Helen and the Hummingbird

Chapter One

The Hummingbird was the second fastest known ship in the Galaxy. Carl knew that, since he designed it, and the fastest one as well. The FSS Stiletto was a Federation ship, though, and belonged to them. The Hummingbird was his. No FSS, no USSCS, no USCS, just ‘the Hummingbird’.

It did have one downfall that the Stiletto did not. It could only travel at 6 times Hyper Light Speed, or 6xHLS, for about 96 hours without running out of gas. Fuel actually. Reactor fuel. Lithium Conphlatranzite Nitroloxene. The Stiletto could do just over 6xHLS for weeks at a time. It was also a little cumbersome, at easily two hundred times the Hummingbird’s size.

The good news? Everything he needed to get to, everywhere he needed to go, could be done with jumps of 48 hours or less. At about twenty-five times the distance light travels in a year, and doing it in about one earth day, that’s a long darn way.

The bad news? The Federation, the United States Space Commission, and the United Space Consortium, all allies, didn’t care for Carl running around the galaxy making money and designing things for other peoples, races, species, whatever you want to call them. They wanted to maintain an edge. Which sounded to Carl like power, control, and… Oh, security. Carl told them, showed them, and did all he could to convince them that he would always only design something someone needed if it was a little less than he had.

That meant everyone… thing… whatever the species considered itself, would always have yesterday’s state of the art technology, if it came from him. And since he was, in fact, a human, somewhat, he’d always try to make sure the human race, and the Angelenes, had the edge. Yes, Carl’s mother was an Angelene, and thus, he was blessed with their DNA. They were almost human, but lived longer, and were a lot prettier. Well, the females were. The males were just… male Angelenes. It was a matriarchal society, so it didn’t matter much anyway.

Funny thing, when he designed the Stiletto, two confidential parameters stood out in his final design specifications. Only he, and his mother, knew the secrets, and his mother thought it was so funny, she would never let the feline house pet out of the cloth satchel. The first thing was that the scanners on the Stiletto could not find the Hummingbird. Since it could outrun him, he had to have an edge. That was it. They couldn’t find him, unless he wanted them to. Actually, no one could, but the Stiletto had the most advanced scanners in the galaxy, as well. The second was the most Top Secret of all. The ship’s name was not derived from the ancient knife design… but from his mother’s favorite shoes.

Carl was a bit of a style hound when it came to women he dated or was even seen in public with. He’d always enjoyed seeing women in high heels. Ever since he was young. Yes, Angelene women are almost human in almost every way. But… they’re pink and they have pink hair, and they are gorgeous. All of them. They wear high heels like most human women do, for the same reasons, and pretty much the same styles, but more conservative, maybe. Pumps, high heeled sandals, and the like. High heeled boots and stockings have also been introduced to the Angelene women by their visits to Sol Earth and other human bastions.

They’ve also been exposed to seeing human women envoys dressed in them on their visits to the three Angelene settled worlds, those being Angelene itself and the two planets in the same orbit, each one hundred and twenty degrees off phase. Angelene, the capital planet, had two small moons. Braschene had one larger one, and Preschene, a slightly smaller planet, had three moons. For you astrophysicists out there, they each had pretty much the same mass, with their moons, and like our Sol Earth, had been in that same orbit for millions of their years.

Carl Matthews was an engineering genius. His father, a retired military man and then a statesman, was assigned to the Federation of Similar Societies Embassy on Angelene when Carl was conceived. He was working on a treaty between the two worlds when he met Grasche, Carl’s mother. (Pronounce it Jrayshee if you like. That’s about as close as you’ll get.) Grasche was also a genius. A beautiful one. Yes, they are all beautiful. We’ve established that. Her thing, if you will, was math. You see, no matter what race you are, no matter what rock you reside on, math is the core of everything. The most basic of all languages is math. Ones and zeros. It either is or it isn’t. Binary. It all goes up from there. Trinary, septal, octal, decimal, duodecimal, and hexadecimal, to name a few. Carl inherited his mother’s math mind, and her beauty. There was no shortage of women, of Lord knows how many races and species, that would like to land him as a mate. Either short or long term, as their customs may dictate.

But Carl was just too busy. Too busy running around having fun and making stuff. He did dally. He did go out with the ladies. We should probably at this point say females, at least to the best of his knowledge. There was that one species several systems out past Tallook that the males were gorgeous and had really nice… upper body features? The males nursed their young. That was a bit of an eye opener for Carl. The females were a little larger, and they actually bore the young. Like 4 or 5 at a time. Yes, he left in a hurry after almost getting in trouble there.

He had billions of standard credits in quite a few different currencies, on several different planets, just in case. While not having a girlfriend in every port, he did have a few. He had always made sure they knew he was not going to settle down with any single one of them anytime soon. He also made sure they knew about each other. Sneaking around was not his style. Plus, he had the means to make sure they were well taken care of, and well dressed. While not an overt Alpha male in his actions and deeds, the one stipulation he had for his girlfriends was that if they wanted another man, so be it. It just meant they didn’t want to wait around for him. No problem. Still friends, right? Right. And yes, it sounds hypocritical, but men don’t share as well as women do. They just don’t. He did have his women friends travel with him once in a while, and his mother had even met a couple of them. His father had, too, but they didn’t see each other as often, so there was less of an impact there.

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It seems each star may have a system floating around it. Think earth, and the sun, and all the other planets in our system. Each system may have a planet about as far out from their star that can support life, as we know it. Of course, there are other forms of life that aren’t carbon based, water and whiskey drinking, tree climbing, poop in the woods types, like humans and Angelenes are, or were, but since we don’t have a need to dwell on dealing with the others, we often overlook them.

When mining in a hostile atmosphere, for example on a suitable asteroid or planet, we take the conphlatranzium, and don’t have to worry much about the critters around, if any. But there are the planets that sustain life, and if sentient, depending on their level of evolution and therefore education or thirst for it, Carl can usually find something to sell them, or trade them, to make each of their lives better. It’s what he does. Usually.

Not always though, and he’s gotten into some places that humans, and human-like beings, just need to stay away from for another couple hundred thousand years. He marks those on his big wall map (his three-dimensional holographic galactic system display) in red. And tells his AI to try to stay away from them, unless he needs something from there really, really, badly that he can’t get ANYWHERE else. And she does.

Helen does just about anything Carl asks of her. And a lot of things he doesn’t think to ask her but need to be done anyway. Helen is in love with Carl, and always has been. Ever since the day he first powered her up in the Hummingbird. He is her guy. She needs no other. She knows nothing will come of it, since they can’t hug or kiss or anything like that. Not like he does with his girlfriends, but she doesn’t get jealous… very often. She has even liked some of them. But not all of them. She is sentient but doesn’t have the capability to make herself a body. Such is non-life.

He was on his way to speak to a species that needed hovercraft for a mining operation when Helen told him they needed to stop for gas. She liked to use the old idioms when conversing with Carl. It was almost a language that just the two of them shared. Of course, Helen knew almost everything Carl knew because his notes and drawings were all in her memory and storage devices. Plus, everything they talked about, everything he said, every decision, sale, mapping effort, destination plan, all of it, was recorded and analyzed as it was discussed or relayed. Even the talking daydreams he had about his girlfriends were within Helen’s purview.

