Terran Times 18 - Emerald Envisage (52 page)

“Your duty,” the trainer continued, “is to lay an irrigation pipeline so the plants can get the nourishment they need.” He picked up a black plastic hose. “See this? It’s hollow inside.” He poked a finger through it. “It will bring water to the vegetation.”

“What water?” Rydan had asked, curious.

The trainer had gestured in a vague direction behind the camp. “We have a water reservoir over there. We fill it up every month with fresh water, then bring it to the plants with these hoses. As you can see,” he held one up for their inspection, “they have tiny holes on them. Your job will be to lay the hoses around the vegetation, then your team leader will connect each single piece to the main pipeline.”

Now, a team leader himself, Rydan connected the small hoses to one another until a black network covered every available piece of land, though it was hard to see through the thick vegetation. But at the crossroad, Rydan clearly saw the black lines stretching out in every direction.

They had reached the place where the teams split up. Work progressed better if people worked in small numbers and their community had done an excellent job so far.
The young ones, especially, look very promising,
Rydan thought, watching the twelve years old tagging along, their shoulders free of any weight, before leading his own team away.

Heavy silence clogging his ears, he took his men to his assigned area. Behind him, Rydan felt Derry’s heavy breathing.

They had been team members even before becoming lovers, a choice Rydan still had trouble accepting…probably because his long-time lover had died only a short while before. Or perhaps, it was just a question of knowing the extent of his feelings. Either way, the giant void in his heart was still far from healing.

Camp-mates since early teens, they had immediately felt the attraction between them. Kyraen was a special person, bright and full of life, always smiling despite his failing health. Rydan could not help falling in love with the twinkling brown eyes and dark complexion, his vibrantly alive attitude contagious to the point of no return. Becoming lovers had seemed only a fitting completion to a tight-knit friendship, which had grown and blossomed over the years. They had held nothing back, sharing minds and bodies in a frenzy of passion and feelings. But when Rydan had stood in front of his inanimate cold lover, he had felt nothing. Stunned speechless, he had simply wondered where the laughter had gone. Men came and went to offer their condolences, yet all Rydan heard was the unbearable silence digging a hole in his stomach.

Vaguely, Rydan remembered they had become an official couple only a few months earlier when the camp leader had assigned them a cabin of their own. As a matter of fact, none were available at the time so Laird had called the flying machines to bring the construction material. With a couple days’ work, Rydan and Kyraen’s new
love nest,
as
his lover called it, stood proudly among the others. But time was running out. After only a couple of months, the sparkling brown eyes fell very sick. Not even the blue pills that he already took helped made him feel better. He just wasted away under Rydan’s powerless gaze until he was gone.

Rydan’s mind simply refused to believe it, at first. He had kept waiting for his lover to wake up, flash his wonderfully bright smile and put everything back into place. So he sat tight, seeing the people around him as annoying ghosts. Only Derry had stood by his side through that long day, saying nothing, simply lending his energy to support Rydan’s dwindling strength.

The awful day had continued with Kyraen’s burning, an essential task that Laird insisted he could not postpone. Yet, he soon discovered the worse was not over. Returning to his empty place, he hesitated on the threshold, unsure whether to stay or run away. At that moment, he remembered Derry, still at his side like a faithful dog.

“Thank you,” Rydan had mumbled, finally stepping inside the dark cabin, mostly to make way for his co-worker. But he could not move much further. For the first time in that miserable day, he stared at the heavy loss as if it were an endless black void opening its fangs, ready to swallow him in its pain and desperation. Closing his eyes, Rydan knew he could not face it…
not tonight.
Despite their short time in the love nest, the place belonged to Kyraen as every tiny corner spoke of the flashing brown eyes and radiant smile. Anguished, he looked around, trying hard not to see, but unavoidably pulled into the memory game. To have to endure the entire night with his unwanted flashbacks had seemed unbearable to Rydan’s already confused mind.

“Are you sure you’re all right?” Derry had asked, coming up behind him.

