Date: Sat, 4 Jun 2016 22:14:39 -0700
From: Douglas DD <thehakaanen@hotmail.com>
Subject: The Survivors (Revised) Chapter 20

CHAPTER 20
THE MOONDUSTER

This story contains sex between minor boys and teen-agers.  If such things
offend you, or you are not at least 18 years of age, then please don't read
on.  This story is not true, but who knows, maybe someday it will be.

Welcome back. Now the real adventure begins.

Please give to the Nifty Archive. Keep the stories flowing.

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

The "Moonduster" was still; only the HVAC, the boys' breathing, and the
almost imperceptible buzz of the instruments could be heard. Thirteen boys
sat in their seats looking out into space wondering what had just happened
and hoping any minute to see the "Starkeeper" appear.

Alex sat in the cockpit and looked at Robert Charles. "What the fuck did
you do that for?"

"We were going to be killed. You saw Douglas shutting the doors. There was
an explosion or something on the ship and in the corridor. I did what I had
to. I saved our lives."

"Bullshit, RC, you panicked and you know it."

Robert Charles looked down at himself. For a minute he was afraid he had
wet his pants, but he saw they were dry and he breathed easy again. He sure
felt like wetting them, and if anybody saw he had he would be totally
finished.

"I just saved your fucking life and you're saying I panicked?. Fuck you,
Alex. You're nothing but a big mouthed...."

Alex lunged at Robert Charles and knocked him up against the wall. Since
the shuttle had lower than 1.0 gravity Robert Charles hit the wall hard,
bumping some of the switches. All the lights except the emergency ones went
out and the life support fans went out. Alex had Robert Charles pinned
against the side control panel. Mike entered the cockpit and grabbed Alex,
pulling him off Robert Charles.

"Stop it! Not in here! You're gonna wreck this thing!" Mike shouted.

Alex and Robert Charles glared at each other. Mike had his arms wrapped
around Alex. Alex tried to pull free and get back at Robert Charles, who
was still stunned a little from hitting the wall.

"Alex! Robert Charles! It's going to have to wait." Alex and Robert Charles
fought to get their breath back. Finally Alex told Mike he was okay.

"I'm going to reset the switches, if you would kindly move out of the way."

Alex looked at the panel. Nothing was broken. Mike was right. This wasn't
the place for a fight. They were lucky they didn't damage anything. Alex
chewed himself out mentally for totally losing his cool. But he knew the
place and time for a fight would open up, and when it did he would be
ready. He reset the switches and the lights and fans came back on. He
breathed a sigh of relief; without life support running they would be dead
in a few hours.

"We all need to meet," Mike said. "Let's go into the main cabin."

The three of them came out of the cockpit. They saw worried looks on the
faces in front of them.  Mike went to his seat. Alex stayed in front along
with Robert Charles.  Robert Charles took over.

"It looks like we're in trouble. But we're not. We'll just stay here and
the 'Starkeeper' will come back to find us."

"How can it if it was destroyed like you said?" Alex asked. "I mean with
you saving our lives and all it must have blown up, right?"

"I never said that. All I know is something blew up and whatever was coming
down the corridor could have blown us up."

"Douglas shut the airlock. Nothing could come in."

"Look, let's not argue this, Alex. We stay here. We have a locator, and the
'Starkeeper' will come back to look for us."

"Who put you in charge?" Alex asked.

"Last I looked, I was still the elected leader."

"Only until we had a new vote."

"But we never did have one, did we?"

"Then maybe it's time to have one," Mike said.

"Between who?"

"Between you and Douglas, of course."

"No," Douglas said. "I don't want to. I'm not interested."

Scooter looked at him. "What? Why not? Douglas, what's wrong?"

"Nothing." Douglas got up out of his seat, bumped his head on the ceiling,
and floated back down. They were all going to have to get used to the lower
gravity on the shuttle. He walked towards the tail end and into the
galley. He shut the door, went to a table and sat down.

His thoughts were a jumble. One thing he was certain of was that this was
not a time to have a battle for leadership. They were stranded on a space
shuttle and drifting in space. He didn't see how Robert Charles could make
things any worse. Having fights like Alex and RC had just engaged in would
not help them at all. Right now Robert Charles projected leadership better
than Douglas did-his voice had dropped to high tenor while Douglas was
still waiting for his to break. Who wanted to be led by a soprano whose
voice had no authority?

Douglas had never been in space before. His leadership had consisted of
being class and student body president and captain of his basketball team
last year in seventh grade. He wondered how that qualified him to lead in
an emergency. He'd always been dependent on adults, and there certainly
were no adults for him to depend on here on the "Moonduster".

He remembered the entire affair with the spa and how that defeat had driven
him to tears. He was afraid that a showdown for leadership with Robert
Charles would take him to that point and beyond-he was almost there
already.

He heard the door open and saw Scooter enter the tiny galley.

"What's wrong my love?" Scooter asked.

Douglas was fighting off tears. "I can't do it, Scooter. You know it and I
know it."

"I do? All I know is we can't think of anybody else I want to have lead
us. You almost got Robert Charles kicked out of office. One more day and
you would have. You made more things happen by not being our class leader
than RC did being our leader. You've been a president, and a team captain,
and you were our real leader on the 'Starkeeper'. We all believe in you and
we all will follow you.  And don't forget that I love you."

