PIONEERS

Pioneers

The inhabitants of Treehouse 36N on Outpost 1642 were, in order of arrival, Danielle, Maudette, Randy, Amelia and Dayshawn. All lost souls who decided in their late teens to try their luck abroad. All except Dayshawn, who had been sent to the charge of Maudette by the base command. Dayshawn was thirteen, and one of a growing number of orphaned children. What was once Earth was essentially a child-labor powered science experiment run by the loose remnants of what was once called government. Normally by thirteen the likes of a boy like Dayshawn would be laden with trash, trash sorting, trash transport, container repair, trash incineration equipment repair, anything that required physical assembly-line labor and small hands. Dayshawn was made for The Lines, but he wound up at the Treehouse, he must have known someone (or done something to or for someone who did). For a kid like Dayshawn, Outpost 1642 was a candy store wrapped in summer vacation. Two things none of the inhabitants of Treehouse 36N had never experienced, let alone heard of before. 

For someone like Danielle, born and immediately abandoned to the machine of the orphanage system, once she was past adoptable-baby age, life became a game with only one rule: stay smarter than the other 90% at your heels till you age out - or lose and head to The Lines. For the most part Danielle did manage to stay smarter than the cutoff for The Lines, a gap that narrowed as the years progressed, there were a few times she didn’t - but she managed to find increasingly demeaning ways to eke out another year in the orphanage. Leaving the orphanage before signing independence papers meant the rest of your short life spent on earth on The Lines. Staying at the orphanage meant college followed by a life cleaning, staffing, or at best supervising a laboratory-orphanage, she took the earliest opportunity to volunteer for a station abroad. She never had problem with school when she was very young, but data bored her and she hated children even when she was one.

Danielle signed her independence papers at sixteen and boarded a shuttle bound for the planet formerly known as Mars - now M1, the largest in-galaxy base for upward bound humans.

At M1, Danielle rose in the meager ranks fairly quickly - but found just as quickly that ‘ranks’ for someone like her ended far before the ranks of others. When a particularly benevolent Chief Officer extended to her the opportunity to staff a Treehouse, add to that the honor to be the first to staff a newly instated treehouse, she said ‘yes’ before the final words had left his lips.

After the second “Big Bang” an event which caused emergency climate control to be deployed to the ice caps and opened up Earth-Human understanding, allowing the kind of space travel previously prohibited by the construct of the fourth dimension. The elite of Earth took off for parts unknown but found among other things, space travel limited their ability to procreate. Earth served for some time as a place for host mothers to carry the babies their jet-setting employers couldn’t. Risking Space-Infant Malformed Syndrome (SIMs) by carrying a pregnancy to term quickly went from shameful to illegal, and punishable by lengthy imprisonment. There wasn’t a ton of information on SIMs but like all epidemics before it - what was known was horrifying enough to make one never want to know more than the stories. Stories of mal-formed babies that fed off of their mothers until they had sucked all life out. SIMs was a scourge and humanity wasn’t going to abide. But of course, with the expansion of the universe so came the expansion of options for designing one’s heir. Earth was so polluted anyway - how could one trust a filthy child that came from Earth anymore?

Like all patterns of gentrification before - the most desirable parts of colonizable space needed some “breaking in” before the wealthy found them habitable, before tenements could be torn down for luxury high-rises.

Treehouses were such tenements. Once successful, developers would move in and start building luxury homes on sprawling cul-de-sacs, but that would be in the distant future - Outpost 1642 had years of treehouse pioneering left before any of that.

Treehouse: an elevated water-tower style dwelling, atop an elevator shaft connecting the living quarters to an astrodome. The astrodome was temperature-controlled and had, in the early stages of colonization, been outfitted with supplies for basic food production, a small library and communications room, access to an ATV and small spacecraft, and of course the dwelling and work area were equipped with spacesuits that would allow the wearer prolonged exposure to the elements.

Some treehouses were better than others, some outposts were better than others. Some people who staffed treehouses were crazier than others. Danielle had lucked out with Randy. Randy was quiet, withdrawn, but a hard worker and a hell of a caretaker. Maudette was the mother that none of them ever had, and Dayshawn was nothing but trouble, but not in the ‘kill you in your sleep’ or ‘wake you up standing at the foot of the bed with an axe’ kind of way - more in the… ‘the face with which he lied was so convincing it was terrifying’ kind of way. He would have made a hell of a politician if a boy of his status could ever hope to be such a thing. Instead he’d live here with his make-shift government-issued family until he was seventeen or eighteen, and then he’d either sign up or move on. Danielle suspected he’d move on, although she may have been surprised by the weight of his pros- list for staying. Maudette said loud and to anyone who would listen that if she got to decide this treehouse would be the last place she ever had to go - she was done with flying. Space travel was more trouble than it was worth. Wanted to just rest her bones till it was time to leave her mortal coil.

