It Takes A Village Ch. 5
It Takes A Village
©2024 by Gamin Paramour
Hi again. Welcome back to my first attempt at kinda-sorta science fiction.
I feel I must offer an apology for a scientific error on my part. I have been informed by several readers that I severely mis-characterized the vast distances involved in intergalactic space, and I agree it was a mistake.
I always knew that traveling 26 light-years would not take them anything close to another galaxy. The fictitious Daedalus k is in the Milky Way the same as Earth. When I had Jack comment that the constellations he sees from this planet don't fit any galaxies he knows, it implied that he could see constellations in other galaxies but they just didn't match what he saw from Earth.
The light from distant galaxies can certainly be detected on Earth — in fact that's how we know they exist — but you can't see it with the naked eye. Jack doesn't even have an optical telescope much less a radio-telescope, so any suggestion that he saw other galaxies is obviously wrong.
Addressing another issue, I quite deliberately had all the modern technology destroyed in the crashes of the escape pods. A major point of the story is the back-to-primitive situation the Earth men face. They need to be fish all the way out of water. I should have made it clearer that the only reason the ship even had escape capability was to blunt public and political criticism that the government was spending many trillions of dollars on a suicide mission. They didn't actually expect anyone to survive if anything happened to the ship.
If you read, or saw the movie of, The Right Stuff you may recall that the early Mercury astronauts — test pilots all — had to demand an escape hatch be added to the capsule, because the rocket scientists — former Nazis all — thought it was an unnecessary design complication and were perfectly willing to sacrifice humans to advance the science.
OK, they weren't all former Nazis, but a sizable number of them were.
Please remember that this was always intended mainly as a BL story. In fact, I regret posting it in the SF/Fantasy category in addition to Adult-Youth for this very reason, because I knew it would not stand up to serious scientific scrutiny.
So, on with the conclusion of It Takes A Village. Yes, I said conclusion. I know some of you were hoping for a long series with more and more sex and more and more weird alien stuff, but I don't write a novel if a short story makes the point. In this case five chapters makes the point. I hope you are not too disappointed.
If you haven't read Chapters 1-4 yet I suggest you skedaddle over to my archive and do so.
Please, kind people. Donate to Nifty. Love might make the world go 'round, but money makes the disk drives go 'round.
Comments are incredibly welcome, and I intend to answer everyone.
Chapter 5
The crew's mood is jovial as we work our way back down the hill. The project has gone very well and, even though they still don't have a clue what it will accomplish, they know I am pleased and that seems to matter to them.
Pete and little Sahn have stayed behind to close the sluice gates when the rains begin, expected any day now. Until then those lucky dogs get to laze around the swimmin' hole and sleep in the shade, getting their well-deserved rest.
And some good fucking. Lots of good fucking.
The rest of us have to trek down the mountain before we get our respite, but it's good to get into the forest again and out of the oppressive sun. It gets steamier as we descend, the cool forest giving way to sweaty jungle, but our spirits remain high.
I find myself quite looking forward to speaking English with Jack and Wally. Trying to direct these guys with my thirty-or-so words of Villagese has been exhausting!
I sense something different in the village as we break out of the jungle near the orchard. People are hurrying across the common, their faces full of curiosity and surprise. A small crowd is gathering on the green, where Wally and Jack are talking to a very blond woman with her back to me.
I don't recognize her, though I wouldn't necessarily know every single villager, especially from behind. Then I notice that she's wearing a smooth leather loincloth. A completely nude woman I would expect — that's just another Tuesday around here — but one who bothers with a loincloth?
Not to mention, as of three weeks ago when I went up the mountain Jack had not yet worked out how to tan hides with locally-available resources. I officially enter WTF Mode.
Wally sees me coming and breaks into a grin. He says something to the woman and she turns excitedly to greet me, her golden hair girlishly swinging.
I can hardly believe my eyes!
"Allie! Oh my God!"
"Captain Andrews!" she calls, a broad smile on her face. "Back from the dead, that's me!"
"Aren't we all?" I reply, joyously scanning her head-to-toe as one does with a friend you haven't seen in a long time.
"Jesus, you look great!" I say but then I get self-conscious because her bare tits are right out there. I've seen bare tits every day for six months now but somehow it's different because it's a woman I knew in a different context with social norms that couldn't be more different. It's like those rules instantly came back into force, and I feel like I'm disrespecting Allie by looking at her tits.
Oh, I still look. I'm just embarrassed by it.
I've never seen Allie's breasts before — not "in the flesh" this way — and I'm struck by how nice they are: pert and smallish for her frame, golden suntanned and tipped with large and quite erect nipples.
Allison Lunt was always in great shape, a real exercise and diet fanatic. Living off the land has only made her more lean, strong and fit. I can't help taking in her au naturel beauty, which remains apparent even after two years without personal care products.
Although a mani-pedi certainly wouldn't hurt.
