This file is a part of Elf Sternberg's Collected Works on ASSTR.  The
complete archive of Elf's work can be found on his website at:

http://www.drizzle.com/~elf

The author can be contacted at:

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                      Planetfall: The Han (prologue)

Journal Entry 150 / 01025

Noren, Cerim 03, 01025

I sat down at the family table and yawned. Breakfast just isn't my time
of day, and I just was really not in any sort of mood. The humans had been
here barely three weeks and already I had decided that I was going to have
it up to here with them. I grinned. Not a very politic attitude, I guess.

Aaden followed my example, sitting across from me at the table and
yawning, his muzzle opening wide and his pink tongue sticking out. I
was of half a mind to grab it. He simply shook his head tiredly. "Coffee."

"Tea," I agreed. "You go."

"I'm not awake yet. You go."

We sat there, staring at each other. "Tell you what..."

A clap of the hands outside the tent made me look up. "Who is it?"

"Shardik? This is Tasha Reah."

I gave Aaden a sidewise glance. Why would David's navigator be calling on
me, especially this hour of the morning? And, truth be told, even after
a year I was not at all adjusting to these 14-hour days. "If you're not
offended by nudity, feel free to come in."

The flap opened and she stepped inside. About 145 centimeters, with
those classic lanky arms and slightly stooped back, she was still a
lovely example of Katckinhood. "Can I speak to you, sir?"

"Of course you may," I replied, responding to the 'sir' professionally.
"What is this about, Mister Reah?"

"I saw this note on the news this morning, and I figured you should see
it. I have already gone over the data with Commander Garenna." She held
out a PADD for me to look at. I accepted it.

A few minutes later, I whistled low. "This data is accurate?" She nodded.
"They think it's sentient?"

"What?" Aaden said.

"David's headed back this way. It seems we might not be alone out here."

  ----------------------------------------------------------------------

A few hours later, Garenna had assembled a meeting in Mission Control.
"Okay, now, everyone here settle down. We have had absolutely nothing
to go on until just an hour ago. We now have some rather comprehensive
details. No decisions are going to be made until The Rat's Inquiry makes
it back here. In the meantime we should all just sit tight and review
what we know. Commander Reah?"

"I will defer to Macaff."

Macaff, a short melVulpin with broad, masculine features held up a uPADD
that apparently controlled the large screen behind him. "At 18:22 two days
ago we noticed the following rise in the local distortion of hyperspace;
the distortion, as you can see, is broadband, but by itself very small. We
attributed the distortion to a glitch in the sensor array. This effect
has never been noted naturally, and we assumed some sensor array to be
at fault. Commander Hawkwind took it upon herself to locate the fault
and has driven herself to exhaustion finding... nothing.

"Approximately eleven hours ago, the Rat's Inquiry, some sixty light
years away, noticed the same effect. The effect is, as we have surmised,
an actual presence in hyperspace. It is an expanding wave front of
immense power."

"Is it dangerous?" someone in the audience asked.

"Not that we know of. Data from the Inquiry has been flowing in. They
have traversed the wave front several times. It is simply a significant
distortion spread out over a very broad band, and it is moving very fast.
Tasha?"

Tasha Reah stood up. "The end result of this is that we have located the
origin of this expanding wave zone; it is a star approximately seventy
point eight light years away; less than a week's travel from Battia. It is
very near the end of the region of space David had intended to explore
given that we planned a four-year stay. Now, it seems, we shall be
investigating it that much sooner. Because the Inquiry is almost exactly
in the opposite direction from the star, they will be stopping here in six
Pendorii days before proceeding to the source of the phenomena. Obviously,
some of you will want to accompany the mission, since this represents
both something new and something not directly related to the frustrating
task at hand here."

"I'd like to investigate," Amanda piped in. "I have a natural curiosity
for hyperspace phenomena, and this one certainly catches my eye." I
chuckled. I'm sure Amanda's curiosity for hyperspace phenomena is entirely
"natural."

"Do remember," I began, "that several FTL probes were sent out ahead of
us to radio local starsystems that we were coming; I believe among other
things that this star system was probably one of many hit indiscriminately
by Huffman probes. If there are natives, they may well have known we
were coming."

"A signal device?" someone asked, picking up my thread.

"Any culture capable of building a signal device of this power could
have built one with a more coherent signal," Amanda announced surely.

"You're sure of that?" I asked.

"The mathematics is intuitively obvious," Amanda replied.

"I'm not so sure," I said. "In a few days, we'll have an answer."

  ----------------------------------------------------------------------

I stumbled into the tent, yawning wide. "Hiya, Dad," Sheja said. My yawn
had closed my eyes, and I forced one of them open to look at my lovely
twelve-year-old daughter. She is positively beautiful.

