WACO’S
LUMMOX
By
Waddie Greywolf
Chapter
75
Now the great Bear and
Pleiades, where earth moves, are drawing up the clouds of human grief
breathing solemnity in the deep night. Who can decipher in storm
or starlight the written character of a friendly fate...as the sky
turns, the world for us to change? But if the horoscope's
bewildering, like a flashing turmoil of a shoal of herring, who can
turn skies back and begin again?*
Waco and Buskin
developed a habit while in college. They had Ms. Myra pick them
up to get home to the ranch as quickly as possible. When they
were ready for a break from school they didn’t want to have to wait for
a long ride to get home, but when it came time to return, they always
took the train. It gave them a chance to discuss their time
together to sort out their feelings and thoughts about things, and to
plan their next semester. Buskin used the ranch as a base to
travel to and from the boy’s school when he wanted to visit. Most
times Waco and several of his brothers, pups, and Ox would go with him
and they would have a great time. Sometimes they would take both
Ox and Droon with them. Buskin was seeing a lot of Droon every
time the men returned to the ranches. He began to talk openly
with Waco about his relationship with Droon. As the train rumbled
on Buskin brought up the subject.
“You never
ask about my relationship with Droon.” he said.
“Don’t have to,
I know about it.” Waco grinned.
“I don’t
understand. You mean because of your relationship with Ox?” he
asked.
“Yeah. I’m
in the same boat, brother. I was bonded to my big lummox when I’s
jes’ a kid, like you. I ain’t never shared it with you, but Ox,
or
Garron as I call him from time to time, had two other bonded male human
mates before me. He outlived both of them. My uncle Bron
is his human son by his cowboy mate by the name of Bronc. He has
two
daughter lummox by his human male mate, but they’re mated with male
lummox and live in the far North. Ox is over three hundred years
old. I didn’t choose him. He chose me, and I couldn’t be
happier about it, then or now. He will always be my first
mate. Trey knows it, but he ain’t worried as long as Ox and I
give him the son’s he wants, and we will. Besides, I do my
best to keep my warrior happy and satisfied. Trey is my
main sexual partner, jes’ like my dad will become your main sexual dad.”
“Have you and Ox
ever...?” Buskin didn’t finish.
“Of course we
have. Lots of times. Until I came of age he just sucked me
off. I was too small for him to penetrate. He still ain’t
fucked me, but I’ve sucked him off and fucked him a number of
times. We’ll be git’n around to him fuck’n me pert-damn
quick. I ain’t done it before, because I ain’t never wanted to
git pregnant. I know once I git that monster way up
inside me I won’t wanna’ stop until he impregnates me. He and I
done talked and we decided to have a son for Trey first, then a bairn
for him.
“What does
lummox come taste like?” Buskin grinned.
“Better’n
human’s or Visallian’s. Visallian’s is better’n human’s.
Lummoxs' is similar to their milk. It’s sweet with a slight salty
taste
to it, like someone added too much salt to the ice cream.” he smiled.
“You thinking on pleasuring yore’ big beast to bring him a little
comfort, cowboy?” Waco smiled.
“Yeah, I thought
I might like to try. He keeps insisting he’s gonna’ be my
husband.”
“He will be,
Star Dancer. Count on it. It was set up when you’s a
kid. When he took you home to meet his parents and you drank his
daddy’s milk, you became his. Ain’t a damn thing you can do about
it. Ain’t nowhere in the universe you can run to git away from
that big beast’s love. You’ll finally come to the conclusion you
don’t wanna’ run no ways. You won’t never find a love that strong
or true anywhere you look. Lummox love for a male human is
like a big black hole, once you’s caught in the event horizon there’s
no life line strong enough to pull you out of the vortex. You
might as well jes’ give up, sit back, relax, enjoy the ride and resign
yore’self to the idea you’re gonna’ have an eight foot tall, three to
five hundred pound giant fur-ball for a husband. Look on the
bright side. Long, cold winter nights you won’t never be
cold. Sleeping in a lummox’s arms is like sleeping next to a
warm, cozy fireplace. They can sense and adjust their body heat
for your optimum comfort.” Waco laughed, then continued,
“We wondered why
a lummox like Droon would be so interested in living among us and
finding
a male human mate. We didn’t know about you at the time.
Now we do. I was worried about ma’ dad. I was planning on
having him another son or maybe a daughter, but h’it ain’t real clear
how the close genetics might work between a biological father and
son. With you, he can have two or three sons or daughters by you
and Droon what will be almost be exact copies of him if he’s the sperm
donor. I plan to give him a couple of grand kids from me.
Son’s from Trey or bairns from Ox will also be his grand kids but they
won’t have as strong a genetic relationship to him. ‘At won’t
make my dad no never mind. He loves kids. The strongest
genetic relationship would be if I donate sperm to you and Droon, or he
becomes the direct sperm donor. We both can give him
grandchildren.”
“Wouldn’t a
lummox hurt me?”
“Do I hurt
you? Has dad ever hurt you?” Waco smiled.
“Lord, no, but
lummox are so much larger.” Buskin whinged.
“Ain’t much
larger
than a Visallian, and I do all right satisfying my mate. At least
he tells me so.” Waco grinned. To hear Ms. Myra tell it, my
ass has become a revolving door for Trey’s big horse cock. She’s
crude, but she’s accurate.” he laughed. “You should talk with
Warren Steele. He’s probably the most vocal and descriptive of
what sex is like with his lummox husband.”
“Do they have
sex a lot?” Buskin asked. Waco broke up laughing.
“Are you
kidding?” he laughed again, “Warren c'ain’t git enough of
Horse. They fuck once a day and three times on Sunday.
They’s planning on having a son for Jack Hall and his mate Buck this
next fall. You should a’ seen Warren pregnant with their bairn
Colt. Colt was a large bairn and Warren swelled up like a beach
ball. He didn’t have no problem when the time came, and the hairy
little fucker slid right out. There’s videos of it if you care to
watch sometime. There’s instructional videos Commander Fielding
and Captain Trong made for several of their impregnations and
births. They’re very informative and sexy as hell.” Waco grinned.
“I just feel
like I should be doing something to reciprocate with Droon when he
pleasures me.”
“Well, you see,
that’s you first mistake. You shouldn’t feel that way. He
takes care of you because he loves you and wants to pleasure you to
bring you some comfort. He don’t expect nothing in return, or at
least until you’re absolutely, positively sure you’re ready to commit
yourself to pleasuring him. He will wait for as long as it
takes. Ox waited for me for years. Then again, for a
species what lives hundreds of years, ten years ain’t so much.
Take my word for it, Droon will wait patiently, but he won’t never stop
loving you. In the meantime, make sweet love to him, stroke him,
pet him like you would any animal you love and tell him what a good boy
he is
for wanting to please you and how very much you appreciate his love and
attention. They eat it up. It may come as no surprise, most
animals, even humans respond to a few words of honest appreciation and
affection now and then. The human touch is the greatest source of
communion we
have with each other and critters. It transcends words.
Without the perversion of religion, the laying on of hands is a great
source of healing. You think you’re ready for the next step with
yore’ big lummox?”
“I’m git’n close
to being ready. I really love him, Waco.”
“I know you
do. I seen the way you look at him sometimes like you’re thinking
about how great it might be to have his babies.” Waco grinned
mischievously.
“I c'ain’t hide
nothing from you.” Buskin gently frogged his arm
“Ouch, little
brother, that hurt.” Waco feigned, “Would you wanna’ hide
anything from me?”
“No, of course
not! You’re ma’ brother. I love you. I can talk with
you about anything.” he confessed. “Ain’t never had me nobody
I’s so close to than you, dad Charlie, and Droon; oh, yes, and ma’
little brother, Kevin.”
* * * * * * *
The mysterious
explosion of a snake’s ship on the dark side of the Moon was more
successful than Lazarus originally thought it might be. It took
the snakes and grays considerably longer than a year to get things back
in order to continue their rape and pillage of Earth. Lazarus
admitted to Charlie he should have known better. The aliens were
similar to hive critters and ants in particular. Even though
they’d suffered a major setback, it was only a matter of time before
they would be back in the swing of things, but there was no rush.
Earth wasn’t going to escape from its orbit and the inhabitants were
trapped on the planet. They weren’t going anywhere. Little
by little they cleared and rebuilt, but it took them almost a
full two years to do it. It gave Waco and Buskin two years of
school before the increased threat of the aliens began to be a major
concern again.
Scudder figured
correctly they were back in full operation when the aliens restated
their demands on the governments of Earth for almost double their
previous quotas and began to indiscriminately take whomever and
whatever they chose. Scudder was at his wits end. Trying to
keep things secret from the public and hiding the truth about what was
really going on was like trying to put out hot spots in forest
fires. He realized the time was fast approaching when he would
have to be honest with the public. He feared the worst. He
requested another meeting with Jesse Watkins. Jesse and Utah
arrived in their usual manner. They were surprised to find
Scudder gained weight.
“It ain’t a
weight gain. I’m pregnant. It jes’ happened.
Brett was using condoms, but I didn’t like it. It felt weird,
like he was wearing a damn Sou’wester. He stopped at my
insistence and nature took its course. The damn rabbit done
crawled up
my cunt and died, but that ain’t the worst part. The bad news is
the zygote split, and I’m carrying identical twin boys. I got
mixed feelings about it, but I figure I got time to grunt ‘em out
depending on what we decide. I remember the pain from Brett
Junior and now I got double the pleasure to look forward
to. Won't that be fun? I
swear I’m gonna’ change my name to
Eppee Durral, but that ain’t the
reason I asked you here. I wouldn’t bother you with my
pregnancy. I cranked out one, I can do two more.
“What do you
have in mind, Norman?” Jesse asked.
“We got damn
near two years reductions in abductions and activity with them
bastards. I don’t know what happened, and I don’t wanna’
know. I suspect you people had something to do with it, but I
don’t want it confirmed. The less I know the more truthful I can
be when I deny any knowledge. Anything I say becomes acceptable
as deniable plausibility. We spoke before about the possibility
of a joint
mission to create a similar effect on their base we called project
Trojan Horse. I wanna’ discuss a plan with you to give them an
ultimatum. This ain’t only my idea, it comes from a couple of
years of military men chewing on it. As you know, we got one
snake ship which can make the flight and we got two Air Force men with
high security clearance who can fly it. I just hate to lose one
of them ships.”
“Maybe we can
sweeten the deal, Norman, for some additional agreements on your part.”
Jesse threw open for discussion.
“What kind of
agreements?” he asked.
“You stop all
investigations into American political affiliations and allow unlimited
access to the 'free-net' where you’ve managed to block it. Also
you make a statement to the American people about what’s been going on
and what they might be facing in the future. Before you say ‘no’
consider you may not have any political platform to protect very
soon. The people ain’t as dumb as you might think, and they
deserve to know. You need all the help you can get from both
sides. It could be the turning point in uniting America and the
rest of the world in a resistance. Don’t let some other leader
beat you to the punch. It could be your moment of greatness,
Norman.”
“What have you
got to offer in return?” he asked.
