Cosmolab

COSMOLAB by Andrej Koymasky (C) 2006 written on July 1st, 1994 translated by the author English text kindly revised by

USUAL DISCLAIMER

"COSMOLAB" is a gay story, with some parts containing graphic scenes of sex between males. So, if in your land, religion, family, opinion and so on this is not good for you, it will be better not to read this story. But if you really want, or because YOU don't care, or because you think you really want to read it, please be my welcomed guest.

CHAPRTE 6 - YEAR 322: THE CONTACT

Nadir left his bunk and moved towards the bars. Benoit was calling him for his lunch. He pushed a tray with the food through the two layers of bars, until Nadir was able to take it.

"Today you have roasted fish. Do you like it?"

"Yes, I do. Any news?"

"Very little. Isao and Albert have divorced; Moses has been born to Paul and Xavier; and at the food-department, they found a way to produce tastier butter..."

"I see. And Fred?"

"He thinks of you."

"Do you talk to him?"

"Sure I do."

"Is he waiting for me? Doesn't he want a divorce when I'm out of here?"

"No, he is in love with you. He feels as bad as you do."

"And Steve? Is he all right? Does he ask about me?"

"He is a little man, now, and he is fine. He too, thinks of you."

"In two months he will be eleven years old and I cannot even send him a present, nor I can see him."

"It's hard, isn't it?"

"Yes, it's very hard. I had hoped they would have sentenced me to a shorter time. They have been very severe."

"It's the law; you know that. And you were lucky that Vance is not dead, after everything you did to him."

"I didn't want to kill him, even though I lost control. I just wanted to make him pay for what he did, to give him a lesson he would not forget."

"I don¹t think he will forget it. He got six years; you know. When you get out, he will still have four and half more years to stay in here."

"Are you the one who gives him his food?"

"Yes, I am."

"These six months have been such a long time. How can he manage and not go crazy?" "He is in very low spirits. When his time is up, he will be thirty years old. Do you know that?"

"He deserved it."

"He knows that."

"He knows? So he understands, at last?"

"I pity him."

"I don¹t. I pity the boys he abused before he abused my own, a lot more. Boys who were not even yet out of puberty. That was very bad!"

"Yes, of course it was. But six years more of segregation... He should be getting six years of psychological care, don't you think?"

"I don't know, and it's not my decision to make. I only know that when I saw my Steve in tears, when he told me what happened... I was unable to take it. My Steve, you understand? He was just a ten-year-old boy. What would you have done?"

"I understand, certainly, I can understand you. But what he did should not be paid for with his life."

"His life... I didn't want to take his life... and six years of segregation is not his whole life, anyway."

"What I mean is that... I'm afraid he will not be able to handle it. I'm afraid he is thinking of putting an end to his life."

"Well, what does that have to do with me?" Nadir answered curtly, and started to eat.

Benoit left, but while was eating, Nadir began to think about what Benoit had just told him about Vance. And he felt confused. Certainly, he hadn't forgiven Vance, and yet he really didn't want his death. If the man killed himself, that was not his responsibility, certainly, but... life is a precious thing, everybody knows that, here on board...

Vance - who knows what was the matter with him. Why was it he had to do that with small boys, when there were so many post-pubertal boys on board whose parents could have given him permission, and even sixteen- to twenty-year-old boys who would have just craved to have experienced sex.

Vance could have become a very good doctor. Nadir knew him rather well, but he didn't expect someone like Vance to do such a thing. Forcing pre-pubertal boys to have sex! He did that with at least three others before doing it with his Steve.

And now he was thinking of killing himself. Why simply not stop doing such things? The law is clear - who fails, pays. But anybody can fail - after having paid his dues, nobody could reproach him for what he had done, provided he didn't fail again. Was it possible that Vance was afraid that he might do it again, once he was out? Was that what was going on in his head? If so, he needed to be treated, certainly. But then, why didn¹t Vance ask for treatment at the time of his sentencing?

Nadir was not a harsh or a bad man, and gradually these thoughts crept into his mind and made him rather upset.

A few days later, when Benoit came to his cell, he asked him: "Why doesn¹t Vance ask for psychological care?"

"I advised him to do so, but it's his decision and nobody can force it on him."

"He still thinks of killing himself then?"