"Hi, kid," I groaned.

"Dad, you look awful."

"The vote of 'Ken looks awful' is duly noted," I chuckled, leaning down
and giving her a hug. "So my little one is coming with me to check out
some lonely star?"

"Yup!" She bounced on the bench. "Just to get away from this icky planet."

"It's not icky. It's fascinating!" I sat down next to her. "Why do you
think it's icky?'

She looked down at her ensemble PADD and pushed a button on the screen. "I
dunno."

"Are you bored?"

She shook her head. "Not really. I mean, there's so much to do here,
but there are so few people my age and, well..."

"You miss the Ring."

"Yeah!" She turned to me. "Can I go with you?"

"On the trip?"

She nodded. "Just for a change. I mean, you'll only be gone for two
weeks, three at most, right? I'd like to come along and be part of the
ship again."

I recognized that voice. It was Rainy and Denni and Priss all over again.
We had another spacer in the family. I couldn't for the life of me figure
out why so many of my kids wanted to get into space, but the statistics so
far bore it out: P'nyssa and Aaden and I raised spacers. "Tell you what.
We'll ask Mom and Va and if they say you can go, you can go. They've
both said they intend on staying."

"Okay," she sighed. As she opened her mouth to talk again, the tent flap
opened an Aaden walled in. "Va!"

Aaden grabbed the speeding girl and pulled her into the air, mindful not
to brush her head against the canvas ceiling. "Heya, little one. What's
up?"

"Dad says if I can convince you and Mom to let me go, he'll let me go
on the trip to the hyperspace anomaly point. Can I? Please?"

Aaden smiled and put her down. "If he wants to put up with you by himself
for three weeks, it's fine with me." He walked around the table and
kissed my cheek. "So, is that the deal?"

I nodded. "Pretty much." I reached behind me and wrapped my arms around
him. "So, how's my favorite mel doing?"

"Oh, not bad. We're tracking the signal progressions now. It'll be a few
months before any of this starts to make much sense, but we at least now
know what parts of the planet are communicating with what other parts,
and hopefully we'll see a correlation between communication densities,
launch facilities, and hopefully the brains of the outfit." He grinned,
then it faded.

"What?"

"I just wish someone hadn't died to bring us this information."

"It's not something you can really fight, Aaden. Live with it, deal with
it, but it's done and over with." I stood up, yawning. "Are you going
to be up for a while?"

Aaden shook his head. "I spent most of the day deep in the heart of the
hottest, wettest rainforest this place has to offer. I'm beat. I want
a shower and sleep."

"Well, I just want sleep, but I'm willing to put that off to shower with
you if you want."

"That sounds nice," he agreed.

"Which means," I said, turning to Sheja, "That it's up to you, little
lady, to ask your mother whether or not you can go into space with me."

"You bet I will," she replied defiantly.

"Then that's settled. Until we hear from P'nyssa, plans are on hold. But
you should pack while we're gone anyway; I can't imagine her saying 'no.'
Okay, Aaden, let's hit the showers."

We walked to the compound showers, a hexagonal construction of small
shower crannies all supplied with sterile water, hot and cold, by a
sewage-treatment shuttlecraft parked about six kilometers out from the
edge of camp. Because of the nature of the system, it was actually easier
to supply hot water than cold water. Still, we never ran out of either;
the system was designed for that kind of overload. Environmental impact
was minimized by the recycling system, as well as the thermodegrading
soaps and shampoos used by the crew. The place was quite crowded with
people of both sexes and many species, and as Aaden and I walked in
there was cheerful greetings from a few people. "Ken!"

I looked up as I slung my towel over a bar and saw a tall, slightly portly
human of ruddy complexion and cheerful expression waving to me. "Alex!" I
replied back. "I'm sorry you got dragged all the way out here to end up
having a life slightly less exciting than my own."

"If my life is even half as exciting as yours, I'm living in my own
troubled time," the Russian-born zoological gengineer replied with a
chuckle. "Three years in space and there is not a single animal on the
planet above the arthropods. Still, it's good to be out here and not in
the lab. I think of it as an extended vacation on my government's expense.
You are going on the trip to the Hyperspace Anomaly, right?"

"Yep. My daughter and I are going."

"But not your mates?" He seemed surprised.

Aaden leaned out of the shower, his eyes closed against the soap. "We're
saner people, Doctor. We'll stay landbound until we simply have to go
back into hyperspace."

"So," Alex continued. "Is there room for humans on this ship?"

"I'm human," I pointed out.

"Not with a five-chambered heart," he pointed out. "I am asking, is
there room for me on this voyage?"