“A brand new,
never crashed, snake ship. Yours for the asking. You agree
to stop all censorship by Friday, and we’ll deliver the ship to Area 51
the day after. After we deliver the Trojan Horse, wait to
see what reaction the aliens have. If none, two weeks later you
make an address to the nation and tell them everything. We’ll
coordinate with Austin and help him with the speech. We insist on
having some input. However, if you renege or try any funny
business, we’ll take the alien ship back so fast you’re people won’t
have time to look it over.”
“A new ship, you
say?” he mused. “Never crashed?”
“In cherry
condition, with all the bells and whistles,— soft Corinthian leather
seats and factory air.” Jesse exaggerated and winked at Scudder.
“Everything works.” Jesse added.
“You’re right,
that would sweeten the deal considerably. How long I got to think
about it?”
“Starting now,—
five minutes.” Jesse smiled.
“Done.
I’ll have Austin order all free-net blocks taken down by this
evening. That’s two days earlier than Friday. Can I tell
Area 51 to expect the ship Saturday?”
“You may.
Tell your lady colonel in charge we don’t want no problems from her.”
Jesse emphasized.
“I’ll put Austin
in charge temporarily to make sure. Where will you deliver it?”
“We can put it
anywhere. Thirty stories under in your underground hanger bay if
you want. Or we can park it outside, and your people can do as
they like with it. Outside we run the risk of it being seen from
above.”
“Have them put
it just inside the ground level hanger bay. We’ll have it open so
you won’t be confused. Austin will be there to direct you.”
“When do you
wanna’ make the bomb run on the Moon?” Jesse asked.
“The following
Thursday the end of May would be good for us. You sure you can
extract my men before the damn thing goes off?” Scudder asked.
“Absolutely.”
Jesse said with confidence. “You remember our agreement? We
reserved the right to inspect the ship and the bomb to make sure it
ain’t no bigger than fifty megaton.”
“Yeah, no
problem. I’ll meet with them slimy bastards tomorrow and tell
them if they don’t back down we’re ready to launch a major attack
against them.” Scudder leaned back in his chair. His
pregnancy really showed.
“You think
that’s wise, Norman? Have you considered the importance and
advantage of the element of surprise; just doing it and catching them
with their pants down? Remember Pearl Harbor? Why threaten
them? Why stir them
up? It will only serve to warn them. Forewarned is to be
forearmed. Why implicate yourself
beforehand? Surprise is to your advantage as the underdog.
Remember the name? Project Trojan Horse? It sort of says it
all, Norman. They may not believe you have the capability, but
they’ll certainly be on guard if you warn them. They'll take
precautions. You know
you’ll be the first they come to after the explosion if you warn
them. With no warning, if
they come to you and accuse you, become very indignant and lie like a
railroad track. You know how little faith I have in you, but I’m
fully confident in your ability to lie to them snakes. If they
simply inquire as to your knowledge about the destruction of their
base, tell them your astronomers were tracking a rogue asteroid which
seemed to be on a collision course with the Moon, but they couldn’t be
sure; you didn’t bother to warn them, because you just assumed since
they’re so much more advanced, they could easily detect a huge rock
approaching the Moon from deep space; other than a bright flash of
light your astronomers recorded, you don’t know nothing. Let them
form their own conclusions. Don’t give them anything. You
may save your people and us a lot of unpleasantness and buy us more
time.”
“Makes sense to
me. More sense that them damn saber rattling military hawks I got
for advisors. They’re used to bullying their way through
everything. Them son’s a’ bitches love themselves some
nukes. As you suggest, this may be a time to use a little common
sense and a lot more finesse. You wanna’ come work for me,
Jesse?” Scudder laughed.
“Seems like I
already work for you, Norman.” Jesse smiled. “By the way, there’s no
extra charge for the advice. I'll even throw in a free cigarette
lighter for the dashboard.” he grinned.
“All
right. Late Thursday afternoon a sneak attack just like the Japs
did on Pearl Harbor. Damn near wiped out the seventh fleet.
Took our country a couple of years to get back into the swing of
things. Hopefully, it will bring them to their knees for a couple
more years.”
“Okay, we’ll
coordinate with your people Saturday when we deliver the snake ship.”
There wasn’t a
lot more to talk about so Jesse and Utah said their goodbyes and
disappeared. The free-net was all a gaggle when it was suddenly
available to everyone. Certain areas of the country hadn’t been
able to get free-net for a number of years. They were suddenly
opened and fully functional. There was a wave of pro-left
stimulus and people were getting the news out about the aliens and what
the government was doing to cover up the situation. They even
told how horrible the baby genius program was and what happened to
thousands of babies the government bought from unsuspecting
parents. It caused riots in several major cities from the right
wing as well as the left. It suddenly became difficult to tell
who was for whom, for what or why. It was just the way the Grange
wanted it. Confusion was their greatest cover. It left them
free to make some outrageous land grabs and rescue far more folks than
originally planned.
Jesse wanted to
wait until after Scudder delivered his speech to the nation to deliver
the alien spacecraft to Area 51, but Lazarus wanted to get rid of
it. He reasoned it had been on the Gopher Bay long enough.
Lazarus felt it was bad karma to leave it there with all the missions
Monty and his crew were conducting. After all, the Grange could
reclaim
it at any time should Scudder betray them. Jesse saw his point
and agreed. Montana and his crew, along with the Admiral and
Captain Vinceeth delivered the snake ship to Area 51 with no
hassle. Austin Taycious was there to take delivery and said he
would be there the following Thursday to see the Trojan Horse
off. They were welcome to inspect before the ship took off or
inspect it in flight. They opted to check it before it left for
its run. Lazarus didn’t
go with them the following Thursday. He knew Captain Montana,
Rocky,
Ben and certainly Trey knew enough to recognize the bomb and its
size. All seemed in order, they took blood samples from the two
Air Force pilots to have their DNA on file to beam them out of the
alien ship, and they started their run to the
Moon.
On the way, Monty dropped off Trey Vinceeth back at the
Bandersnatch. He and several of his crew planned to be on call to
fly one of the scout ships if there was an emergency. Monty was
down to a skeleton crew. His number one, JG Maxine Potter, Rocky,
Ben, Dexter, Cody and Pearl. Much to their dismay, Monty left
Oblio and Bobby behind. The run went as planned, but there was
something about the two Air Force pilots Maxine didn’t trust. She
warned her captain about her feelings. Monty worked with Maxine
close enough to know she was rarely wrong about her hunches. He
trusted her completely. So when it came time to beam the two
gung-ho pilots out, Maxine instructed Cecil to beam them to the bridge
without clothes. They were butt naked when they arrive.
Maxine told Cecil to back off from the Moon six hundred miles before
the bomb went off. Even at that distance it lit up the sky like a
small supernova and there was total destruction on the surface of the
Moon. Everything was vaporized. The two pilots looked
around and down at their nakedness and tried their best to cover
themselves.
“What is
this? Why are we naked?” they asked.
“You were
carrying sidearms. That wasn’t in our agreement. We just
made sure you wouldn’t try anything stupid. Besides, you’re
perfectly safe with us. You have no need for weapons or clothes
on board our
ship.” Maxine said to them.
“What’s
this? A talking dog flying a space ship? That’s
crazy! C’mon, Don, we’re taking over this ship right now.
You two clowns step aside, us men will fly this baby back to Earth.”
the older pilot ordered. He took a step toward Monty, but the
younger officer hesitated and held back.
“Oh,
pu-leeease!” said Maxine in a bored tone. “Too bad your
penises are bigger than your brains. Cecil, plan B.” she said and
the two air jockeys disappeared and reappeared in the brig.
Maxine spoke to them over the intercom, “Comfy, Gentlemen?
Welcome to the brig on the Gopher Bay. Nice, ain’t it? I
decorated it myself.” she said with considerable sarcasm, “Make
yore’selves to home, amateurs. Tea will be served
presently. I’m sorry, but there won’t be an in-flight movie shown
today. You have just been bumped from first class to cattle car.”
laughed Maxine. “Because of your very regrettable actions, as
first officer of this ship, I’m placing you under arrest.
According to maritime law, you are hereby charged with an act of
mutiny, sedition and/or piracy. You will be held and tried by a
military tribunal of our fleet. I deeply regret I can’t charge
you with bone crunching ignorance or jaw dropping stupidity as guilty,
as you are of both, unfortunately, they ain’t a crime.”
“First officer
of this ship?” sneered the older pilot, “You gotta’ be kidding
me. You ain’t nothing but a dog. You have no jurisdiction
over us. We demand to be returned to our government immediately.”
he tried to sound like a bad-ass authority figure who better be taken
seriously.
“Yeah, like
that’s gonna’ happen, you stupid ass-hat.” Maxine laughed. “Threaten me
and my Captain, will you? Not on my watch, junior bird-man.
Why, I’ve flown rings around them steam-punk John Deere sky tractors
you morons are so proud of, and left you in the dust to eat my K-9
vapor trail wondering what the hell was that?” she did a nasty
raspberry with her tongue which conveyed her disgust more than
words. Monty never said
a word. He let his number one take care of the pilots.
Maxine was doing a bang-up job as far as he was concerned. At her
juicy raspberry he broke up laughing and couldn’t stop.
“Have I told you
lately how much I love you, number one?” he managed to get out with a
straight face.
“Yes, twice this
morning and once after lunch.” she wiggled in her seat.
“Well, make it
one more for the road, little sister. Ya’ done good.” he
reached over and patted her. “You, too, Cecil.” he added.
“Thank’s,
Captain Montana.” Cecil replied.
They looked at
the devastation the bomb made on their way back to Earth. There
was nothing left. It was total destruction and the surface was
still glowing red hot. There was flotsam and jetsam from burning
and destroyed ships floating in space from as much as a couple hundred
miles away from the flash point. The concussion and bits of other
ships and rocks thrown up from the surface of the Moon struck and
destroyed most all the other ships. The very few which didn’t
suffer destruction were in such bad repair they either crashed onto the
surface of the Moon or were burned up on entry into Earth’s
atmosphere. Only a couple of ships survived, but they were
knocked
unconscious and had no idea what happened. Jesse’s suggestion of
a Trojan Horse was more successful than anyone could imagine.
Monty guessed
right, the part of the Moon which suffered the brunt of the explosion
would remain radioactive for years. A new, enormous crater was
formed from the blast, and it looked exactly like a meteor
crater. Rebuilding would be almost impossible. Monty and
his crew returned to the Bandersnatch and left the naked pilots in the
brig. They were met by the Admiral and his staff including
Captain Vinceeth. Monty let Maxine relate what happened, and they
laughed at her enthusiasm. Lazarus had Jesse get in touch with
Scudder. Jesse and Utah made an unscheduled appearance.
Scudder’s eyes got real big.
“Oh, my
God! What went wrong?” Scudder asked like he knew they wouldn’t
just show up unless it was something important.
“You’re pilots
tried to highjack our ship what beamed them out.” Jesse said without
nuance.
