I’m going to say a few things that may upset some people’s sensibilities. In the future, it may not be needed, but with how things are now, it’s something we have to do. So, please, don’t judge any of us in hindsight based on how things are for you. With that said, going by what my father said after I woke up from my transition, we’ll be dropping back to where people are considered adults at 15. After listening to everyone's arguments for and against the measure, I agree that it’s something we need to do.
Look at it from a purely logical point of view:
Limited popution? Checkmark.
A need to increase the adult popution to help build and grow the colony? Double checkmark.
A rge percentage of the popution under 18? Checkmark again.
As you can see, it makes sense, doesn’t it? Especially when you take into account that many women will be limited to giving birth and raising children. Had we not lost so many, it might not have become this way, but you can’t change what is.
We all realize that kids need to be kids. For that matter, I wouldn’t want my sisters to be considered adults at 13. As a general rule, they simply aren’t mature enough. At 15 though, most kids have settled down enough and, in my view, are trustworthy enough to take on responsibilities in the colony. Plus, at 15, most women are at their full growth, so they can safely have children.
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After dinner, we return to our room with my sisters in tow. Dad decided it was time for us to have our own pce. After all, with the new policy, we’re adults. Plus, we’ll be Mommies in a few months. We may not be in the eyes of the w on Earth, but this is Terra, and the situation is completely different from how things were on Earth.
Anyway, Athena and I cuddle on the sofa, with my sisters sitting in one of the chairs together. Scrolling through the listings, we find and watch a movie. Right now, all we want to do is spend some quality quiet time together, even if my sisters are here. Tomorrow is soon enough to begin the Herculean job of establishing our colony. Just after we start another movie, Mom texts Kay and Kathy to come home.
After they leave, we decide it’s bedtime and make our way to the bedroom to change. Athena gives me a goodnight kiss and crawls into bed with a sigh, then I crawl in to spoon with her from behind.
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The first thing on my agenda for today is going to see my father after breakfast and, hopefully, have a little discussion. It’s about something that he and the senior officers might have considered, but it’s very important to the emotional, and maybe even mental stability of the women.
While dressing in my uniform, I text him that I’d like to see him this morning, and he replies that he’ll meet me in his ready room at 0900. So, after Athena and I eat, I kiss her, tell her, “I’ll see her ter,” and head up to his ready room.
The Marine guarding Dad’s ready room salutes as I approach, and I return it. He knocks on the door and then opens it for me. Dad stands up, walks around his desk, and I give him a hug and peck on the cheek, then we take a seat.
He’s smiling as he arches an eyebrow and asks, “So, to what do I owe the pleasure of my beautiful daughter’s company?”
“I’d like to have a chat about the women.”
He looks at me curiously for a moment, then asks, “And?”
“Dad, Athena, and I have talked to a lot of the women. The idea that the computer would pick out people to have sex with us is revolting. After all, we’re not just walking, talking baby factories. All of us agree that being artificially inseminated is fine and necessary, but they don’t want to have sex with simply anyone.”
His face drops into a neutral expression as he asks, “And you personally?”
I frown and then purse my lips for a moment as I shake my head. “You already know the answer to that. I love sex with Max and Athena.” His eyes widen, and I just now realize that I’ve never told Dad about him. “Sorry, Max is a man we’ve been seeing. He’s First Lieutenant Maxwell Reeves from Engineering. Not too long after my transition, Athena and I met him in the rec room. Anyway, some random man being picked to have sex with me? Nuh-uh, no way. You’d have to tie me down and have him rape me.”
He frowns deeply at my statement. It takes a few heartbeats before he nods. “I’m gd you told me about him. Now, about what you said. You aren’t the only one who’s talked to me about that subject. The doctors are worried about the mental health of the women if we force partners on them. I’ve never had any pns to force one person on another. If we didn’t have the means for artificial insemination, it might be different. Regardless, the women are free to choose who they sleep with.”
I blow out my breath in relief. I never thought he would, but you never know, and I had to be sure. This is about survival, and Dad has resolutely said that he would do anything to ensure it. If I was in his position, then I’d be the same way.
“I’d hoped that was the case, but you realize that may very well leave some, shall we say, of the less attractive men without anyone. What if some of those men decide to forcefully take what isn’t offered? We can’t afford to lose any more people, so how would you deal with them?”
“At the very least, I’d stick their ass in a biopod and have the computer rewrite their personality,” he says adamantly. “Listen, Sweetie. I know you’re worried about all this. Hell, I am as well, but I’m fairly sure that it won’t be an issue. Honestly, none of the men are all that unattractive, so I doubt they’ll be left all alone. More than likely, most of the men will end up like your Max and have a couple of wives or girlfriends. Does that set your mind at ease?”
I smile and nod firmly. “It does help. Thank you, Dad. It might be helpful if you have a talk with the women like you did with the men. It’d go a long way to putting their minds at ease.”