Recently, however, there was unrest.

Everyone knew that some Outposts were muttering ‘war’ - organizing. There was talk of revolution. Their employment contract dictated that any of them could be called back to be used as cannon fodder in the event of an inter-human conflict. These were breaking out all the time but the stories seemed to indicate this violence was only happening in far flung sectors - but the whispers started getting closer…

Until it landed at their front door - and a call came from Central Command that they were all to evacuate the outpost - all, that is, except Danielle.

“Well ain’t that some shit!” Maudette said, tears were welling in her eyes but she’d never let them fall. Dayshawn used to say that Maudette could suck the tears right back up into her face. Her tears were always close, but whatever life Maudette had seen before the treehouse had long since taught her that emotions meant weakness.

“I’m sorry Maudette” Danielle said earnestly, “you know I’d switch with you if I could” she couldn’t, but she wouldn’t have. They all knew it was a lie but believing it made them a family.  Such as it was.

“I wouldn’t let you!” Maudette protested, “but I appreciate it none the less sweet Danielle.”

A day later an unmanned craft was sent to replace the hangared craft outside the astrodome. Randy and crew would take the existing craft - this would allow it to be routinely serviced at M1 before whatever else lay ahead of them. It was about a week later that they all boarded the craft and set off for M1. All but Danielle. She had spent almost 6 months here alone on this rock before Randy showed up, she hadn’t thought about the possibility of having to do so again. Now here she was.

When Randy showed up - when it was just the two of them, for a while they barely spoke. Danielle so used to silence - although with a very ingrained habit of talking to herself, and Randy so withdrawn, his mannerisms almost collapsed in on themselves. They worked along side each other every day - expanding the crops, running their small operation, logging anything concerning with M1. Sometimes they’d eat together, sometimes she’d attempt to find out about his life and then find herself talking more extensively than she ever would have planned to about her own.

They kept along this way for months until Maudette showed up. This polite coexistence remained unbroken, except for one odd afternoon. That afternoon - an afternoon where she’d normally work in the little library (or pretend to be “at work” while reading voraciously through their small collection of ‘classic’ fiction) and he would normally be working in the astrofields, they both found themselves in the kitchen of their then luxuriously expansive living quarters. She was there, filling her water containers at their small clean-water sink. She heard him walk in behind her, pull out a barstool from the kitchen island, and wait. She heard him put his containers on the small island and then she felt his eyes on her. She didn’t change her pace of action or turn around to acknowledge him, though she did think for a moment that she should - but she could feel.. his eyes almost like hands tracing the curves of her body in the tight regulation bodysuit. Danielle felt her face flush, bit down on her bottom lip. She finished one container and put the second in the water stream without missing a drop. While it filled she slowly tightened the cap on the first, willing her hand to stop trembling. She cut the water off at the top of the second container and then loosely spun the cap a single time. She collected both containers and paused for another quick moment before turning to face him - when she caught his eyes she lost the ability to breathe.

He stood slowly, but left his containers where they were and walked deliberately towards her. She felt a delicious shiver start at the nape of her neck and finish with a zap between her legs. He was looking right at her - in a way that no one, truly no one, ever had. He stopped right in front of her, took the containers out of her hands and placed them in the sink. She started to change her expression to one that reflected her indignation at his presumptive movements, his coming on to her like this, but before she could commit he had the side of her face in his palm and his eyes and hers were locked.

“I will stop immediately… if you tell me to.” He said, and it immediately became the most authentic and earnest thing she had ever heard. She dropped her neck letting the full weight of her head fall into his massive hand and as he held it he reached the other one up to brush her hair from her face and pressed his mouth into hers. After a deep, desperate, perfect kiss that brought her to her tiptoes, almost falling forward into him for more when he pulled away, he looked directly into her eyes.

This time she made her ragged breath find sound “Don’t. fucking. stop”.