There's a healthy, natural glow to her skin, which appears in the bright sunlight to be remarkably smooth and hairless, thanks perhaps to her Scandinavian heritage. I feel my own visceral indicators of interest — shortening breath, flushing cheeks, quickening heart — and I fear she will pick up on them too.
See, there's a wrinkle here that makes me feel awkward, even beyond the whole "I have a pre-teen boyfriend" thing. As Captain I was the only man on the crew who was privy to why, of all the horticulturists who applied, Allie was chosen for this mission.
Allie's role was not just to maximize our colony's crop yields. She was also selected to maximize our "human yield." All nine women in the crew were medically screened for their reproductive health and genetic propensity for multiple births, and psychologically screened for their willingness to spread the love around and produce lots of healthy offspring.
It's a matter of pure practicality, but quite the opposite of how our village hosts chose to deal with the same problem.
Daedalus k, our original destination, is 26 light-years from Earth. At the Endeavor's top speed of one-half the speed of light it would have taken us 52 Earth years to get there, most of that spent in cryo-sleep.
Our mission was to reconnoiter the planet, verify that it can sustain human life, and radio that confirmation back home. It would have taken about two years to determine if crops will grow and carry over to the next season. Radio waves travel at the speed of light, so it would have taken another 26 years for the message to get back home.
So our total mission timeline was 52 years getting to Daedalus k, two years determining viability, plus 26 years transmitting our findings back to Earth. That would give folks on Earth 80 years to develop the kind of gigantic transport starships that could carry a significant colonizing population to Daedalus.
Now for purposes of saving humanity from extinction, our mission would have ended as soon as we transmitted the "Go" signal back to Earth. At that point our 30-member crew could live out our days on Daedalus k and die as heroes, mission accomplished. Hopefully by then the technology would exist to go faster than half-light-speed, but even allowing for that our original crew would almost certainly be dead and gone before the transports arrived.
But there was also a long-shot hope that our nascent little colony might sustain itself until then. Enter the "Queen Bees," women chosen not only for their technical expertise valuable to the mission, but also for their physical, emotional and attitudinal willingness to serve, essentially, as broodmares.
Allie is a smart, kind, very attractive woman who checks all of the boxes I once required of a romantic prospect, and she's on record as perfectly willing to bump uglies with any and every man in the crew. Moreover, she is an Earth woman and — presumably — not subject to the local taboo against heterosexual involvement.
My mind reels as it dawns on me that her presence has changed everything, that I no longer have to choose between boys and a life of chaste loneliness. Suddenly it's a three-way choice.
I shoot a look at Loki, and I see on his face that he senses my consternation. I'm instantly full of guilt at the thought of breaking his good little heart, and I have to look away.
I need time to think!
"So, where have you been all this time?" I stall, distracting myself from Allie's bare chest by watching over her shoulder as Wally explains to the villagers who the hell this new blond woman is. Most of the crowd wanders away looking confused, like, "What? Another one?"
"I was very lucky," Allie says. "I got through the escape pod crash without a scratch and somehow avoided any serious illness or injury all this time. Wally was just telling me about your bad luck though, sir. I'm sorry you had to go through that."
"Not to worry. Kalea and Duri took good care of me. And there's no need for that 'sir' stuff anymore. We're all in the same boat, so you might as well call me Cap like everyone else."
"OK," she replies brightly. "Cap it is, and everyone please call me Allie."
Loki sidles next to me and takes my hand with both of his, that concerned and confused look still in his eyes. Allie follows my gaze down to the boy and then back to my face. She's looking perplexed as well.
I know I should just explain it to her. She's going to find out in short order anyway. But I tell myself that I shouldn't just drop it on her without context, that I should explain it all in logical order like the guys did for me. It will make more sense that way.
But that, of course, is a crock of shit. It's all about me and keeping my options open while I decide what I want, the feelings of these two human beings notwithstanding.
"Um, listen," I say, awkwardly changing the subject. "We're just down from the hills after three weeks work on a flood-control project. We need to clean up and get something to eat."
"I'm tired and sweaty from traveling myself," Allie says. "May I join you?"
"Yes, of course," I say, and gesture her and my work detail toward the creek.
As we walk Loki holds my hand more tightly than usual. He and Allie both know something's amiss, but I force myself not to look for Allie's reaction, instead smiling down at the boy. He smiles back and looks relieved. Mura runs up and takes Wally's hand too.
We arrive at the creek and I sneak a look at Allie at the exact second she sneaks a quizzical look at me. I fear she has noticed my intimacy with Loki and I smile at her reassuringly. I'm deliberately misleading her, and I don't like to do it, but I rationalize that I need more time to figure myself out. Her expression softens, so I apparently get away with it.
Allie casually slips off her loincloth and drapes it over a rock, leaving her completely nude like the rest of us. Either she has discovered the stone age equivalent of bikini waxing or she shaves her pubes, because she is as bald as a plucked chicken. She notices the three Earth men trying not to react and smiles sheepishly.
"I'm really skeeved by body lice," she explains almost apologetically. "Early on I had some tiny hitchhikers and couldn't stand the itching, so I found myself a piece of flint and chipped off a flake to use as a razor."