Before I could answer, Lance did. "David has said that a contingent from
UCLA/UCMR is not unwelcome provided they stay away from the engineering
and administrative functions of the starship unless otherwise invited.
Quite a number of people from the Stableford have requested room. Thus
far it appears that nearly 200 Terrans and 500 Pendorians will be going
on this trip."

"Lance, that's nearly a quarter of the people here!" I protested.

"Actually, it's 26.2 percent," the AI replied. "I surmise they're simply
looking for something else to do. A vacation in a vacation, as Alex
has pointed out. Many of our people have been working harder than I
would recommend. Doc Nessus has complained that his workload has become
inordinately heavy in the past couple of weeks."

"Interesting," I said. Crew stress was something for Gary and Ness to
worry about, and I felt more than a little confidence in their abilities.
"But there is your answer, Alex. You're free to come along. Can we expect
to see you tomorrow morning?"

"Da, I'll be there." I found his momentary use of Russian amusing, since
I was willing to bet it was probably the only word he knew of that tongue.

As Aaden and I returned to our tend, P'nyssa was still awake, waiting
for us. "Hi," I said, still tired.

"Hi," she replied. "I told Sheja she could go."

"Thanks," I said, hugging her tightly. "Now, if you two will excuse me,
I'm heading to bed. I have to get early in less than seven hours and
move onto the Handele."

P'nyssa stood up and put her mitten on my shoulder. "Oh, no, you don't,
mister."

Aaden came up behind me, pressing his chest to my back. "You're not
going anywhere until we get a proper good-bye out of you, Ken."

"Aw, come on, guys. I'm exhausted. You don't expect me to perform under
these conditions, do you?"

"Yes," Aaden replied with a grin. "We do." He turned me towards the
bedroom and pushed me in that direction. Once inside, he stripped my robe
from my shoulders and turned me around. "We're going to miss you." Then
he kissed me

When Aaden kisses me that way, there's nothing that's going to stop
me from getting turned on. I felt the blood rushing to my cock and the
warmth spreading from my groin. He put one hand on the small of my back
and pulled me close, grinding his groin against mine. I could feel his
hard cock against mine, and my voice found itself in whimpers as our
tongues wrestled wetly against each other. P'nyssa's mittens slid up my
back and I shivered to feel the way they tickled the small hairs that ran
up my spine. "I don't know what I'm going to do for both of you tonight;
I feel right now like I can barely handle one of you."

Aaden's hand caressed my erection, make me shudder with the intense
sensations coming off the tip. "You'll think of something." He grabbed my
shoulders again and pointed me towards P'nyssa. I smiled and pulled her
close, kissing her the way he had kissed me. I felt his fingers playing
against my more-than-will asshole, and hoped that's what he had in mind,
since that would require that I just lie there and take it like a man.
Anything else and I might actually have to do some exercise!

She crushed her breasts against my chest; through the smooth and trimmed
fur I could feel her nipples pressed to my skin. My hands moved of their
own free will to encircle her waist and grasp the round hemispheres of
her ass, which I'm still convinced is one of the most beautiful in the
universe. But I'm biased.

She pulled me down to the bed and I came to a slow lie atop her. "We will
miss you," she said, echoing Aaden's comments. He joined us on the bed,
easing down behind me and hugging me, sandwiching me between himself and
P'nyssa. I caressed her nipples with my lips, slipping down between her
legs easily. I felt her hands atop my head as I licked at the top of her
mound, kissing her out lips gently. Usually she encourages me to get on,
but today she let me take my time and I decided I wanted to do just that.
I kissed my way around the outside of her labia, licking gently, probing,
waiting. Her cunt opened for me in a way I hadn't seen in a long time,
mostly because I'm too eager, too quick to get to the main course. But
watching her lips swell and seeing the inner lips pout and stick out
like that aroused me more than usual.

Aaden encouraged the process by crawling down between my legs. I felt him
squeezing himself between my legs, so I raised myself up and spread my
legs further to give him room. As the hot scent of P'nyssa's cunt filled
my nostrils, the moist warmth of Aaden's very talented tongue slid along
the length of my shaft. I whimpered softly into P'nyssa's sweet muff as
I licked at her wet and almost dripping cunt. A little stream of milky
white fluid dripped from within her and I lapped it up. I concentrated on
her clit and she gasped as she came, hard, under my tongue. Aaden pulled
away from my cock and I slid up between P'nyssa's legs and slid into her.

She spread her legs wide and accepted me into her body. My cock speared
deep into her accepting cunt, which was wet and waiting after my licking
and her coming. I pressed into her, and then I felt Aaden's hand upon
the small of my back. "Hold still, you two," he said. "We haven't done
this in years."

