Chapter 53: Adapting to New Relationships

Island Days 49-54

JB POV:

This trip back to our island has been enlightening.

I had Hassan with me during one of my shifts at the helm. He seemed puzzled when he looked at the controls interface. “This is different. I do not understand all these new symbols. Did you change these?” He asked in his language.

He was pointing at words

“Yes, Hassan, my Gromorik friend, Tumrik, reprogrammed the interface to read in my language instead of the Shallock’s language. It’s much easier for us to use this way!”

“Your friend must be very intelligent to be able to do that. I would have to learn all over again. It took me a very long time to understand the old way because I had to stay in the old pilot’s mind and make him show me.”

I asked him several more questions and came to realize he only knew the very basics of what this ship was capable of! He never learned the language, just memorized the different ‘words’ that he called symbols! I’ll bet the Shallock he captured fought his mind control and never told him any more than he was forced to.

I also learned the Helgorde’s psychic powers were very limited to just certain abilities. Their main ‘tools’ were Teleporting, Mind Control, Telepathy, Chameleon and very basic TK. Hassan couldn’t even fly! I found that very interesting.

When I asked about schools, he didn’t even understand the term. He said that parents taught their children and that was about it. They did have a form of service, similar to our military draft, that taught other skills depending on what jobs the different ones were expected to do. Even then, they learned by using their telepathy as opposed to reading books.

They didn’t even have a written language! That’s why he kept referring to words as ‘symbols’.

Their telepathy was very powerful, however, since they could communicate from as far away as a half light-year. I was glad that they hadn’t figured out how to do it ‘privately’!

We all heard everything any of them said to each other. It was those conversations that eased our fears that they may be setting us up to take advantage of us.

Especially, since Ibera confirmed that the Helgorde Armada were now all headed toward the Andromeda Galaxy like the devil was after them.

Still, it would be a very long time before we even thought about trusting them enough to upgrade them to our version of some of their powers. What we did decide to start teaching them was English. We knew they would have a difficult time on our island if we didn’t.

Tumrik said he could rig up four of his ‘teaching hats’ to fit their weird shaped heads. He also looked forward to testing our new friends! That would have to wait until we got back, though.

Another thing I learned on this trip was how to figure the difference between the various levels of hyper-warp.

Tumrik said his research ship was one of their faster vessels and had a max speed of Hyper-warp factor 6. He said that to go back to Earth, on his ship, would take about 280 of our planet’s days, or 8400 hours (350 Earth days). Mainly because we could only hold HW factor 5.5 for that amount of time without burning through 30 or more crystals. At 5.5 we would only burn about 8.

Then he said that this ship topped out at HW factor 9! And, at that speed, we could make it to Earth in about 40 of our days! Just like his ship at max speed, however, we’d need to throttle back to warp 8 to save on fuel, but, would still make it in 55 of our days.

He hinted that he would love to go with us if we decided to fly back there. The problem with that, he understood, was two-fold. First, the high UV on Earth would limit him to staying on the ship during the day. And second, the ‘double’ gravity would have the reverse effect on him the lower gravity here had on us. He would be only half as strong as he was here. He saw how weak Chen was just trying to hold a stunner. Then, Max told him how cold it got where he used to live in Chicago causing him to shiver. Only to have Lonnie relate how hot it got in Arizona, where he came from, in the summer.

He looked incredulous, “And, both of you live on that same area of the continent that Captain Pootami showed us!?”

Lonnie chuckled, “Yeah! Why?”

Tumrik huffed, “That’s a huge difference in climate for such a relatively small area! There’s only about a 15⁰ Celsius difference on our whole planet from the northern pole to the southern pole. No wonder my people prefer to stay underground!” He chuckled. “I think I’ll just stay here. I enjoy being able to go outside all the time.”

I added, “And, the area where your people stay is way colder that where Max lives!” Which made him shiver even more.

I felt bad about that since Tumrik has become one of our close friends.

Lonnie related how ‘Jonah’ had shown them a video of a place here that looked like Antarctica, threatening them with going there if they didn’t ‘behave’ themselves.

Tumrik assured him that no place here was even close! This planet never saw ‘frozen precipitation’, let alone ice.