"Scooter, I'm great when I have adults around. When I was school president,
I could lead because I had the principal and the teachers behind me. And
when I was a team captain, I had the coach behind me. And when things got
rough on the ship, I had Marie. I've never done it alone.  I don't know
how."

Scooter grabbed Douglas and hugged him tightly. He mentally sent his love
to him. He showed Douglas how his love had made him as happy as he could
ever be; how Douglas making love to him freed him from his greatest
fear. Now it was his turn to free Douglas from what he was afraid of.

"None of the rest of us know how to survive without adults either, even if
we keep saying we do. All I know is I don't want RC to be the leader."

"There's lots of guys who can do it, Scooter." Mike came into the
galley. "All of them could do it."

"Do what?" Mike asked.

"Douglas thinks he's not good enough to lead us."

"Bullshit," Mike said. "There is no one better."

"Alex."

"Alex is my lover and my best friend. But his temper rules him too much,
plus he doesn't have the experience you have."

"You could, Mike. You're the oldest. I mean you're almost sixteen and have
played sports. You've been like my right-hand man at times."

"I've never lead anybody. I play hard and I follow orders hard, but I don't
lead.  Douglas, we all respect and love you. We would follow you anywhere."

Douglas fought back tears. He told Mike what he told Scooter. "When RC got
the spa and I didn't...well...you saw how I handled that. With a load of
tears. Like now. Some fucking leader I am. Now, just leave me alone, okay?"

The two boys stood in the cramped galley feeling helpless. They knew
Douglas was the leader they wanted. They'd seen what he could do on the
"Starkeeper".  But how do they convince him? They needed him because he was
the best.

"Look, we're stuck out here in space totally lost with nowhere to go. RC
cannot fuck things up any more than they already are."

"If anybody could make the situation worse, RC is the one to do it," Mike
chuckled.

"Just go!" Douglas said. Scooter didn't move.  He closed his eyes and
pushed his thoughts at his soulmate.  I love you, Douglas. You can do it
Douglas. We all love you. We all know you can do it. Look inside
yourself. You're strong, and I am sending all of my strength to you to make
you stronger. There is nothing for you to be afraid of. Douglas didn't look
up. He dropped his head and let the tears flow. Scooter and Mike went back
into the cabin. Douglas sat there, his head down. He already missed his mom
and dad. He was so afraid he would never see them again. His father always
had his back when things got rough. With his dad gone he didn't know what
to do.

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

While the meeting was going on in the galley, Alex and Robert Charles
returned to the cockpit. They weren't agreeing on much of anything.

"Let's get one thing straight, RC, this is my cockpit."

"Bullshit. And quit calling me RC, Al. I'm older, I'm bigger, and I'm still
the elected leader."

"That doesn't make you a pilot."

"And, I have twice the flying hours you have."

"This time I call bullshit. I saw your simulator scores. You lied about
your hours. Your scores were good for somebody playing something like a
game, but not for somebody with flying experience. In fact, the scores are
still here in the cockpit if you want to see them. I think I kicked your
ass there, RC."

"I said, quit calling me RC, or I'll kick your ass, and I don't mean on a
computer. I'm fucking tired of your attitude, Alex. You are nothing but a
mouth."

Alex looked up at Robert Charles, who was 6 inches taller. "This is my
cockpit. I'm the pilot.  You want us to survive, you turn it over to
me. Because I'm better than you, and you know it"

"I'll tell you what, shrimp. You run the cockpit, and I'll take care of the
rest. You drive, I'll lead."

"You know we want Douglas to lead us."

"I don't see why. He's back somewhere crying his eyes out like a wuss. Put
the pressure on him and he folds like an accordion."

"Douglas knows how to handle people. When Douglas asks you to do something,
he makes you feel like you're important for doing it. You ask and you make
people feel like shit and then you have to threaten to get your way. He
leads, you bully."

"I get things done. He doesn't. And right now, to survive, we don't need
some pretty boy school president looking for a way to have a candy sale. We
need a real leader with some meanness and toughness. Somebody who was born
and trained to do this. And that somebody is me. And if I have to bully
people so we can survive, then that's how it will be."

"Well, you're mean all right." Alex stood toe to toe with Robert
Charles. Somehow to Robert Charles, even though Alex was six inches
shorter, he seemed to be of equal height. "Look, RC! I know how you and
Jordan bullied little Matthew.  And what's more, I know what you did to my
little brother so he could get what we wanted. Right now we gotta
survive. And whether we like it or not, you seem to be the only one willing
to make decisions. But I want you to know, I have a very long memory, and
the first chance I get I'm gonna knock you off your perch, and then I'm
going to kick your ass."

"Whatever!"

"RC, you really don't get it, so let me put it this way. If you touch
anybody on this ship against their will, or make them do anything like what
you did to Matthew and Stevie, I'll have you go out and change the oil,
without a space suit on."

"What if they want to do it?" Robert Charles said.

"Okay, let me put it so even a moron like you will understand. You touch
either Matthew or Stevie, I will kick your ass out of the air
lock....naked." Robert Charles swore Alex was standing eyeball to eyeball
with him. "Is that clear enough?"

Robert Charles had no doubt Alex meant every word. "Very clear," he
said. But, he thought, I have a very long memory too. And when we don't
need a pilot any more, your ass is mine.

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

Back in the cabin, Scooter was talking to Mike. "I don't understand what's
happened to Douglas.  I can't believe he's turning his back on us," Scooter
said.