His hands flew to her shoulders and he slid the straps of her bodysuit down gently then traced the neckline with his fingers dancing over the top of her breasts. She grabbed the straps herself and brought the top to her waist, watching his eyes follow her hands down her body. She finally dropped her gaze to the floor as she folded forward, slowly rolling the bodysuit over her glutes using her left hand on his right leg to stabilize as she carefully stepped out of the left leg, then she traced his thigh as she slowly stood, flipping her messy hair back and regaining eye contact as she moved her hand towards his crotch, breaking into a mischievous smile when she felt the press of his erection against her palm through his work pants. He shook his head twice, as if to chastise her for making his cock leap, then leaned over and scooped her up by the ass cheeks - planting her on the counter in front of him and placing his mouth back on hers. Danielle started furiously working at his belt, kicked off the last of her garment and hooked her feet around him.

The intoxication of this rush of feeling was fueling both of them like an uncut drug. Randy's hands found their way up the sides of her body and into her hair where he grabbed it into fistfulls and pulled back - exposing her throat where he quickly moved his open mouth. He kept one hand knitted into her mop of dark hair and let the other hand find it’s way to her bra strap and he clicked it open. Their mouths maintained a magnetic pull, with his mouth occasionally falling from hers to find her breasts, then nipples, then throat, as she pulled back gasping for air. She shimmied her body to the edge of the counter and pulled his shirt over his head, once she was successful at undoing his belt and zipper she slid herself down off the counter until she was eye level with his waist and took his pants to his ankles, gasping as his rigid cock bounced up just barely missing her face. Randy had dropped his hand from it’s grip in her hair and politely found her shoulders. Danielle looked up at him with his cock in both of her hands and said “this really isn’t the time to hold back”. She took his right hand from her shoulder and placed it back on the back of her head, Randy hesitated only a moment before he grabbed a fistfull of her hair again and then reflexively turned his face to the sky as he felt it move closer and closer the more of his cock Danielle managed to push down her throat. She emerged in a gasp of air and spit and took both hands back to the shaft as she slobbered on the head moving up and down with her mouth and hands until he yanked her from it..

“I don’t want to cum…. that’s going to…. you’re going to… fuck”

He pulled her up to face him, and spun her around, with a delightful crack he spanked her once, watched her ass cheek quiver, then parted her thighs with his knee, as his hand traced the line of her arched back. She felt those eyes again - and he made a low, guttural noise when he slid his cock between her thighs.  He let himself just slide between her legs and the slickness of her lips a few times before he reached his hand down and pushed himself inside of her.

She gasped and reached back, digging her fingers into his upper thigh, he held himself deep, trying to steady his breathing, she clenched her pussy against his cock involuntarily as the electricity streamed through her body. She hinged at the hips and they both came to the ground, he thrust himself into her a few times before pulling away. In a very sweet and almost innocent gesture he pulled some clean towels out from the cupboard above them and placed them on the hard kitchen floor, she was eyeing him with a tilted head, this pause for her comfort. She opened her mouth to thank him when he broke the silence.

“put your ass in the air” he said “now.”

She smiled and moved slowly, watching him stroke his cock like a predator watching prey, she complied, taking up a puppy pose, chest and face to the ground, ass atop athletic thighs, reached her hand back, watched him watch her touch her soaking pussy. He straddled her upturned ass, grabbed her hand and pulled it up to his mouth, gently sucking her fingers. As she buried her face in a towel, he slid his cock deep into her pussy, and held it inside of her writhing body. When she started to still, he pulled his cock out and replaced it with his thumb, rhythmically stroking inside of her, then slowly pulled out and then circled her clit, gathering as much of her wetness as he could while she made small noises, and wiggled her perfect ass

“Hold still”

“I can’t”

“Then I’m going to make you”

He plunged his cock back into her throbbing pussy then swirled his right thumb around her pretty little butthole slowly pressing, meeting resistance and gently passing that resistance, he thrust himself into her pussy a few more delicious times and then pulled back - pressing his mouth between her legs, lapping up every inch of her, finally spreading her ass cheeks wide and spitting into the small winking star. Her body convulsed with pleasure as he licked and pressed and once his thumb was just past the first knuckle he hooked it, and pulled her ass towards him, sliding her pussy back onto his waiting cock, she cried out and he felt her climb

Please…. Don’t… Stop…

She bounced off of his lap, lost in the ecstasy of pleasure, then went to her hands and knees, he closed his massive hands around her hips and started fucking, hard. She made a sound that raced to his balls and her pussy started clenching, coaxing out his cum, no one would be taking any chances here - but she just needed to - he needed her to….

As he slammed her ass against him once more he felt a rush of liquid cover his balls and it was all he could take, he quickly slid her off and she collapsed in a puddle below him, his vision left him and when it returned he was chuckling softly and smiling at the Pollack painting he had left on her ass and back.