All in all, she had it all. Helen charted a course to stop for fuel and regenerate the reactor on a planet friendly to them, one where he could meet with one of his girlfriends as well. Jackie Alden was human, cute, and madly in love with Carl. She was stationed with a manufacturing and supply company near Port Washington on a remote planet where reactors were king. They couldn’t be made in full Sol Earth level gravity due to issues involving the frames and the metals being used. The gravity there was about three fourths what it is on earth and similar planets. Since it was that much lower, the reactors could be built and shuttled up for installation into the intended spacecraft without collapsing under the strain. And, they had plenty of fuel to get them started off.

Helen placed a call to Jackie, let her know Carl would be inbound in a couple of hours, and set up a meeting with her at the spaceport.

There was a restaurant there, friendly to humans, where Carl met up with Jackie, the latter jumping up onto his chest, wrapping her around his neck and smothering his face with kisses.

“Hiya, sexy! How’s my favorite boyfriend?”

“Better now, Jackie. Much better now. How are you doing, and is there any chance of you keeping a lonely soul company for a few months?”

“I can’t, Carl, but I do want to one of these days. Work is getting really busy with all the traffic around here. Accounts receivable may not sound like much, but when you’re dealing with all these different currencies and such, it’s a treat, lemme tell ya. Hey, sweetie, I need to talk to you. It’s about Doctor Williams.”

“I heard he was looking for me.”

“I know, Carl. He told me he found you and you immediately said ‘Goodbye’ in a rather strange way.” She giggled. She has such a pretty giggle. It reminded Carl of his mother after a couple glasses of wine. “He told me to tell you he doesn’t do that with men, but he needs to talk to you in any case. Carl, he’s always been straight with you, and you are the only person he trusts. He hinted at something about a chemical and a process. He mentioned Helen, Carl. He said it might involve Helen.” Carl could see a bit of a sad smile on her otherwise cute face.

“Jealous?”

“A bit. She gets to have you all the time. Someday, when your brain kicks in, you’ll find a way to make her into a big beautiful blonde woman and fall in love with her, leaving me far behind.”

“Don’t bet on it, gorgeous. There will always be room in my heart for a certain little redhead. You also need to keep in mind that Helen likes you.”

“I like her, too. It’s weird, though, Carl. I’ve never ‘liked’ a machine before, but I like Helen. When I talk to her, it’s like talking to a friend, or an auntie, or something.”

“She grew on me, too, but she also knows that I’m not monogamous, so however my life winds up when I get tackled, and amorously shackled possibly, by some cute redheaded fairy, she and they are going to have to learn to get along. You already like each other. You already have an advantage.”

“She likes those kittens on Pranar, too. She told me about them. You’ll have to introduce me to them someday, Carl. I’d love to have a kitten… Or two.” She giggled again.

“Come with me on my next trip through. I’ll have you back in a month, and I’ll introduce you. They’ve seen your picture and think you’re pretty cute, too, for a human girl, anyway,” Carl told her, garnering a smile. He thought she had the prettiest lips. Her smile was well worth coming here more often. Carl knew he loved her. He knew if he could have a few spouses, mates, and settle down, she could easily be one of them. Helen, her, the kittens, and Mali. She needs to meet Mali also. Maliope Schren knew of her, and she knew of Maliope. (Think Penelope or calliope when pronouncing it.) Yes, they needed to meet and talk. They each seemed reticent about their knowledge of the other, but Carl knew, he just knew, if he could get them to hear each other’s voices, they’d fall for each other as well. Both were stunningly beautiful women. Both had voices that would be a siren for the other. Beautiful, smooth voices. Both had an eye for other ladies. Jackie had admitted once, when she joked about Carl being her favorite boyfriend that he was her only boyfriend. She had two or three girls in her life, but no other men. Maliope had one. She warned Carl that if she came to him as a mate, which Angelene women did for life, her pet followed, as they were already bonded, by circumstance and fate, for life.

Jackie Alden ate her dinner with Carl watching, pondering his future. His mother wanted him to settle down. Even Angelene women wanted grandchildren. Not children, necessarily, but since that was a done deal, she wanted a baby or babies to spoil. He looked at what may very well be a part of his future across the table. Jackie was beautiful. Red hair, small and cuddly. She wasn’t but about five feet three inches tall. Her freckled face, cute little nose, and gorgeous smile showed magnificently bright white teeth, framed by naturally darkened pink lips. She weighed in at about one twenty or one thirty. She was not skinny, but she was perfect. She knew about Carl’s penchant as a clothes and shoe hound and dressed for him. Always in skirts and shorts, pretty blouses, hose of some type, various tints and some patterns, and heels. Always in high heels for him. She knew what he liked his women to be seen wearing.

He thought about Mali. Maliope Schren. Beautiful, model quality, five feet eight inches tall. Mostly legs. Her pink hair fell to her waist in back. At a hundred and forty pounds, with her height, she was structured perfectly to attract a human male. Her complexion smooth light pink, sky blue eyes, nose straight and slightly equine like, cheeks ever so slightly rounded making her appearance soft and inviting. She had a medium bust, small waist, a bottom made for fondling, and legs long enough… She had long legs. In her normal four-inch-high heels, an Angelene staple due to the shape they added to the women’s legs, she was two inches shorter than Carl. A noblewoman. A socialite. A butterfly, flitting from one gathering to the next, fending off potential consorts like gnats, despising men of all species, races, creeds and colors, especially her own, with one, and only one exception. A half human, half Angelene man, birthed by her godmother, Grasche Schtronff. Now Grasche Matthews. Carl’s mother.

Grasche Schtronff and Manowil Schren, Maliope’s mother, were friends and always had been. Forever. As babies they grew up together. Manowil did not succumb to the charms of any male. She chose one when she was ready, had the male impregnate her with her daughter, then let him go. She didn’t want him, at all, let alone for a lifetime. She just wanted a baby girl. A baby girl to give to Grasche’s son. Carl knew nothing about this. Not a thing. He was only four at the time, and while babies were cute and all, little boys played with toy rockets and hovers and things.

“Jackie, can you get Williams on your comm.”

Jackie smiled and pushed some buttons. “Dr. Williams, please. (Pause.) Jackie Alden. He’s expecting the call. (Pause.) Thank you. (Long Pause.) Yes, sir. Eating dinner with him as we speak. (Pause.) OK, Uncle Fred, but be nice. I want him to still like me when this conversation is over.” She handed Carl the comm, kissing his thumb as he took it, putting a huge smile on the young man’s face.

“Uncle Fred? Seriously? How…”

“Hush, you, insolent little ragamuffin. I need your help. We need to talk, and I need to show you something. Something big. Huge. I will trade you your time to help me with this for… I think I can bring Helen to you, Carl, but I need your help. Two huge, immense things I’m working on. If you will help me, I’ll help you. I’ll help you anyway, because there are no other appropriate test beds, but dammit, Carl, I need your help.”

“What crazy notion is going to put me in the hotseat this time, Doctor?”

“Not on the comm. Come see me. Please. Look across the table. She’ll know, Carl. Don’t say a word. Not to anyone. Just come see me. You and Helen. Please.” Click.