"He isn't," Mike said. "He needs to get things sorted out, like we all
do. He was the closest to his parents of all of us I think, and my guess is
he misses them and is scared. I miss Brad. You miss your dad..." He heard
some sniffling. "Everybody misses somebody."

"But he turned me away." Scooter was near tears.

"No, he didn't. He needs you, Scooter. Go back to him now so it's just the
two of you.

But before he could get up, the cockpit door opened and Alex and Robert
Charles stepped out. "We want you to know that we decided some things,"
Robert Charles said. "Alex is going to be our pilot, if we ever decide to
leave this spot, which we won't. I know we won't, because I am going to
make the decisions.  And my decision is that the safest place for us is
right here until the 'Starkeeper' comes back for us."

"How do they get off doing that?" Mike whispered to Scooter.

"Somebody has to decide something, and I guess it won't be Douglas,"
Scooter replied.

"Now, I know everybody is scared and lonely. But we'll get out of this. The
first thing we have to do is eat. The food is downstairs in the storage
area. Let's bring up enough for today and tomorrow. Travis, you and Mike
can take care of that. You're both bigger guys." Robert Charles started
issuing directions that actually made sense, and the boys headed for the
ladder that went down to the storage deck.

A voice came from the back of the cabin. "Shouldn't we be rationing?" The
voice belonged to Douglas.

"No. Full helpings. We have plenty of food. There is food and water for
three months for 60 people.  There are only thirteen of us. You do the
math. Eat and drink what you want. If we don't get found here, it won't
matter much anyway."

Matthew heard that and his sniffling turned into totally bawling. Mike got
up and glared at Robert Charles. "A fine attitude, oh great leader." Of
course Robert Charles was saying what everybody had been silently
thinking. They all knew their problems would end if the "Starkeeper"
appeared, but they all had the sinking feeling that it was never going to
appear. He went back to Matthew's seat and hugged the young boy, letting
his little brother know everything was okay.

Then Mike headed to the hatch to the lower deck to join Travis in getting
food up to the galley. Scooter went back to the galley to see Douglas.

"You were awesome, my sweetness. Welcome back."

"I'm not back, Scooter. Robert Charles is the leader. Officially we elected
him. He's an asshole, but he does know how to run things, and he showed
that. But nobody can think of everything, especially the way things are
right now."

"You know how to run things, too."

"I needed to let him know we gotta ration food. And Scooter, we can't just
hang here. We have to move. If we're not found we need a place to go. Our
locator will bring any rescuers, but we can't just sit here. We're a year
away from AO IV using standard warp drive. We'll die for sure just sitting
here waiting to get rescued."

"Where do we go?"

"How do I know? You're the astronomer."

"I just like studying it, but I don't really know it. Not like Brandon
does."

"Well, you once told me that the stars talked to you. You and Brandon need
to start looking at those stars and see if any of them tell you
anything. If nothing else it will keep you busy. Each of you get some
helpers and get them busy, too."

Scooter kissed Douglas on the lips. "You are back. You're our
leader. You're my hero."

"Scooter, I'm not going to lead. I don't want to. I'm not good enough.  And
what we don't need is RC working against us. Right now, except for the
fight with Alex, he's actually doing a decent job. The fact that he and
Alex made up says a lot.

"As long as he thinks he's running the show we avoid a lot of trouble.
Alex has the right idea-make him believe we think his shit doesn't stink,
and he'll stand there telling people to go bring the food up when he is the
biggest guy here except for Mike and could help do it himself. Scooter, we
can't afford fights right now."

Scooter hugged Douglas tighter.

"Oh, and Scooter...thanks for sending me your love back there. I needed
it. And it helped me tons. I love you." He kissed Scooter's lips. "Now,
let's go help Travis and Mike.  After we eat, we'll get Brandon and talk
about star gazing."

Scooter felt the warm glow from his soulmate. He knew he would follow
Douglas anywhere and so would almost anybody else on the shuttle. Now they
just had to make Douglas believe that.

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

Mike fancied himself to be a decent cook, so he volunteered to take care of
preparing the food.

"This is a very difficult process that requires well-honed culinary
skills," he told the group of boys.

"Do you know what he just said?" Jeremy asked Warren.

"I think he said that any moron can put packaged food into a microwave."

Mike carefully laid out the packaged meals into the microwaves. In spite of
what Robert Charles had said, he was going to nuke only one meal per
person. The food packages could be microwaved or cooked in water; they were
made for survival.

"So you're having just one, too?" Alex asked with a smile.

"Hard to believe, isn't it?"

"Very." Mike had been noted for having thirds in the dining hall. Having
seconds was no big deal since almost everybody had seconds.

Robert Charles walked in. "Did you put two in for me? I'm hungry."

"You get just one like everybody else, RC. You're nobody special."

"Last time I looked, I was the leader here. And I said everybody could eat
as much as they wanted.  And don't call me RC, Mikey." Mike didn't mind
being called Mikey by RC, only because he loved making him mad by calling
him RC. Besides, he wasn't going to let Robert Charles have the pleasure of
making him mad.

"Well, RC (Robert Charles glared at him), just like Alex is in charge of
the cockpit, I'm in charge of the kitchen. If you don't like it, you can do
the cooking."

Robert Charles grunted and walked out of the galley. Mike and Alex smiled
at each other.

When dinner was ready everybody sat around the two tables and the counter
in the galley. With a full sixty people they would have to eat in shifts,
but with just thirteen of them there was room for everybody, even if the
seating was close. For all their problems, everybody was hungry, and more
than one boy wished they could have a second helping.  "After all Robert
Charles had said it was okay," Jeremy reminded Mike. He, Travis, and Jordan
were particularly peeved at Mike for cooking only one meal per person.