I felt his body take up position, his legs outside of my own and between
P'nyssa's. I felt a warmth upon my asshole, and then felt the bulk of his
body against my back, his cock dangling against my buttocks. He pressed
forwards, and my asshole welcomed his cock into my body. I wasn't sure
what felt better; P'nyssa's cunt surrounding me, or his cock penetrating
me. I looked down at P'nyssa and she smiled at me.

Aaden started the motion, slowly fucking me, his strong arms pressed to
both mine and P'nyssa's sides. I began following his actions, fucking
P'nyssa as he fucked me. Her tens reached past me and she was actually
grasping Aaden's sides, guiding his action as the three of us made love,
slowly and with care. "I love you," Aaden whispered into my ear. "You're
so hot inside, Ken. So tight."

"Then come inside me," I said.

"I will," he replied. I held onto P'nyssa, my cock being forced in and
out of her by his massive weight, no matter how gentle he was. He held
us both as he made love to me, and I wished, earnestly, that I could
hold him as he came inside me with a soft gasp of pleasure. I took up
the strength, feeling P'nyssa's cunt grasping my cock as I made love to
her willing cunt, and she moaned. "Are you close?" she asked.

"Good timing," I gasped. "Right... now!" I came inside her with hard,
finishing strokes, loving every last shock of pleasure.

I finally eased myself off of her and flopped down onto my side. "Now
can I go to sleep?"

Aaden grabbed a towel and wiped himself off. P'nyssa handed me a second
towel and I did the same. She chuckled and said, "Yes, you can go to
sleep now."

"Good!" Sheja's voice came from the next room. "Then maybe I can too!"

I stared at P'nyssa, then turned to Aaden. "Do we really make that
much noise?"

He shrugged. "It's a tent. The walls are thin." He lay down and pulled
a pillow under his head. "Cuddle?" he asked.

I eased myself into his arms. P'nyssa curled up around me, her ten over
my side and resting between Aaden and I. "Goodnight," she whispered.

"G'night."

  ----------------------------------------------------------------------

"Come on, sweetheart. Get up." I shook Sheja's shoulder gently, and her
head turned up at me and her eyes blinked and she yawned.

"What time is it?"

"Ship pulled into orbit just a half-hour ago. They're here for six hours.
We've got to get moving." I saw that she had packed already, and picked
up the bag and slung it over my shoulder. "Anything else you need?"

"Can I get dressed first, Dad?" She stood up and stretched, right before
my eyes, and I had to bite my lip and wonder if she would ever ask,
for she was truly a beautiful creature.

"Go dress, Sheja."

She pulled herself into a jumpsuit and zipped up. "All set," she said.

"Let's go, then." I left P'nyssa and Aaden sleeping together, curiously
looking appropriate cuddled up against one another like that. We made
our way to MC and the main SDisk of the camp. Sheja kept yawning and so
did I, and eventually we made it. There was a bit of a line, but we were
the third group to make our way up. Glowing lines directed us away from
the SDisk we had taken; even though the shipwide distribution network of
SDisks allowed us to come out as near to our room as possible, there were
probably dozens of other people coming out of the SDisk at any second.

The door opened. The room hadn't changed; it was still the same, perfectly
clean, just as Lance would keep it. I tossed my small kit bag into the
bedroom. "Dad?" my lovely little skunk'morph of a daughter asked.

"Yeah?"

"I'm going back to bed." She yawned again. "Twelve hours of pitch black
is going to be great."

I chuckled. "Give me a hug before you go, then."

She bounced over, her big tail waving behind her like a giant furred
question mark, and fell into my arms. "G'night, Dad. Sorry for bugging
you guys last night."

"That's okay. If we were keeping you awake, you should have complained
sooner."

She backed away. "I know what you guys were doing." She shook her head. "I
wouldn't dare interrupt you before I was sure you were done. Mom told me
once that someday I was gonna understand why all that stuff is important
to you, and I'm starting to." She smiled, then kissed my cheek. "G'night."

"Bye." As she wandered away, I fought to sort my feelings out. I couldn't
believe how... awake Sheja was. All of Aaden's kids were extremely
intelligent, but not since Alexi did we have a kid quite so 'on' as
Sheja seemed to be. I hoped she fulfilled the potential I thought I was
looking at.

She was right, too. More than seven hours of real darkness would be a
joy to behold, and I decided to behold it. Stripping off my clothes and
tossing it across the floor, I crawled into the big, lonely bed.

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The Journal Entries of Kennet R'yal Shardik, et. al., and Related Tales
are Copyright (c) 1989-2000 Elf Mathieu Sternberg. Distribution limited
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