an orgy, I sure hope Mac can handle all those women." "Maybe he's not the only guy," Bryce laughed. "Let's hang out together tonight," Foster said. "I'll make us dinner and we can have a guy's night out. I sure miss those days." "Me too. Did you have a favorite hangout on the outside?" Bryce asked, with a mischievous look on his face. Foster decided to go for broke. He knew that they were both from Los Angeles, so he named a gay bar in West Hollywood. He figured that if Bryce never heard of it, no harm done. But if he knew that it was a gay bar, things could get very interesting this evening. "That's fantastic," Bryce said. "I've spent many happy hours there myself." The two men smiled at each other and rushed into Foster's house which was the nearer of the two. Dinner was all but forgotten as they ran into the bedroom. They had no condoms because the experiment called for as much reproduction as possible, but Foster had plenty of lube around. He and Bryce stripped rapidly. They stood facing each other and fondling their cocks. Both men were purring softly. Bryce fell to his knees, intending to take Foster's stiff rod into his mouth. "No," Foster said. "Let's play sixty-nine so we can both enjoy each other." "And let yourself go," Bryce added. "We can fuck next time." The two gay men had forgotten how hard they could get when properly aroused. It didn't take long for each of them to cum guzzling down their partner's throat. After they settled down, they lay side by side kissing and fondling each other. "Thanks for the first decent orgasm I've had in months," Bryce said, "but I better go on home in case Debbie comes home early." "I hate for you to go," Foster added, "but I don't want to get caught and exiled back to a dying world." The men were unaware that cameras were hidden all over The Bubble. Not only cameras, but hidden equipment monitored the vital signs and physical activity of every man and woman in The Bubble. The scientists appointed a panel, who pondered long hours over what to do about the homosexuality in The Bubble. They did not wish to break the seals and substitute two straight men for the gay ones. It would be a disaster if The Bubble did not reseal properly, and tainted air was allowed to enter. Finally, one of the scientists, who was a closeted gay said, "I don't think we should do anything. Our planet has homosexuals all over. If we leave things alone, conditions in The Bubble will be more like conditions on the planet as they now exist." Luckily for Bryce and Foster, the panel agreed. The first batch of babies began to be born one after the other. Many of them had the same father. The scientists had not considered so much inbreeding. They erroneously believed that the couples would be monogamous. They didn't worry too much about the situation. The volunteers were all strong and healthy in mind and body. However, in the next generation, it was quite possible that half brothers and sisters might breed. Fortunately, nobody on the outside was very concerned about it, and didn't give it any thought. Eventually, the crossbreeding would be less and less of a concern. The scientists had little time to view the outcome of their daring experiment. A disaster of epic proportions occurred on the outside, and the species known as man disappeared from a barren earth. A volcano erupted in the middle of the largest, most solid of the remaining ice caps. In a few short days the ice melted rapidly, and dangerous amounts of carbon dioxide were spewed into the atmosphere. In less than two weeks no man or woman was still alive. Most of the other species inhabiting the planet perished also. The scientists conducting the experiment in The Bubble did not survive the catastrophe. Since the experiment was never completed, no other bubbles were built on earth. -2- The community living in The Bubble panicked. For days, they sent out radio messages attempting to contact any other living human beings. They received no responses, and reluctantly concluded that they were the last survivors on the planet. Once again, the scientists had been shortsighted, and therefore ruinous, in their selection of volunteers. They were chosen for health, beauty and fertility. There was not a doctor or an engineer among them. If the equipment broke down, who would repair it? Even if they could repair a mechanical problem, they were not provided with the materials or the tools to do the job. If a body needed healing, none of them had the training to mend it. At least they had first aid kits and other medical equipment should they be required. The lack of rational thinking on the part of the scientists became more and more evident. They had provided cows for fresh milk, but they did not provide bulls for reproduction. After the cows died, and the babies were weened, they would have no milk, and would have to survive on a strict vegetarian diet. If the scientists were still alive, they would most certainly have scrubbed the mission and gone back to the drawing board. Unfortunately, they didn't have enough time remaining to them to perfect the experiment. Luckily, none of the equipment sustaining The Bubble showed signs of breaking down for very many years, and for the most part the inhabitants remained healthy. By now, the community was well aware that Bryce and Foster were gay and that they were shacking up together. Their mates lived together in one house, but they spent most of their free time in other couple's homes. Marriage vows had long ago been abandoned, and true free love pervaded the commune. Things remained according to plan for about ten years. Without reliance on the outside world, it was necessary to draft some rules for survival. In order