After dinner, Douglas and Scooter went around the cabin and checked on how
everybody was doing. Warren and Matthew had done a lot of crying earlier
and were somewhat morose. Matthew missed his mother and father, even if
they never seemed to pay any attention to him. Warren was close to his
father, and was missing him terribly. Both boys were worried that their
parents were dead.

 Jeremy and Ryan didn't have parents on board the "Starkeeper". Ryan would
just as soon not see his parents anyway, but Jeremy wanted to see his
badly. Brandon was missing his mother. Alex and Stevie weren't sure how
they felt since their lives had been changing so much anyway. Mike was
close to his brother Brad and was worried about him. Travis missed his
parents and was sure they were dead; he was as sad as anybody.

Jordan worshipped his father and was afraid the Engineering deck had been
demolished in the explosion, killing his father. He wanted a drink badly,
and there was nothing on the "Moonduster" except the bottle of vodka he had
in his backpack for sneak drinks in class. He decided to save it until he
got desperate.

Scooter missed his father terribly and was very worried about him. He was
sure it was the warp enhancer that caused whatever had happened to the
"Starkeeper". He knew if the Captain and the Chief Engineer had allowed his
father to operate it properly nothing would have happened.

Robert Charles wanted everybody to think he was tough and strong and didn't
need his dad, but that was not the case at all. Douglas missed his parents
as well. He was having a hard time dealing with not knowing their fate, or
his, too, for that matter.

The seats reclined and had foot rests. They were reasonably comfortable,
but nobody could imagine spending days sleeping in them. Travis mentioned
that there were survival sleeping bags on the lower deck and room to sleep
on the floor down there.  That sounded better than sleeping in the
seats. The boys climbed down the ladder one at a time. Even for the short
boys the low ceiling made it a tight fit in places. Scooter wondered how
hard it must be for an adult to maneuver around down there, especially with
having to deal with the lower gravity at the same time. The boys rolled the
sleeping bags out on the floor. Nobody was surprised when most of them were
shared by a partner. The first day on the "Moonduster" was ending.

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

The second day raced by without much happening. Most of the boys spent
their time sulking, and some of them cried. They missed their parents and
the "Starkeeper". They wondered how long it would be before they were
found, or if they ever would be found. They wanted to see the ship that had
been their home make a miraculous appearance.

Scooter and Brandon were prone on the lower deck. There were two telescopes
in the bow area on each side. They were swiveled, allowing the person using
the telescope to be able to look 45 degrees to the stern and swivel the
telescope so his vision covered an arc from there to looking straight
ahead. The only area blocked from the view was the stern.

"Why didn't somebody think about putting a telescope in the stern?" Brandon
wondered.

"Maybe because the rockets and the warp drive are there," Scooter
speculated.

The boys weren't sure what they were looking for, but they searched the
stars hoping to see something useful. Scooter picked Matthew as his
helper. Matthew took notes on what Scooter saw. Brandon had picked his
boyfriend Stevie to help them. They found nothing that could help them that
first day. They even switched sides hoping one boy would see something the
other one missed.  Both of them were feeling that this was a waste of time,
but it was something to do.

"We need to see if Alex can turn the 'Moonduster' tomorrow to give us some
different views," Brandon said.

"I'll talk to him-I'm sure he will," Scooter told him.

That night Scooter and Douglas were sharing a sleeping bag on the floor on
a narrow aisle between a row of boxes. There was barely room for the two of
them.

"Douglas."

"Yes, my love?"

"I just want to tell you that you've been doing awesome. I saw you talking
to everybody again and finding ways to keep people busy."

"It's what teachers call busy work, but it seems to be helping. Luckily we
found a few games in a box in an overhead bin."

"Like I said, you're doing awesome. You're the one keeping everybody from
going crazy. You're the best."

"I guess it helps. RC is the one making who is in charge and making the
decisions. Anybody can tell people to go waste their time looking at the
stars through telescopes and look to see what's in unmarked boxes, which is
all I'm doing. No pressure there."

"Douglas, remember during the warp storm when we went up to engineering?
You keeping so calm and kept putting the code into my head when I was so
scared? I mean we both knew that you sending me those numbers was
impossible, but you did it anyhow."

"I was scared too, Scooter. It was all I could do not to pee my pants I was
so scared."

"But you came through; you didn't cry or panic--you were calm and brave."

"That was different. I wasn't in charge, it was something that just
happened-I didn't have to think about it. I don't want to make the
decisions, Scooter. I'm afraid I'll make the wrong one and kill us all."

"Douglas, you would only make the best decisions. And you would ask us for
advice with the hard ones. That's why we all love and respect you. Right
now RC is getting his way because nobody cares what he decides because we
aren't going anywhere. But we all hate him, and when things get tough we
won't want to follow him. We all know he panicked when he launched us from
the 'Starkeeper'. I think panicking is way worse than crying once."

"Scooter, why do you want to follow somebody who isn't even sure of
himself?"

"Douglas, we're all kids. None of us is sure of himself. It's just when it
gets tough, you're the one we're going to be sure of."