“Eat, Jackie. Not a word. That man scares the… He frightens me.”

“He’s not my real uncle, Carl. He was a very good friend of my father’s, though. It’s just something I called him when I was little. I thank him for you. If not for him, I wouldn’t have met you. Just passing the message that day, touching your hand, asking you to lunch so you could… Sorry. Carl. You know I love you, right?”

“I know. Yes, I know. Jackie, when I get done, I need to take you to meet my mother, and Maliope, and her mother. Jackie, I want you in my life, but I’ve told you… I’ve warned you. I am not and never will be a one-woman man. At present, and I’m going to be very, very honest with you, hoping this is not repeated, but I think I am, at least, a two-woman, two-feline man.”

“I’m going to try very, very hard to fit into your life. The pink marvel, the effing gorgeous pink goddess, and I will talk, I’m sure, but I will not be her slave. I will not bow to another woman in our relationship, Carl. If we’re not equal, Carl, it probably won’t work.”

“Jackie. You can stop worrying now. Right now. Guaranteed. I’ll pick you up when I get back, but I need to find your crazy assed uncle, then sell some hover loaders to some miners so I can pay for the gas to run around this silly galaxy. No money, no girlfriend. I still can’t believe that one girl said that.”

“She wasn’t a girl, Carl, she was a monkey in a miniskirt.”

“True, but damn could she cook.”

“You’re better off with us. I want to meet the kittens, too, if you think it’s time. I don’t want to quit my job, but I can get some time off if you’re serious.”

“I do, and I am, and we’ll talk. Jackie, will you spend the night with me. I’ll make sure you get to work…”

“My place.” She looked at him knowingly. “I’ll know the alarm is set.” They finished dinner and headed back to the space port docking area where Carl could check on his ship.

Upon boarding, Jackie heard the familiar voice. “Hello, Jackie.”

“Hi, Helen. We’ve been talking about you, but you know that, don’t you?”

“I do. I need to, child. I need to know what’s happening, everything, all the time, so I can help him. Please, of all people, or… Never mind. Jackie, never, ever be jealous of me. Maliope Schren, yes, even though that’s a joke, but not me. I will never cause a rift between you and Carl. Ever. Know that, child. Know that.”

“Can I take him home and love on him a bit tonight, Helen? He seems a little… Neglected?”

“By all means, child. I’ll pick up the pieces tomorrow and we’ll be off on our way to find the good doctor. Carl, it sounds important. I think I know what he is doing, in abstracts.”

“Pray tell, missy, what you think that might be?”

“Fuel and cloning. Of some type, in each case.”

“And you’ve come to this conclusion how?”

“No other appropriate testbeds? He can give you Helen if you help him. Am I the testbed? Our Hummingbird? Maybe both? Fuel and humanoid constructivism. Maybe I’m grasping at hope, but I’m alive enough for that. Hope. Hope springs eternal. Whether you wish it to happen or not, if I get my way, I’m going to kiss your girlfriend, Carl. Then I’m going to kiss you, for a long, long time. Hand on the screen, both of you.” There was a screen on the command console where they stood. As they laid their hands on it, side by side, it changed from a light blue to a light pink and they could feel energy, probably just electrical impulses, similar to nerves and muscles working, being fed to them by a sentient artificial intelligence. As the pink turned darker, it warmed. “Carl, I love you. Jackie, take care of him. He is my… Everything. Without him, as you know, I am nothing.”

Carl leaned down and kissed the screen. Jackie asked, “May I, Helen? Carl?”

“Please, yes,” came Helen’s voice. Carl nodded.

Jackie kissed the screen, touching her tongue to it gently, then rose, and touched with her fingers where she had kissed, receiving feedback in the form of a warm sensation.

“Take care of him, Jackie. Thank you, by the way. I feel the same, child. I do. Go. I have backups to run.” Lights flickered everywhere into a distractingly interesting show of bright colors throughout the command suite. Jackie laughed. Helen laughed.

Carl grunted. “Women!” Followed by more laughter as Carl grabbed a small satchel and followed Jackie back out the hatch. “Goodnight, Helen,” he said.

As the hatch closed, Carl may or may not have heard, “Goodnight, love.” Jackie did. She smiled.

They spent the night in Jackie’s little apartment, such as it was. A kitchen, a long wide bed, a very comfortable love seat, an entertainment center, and an enclosed lavatory and large shower, all in the space of an eighteen-foot cubicle. Three hundred and twenty-four square feet. A mansion in some areas of the universe. A couple sips of a sweet blue whiskey made from Tallookian cereal grains and the make out session began. They didn’t need the booze. Carl and Jackie really were in love.

The alarm woke them, her head on his chest. He pulled her to him, hugged her close and told her, “Be sure, Jackie. I do want you with me. With us. It will be an us, but I want you there if you want to be with me. I want you there even if you don’t, but I’d never want you unhappy, so make sure… Very sure you are willing to live like that. You won’t be alone. Ever. It may not be with me every minute of every day, but you’ll never be alone. I… Jackie, I love you.”

“GASP!”

“Stop. Don’t make fun. I do. Maybe I haven’t said it, but I do. Keep that in mind, but don’t use that to make your decision. This is about what you want. Not what I want. If you’re happy, I’m getting what I want. If that means you’re with me, we both can be. Happy, that is. Is that really the first time I’ve said that to you?”

Jackie nodded.

“It’s not the first time I wanted to. That’s for damned sure. Get ready for work. I’ll make you something to eat before I take off and find your weird mad scientist uncle figure. Wow. Never would have put you two in the same… Anywhere near each other. We need to talk about your past, honey. I need to process you knowing him. Makes me shiver. Crazy old man!!”

“Stop it. He’s barely old enough to be a grandfather. And yet, he isn’t one, come to think of it. Go see him, Carl. He’s on Filos. Therus City. Read this address to Helen when you get back to her.” She handed Carl a small card with some writing on it. “Have her let me know when you’re onboard and ready to go.” She ate her toast and a scrambled egg with tomato slices. “I worry, Carl, but… I worry.”

Carl kissed her, held her cheeks in his hands and told her, “It’s natural. I worry about you, too. I want you. I love you,” and walked out.

The little redhead’s eyes watered. She put their dishes in the cleaner and after brushing her teeth and checking her appearance, keeping it as plain as possible, long loose skirt, loose white blouse and ballet flats, since he wouldn’t be there to see her, she went to work. Between an invoice for fifty-three hundred credits for fuel and foodstuffs for a small supply vessel headed who knows where, and a four-hundred and forty-thousand credit invoice for a passenger liner headed for Tallook, she got a call.

“Jackie, thank you for the kiss. I have him now. We are off to find the good doctor. Now you need to take care of Jackie.”

“I will, Helen. Thank you, as well. Thank you for the kiss. It felt… It was… It was nice. You take care of Carl. Come back soon and get me.” Click.

Clearing the spaceport, the Hummingbird made for Filos on a slightly indirect route. They didn’t go straight to anywhere anymore. Always watching behind them, zigzagging here and there, looking over their shoulders. Their sensors were the best, yes, and they could hide, he designed them that way, but if the FSS Stiletto was put on them, for whatever reason… Suffice to say they didn’t want to go through the questioning anymore. Carl made the rules. If they didn’t like it, they could kiss his keister and buy his technology through a third party. That would make them think twice about harassing him!