“You’re shit’n
me!” Scudder exclaimed loudly. “Son of a fuck’n bitch!” he stomped
around the room nervously, “They weren’t suppose to do that. They
had no such orders from me. Look, Jesse, you gotta’ believe me on
this. I been up-front with you all the way. I’ll get to the
bottom of these shenanigans if it’s the last thing I do, but me and
Austin had nothing to do with it, I promise you.”
“What do you
want us to do with them?” Jesse asked to see what Scudder’s reaction
might be.
“I don’t give a
flying fuck what chu’ do with ‘em! Make ‘em walk the damn plank
in deep space! Do whatever you want with them. I certainly
don’t want ‘em back. They can’t be trusted to carry out orders
according to my wishes, whatever you decide to do with them is fine
with me. They’ve put me in one hell of an awkward position.
Now I have to do everything in my power to convince you we had nothing
to do with it. Austin is still there at Area 51. I’ll have
him investigate. If anyone can get to the bottom of this he
can. Check back with me in a couple of hours. I’m so damn
sorry, Jesse.” Scudder said with obvious concern. Jesse and Utah
were convinced he didn’t know anything about the highjacking attempt.
The two brawny
pilots weren’t going to cooperate and were ready to fight Rocky and Ben
when they walked into their holding cell to handcuff them. The
younger one took a huge swing at Rocky and connected with his right
jaw. Rocky didn’t even flinch, but he heard the man’s knuckles
crack when they came in contact with his metal superstructure.
“Son of a
bitch!” he exclaimed and held his broken hand in his other.
“Hands behind your back, Sir, or I will be forced to take you down.”
Rocky ordered. The older pilot didn’t try anything. He was
smarter, and cooperated. The two big bio-droids frog marched the
two naked pilots into an interrogation room. They set them down
in two straight back chairs.
“I recognize you
cowboys. You’re Ben Johnson and I remember you from watching old
cowboy movies with my great-granddad. You’re Rocky Allen Lane.”
the older pilot said. “What’s going on here? You men would
have to be in your nineties or older. You don’t look a day over
thirty-five or forty.”
“At least one of
them ain’t dumb.” Rocky smiled at Ben. “You’re right. I’m
Rocky Lane, and he’s Ben Johnson. You don’t need to know more
right now. You’re our prisoners.”
“Can we have
some clothes?” The older one asked.
“No, you won’t
be wearing clothes for sometime depending on the outcome of your
trial. Ain’t no doubt about it, you fly-boys are in deep
doo-doo! You will probably be found guilty of maritime piracy,
mutiny, sedition and sentenced to hang. If you cooperate, if
you’re very good little boys, throw yourselves on the mercy of the
court, it might save your lives; however, you’ll still be looking at a
lifetime of slavery. Either one a’ you boys ever been butt
fucked?” Asked Ben Johnson in his best wry cowboy accent.
“No, of course
not. We ain’t no queers. We’re family men.” said the
youngest.
“You’ll git used
to it. I hear’d tell, the first few times it hurts like a
mother-fucker. After you become some master’s bitch, he uses
yore’ asshole as his come-bucket a couple of times a day, week after
week, month after month, your ass will stretch, and you’ll git to where
you enjoy it. They all do. I’m sure you boy’s heard the old
saying, ‘A well fucked slave is a happy slave, and believe you me, the
slaves on the ranches we come from all got big ole smiles on their
faces.’” Ben allowed in his
best cowboy drawl.
“I’d rather
hang.” said the younger one bravely.
“Careful, Son,
you jes’ may git chore’ wish.” Rocky told him. “In the meantime we need
you to answer some questions for us.” he added.
“We ain’t
answering no questions. We ain’t tell’n you jack-shit, cowboy.”
the younger one told him. The older one wasn’t saying much.
“Let’s start
with your name, rank and serial numbers.” Rocky started.
“Captain Donald
J. Bennington, U.S. Air Force, serial number 496-38-6497.” replied the
younger man.
“Major Buck E.
Bryant, U.S. Air Force, serial number 368-99-9898"
“Who gave you
the order to highjack our vessel?” asked Ben.
“Nobody, it was
a spur of the moment impulse thing. We saw a young cowboy and his
dog flying the ship. We figured it would be easy enough to
overpower them and take control. We saw it could be ours for the
taking for our country and our Holy Prophet.”
“We don’t
believe you. You were carrying sidearms. Why would you need
sidearms just to deliver a bomb?” Rocky challenged.
“We carry them
with us all the time. They’re part of our uniforms. We told
you the truth. That’s all you’ll get from us.” said the older one
named Buck.
“I wouldn’t bet
on it, fly boy.” smiled Rocky.
Ben opened the
door and in walked the most beautiful animal either man ever saw.
She was small, about a third the size of a man, but looked like a lemur
or
a gibbon ape with wonderful colors. Disney couldn’t have done
justice to her. Pixar? Maybe.
“This, here,
little lady is named ‘Ping’ gentlemen. She has some very special
talents. She can produce pheromones which will make you tell the
truth. You won’t be able to lie to any question we ask.
They’re all yours, pretty lady.” Ben told her. She smiled.
Ben and Rocky didn’t have to leave the room. Bio-droids weren’t
affected by her scents. She turned her rear toward the men and
let out a small squirt of a special truth fragrance. They tried
to hold their breath, but they couldn’t, and breathed in the
pheromone. Don thought the fragrance was slightly like Frangipani
he remembered from his time in Hawaii. Ping nodded to Rocky and
Ben, smiled, bowed deeply, and left the room.
“Now lets try
again. Don, have you ever been butt fucked?” Ben asked.
“Yeah, lots of
times.” he shook his head and gnashed his teeth at his answer. He
didn’t want to tell these cowboys the truth. To him they
represented the ultimate in hyper-masculinity. Every muscle in
his body fought against it.
“By whom?” Ben
continued.
“My older
brother when I’s a kid.” he rocked back and forth, trying not to tell
the truth, “He broke me in. Told me it was what brothers did for
each other; only, he never let me fuck him or he never sucked me
off. My daddy caught him fuck’n me and raised all kinds of
hell. He beat us up pretty bad. Our mom died, and then dad
started fuck’n me when I’s a teenager. He’d fuck me a couple time
a week and on weekends when he’d come home drunk until I left and went
to the Air Force academy. He fucked me when I came home on
leave. My partner Buck here’s fucked me so many times I lost
count.” he was sweating.
“You like it
when Buck fucks you, Don?” Rocky asked without nuance.
“Oh, yeah, he
fucks me real good. He really turns me on. I can come while
he’s fucking me. He’s older like my daddy was, and he fucks me
jes’ like my old man did, except he makes love to me before and
afterward. My dad never made love to me. He said it was
queer to make love to a man.” sweat was pouring off the younger man.
“And you, Buck,
have you ever been fucked in the butt?” Ben drawled.
“A couple of
times, but I didn’t like it.” he replied. Unlike his younger
buddy Don, Buck didn’t seem to be having a problem answering the
cowboy’s questions. He didn’t try to fight against Ping’s eau de
veritas.
“Who fucked
you?” Ben followed up.
“Three senior
officers. They told me if I wanted to advance in rank I had
to put out for them. I had to get fucked several times for my
promotion. They passed me around and held private parties where
they gang fucked me. There wasn’t anything I could do about
it. They held my fate in their hands. If I didn’t play ball
my career would’ve been over. I did it to get ahead, but I don’t
like to get fucked. I’m a man. I do the fucking.”
“You don’t
consider Don a man?” Rocky asked.
“Of course, he’s
a fine man. Don’s my buddy. I love him like the son I never
had. He jes’ loves to take it up the ass. I love giving him
what he needs and taking what I need. We do it a lot, but we
don’t talk about it much.”
“You ever make
him suck you off, Buck?” Ben asked.
“I don’t make
him do nothing. I never forced myself on Don like my superiors
done to me. It ain’t like that between him and me. When he
wants it or needs it and asks me real nice, we get together, and I give
him some. He’s a fine cocksucker. He’s a hell of a lot
better’n ma’ wife. She can’t suck dick worth a damn. He’s a
better fuck, too.” Buck volunteered.
“Okay, that’s
enough for that line of questioning. Now, Buck, who put you up to
that little stunt of trying to highjack our spacecraft?”
“Our commanding
officer at Area 51. That stupid bitch Colonel Eugenia
Crookshank. It was her idea. She thought if we commandeered
your ship, it would make her look good and she would have a solid in
with Austin Taycious and the Holy Father. She’s a conniving,
power hungry dyke. She’d order us to cut our balls off jes’ so’s
she could wear ‘em around her neck to make her look good.”
“Did she get the
orders from higher up?” Ben asked
“No, they didn’t
know nothing about it. It was all her crazy idea, but we had to
carry out her stupid, fricking orders. Don told me we shouldn’t
try it. I should a’ listened to him. After all, you guys
were the ones rescuing us. Look, it was my idea to follow her
orders. Don begged me not to. I’m the superior
officer. He had to follow my orders. Let him go.”
“Do you agree
with what Buck just told us, Don.” Ben asked.
“Yeah, he’s
telling the truth. I didn't wanna' do it. I was gonna'
try'n talk some reason to him--- try'n stop him--- but before I could
say or do anything we were beamed to the brig. Taycious and
Scudder didn’t have any idea what
she’s up to. Wish ‘ta god they did. We wouldn’t be in this
mess right now.” he added.
The interview
with the two Air Force Pilots were videoed but the sexual parts were
edited out. Only the part of them telling where their orders came
from was used in the trial against them and Jesse gave Taycious and
Scudder a DVD copy of their abbreviated confession. The female
Colonel was the same hard-nosed woman who refused to cooperate with
Jesse. Austin Taycious had her interrogated and videoed the whole
thing. At first, she denied everything and claimed the pilots
were lying. Upon further investigation, Austin found several of
her staff who secretly hated her were willing to sign affidavits they
witnessed her give the pilots the order to commandeer their ally’s
spaceship. They were angry she was willing to throw two fine
career military officers under the bus to save her own worthless
hide. When presented with all the evidence against her, she broke
down in tears and admitted she gave the order. Scudder was so
enraged he ordered her to be sent directly to one of the worst Cheney
camps in the country without a trial. He made sure Jesse got a
DVD of her confession and copies of the witnesses affidavits.
Scudder apologized profusely to Jesse and Utah but again told him to
deal with the officers anyway they wanted. He didn’t want them
back. It was not what he or Austin ordered them to do. If
they chose to follow other orders it was their responsibility and not
his. Let them face what fate they made for themselves.
A quick trial
was held and Judge Potter represented them. He stressed to the
men they were alone in the boat. Their president and government
didn’t want them back. They chose to obey a renegade order
without questioning it, and now, they were up the creek in a boat with
no
oars. He told them they were looking at being hung for attempted
piracy or mutiny. He strongly suggested they throw themselves on
the mercy of the court which they agreed to do. The court took
into consideration the senior officer’s comments his buddy tried to
talk him out of following the colonel’s order and didn’t respond when
ordered to forcibly overcome the captain and his first mate to take
over the Gopher Bay. Buck, the older of the two was sentenced to
a lifetime of slavery and his younger buddy, Don, was sentenced to
twenty years as a slave with five years probation. They were
devastated, but when sentenced they were made to understand it was
because of their decision to follow bad orders. Far too often,
high ranking military officers were never held accountable for their
mistakes. They found out the hard way it was different when they
were dealing with the Grange. The members of the Grange and the
court who tried them didn’t care about the men’s rank or what country
they represented. They would be held accountable for their
actions. No one felt sorry for them. They stood before the
court naked and remained so for the first three weeks of their initial
break-in period as baby slaves on Angus Goodnight’s ranch. The
younger officer took to being a slave easily enough. He fell in
love with Angus Goodnight and his foreman. It took his
older buddy longer, and it was considerably harder on him, but when he
was finally broken, he became one of Angus and Jimmy Joe’s favorite
fucks to share.