Lonnie grumped, “That fucker punked us!”

Tumrik chuckled, “He probably did that to keep you heathens in line!”

Yeah, Ibera’s revelation that most of us were criminals was becoming an inside joke and Tumrik was having fun teasing us about that.

On a more serious note, Tumrik told us when we get back ‘home’ to our island we were going to check this ship and erase any exterior markings it might have. And also reprogram our transponder so if we were to run across any Shallocks they couldn’t easily identify us as one of their stolen spacecraft.

“Just like some of our crooked brethren did when they bought our old, retired ships.” He confided. “That’s why it would be very difficult to find the ship that your kidnapped friends are probably on.”

That idea came up when Lonnie asked how, if the Shallocks were from another galaxy, their computer knew all about our galaxy. It didn’t know where every planet was, just the stars, solar systems and gravity wells. We could use our scanners to identify any planets that had inhabitants and breathable atmospheres, however, as long as we were within about one light-year.

Tumrik said he would try to update our ship’s computer to all of the data his had as far as our galaxy was concerned.

We were given several opportunities to change course, just to give us someexperience. It took us a bit longer to get back, but, knowing Tumrik was probably not going with us to Earth, was good practice.

All five of us felt comfortable that we could now make it to Earth on our own, just as our ship decelerated from Hyper-warp when we neared our planet.

We let Tiny do the piloting so he could get the feel better. Tumrik was right behind him, just in case. Max and I both chuckled when Lonnie wanted him to fly around our planet, just so he could see the two poles on our monitors!

Tiny was ‘white-knuckling’ the joystick as we hovered just south of Tumrik’s ship so we could clear the area. Annie, thankfully, notified our friends we were back, to make sure nobody was in the area to be defoliated.

Blaine said that he could ‘hear’ us, just not ‘see’ us, since we were still cloaked. He said we made a fairly loud, high-pitched ‘whirring’ sound. It was similar to the anti-grav scooters, but, 5 times louder.

Tiny did a nice job landing and turning off the cloaking device before shutting down the engines.

Even though he was sweating like a whore in church, he grinned, “That wasn’t so bad!”

Tumrik chuckled, “Not at all, however, I think we’re going to need to find a planet around here somewhere with gravity like Earth’s before you guys try to take this home. Trust me, with twice the gravity, landing is going to be 10 times as hard! I think it would be best if I tried it myself, first, to get the feel of it, then show you guys.”

We all looked at each other and nodded in agreement. It would be a bitch to get this thing all the way back to Earth and then crash the fucker like a bunch of damn rookies.

I chuckled to myself, feeling Ibera and Darren snickering in my head!

Saturday, January 3, 1987 – Planet Earth.

Darren POV:

Greg and I had some time to kill before our six construction friends were going to come by for a Bar-B-que around 3:30.

Ed was running some errands for Gracie, just to have something to do. It was driving him crazy that he couldn’t tell anyone of our latest adventure!

So we decided to pop up and see how JB and his crew were doing.

Since Ibera wasn’t busy, she joined with Greg so he could hear all the telepathic conversations that might be happening.

I joined with JB.

We couldn’t help but give JB a hard time as we watched him also getting ‘white in the knuckles’ as he sat next to Tiny when he landed on their island. We were glad to see everyone agree with Tumrik about finding another planet, with gravity like Earth’s, to practice on.

Ibera told Greg and me how it wasn’t surprising that so many unsuspecting ‘ET’ spacecraft had crashed, being unaware of our very strong gravity. She told us that even Zeus had to make a few last minute corrections before they landed. And their spacecraft was far more advanced than any of the others.

Even though we had seen what this spaceship looked like when it was flying, we were somewhat surprised at just how much bigger this one was than Tumrik’s. She said that some of that could be due to the fact that the Shallocks had concealed all their weapons systems. From the outside, an unsuspecting marauder or pirate might not even suspect the ship was even armed.

The rest of the island’s residents rushed over to see it. They were all amazed at just how much bigger it was the Tumrik’s, also. Needless to say, everyone wanted to come aboard to check it out.

We could tell that Max and JB were using all of them being on it to see just how many could possibly fly at once.