He looks at me as he smiles broadly, though I have no idea why. “Sweetie, I have to say that as much as you worried your mother and me back on Earth, you’ve matured since we left. You’ve always been smart, but now you worry about everyone and are a very responsible young dy. I’m extremely proud of you.”
I blush slightly and smile at him bashfully, then say, “Thank you, it makes me happy that you think so.” I shrug as I continue, “The end of the world doesn’t leave a person with much choice but to change… Dad, may I ask another question?” He nods. “Are we ever going to return to Earth? I don’t know about everyone else, but I want to know if anyone survived.”
“Probably, but before we do, we’re going to get ourselves situated here with a stable popution, develop an antiviral for the virus HOTE released, as well as set up extremely heavy defenses and build a fleet just in case. My biggest fear is that some of their people survived the holocaust, know where we are, and are coming here.”
I look at him with a confused expression as I ask, “Why are you so worried about them? Didn’t you say that the only hyperdrive engines built were with the Discovery and the Avalon? You destroyed the Avalon with nukes after salvaging what we could. She’s dust and debris, so they can’t get anything from her. If I remember correctly, you also said that the hyperdrive pns were only known by a few people.”
“I did, but it’s still a worry. Who knows if they managed to get their filthy hands on the pns for them.”
I gnce at the ceiling as I think about it for a minute. “Even if they somehow managed to obtain the pns, I highly doubt they have the technical ability to build one. So, even if they’re coming, we likely have hundreds of years, and that’s assuming they aren’t all dead. They are, or rather were, a death cult, after all. Technical ability wasn’t a requirement, and I highly doubt that many technically inclined people, who tend to be retively rational and logical, joined their ranks.”
He shrugs. “Sweetie, you’re probably right. At least, I hope you are. Anyway, if that’s all?” I merely nod. “Then I’ll set up a time to hold a meeting with the women as you suggested, but at the moment, I have other work to do. Enjoy the next few days while we make our logistics pns because once they’re finalized, you’ll be an extremely busy young dy.”
“Does that mean I’m off duty until then?” He nods. “Great! Thanks!” He chuckles at my outburst, then I ask, “Can I steal Max as well?”
“You can.” He pauses while he writes something on a flimsy, then hands it to me. “That should do it, but if the engineering officer gives you any guff about it, tell him to call me. You have fun while you can. I’ll see you ter.”
We stand up, and I hug him, then murmur, “I’m loath to admit that I haven’t told you this in a long time, but I love you.”
He pats my back and says, “I know, but men tend to not express feelings like that with other men, unless they’re drunk. I love you, too. Now, get going, Lieutenant, before you make your commander tear up.”
I giggle and grin as I look up at him, cutely bat my eyeshes at him, and murmur, “Yes, Sir. Daddy, Sir.” throw a sloppy salute, and smirk as I say, “See you ter.”
If you can’t tell, I’ve got the wrapping men around my little finger thing down pat. Wrapping my doting father around it is a given.
“Scoot, Lieutenant, I have work to do.”
I blow him a kiss and walk out the door with a happy smile pstered on my face.
I stop by my pce to change into something less formal and more comfortable. After I’ve changed my makeup style, I don a cute bck, rose-print wrap dress, and red pumps, then check myself over in the mirror.
I just thought of something that you may be wondering about. Where do we get our clothes? The short and easy answer is the same way you folks do, the manufacturing Nanos make everything we need. We scroll through a computer list to find the style and color of whatever we want, or scan in a design, and usually within an hour, we can pick them up. Easy-peasy, right? The only thing we have to pay for is the resources needed to make them, which isn’t much.
Once I’m sure that I like my look, I take off to collect Max and head back to his pce. Thankfully, the chief engineer didn’t give me any trouble. He merely smiled, winked, and told us to have a good time.
We then head back to his pce, supposedly so that he can change clothes, but as you can guess, we end up in bed with him literally fucking me into orgasmic senselessness. Think what you want. I might be 253 years old chronologically, but I’m still only 17 years old biologically, with the hormones, sex drive, and urges that entails. Plus, I love sex, or at least, I do with Max and Athena. A huge plus is that both of them are extremely good at it.
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The remainder of the week is absolutely awesome and very rexing. Max, Athena, and I make the most of it, pying games in the rec center, going dancing, watching movies, etc… When Athena is on duty, Max and I spend most of our time alone in either my pce or his. Frankly, we make love so much that if I wasn’t on birth control, I’d most likely be pregnant.
We saw Dad during lunch one day, and he told me that a couple of the engineering teams are scheduled to go out to work on the satellites I unched forever ago. They have to add fuel and new power supplies for them since they’re close to being exhausted. I’m surprised that they’ve sted this long, but as he expined, the satellites are designed for longevity, so they should be good for at least another couple of centuries once they do the work on them.
Also, at Dad’s request, I joined him for his talk with the women. For some odd reason, all the women seem to trust me when I tell them something. It might be because I used to be a man and transitioned, or because I listen, and I’m willing to advocate for us with my dad. Plus, they know damn well that I feel the same way they do about random men being picked to have sex with us. After Dad and I talked to them, everyone seemed to be relieved to hear him expin that they won’t have to sleep with anyone they don’t want to, though we will all be artificially inseminated many, many times.