to avoid further pregnancies, the men agreed to withdraw before cumming. This was fine in theory, but not in practice. The edict was often broken, but for some reason, the women did not become pregnant. In fact, the women began to complain of being too tired to take care of the children and work on the farm also. Bryce's mate, Debbie, was the first to exhibit the symptoms. She began to lose weight rapidly, and she discovered a lump on her breast. She also had cancer brewing in her ovaries, but she didn't know that yet. The exceptionally pure air of the environment was speeding the growth of cancer cells. The disease was accelerating at a rate three times faster than it would have outside The Bubble, when things had been normal there. This was yet another problem that the scientists had not foreseen. By the fifteenth year of their residency within The Bubble, all the women (except the female children) died off as a result of breast and ovarian cancer. The female children met a similar tragedy after they matured. The men were devastated, and remained in deep mourning. Bryce and Foster hadn't bonded with any of the women, and they continued to fuck each other happily, and with complete abandon, almost every night. Debbie and Ellie had given each of them a son, and the teen-age boys now lived with them. There was a lot of sexual freedom in the house. Nudity was common and the boys often observed their dads making love. As a result, they believed that homosexuality was the norm, especially after all the women died off. The two young men, David and Ellis, had no trouble having sex together even though by nature, they were straight, and would have been so, outside The Bubble. About a year after the last of the females died, there was a knock at Bryce and Foster's door. The four inhabitants of the house were all naked, but that didn't bother them. The Bubble was all male, after all. One of the other men stood in the doorway. He had a teen age boy with him. It was his son. They were clad only in a pair of shorts. The temperature in The Bubble was always delightful and balmy, and the men wore shorts most of the time. Rain was produced artificially in pipes. It only rained at night, and when it rained, the temperature dropped a few degrees. "May we come in?" the man asked politely. Bryce and Foster were quite surprised. The other men never interacted socially with them, and by extension that applied to their sons as well. "Sure," David said. "Come on in." The fathers were too shocked to speak. "To what do we owe the pleasure," Bryce asked when he finally found his voice, but the question was definitely spoken sarcastically. Carl, the father, turned red and looked sheepish. "My son Rick and I are starved for sex. We're getting tired of jerking off. I, that is, we were hoping you could teach us how to make love to a man. For whatever time we all have left, it's something we need to do to make our final days more bearable. If nobody else is interested, we will make love with each other. It's not so far-fetched. We love each other." The four inhabitants of the house were shocked speechless. Finally, Ellis said, "Sure." Bryce smiled. "Why don't you come into our bedroom with us, Carl? Rick, why don't you go into David and Ellis's bedroom? We've taught them well." For the next two hours, the teachers were delighted to instruct the students in how to give head, rim, and fuck. They also described golden showers but did not demonstrate. At first Carl and Rick seemed grossed out and unwilling to continue, but as each one was treated to a trip around the world, they started to relax. By the time they were having their asses rimmed and their cocks sucked, they were fully relaxed and asking for more. Both fathers and sons completed the session by fucking, and placing Carl and Rick in the middle. When they were done, Bryce and Foster served some fruit with water. Bryce grew impatient because Rick and Carl didn't say anything about their experience. "Well?" Foster asked in exasperation. Carl spoke first. "It was very icky at first. I wanted to barf, but as you guys got me more and more aroused, I began to enjoy the experience. My orgasm was pretty intense, and I know it will get better." "Yeah," Rick said. "I feel the same way. During the next few weeks, Carl and Rick came over often to enjoy a social evening. After sometime had passed every male in the community was having sex with each other. Some of the sex was incest, but nobody gave it a second thought. Everyone enjoyed each other without restrictions. Bryce, Foster, and their sons, were now as much a part of the community as everyone else. In fact, they were sought after as sex partners, because they had the most experience. About five years after the last woman had passed away, the men began to have difficulty getting an erection, and if they got one, they couldn't maintain it. Anal sex became impossible. They found themselves unable to achieve orgasm by fellatio also. They were all suffering from prostate, liver, and pancreatic cancer. Once again the oxygen charged air was feeding the cancerous cells and there were no doctors, and no medications, to help them. Little by little they began to die. The sole survivor was in such pain from the cancer that he took his own life. The Bubble became as barren as the earth outside. The grand experiment had failed, basically because the scientists had been very shortsighted in providing fully for the needs of the volunteers, and because they had made the air too pure. Author's Note: I recently read in the newspaper that the carbon dioxide level in the atmosphere has risen 1% in the past year. This story may be fiction, but the newspaper report is real.