Some were a bit dismayed when just the number of bunks would limit the number to about 26, and that included the three ‘Executive’ quarters which had double beds in them.

When JB summoned their Helgorde friends to come out from the storage room they were hiding in, everyone gasped. I could see the relief on JB’s face that Tumrik had been able to at least teach them the native’s version of English.

Hassan and his friends appeared to be more terrified seeing all these new people than JB’s friends were seeing these strange, ‘alligator-like’ beings. They did begin to smile, however, when they realized they could understand most of what was being said around them. They messed up a few times when they started using their own language to reply to questions, forgetting they needed to try speaking English.

As soon as we heard JB, Max and Annie confirm, privately, that they weren’t going to say anything about going back to Earth for at least a few days, Greg and I left to go back home.

We also didn’t want Eddie to miss anything!

There was a flurry of activity going on when Greg and I returned from Ibera’s. Our girls had talked Monte and his buddies into getting four big sunshades, four more eight foot tables and 24 very nice, padded folding chairs.

They’d just returned with Bob’s big step van, loaded to the gills. The next hour was spent with all eight of us guys hurriedly setting everything up. The girls even had them pick up rope lights and four big sisal mats so we wouldn’t have to walk on the rocks.

We set up the sunshades in a big square that covered an area 40 feet by 40 feet. These, of course, had to be tied down so the wind wouldn’t get underneath them and blow them away.

I have to admit; this was going to be much more comfortable than everyone cramming into the Toy hauler. The weather was perfect, at about 75 degrees and sunny. I helped Greg get his big gas grill ready to cook the 30 some odd ribeye steaks the girls had purchased. We also started a charcoal fire in our fire pit to cook all the big baked potatoes in.

Just before 3:30 we heard three cars pull up and park just north of the Toy hauler.

Jim and his crew piled out of two of them and two more guys and another girl came out of the last one. Jim introduced these three newcomers as Marian Beasley, Carl Monk and Carl’s cousin, Peter Monk, our third crew. Marian looked to be much younger than her two male companions. Carl and Peter appeared to be in their mid-40s while Marian couldn’t have been more than 20 or 21. Carl was heavyset and balding with a full beard as opposed to his cousin, Peter, who was skinny as a rail with long, graying hair pulled into a foot-long ponytail. I swear the dude looked like Willie Nelson.

Both of the guys had a warped sense of humor which Marian couldn’t seem to get enough of. Jim told us that Carl was his mentor who taught him much of what he knew.

I was just beginning to wonder how much Jimmy told his three friends when Carl looked around and chuckled, “Well damn, I feel like an old fart around here!”

Jim smirked, “Don’t let the ‘old’ guy fool you.” He said using air quotes, “even though Marian is still learning, the three of them work circles around anyone I know. We were hoping they would be able to join us to get started on Monday, but with Jake and his seven jailbirds now getting fired, I’m afraid they’re gonna have to help Craig pick up the slack for a while. I hope you don’t mind that we brought them along today?”

I grinned, shaking my head, “No problem! Glad to meet you guys!” I said before all of us began shaking their hands. “Did you three hear about what went down on New Year’s Eve?”

Carl huffed loudly while shaking his head, “Yes, we heard. I’ve been trying to convince Craig to fire those 8 clowns for a while now. They do more sitting around than working and won’t spend a single minute cleaning up when it’s time to go home. Hopefully with them gone now, we won’t lose any more crews. Those guys were nothing but bullies and got angry with anyone who did the job right, because it made them look bad. Craig’s hoping now that they’re gone, maybe some of the crews that left, just because they had been threatened, may come back.”

Marian had walked up to Monte and was impishly looking into his eyes, “Jimmy said you made Jake look like a 90Lb weakling before smashing his pathetic face in! I would have loved to see that. That bastard has been giving all three of us girls a very bad time, just because we do good work.”

Monte smiled at her, “Bullies like him are really cowards when they don’t have their ‘posses’ with them to intimidate guys like Jim and Roger who want to stand up against them.”

Marian giggled, “Well then, why didn’t they intimidate you?”