Mura rubs an affectionate palm across Wally's cheek and says, "Wally shave very smooth." Then when Allie smiles at him he points to Wally's crotch and adds, "Face smooth, not there."
Allie's eyes pop wide and she laughs out loud. The boys look at each other like the woman is mental.
Loki touches the three-week growth on my cheek and implores me in his newfound, halting English, "Cap shave, yes Cap? Too much scratchy."
"Sure thing, kid," I say, glad he didn't say exactly what he means, that my whiskers irritate his tender places when we make love. If Allie reads anything into it she doesn't show it.
"You must have tanned the loincloth yourself," Jack observes as we all begin to bathe.
"Yes," she says. "A skill I picked up in middle school 4-H Club. There wasn't a lot to do in our one-stoplight town in Kansas."
"Texas for me," Jack says. "I learned in Boy Scouts about a thousand years ago, but now the closest place to buy the chemicals is four light-years away. Let's just say the shipping cost would be prohibitive."
"You could use some brains," Allie says, which earns her a quizzical look from Jack.
"Should I be insulted right now?"
Allie laughs and puts a reassuring hand on his arm.
"No, I mean you can use the animal's brains to treat the hide. You make a solution from crushed-up animal brains to break down and soften the fibers. Then you smoke the hide on a stretching rack over a fire of wood rich in tannin. I saw a stand of trees very similar to hemlock about a mile from here. I think that'd work nicely."
"Cool," Jack says with a smile. "Looks like there's a new tanner in town."
"We've been trying to introduce some Earth technology around here lately," I say. "Leather tanning was one of Jack's projects and I took on flood control and crop irrigation."
"May I ask," Wally broaches to Allie, "why you wear a loincloth at all? Especially if you were alone all that time."
Allie evades his eyes in momentary awkwardness, then emboldens and squares up to him.
"Certain times of the month," she says, "a woman needs something there or else have a big mess. I found a spongy moss that soaks it up nicely, but I couldn't just hold it there with my hand for a week at a time, could I? I had to come up with something."
Wally isn't embarrassed at all.
"I see," he says simply. "And then when you're not on your cycle it would be a pain to carry it around, so you simply wear it full time."
"Exactly," Allie says, smiling now as the awkwardness passes.
"I just realized," I say, "that I have no idea what the local women do. I've never seen any sort of — um — sanitary device being used, nor have I seen the mess from not having one."
"I asked about that," Wally says. "Another slight biological difference. Their periods only last 24 hours, and they just stay away from people that day."
"You speak their language?" Allie asks, eyes wide in surprise.
She resumes bathing while Wally tells his story of traveling the world with his diplomat mother, and how he's teaching English to the few villagers who are interested.
"I wondered about the boys' English," Allie says. "I guess most villagers have little use for it, except to communicate with you."
Meanwhile I enjoy her bath, definitely a sexy show, as her small hands caress her own firm breasts, flat stomach and muscular thighs. I glance over at Loki splashing with Mura and realize that that's a sexy show to me too.
"I wandered alone for two years," Allie is saying, apparently responding to a question from one of the guys that I must have missed.
"I started to think the planet must be uninhabited," she says, "and that made me wonder why I was bothering, you know? It's really hard fending for yourself all alone in the jungle, and if I was just going to get hurt or sick someday and die anyway, why not just get it over with? I started thinking about what would be the quickest and least painful way to do it."
I gasp. "You mean…"
"Well, yeah," she says. "At least I'd get to choose when and how, and make sure it happens quickly."
I can't help but go back in my mind to my little hidey-hole in the jungle, weak with fever, hunger and dehydration and wondering when death would come. There were a few moments when I wished it would just happen already. When I meet Allie's eyes again they are wide with shock and shame.
"Oh shit, Cap!" she exclaims. "That's exactly what happened to you! I'm so sorry!"
I try to smile, but I fear it's weak.
"It's all right, Allie," I say. "It's not your fault. You just had better luck than me."
"And a distinct survival advantage, Cap," Jack pipes in, "Allie bein' a plant expert and all. She'd definitely know which ones to eat and which to avoid."
Allie was a civilian Mission Specialist with a Masters in Horticulture from one of the top Ag schools in the United States, U.C. Davis. Her role in our expedition wouldn't have begun until after we established base camp on Daedalus k and began cultivating the seeds and cuttings we brought from Earth.
"Your knowledge and skills will help a lot around here," I offer in a back-to-business tone. "Even though the plants are different, with your credentials I imagine you'll figure them out."
"I hope so, Cap," she says, returning to her sensual bath. "I'm not a plant biologist. That was Angela Turo, who, unless I'm mistaken, isn't here. I was recruited to basically be the gardener, Angela's assistant at best. I'm not sure exactly what to do without the ship's supply of fertilizers, nitrogen fixers and all that, but I'm going to do my best."