"I don't really know. It could be just my feeling, but he is more and more gloomy all the time, dark, and in low spirits. He is more and more depressed."

"It is hard for me to know what to do, being shut up here. He has, it seems to me, some feeling of remorse I guess, and he is facing a longer period of segregation than I am. If he had at least somebody to talk with besides you. Something to do. Somebody waiting for him..."

²You¹re right. Unfortunately he has none of those things. Mainly, nobody is waiting for him."

"His fathers?"

"He is a clone - and his tuto, after what happened, doesn't even want to hear about him."

"Yes, right. I had forgotten Vance was a clone. And his Ol'Vance? I don't remember any Ol'Vance."

"There isn't any, in fact. The last Vance died more than seventy years ago, if I'm not mistaken."

"So he has nobody. No friends?"

"He was a rather lonely guy, I believe."

Nadir thought some more about all these things and started to feel a sense of pity for Vance.

He thought about it for a long time and then, one day he asked Benoit, "Can you give a message from me to Fred?"

"You know it is forbidden, but... maybe I can just have a chat with him and..."

"I was just thinking, you see... If only Fred and I could make him know that we forgive him..."

"Vance? That could possibly help him... But I cannot take him a message like that. It would be an infringement of the law."

"But I have the right to ask to be heard by the president, don't I?"

"Yes, certainly. But then it's up to him to decide whether or not to come here and listen to you. What do you have in mind?"

"Go and see the president. Tell him about Vance, and about me. Tell him I need to talk to him. Tell him we need doing something to help Vance before it's too late."

"Really... you are really ready to help Vance?"

"Nobody deserves to be left so alone, here on Cosmolab. It's not fair. He has to pay for the wrong he did, certainly, but not more than what's fair. And possibly, if he did what he did, he was already a very lonely man."

Benoit asked for an audience with President Lee. He told him about Nadir and Vance. And the president agreed to go and meet Nadir. When he came, they talked for a long time.

At the end, Lee said, "You are a good man, Nadir. I will summon the duty judges and ask them for the necessary authorization. I hope I can bring you a positive answer."

Three days later, Lee was back, and with him he brought Fred and Steve. Nadir couldn't believe his eyes - he looked, greatly moved, at his spouse and at his son, and was unable to speak. A lump formed in his throat. They all entered Nadir's cell.

Lee said, "Fred, tell him what we have decided."

"Nadir, my love, if you really want it... Steve and I have already forgiven that young man... The president is ready to take us to Vance's cell to tell him, all three of us together, that we forgive him - if this can help him."

"Yes, I believe it is the right thing to do. Steve, do you feel like meeting with that young man again?"

"Yes, Dad, I do. He hurt me a lot, but I don't want to hurt him back, Dad Fred told me that if someone does a bad thing, it doesn¹t have to mean that that person is bad too. So, maybe Vance isn¹t bad. But... I miss you so much, Dad Nadir!"

"Can I embrace him?" Nadir asked Lee, greatly moved. The president nodded, Nadir opened his arms and Steve nestled in them and they embraced, somewhat strictly, mindful of the others who were present.

"I love you so much, Dad Nadir!"

"I love you too, Steve, my son."

"We have to be separated for almost one more year."

"Just nine months, half of my term has already passed. You are a little man, now. You'll surely have the strength to wait for me, won't you?"

"Sure, dad... but I miss you..."

"I miss you too, my little one, you too," Nadir said, letting go of him. Then he said to Lee, "Thank you. We can go, now."

And all four went to Vance's cell. Lee made a sign to them to wait outside and he entered the cell alone. When Vance heard the bars sliding away, he raised his eyes and, when he recognized Lee, he got up from his bunk looking at him in uncertainly.

"Sit down, Vance. I came to talk to you, to ask you something. Are you ready to answer me truthfully?"

The young man nodded in assent.

"Vance, do you repent for what you did?"

The youth lowered his eyes and nodded again.

Then Lee, gently but firmly, said, "I want to hear you say it clearly, not just with a nod."

"I... I feel so ashamed... I'm not worthy... not worthy to continue living. I... I... why don't you just recycle me?"

"Don't talk such nonsense, now. Have you repented?"