Don looked
forward to Buck being called to be his master and ramrod’s cowboy
sexual slave-toy for an afternoon. Buck would return and try to
reassert his false sense of masculinity by dominating Don and fucking
the b’jebus out of him. Don loved those days. He was always
clean and ready for his partner on his return. Don would
sympathize with his buddy and do his best to console him. He
never failed to offer himself to Buck to help him feel better about
himself. Don said many prayers of thanks for Angus and Jimmy Joe
as his partner deeply plowed his red Earth. Don became one of
Angus and Jimmy Joe’s most trusted and faithful slaves. He saw
them as directly responsible for his happiness and
contentment.
* * * * * * *
The bombing of
the Moon was a surprise in many ways. Scudder and the Grange
thought there would be an immediate reprisal or counterattack, but that
didn’t happen. As sophisticated as the grays and snakes tried to
impress the natives they were, in many ways they were hopelessly
naive. They simply couldn’t figure out what happened and who or
what was responsible. Scudder said a thousand prayers of thanks
for Jesse’s sage advice about not saying anything to them and using the
element of surprise as a weapon. He was even more grateful to
Austin who urged him to do as Jesse suggested, and to himself, for
having the good sense to listen. Austin strongly supported
Jesse’s idea Scudder should deny any knowledge of the explosion other
than what little he learned from his scientists. If there was
even a slim chance the aliens didn’t know what happened they couldn’t
place blame on any one nation or government. It was weeks
before the snakes requested a meeting with him and when they did, they
didn’t really ask if he knew anything about an attack or explosion on
the Moon.
They acted like to admit a disaster would be admitting
defeat, and they might be giving the natives more information than they
wanted them to know. They didn’t accuse Scudder or any of the
other leaders on Earth. They had no idea the people of Earth
managed to salvage several of their crashed ships and could fly
them. They had such low esteem of their food source they never
considered they might be bright enough to fly one of their
spaceships. Would a cowboy ever consider a cow might have the
smarts to drive his truck to get away? It was a great surprise to
everyone, because the aliens had obviously witnessed man’s early
attempts at spaceflight and shuttle missions. NASA astronauts
reported being observed by alien craft on almost every mission.
They were waiting for our astronauts when they landed on the Moon, but
they never made contact. The aliens never understood about
satellite communications transmissions and thought they were so much
curious junk or failed attempts at space travel the clever monkeys shot
into space; they considered it only so much cow flop their cattle left
in their wake.
* * * * * * * *
The mascot of
the Texas Aggies was a beautiful female Collie named Reveille and
called
“Miss Rev” by the fish. (Freshmen) Waco and Buskin decided Miss
Rev
seemed to have a noble countenance about her tinged with a bit of
sadness. Many considered a Collie an odd choice for a rough and
tumble sport like college football. The original ‘Reveille’ was a
mutt who some thought better symbolized the student body and
team. Because of Waco and Buskin’s abilities to communicate with
animals, Reveille X would seek the cowboy’s out to spend time with them
during their freshman year. At first it was disconcerting to her
handler who was a member of the Mascot Company E-2, but he soon got
used to the idea if she was missing he knew where to find her.
She would be in Waco and Buskin’s room snoozing while the men poured
over their books studying. She insisted on going home with them
to the ranch at the end of their freshman year and fell in love with
Utah. He was pretty much taken with her as well. When the
men returned to school for their sophomore year they were appointed to
Company E-2 and Buskin became her handler. During her visits to
the ranch she developed a taste for cantaloupe and loved it. She
couldn’t get enough. The boys always made sure they had a
plastic container filled with fresh cantaloupe as a treat for
her. They came to refer to “Miss Rev” affectionately as their
melon-collie baby.
Waco and Buskin
knew about the sneak attack on the Moon. It was scheduled for a
Thursday evening and just happened to correspond with the day of their
last final exams for the end of their Sophomore year. The next
day Waco and Buskin would be leaving for the ranch for summer
vacation. Charlie and Lazarus offered Buskin a summer job the end
of his first year at A&M he couldn’t refuse. For work around
the ranch or wherever they needed him, Lazarus agreed to
subsidize Buskin for his sophomore year. Lazarus created a
stipend for Buskin as he did for Waco and gave him his own generous
bank account and credit card for his personal needs, books, and extras
he might need. He worked hard that summer, but also had time to
visit and be with his little brothers. Buskin became devoted to
the Grange and the folks connected to it. He knew the Grange was
his own personal salvation for the future, but he became concerned for
his little brothers. He and Waco always had one of the ranch
vehicles available to them to travel back and forth. Waco still
didn’t want a vehicle of his own. He felt with all the activities
he and Buskin were involved in at school they didn’t have time to be
running around anyway. They were all packed and ready to leave
the
evening after finals. They would have everything in their dorm
room including Miss Reveille and have Ms. Myra beam them up to the
Buttercup.
They planned a
get together with all their classmen in the Corps and other non-Corps
students who wanted to say goodbye to Miss Rev for the summer.
Waco had Buskin send e-mails to several of their favorite science
teachers with a special invitation to attend the informal
function. At the bottom of each e-mail Waco had him add a secret
code he and Buskin developed to communicate something of importance to
professors they felt they could trust. One was sent to Dr.
Dyer. All six of the professors invited attended. They
didn’t know why Waco and Buskin might want them to say ‘goodbye’ to the
school mascot but when the two most influential students on campus
politely requested their presence, they were smart enough to read
between the lines, especially with the code at the bottom. Waco
kept looking at his watch as he was talking with the professors.
Buskin was posing Miss Rev for photos and students were paying their
respects.
“What’s going
on, Cadet Corporal Goodnight? As much as we love our school’s
mascot, you know we could care less about a ‘goodbye’ get
together. We know Reveille will have the best of care this summer
and have lots of fun with the other dogs on your ranch.”
“It’s such a
lovely evening, Dr. Dyer, Cadet Corporal Namid and I thought you four
fine gentlemen and two ladies might enjoy taking the air with us.” he
smiled looking at his watch again. “However, if you good folks
will turn your attention toward the full Moon for the next few minutes
you will see something you might find very interesting. We just
wanted to make sure you didn’t miss it. We know how you scientist
can be. By the way, you may want to be seated on the ground if
you become overcome you won’t have far to fall.” he smiled. They
set on the new mown grass and turned their attention to the Moon.
Waco quietly started counting down from twenty. He got to one and
nothing happened.
“Well, I’m
impressed.” said one of the professors, a doctor of comparative anatomy.
“Wait for
it! Wait for it!” Waco urged. “Now!” he said
and the Moon was instantly lit with a huge blinding flash of light like
a halo completely circled it. They watched as the gigantic ring
of the most fantastic white light grew larger and larger behind the
Moon. The light grew so large it cast light onto the Earth almost
bright as day. Everyone was frightened, but the professors wanted
to know what Waco and Buskin knew about what they just witnessed.
“Haven’t you
been following the free-net?” he asked them.
“Mr. Goodnight,
we can’t afford to lose our jobs. Our computers are checked
regularly, not only by the administration, but by the government as
well. They have three separate kinds of tracking and reporting
software installed without our permission which can’t be deleted.
How do you students get away with it?”
“Special
software what can’t be traced by any spy programs. Get a laptop
to me or Cadet Namid this evening, and we can install it for you.
Then you may have the summer to find out what’s going on. I
promise you won’t be caught or compromised. That is, if you want
to know what it was you just witnessed and why. Since you will be
able to
send and receive e-mails without fear of scrutiny we will keep in
touch. We would loved to have you and your families or
significant others visit us for a weekend at our ranch. We have
plenty room for everyone.”
“I have an extra
laptop in my office I only use for lecture notes and student grade
files. Will that work? Will you have to erase my current
files?” Dr. Dyer asked.
“No, it will
build around any information. Does it have a laser downlink
receiver diode?”
“Yes, the
technology’s current within the last year.” Dyer said.
“Good, we’ll
meet you in your office in a hour, Sir. You can download the
others from yours. It’s quite simple to do. I’ll download
it into yours and your computer will tell you how to share it with the
others.” Waco smiled. “There’s one important thing you must
remember. I’ve only approved you six professors to receive this
operating system. It is voice print cued. It will function
as your old system until you speak to it and give it the proper order
to convert. If you try to copy it beyond your computers or
try de-compiling the operating system, it will literally commit
suicide. It will self-destruct. The operating system is
intelligent and by all definitions has a life of its own, but it will
not hesitate to pull its own plug to protect the core kernal.” The
other four said their goodbyes and rushed off to get one of
their spare laptops. Dr. Dyer waited for the men to finish.
Several wanted Waco to speak. They were concerned about what they
witnessed.
“What you saw
was an explosion of some sort on the far side of he Moon. We
can’t be sure of the cause, but my best guess is we’ll find out a good
size asteroid impacted the surface of the dark side of the Moon.
It was probably composed of elements of phosphorus and rare metals
which on impact would cause a great light to occur. Get on your
computers this evening and do some research. Check NASA and other
government sites. Something should come up soon.” Waco
urged them. He and Buskin accompanied Professor Dyer back to his
office.
“You and Buskin
are voices of comfort for them. They look up to you men.
You’re natural born leaders, Mr. Goodnight. Why did you lie to
them?” Dyer grinned. Buskin laughed.
“Doctor Dyer, my
brother wouldn’t lie. He’s a cowboy. That jes’ ain’t the
cowboy way, Sir.” Buskin said seriously.
“Forgive me, I
meant no offense or disrespect, but I just have a feeling you men know
more than
you’re letting on.”
“It was a joint
venture between our government and some friendly aliens to wipe out the
reptilian aliens and their slave race, the Gray’s base on the opposite
side of the Moon. It has been totally destroyed. Nothing is
left. You just witnessed a fifty ton nuclear bomb
detonation. It’s the first nuclear bomb to be used in an act of
war since Nagasaki. Only this is a different sort of war.
It’s a war for the survival of our species.”
“How do you know
this, Cadet Goodnight?” he asked incredulously.
“The same way me
and my brother know about Bigfoot.” Waco smiled. “In a week or so watch
for our glorious leader to make a world televised announcement about
the alien presence and their threat to our world.”
“You don’t have
a very high esteem for our Holy Father, do you, Cadet Goodnight?”
“I have no
feeling one way or another, Sir. He does not concern me or my
brother.”
“You may have to
go into his employment when you graduate. You are in training for
the military. You will be expected to serve.” he said.
“We might.