The one thing Carl was always taught, and his mother pounded it into him, for every fish, there is a bigger one. Someday some punk, with one more synapse in his frontal lobe, was going to stumble upon the hidden hole in the sensors and find the Hummingbird. Carl just wanted to be ready and take precautions.

It took two days for the trip and on the way, Helen and Carl spoke of the future and what was and was not going to happen. Helen was open to lots of things, but Carl made sure she knew that he was not going to be turned into a tie wearing diplomat or businessman. Anything he decided to do would be recreational or at least an interesting activity, if he did anything. Helen agreed and reminded him he could buy any property he wanted, that was for sale, or just find something, some area he could trade for, and he had enough money now to retire. He needn’t work at all if he chose to just step off at the ripe old age of thirty-five or so. It was a fun discussion.

At the Therus City spaceport, the Filoshian authorities let him know, under no uncertain terms, that he was welcome, as long as he was not buying or selling. If either path was chosen, he must register as a trader again, supplying the appropriate fee, since his permit had lapsed. He acknowledged his visa restrictions with his handprint and off he went. The transit tube took him into Therus City itself, and once downtown and out of the tunnel of the tube system, Helen told him that Doctor Williams was on the way to the café he was near. He did as he was told by his wonderful AI and sat on a bench inside a fenced area of a patio bar. Ideally, this reminded him of any of a number of places, tourist traps, where a person could enjoy a drink of certain, or of questionable source, and watch people, or… Watch things go by. Some of the things were definitely not people, and since Therus City was a trading Mecca, if you will, there was certainly no shortage of odd, or at least different, characters to watch.

“Carl, how good to see you,” Doctor Fred Williams said to the young man.

“Doctor Williams. Believe it or not, I’m glad to see you as well. Of the girlfriends I have, two of them are now very excited about us meeting. Care to elaborate?”

“Open mind, Carl? Open mind? Promise me?”

“I promise, Doc, but first, how close to Jackie are you?”

“I’m not a blood relation, just her godparent. Her father and I were friends. My wife, may the Goddess keep her soul, and I, shared many years of friendship with her parents. I was lucky. I am here talking to you. My wife and her parents… Not so much. A sad story for another day. Carl. Enough chit-chat. I need your help. Helen, can you hear me?”

“She said yes, Doc.”

“Carl, help me, please. Look around and tell me if you see anything… Anyone… Anyone suspicious. Watching us.”

Carl casually looked around their surroundings. “No. Nothing.”

“Helen, I can give you to your boy. I can, I think, give you life. Real, human life. If I do that, will you tell him to help me with a fuel better than LCN? No more hiding from the Federation. He’ll be able to flat outrun them.”

“She said we need to talk. She remembers the Federation Energy Department debacle.”

“Carl, I did not mean for you to get caught up in the LCN scandal. I didn’t. You were made a pawn of the Federation command and I didn’t want that. This time will be different. This time you’ll have it all. I want money from it, yes, but… I will leave that to you. This will make us both so rich you will give me money to keep me from calling to tell you how nice the weather is, wherever I might be. Trust me. Come, son. Come walk with me. We’ll talk.”

Fred Williams and Carl Matthews walked around the block where the pub was located, sipping beers from Sol Earth. It was the core of humanity, the home of the human race, still to this day and most of the good beers were imported from there. There was better beer than this to be had, but this joint didn’t have it.

“Caesium Incentrazide Nitroloxene. I found a liquid on the next rock over. Gilt. It’s sub habitable, but it can be explored and mined. It’s cold, but not terrible to the point of unmanageable, and has oxygen and nitrogen in the atmosphere. Carl, I found a new element that I’ve made into a fuel you can use to stay two steps ahead of Federation command. I call the element Incendate. Conphlatrate was named for conflagration. This stuff is incendiary. Think fireplace. Now think volcano. Hotter than hades when cooked correctly. Help me and I’ll make you fast. Helen, help me, and I’ll make you his.”

“She said you’re already too late for that one.” The good Doctor Williams laughed.

“Take me back to the bar. We’ll talk. Eight times hyper light speed in the Hummingbird, for almost twice as long, according to my calculations of reactor fusion probabilities. I found something else, too. They are related. There is a compound released when I make this stuff. It entices the growth of stem cells. And all other human cells. It’s DNA steerable.

“I cut my hand on a tube making the new fuel and this remaining waste product was on my hand. It healed almost immediately.

“I have started experimenting, slowly, with a cloning process in a replicator that could produce a human body, but it will have no thoughts, no soul, no mind. A clean, open, willing, receptive, functional, yet infant, brain. Carl, no one else can know we did this.” He waved to a gorgeous lady, stunning, with short light brown hair, sitting at a table close to where we were. She had been there the whole time, but although Carl noticed her, and was intrigued by her beauty, he did not see her as approachable or desirous of that approach.

Fred looked at his concubine as she came to them. She was amazingly, fabulously, gorgeous. Perfect. Flawless. “Isn’t that right, Amy?”

“Yes, Master, that is right. No one else. Just Mister Carl and his Helen.” Her voice was absolutely not the voice of a five-foot eight-inch runway model. It looked and sounded, however, like she was working on it.

“Dr. Williams are you… This is… Amy, did Dr. Williams tell you about Helen?”

“Yes, Mister Carl, he did. Master tells me of all things. You and Helen are to be my friends in the galaxy.”

“Amy, let me talk, please.”

“Yes, Master.”

“Carl, I didn’t have a Helen. I had a computer with some memory and some research data. You have an AI. Amy is no Helen. Ask Helen if she’ll help me.” Helen told Carl to go ahead with what Doctor Williams proposed. She wasn’t concerned and thought Williams was being pretty straight forward. Carl nodded. “Have her interface with Amy. Helen, QRX4F protocol. The keyword is Hummingbird1. Capital H, numeric 1.”

Carl reached out, took her hand and placed a comm in it, with the screen toward Amy’s palm. “Hold this, Amy, just like that. My Helen would like to speak with you.” Amy nodded, then her arm jerked once, then again, then she relaxed and smiled.

Carl Matthews and Dr. Frederick Williams sipped their beers, then had another. It was twenty minutes later when Amy handed the comm back to Carl. “Thank you, sir.”

Helen then communicated with Carl, telling him that this was real. Very real. “Helen wants to know what you want.”

“Safety,” the doctor said. “Just let me see my goddaughter and take me somewhere safe with enough money to live on the beach and be protected from the possible negative ramifications of what I’ve discovered. I just want to be secure, in other words. The fuel, the process, everything, Carl, it’s all yours. I want nothing to do with being able to clone people. Nothing.”

“Deal, but Helen says you have to take Amy with us. She’s in love with you. You’ve created a monster, old man!” Carl broke out laughing, while the doctor, the mad, crazy scientist, looked dumbfoundedly at his “robot”.

“Yes, Master, I love you.”

Carl laughed again. Poor Dr. Williams. ‘Wait ‘til Jackie finds out about this,’ he thought to himself.

