Terran Times 18 - Emerald Envisage (54 page)

Understanding her moment had come, Rydan raised himself and pushed his marble-like cock inside the slit. Having been hard since Eylean’s first touch, he was unable to hold back, especially since the feelings were completely different. Not as tight as an asshole, her sticky wetness trapping his demanding cock felt exquisitely delicious and more accommodating for a change. He began to move, his flesh rubbing against her wet walls, pumping harder as feelings became more intense until inevitably he lost all control.

With a satisfied sigh, he collapsed on her and she embraced him tightly.

* * * *

“Time to go,” a knock and a voice at the door called for him.

“Coming,” Rydan assured, though he was too exhausted to move. He turned to look at Eylean’s beautiful face.

They had spent the entire night having sex, trying any position that took their fancy, even sharing some pointers on the best ways to love a man. Twisting and turning on the bed until morning had seemed like a dream come true. Now they were not ready to part.

Knowing time was short, Eylean resumed their initial conversation. “Listen, Rydan,” her urgent tone left no doubts about her concern, “I know you’d be doomed if you stayed here, exactly like Kyraen. I’ve been meaning to leave myself for a long time, only I don’t want to do it alone.” She blushed deeply. “I know I’m a coward, but there’s something about starting a new life completely alone that scares me to death.”

He caressed her face, then bent on her mouth. His lips felt warm as they brushed against hers, his tongue flicking out to trace the edges, then pushing inside to deepen the kiss. Surrendering completely, she opened her mouth wide and let him in, relishing his taste. They did not move for a long time, their tongues performing all that was required.

“I won’t let you go alone,” he promised finally, pulling back.

“Really?” She flashed a grateful look. “Then I’ll come get you.”

“When?”

That was the hard part. She had to steal a spaceship—not an easy task in itself—then fly undetected to Rydan, after she had bribed someone influential to tell her exactly the sky scanners’ position. All in all, the task could prove to be more than she could handle, but Eylean felt confident. “Soon,” she assured.

* * * *

Something in her eyes did not convince him. “Are you sure?” he asked dubious.

“I’ll come for you,” she promised solemnly, her brown eyes vouching her words. “Trust me.”

Trusting her, he waited patiently day after unending day, spying the sky for any signs. But none came so he slipped back into his routine.

Derry had been particularly curious about his experience, though Rydan had not felt like sharing any details. At nights, sucking the redhead’s hard dick, he longed for the sticky wetness with its acrid taste and yielding flesh. Yet, memories had the bad tendency to fade. The more time passed, the more the episode lost its brilliant details until it remained like a tarnished image at the back of his mind. Still, he never lost hope.

When it finally happened, he almost did not believe it. He had strayed by himself inside the forest on a side path seldom taken by his team, the desire to be alone almost unbearable. Ever since their passionate night, he had not seen Eylean’s ghostly image either. That, more than the sex, was probably what he missed the most…
Like losing a close friend.

“Actually, Rydan,” a soft voice called him, “I’m right here in the flesh for a change.”

Startled, he raised his gaze. True to her word, she stood in front of the flying machine, her eyes twinkling in amusement at her uncanny ability to read his mind.
By the gods, how much I’ve missed you,
he told her, his gaze running her over.

She laughed teasingly. “Only because I look like Kyraen.”

“No,” he assured, though he had no rational explanation to offer. Maybe it was the sex, which had been so different from anything he had ever shared with a man. Or perhaps, it was just her. Either way, he was glad to see her in the forest, the real person for a change, almost as much as he was at the thought of leaving what had been his home for twenty-one odd years. Nothing tied him to the place, he had come to realize during the long nights spent listening to Derry’s soft snores. Not the work, however proud it had made him in the past, and certainly not the people. Somehow, Rydan had always known that Kyraen was his future and she was his extension, if not the most exciting thing he had met since his lover’s d

She grinned, probably reading his mind, while making way for him to climb aboard and sit at the head of the flying machine. Everything looked fascinating, the buttons, the beeping lights, the switches, the levers. He almost could not tear his gaze away from the control panel until accidentally his eye caught something out the large windows that did not quite register. He blinked in confusion, but the image did not disappear. He blinked again, then rubbed his eyes because something was probably wrong with them. When this did not work either, he shifted on his seat, distracting the eye before he looked outside again.

“What is it, Rydan?” she asked, noticing his discomfort.

He peered outside again. “There must be something wrong with this window,” he blurted at last.

“With the screen?” She looked at it carefully. “No, nothing’s wrong with it.”

“Then where did the forest go?” he said anguished.

“Forest? What forest?”

His blood turned icy cold just as his heart stopped. “What do you mean what forest? It’s where you’ve come visit me in your ghost-like form.”

She nodded in understanding. “Ha, you mean the wasteland.”

His gaze shifted back to the screen. Outside, a shiny white desert stretched out as far as the eye could see. On it, dark and threatening like a million spider legs, tiny black hoses ran in every direction. Cracked and peeled, the soil seemed brittle, not compact, rather shattered into minuscule fragments as if something had blown it to bits. The glare was unbearable. White shine bounced from the ground up, mixing with the sky’s own hard glare and creating the illusion there was no separation between the two. The intense whiteness only increased the contrast with the black hoses, making them seem even more menacing.

Gone were the tall green trees that had graced the landscape just a moment before. Plants, too, had disappeared from sight as if swallowed by the nasty dry cracks that broke the even surface. Nothing remained of the luscious emerald vegetation that Rydan had tended lovingly his entire life. He shook his head. “That’s impossible,” he mumbled in disbelief.