Monte chuckled, pointing out Rex, Greg, me, Bruce, Jeremy, Big Bill Nelson and Eddie, “Because, I knew MY posse had my back! Your six friends are OUR friends now and nobody messes with our friends!” He ended with a raised eyebrow at Marian.

Marian giggled just before jumping into his arms and rubbing her nose on his, “And ... can Carl, Pete and I be your friends too?”

“Of course!” Monte beamed, “And after tonight ... maybe even part of our big, crazy Family!?”

I chuckled when Marian’s eyes lit up just as Wendy’s and Marty’s looked panic-stricken. Carl and Peter were grinning and looked knowingly at Roger, Jay, Jim and Glenn.

Carl managed a chuckle, “I think my young friends may need to explain a few things first. They told me how some of you came together and now I think they need to tell YOU all about how they came together! It’s quite unusual, trust me.”

I smiled, “And what about you three? Aren’t you part of their ‘sextet”!?”

“Uh, no, Marian, Pete and I ... how should I say, want to be more like what we feel you guys are.”

Peter chuckled, “We believe sharing is caring! Have you guys ever heard that term before?”

Before he could even finish all of our girls were giggling hysterically!

Linda, Jamie, Charlene, Grace and Emmy surrounded Peter and Carl with warm hugs and impish grins, “Does Marian also believe in that?”

Marian blushed, but grinned, “Ohhh yeaaahhh!” Which got her surrounded by Greg, Monte, Eddie and me. We didn’t want to scare them off, but, after several lust-filled minutes testing their proclamations, we broke our kisses and hugs. It was either that or we’d be headed to one of the bedrooms!

These three were more than ready! When we looked at our other six friends, however, they seemed ... intrigued, but, conflicted.

Peter, with his arms still sensually caressing Emmy and Charlene’s shoulders chuckled, “Maybe Carl and I are just two horny old letches, but, try as we might, it seems our lovely, young Marian needs more than what the two of us old farts can provide by ourselves. If you know what I mean?”

Jamie giggled, as she eyed Marian seductively, “So, Marian, does your ... gate ... swing both ways?”

Marian blushed and held her finger in front of her mouth, “Y yes? I mean, I’ve dreamed of being with another woman but, my two female carpenter friends are definitely hetero, so, it’s still just a fantasy.” She looked questioningly at Peter, “And you guys wouldn’t mind?”

Peter laughed, “NO, not in the least! Would you mind if Carl and I watched?”

Emmy tittered, kissing him on the forehead, “We’d love that! And, if you were patient, we may even invite you to join in!?”

Carl clapped his hands one time, loudly, “Hot dam, my kinda group!” He exclaimed.

I noticed Jamie was now kissing Marian passionately. Marian began breathing hard and I saw her right hand gently caressing Jamie’s left breast. Jamie sighed, “Oh Sister, we’d better cool it before I take you inside!”

Marian giggled, “I may have to change my panties! I’ve NEVER been kissed like that before! Oh my God!”

Then, she saw the stunned looks on her friends faces, especially Marty and Wendy’s. “Don’t worry girlfriends, I won’t try that with you?”

They were nodding and managed to flash a tight smile at her.

Greg announced that he and I were going to start grilling the steaks since the potatoes were almost ready. Carl and Peter volunteered to help if we needed it. I was already getting good vibes from both of them, so I invited them to assist. Greg said he wanted to get some onions going on the charcoal fire since I had so much help.

Most of the girls went inside to get all of the side dishes ready, while Ed, Rex, Bruce and Jeremy went to get some drinks for everyone. Ed had two gallons of sun tea brewed and two gallons of lemonade so we’d have enough for everyone.

I noticed that everyone had pitched in one way or another and we were soon eating dinner. I also noticed that Jim, Marty, Jay, Roger, Wendy and Glenn had ‘circled the wagons’ and all sat together whereas, Marian was between Gracie and Ed while Carl and Peter were also mixed in with our Family.

I found it curious that our first six friends weren’t even trying to use their telepathy!? Yet, they were whispering to each other when they felt no one was watching them.

Greg noticed too and wondered what was up. Had we embarrassed them somehow?

So, I flashed, “Hey guys, are you alright? Is something the matter?”