"Yes... Yessss! But what's the use? What I did, cannot be erased, can it? And if, when I get out of here, I do it again...? I wouldn't, but... I'm no longer able to understand myself. I have repented, for sure... How many times have I thought that if someone had done that to me when I was nine or ten-years old... Ah, if I could just cut my member off! What can I do now? I'm finished...and I did that myself... for a moment of absurd pleasure... I feel ashamed in front of everybody, because I'm ashamed of myself... So the... wouldn't it be better for me to die?"

"Possibly, but those you hurt could forgive you. You know what our law says, don't you? ¹Who fails, pays¹, and anybody can fail. Afterwards, nobody can reproach a man if he has paid his dues."

"But who can forgive me?"

"There are those who want to forgive you... here outside the cell. May I ask them to come in now? They are waiting."

Vance looked at him with eyes wide open and didn't answer. So Lee stood up and went out. And Vance also stood up, looking at the open door of the cell, shaking. He saw Fred, Steve and Nadir, as they entered. Then he threw himself on the floor, prostrate, and burst into tears.

Nadir went up to him, and with effort, gripped his arm and forced him to stand up. "Be a man, now, Vance!" he said in a low voice, making him stand up straight. Then he added, "The three of us here came to tell you that we forgive you. Right, Steve?"

"Yes, dad, I forgive him."

"Right, Fred?" Nadir asked.

"Certainly, Nadir, I too forgive him."

"And I forgive you too, Vance."

"No... no... noooo, I don't deserve it..." Vance moaned, shaken with sobs, and not having the courage to look at them.

"Every man need forgiveness, every man deserves forgiveness. Do you forgive Nadir for assaulting you?" Lee asked.

"He ought to have killed me!"

"But do you forgive him?"

"I have nothing to forgive him for, he did the right thing..."

"And do you accept their forgiveness?" Lee asked.

"I... I don't deserve it..." Vance repeated.

Nadir, who was continuing to hold on to his arm in a firm grip, shook him and said forcefully, "If you didn't deserve it, we three would not have forgiven you. Don¹t you understand that?"

Then Steve, broke away from Fred and approaching Vance, said in a soft, clear voice, "Vance, you were bad to do that thing to me. But I think you aren't really bad. I forgive you. I have nothing against you, Vance. If you wanted me to, I would come and play with you again because I know you would never do such a thing to me again. I¹m right, aren¹t I Vance? Am I not right?"

Vance fell on his knees in front of the boy, crying, and gently took one of his hands and asked, "You really believe I'm not a bad man? You really think so?"

"I do Vance. Or else I wouldn't have come here, would I?"

"You really are not scared of me any more?"

"No, I am not. You would never do such bad things to me again, would you?"

"Oh no, certainly not. I swear it!"

"And would you do that to other children like me?"

"No, no, no... Never again, never again..."

"So, then, I forgive you. Ok? We all forgive you. Try to be a good guy from now on. Do you promise me?"

"Yes, Steve, I promise you."

"I'm sorry you still have to spend such a long time here in this place, all alone. If I could, I would come and see you, but it's not possible to do that... But I will be thinking of you. I swear."

Vance was still shaken by his sobs, but Lee made a sign to the others to go out. He took Vance and guided him to his bunk.

"Vance, I am sure that when you get out of here, you will be a fully trustworthy person. Unhappily I cannot do very much for you now. But as the president has the right to visit the prison, I will come and spend some time with you here, from time to time."

"Why are you all being so good to me?"

"Because Benoit was really worried about you and made us understand how lonely you are. Nobody has to be lonely, here on Cosmolab. You are one of us, never forget that." Lee said, and he left the cell.

Vance almost didn't hear the bars sliding to again.

Lee went back to Nadir's cell with the others.

Then, noticing how the prisoner was looking at his Fred, said, "Steve, do you feel like coming with me for about an hour? I'll show you the astronomical observatory if you like. Are you game? Fred will wait for you here, with Nadir."

Steve understood at once what the president meant. "Can I go too, Dad Fred, Dad Nadir?" he asked merrily.

The two men looked at Lee, amazed.

The president said, "While we two go to the observatory, I have to close the bars, as Benoit is busy elsewhere. I can take Steve with me, can't I?" the man concluded with a smile.

As soon as they were alone, Nadir and Fred fell into each other¹s arms and kissed each other. Then for an hour, they abandoned themselves, making love with much ecstasy and passion.