Rydan looked again around the dark empty space, trying to find anything that would convince him to stay. “I—” he began, then stopped frustrated.

Derry had understood perfectly. His arms had wrapped around Rydan, pulling him close until his head rested on his chest. With soft cooing sounds, the redhead had caressed him gently, trying to soothe his pain.

Buried inside the broad chest, the hard lump Rydan had been nursing at the back of his throat finally melted and hot bitter tears ran down his face.

Derry had held him tight, his hands running lightly on Rydan’s back in sympathy. Exactly when the caress became more sensual, he could not recall later. He only knew that at one point, Derry’s touch did not seem as uninterested as it had just a moment before. His body pressed closer just as Derry bent to bite his neck. The bite sent shivers running down his back and Rydan found out his body was more than willing to forget about his dead lover. His mind sternly resisted considering it a betrayal. For a long moment, Rydan felt tempted to ask Derry to leave. But the prospect of remaining alone through the hardest night of his life was not an exciting prospect any way he looked at it. Closing his mouth, Rydan surrendered to Derry’s hot kisses.

The redhead had kept biting his neck, sometimes licking it with the hard tongue tip, other times clenching his teeth on the soft flesh, then sucking hard. His hands were also busy on Rydan’s ass, drawing circles on the firm buns and pressing them closer to his crotch. Rydan felt Derry’s arousal. The hard bulge pressing on his stomach was unmistakable. In want of something better to do, he pulled back and traced the growing shape through the cloth, trying to grasp it fully.

“Wait, let’s get more comfortable,” Derry suggested, pulling Rydan to the bed.

In a flash, they were both out of their clothes, toppling over one another. Derry lay on his back while Rydan pressed over him, their mouths sucking avidly the stirring cocks. To Rydan looking for a way to escape, closing his lips on Derry’s hard shaft while drowning in the redhead’s wet mouth, felt unreal. But his body took complete control, pushing away any unwanted thoughts.

His tongue lavishly wrapped around Derry’s bulging head, taking it all inside and loving to feel it strain against the confined space. He sucked greedily pushing it deeper inside, wanting it to reach his throat and choke him. At the same time, he felt pulled inside Derry’s hot opening, the loud sucking noises even more exciting as his cock strained to reach the redhead’s throat. Shoving forcefully, Rydan’s head followed the same movement as his lips slid up, then down the deliciously rigid stem, drawing the bulging head further in before starting the journey again while his own cock glided effortlessly inside the yielding cavity.

When tired of the game, they shifted positions. Derry signaled his desire by turning on his stomach and pushing up his ass. Pressing his hands on the firm buttocks, Rydan’s fingers traced the edges of the inviting hole that, when poked, surrendered immediately, the tight flesh easily giving in to his interested scouting.

“Please, take me,” Derry begged, thrusting back his ass.

Rydan did not wait any further. With a firm push, he broke through the narrow space. Derry groaned with pleasure as his flesh tightened around Rydan’s cock, squeezing and holding it snugly in place. He dipped inside, then out, enflamed by the skin rubbing against the soft walls. As he pumped faster, Derry gripped his own cock to follow the same rhythm. Lost in the movement, Rydan pushed harder, clashing against Derry’s frantic thrusts back that further enlarged the tight space to allow the cock a deeper reach inside until neither could stand the heat any longer. With one last thrust, everything went blank in an explosion, which shattered them to pieces.

Rydan smiled, recalling that first time. Since then, without any prior arrangement, Derry had simply stayed in Rydan’s bed. So far, it had worked fine for him, still nursing his grieving heart.
But what about the future?
he sometimes wondered.

“Lover, shouldn’t we stop here? This is where we finished work yesterday.”

Shaking his head clear, Rydan focused on the tasks ahead. Looking around, he recognized the spot, which like Derry said, was the same they had left the day before. “All right, gang,” he confirmed, turning to the others, “let’s get to work.”