Douglas lay on his back, his hands behind his head. Scooter was wrong, he
thought. He didn't have what it took. He was a good leader because adults
said he was, not because he really was.  Suddenly Scooter was on top of
him, kissing him. They kissed and cuddled and touched, and somewhere along
the line they were on top of the sleeping bag, Douglas's legs were raised
up, and for the first time he had another person inside him, as his
soulmate made sweet love to him. They wondered who if anybody knew what
they were doing in their little space, and right at that moment they didn't
really care if they did. When they finished they slept close and tight in
the narrow aisle, happy with their love for each other, and sad because of
where they were.

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

Matthew woke up in the dark on the galley floor screaming out. He was
squeezed between Alex and Mike. His brother and his brother's
boyfriend. They had made him feel so good and loved last night. Even so, he
had just had a nightmare. He was on the "Starkeeper" and it had exploded
and thrown him out into the vacuum of space. Alex hugged him close and
kissed the back of his neck.

"It's okay Matthew. We're here. We love you." Matthew felt Mike lightly
rubbing his bare belly. If he were a cat he would have started purring.  He
soon drifted back to sleep, happy that he had his big brother and his
friend to love him on both sides of him.

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

When morning of the third day arrived, Mike was up early getting breakfast
prepared. He loved being the cook, even if it only meant picking out what
was going to be served and putting it in the microwaves. But it gave him
something important to do. His little brother Matthew had become his
assistant. They worked together to make the galley a fun place.

Everybody was getting bored and Robert Charles and Douglas could only
figure out so much busy work.  Mike thought it was a good thing the two of
them were actually working together, although he saw it as more the result
of Douglas's diplomatic skills than anything Robert Charles was doing.

Mike was still fuming over his run-in with Robert Charles a bit earlier
when RC wanted to know who had screamed in the middle of the night waking
him up. Mike told the group leader that Matthew had had a nightmare. Robert
Charles wanted to chew Matthew out for being a cowardly little boy, but
thought the better of it after Mike told him that if he said anything to
Matthew he'd find his body parts strewn around the cargo deck. Mike
understood that the only reason everybody didn't rebel against RC was
Douglas's insistence that they were best off with the status quo. How much
of that was Douglas being prudent and how much of it was Douglas being
cowardly was something Mike wasn't sure of.

After breakfast the boys had a meeting where a couple of things were
decided. First, they decided they would all go naked. They had no fresh
clothes and no way to wash them, so being naked would save their clothes
from becoming too ripe when the time came that they would need
them. Second, because there were only thirteen of them, they could afford
to use some of their precious water to wash themselves. They could recycle
used water twice through before it had to be flushed out into space. The
toilets used chemicals which could be recycled. The recycled water would be
their wash water. Each boy could wash himself every other day. The boys
were happy with this, because not only were they beginning to smell
strongly, but so was the cabin. Even Warren had to admit being naked was
the only way to go.

After breakfast, Scooter and Brandon went down to look through the
telescopes again. Before they went down, Scooter had Alex moved the ship so
they could search a different area. Scooter gave Brandon a light peck on
the lips. Stevie watched, knowing that the old friends would always love
each other.  Brandon grinned at Stevie and kissed him.

"We are team, after all," Brandon told him.

Matthew, who had been observing the astronomy team, smiled widely when
Scooter reached over and kissed him. Matthew found a new way to help
Scooter that day, giving him a gentle blow job as he searched the stars for
something. Brandon got a similar servicing from Stevie. When they took a
break from watching, Scooter and Brandon returned the favor.

When Mike was getting lunch into the microwave, he was pleased when Douglas
gave him some pleasure, sucking him while he sat in a seat waiting for
lunch to cook.  Man, Mike thought, cooking sure is a tough job.

Even Jordan got some pleasure, getting and giving a BJ to Robert Charles in
the cockpit. They were doing it in a tight space, but it worked. The boys
were finding that dealing with their sexual tensions helped to relieve many
of the other stresses they were feeling.

By the next day, the boys were all pretty willing to leave their lovers to
comfort somebody in the daytime. They were all naked, horny boys after
all. But at night they slept with their lovers, with Alex and Mike having
little Matthew squeeze in between them as they slept on top of their
sleeping bags with a second bag draped over them for comfort.

Matthew was happy when on the fourth night he was invited to sleep with
Scooter and Douglas so Mike and Alex could have some alone time. He liked
sleeping with Douglas and Scooter who treated him with as much love and
sweetness as Alex and Mike did. Stevie and Alex found time to make love as
well.

On the seventh day Jordan couldn't stand it any more. He had to sneak a
drink-he'd limit himself to just one swallow so nobody would know. He took
his backpack down to the lower deck, got out his bottle and took a
swallow. It felt so warm going down that he took another one. That was
better, he thought. Just one more, to get a little buzz, then he would put
the bottle away. He guzzled down a big swallow, the numbness of the alcohol
hitting him. One more wouldn't hurt, and he'd still have plenty left. He
could already feel it hit his head as the alcohol went through his little
body fast. That felt so good he had to have one more guzzle before putting
the bottle away. He put the bottle up to his lips and swallowed again.

Nobody knew what had happened until Travis and Ryan went down to bring up
food. That was when they saw Jordan passed out, with a half-empty bottle of
vodka next to him, lying in his own vomit. Ryan clambered up the ladder and
quickly got help. Douglas and Mike came down and cleaned him up, dumped the
rest of the bottle down the sink, and put him into a sleeping bag. Robert
Charles came down, shook his head, and said he would watch Jordan.

"I wish you hadn't dumped the rest of the bottle out, because I sure could
use it right now," Robert Charles laughed.

