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March 2263
New Kiev
Safety Officer and Bus Driver Johannes Lenk
I woke up on the lander for the last time. Our house was nearly finished. We’d put the roof on today and have a real home at last! As I walked off the lander, one of my wives Frida greeted me with a slap on the butt and a crushing hug. She was the biggest human female on the planet, and if it wouldn’t hurt the feelings of my other wives, I might say she was my favorite. I’m exactly 2 meters tall (6 foot 7) myself, and I barely need to lean down to kiss her. In the old movies we liked, the traditional male romantic lead was ‘six foot two with eyes of blue’. Frida has light brown hair, blue eyes, and the same height. She also has the largest breasts of any woman here, each nearly the size of my head!
Her test scores were only a little above average, but she was appointed Lead Builder. She’s very capable at constructing things according to plan; has a booming, fear-inspiring voice when she wants to; and can out-work most of the men. She’s as likely to give me a high-five or knuckle-bump as kiss me, and I like that. She’s kind of like a best buddy, that also has the right anatomy to sleep with me. When we were married, I followed the tradition and carried her to my quarters. When we woke in the morning she insisted on returning the favor, and carried me to the mess hall for breakfast.
Alaki is my tropical wonder. I’m sure there are at least two copies of her in an old Elvis movie. She looks like the stereotypical hula girl, and even makes grass skirts for her and the other ladies. Being a Technologist, it seems like she can magically make anything from just a few sticks and some dirt. I’m very lucky to have her.
Maria is the prettiest of my girls. I swear, she looks exactly like the female lead in that old movie Desperado. With her plump, full lips, kissing her is amazing. She’s an Educator, and great with the kids. She’s also super-fertile, like Therese. I joke they could probably blow me a kiss and have babies an hour later. Including the two sets of twins, she’s had sixteen kids in the same number of years. She’s a regular munchkin factory. I love playing sports with the older kids, and I love that about her.
Therese… what can I say about Therese? She’s technically my wife but she’s just too small for me. I like her, and she likes me, but that’s about it. My twelve-year-old son is larger. When my other ladies spend time with Demitri, she’s my little teddy bear. She sits in my lap as we eat or watch videos. When I’m tired, I sleep on my belly and she lays on my back. I worry that if I spoon with her, I might get excited in my sleep and hurt her by accident. She’s quite happy I save my physical love for the less fragile ladies.
Demitri is Mayor of our village, my co-husband, and a good friend. Since I was First Officer on the ship, my pal Governor Rito asked me to be Mayor of another village, but I would need to switch to another family. I love them intensely, so I couldn’t do that.
I’m the village Safety Officer now and very happy doing it. I haven’t encountered anything dangerous on the ground yet, other than a few shouting matches that got out of hand. I walk around the village two or three times a day, making sure everything is in order and everybody is all right, then I coach tennis, basketball, and other sports when the kids get out of school. I don’t see any way I could be happier.
Since I was the Chief Pilot, I also drive the weekly ‘bus’ between villages. A lot of people might be upset, going from piloting a starship to driving a ground vehicle that can only manage fifty kilometers (30 miles) an hour. I just think it’s kind of funny. Sometimes I’ll say, “3, 2, 1, IGNITION!” as my sleepy snail of a machine takes over five seconds to reach jogging speed.
The villages were built 30 kilometers apart to prevent all of us from being wiped out by a fire, flood, or other disaster. It’s still close enough to walk from one village to the next in half a day or drive the ‘bus’ in about an hour. One of the first things we did was connect the villages with cables, so we could share electrical power and communicate easily.
Mainly I carry food and other cargo back and forth. On a typical trip, two to six people ride along. The vehicle isn’t really a bus, but more like a dump truck, with tracks instead of wheels, and three rows of seats in the cab. It doesn’t run on oil or gasoline, but wood. It has a ‘Combustible Organics Gassifier’ or something. I just know I need to throw in about 30 kilos of wood before we leave and again halfway between villages. It puts out a lot of smoke, but works pretty well. A couple of engineers are building a cargo and passenger aircraft. I can’t wait to fly it!
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Technologist Alaki Manu
Aloha! I’m writing this to clear up a few misunderstandings. Please consider that I come from a culture where people are more honest and open than most. I hope you won’t be offended if I’m too direct for you.
A lot of people see the term ‘Technologist’ and think of things like advanced flying robots and wireless power networks. We brought a lot of modern technology on the ship, but what happens if your advanced robot breaks down and you don’t have spare parts? Or an electronics factory to make parts? Or even bricks to build a factory?
Advanced modern devices are only a small part of what we do. We study technology, as in tools and methods, all the way from the stone age to the most modern. I and the two other Technologists on our mission plan to focus on the simple things first. We need basic tools to produce food and homes.