While they unpacked the gear, he set up the connection with the two hoses surfacing above ground. Wherever they stopped work, he sealed any open hose so to avoid wasting precious water. Soon after, the men set to work, carefully wrapping the slender hoses around the plant stems so their tiny holes seeped the necessary nourishment directly into the ground.

As team leader, Rydan’s responsibilities were to seal and unseal the hoses, solve problems and help anyone new. Usually, he just worked along with the others, enjoying the feel of the brown soil slipping through his fingers as he placed the tiny black tubes in place.

Today though, he felt restless. After unloading his own gear, Rydan went away to check on the premises. The forest welcomed him with its intense silence and the million emerald shades. Nothing moved, not even a leaf. This was not odd, considering there was no wind anywhere across the land. Rydan walked for a while, his gaze darting rapidly from side to side, his ears alert to pick up the faintest signal.
Please, let it be here,
he begged to no one in particular. After meandering for a while through the forest, he was about to turn back when suddenly he heard it.

Steering in the sound’s direction, he circled a giant green tree. Behind it, half-hidden behind a plant, the creature raised its head as if expecting him and slowly got up. Rydan had no idea what the creature was. In fact, besides plants and human males, he had never seen another living thing anywhere. Not knowing what it was, he had been scared the first time he saw it.

He recalled perfectly that initial meeting because Kyraen had just died. One day, he had strayed alone into a clearing. His only desire was to get away from his men’s sad sympathy, which only made him feel worst, and remain for a while in blissful solitude. Instead, a noise had disturbed him. Raising his head, he had seen it, a strange creature with a slender body, green hair and eyes. To be fair, it looked human…in an unexplainably different way. Startled, Rydan had rose to run away when something about the creature’s face stopped him. Impossible though it seemed, the more he stared at it, the more he recognized some very familiar traits that had belonged to Kyraen. Unbelieving, he had blinked, then looked again to be certain the mind was not playing strange tricks on him, but his initial impression was only confirmed.

During the scrutiny, the creature had not moved, simply stared back at him with huge green eyes, a sad look dimming their brilliant color.

Confused, Rydan had retraced his steps. Of course, it seemed impossible to find his dead lover’s features on a…
creature? Illusion? Trick of the mind?
Whatever it was, it could not be real, he reasoned, because he had never seen the likes of it before. Yet, his heart told him otherwise so he had spent the rest of the morning trying to establish a connection. He talked to it, made gestures at it, even attempted to touch it. To every attempt, the creature responded only with looks, obviously unable to talk though it appeared to hear and understand what he said. When he stretched his hand, it moved away, clearly indicating it did not want a physical contact.

That had been the beginning of a new…friendship. Rydan had seen the creature other times, always alone in the forest, their communication running one way only. In the end, the creature’s prolonged speechlessness seemed an advantage. He poured his life story into its willing ears, telling of his frustrations, his doubts about Derry or anything he felt amiss in his life. Mostly, he talked about Kyraen as the unsettling resemblance grew stronger each time he saw the slender body with the green hair. Naturally, he had told no one about his silent friend, not even Derry. He was not afraid of being thought crazy. He just felt the creature belonged to him somehow and he liked to keep it locked up in his private universe.

“Today is my birthday, Kyraen,” he announced when he saw it. In lack of a formal name, his dead lover’s seemed more than appropriate. “And I’ll celebrate it with a special feast tonight,” he continued, sitting down in front of the creature.

It remained standing, looking at him sympathetically.

“Laird hasn’t told me much, but from what I heard around, it’ll be quite an experience. And the creatures I’m going to meet, they assure me they’re quite…exciting.”

The creature made a concerned face.

“Am I worried about Derry?” he asked, interpreting her look. He shrugged. “You know how I feel about him. He’s too…compliant. Today, for instance, his present was a blow job. I liked it, of course, but it did not make me feel any different about him. I mean, he’s good and caring.” He got lost in his thoughts for a moment. “Maybe, he’s not exactly what I want,” he admitted regretfully at last.