We fall into silence at the memory of poor Angela and all the others who didn't make it, and for a moment the only sound is our gentle splashing. After a respectful interval we resume idle chat, Wally taking the lead in describing for Allie daily life in the village. I'm pretty content to be cooling off in the creek and following their conversation.
I abruptly realize that I've been staring at Allie with a goofy smile on my face. I glance over to Loki and Mura, who have stopped their happy roughhousing and are intently watching me as I watch her.
They don't look happy.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
After lunch Jack is collected by the hunky Tooku, nude this time instead of in his customary tunic. He has muscles on top of muscles and a thick, hanging cock. Jack says it achieves highly impressive dimensions when aroused but I have never seen it actually erect.
Their affection and intimacy are obvious and Allie clearly notices.
"The ol' ball and chain, you know what I mean?" Jack says with his signature twinkle. Tooku doesn't have a clue but he knows it's a fond reference to him and he smiles happily.
"Allie, this is my boyfriend Tooku," Jack says. "We're in a hunting party that's going after dusk-feeders tonight and it's about an hour's walk to their feeding grounds, so we need to get going."
Allie smiles a greeting and says, "It's nice to meet you, Tooku."
Again, Tooku has no clue but he smiles and nods in reply.
"It's nice that Jack found someone," Allie comments when they are gone. "even with the language barrier."
"Unfortunately Tooku is not interested in English lessons," Wally says. "As far as he's concerned we jabber nonsense. He wants Jack to learn his language, and I'm working with him, but Jack is not much of a linguist."
"I'm struggling with it too," I offer.
"Not as bad as Jack," Wally says. "And he's had twice as long to learn it as you."
"Well, he grew up in Texas," I wryly return. "He only speaks Drawl."
Allie laughs and gives me a sparkly smile. I wonder if that's just something she does or if it's something directed specifically at me. I immediately feel stupid, like a high school boy reading way too much into a smile from a cute girl.
"Well, my lunch break has been over for a while," Wally says, standing to leave. "I've got a date with some fruit trees. Wanna tag along, Mura?"
The boy grins and jumps to his feet, hurrying to catch up as Wally strides away on his long, stork-like legs.
That leaves Allie, Loki and me sitting in the comfortable shade next to the creek. She looks at me with a little half-smile and she's even prettier than before.
"Wally helps in the orchard," I say to break the silence, "because there isn't all that much call for an avionics expert, or as you said, a language instructor. We all need to carry our own weight somehow."
"I would expect nothing less of you," Allie says, and then with a bit of awkwardness adds, "All of you, I mean."
I get that feeling again, like she's — I don't know — playing up to me. I turn a guilty glance to Mura and I think he's noticed it, too.
"And you'll help with the crops," I say, steering back to the safer subject.
"You're doing irrigation, right? Then we'll both be working with the crops. That will be nice."
She cocks her head and gives me the sparkly smile again, and this time it's pretty unmistakable. This girl is signaling so hard it might as well be in Morse code.
"That won't be until next year," I say. "The rainy season is about to start, so we won't dig channels until the creek goes back down in the spring."
Allie places her hand oh so casually on my bare thigh.
"I can wait," she says with that sparkly smile, and Loki loudly scoffs.
"Loki doh mesha," he says, rolling to his feet and trotting off.
Allie looks at me, confused.
"Nature calls," I say. "Consider yourself lucky he didn't piss in the creek. Most kids around here would."
"It must be your civilizing influence, Cap," she laughs.
"Actually the local custom is to pee behind the trees, anywhere off the established paths. Boys just enjoy peeing into the creek and giggling over the splash it makes."
"So what exactly is the deal with you and Wally and these boys?"
I feel myself getting clammy with nervousness. I don't want to throw away what I have with Loki, but Allie is giving me signals that make me think maybe the pedophile experiment has served its purpose. My heart is battling my brain like Kong v Godzilla. There's no way I can decide quickly, so I steer carefully down the middle.
"Mura adopted Wally long before I got here. Loki is Mura's best friend, so the three of them used to hang out. Then when I was rescued Loki volunteered to help me until I healed up — sort of like an assistant — and it stuck."
"Well, it's very sweet of you to give him your time and attention this way," she says in her fondest tone yet. "You'd make a great father, I think."
Holy cow, in her mind we're pushing a baby carriage already! From sheer force of habit I panic at the thought, like I would have on Earth in my twenties, but then I wonder, is that what I actually want? I'm so confused my stomach is starting to ache.
"You know what?" I say, standing up and brushing leaves and twigs off of my ass. "I think the latrine is a good idea for me as well."
I only hope Allie doesn't say she needs to go too. If there's any chance I'm going to be with her I sure as hell don't want to take a shit in front of her on Day One.
I guess she has the same disgusting mental image because she stands as well, doing a similar posterior brush-off.
"I think I'll go watch the ladies making cloth," she says. "I used to knit back home, which is kind of similar, so maybe I could learn to weave."
"OK, I'll see you later then," I say, hoping it doesn't seem like I'm escaping, which I totally am.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"No woman!" my boy demands. "Neh tagga! Woman no good! Cap with Loki!"