Jim shrugged his shoulders, “Maybe? Maybe not? I don’t think the six of us are anything like you guys or Carl, Marian and Peter. This is the first time we’ve seen those three making out with anybody but each other.”

“Don’t the six of you all get intimate with each other?” I asked, hoping they understood what I meant.

Wendy shook her head, sadly, “Not really ... until last night? Maybe when we finish eating we should tell you OUR story?”

The whole Family was in on that conversation and just smiled at them, nodding our heads, before Linda added, “That might be a good idea. Just know that we’re not going to think badly of any of you just because you’re not as open ‘sexually’ as we are. Okay?”

That made the six of them at least give us all tight smiles and nods. Marty asked, “Are you going to give Peter, Carl and Marian this ‘Gift’ too?”

“We were planning on it, unless you had some reason we shouldn’t?” I asked.

“Oh no, those three, well, Carl and Peter, were the first to accept what the six of us were doing. Marian does too, but, she just hasn’t been with us all that long yet. Until today, we had no idea she was bisexual!” Jim finished.

Carl and Peter were furrowing their eyebrows, wondering why we’d gotten so quiet all of a sudden.

I said, “Let’s get the tables cleared and some fresh drinks for everyone, then we can continue where we left off on Thursday morning? They were going to tell us how their little ‘sextet’ came together?”

Roger chuckled, “Yeah, and here we were thinking the six of us were strange ... until Greg told us about how these guys all came together!” He pointed at all of us.

Carl grinned, “I’d like to hear y’alls story, sometime too. Although, I have a feeling I can sum up your relationship with two words, ‘Polyamorous Family’?”

I smiled at him, “I think you might just understand us! And don’t worry, other than the fact that it’s a very long story, we’ll be glad to share it with you sometime. Wednesday night, Greg gave our six young friends the long version of how some of us originally came together. Now, I’d like to turn this over to Jim and Roger if that’s okay?”

Greg chuckled, “Let’s all get some drinks first, I’m parched and could really use a bourbon!”

That broke the ice, sending most of our guys into the Toy hauler to commence to making everyone some ‘hard’ drinks, while the girls went to fix soft drinks for anyone who wanted one.

Now that everyone had something to drink, Jim started, “Jay and I had been a two-man crew for several years. Just like Roger and Glenn. Normally, Craig likes to use three two-man crews to get a new construction to at least being under roof. Then he might use one or two two-man crews to do all the interior things. The problem with that is, many times you don’t need four people to do the interior work, but, often need more than two.

“One Friday night, Craig met the four of us at a bar and said he had an idea. He wondered what we thought of the idea of having three-man crews. This way, at the start of a job, using two, three-man crews would, in essence, be the same as three, two-man crews. Then, after we got three or four buildings all under roof, he could use three-man crews to finish each house. Since we couldn’t find anything wrong with that idea, Roger and I agreed to give it a shot.

That’s when he surprised us and said he had two girls who were supposedly very good and wanted us to each take one on our crew.”

Jim grinned at Marty and continued, “We were both skeptical at first. Craig explained that the two girls had been working with one of the girls’ father since they were sophomores in high school. He had his own remodeling/light construction company that did everything under the sun, including building garages. Well, to make a long story short, by the end of the first week Marty had blown Jay and I away. I was shocked that there was literally nothing she couldn’t or wouldn’t do. I was very impressed that she subscribed to the policy of ‘measure twice, cut once’. She explained that it was Wendy’s father that they had worked for and he was a stickler for details and wasting lumber was something he simply wouldn’t tolerate.

“When Roger told me that he felt that Wendy was even better than Marty, I couldn’t believe it. I personally had my doubts, so we switched girls for a week. By the end of the second week, Roger and I declared it a draw. When Craig asked us how the girls were working out, we both told him, flat out, that if we were going to do this three-man crew business, we wanted him to leave it just as it was. Jay and I would have Marty on our crew and Roger and Glenn would have Wendy on theirs.

“I gotta tell you, we wouldn’t switch out our girls with even the two best carpenters on Craig’s payroll. Mainly because, we didn’t feel that anyone could be better than our two girls. There was like a synergy between us. Would you ladies like to add anything?”