Mike and Douglas were certain that he wasn't joking.

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

It was the morning of their eighth day sitting in space. They were
beginning to realize that nobody was going to come back to find them. If
they had, their locator beacon would've led them right to them. But they
also knew that space was big, that the "Starkeeper" could have come back
but had been too far away to receive the signal. Or it could be the
"Starkeeper" was destroyed, in which case nobody would ever find them.

While the crying had stopped for a few days, each boy had his moment of
feeling depressed. Douglas knew that as the situation became increasingly
hopeless it would become harder for them to hold themselves
together. Jordan's getting drunk was an indication of that, as was a near
total breakdown by Warren just before lunch on the eighth day.

"We can't stay here forever," Mike said as he, Alex, Douglas, and Robert
Charles met in the cargo bay. "Even if we move they can still follow the
beacon and find us once they find the signal. I think moving the ship will
at least have everybody thinking we're trying something. Standing still
like this is driving everybody up the wall."

"Where are we going to go?" Robert Charles asked. "Our so-called
astronomers haven't found shit and they won't find shit. You want to pick a
direction? Get one at random? Face it, we have no place to go. We are all
going to die on this fucking ship."

"Don't get too optimistic, RC," Alex said. "Why don't you go up the ladder
to the cabin and tell little Matthew he is dead. Look at your friend
Jordan. He's twelve. Tell him there is nothing you can do but sit
here. Some leader you are. You lead by sitting on your fat ass."

Robert Charles got up off of the floor, ready to slug Alex. Alex glared at
him and he wisely backed down. It still wasn't the time for a showdown.

Just then the intercom buzzed. It was Brandon. He had finished a search and
was looking at his calculations. "Alex, can you turn the ship five degrees
down, please?"

"Will do." Alex went up into the cockpit, punched some buttons, and
listened to two of the small side thrusters start. He punched in a number
and saw the stars move in the front view screen.  He looked at a couple of
gauges and, after the ship turned its five degrees, he fired the other
thrusters to stop the turn. The ship was once again at a dead stop. He shut
both rockets down and went back into the cabin. Just that brief movement of
the ship cheered some of the boys up-at least something was happening.

Scooter and Brandon looked at some new stars. They all looked so much alike
and they still didn't know what they were looking for. Today, Douglas was
helping Scooter and Ryan was helping Brandon. They'd take notes, make
calculations, and then go to the cockpit and enter numbers into the
computer. After an hour of searching, the boys were ready to give up and
have the shuttle moved again. It was then that Brandon thought he saw
something interesting. He looked again.

"Scooter, come look at this."

"What?"

"Just come here and look."

Scooter crawled across the cramped space. He looked through Brandon's
telescope. "What am I looking for?"

"Do you remember seeing pictures of the sun, what it looked like from the
edge of the solar system?"

"Yeah, sure, so....." Then Scooter saw it. A star a little larger than the
others. Almost the same size and brightness as the pictures of the sun. And
there was more. He saw a couple of bright objects to the side. Could they
be planets?

"What is it?" Douglas asked.

"I'm not sure," Brandon said, "but I think we just found a place to fly
to."

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

"No way, we stay right here!" Robert Charles said for the tenth
time. "Nobody will ever find us if we travel too far."

"You still don't get it, do you?," Alex grumbled. "The 'Starkeeper' can
follow the locator. It's not like we're going to be traveling a few light
years away, which would make a difference. That stupid star was right in
front of our noses all the time."

"Yeah, but the radio isn't that strong. Tell them, Jordan."

"Robert Charles is right that somebody trying to find us might lose the
signal, but he isn't right that they would never be able to find us,"
Jordan told them. Jordan was in his element. He was familiar with how
ships' systems worked. But Jordan was also feeling miserable. He wanted a
drink so badly and was upset he'd had too much a couple of days ago which
forced Mike to pour out all of his precious vodka. "Yes, the 'Starkeeper'
can trail us if we leave this spot, but the signal isn't all that strong
and could be easy to lose, especially if we move close to a star.  I vote
we stay here."

"We've been here over a week. I haven't seen anybody yet," Mike said.

"Look," Robert Charles said. "Let's say the so-called astronomers are
right, and we don't know that they are. That could be a big star light
years away instead of a small one close up.

"The computer says it's close to us," Scooter pointed out," less than a
light year away."

Robert Charles ignored him. "But even if they are right, the odds are there
is no Earth-sized planet orbiting it. And if even if there was, a planet
with a livable atmosphere has never been found.  We've had to create the
atmosphere on every planet we've ever settled. And we're dozens of light
years away from any colony we've ever made. What do you think the odds are
of us finding a place to land - if we could land - since Alex has never
landed a shuttle?"

"Hmmmmmmm...about a billion to one I suppose," Douglas said.

"Well, for once we agree on something," Robert Charles said. Well, we agree
you're a total wuss, he thought to himself. Even you know that about
yourself, Douglas the fearful leader.

"And the odds of us finding a safe place by staying here are zero," Douglas
added. "I like a billion to one better. It's time for us to move."

"Well, since this isn't a democracy, we stay."

"Oh, but you're wrong, Robert Charles. This is our lives you're talking
about. And in case you haven't forgotten, you're not our boss. So don't
pretend to be. Remember what Mr.  Benson said."

"He isn't here, Dougie. And you can remember that." Robert Charles had
pretty much been quiet for a week. He and Douglas had been successfully
working in tandem to keep the boys occupied.  But now his old self was
showing again-he was ready to run the show.