While Steve was walking with Lee, who held his little hand, he said in a solemn voice, "Thank you, Mister President, for allowing my dads to make love. You are a good man, yes. So then, may I ask you a favour? If I write letters to Vance, will you give them to him?"

"Certainly I will, my little one. I will, with pleasure."

As soon as Lee entered the observatory with Steve, he noticed a strange feeling of excitement in the air. He immediately called Ivo, the first astronomer, and asked him what was going on.

The man informed him, "Something incredible. News that could radically change all our lives."

"What could that be?"

"For three days we have been tracking a drifting corpuscle. We thought it could be one of the many meteorites. We monitored it to trace its trajectory in order to destroy it in time, if it risked colliding with us, at it seemed it might, or else capture it for its raw materials if its spectrum seemed interesting...The routine procedure, as you know.

But just a few moments ago the central computer gave us an answer - it is not a meteorite, but a metallic body driven by some form of intelligence, and it is now modifying its course and speed with the evident purpose of coming alongside us."

"A space-ship, then?" asked Lee, totally amazed.

"Yes, without any doubt."

"Are they sending any signals?"

"No, even though this seems strange. And we are still too far to send them our signals with the small transmitter that our forefathers managed to rebuild."

"How long will it take, in your opinion, before an encounter happens? Or the possibility of us sending them our own signals?"

"We can try to send signals in about eight days and twelve hours. The meeting could happen in eleven days, but this depends on their maneuvers."

"So Earth didn't forget us, then. Have you already distributed the news?" Lee asked thoughtfully.

"Not yet. The computer just gave us the answer, five minutes before you got here."

"Then don't say anything for the moment. I'll summon the Council immediately. In two hours in my office. You too will attend," said Lee, and only then he seemed to remember little Steve at his side. "Listen Steve, what you heard here has to be a secret until it is the time for me to tell everyone on Cosmolab, is that clear?"

"Certainly, President Lee."

"Do you promise me that you'll say nothing to anybody, not even to your dads, for now?"

"As you asked me, I will not say a word to anybody, I promise. Not even to my dads."

"Very good. Thank you. Now come with me. I have a lot of things to do. Will you be upset if I have to leave you with one of my secretaries?"

"Will he take me to my dads, when the hour is up?"

"No, it will be me who will take you back."

"But you'll be very busy."

"Yes, but I promised."

Meanwhile Nadir was enjoying his spouse's member, lying in front of him on his side and encircling his waist with his legs. Fred was suckling one of his tits and penetrating him with a feeling of intense passion.

"Oh, Fred, it's just like the first time we made love, do you remember? You took me exactly in this position, during that party in the garden, hiding behind the bushes."

"Yes..." Fred giggled, "just as we became aware that our friends were peeping at us. Here we are safer."

"It was right then that I fell in love with you. Because you weren¹t at all ashamed of what we were doing, and you kissed me in front of them and told our friends to leave us alone. And then you continued to take me."

"I was already love with you," Fred said, resuming the sucking on his tit and pistoning into him with gusto.

"Do you know that I always love feeling that plunger filling me?"

"And I love slipping it into your beautiful, welcoming, little ass so very much. I have missed you a lot, all these months..."

"And how did you mange to..."

"I masturbate... but it's not the same. Ohhh, how good... Ohhh, Nadir..." Fred panted, speeding up the strokes with which he was taking his spouse.

They kissed, played with their tongues, while groping each other's bodies, more and more excited until finally Fred came, moaning, while Nadir suckled his tongue. Then Fred withdrew from his man, lunged rapidly between his still-spread thighs and started skillfully to suck the beautiful, palpitating rod of his Nadir. Nadir, in turn, started to shudder, to shake, from the intensity of the pleasure that his spouse was giving him, and soon, he too, reached his orgasm and shot into the welcoming mouth, moaning strongly. The greed with which his lover was drinking his long jets was the proof, if any was needed, of the love he felt for him.

"Oh God, I love you so much, really so much!" Fred sighed.

"When?" Nadir asked, caressing him.

"When... what?"

"When did you fall in love with me?"

"When I saw you, the month before we met, while you were being taken by Stan."

"Did you see us? You never told me."

"I was already there, when you two came, and you didn't see me. I noticed how you were making love to him, even though I understood by your words that it was just an adventure, and I thought at once that I would have loved it if you would allow me to take you in that way. You were splendid. You still are."