He sure didn't wait long to put me on the spot, barely letting me finish my business before he let me have it.
"Boy more better!" he insists. "Man with boy, boy with man. Better!"
For a society that abhors possessiveness that sounds a lot like jealousy to me. Still, what did I expect?
Exactly this, actually.
He changes tactics and offers me a sly smile.
"We go jungle Cap, yes? Make sex?"
My heart is doing flip-flops of indecision. I really do love the kid, there's no question about that. For one thing, there's something incredibly attractive about anyone who so passionately wants me, but this isn't just anyone. It's Loki. He's sweet and kind and incredibly giving of his heart and his body. I've never felt more loved than I do with him, although I know some of that is just the naive openness of a child's heart. But he could have any man in this village and both of us know it, yet he chooses me over and over again.
It feels ordained.
Suddenly my whole internal debate seems silly. Yes, Allie agreed to bear children for any and every man who could impregnate her, but how much of that was from a sense of duty to humankind? It's just like young Duri, and the even more apt example of Yaneek.
Yaneek clearly didn't want to do the fertility ceremony, scared to death of the pain she knew was in store when those huge adult cocks speared into her. Still, she endured it rather than let her people down. When push came to shove-it-in-me she was incredibly brave and selfless.
That's probably how Allie felt volunteering for this mission, proud to sacrifice her future and her dignity for the benefit of humanity. She saw it as her duty. But being with me now wouldn't even serve the mission. It would just be letting an ex-captain get his rocks off. Hardly the stuff of legend.
Still, her signals are hard to ignore. Allie is very clearly making herself available to me, but she hasn't had a man in years either, and maybe she's just as deathly afraid of ending up alone as I was. It also occurs to me that maybe she was responding to the way I was watching her bathe. Maybe she thinks I gave signals first!
But is it really a question of whether Allie wants me or not? I already have someone who wants me. I'm happy with Loki, deliriously so most of the time. The question isn't who can I have, it's who do I want?
My face softens and I see hope enter Loki's eyes. I smile and extend my hand, which Loki ebulliently takes. He leads me off into the jungle, practically dragging me along, and when he turns back to urge me to hurry I see his little hard-on jutting up.
This isn't just manipulation, the weaker partner getting what he wants by using the lure of sex. Loki is genuinely hot for me, and he is elated that I am still hot for him despite Allie's blatant overtures.
He leads me straight to a shady glen that I have never seen before, but Loki has obviously visited many times. I step onto a firm but spongy surface and I wonder if this is the moss that Allie uses for her sanitary napkins. The thought pulls me out of it for only a second and then I am tuned right back into Loki.
He pulls me down to the mossy mattress and we fall into an embrace. His tender young lips find mine and he kisses me with fierce intensity. He's always been a good kisser but this is a Master Class and I am enthralled. His little tongue slides between my lips and begins playing with mine.
"Oh, Loki!" I moan and I pull him tight, his warmth and silky softness bringing me to higher and higher arousal. My cock presses against his leg and he grinds his against my belly.
I've never been more ready for sex.
Loki pulls back and grins at me, his emerald eyes flashing like fireflies in a jar. He says something in his language that I can tell by tone is cheeky as a motherfucker, and a second later he flips around and scoots in for 69.
His beautiful four inches of steel-hard boydick pokes at my lips while his talented little mouth attacks me. He can only reach my cockhead but he does absolutely amazing things upon it, slurping, laving, flicking his tongue so quickly and tenderly it's like kisses from a swarm of horny butterflies.
Meanwhile his unbendable little cock drives into my mouth over and over. He's powerfully fucking my face while gently teasing my dick in a completely different rhythm, "rubbing his tummy and patting his head" in a thoroughly delightful, wholly unprecedented way. I feel my cum rising but I don't want it to, not yet.
I want to fuck him!
Loki has other plans. He jams his sweet hairless boner deep into my mouth while flicking my cockhead one more time with the tip of his tongue and I feel myself suddenly out of control, going over the edge.
My cum spews in a powerful jet, and a couple of tongue-tickles later it spews twice more. Loki swallows and swallows, and then he's cumming too, his hips thrusting and his stomach clenching. We shudder and writhe until both of us are thoroughly spent.
We lie together a long time. At some point he wriggles around and back into a deep kiss, our eyes dreamily closed and our hearts beating together. Loki finally pulls back a few inches and bores his mesmerizing green eyes into mine.
"Loki love Cap," he murmurs. "Toogushu."
I haven't heard that one before, but I'm going to go with "forever."
"Toogushu," I whisper back, and with a happy smile he melts into me again.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
We're in that glen — which I now think of as our glen — for several hours until it's starting to get dark. I fuck Loki twice, once vigorously doggy style and, after a nap, on his back, slowly, deeply and lovingly, with his legs clamped around me and our lips locked in another of those deep, sensual kisses.
I've never been married, but this feels for the world like our wedding night.
Loki wants it a third time but my cock just hasn't got the gumption, so I suck him to dry orgasm number four. It's all we can do to drag ourselves back to the village.