Then again we might not.” Waco smiled at him. “There are bigger things
happening, greater concerns than endless wars in the middle East.
We may be looking at the end of the world, Sir.”
They got to Dr.
Dyer’s office. He handed Waco his laptop. Waco turned it on
and spoke.
“Kyron?” he said.
“At your
service, Captain Waco.” boomed Kyron’s voice. His voice came from
all six robo-cams on Waco and Bustin. Dr. Dyer lost all color in
his face.
“What the fuck
was that?” the professor wanted to know.
“Kyron?
He’s a friend of Cadet Corporal Namid’s and myself. He’s an
artificially evolved intelligence. Have you been following our
conversation, friend?” Waco said to Kyron.
“I have, Captain
Waco. You wish me to download Ping 8.3 into Dr. Dyer’s computer,
Sir?”
“I would
appreciated it, Kyron.” Waco no sooner got the words out when a
bright green laser came from nowhere and shot right at the download
diode on Dr. Dyer’s computer. It only took about a minute and the
light turned off. “Thank you, Kyron.” Waco said.
“It was nothing,
Captain. Looking forward to seeing you soon on the ranch.
Utah sends his warmest greetings to Miss Rev. He says to tell her
he can’t wait to see her again.” Miss Reveille barked like she
understood his words.
“We’ll be home
this evening, Kyron. Tell Ms. Myra she may come for us within the
hour, but ask her to please be on her best behavior.” They heard
Kyron laugh.
“I will relay
your message, Captain. Let me know how that works out for you,
Sir.” Kyron laughed again and was gone. Buskin giggled.
“You wanna’
explain what I just witness, Mr. Goodnight?” challenged Dr. Dyer.
“Ain’t no
hocus-pocus, Sir. It’s just science and technology. Now,
your new program needs a name.” Waco smiled at him as he set down at
the professor’s laptop.
“Name?
What kind of name? Why does it need a name?” he asked.
“It’s an infant
sentient intelligence capable of evolving. It ain’t like any
computer
program or operating system you ever used before. It’s alive and
will learn, evolve and improve itself. It will come to know you
and relate to you as a help mate and friend. It needs a name, but
it needs to be a name with which you’re comfortable and would like to
know it by. The proper name will make a decided difference in how
it relates to you, because he will search night and day to find the
meaning of his name.”
“His name?
It can’t be a female?”
“Yes, if you
like. One of my favorite evolved intelligence is a female.
She’s got a mouth on her like a street walker, but she has a good
heart,
and I love her.”
“You love
her? You form attachments for artificial intelligence?” he asked
in awe.
“Evolved
intelligence, Dr. Dyer. Why not? We’re the only specie in
the universe what tries to limit who others can or can not love.
You
get back to me later in the summer after you’ve worked with your new
friend and let me know how you feel. Now, a name? It would
help if it was a name of someone for which you have or had some
affection.”
“How ‘bout—
wait, I know! My great granddad’s name was Grady Mayhew. I
was really close to him. I loved my great granddad.”
“You sure?
After I enter his name he will only respond to Grady.”
“Yes, yes, I’m
sure.” Dr. Dyer said. Waco typed the full name into the slot and
hit enter. The screen came alive with pictures and
movement. It was beautiful, like the beginning of a new
life. It took several minutes until a shape appeared of a young
man in his late twenties. He was quite handsome and looked like
an athlete. He had a full handlebar mustache and chops on the
side of his face like he was from the turn of the twentieth century.
“Hello, I’m
Grady Mayhew. You may call me ‘Grady.’ He looked around
from Waco to Dr. Dyer and Buskin. He smiled. “Will you be
my co-terminus, Captain Waco?” he asked in a strongly masculine voice.
“No, Grady,
Kyron probably told you to expect me, but the gentleman beside me is
your co-terminus, Son, his name is Dr. Edwin Dyer. Say ‘hello’ to
Grady, professor.”
“Hello, Grady,
it’s good to meet you.” he moved into Waco’s seat.
“So good to meet
you, Dr. Dyer. I look forward to working with you.”
“What do I do?”
the professor asked.
“Anything you
like, Sir. I’m here to serve you, to work with and for you.
That’s my only purpose, but I can also evolve and reason. I’m
capable of learning and growth. I can even spawn myself.”
“Spawn yourself?”
“He means if you
want to pass the program on, he can download his basic system into one
of your fellow’s laptops and start another evolved intelligence quite
apart from Grady. None of him will be passed on with the creation
of another. Only his core kernal will be passed on. It will
then take on a life of its own. You won’t have to do
anything. Just turn him on or leave him on, and he will do
everything for you. We leave ours on most of the time so they can
surf the free-net when we’re resting. They can map out paths to
get places faster for you. If you shut them down, they lie
dormant like you when you sleep, only they don’t have electric
dreams. Since I introduced you, we’ll leave you two to get to
know each other. If you don’t know how to do something, get an
answer or go somewhere on the free-net, ask Grady. He’ll know and
will patiently explain it to you. He’ll show you everything you
need to know. Just remember, he’s new. He’s not quite a
baby, but close. He has feelings, and he reacts to
emotions.
He responds to words and smiles of affection and appreciation.
Just remember the Golden Rule and you and Grady will form a great
friendship. He will become your right arm, your man 'Friday' if
you let him.” Waco
smiled.
“I have to know
more. You’re just going to walk away?” Dyer complained.
“You have
homework to do, Professor. Let Grady be your tutor and your
guide. Learn together. We’ll keep track of your progress
and
when we think you’re ready you will get a message from me.”
“Ready for
what? Why am I suddenly afraid?” he said.
“Lord, I don’t
know why. Have we threatened you in any way, Sir?”
“No, but I’m
overwhelmed by you men. You should be the ones teaching me.” he
sounded defeated and humbled.
“Nonsense,
Professor. We’ve learned a lot from you. We’ve only
provided you a means to learn more about the world you’re living in and
a key to a new life if you’re willing to accept it. Talk with
Grady. He’s sitting there anxious to learn about you and work
with you. Take good care of him, Grady, he’s a fine man. We
have faith in him.” Waco
spoke to the computer screen.
“I will, Captain
Waco. Thank you, Sir. Have a good trip home.”
“We will,
youngster, and thanks.” Waco told the new intelligence.
Waco, Buskin and
Miss Reveille returned to their dorm room. Everything was ready
for their departure. Buskin was ready this time. He gave
the call to Ms. Myra, and she beamed them up. Waiting on the
bridge of the Buttercup were some of their close friends and
Charlie. Jesse and Utah were there and Reveille was thrilled to
see her friend again. They flew home and were docked with the
Bandersnatch within minutes. The young men seemed different to
everyone. They were more poised and mature. They were the
hit of the colonies and the boy’s ranch for a couple of weeks.
Reveille went with them everywhere, but spent quality time with Jesse
and Utah. It was a great summer for the young men. They
worked hard, played hard and became even more involved with their
communities and working for those they loved and cared about.
Waco,
Buskin and several powerful members of the Grange went to the
administrators of the boy's ranch and explained to them the great
threat from the aliens
and one of their main food sources were young children. They
taught them how to protect the ranch buildings and create
anti-abduction clothes for the boys. Some thought it was hokum,
but the administrators thought there was something to it and
cooperated. After all, Lazarus and Charlie became major
financial contributors to the ranch and they were footing the bill for
the work and materials. Waco and Buskin were serious when they
explained the
danger to the boys and the boys would believe or do anything their two
heroes
asked of them. Some critters were lost, but because of their
precautions not a boy was abducted by the aliens.
The Methodist
Church suffered greatly during the years of the advance of rabid
fundamentalism. There were several splits in the church and
several more, and then one huge rift the boy’s freshmen year at
A&M. A majority went the way of hard core fundamentalism, but
a few remained true to their moderate ways with a more liberal approach
to Christianity, but they were loath to speak out against their
brothers even though their brothers considered them to be little more
than Catholic-lite. The boy’s ranch was supported primarily by
the more liberal branch, but they were hurting financially. The
following spring of the boy’s sophomore year, the church fellowship
issued a statement they could no longer be financially responsible for
the support and upkeep of the ranch after May of that year.
Buskin was greatly concerned, but Waco didn’t seem to be. He told
Buskin not to worry, there would be an answer. The Grange
wouldn’t allow the ranch to fold.
Lazarus and
Charlie stepped in to save the day, but not without some startling news
to the administrators. The Grange would agree to take over the
financial
responsibilities for the boy’s ranch, but the administrators and staff
would be required to make a clean break with the Methodist Church and
religion in general to become a secular institution. Their
bibles, all religious literature and symbols must be left behind.
Lazarus shared with them the future of the Earth and the Grange’s
mission to save as many non-religious, secularly humanistic people as
possible. If they agreed then they could stay on and continue
their good work. The usual
conversations and bad arguments arose about how could they teach the
boys good morals without religion? Lazarus and Charlie stressed
teaching children to become good citizens and good people depended on
the way they were raised, the examples others set for them, and the
love and encouragement they received for doing the right thing.
Religion was filled with far too many examples of false morals imposed
upon society for political purposes and to shore up years of division,
hatred and misunderstanding. Lazarus stressed they must teach
the boys, it was their due and responsibility as humans to be good to
others especially those less fortunate than themselves. You
don’t need religion to understand the basic concepts of right and wrong.
If they needed
to draw upon the best of any religion they might do so without the
context of an all seeing, all powerful, schizophrenic god, or any of
the many sons-of-god myths perpetrated on mankind since the Egyptian
god Ra. There would be no teaching of guilt or fear from the
threat of eternal damnation. Lazarus pointed out he would never
allow such symbols of misguided political beliefs which devolved into
destructive and hate filled practices such as Confederate flags, Klu
Klux Klan apparel or swastikas, neither would he tolerate the symbol of
the cross. In short, the teaching of Christianity at the
boy’s ranch must end.
Lazarus and
Charlie were open with the administrators and several of the main staff
and shared with them the wonders of the Grange. The Grange board
discussed it and agreed to allow them a glimpse into the inner workings
of the Grange, the colonies and brief trips to Venus and Mars.
Several Grange members including the Steele family agreed to stay with
the boys at the ranch while their house parents and administrators
toured the Grange’s operations. There were a couple of people
Lazarus and Charlie knew would not accept nor understand what the
Grange was trying to accomplish, but they didn’t fear them. It
was too late in the scheme of things for them to worry. Who would
believe them anyway? Waco and Buskin acted like tour guides which
seemed to make it easier on the staff. The intelligent,
more educated among them were deeply moved and impressed by the power
and scope of the Grange’s work and after visits to Venus and Mars and
watching several videos about the alien invasions, they were more
interested in listening to compromise.