Terra is so much like Earth that it’s eerie, except for the shape and number of continents. The nd/sea ratio is close to Earth at 33%/67%. The tilt is just slightly rger as well, at 23.4°, and the average temperature is slightly higher, 16.4℃, and the weather is very simir with the equatorial storms being slightly stronger. Terra has 9 continents and dozens of isnd chains.
It’s taken some time, but the AI has finally worked out the orbital period and rotation of Terra. A day here is slightly more than 25 hours. A year is 390 days. So rather than adapt the Earth calendar, it was decided to use what is called the Terran calendar, which consists of 65 6-day weeks. The format works well for us since it’s based on our 4-on/2-off work week. The 25-hour cycle will take a bit of getting used to according to scientists, but I’m sure we’ll adapt readily enough.
Computers will be essential in keeping track of Earth's dates because the differences in time between our pnets will make it a complicated task. I won't even bother trying to calcute our ages based on the different lengths of years. Thankfully, those born on this pnet won't have to worry about these discrepancies and can just go about their lives as usual, and the rest of us will likely just ignore the differences and celebrate our birthday with an approximation of the date.
Anyway, rather than come up with some names for months, it was decided to just move forward with a day, year calendar for Terra. So day 150 of year 50 will look like TC: 150, 50. Simple, right?
So the AI then tracked Terra’s orbit and identified its apogee and perigee. Then identified where it was comparatively, which pced us on day 27.
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[TC: 27, 01]
Finally, the day arrives for us to begin moving supplies and people down to our colony, now appropriately named Novis. Dad was right when he said that I’d be busy, and isn’t only me. Every crew member is working their butts off. All of us are working 12 to 15 hours a day, and it still doesn’t seem to be enough.
Dad curtails that on day 69 because two of the shuttle pilots who’d been on duty for 14 hours almost collided with a building when they lifted off to return to the ship. I’ve been just as tired as they were, but thankfully, I haven’t made any mistakes that I didn’t immediately catch and correct. Now, the crew members are limited to no more than 8 hours on duty during any 24-hour period. As he stated, ‘There’s no huge hurry, and it’s not worth the risk of losing people or vital equipment to reduce the time it would take to transfer everything pnetside by a few days.’
Housing assignments have already been posted as well. As expected, Athena and I are given our own house. Looking further, I note that Max has been assigned to an apartment at the bachelor’s building, and from what I understand, they are very nice apartments. The same goes for our house. It’s a fully furnished 5 bedroom, 5 and a half bath pce, with a rge kitchen and adjoining dining room, a living room, plus a small office. As you can tell, it’s ready for us to expand our family.
Athena notices my frown when I find Max’s living assignment and touches my cheek. When I feel her touch, I turn to look at her. “Don’t frown. Smile, Babe… You love him, don’t you?”
I simply look at her for a moment, then sigh because nothing about me gets past her. “Don’t you?”
She chuckles. “Yes, but whether I love him as a man or as a friend, I’m still unsure. I enjoy being with him, and he’s hell on wheels with his tongue. Regardless, you still haven’t answered me.”
I nod firmly as I state, “I do, but I didn’t know how you felt.”
Her eyes sparkle with amusement when she says, “I see you’re still my clueless lil’ airhead. Babe, I’m going to y all my cards on the table here. I think I fell for you after the first time we had sex, and if you still had a cock, it’d be the only one allowed in me. Unfortunately, that isn’t how things are. I still love you, even as a girl. I want to be with you forever, and I still enjoy sex with you, but honestly, I like men, too. Likewise, I know you feel the same way about it. Sex between us is good. Actually, it’s friggin awesome because you know exactly what I like, but having a guy you like to penetrate and cum in you while you have an orgasm is the best thing since sliced bread.
“Anyway, I know that you want him to live with us, and I think it’s a great idea as well. So, stop worrying. I’m not jealous because I know that if Max ever tried to push the issue of me or him, you’d choose me, hands down. That said, trust me, when the doc says there’ll be no risk to our baby, I’m going to have him balls deep inside me, too. Now, sashay that cute lil’ ass of yours over to his pce and tell him that he’s living with us.”
I take her in my arms, gently kiss her, then look her in the eye. “You’re right, I’d choose you, and I wouldn’t even have to think about it. I simply didn’t know how to ask you about him living with us without knowing how you feel about him. You mean the world to me, so I damn sure wouldn’t ever want to hurt you. I suppose that’s why I was hesitant to ask.”
She gives me a peck on the lips and smiles. “I love you, too, Apes. Go on, scoot. Go get our man before some slut tries to take him from us. I’ll be here when you get back. Your daughter has been kicking the snot out of me today, but she’s quiet now, and I want to take a nap while she isn’t trying to py soccer with my bdder.”