Wally and Mura are walking on the green when we emerge from the jungle. They beeline for us, both wearing cat-with-the-cream smiles.
"I know that look," Wally teases me. "That's a man with empty balls."
"Oh my God yes," I wearily reply as Loki peels off to greet Mura, the two of them excitedly jabbering in high-pitched Villagese. "That kid is relentless!"
"Yeah, but you're a willing victim, aren't you?"
"Oh yeah!" I say with a grin. "And it was good, too, man! He hasn't been that horny since the Night of the Magic Fucks."
"Wow," Wally sighed, shaking his head in pleased wonder. "Mura's a tiger in the sack too, but I've never seen a kid go for a grown man the way Loki goes for you."
"We said we love each other toogushu. It means 'forever,' right?"
Wally grins. "Effectively it does. That's, like, the highest compliment in their language. Loki said you're the best, and he doesn't mean it casually like people do back home. He means you're literally the best of all possible choices. It's as close as these people get to pledging their hearts."
"Then I said it back without knowing precisely what it meant," I say, "but that's exactly how I feel, so it's all good."
"It's not like at home, remember," Wally warns. "He'll still bed-hop whenever he feels like it, and he'll expect you to do the same. That's just their culture."
"Yeah, I get it," I say. "The ultimate free-love commune."
"Not ultimate," Wally says. "No females allowed, except someday Loki might be invited into the fertility ceremony."
"The way that kid fucks I think I can count on it," I laugh, but then it reminds me. "Where's Allie?" I ask.
"Right here," comes her voice, laden with shock. She is three-quarters behind me, approaching from the direction of the latrine. I wonder how much of that she heard.
"Am I to understand that you're screwing that little boy?"
Panic grips my heart and my brain. I feel my face burning and a lifetime of Earth taboos rise inside me like flood waters. Logic is shot out of a cannon and I can think of nothing but my shame and embarrassment. I stare at her in paralyzed silence.
"I can't believe this shit!" Allie cries, and bolts away into the jungle.
"Allie!" I shout, but she's fast as a gazelle and she's gone in seconds. I meet eyes with Wally, who is as stunned as I am. I turn to run after her but Wally catches my arm.
"She'll be back," he says. "She's been alone for two years. She's not going back to that."
Logic creeps back to me and I see Wally's point, but now I feel just as awful as I was elated five minutes ago.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
I wake in the morning surprised to find myself alone. I prefer when Loki is still slumbering peacefully in my arms, especially when his sweet little head is on my chest. I love being his pillow, so I always lie here for as long as I can, savoring our tender closeness and disturbing him only when my bladder can no longer take the strain. But today he's already gone, so I sigh my disappointment and sit up.
Suddenly I remember about Allie and my apprehension returns. She still hadn't come back to the village when we went to bed and it took me a long time to fall asleep worrying about her. Of course I knew she could take care of herself in the jungle; she was out there for two years and did just fine. It's more her emotional state I'm worried about than her physical safety.
What must she be thinking? Well, first off she's thinking I'm a pervert — that's a given at this point — and maybe she's right. This was the ultimate test of my sexuality: a direct choice between a beautiful adult woman and a beautiful young boy. I chose the boy after only the briefest, albeit anguished, deliberation. Not only do I adore his wonderful little heart and mind, he turns me on like no one ever has and I just can't let him go.
It's time for me to face the fact that I'm a for-real, legit boylover.
But does "boylover" automatically equate to "pervert?" It seems to me that pervert is as pervert does. I've never taken advantage of a boy, never imposed my desire on one who didn't want it. Why is it perverted to be attracted to children if you treat them with the dignity and respect to which all humans are entitled? Isn't it possible to be an ethical pervert?
My bulging bladder finally makes me hurry for the trees. I'm half-expecting dirty looks from the villagers I meet but of course there aren't any, since they probably don't know about my little drama with Allie and wouldn't see the point of it if they did. Mura and I making each other happy? What's wrong with that?
While wetting the bark of the first tree I encounter, I decide that Allie's just going to have to put on her big-girl loincloth and accept the way thing are. Jack and Wally and I all had to adapt, why should she be special? Why do I even have a big ethical dilemma over this in the first place? Is it only because she's a woman, and I've been conditioned my whole life to be friggin' Sir Galahad?
Well, fuck that. She needs to deal with the new reality.
Of course I don't want to be unkind to her or hurt her feelings unnecessarily. That's not who I am. I try to be kind to everyone, but it can't come at the expense of my own happiness, or Loki's. We deserve kindness from Allie as much as she deserves it from us.
Now that I've convinced myself that I hold the moral high ground in this conflict, I head back to the green to look for her.
A lot of villagers are out and about this morning. There's a crowd around the butchering pit, where they are in the process of dismembering a huge, bizarre-looking animal unlike anything we have on Earth. Imagine the biggest pig ever to win the county fair — like six hundred pounds — but with fuzzy yellow fur and the face of a camel. How they got the damn thing home is a mystery to me.