Douglas sat quietly in his seat. Here he was using the name of an adult to
back him up when there were no adults here to bail him out. He was more
certain than ever that he wasn't cut out to lead the "Starkeeper" boys
through this ordeal.  He needed to remember that Robert Charles was the one
with the power now, whether he liked it or not. What Douglas managed to
deny in his mind was that Robert Charles wielded what power he had because
Douglas had ceded it to him.

"I'm with Douglas," Alex said. "I call for a vote. I don't want to rot and
die in this spot. If I'm gonna die, I want to die fighting."

"I'm with Alex," Mike said.

"I don't want to die sitting here," Warren put in, tears running down his
cheek. That clinched it with everybody, since Warren usually never said
anything in a group meeting.

All of the boys except Jordan started to chant, "Vote! Vote! Vote! Vote!"
Robert Charles was smart enough to know his hold on leadership was tenuous
at best and it was time to back down.  The vote was oral and it was
quick. Everybody voted to head for the star Brandon and Scooter had
found-everybody but Jordan and Jeremy, that is.

An hour later, Alex and Robert Charles finished going through their
pre-flight checklist. So far Alex had only fired the retrorockets, now he
was going to fire the huge Centron Interplanetary rockets to move them fast
enough to engage the warp drive.  Brandon and Scooter, with the help of
Jordan, calculated that it would take three days using a combination of the
rockets and the warp drive to reach the star's potential solar
system. Jordan may not have voted for moving the "Moonduster", but he also
understood that if they were going to move the shuttle to the solar system
he knew enough to make the trip better for everybody, including himself.

Robert Charles and Alex finished their pre-flight check with everything
being a go. Alex quietly thanked First Officer Benson for taking the time
to teach them something he thought they would never have to use. Robert
Charles started counting down. When he got to three, Alex flipped a
switch. When he got to zero, Alex pushed the ignition button, and the big
rockets fired, pushing everybody back into their seats.

As the shuttle accelerated he and Robert Charles commenced with a warp
drive countdown.  When the shuttle reached the desired speed, Alex cut the
rockets. In space their inertia would keep them going at the same
speed. When they finished the pre-warp check, Alex told everybody they were
heading into warp and he engaged the warp drive. From here they would
follow the path Scooter and Brandon mapped out. In three days they would
start to learn if they had any chance of surviving.

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

Douglas was napping in a reclining seat. Warren came and sat next to him
and waited for him to wake up. When he did, Warren talked to him about the
time they picked the cards in Alex's room so they could mess around with a
new partner. He asked Douglas if he wanted to do something with him. Warren
still had his crush on Douglas.

"We could go downstairs, and, well...you know," Warren said.

"Warren, Scooter and I have a deal. I think it's the same as a lot of guys
right now. We need to help each other in any way we can. But making love is
for my lover only.  You want us to suck each other off, I'm cool with it,
but that's as far as it goes."

That was all Warren needed to know. He and Douglas went down to the cargo
deck. They wasted no time as Warren got between his legs, watching Douglas
get hard as he licked his cock. He slowly slid Douglas's hardness into his
mouth, and started sucking him.  Douglas leaned back, thinking of how
Jeremy had helped this quiet little sad boy become so much happier and
alive. Then he got lost in the sensations being produced by Warren's eager
mouth. They didn't even notice Ryan, Brandon, or Stevie go by as they
enjoyed each other. Douglas arched his back and shot his thin boyish cum
into Warren's mouth..

Then they changed places, and Douglas gave Warren an expert blow job,
teasing and licking and sucking him until he came wildly into Douglas's
mouth.

Warren got up to leave, and smiled at the boy he had such a crush on. "If
it wasn't for Scooter, I'd be your boyfriend." Then he blushed, realizing
what he said was stupid.

"Warren. You can always be my friend and my brother," Douglas smiled.

Warren smiled back. "My brother. I love you, my brother. I'll follow you
anywhere." He leaned over, kissed Douglas's cheek and then walked up the
aisle.

Warren and Douglas weren't the only ones to take in somebody's love as they
raced towards the star ahead of them. Travis and Mike. Alex and
Scooter. Matthew and Stevie. Those were just a few pairings during the
day. And at night each boy slept with his partner. Matthew shared bags with
Alex and Mike the first night, Scooter and Douglas the second night, and
Ryan and Travis the third. Robert Charles and Jordan asked Matthew if he
wanted to sleep with them, but he refused, and Robert Charles avoided a
trip through the airlock by not pushing it.

Two days into their journey they reached the time and place that Jordan,
Scooter, and Brandon had calculated as the place to drop the "Moonduster"
out of warp. They knew this was a weak point in their plan since none of
them had the astronavigation skills to calculate a precise time or place to
leave warp. They understood a fraction of the complex calculations in the
flight manual. But, between Scooter and Brandon's math skills and Jordan's
systems knowledge, they found themselves surprisingly close to their
target.

Scooter and Brandon manned the telescopes and calculated that they were as
far from the unknown star as the orbit of Saturn was from Sol.

"It's going to take us an extra couple of days," Brandon said. "But we
wanted to be too far away rather than too close when we left warp."
Everybody knew that going in and out of warp close to a star could be
fatally dangerous.

The star took up more and more of the view screen as they approached it. By
the morning of the third day it was the size of their own sun.