I noticed Marty winking at Wendy before saying, “The one thing Wendy’s dad told us was, that we were probably going to run into many guys who wouldn’t accept us as being ‘real’ carpenters. And, of those who would finally admit that we knew what we were doing, would hate the fact that we were girls doing a ‘man’s’ job. The way Jim, Jay, Roger and Glenn accepted us, right off the bat, made us start falling in love with them. The problem was, being a three-man crew, I had no idea how it would ever work. I felt that if I started dating one of them, it would soon cause problems with the other one. The way the three of us got along, just the way things were, suggested that maybe things were better if I didn’t date either one of them. I would have been perfectly happy with just a platonic relationship, until I noticed that Jim and Jay started acting weird around me.”

She gave a sly grin at Jay, who then continued, “Jim and I had talked and decided, between the two of us, we would each ask Marty out on a date and whoever she picked would be totally up to her. Much to our surprise, she said she wouldn’t go out with either one of us! Unless, she could go out with both of us, equally. And, both of us would have to promise her that neither of us would get jealous. And, she made it clear, that there would be no ‘score’ keeping! What we did on our dates would be just between the two of us. She was even willing to sleep with us every other night so that no one would always get a certain day.

“Then, she left the two of us alone so we could discuss it between ourselves to see if it was something that could work. I have to say, that when we watched her leave the bar it’s like she took our souls with her.

“I remember Jim looking at me keenly, ‘Do you really think she’s falling in love with both of us?’”

Jim took over, “You know, as strange as it may sound, I believe her. That girl is so much more than just a coworker. I could really see myself marrying her someday.”

Jim chuckled when Jay said, “And so could I! The question is, could the two of us accept the fact that even though it wouldn’t be legal, we may both end up being her husbands?”

Jay started laughing, “I had a feeling things were going to become really interesting if we ended up going with her on this idea. I figured, if she’s going to make love to someone other than me, it may as well be Jim!”

Jim smiled, “And that’s how things got started. I remember both of us running out of the bar only to find Marty standing by her car, giggling at the two of us. “So, who’s up first!?” She asked.

“I remember pulling out a quarter and Jay and I flipped for it. I won, so I walked right up to her and gently put my arms around her, kissing her neck before looking deeply into her eyes. I asked, ‘Is it okay if I kiss you?’ I felt her shiver in my arms before she said, ‘Absolutely, as long as I can also kiss Jay before we leave?’

“I told her, ‘I wouldn’t have it any other way!’

“The kiss that we shared made me weak in the knees. I could feel in my heart the warm feelings she had for me and could only hope she was feeling the same. When we broke the kiss, Jay tentatively took my place in her arms. I have to admit I felt a bit jealous seeing Marty kissing Jay with so much passion. I knew, that when she spent the night in Jay’s bed, tomorrow night, it might tear my heart out. Then I tried to think about how Jay was feeling right then, knowing I was taking her to my place tonight. When they broke their kiss Jay was looking at me with moist eyes. I couldn’t help myself and pulled him into a bro hug and told him, “I know exactly what you’re thinking, my friend. I just don’t know what to say except she’s our girl now and I’ll take good care of her tonight, as long as you promise to take good care of her tomorrow night, deal?”

“I could feel Jay hugging me even tighter when he whispered, “Deal!”

Jim explained that since both he and Jay had month-to-month leases, they decided to look for a two-bedroom apartment for all three of them to rent together. They put two twin beds in the smaller bedroom and a king-size in the master bedroom. The King would be Marty’s bed and Jim claimed one side and Jay claimed the other so neither one of them had to sleep in the other’s mess. (And so they wouldn’t have to do laundry every day!)

Roger explained that things between him, Wendy and Glenn were similar except that all three of them slept in a king bed, every night. They did, however switch off with only one of them having sex with Wendy on any given night.

Our girls couldn’t believe how conventional they were considering all of the mutually agreed-upon ‘rules’ in their relationships. They went on to say that about six months ago was when they decided to all move out to East Mesa. They managed to find a three-bedroom apartment so all six of them could live together. Carl told us that he, Marian and Peter rented a two-bedroom apartment in the same complex.