The first big strip of dark red meat has been hacked off already, and one of the butchers hangs it from a lashed crossbar that resembles a football goalpost. It looks like there's enough meat left on the carcass to feed the whole village for a couple of days.
This means Jack will not go hunting today, because without refrigeration it doesn't pay to hunt more than you can eat. That's good because I may need my "council" of fellow Earth men to help me explain things to Allie. Now I just need to find them.
I head for the creek, hoping to find Wally and Mura performing their morning ablutions. Even if they haven't seen Allie at least I will have assembled two-thirds of the council. As I round the final hut I see them on the bank, but to my amazement also sitting there I see Allie, and next to her Loki and Jack. When she sees me Allie stands and comes to meet me.
"Hello, Cap," Allie says, in a much more subdued way than when she first saw me yesterday afternoon. Thankfully there's none of yesterday evening's anger either.
"Good morning," I sheepishly say to her and nod to the group. I exchange a fond smile with Loki, who smiles back but says nothing.
"I owe you an apology, Cap," she says. "I haven't wrapped my head completely around it yet, but the guys explained the — um — unique sexual customs here, and the dilemma you faced."
She turns and smiles fondly at my boy.
"Loki found me first thing this morning and literally dragged me by the hand to Wally's hut. At first I wasn't pleased but he can be a very determined little guy."
I chuckle as I make eye contact with him.
"Yes he can," I say with affection, and though I know he doesn't understand the words I'm sure he understands the emotions.
"With Wally's help," she goes on, "Loki made me understand that you two have found something special. I guess I was so wrapped up in my own emotions that I kind of forgot one of my core beliefs, that love is something to be celebrated wherever one finds it."
I ask my next question gently, trying to project kindness and minimize my own defensiveness.
"May I ask exactly what those emotions were?"
She hesitates, glancing from me to Wally to Jack.
"Can we take a walk?" she asks. "I'm OK with everybody knowing, but I need to talk this out first and I think I'd be more comfortable if we were alone."
"Yeah, OK," I reply, and we amble off across the green.
"So Cap," she begins in an apologetic tone, "I'm afraid I was pretty harsh with you last evening, and I'm sorry. See, I'm a highly sexual person. You probably know that's one of the reasons I was chosen for the mission."
"Yes," I say. "But nevertheless I always thought it was incredibly selfless of all the women who volunteered, to put themselves in that position."
"Well, I'll agree to a point," she says, a sly little smile forming on her pretty lips, "and thank you for that. But the fact is I got a huge sexual jolt out of the idea that on Daedalus k I could jump everybody's bones without being called a slut. I was looking forward to it."
"Well," I observe, "it's always a plus when you enjoy your work."
She grins.
"Here's the part you don't know, Cap. I've had a huge crush on you since I saw your picture in the news feed when you were named one of the Mission Commanders. Within a few days I had built up this whole fantasy scenario in my mind where I go on the mission with you and we become, you know, lovers. I put in my application the next day."
"Did you realize there were five separate missions going to five different star systems?"
"Yes, but that was a 20% gamble I had to take, and it paid off. Besides, if I ended up on a different crew I still had my fantasy where I fuck everything that moves and have a bunch of beautiful babies. I just got lucky getting on your crew."
"You never betrayed any of that during pre-flight training," I observe.
"I would have been dropped from the mission if I had," she says. "And it wasn't only about sex for me. I was also kinda invested in the whole 'saving humanity' thing."
"Of course."
"So I crash-land on this planet — like we all did — and suddenly I'm alone. No mission, no men, no sex. Just me in a flimsy polyester cryo-hibernation suit wondering when some alien monster is going to have me for a crudité. You know, a little dip of vinaigrette and gulp!"
I laugh, and it makes her eyes brighten.
"But as you know there's not much choice but to get on with survival, and so I did."
"Yes, and very impressively I might add."
"Thanks, Cap. But I still had a major problem. I was still a horny bitch with a huge libido, and it didn't take long before sex was all I could think about."
Now it's my turn for a sly smile.
"You know there are ways to stave off that urge."
"Oh, don't I know it!" she laughed. "But after two years of sticking those long orange fruits up myself I was dyin' for the real thing! Imagine my joy to find a whole village full of humanoid men with big, beautiful, swingin' dicks! It almost made me believe in God just so I could thank him."
"But I hesitated at first," she goes on. "These were my very first aliens, after all. How did I know if they sacrifice strangers to the volcano god or cave in their skulls with rocks or whatever? I hid in the jungle for a day and observed."
"Only prudent," I agree. "But what you observed was a whole lot of guys bangin' guys, and girls eatin' girls, without one single straight couple anywhere."
"I couldn't figure it out. I'm like, how do they continue their species if they're all gay? Then I'm thinking crazy stuff, like maybe the men have babies from anal sex. Anything's possible in the universe, right?"
"But then you recognized Jack and Wally and you thought you were saved."
"Well, not exactly," Allie says. "First I recognized Jack, and yeah, it felt like a miracle! But then I remembered he was gay and I was like, what the hell? I can't catch a break here!"