Everyone was stunned by
what they witnessed. These men were not just fly-by-night
crackpots, they were dead serious and had the science and technology to
back up their claims and ambitions. Some could see beyond their
beliefs and accepted the idea the bible just might not be the
infallible
tome they thought it was. They came to see Lazarus and the Grange
as potential saviors of the human race, but even with a promise of an
extended life a few were so steeped in the ignorance of their faith in
superstitions they could neither bring themselves to embrace the
concept of the Grange nor the potential it had to offer. They
clung to their beliefs Jesus would return at the last minute and save
everyone. They saw Lazarus
as an antichrist and the Grange his followers. Whoever heard of
men having babies with monsters? They would never except
homosexuality, why would they accept such perversion? To them,
Lazarus put it plainly. He would no longer tolerate, subsidize,
nor placate
such intolerant ignorance and should the majority of the staff choose
to go with
the Grange, those opposed must leave the employ of the ranch
immediately. They would find others to take their place, and they
could perish along with the rest of the unbendingly rabid believers.
Lazarus insisted all
influences
of religion in the daily life of the boy’s ranch would come to an
end immediately. America was founded by those who escaped Europe
because of
religious persecution. Now they were having to escape Earth for
the same reason. Wouldn’t it seem prudent to leave behind that
which hadn’t work for thousands of years, and only created fear,
mistrust, doubt, war, hatred, greed and political power for the
few? Beyond reasonable questions Lazarus would allow no debate on
the subject. They would either vote to accepted Lazarus and
Charlie’s offer or the Grange would see to it the boys were rescued and
protected. They made it clear, while it might seem cold, their
offer was one of courtesy to them out of the respect for their success
in running the ranch to that point. Surprisingly, the majority
chose to join the Grange. There were only
three couples of house parents who refused to accept or go along with
the Grange. They were dismissed and immediately began to speak
out against the Grange. They told the most outrageous stories,
but no one believed them. Over the years, Lazarus and Charlie
helped a number of people in the community in high positions who
quickly put an end to their stories. No one in the community
would hire them or rent them a place to live. They had little
money from savings and had to move away from the area. They were
forced to call upon the
goodness and generosity of relatives who were already strapped to the
max.
* * * * * * *
Two full weeks
after the mysterious explosion on the other side of the Moon, the
evening of the Goodnight men’s big birthday party, which was always
celebrated the second Sunday in June, there was to be a special address
to the nation by the Holy Prophet. Everyone was there. Waco
and Buskin invited the entire boy’s ranch and five year old Kevin was
sitting in his hero’s lap. The men were relaxing and having a
great
time. They played a football game that afternoon to end all
football games. All the local coaches who were Grange members
were there with their families. They refereed the game and had a
chance to coach some of the best talent in the country. They
would be losing JR Goodnight that year. He was leaving in the
fall to join his big brothers at A&M. Waco and Buskin weren’t
allowed to play together, but Buskin was Lucas Long’s dead eye
receiver. JR played receiver for his brother. It was one
hell of a game down to the last few minutes when Lucas bombed Buskin
from the twenty yard line and won the game. Buskin played against
Lucas and Waco before, but he never realized how talented Lucas was.
“Damn, brother,
I’d love to have you for a teammate at school.” Buskin complimented
him. Lucas grinned real big.
"I
thought about it,
but I couldn’t leave ma’ dad and little brothers. Dad’s been
under a lot of stress trying to get everything wrapped up here, and
with all
the other responsibilities he’s got, he don’t take care of
himself unless I’m here to ride herd on him. He depends on me,
and I see it as my job to take good care of him so what needs to get
done, gits done. He offered me my freedom to let me go with my
brother to A&M, but I declined. I’ll be his slave for a while
longer. I ain’t quite ready to be a freeman yet. At least
not until we get relocated, and he don’t need me so much.” They
went into the big barn where Charlie had a huge flat screen TV
installed and hung from the loft so everyone could gather and
watch. There was a big crowd. No one wanted to drive home
and miss the speech on the way.
“My fellow
Americans,” Scudder launched into his speech. He was sitting
down,
and his delicate condition was well hidden behind the desk in the oval
office. “I come before you this evening with an announcement of
grave importance. Perhaps your government should have been more
open with you in the past. From the early 1950's on,
different administrations and powerful outside influences kept secrets
from you about their
knowledge and contacts with extraterrestrial life.” You could’ve
heard a pin drop in the hay of the barn. Scudder went on to give
the complete story of what the government knew and covered up for
almost a hundred years. He tried to give a number of
rationalizations why other administrations chose to lie to the people
and keep all these things secret unto themselves, but his reasons
sounded flat. The real reason was black-ops programs were fed
like hungry monsters with ravenous apatites, and the big oil companies
didn't want a cheap energy source made available to the public.
Scudder told everyone
around the world of the alien presence and threat. It wasn’t a
long speech, but it was to the point. It asked more questions
than it answered. Scudder left his audience with a feeling there
was little anyone could do, and our world was pretty much
a sitting duck. The members of the Grange weren’t worried, but
Scudder’s speech left them flabbergasted. Everything was left
open. Scudder didn’t offer any plan for a fight or
resistance. Lazarus spoke and made some comments.
“He couldn’t
really come right out and say what the government might have planned
without tipping off the aliens. He was smart not to appear overly
optimistic. He’s hoping people will take matters into their own
hands and make resistance a living, breathing thing. For many
years the American people have only been concerned with their day to
day creature comforts, and they have allowed their freedoms and rights
to be taken away from them. If they didn’t agree with the
political party which lost an election they didn’t see a problem.
Hooray for our side, tough shit for them. Now, Joe six pack and
his brood of nuckle draging mouth breathing morons are being confronted
with their very own real threat, but this one won’t be won in a voting
booth by crooked politicians. Neither will anyone be able to fix
this vote for them. The aliens don’t care whether it’s in good
taste to belong to a particular political party, they only care about
how good their members taste.” Lazarus smiled.
* * * * *
* *
Waco and Buskin
wanted to continue their education, but to do so they had to have the
teachers from which to learn. They began to gather secular
administrators, closet liberals, those against the insanity of
religious persecution and formed the first University of Arts and
Medicine on Mars. They suspected Dr. Dyer only touted the party
line against evolution in support of fundamentalism because he was a
survivor. They were right, and his introduction to several of the
wonders the cowboys shared with him opened his eyes, followed closely
by
his heart and mind.
“Hello, Grady,
is your co-terminus around?” Waco typed and told his co-terminus
to send to Grady Mayhew.
“Captain Waco,
how good to hear from you again. May we speak directly,
Sir?” Grady asked.
“Sure.” Waco
spoke and he was connected with a fine picture of Grady. He
looked different. His moustache was neately trimmed and he had
much shorter hair with no chops. “How are you coming along,
Grady?”
“Fine, Captain
Waco, Ed is very good to me. I did a quick search of the net and
found some pics of his great granddad. I patterned my terminus to
look like a younger version of Grady Mayhew. I don’t know if he
realizes it or not, but he tells me I’m very similar to his great
granddad. He’s just getting out of the shower. Shall I call
to him for you?” Grady asked.
“No, he’ll be
along directly.” Waco said. From the bathroom Dyer heard a voice.
“Who you talking
to, Grady?” Dyer called out. Waco recognized his
professor’s voice.
“Captain Waco,
Sir. He’d like to speak with you.”
“No, shit?
Tell him I’ll be right there, Son.” Dyer responded. Waco laughed.
“He calls you
‘son’?” Waco grinned. Grady actually blushed.
“Yes, Sir.
I like it when he calls me ‘son.’”
“No explanation
necessary, Grady. I understand completely. I’ve been known
to wet my Wrangler when some man I admire and respect refers to me as
‘son.’” he grinned. “Then I take it you two have bonded.” Waco
smiled.
“Yes, Sir.
He impresses me more each day and since he’s been able to learn the
truth without fear from the free-net he’s allowed himself to grow
considerably. He’s a changed man, Captain Waco, but you always
knew he lived in a closet— make that two closets, Sir.” Grady laughed
at his own joke. Waco joined him.
“He wasn’t able
to hide in that closet from me and my brother, Grady.”
“I assured him
you know, but he swears you’re not ‘wise’ to him.”
“Let’s let him
keep believing it. What say, young man?” Waco smiled.
“I owe you that,
Captain Waco.” he grinned. Dr. Edwin Dyer’s face came on Waco’s
laptop.
“Are you ready
to return your operating system to me, Professor?” Waco
challenged.
“Are you
kidding? Over my dead body. You’d have a big fight on your
hands. I think I’d actually consider killing to keep Grady with
me. I wouldn’t wanna’ live without Grady. He makes my life
so much easier. He has become very real to me. Okay, okay,
your teacher humbly concedes I was wrong. Now, I undersand
how one might come to develop affection for an evolved intelligence, as
you call it.” Dyer grinned
real big, then continued, “I’ve never felt so passionate about
anything in my life, Cadet Corporal Goodnight. I can’t remember
when I last touched that piece of garbage with the Gates’ system.
I tried Linux for a while, and it was a little better, but the
university has an exclusive contract with the Gates monopoly. I
can’t thank you enough for my new buddy, but I’m not alone. The
others are thrilled with theirs. We six got together last night
for some ‘za’ and ‘ski.’* We introduced each other to our
co-terminus’
and they each have a different personality. I have to say, I like
Grady best. He reminds me so damn much of my great
granddad. It’s so good to hear from you, Mr. Goodnight. How
are you? Did you hear our ‘glorious leaders’ speech?” Dyer smiled
and knew Waco would pick up on his
cognomen for the president.
“Cadet Corporal
Namid and I are doing fine. We did catch the speech you asked
about on the night of me and my brothers’ birthday party. We all
have birthday’s within two weeks of each other and always celebrate
them on the second Sunday of June. We gathered in the barn and
watched our dear glorious leader. I felt sorry for him.”
“I didn’t.” said
Dyer and smiled. Waco didn’t pursue his statement.
“He walks his
path alone, Dr. Dyer. He’s had some help, but he invested all his
interests in the wrong sector. In layman’s language, he bet on
the wrong horse. He’s a lonely man, but he will be
remembered.”
“How?”
“His son’s will
survive.”
“Wait a
minute. He isn’t married. He never was married. I’ve
often suspected he... well, you know.... because of that awful Austin
Taycious he made his right hand man. Boy, did he ever get the
right name.” Dyer chuckled. “What can I do for you, young
man?” Dyer asked.
“Accept a humble
invitation from me and my brothers to spend the fourth of July weekend
at our ranch. If you have a significant other of either flavor
you’re more than welcome to bring them along. I can promise you
and them a weekend you’ll never forget.”
“Are you really
that liberal, Cadet Corporal Goodnight?” Professor Dyer was trying to
feel him out.
“I don’t know
how liberal I am, but I’m pretty sure my roommate’s homo, Sir.” Waco
smiled.
“Jesus!” Dyer
exclaimed, “Why would you say a thing like that about Corporal
Buskin?”
“Because, ever’
time I kiss him, he giggles.” Waco laughed. Dyer knew he’d been
had, and he heard Grady giggle.
“Hesh up,
Grady!” Waco said. It only caused Grady to laugh more.
“That was funny,
Captain Waco.” Grady responded.
“Why does my
co-terminus call you ‘Captain?’”
“Cause, I’m
captain of the football team, and I’m captain of my own ship.”
“You have a
boat?”
“Sort of... it’s
difficult to explain.... it’s more a figure of speech.” Waco smiled.