"You say that only because you are in love with me."

"It could be. But to me, you are really beautiful. And your little ass still drives me crazy, just like it did the first time."

They weren't aware that the time had passed so fast. Suddenly they heard Benoit's voice, who was talking outside the cell with Lee, and they parted reluctantly.

The voices came nearer, then Benoit said in a loud voice, obviously to warn them of his approach, "Now I'll open the bars, President Lee."

When the bars were withdrawn, Nadir and Fred were seated on the bunk, quietly, holding each other¹s hands.

"Well, I've to go, now. Here is your Steve. You will have to come with me, Fred. Say bye bye to your Dad Nadir, Steve, " said Lee and, waving goodbye, he hurried back to his presidential office on the eighth floor of sector A.

In a short while, all the councilors and the chief astronomer joined him. The latter informed the council of the discovery and Lee opened the discussion. The thought of an imminent contact with a space-ship from Earth stirred great emotions among all those present.

"We could go back to Earth, see our place of origin. How will it be? Our documents are more than three hundred years old - will our planet be very different?"

"Even if it is still as it was in our documentation, I belong to Cosmolab, now!"

"Yes, but just think... infinite, open spaces, and billions of people..."

"And how much unhappiness? We are fine, here, where we are. And then, the women, and all those useless clothes..."

"Women... if you are not interested in them, nobody will force you to go with them. And about clothes, one can get used to wearing them."

"Those who want to stay on Cosmolab will be allowed to do so, I presume. But the ones who want to go back to Earth..."

"Cosmolab cannot survive if more than half of us want to leave and return to Earth. We would be forced to go there with them, all of us."

"But possibly new ones will come up from Earth and join us here."

"Will they accept our life-style? Read the early chronicles, those from year 0 to about year 50. Remember how much opposition there was against men wanting to love each other - even here on Cosmolab? And it was the same thing on Earth. It wasn't something that was readily accepted. They will force us to give that up, or else hide our feelings. How many of us would accept being separated from our spouse?"

The discussion continued on in a lively and passionate fashion. In the end, they decided that the community had to be informed about this new turn of events, which could drastically change their lives, so that they could all prepare themselves, above all psychologically, for the imminent encounter with the space-ship. And also with its crew, if the ship was not teleguided and empty.

An audivisive service was prepared and when it was ready, the loudspeakers asked everybody to listen to all the holovisors. Then the special program was transmitted.

The reaction on board was, more or less, the same as that as of the Council. Some greeted the possibility of a first contact with mother-earth with joy and hope, some with hope but also with a level of anxiety, and others with worry and bother. After that first notice, more updates followed with news of the approaching ship, and there were interviews with several specialists on various subjects, mainly historical, including a resume of Cosmolab¹s history from of its initial proposal to the present.

Everybody, in their free time, was glued to the holovisors or gathered in small groups, in the lodgings or in the communal rooms, where they discussed the news. The hope of being at last able to visit Earth was common to many. That of leaving Cosmolab was shared by a few. Those who were couples were apprehensive that a return to Earth might mean that they might have to renounce their life-style and not be able to live openly together.

Many went to the garden to concentrate in meditation in front of the stelae of their forefathers, almost as if they were asking their ancestors for inspiration.

Finally the space-ship came within radio rage of Cosmolab, and they sent out calling signals, basing them on the old codes of about three hundreds before. For some time there was no response from the space-ship. Then, a strong directional modulated beam reached Cosmolab, and was received as a loud noise.

They analyzed it with the main computer, and on the screen, a flickering image appeared. At first, it was black and white, but then, it became steadier and turned to color, and a voice boomed out on the loudspeakers:

"... and how? Can¹t you make yourselves understood, you turds? What fucking signals are you sending? Why don't you use the transcommunicator? Who are you and how could you fucking manage to get here before us? Account for yourselves..." said the voice of the man who appeared on the screen, coming across clear and strong.

He was wearing a rust-colored uniform and had an angry expression on his face, an un-trimmed beard, and short crewcut hair.

As the computer analyzed the signals coming from the space-ship, it was able to supply the technicians with all the necessary data so that they could quickly fit out a corresponding transmitter of their own. And eventually Cosmolab was able to answer to the recorded message that, for about five hours, had been repeated, over and over again.