Tie a rock to a stick and you have a crude but useful hammer. Break a rock a few times so it has a sharp edge, tie it to a stick, and you have a primitive axe. Split two branches in half and tie them together in a rectangle, and you have a frame for making bricks. Pull some grass or vines and weave them, and you have a basket, rope, or a hat. Rub two pieces of wood together fast enough and hard enough, and you have a fire. Do a dozen more steps, and you have brick walls. Three dozen more, and you have iron tools. Sixty thousand more steps, and you have an autonomous construction drone. Half a million more steps get you a spacecraft.
Another misunderstanding is that life without every modern gadget is terrible. A few of my relatives still live on islands on Earth, with nothing more modern than a canoe, a spear, and a fishing net. Most of them are happier than some rich people I met in Los Angeles. If you have food, water, and shelter; all you really need to be happy are family and some good friends.
As an experiment on our summer vacation, a friend and I walked into a tropical rainforest on Earth, with nothing but sandals and our swimsuits. By sunset, we had a simple stick and leaf shelter, some basic tools and baskets, spears and fish traps. By the end of the week we had comfortable beds, a kiln for making pottery, and a bloomery furnace for making iron.
After two months, we had a water well, brick house, fish pond, garden, a forge, and a lot of iron and even steel tools. In the last weeks, he made a fully functional crossbow and a rolling crane that allowed one person to lift a ton. My final project was an actual bathroom, with a shower and an ugly but working flush toilet.
Just the two of us made tools a village in the 19th century would have been pleased with, and a small home equal to one in Chicago in 1920. We had produced all that from little more than wood, rocks, and skillful hard work. It was nicer than the island village where I was born.
The day we left, my friend asked me to marry him. I loved the house and the lifestyle. He was handsome, strong, and smart, but way too serious. I needed somebody to make me laugh too. If he had a sense of humor, I would have made the mistake of staying with him.
One day we were bathing in a pond by a waterfall. I playfully told him he could have me if he could catch me, and splashed him in the face. He told me I should be careful about getting water in people’s faces because they could breathe it in, and that could lead to pneumonia. He also said chasing each other in the water is dangerous because we could step on sharp rocks, or …. zzzzzz
He was nice and very smart, but fun as tree bark.
I’m mostly happy with my new family and all of us get along well. Demitri and Therese are totally head-over-heels for each other, and friendly with the rest of us. Maria, Frida, and I are all deeply in love with our husband Johannes, and have some fun and sexy times with each other too. The three of us were a little disappointed when Johannes told us he loved all of us, but only wanted to be with one of us at a time. He’s kind of traditional, and anything intimate involving more than two people freaks him out.
We deal with it since he’s a loving and very kind man. I feel myself blushing as I write this. Physically he’s a very big, muscular guy, with very big parts, that give us very big happiness. He’s also got the stamina to give one of us his big happiness three or four times a night! At the start of my night with him, I’m moist in the muff and eagerly looking forward to it. The next morning, I’m bursting with joy but so worn out and sore I can barely walk.
Demitri is smarter, more dominant, and much, much weirder. Maria, Frida, and I spend the night with him a few times a month. It’s nice to have somebody wittier and more charming occasionally, and he’s happy to do a threesome or foursome with us.
He likes to pretend that Maria is his sister, and sometimes he calls Frida ‘Mama’. It doesn’t hurt anybody, but he’s definitely a little odd. He also enjoys giving me spankings when I’ve been a naughty girl. When I feel I haven’t gotten enough time with Johannes, I make sure ‘Daddy’ Demitri catches me being naughty.
The first time Therese got a night with Johannes, she screamed in terror when he took off his pants. The rest of us heard her at our second home, 200 meters away. We thought it was hilarious when she told us about it later. She said she was expecting a wiener but found a watermelon.
When it was just us girls, she said; “Johannes is so gentle and kind, but isn’t taking him like giving birth backwards?”
We laughed and I tried to reassure her, “You get used to it. It only hurts the first dozen times, or so. But it hurts SO GOOD!”
“I’m gonna need a bigger boat! Heck, I’m even gonna need a bigger lake! Do you think he’d be mad if I only gave him oral? Can one of you teach me about blowjobs?”
Their five point nine kilo (13 pound) son was conceived with artificial insemination and she had a c-section. I don’t blame the poor girl a bit! Most of the time, they just kiss and cuddle. It’s cute to see her laying in his lap, curled up like a sleeping puppy.
Other than school, Therese and Maria take care of our thirty kids. In addition to being Mayor, Demitri does the family’s planning and organizing, and helps with the kids a lot. The rest of us do everything else.
I’m a hundred times happier in our little forest village, than I would ever be in a big city on Earth.
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