“Darling,” she said gently, “trust me. There’s never been anything but this giant desert here. Didn’t you see it?”

He shook his head. “You’re wrong, Eylean. There has always been a huge forest around our camp with incredibly green plants in all shades and hues. I personally tended—”

* * * *

“No, darling. Come see for yourself.” She took his arm, leading him outside the spaceship. “See?” she asked, her hand sweeping the vast wasteland.

As far as her eye could see, a bare desert stared back at her. She had hated planet Earth from the start. “Nothing but a wasteland,” they warned her in Kaldore. “It’s almost useless to hope new life will ever return, though the bastards certainly try,” her friend Lyanyr had spat.

“Is that why they keep sending us there,” another woman had joked.

Lyanyr had grinned. “That’s because they treat us like cattle to be impregnated by their top breeders.”

“You mean their stallions,” another woman chipped in.

“I’d say more slaves for sex since they can’t even leave the planet.”

“I don’t see there’s much difference with us,” Eylean had pointed out bitterly.

“Of course, there is, honey,” her friend had assured. “At least we know what they’re good for.” A general giggle broke the conversation. “Our delicious slaves have no idea who or what we are, much less what the meetings are for. All they know is they’ll have a lot of sex without understanding the purpose of it all.”

“As if men need purpose for sex,” another scoffed. “They’re quite happy to do it all the time without worrying about the consequences.”

“That isn’t always bad,” a third woman pointed out with a dreamy look in her eyes. “Even if child bearing’s not so hot, the start can be excellent. Only I don’t understand why the babies are all born over here.”

“With what must have happened on that world, it’s the only sensible thing to do.”

“Why? What happened?” Eylean had asked, her blood running cold, thinking of Kyraen’s sudden death.

“Don’t you know?” Lyanyr asked.

“You tell her,” the other woman urged.

“I talked with this Kaldorian woman and she told me about the disaster on planet Earth. Apparently, centuries ago, the population started an atomic war on vast scale until they destroyed everything, themselves included. When the Kaldorians discovered it, the planet was already dead, though some human
DNA
had survived. They found it and brought it back to life here. From there, they bred the first humans to send back to Earth.”

“Why would anyone do something so stupid as to send living beings on a dead planet?” Eylean had asked angrily, Kyraen’s face flashing in front of her eyes.

“The Kaldorian woman told me the planet is rich in natural resources, but they can’t get to them because of the radiations.”

“What’s that?” the third woman asked.

“It seems that an atomic catastrophe leaves behind dangerous wastes. Nothing you can see or smell, but it poisons the system until the person dies.”

“And it happens to all those living on Earth?” Eylean had asked, sick to her stomach.

“Well, apparently we are the breeders of a new generation, stronger and better equipped to withstand the harmful radiations. That’s why they make us mate with our fellow earthlings so we can produce upgraded versions of the only race that can survive on that damn planet. But they allow only men to live there. This way, Kaldore will soon have a human race strong enough to extract precious minerals from the ground.”

“The men? What about us? Aren’t we as human as they?”

“Yes, but they keep us separate to avoid contamination. Apparently, we’re too…important to risk losing.” Lyanyr winked mischievously.

“But if the men are poisoned, won’t it automatically affect our children, too?” the other woman asked, perplexed.

Lyanyr shrugged. “Apparently, the semen is not infected.”

“But…” Eylean’s voice shook in anger, “this means condemning thousands of people to certain death.”

“You know how much Kaldorian Authorities value human life,” Lyanyr observed. “Just see how they treat us. Besides, they have no remorse. They keep the men busy—”

“Doing useless work for sure,” Eylean cut in.

“Actually, the Kaldorian woman explained that they had discovered a chemical agent, which fights off dangerous radiation effects when given to the land.”

“The irrigation system!” Eylean said, suddenly understanding what Kyraen and Rydan had been doing all along.

“Exactly,” Lyanyr nodded. “Kaldore sends the chemical to be put inside the water and the earthlings spread it around.”

Not that it does any good,
Eylean thought discouraged, looking around the spaceship at the suffocating desert land. “Don’t you see?” she repeated.

* * * *

Rydan shook his head. Since stepping out of the flying machine, his forest had magically returned in all its emerald splendor and its infinite green shades. Mostly, he was glad to see high above, the tall trees almost touched the sky while the million plants squatted low, many wrapped by the black hoses. But the comforting picture did not last.

Unexplainably, as if his eye were a machine breaking down, pieces of the brilliantly green image began disappearing. Actually, the sensation was more like someone yanking out bits of image. He still saw the entire forest as it had been impressed in his mind, but each pixel was fast degrading into something terrifying.

Lurking behind the blank space, Rydan saw the desolate landscape he had watched from inside the spaceship. And the degradation did not stop. As the yanking continued, white brittle soil replaced the emerald expanse. First, the phenomenon changed only isolated parts of the picture. Then the two images overlapped—like a puzzle whose pieces had been misplaced—until finally, the desert sucked in the entire forest, leaving behind only the dirty flakes with the black tiny hoses stretching out forever.

Rydan did not even have the strength to blink. Instead, he lowered his head, feeling hopeless. His spirit crushed inside, he wanted to close his eyes and cry when something unusual caught his attention. Right in front of his feet, the last illusion remained in the form of a tiny almost invisible plant that clung to the brittle soil. Rydan had never seen such a plant so he looked at it intently before it disappeared just like everything else, swallowed by the enormous wasteland. Yet, it did not. He shifted his gaze, then returned to it and it was still in the exact same place he had left it, the only living thing in a sandy void.