Taking them to the ship, Carl retrieved an interface module, which basically was a full up AI capable processor with human interface input/output modules and slipped it into a padded bag he strapped over his shoulders in backpack fashion.

“Carl, she’s cute. She’s very pretty. Can I be pretty? Can I be cute?” Helen asked him.

“Helen, from your mind to the canvas, I’m taking you to Fred’s lab, and I swear, as God is my witness… I’m going back to the pub. Fred, if you hurt her, you won’t see tomorrow. I love Helen. She loves me. I want you to do this, but…”

“Carl, stop. I’m not the enemy. Helen, tell him.”

Carl set the backpack down on a table, took her out and set her on the counter. She was beeping at him, they could plainly hear, but she was also talking into Carl’s earpiece as she always does.

“I’ll be OK, Carl. He does have clear intentions. He’s not trying you. He’s not tricking you or conniving about anything here. He wants out. He wants what’s best for Jackie. She was left with nothing after the accident that took her parents and his wife. He wants to go away and leave it all to you… For her. He’s adamant about that. You have to swear…” The doctor interrupted their talk.

“Carl. Promise me. Now. I live like a king on the beach, and you take care of Jackie.”

“Whoa up!! Like a king? What are we talking here?”

“Books, beer, Bahama mamas, and evidently my Amy. Carl, I want to be safe and serene, and slightly tipsy. I won’t be around all that long. Just do this for me. A couple hundred credits a month for a few years, and all will be well. I’ll be drunk and out of your way. And silent. Trust me on that.”

“You win.”

The formulas were turned over to Helen. She concurred that there was an increase in fuel activity that would boost our capabilities about thirty-five percent.

A few stem cells from a gorgeous medium tall blonde human donor were placed in a curing unit, then into a cellular growth processing module, a replicator if you will, with the Caesium Incentrazide Nitroloxene process waste for several days. Carl was antsy. He spent more time on his comms unit with Jackie while sitting alone at the bar than he really wanted to. He’d rather have one or both of them with him. He realized he was in trouble when Maliope called him.

“Carl.”

“Yes? Hello?”

“Carl, it’s Mali. Are you all right?”

“Yes, Mali, I am. I’m fine. Everything is great. Oh, my God, how did you…?”

“Suffice to say I am not alone in the universe. Sit. Look around. Find a seat. Tell me when you are seated.”

“I am seated.”

“Hold up your hand and hail the waitress.”

“How did you know…?”

“Suffice to say…”

“Yeah, I know, you are not alone in the universe. Maliope, do you still love me?”

“Yes, Carl, I do. Bring them to me. Do that, and I am yours. Bring them all to me at the earliest possible happenstance. Do that, and I shall show you that I am yours. Take care of Helen, Carl, for she is you, and you are her. Understand that, my darling. She is you, and you are her.” Click.

It was two and a half weeks, then Carl was allowed to see Helen. She rose from the replication cylinder, the cellular processing unit, wearing a soft helmet with electrodes running to it. Her hair was matted and wet, having grown wildly into and down around away from the edges of the cap. Doctor Williams pushed a few buttons of a small electronic module on a panel on the end of the cylinder then pulled it off, unhooked a couple of cables and handed it to Carl.

Carl went to her. She was stunningly attractive. Deep blue eyes, light blonde hair, and a very pretty face. Her figure was spectacular. She had an hourglass shape with small breasts, a thin waist with a small indentation for a navel, an innie, naturally, and her bottom was soft and round.

“Carl, please wait, sir, I’m absorbing things from me. I will be done in an hour. Go to lunch. Bring me a lemon water, a grilled cheese sandwich and chips, sir. No pickle if they offer one. I’m not ready for that yet. Please. Go. I’m fine. Go. No, wait. Kiss me first.” He kissed her, feeling the electricity, the warm current passing between them. There was no doubt. They were connected. “Our first kiss. Go now.”

Carl left. Dumbfounded, as they say. Found dumb, unable to talk, while absorbing the fact that a dream had just come true, for both of them. A human being created from enticed and excited DNA directed stem cells with the cranial inputs from an AI who told him to go eat and bring her a sandwich. He stopped on the sidewalk, looked straight up, into the sky over Therus City on a planet named Filos, not even knowing if they HAD a heaven, and hollered so the entire universe would hear, “THANK YOU, GOD!!! YOU ARE WONDERFUL!!!”

He not only took her a sandwich, but a loose skirt, a flowery top, and some flip flops that were probably way too big. His concern was to make her feel human, clothed, wanted, cared for. All those things. It needn’t have happened. She was way past infantile, although not mentally mature yet, but knew him, Amy, and the doctor.

“I must go home,” Helen said. She stood. She was a wonder. Standing at five and a half feet, an amazing figure, she was in a word, wondrous. Carl dressed her in the clothes he brought.

Carl looked at Helen and told her, “Come, dear. Of course, you must. Please.” He held his hand out to her, and as she took it, lightning struck. Figuratively, of course. They looked in each other’s eyes, really looked, for the first time. “Yes, Helen, I love you. I always have. Come.” The gaze was returned. Glassy eyes, entranced. “Doc! Amy! Come. Time to leave. What do you need from here to take with you? The equipment? Anything?”

“What can’t you buy, Carl? We need nothing, but freedom and safety. The rest is yours. I can show you how to build the equipment, but I don’t want it used. You don’t either. The fuel formula is safe in Helen’s mind. She can help you with it. It can be made almost anywhere. Just remember where the liquid, the incendate, comes from and all will be well. There is another place that has it as well, Elisi, and it’s uninhabited. A tropical planet, if you will. Nothing but plant life, and none of them are carnivorous yet, as they haven’t evolved that far.”

“Where first, doc?”

“Gilt, next rock out away from their star here. Paradise, but not, somehow. Chilly. Lonely. Incendate suspended in a saltwater solution by the tanks full, though. You just need to know where to look.”

Carl looked at Helen. “Do you understand yet, or do I need to communicate with the Hummingbird?” She shook her head. “Hummingbird. Analyze. Helen has the formulas. Do we need to take the new element with us now or come back?”

“Depart Filos now, attain and depart orbit, travel to Gilt, obtain two small sample hover tanks with 25 gallons of Incendate aqueous sodium chloride suspension each. Then go to Jackie. Helen… We request Jackie at this time.” It was interesting that the communication with the AI was halted, stiff, then Carl looked at Helen and understood. She was in the middle of a data dump from the AI to her new container. The beautiful container that would be the woman named Helen. The prettiest AI in the entire known universe.

Carl did what the Hummingbird AI wanted. It was basically Helen, without Helen’s personality since she was so busy, telling him what to do. That, to the good doctor, was a watershed happening. The personality from the sentient being, or entity, departing the machine to reside with the intended humanoid target environment. The good news: it worked. The better news: it was in the hands of someone who wouldn’t abuse it. Even better news was that the data was not departing the Hummingbird AI to occupy the being known now as Helen but instead was replicating. He needed to talk to her about that at her earliest possible convenience. Talk about watersheds… Two AIs like Helen were two more than were anywhere, within anyone’s control or utilization. More processing power and intelligence than available to anyone else, anywhere. A daunting, yet comforting thought.