“Now back to my question. You and the five other professors their
families or significant others are invited for the long weekend.
We’re
planning a big blowout celebration and there will be a rodeo, more good
food than you can imagine and more surprises for you. I’ll even
let you taste lummox milk.” Waco smiled.
“Can I forego
the milk?” he asked.
“No, you need to
open certain neural pathways in your brain what have been closed to
you, keeping you from writing a masterpiece of modern physics. It
will break those pathways free for you.”
“I’ll contact
the others. When do I have to let you know? How will we get
there?” he asked.
“I’d appreciate
you asking the others on our behalf. Grady is recording
this. Play it back for them. I will tell them and you, my
dad and family want to celebrate and shake the hands of such
fine, intelligent, dedicated teachers their boys have raved about for
two
years. When you’re ready, gather at your place and me and my
brother will pick you up and taxi you to the ranch.” Waco
explained.
Dr. Dyer didn’t
fully understand but told Waco he would love to visit his ranch, and he
knew the others would, too. Only one man had a family; a wife, a
little girl and boy. One of the women was married to another
professor who taught at UT, but he was home for the summer.
Everything was arranged and the six
with their families gathered at Dr. Edwin Dyer’s
house. At the exact time he said they would arrive, Waco and
Buskin knocked on Dr. Dyer’s front door.
“I didn’t think
you men would come in person.” Dr. Dyer said looking at the two
immaculately dressed cowboys in their Texas Aggie buckaroo boots and
huge hats.
“We came to
escort you folks to the ranch.” They walked in and said ‘hello’ to
everyone and met the people they didn’t know. Buskin was holding
the little boy and Waco was holding his sister. “Is everyone
ready for a great Western weekend holiday?”
“Yeah!” they all
responded rather boisterously.
“Did you lock
the front door, brother?” Waco asked him.
“I did.” Buskin
replied. Dr.
Dyer looked puzzled.
“Close your
eyes, sweetheart.” Waco told the little girl. Buskin told the boy
the same.
“Ms. Myra, we’re ready to come
aboard.” There
was a
bright flash of light. No one had time to yell or say a word, and
they were on the bridge of the Buttercup. Waco spoke to the
little girl.
“You can open
you eyes now, Molly.”
“You can open
your eyes, Teddy.” Buskin told the boy.
“Holy crap!” Dr.
Dyer exclaimed. "This is a space ship."
“Welcome aboard
the Buttercup, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Ms. Myra.
I’m Captain Waco’s on-board artificially evolved intelligence. I
fly this school bus.” Ms. Myra spoke.
“I knew you men
were more than you let on.” Dr. Dyer said. The others were
dumbstruck.
“No we ain’t,
Sir. We’s jes' down-home West Texas cowboys. We just happen
to
have a ranch foreman what’s a very old and wise Earthman who is
dedicated to seeing the human race survive. Now you know why I’m
called Captain Waco. The Buttercup is my ship. I would
offer you ladies and gentlemen refreshments, but we won’t have
time. We’ll be docking with our mother ship near our ranch in a
few minutes, but first I need to assign you good folks rooms.
You’ll be staying in a wonderful hotel here on my ship run by Mr. Jack
Hall, his bonded partner Buck Hall, their head critter wrangler Warren
Steele
and his mate Horse.” Waco took them
through a gate, and they saw before them a beautiful meadow filled
with flowers with enormous redwood trees in the distance. The
beauty took their breath away.
“How could you
have this on board a spaceship?” asked Dr. Dyer.
“Tesseracts and
subatomic diminution, Doctor. When you walked though the gate
you entered a world one one-hundredth your previous size.”
Up though the
tall flowers came bounding two beautiful black and white sheep dogs and
two Collies, a male and female. Following them were several
huge horses.
“Look, it’s
Reveille and a male Collie.” one of the women said. "No wonder
she likes it here. She's got a boyfriend. He's a handsome
dog." she allowed.
The sheep dogs
were laughing and yelling. “Captain Waco! Buskin!
You’re here. You brought guest. How wonderful! Oh
look,
Laverne, a little boy and girl!” cried Patty to her sister. The
kids were
enthralled by the talking dogs. So were their parents.
Down though the
meadow strolled three cowboys followed by a huge furry monster who
seemed to just glide along behind them. In his arms he carried
his small son. Jack and Buck were very
gracious and welcomed everyone to the Two Meadows Inn. Warren
Steele introduced his mate Horse and their bairn Colt to them.
Horse didn’t offer his
hand but nodded his welcome. They checked them in and their hosts
made sure they would be comfortable. The Two Meadows Inn was a
fine resort.
“You ain’t seen
nothing yet.” said Patty and everyone laughed.
The six
professors and their guests had the most wonderful time of their
lives. They loved the rodeo, barbecue and all the fireworks but
their trip to Mars the next day was outstanding. Waco told them
he had the funding available to start a university on Mars and ask if
they would they be interested? Not one turned him down.
* * * * * * *
Prices for
everything inflated over the years. The senior Aggie boots that
were so dear to the Corps of Cadets rose from a thousand dollars a pair
to two thousand by the time Waco and Buskin enrolled as freshmen at
A&M. It seemed a great price to pay for an item one would
only wear for one year. Of course, the Corps of Cadets attended
class in uniform wearing their boots. They wore them everywhere
they went off campus when they went in uniform. After
graduation they were either resold to the next class of seniors or put
into the back of a closet to remain there, never to be worn again,
until the owner grew too old to appreciate them or passed them on to a
relative. It was a huge investment for every student, but it was
tradition. It was a tradition that made a statement: I am a
senior, I have arrived. The men got to wear them from
the ‘Final Review’ of their junior year until the final review of their
senior year.
Waco was never
one to spend his dad or Lazarus’s money foolishly, especially if
there was an alternative means to get something by a cheaper
means. Lazarus made sure Buskin had the money to spend by adding
an extra two thousand to his yearly stipend he alloted him for working
on the ranch and for the Grange each summer, but Buskin was of the same
mind as his big brother. At the end of their sophomore year one
of their upper class teammates loaned Waco his pair for the
weekend. Waco carried them home with him to his buddy,
Captain Montana. He returned them to his teammate the following
Monday
and thanked him kindly. The next time Buskin and Waco went home
to the ranch, Monty had two handsome pair of boots ready. A pair
for Waco and a pair for Buskin. They were even better looking
than the typical pair the other upperclassmen wore. They were
heavier looking and stood out as being superior materials and
workmanship. They were ready for the final review their junior
year. The end of their junior year they could now wear their new
boots and wore them home on the train. It was one of the few
times the boys took the train home. It was so everyone
could see and admire them in their senior boots. Waco and Buskin
traveled so many times on the train all the employees knew and loved
them. They were thrilled to have them on-board and would talk
football and ranching with the boy for hours. The time would fly
by.
Charlie was
right. When Trey Vinceeth got his first look at his bonded mate
in his full cadet uniform with his tall boots, he almost went
nuts. Charlie didn’t stand a chance, but he didn’t have to
fret. He had his own Corp Cadet who was just as stunning in his
uniform and boots. Waco and Buskin wore their dress uniforms and
boots everywhere they could that year. When they traveled to the
Boy’s Ranch their little brothers would go crazy trying to get pictures
with them and their heroes in their handsome uniforms. It opened
many doors for Buskin and Waco and made them well known throughout the
Southwest.
* * * * * * *
Waco and Buskin
made it through their graduation. It was a great day and more
than half the Grange made the trip to see Waco and Buskin graduate
number one and two in their class. Not only were they two of the
most outstanding athletes, they had almost perfect grade scores.
The entire audience rose and gave them standing ovations in
admiration. Waco gave the valedictorian speech and Buskin gave
the salutatorian speech. For all the joy and celebration of the
day, Waco and Buskin’s graduation was like a dark omen. As the
ceremonies ended and a final obligatory prayer said, the sky began to
darken as hundreds of ominous spacecraft leisurely floated silently
overhead blocking the warm spring sun. It was as if the aliens
were
making a bold statement of their return. Charlie compared it to
cowboys riding down into a herd of cattle to round them up after a long
period of leaving them to their own undisturbed lives. To
everyone’s horror, several young children were lifted off the ground
and began to sail upward toward the ships where they disappeared.
The aliens didn’t seem to care anymore about anonymity.
Many got
pictures of the children sailing through the sky, and they were
published on the free-net. The mainstream medium didn’t bother to
investigate. Even though the Holy Prophet told the people about
the threat, they were so used to towing the party line, if they didn’t
have approval to report something, it was completely ignored or passed
over as so much UFO hype and hooey. Word spread quickly, and even
the most hard core of right wing fundamentalist began to log onto the
free-net to find out what was really going on. Such fly-overs and
mass abductions became common place. If the aliens suffered any
resistance they would wipe out a community. And so the
beginning of the end began. Nations were beginning to accuse each
other of cooperating with the aliens and tensions were running
high. The very day of Waco and Buskin’s graduation Lazarus called
a meeting of the Grange and announced the time of departure was drawing
nigh. He told them the time
had come for a great gathering together of the people.
He sent out the same
order to the other ships stationed around the world that the ‘yellow’
light was lit and to make ready for departure. He would approve
immediate evacuation of properties and the transfer of personnel to
established colonies on all ships. He also made an announcement
he dreaded to make. Lazarus made a strong but bold statement
about those who brought the last vestiges of religion with them must
understand they are welcome to believe and practice their faith, but
they are not to proselytize nor preach the word. They may meet in
small groups, but there would be no preachers or anyone among them to
define their beliefs for them. Religion would become a very
personal thing. The word ‘gospel’ would no longer be considered a
valid word for anything. Nothing was gospel. Gospel gave
the connotation of truth and unjustifiable credence to beliefs accepted
on faith alone. It would be redefined as that which is false and
misleading, based on myth and hearsay.
He planned to
have all religion either suppressed, thrown aside or eradicated in one
generation. He added, his decision wasn’t as bad as it might seem
at first, because with the advent of the long-shot, one generation may
live two thousand years or longer. For his critics who might
consider his decree harsh, he suggested it was no more harsh than the
reality of what religion did to destroy their world. He asked the
question: Which is more harsh, doing away with mythology and
superstition or destroying
each other and rationalizing it in the name of false gods in
fanatically adhered to anti-humanistic religious and political
policies? He issued an ultimatum. Those who could not abide
by
his rules must leave. He had no takers. No one strenuously
objected. After all, they weren’t told they had to give up their
security blankets. Besides, the colonies existed quite well
and flourished under a considerably less sectarian more humanistic
atmosphere.
Many felt Lazarus’ comments might be an overreaction
to the unremitting stupidity of fundamentalism and its imposition
on any man of reason. Those who might have harbored hopes for a
religious resurgence became more discouraged as time progressed, but
eventually, even they gave up their personal crusades as they witnessed
a more happy and cooperative society emerge. The Christianist
ranchers begin to see the Grange ranches disappearing one by one and
begin to panic. For years the Grange was left alone by the grays
and snakes, but now massive acreage, buildings, expensive ranch homes,
compounds and facilities, slave quarters, barns and equipment, critters
and slaves were gone overnight, including the families. At first,
the non-Grange fundies enjoyed a certain schadenfreude.