For an indeterminable amount of time, they both just lay beside one another and took in the imported oxygen.

Finally he stood - went to the sink and used the drinking water to wet a towel and use it to wipe her down before tending to himself. A move Danielle found immediately comforting - in this massively uncomfortable aftermath.

Afterwards, they went back to pretending life was exactly as it was before the event. They did a fairly impressive job, although there were times where the electricity between them was both palpable and frustrating. But they never did it again. When Maudette came it was almost like the opportunity to even consider doing so left.

And now they were leaving - and Danielle would go back to the time even before that. Alone on this floating rock.

The small crew boarded the small craft and Danielle watched it evaporate into the perpetual blue-black of the sky above them. She had put on her suit (she hated the suits) to see them off and was now standing outside of the astrodome looking up as they disappeared into the darkness.

She turned to take the rest of her suit off - hanging it on its place in the antichamber, and then opened the lock to let herself back into the astrodome.

Danielle was a few steps away from the door when she heard it click again behind her - she froze. It had clicked open.

What came through the door towards her had only one recognizable human feature - and it was the eyes. The noise that emitted from it was a cross between a gurgle and a child’s laugh only deeper. But the eyes were blue - bright, bright blue. Almost… beautiful.

Danielle knew without knowing how she knew - that she was staring into the reality of Sudden Infant Mutation Syndrome. Was this why they had called everyone off-Outpost? How had this thing gotten inside?

She broke for the low ranch-style garden shed at the far side of the dome - thinking if she could just get to a weapon.. but she was in her second stride when she realized the thing was faster than her, and it was circling to cut her off. She started to run serpentine in an attempt to evade it and for a moment it truly seemed to confuse the monstrous thing - which traveled not on feet or legs but on some sort of fused worm-like appendage that seemed to shimmy the creature along. It stood at just about Danielle’s height but became amorphous as it moved - Danielle had to do something or it was for sure going to come within reach of her although she couldn’t tell how it would “reach” at all, and didn’t want to find out.

She had to do something drastic - she altered her course without warning and started running directly towards it.

The SIM stopped, she thought she heard a giggle as it waited for her to make contact but instead when she came within 10 feet she took a sharp turn and began running away from it toward the elevator shaft - She thought for sure at any moment she would feel the thing overtake her but somehow she had confused it enough to make it to the door, which was programmed to stay on the floor last used for convenience, which meant it would be there on call, she pressed the button then turned around and saw the thing barrelling at her full speed. She leapt into the elevator car and turned smashing her palm against the “door close” icon, she held her breath and watched as they closed an instant before the SIM arrived - it tried to force its mass through the small opening but failed, although a small fragment of it came loose in the door closure mechanism and fell to the elevator floor as it moved rapidly up. Danielle held herself against the back wall staring at the oozing piece of the SIM which would be blocking her exit at the top - she didn’t know if it was contagious or what - she couldn’t believe that this was the affliction that the governing bodies knew about - this?!? Humans made this??

Danielle stood pressed to the wall of the elevator staring at the still-moving blob of … not flesh… What was that stuff? The door opened revealing her quarters, her home, that kitchen floor, that peaceful life she always wanted and finally found, just on the other side of this…thing.

At that moment the object rotated on the elevator floor, and Danielle crumpled to her knees as she saw her fate sealed - in the extraordinarily human eyes of a child that had appeared, now staring so innocently at her. She closed her eyes - and then she was no more.

* * *

M1 didn’t know better - the top brass couldn’t be convinced to put the things down - throw them into a fire. The first SIMs looked so close to human, how could they have known? Gestation in space, was a no man’s land. And this was still most certainly a man’s land. The race to colonize and stance on human life became their undoing. By the time the first orphanage on Earth was lost to them it was already too late. The propaganda campaign that followed - trendy magazines interviewing intergalactic celebrities “Oh I’d never adopt from Earth anymore - it’s far too polluted - purity is important to me and my family - that’s why we only drink Cilk™ - evaporated corn milk. It’s the purest!”

Earth was lost - forget about it - but they still needed her gravity. The last evac flight departing Earth was checked thoroughly for any trace of them, but at the time.. that was before they knew about the autonomy… before they knew how little it took… how quickly they grew. Before they had to stare into the face of their own fatal mistakes…

Early scientists believed that the housecats of ancient Earth would tailor their cries to frequencies that matched human young, eliciting not only a response, but an emotional bond - tapping into human nature hard-wired to nurture. Not unlike the sensation of gazing into those innocent, hypnotic blue eyes…