Now, to get a batch of the new fuel made up and into the Hummingbird’s belly and let her fly. Carl had a very small lab on the ship and was able to cook his own fuel. With five gallons of Incendate in solution, ninety-five grams of Caesium, and a liquid nitrogen drip in the mass particulate modification chamber, they were able to create eight pounds of Caesium Incentrazide Nitroloxene, or CIN fuel, and head back to see Jackie. That was enough fuel in the reactor to power the Hummingbird for several hundred light years, or close to two weeks, flat out at full throttle.

Helen, the new and improved Helen, had been sitting in the second command chair, with the electrode helmet on, after brushing her beautiful blonde hair out. She looked up at Carl and smiled, then went back to what she was concentrating on. As they passed a beacon, she sent a short written comm message to Jackie, announcing their activities, in generic terms, and intentions and announced their arrival the next day. Jackie replied with the age-old smiley face and a promise of a shopping trip.

“Miss Jackie is taking me shopping. Carl, I hate to ask, but can I have some money to go shopping with Jackie? You do remember that I love you, correct?”

“What’s mine is yours, princess. I love you, too. We need to talk when you get done there.”

“OK. In about twenty minutes I will be in parallel conscious content with Hummingbird. We need to devise a… Never mind.” She laid her hand on the light blue console panel. It glowed brighter with her hand on it but didn’t turn pink. “I will maintain a parallel with Hummingbird here. I can be one with Hummingbird like I shared my emotions with you. Through the emotion emulator. It is a man machine interface comm.”

“Why didn’t it turn pink, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“I’m not in love with myself, Carl. When I showed pink, my emotions for you, and yes, Carl, for Jackie and Maliope, were being transmitted to you three. You designed it to reflect my emotions, if you recall. When I am talking to myself, well, Hummingbird, it will usually be blue. I’ll be done here in a minute, Carl, then you and I have a full day to talk and get to know each other. I love you.” She turned in her chair, hand on the screen on the console, the glass plate she would now use to stay up to date with her non-human half. She pulled the cap off, laying it on the console, and sighed. It must not have been all that comfortable. “Much better. And faster. Much faster.”

She pulled the seat up toward the console, hand on the panel, leaned back a bit to relax, and smiled. She opened her eyes, caught a look from Carl and grinned. He saw the grin. “What?”

“I’m going shopping with Jackie. That will be fun. I want to be dressed like her and like Maliope, Carl. Dressed in the pretty clothes and shoes. I know how you enjoy them. I sense your pleasure with them. I’m looking forward to my time with them as well, although, I really want to spend my sleep time, my human rest period, in your arms. That will be different. I will need to… Never mind. I will take that bridge when I cross over to it.”

Carl laughed.

“What did I do to make you laugh, Carl? You were looking at me when you started laughing.”

“The saying is, ‘I will cross that bridge when I come to it.’ I was laughing because I love you and am going to enjoy every single minute we spend together. You are beautiful and wonderful. Finish and we’ll talk. God, I love you.”

“And I love you. Please go check to make sure Amy and the doctor are well.”

Carl did that and found them sleeping in the second bunk compartment. Amy was wrapped around him like an ancient hentai tentacle monster, both of them smiling in their slumber. Such a sight. A woman of cover girl level beauty wrapped around a grizzled old man like the doctor. Carl looked again. Maybe if she could get him to shave and get a haircut. No matter, she was happy with the old fart. He went back to the command console.

“They’re fine. Sleeping soundly.”

“She is beautiful. He is nice. Doctor Fred is very smart, Carl. Almost as smart as you. I’m happy he made the discovery of the formula for the fuel. It will make you less nervous. I am close to parallel with the ship, Carl. Once that happens, we will be one and yet, separate. It’s hard to explain, but even though I now have a human presence, I will still be part of a machine, and the machine will be part of me. I say machine, but the Artificial Intelligence you built is so much more than that and was before this form was thought of. I’m rambling on like a little girl, Carl. I enjoy this, seeing you looking at me while I talk, but…” He interrupted her.

“No buts, Helen. You be what you want to be.” They smiled at each other then she removed her hand from the panel and stood, pulled him up and hugged him. “One more zag, sweetheart. Change course for Adsmar Cluster, Helen. After about eight hours, let’s do the final leg to Port Washington and go see Jackie.”

Helen laid her hand on the panel, it turned from light blue to light green. “Done. You can rest now, boss. We have everything under control.”

“We?”

“Yes, Carl. We. Your Hummingbird and your Helen. We.” She smiled, kissed him again, both of them grinning at the tingling feeling of the kiss. “Go rest. I will be there in a few minutes. I need to lock out all controls since there are others onboard the vessel. Then I will come to be in your arms.” She did what she told him she needed to do, then dimmed the lights, and once in the room with him asked him, very sheepishly, “Can you show me how to brush my teeth? That is in my ‘learning required’ sequence, but I never paid attention to you when you did it. I feel foolish, and even unprepared, now.”

“Don’t, please. We’ll learn together, and please, my beautiful dear Helen, don’t ever be afraid to ask me for anything, about anything, or feel foolish asking. I may laugh, but it’s a laugh of joy, and happiness just to be able to hold you now.” She nodded. Behind her, he took out a new toothbrush, and handed it to her, showing her how to hold it, had her put some toothpaste on it, and then showed her the back and forth, up and down, and circular movements necessary in order to get her teeth clean. Stepping out from behind her and getting his gear, he did his as well, showing her how he did it. She nodded and continued. He used his tongue to feel each of his teeth, telling her what he was doing, then they both went back in and finished up a couple of spots left yet to do. “Good?”

“Yes, Carl. Thank you. It’s funny. I know the distance from Adsmar Cluster to Port Washington in feet, meters, miles, and light years, but couldn’t figure out how to clean my mouth. This will be interesting. You will show patience with me and help me, I hope?”

Carl nodded. “Helen. I love you. Whatever you need, I’ll do. That is part of that love. I feel that way with Jackie, and Maliope, and to a great extent with Tippi and Tappi, as well. We’re in this together, OK?”

“Yes, sir. Thank you. Hold me and let’s rest, OK?”

He crawled into bed, held his arms out for her, and for the first time, he felt her warmth, and she felt his. They melted together and were asleep in minutes, the stress of the day and the last two weeks’ activities behind them.

Helen woke them seven hours later, both refreshed and ready for something to eat. They soon found Amy and the doctor in the hallway looking around, corralled them, fed them, as well as themselves, and prepared to land in Port Washington.

Jackie was waiting for them dressed as sexily as ever in short shorts, pantyhose, and high heeled sandals. She went directly to Helen, who had her arms out for her, and they shared a kiss. Not deep, not salacious, but intimate, and emotional. “Hello, Helen. I’m so very glad to finally meet you. Are you OK?”

“Oh, yes, precious one, I am. I could not be better. Kiss your boyfriend before he wets his pants.”

She jumped up on Carl, as she is wont to do, hugging and kissing him. “Welcome back, lover boy. Everything OK with you, too?”

“Yes, the trip was an amazing success, as you can see. We’ll talk more later, somewhere else. You remember your Uncle Fred?” He put Jackie down, so they could share a hug. “And this is his… Lady friend? This is Amy.”