They had one minor emergency on the fourth day which started to gain
significance. An alarm had gone off on the third night.  Alex went sleepily
to the cockpit to shut it off and check on the cause. The computer readout
said there had been a meteor strike, but it apparently had not penetrated
the hull since they weren't losing any air or pressure. Alex shut off the
alarm and went back to his sleeping bag.

When they awoke that morning, the boys knew it was time to start searching
for the planet they may have seen through the telescopes. As Scooter and
Brandon peered through the telescopes set to a much lower power than they
had been using, Scooter noticed that Brandon was looking a little
depressed.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"My birthday was yesterday. Kind of a bad place to have it I guess. Nobody
knew about it, and I even forgot."

Scooter felt bad. He should have remembered that it was Brandon's birthday,
but was hard to keep track of the days. Brandon had turned fourteen
yesterday while lost in space and nobody knew it, even Brandon
himself. Scooter wondered where he would be when he turned fourteen, if
they even lived that long.

It took only a couple of hours to find a planet. Every boy was given a
chance to check it out through a telescope. The distance of its orbit from
its star was nearly the same as Earth's orbit was from the sun, and it was
close to Earth in size. The plant was now visible on the view screen,
slowly filling up the screen.  When "Moonduster" got close, the boys could
see that the planet wasn't like Earth at all. It was a desert planet like
Mars, and like all of the planets that had been colonized so far.

"There you have it," Robert Charles gloated. "Nothing, just like I
said. You want to land there?  I don't think so." Not for the first time
Alex wanted to throw Robert Charles out of the airlock. He was more
concerned with being right than with the safety of the boys he was
supposedly leading.

Scooter and Brandon were down in the little observatory they'd created in
the bow, checking out the planet. They buzzed Alex on the intercom. Alex
had just finished hitting the reverse thrusters on the rockets to stop the
"Moonduster" close to the planet. He wasn't yet ready to try putting the
shuttle into orbit.

"Alex, get Douglas and Robert Charles. We're coming up. We found something
interesting," Brandon said.

The five of them met in the galley.

"We have the readings on the atmosphere," Brandon said.

"What are they?" Robert Charles asked.

"About 78% nitrogen, and 21% oxygen, with carbon dioxide and other gasses
making up the rest," Brandon said.

"See, I told you we couldn't land there," Robert Charles said. "The
atmosphere is poison."

"I don't know where you went to school," Douglas said, "but that's just
about exactly the mix of Earth's atmosphere. We can breathe it."

The five boys looked at each other. Now the only question was, should they
land there? That was for the whole group to decide. This time Robert
Charles didn't argue about having a vote. It was looking more and more like
he wasn't running the show like he wanted to.

Before the vote Ryan had a question for the group. "If the planet has an
Earthlike atmosphere, doesn't that mean there should be life on it? Doesn't
it take life and oceans and things like that to create that kind of
atmosphere?" Nobody had an answer. Brandon and Scooter had found no sign of
life in their scans of the surface.

The vote was unanimous - land. Even Robert Charles had to concede that
everybody, including himself, were all sick of being cooped up. Even a
desert planet had to be better than being locked in space in the small
shuttle. They had food, water and the locator.  And maybe there was
something hidden on the surface that they couldn't see from space. There
might even be water somewhere. Whatever, they wanted to be on a planet
again-to walk on land instead of stumbling around in the low gravity of the
shuttle.

Alex was now genuinely worried. He'd been hoping their ordeal wouldn't come
to this. He looked at the simulator scores. The landing had to be just
right. Hit the atmosphere too steep, the ship burns to a crisp. Go in too
shallow and it bounces off the atmosphere and gets flung back into
space. Robert Charles had landed safely only once in ten tries. Alex looked
at his own scores. He had tried 35 landings. Twelve had been successful,
including his last five. On eight of them he had come in too steep and
burned up. Fifteen of them had been too shallow. On four those fifteen his
simulator shuttle had broken apart because the stress was too much for
it. It had survived the other eleven and could be flown around to try
again.

Alex knew that if he made a mistake, it would have to be coming in too
shallow rather than too steep. They had plenty of fuel for making extra
tries. As long as he didn't pull up too fast, they could circle around and
try again.

Alex looked down at the gauges. He would need Robert Charles as a copilot
again. How he wished somebody else had raised their hand back on the
"Starkeeper". Then something caught his eye.  He pointed it out to Robert
Charles.

"Look at the fuel gauge," Alex said.

"Shit. It's only at a half. We hardly used any fuel getting here-it should
be close to full. There has to be a leak someplace."

"That meteor must have hit the fuel tank or a fuel line. It was close to
full before we reached this planet's orbit. We're going to have to land
quickly if we're going to do it before the fuel leaks out." Alex tried
going through the manual to see if he could shut the fuel supply off. He
couldn't find what he wanted. His hands were shaking.

"We have space suits. We could go out and fix the leak."

"Get real, RC. Nobody here knows how to use a space suit or how to fix a
leak. We don't even know where to look. We have to land now."

"You're right," RC agreed as they watched the gauge drop down below the
half mark as the fuel continued to leak.

"Tell everybody to buckle in," Alex said. "I'm going to land this sucker."
He looked at the falling gauge. The attempted landing was going to be
different than he'd planned. He couldn't go in shallow and do it again if
he was off the mark. The leak would give him only one chance to make his
approach, and it would have to be near perfect.

Next: Chapter 21 A Long Way Down.

Comments are welcome.  E-mail me at TheHakaanen@Hotmail.com. Douglas DD