President Lee, who had worn on his nude chest the two collars that belonged to the first Commander, Allan Freston, and to the Chief Scientist, went before the screen and spoke:. "This is Cosmolab calling. I am President Lee, the rightful successor of Commander Freston and of Doctor Alquwaity. Please identify yourself." The answer came back almost immediately. "What's this masquerade? Who do you think you are taking to? What fuking place do you come from and how did you get here? No other metallurgic ships are in this part of space. No one else has a licence to do so. Only we have that. Therefore, Cosmolab is ours!"

"We came from nowhere, we were born here, and we are the descendants of the original crew."

"Bullshit! They all were males!" he shouted, then turned towards somebody at his left and asked, "What are you saying? Cloning? ... Eh! You on Cosmolab, somebody here says you are all clones. But after more than three hundred years, Cosmolab has to be a dead relic. Listen, we are approaching you and we will dock in exactly 23 hours and 51 minutes. Do not make a fuss and let us come on board. Is that understood?"

"Who are you and how many are you?" Lee asked, not at all frightened by the tone of the man.

"Metallurgic salvaging ship Yag. Twenty-two crew members on board, and with authorization to dismantle and fuse any relic we find in this part of space. And we are armed."

"We authorize you to dock. Only five of you, unarmed, will be allowed come on board. We are about two-hundred-fifty, we too are armed and we can destroy your ship with our anti-meteorite cannons. Do I made myself understood? And remember that while you are here on Cosmolab, you will be under my jurisdiction. In any case, do not forget that Cosmolab is anything but a relic."

The man of the Yag seemed to hesitate, then he said, "I want some clarification in this matter, at the cost of losing my balls!"

"I would like to know your name and your rank." Lee asked, drily.

"My name is Zac Linowsky, captain of the ship Yag and only holder of a personal concession for the salvage of relics, Decennal Authorization of the Confederal, Interplanetary Government, renewable, Number 18e-46k-4kxs-76. You are President Lee, you said? First name or last name?"

"Unic name. We abolished family names more than two hundred years ago here on Cosmolab. They were of no use."

"And you go around half naked?" asked Captain Zac, in a sneering tone.

"Naked, captain, totally naked." Lee answered, with a smile.

The captain looked at him bewildered, and said in a lowered tone, "Don't you know that on Earth that is severely forbidden?"

"We are on Cosmolab, not on Earth. We have our own laws and our own customs."

"You do not recognize the authority of Earth Government, then?"

"I didn't say that. We just haven¹t had to deal with that kind of problem up to now, and anyway we will solve it after we meet. For the moment, we are in open space, and I am the sole authority unanimously recognized here on board, therefore the sole legitimate authority. I shall be awaiting your visit, captain."

This dialogue, which had irritated Lee, had been recorded by Cosmolab and was later played on all the holovisors. The arrogant tone of Zac had a negative effect on almost everybody on board, except for a few who, on the contrary, were fascinated by that rude, resolute and, after all quite handsome, man.

Lee made preparations for the reception of the five imminent guests, freeing five neighboring apartments so that they could easily be kept under surveillance. He organized a shift of guard, to ensure the safety of Cosmolab¹s world from this first intrusion. Many were deceived, thinking that the Yag was a rescue ship, when in fact its real mission was to salvage material.

It was evident that Earth had forgotten them. The number of those who preferred to continue their life on board Cosmolab increased, but there were still several who dreamt of the mythical Earth.

President Lee decided that a team of cameramen would follow the arrival on board of the men from the Yag and would make a live transmission of all the talks he would have with them. In fact, what transpired in the days that followed would have an enormous impact on the lives of all of them.

He also decided that no one would be required to wear the kilt in front of the "guests" if he did not wish to do so. Several times, he reaffirmed publicly, that here on board, Earth laws had no value whatever.

When he was informed that the Yag was docking at the entrance hatch, he distributed the ancient gold and diamond collars to the members of Council and pulled off his kilt, leaving himself totally naked.

"At least Captain Zac will not think I am a liar," he said with a smile to the Council members, who immediately followed suit.

CONTINUES IN CHAPTER 7

In my home page I've put some more of my stories. If someone wants to read them, the URL is http://andrejkoymasky.com If you want to send me feed-back, or desire to help revising my English translations, so that I can put on-line more of my stories in English please e-mail at andrej@andrejkoymasky.com