“Hi, Jackie. It’s been a long time. Amy is not just a small part of this whole thing, but we’ll talk later. Thank you for helping me with this little project. Your boyfriend is a bit of a rebel, you know?”

Jackie laughed and nodded. “Yes, I do know, but I love him anyway. Amy, it’s nice to meet you. Will you go shopping with us? I’ll beg and cry and whine until I get my boyfriend to pay for it. OK?”

“Please, Miss Jackie, do not make Mister Carl angry. I just made his friendship.” Jackie laughed and hugged her.

“We’ll be fine. Trust me. Helen, tell her. We’ll be fine.”

“We’ll be fine.” Helen sounded just like Jackie. All three of them laughed, Amy picking up that they were making fun and that all would be OK.

“Carl, I have a month off starting tomorrow. It’s a loose schedule and they understand it’s a family matter, but I have 3 months of vacation stored up and they’re trying to keep me happy, so I won’t use all of it at once. THAT, would be a problem for them, and me as well. The law only protects my job so much. That would be pushing it. Anyway, I got a call a while back, and I’m excited. We’ll talk tonight, OK?”

Carl nodded. “Maliope?”

“Yes. She wants us all on Angelene. She wants to meet me, the new Helen, and the kittens. Her mother and your mother want to talk to us, as a family, if this is what it will look like. I said nothing, but I’m thinking your mother knows you well enough to know something is close to fruition. I think the mention of Helen in one of your calls sparked something. Carl, know this, above all else. If you are the only man in my life, I’m fine. The rest is gravy, but I don’t want any other man touching me. I don’t know how your kittens feel about this, but Maliope and I are on the same wavelength. One man. That’s all.”

“Thank you. I must’ve slipped talking to my mother. This cannot be revealed. At all. It just can’t. No one outside our family can know what’s happened until we fully, and I mean FULLY understand the ramifications, and we may never. I don’t know. In any case, find out what your uncle wants to do in the short term. I know what he wants in the long term, and I can help with that, but it’s this month I’m wondering about. He’s retiring, and with what he’s put in my hands, I can easily keep both him and his girlfriend happy, fed, clothed, or not, as the surrounding customs dictate, and on the beach, retired, and slightly inebriated, for a long, long time.”

They went for lunch, to a little restaurant with a quiet table in the back, the five of them eating and talking. Helen sat in the middle of the rounded booth and just absorbed every word spoken, every sound made, every request for a meal, every condiment asked for, and everything audible that was said around them. She was the consummate protector, the watcher.

“Uncle Fred. Can we drop you off between here and Pranar? Between Pranar and Angelene? Is there anywhere you want to start your retirement? A vacation to begin with, maybe before actually retiring?” Jackie asked him, giggling at the thought.

“Why not just leave us on Pranar with some credits to hold us over. They have a beautiful resort community. Amy and I can just hang out there for a while. Maybe your little pussycats there can recommend something.”

“That sounds easy. Carl, we can just take him to their place and drop him off. Sounds good. You think?” Jackie sounded happy about that deal.

They’d make it to Maliope’s home, and the discussion we knew was going to take place. Jackie sounded anxious, but Carl and Helen both knew her fears of being anyone’s subordinate were unfounded. Maliope just didn’t walk that way. With women. She’d enslave every man in existence, except her boyfriend, and have them mining for caesium in their underwear if it was up to her, though.

Carl thought it sounded easy, too, as well as a good idea, so a plan was formed. He sent the girls shopping telling them they had no limits except time. Amy and Helen both needed clothing. He gave Jackie a currency card that was good in Port Washington with a basically unlimited balance and told her not to lose it. He didn’t care how much she spent, as long as she didn’t lose it. Off the women went, leaving Carl and Fred in the restaurant talking.

The two of them spoke of the ramifications, the misuse, the bad things that could come of the cloning. The fuel was a given. He was going to sell that to a company like InterStellar Fission and Reactor, Limited, for billions of credits and retire, giving Fred millions for him and Amy. More money than Fred would ever be able to spend, and he would still stay safe. He wanted to be safe.

The girls came back a few hours later, with porters. They had to hire kids to help them carry the bags back to the spaceport. Carl was told by his girlfriends that he would approve of almost everything they bought, and the rest was none of his business. He realized at that point, that a human female body, unless the cloning didn’t take properly, was in need of certain… Female supplies. She was a woman. In every sense of the word. Helen was a woman. Made from the cells of a twenty-three-year-old donor, a well-compensated donor, to be sure, she became a twenty-three-year-old woman. He understood then. Some things, as of yet, were none of his business. Later, they would be, since any loving relationship develops that way.

There was no reason to hang around, so they paid the kids that carried the bags, maybe a bit too much by the looks of the smiles the kids had on their faces, then they boarded the ship and took off for Pranar. It was less than 24 hours to the kittens, so Carl had Helen send a message saying they’d be there for dinner tomorrow and asked them to be ready for a short vacation if their family was OK with that. In addition, they were going to leave a couple of people under their family’s care for at least a month. Maybe more.

The kittens worked for their parents at one of the resorts Fred had mentioned. That was how Carl met them, taking a little breather and laying on the shore relaxing one day. They delivered a drink and lunch out to him on the beach. It was literally love at first sight. They fell in love with him and he fell in love with them. Twins, Tippi and Tappi To, (last name pronounced toe, long O, silent E) were Pranese females. The Pranese species were feline/human hybrids, but it was a natural phenomenon caused by some strange biological happening way, way back in time. Their race is tens and tens of thousands of years old by every account of every historian and archeologist ever to research them. A rumor sprouted that it was a crossing of the DNA of a leopard and a human, then cultivated on Pranar several hundred years ago, but that rumor was supposedly squashed by relics found dating back several millennia.

Tippi To was a golden color with green eyes. Tappi To was a dark silver gray and had blue eyes. They were in every other way, identical. As Pranese, they appeared human with a few slight exceptions. They were covered with a very short, light fur, did not have longer hair on their heads, had pointed ears, slightly higher on their heads than humans, and were very short, but stood completely upright, just as humans do and did not have tails like most feline species. The twins were only about 4 feet 10 inches tall. They were in a word, though, gorgeous. They were also very, very amorous. They loved cuddling, snuggling, and every form of petting you can possibly imagine. They were considered adults at their age of twenty-two Pranar years, having passed the twenty-year point in their one-hundred-fifty-year life expectancy. Their years were equal to about eleven Sol Earth months, Sol Earth’s standards being Carl’s basis for most measures needing to be done. Legally not adults until twenty, they were normally out of puberty in their fifteenth or sixteenth year. Carl met them when they were seventeen, and they’d been close since, with their family’s complete approval. They liked Carl, and they liked that he understood their need to become adults and learn about life before they left home.

They would meet Jackie, and the new Helen, tomorrow.

Once Carl and his group were spaceborne, Helen set a course for Pranar. They were feeling a bit lucky, so decided to go straight there, taking less than 22 hours at 8xHLS. That was a good feeling. He knew that now, with the new fuel, if he had to and felt threatened, that he could do that speed for about 26 days, with a few short breaks to feed and regenerate the reactor, leaving any other ship, including the FSS Stiletto, in his wide wake. Yes. That was a good feeling.