“Serves ‘em
right! Them bastards got what was coming to ‘em for not sharing
with us.”
“They deserved
what they got! What goes around, comes around!”
“Our god has
come to our aid and smote our enemy. Vengeance is mine, saith the
Lord! Good riddance.” they allowed.
Their
self-righteous congratulatory smugness didn’t last long when the grays
and snakes began to come after them in force. They no longer had
the Grange ranchers to act as buffers for them. They begin to see
the loss of another large, wealthy Grange ranch as a greater threat to
them, and they became sore afraid. It got really bad when entire
small towns begin to disappear. With the Internet in almost
everyone’s home along with commercial and public cable television, they
watched it happening all over the world. Small towns in Europe,
Australia, New Zealand, Asia, Africa, South America, Mexico and more
were disappearing at an alarming rate. There was no doubt
something large was happening but no one would tell them the
meanings. Other than speculation on the free-net, they had no way
of knowing what was happening or who was responsible since no one was
successful in videoing the capture of a town or large property.
There was much
talk in non-Grange circles the grays and snakes stopped random
abductions and were taking anything they could. The general
consensus was
the aliens were harvesting everything, kept only what they wanted and
discarded the rest. It was compared to drag net trawling
techniques in the fishing industry. The huge, heavy nets dredge
everything from the floor of the ocean. The fishermen took what
they could sell and threw back or destroyed the rest. Junk fish
were sometimes killed, ground up and processed for fertilizer.
The same was true of strip deforestation. What couldn’t be used
was ground up for pulp. Of course, their idea and analogy was
completely wrong, but they had no one to confirm or deny their
suspicions. Lazarus and his
crew began to systematically take the Steele boy’s ranches. As
they disappear so did the folks who worked and lived on them.
Abigail Yates learned of her family disappearing one ranch at a
time. She wondered if it was the ‘rapture’ described in the
bible. Her husband, David Yates, assured her it wasn’t. Why
would God take the godless heathens, as he considered her relatives,
before him and his wife? Besides, he insisted,
“H’it don’t say
nothing about taking no ranches.” He was sure there was demonic
forces involved. When the boy’s ranch disappeared with no sign or
trace of the people, there was a great pall came over the community,
and
they gathered in their churches to pray for the lost souls— who, in
reality, were doing quite well in their new location on Captain Tex
Olefson’s
ship. The last ranch
to be lifted and taken aboard the Bandersnatch was Charlie and Waco’s
family ranch. The Potter/Goodnight holdings and Angus Goodnight's
ranch were taken a couple of weeks before and they were settling in
comfortably. The previous evening two of the largest of the
remaining ranches, the Gibbons’ ranch and Sonny Steele’s ranch were
lifted aboard another one of the scout ships. Abigail and David
Yates drove out to her parent’s ranch and there was nothing there but a
huge crater. Abigail panicked and insisted David drive her to
Charlie Goodnight’s ranch. Just as they were coming up over the
rise to approach the entry to the main gate to the ranch a dark ominous
cloud completely covered the ranch. There was lightening and what
looked like smoke coming from the cloud. It was unlike anything
they ever saw. Yates pulled over to the side of the road, and
they watched as the Goodnight ranch seemed to shrink and grow
smaller. They couldn’t believe what they were seeing.
There was nothing left but a huge, gaping hole. They
watched as it grew even smaller and finally was lifted into the dark
cloud and disappeared completely. They watched as the cloud
dispersed
and finally blew away revealing nothing but the stars. They sat
for a long while until Abigail started crying. David didn’t know
what to say. There were no words to describe or console his
wife. Their world seemed to be taken away one chunk at a time.
“We missed the
rapture.” Abigail wailed. “My mother told me I had to give
up my fundamentalist beliefs and become more of a secular
humanist. She was right, but I didn’t listen to her. I
thought she was wrong, and we were right. They even took my
heathen cowboy brothers before me.” she wailed.
“Now, dear,
there must be some other explanation.” Yates offered a half-ass
Christianist apology.
“No, it’s all
your fault! I forgave you your trespasses, but obviously God
hasn’t. Now, I’m to be condemned and left behind to suffer
because of you. Well, I hope you’ve picked out something really
festive to wear when we stand in judgment together.” she lashed out at
her
husband. Yates turned the
ignition, put the car in gear, turned around and headed back to
town. It was a quiet ride back to the parsonage. As they
turned into their driveway there were huge flashes of light in the sky
off in the distance toward El Paso and several North of them.
They lit up the whole sky. There would be no further tribulation
for them, Armageddon had begun. There was much more to worry
about than the rapture. They were facing their own mortality in
the face of exploding thermo-nuclear bombs.
The call went
out from the Bandersnatch to begin the Exodus. Along with
thousands of other ships of the same size and capacity around the
world, the Mighty Bee, the Bandersnatch, slowly rose thundering from
her sleep, from where she was moored within the blue granite mountains
of the Greater Permian Basin for a little over a dozen years and
silently rose as a thing of great beauty into the smoke filled
sky. All the large video screens in the colonies on all the ships
were tuned into the only channel being broadcast so they might watch
the last somber and tragic death throes of the late, great planet
Earth. There were no dry eyes. Everyone was weeping for the
loss of their home world and the anxiety of the unknown. Some
were weeping from relief because it was really happening. They
were being caught up in the sky to be taken from the final
tribulation. It wasn’t quite what many expected of a final
rapture, but it was close enough. There was no doubt in anyone’s
mind the insanity of religious fundamentalism brought the world to the
Armageddon the fundamentalist so much wanted and for which they
fervently
prayed. The only problem was, it wasn’t in the middle East, it
was in their own backyards.
Montana, his
young son and his faithful crew were riding shotgun to the Mighty Bee
in
case, by some slim chance, she should be detected by the grays or
snakes. There was little chance of that happening, but Lazarus
felt more comfortable if he had a flotilla of smaller, more
maneuverable ships to cover their ass. There were several hundred
thousand souls on the various ships within the Bandersnatch.
Monty was carrying a large portion of land, critters and personal
family he accumulated in the six years of living with the
Goodnights. He was emancipated the year before, but there was
little change in his life. He realized he’d only been a slave in
name only and because he lived his life as close to family as possible,
he was absorbed into the greater Goodnight brotherhood. His ship
carried the Goodnight/Potter ranches and all the critters. Angus
asked him to carry his property, and he gladly obliged his big cowboy
buddy. He also carried all the Ong’s properties and the large Ong
family on his other ship, the Lotus. Along with the Goodnight
ranches on the Gopher Bay he carried the properties, the house and
buildings his
granddad left him.
* * * * * * *
Tina Taycious
stood on the observation deck in a smart skirt and matching top wearing
a pair of sensible low quarter pumps. She was radiant in her new
body and finally felt quite at home and at peace within herself.
Next to her stood her boyfriend, a big six foot eight cowboy with the
dick of death. He was dumber than dirt, but he was a hard worker,
had a good heart,
and was a good provider. He was also a fucking bull in bed and he
just loved himself some Tina cunt. They were talking marriage and
a big family. Tina got a small kerchief from her matching handbag
and dabbed at her eyes as she watched the explosions down below on the
planet and knew the destruction wouldn’t cease until the last man at
the last button did his thing for God and country. She said her
‘goodbyes’ to Jerry Scudder a month or more before. After he gave
birth to the twins, Norman and Austin, he sent them and their Auntie
Tina Taycious
away. He knew he was about to lose most of his Temple Guards and
held a big party to wish them well. Jesse and Utah dropped by for
a few minutes to say ‘goodbye’ and Jesse returned him to his original
male state. He was grateful he would die as a whole man.
Lazarus ordered
all motherships to orbit the planet for one last look before they
headed to Mars. He didn’t want anyone to forget what they saw and
made sure many videos were made of the holocaust. It was a
distressing time for everyone. It seemed like no one trusted
anyone anymore and the whole planet went mad to self-destruct rather
than to be a continuing food source for the aliens. All hope was
lost and there was no future. Scudder and his staff headed
for the underground cities, but did a dastardly thing immediately after
arriving. The rich and famous and many from Arab countries who
bought their way into a safe haven if worse came to worse, were
ready to occupy their place in the cities. Scudder thought about
the confusion and the conflict between Muslims and Christians and
locked
them out. He also locked out the corporate elite and the most
monied of the world. Bill Gates was almost a hundred but was
refused entry. He died among the common folks whom he bilked
billions from for a third rate product. Finally, the Admiral
called a halt to the observations and gave a “forward ho the wagons” to
head for Mars. All the smaller craft docked with the Bandersnatch
and settled in for the trip to their new, temporary world.
Everyone was
exhausted and tried as best they could to relax and enjoy the
anticlimactic trip to Mars. Waco excused himself and took his
small family to his quarters on the Buttercup. The Two Meadows
Inn was packed with people, but they had a full time staff seeing to
their needs. Waco managed to get himself a couple of bio-droids
added to his staff who were wonderfully accommodating and saw to his,
Trey’s and Ox’s needs. The trip went smoothly, but they would
have a forty-eight hour flight. It seemed right somehow to crawl
into bed with the two most important people in his life and celebrate
their continued existence with a little love making. Waco didn’t
worry about his dad. He knew he was being well taken care of by
his brother Buskin and Droon. Charlie invited the big lummox to
share his bed with Buskin from time to time. He wanted Buskin to
give him a grandson. Droon was more than willing.
Trey took charge
and began his ritualistic cleansing and preparation for his bonded mate
and his slave. It was relaxing and just felt so right, but this
night Trey Vinceeth had something more in mind. He could share
his mind with his lummox brother, and they conspired to begin a
family. Garron held his young master as his bonded warrior mate
fucked him to climax. Then Trey held Waco in his huge arms and
made love to him while his bonded lummox husband fucked him for the
first time. Waco was no dummy. He knew what they were doing
as Ox reached a powerful climax and released a proto-embryo into the
fluid with which he filled Waco’s lower colon. It swam to a
comfortable location, attached itself and began to gather unto
itself Captain Vinceeth’s sperm. When Ox pulled out, they both
checked Waco’s sphincter and sure enough, it was a bright cherry red
color. Waco Lariat Goodnight was pregnant with his Visallian
warrior’s son. They would sing songs together of welcome for the
child and tell the boy he was conceived on the way from death and
destruction to a new hope on a new world. While all is crumbling
around you and the universe seems against you, somewhere there is
hope. Somewhere, there is always time enough for love.
The End ~ End of
Story!
End of Chapter 75 ~ Waco’s Lummox
Copyright 2008 ~
Waddie Goodnight
All Rights
Reserved ~
Mail to:
waddiebear@yahoo.com
Waddie Greywof's Web Site: http://www.asstr.org/~Waddie_Greywolf
Proofed: 02/12/10
*The wise old
owl aria, from the opera “Peter Grimes.” Music by Benjamin Britten:
Libretto by Montagu Slater
* za and ski ~
pizza and brewski
If you have enjoyed this story, please remember it takes contributions
from you as readers to keep this site going. Please give
generously to Nifty.org.