I can't help but laugh.
"I'm sorry, Allie," I say, trying to rein it in. "That must have been a gut punch."
"It was! Then when I saw Wally he looked vaguely familiar, but I never really knew him aboard ship. I wasn't sure he was even from the crew until I heard him speaking English with Jack. So now I'm all excited, right? Right there is an Earth man with a really nice cock! But I chill myself out. I can't run up and attack him like a crazy person, so I settled myself, got my shit together, and calmly walked out of the jungle and right up to them."
"And that's where I came in," I say.
"Right," Allie replies. "and instantly my hormones went crazy! Suddenly my dream scenario was back! I felt like we were fated to be together, that this was the cosmic plan all along. That's why it killed me so bad to find out you were into little boys!"
"Look, Allie," I say, trying to keep it gentle. "I can understand your frustration boiling over, and I can even forgive that you took it out on me. But I'm over being embarrassed and ashamed of my sexuality, and I won't apologize for seizing my happiness. I was in the same boat as you, looking at a lifetime of loneliness and frustration the same as you are now. When Loki came into my life I had to look deep within myself, to my real heart and my real desires, and it turned out to be a no-brainer. I love this boy and I want to spend my life with him. I'm sorry if that leaves you out in the cold, but it's the way things are."
"I know," she says. "I get it. My happiness is not your responsibility. It was just a lot all at once, that's all."
"Yeah, it was for me, too."
"And it gets better," Allie says with full irony. "Wally talked to the elders this morning. There's no exception for me just because I'm not from the village. No hetero contact is allowed, and I'm banned from the ceremony."
"Yeah, I was afraid of that," I say. "They look at it pretty simplistically, I guess."
"Yeah. I guess I could sneak it in the jungle if one of you guys was willing, but if we got caught Wally thinks we'd be expelled from the village. Besides, he's just as devoted to Mura as you are to Loki. Just my luck, huh? Three hunky Earth men and no takers!"
"So… you know there's an obvious solution, right?"
"Go with girls?" she asks. "Yeah, of course I thought of that. In fact I've been with girls before, being the horny bitch that I am. Summer camp when I was fifteen was a real walk on the wild side!"
I laugh.
"I suppose that's how I'll go," she says with a sigh. "I can only hope to be as lucky as you guys and find someone to have a real relationship with, because I fear lesbian sex alone isn't gonna to do it for me."
I feel the light bulb go on above my head.
"Let's head back," I say. "I've got an idea I want to run by Wally."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The rainy season has come and gone. My flood control measures worked like a charm, and though it rained a lot up in the mountains our creek only spread a bit more than in a normal year, flooding the plain on either side just enough to ensure good fertility.
Speaking of which, Duri and Laneeka have both had their babies, a beautiful strong boy and a tiny, pink girl respectively. There have been two more fertility ceremonies since then, five more young girls getting their cherries popped in the name of the tribe. Today is the third, and as always we gather on the green for the spectacle.
Only this ceremony is different. There are two "stages," each with its own bed of fronds and crowd of onlookers. On the "main stage" we have the headline act, a cute little village girl with long, wavy black hair all the way down to her remarkably shapely ass. Her name is Contra — or it sounds like that to me — and she developed in less than a year from a flat-chested and utterly hairless little girl into a voluptuous early-teenage Lolita absolutely ripe for her carnal introduction. You can see the eagerness in her eyes.
The other stage is my prime concern. Allie lies on her back, Wally above her, with her legs hooked over his shoulders. Wally guides his long, thick cock to her pussy and slides it in to the hilt, while Allie loudly gasps.
I place a kiss on Loki's neck as he sits in my lap, my cock squeezed between his silky thighs. Mura sits between Loki's open legs, squeezing Loki's little boner between his butt cheeks. We are enjoying the show while enjoying each other, but not all the way. I have to save my jizz, being next in line for Allie.
Loki and Mura are OK with their men being in the ceremony with a woman, since it's what they are used to. Even Jack will give it a try, though he makes no promises. Like most gay men he has had a few — mostly drunken — het experiences and he thinks he can get it up, but we'll have to see.
It took a lot of talking, but Wally finally convinced the elders to accept the concept of "separate but equal." Allie can have the hetero sex she craves, but only with Earth men, only in the ceremony, and only for purposes of reproduction.
It was a much harder sell, but Allie finally got one special accommodation: she will not have to give up the children she bears to the tribal nursery. Her whole desire to have babies is not about the act of giving birth, but of being a mother. And since she will likely live long enough to raise them to adulthood the elders finally agreed to let her keep them.
As for a relationship, Allie is now with a lovely young woman named Sheshala, and though they can't yet converse very much Allie says she is very loving and they are very happy together.
I hope it works for Allie's sake, and I'm actually looking forward to being Uncle Dad!
Thanks for reading It Takes A Village. I know it was mere silliness but I hope you found it diverting.
If you like my stuff have a look at my story archive here on my Prolific Authors page.
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