The course set, the five of them sat in the galley snacking on meats, cheeses, and crackers, basically answering Helen’s questions about… The human condition.

That night was, in Helen’s words, much later in life, the third best night of her life. She said the warmth and love she felt, being with both of them, Jackie and Carl, was an awakening. Slightly better than the night before. She was learning what love could do and how it could change a person’s outlook.

They woke up pretty much at the same time, Carl feeling the girls holding hands over his chest. Trading smiles and careful kisses, they let Helen go to the little girl’s room first, then when she was up off the commode, followed her in. Carl told Helen to get in the shower, the one in his quarters was actually big enough for several people, by design, and had her turn the water on. Jackie tinkled and joined her in the shower, showing her the controls and how to set the temperature. Carl followed, emptying himself of last night’s burden, then joined them. Not knowing when to be shy and when not to be, Helen opened herself to being bathed and returned the favor, taking guidance from Jackie. Carl and Jackie both thought she was doing a wonderful job.

After they dried and dressed, they went to the control bridge meeting Amy and Dr. Fred there. They were just sitting in the observation chairs, talking. Amy was slowly picking up on things, but Helen, Carl found out later, decided for the doctor’s sake, and maybe for Amy’s, to let them grow naturally. If Helen involved herself with educating the young lady, there was no telling what would happen. This was bad enough, she thought. That would be worse, very possibly. She would have no idea, no life experience, as Helen did, of how to act and what to do with all the information.

Breakfast was shared with more discussion of Pranar and what to expect. Their beaches were like the Caribbean, for the most part, but the sand was not as fine. Pranar had very little severe weather, and while it did have tides from a moon, and waves, to push the beaches around a little, it did not have the violent storms of Sol Earth, the Angelenes, and many other planets, to work the aging process on the geology of the planet. The sand was, however, easy to lay and walk on. More like little itty-bitty pebbles the size of large quinoa, mostly, but the coloring was of light to very light beige and tan and enjoyed tremendously by all who visited. The clam and oyster like beings, very similar to earth type mollusks, probably loved it since it was so easy to dig down through it.

Thinking of this, Jackie got a thoughtful look on her face, which radiated toward her ‘uncle’, then toward Carl.

Helen was watching, and knowing what was probably coming, spoke first. “Isn’t it amazing how each system or maybe every other system, or every third system is, while not alike, not too very dissimilar?”

They nodded. Carl answered. “A puzzle for another day, my dear Helen, but one we may just want to pursue.”

With absolutely no notice, general quarters sounded. A siren and a klaxon in the hallway that could be heard throughout the ship, then Hummingbird’s, no, wait, it was Helen’s voice that came over the intercom. “Asteroid belt ahead. Moving, in relation to us, two o’clock high to ten o’clock low and away. Hyper light speed mechanisms halted.”

The monitors showed a small band of very large, tightly grouped asteroids slowly traveling, as Helen said, upper right to lower left across the bow of the ship. They would have had a catastrophic collision, no doubt, had they not been aware. Carl thanked his lucky stars, and his mother’s help, for having the best sensors that could be made. Not that money could buy, as they couldn’t be bought. They weren’t for sale, but in any case, they worked, and worked very well. After sitting for twenty minutes, they navigated through a large void in the belt of rogue stones and headed back out, at only 7xHLS this time, for Pranar. They were only a few hours out.

The trip to Pranar showed two systems, both amazing with different colors showing brightly throughout the orbital structures of the planets. The huge clouds of particles, pink, green, and blue, were strewn between the planets looking more like the ancient pictures of the Sol Earth northern lights than any dust cloud. The first one they went by was where Dr. Williams told Carl he could find Elisi, the barely evolved paradise where he could find more incendate solution. “You just have to know where to look. Remember that, young man.” The planet was too far away to see from their vantage point, but Dr. Fred told him they’d check it out when they needed to.

Landing on Pranar, Tippi and Tappi met them at the spaceport with a resort hover bus, ready to take them back to the resort the To family owned and operated. From the owners, their grandparents, to the parents at the desk, all the way down to housekeeping and maintenance, they were all family.

The welcome was a touch emotional, having been a couple of months since the kittens had seen their boyfriend. He picked them up in his arms and hugged them to him, getting a few licks, and getting and returning kiss after kiss. He introduced them to Jackie who got the prerequisite hugs and kisses as the cute girl Carl told them about, and then Helen… Helen. Carl explained the making of the woman, as well as how it needed to be kept secret and only be discussed within the immediate family. Just the people there at that moment, and Maliope, of course. Both of them agreed and said they understood, knowing the technology in question could destroy as well as create. After the discussion, they ooohed and ahhhed at her, remembering Helen as the spaceship brain, but hugging and kissing her as well, remembering how nice she was to talk to when they took a trip with Carl on the ship before.

While they were kissing up to Helen and getting to know her, Jackie thought to herself, that she had won the lottery. The kittens were the cutest, nicest, most polite, and yes, again, the cutest things she had ever laid her eyes on. She noticed they were wearing little short shorts, crop tops and high heels, just like she did when she knew she would be around Carl. They were introduced to Amy and the doctor and after handshakes and bows, they walked through the spaceport to the bus, Tippi holding Jackie’s hand and Tappi holding Helen’s. During the ride to the resort, Carl told them about Fred and Amy staying at the resort, hopefully under the watchful eye of their family, while they all travelled to Angelene. Tappi related that the family had said it was fine for them to take the time off and the resort as a whole would watch out for their friends while the group headed off for space.

That tickled Carl to no end. He thought he was the happiest person on the bus, but the four of his girls were even happier. In the short time they’d been talking at the spaceport and in the bus, they had already come to the realization that they would have a bond most women would never know. Carl, looking forward in the seats, noticed the four of them chatting, nodding, and giggling, while holding hands. The native girls each holding hands with both of the others in a circle of… Familiarity? A form of the word ‘family’. ‘That is a wonderful thought,’ he thought.

Dinner was buffet style, the kittens waiting hand and foot on their boyfriend and his human women. Questions were asked, answers given, both directions, some surprising the one asking the questions, to be sure. Discussions about living arrangements on the ship and at the resort for the five of them garnered a few giggles, but the kittens explained to the women that they were adults now and they could spend all their time with Carl and them, if they were welcomed to do so by Carl. They didn’t think that would be a problem, though, getting Carl to smile. He shook his head and let his face fall into his hands, still sporting that huge smile.

Amy and the Doctor were getting a bit tired, so they called it an early evening and were getting up to leave when Carl pulled the Doctor aside and gave him four thousand standard credits on a currency card. That was enough to buy anything short of a hover, but he could rent one. He wanted to relax and drink new and different beverages? With that much he could do well at staying soused for a year. He was also leaving a very large deposit with the resort to cover their stay and their meals there for the month that Carl and the ladies would be gone. Hugs all around as they were leaving were shared and that prompted Grandpa To to come over to the table, seeing the farewell commotion, to let Carl and Jackie know Dr. Williams and his wife were in good hands. Carl gave the man his credit currency card to run for the room and meals for a month, and of course, that was taken care of with smiles. They were in the resort business to make a living, after all.

That was a preview of Helen and the Hummingbird. To read the rest purchase the book.

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