CHAPTER 28
The Hakaanen
This story contains sex between minor boys and teen-agers. If such things offend you, or you are not at least 18 years of age, then please don't read on. This story is not true, but who knows, maybe some day it will be.
Morning seemed to come too fast. All of the boys were exhausted. They didn't know how much longer they could go. All they could hope now was that the rock they saw was the one Matthew saw, and that there was a green valley on the other side.
Scooter and Douglas sat in the front of the lead sled. They were heading toward the horse rock.
"Why did you lie to me, Douglas?" Scooter asked.
"Lie to you? When? I don't think I've ever lied to you, my love."
"You did about what you and Brett talked about before you went on your scouting trip."
"Ohhh. Yeah. I did. I'm sorry my love."
"Why? Didn't you trust me? You didn't even send me a thought."
"Well, you held this in for a while."
"I didn't want to upset things. You have enough problems. But it hurt me some."
"Scooter, don't hold it in if I hurt you. Send me the thoughts at least. Don't hide from me. We are one."
"You hid too. You didn't tell me, and never explained why not."
"I did it to protect you. Brett was taking a big risk. It was like in spy books - the need to know. If you didn't know, Robert Charles couldn't get any information, no matter what. You would be one of the first he would suspect, but you could say you didn't know anything and not lie. You could be perfectly natural and honest. No pressure. Not even a look Brett's way or where he hid the chips. I'm sorry if it hurt you. I love you."
"Why didn't you tell me after."
"I guess my mind was on other things. And like I said, you could've asked me. I guess we both forgot to talk to each other. I'm sorry my sweetness."
Scooter leaned over and kissed Douglas. Douglas kissed him back, making sure the sled was driving right. Nobody thought much of it except Drew and Drake. They were still kind of surprised by all the kissing and stuff going on.
I'm sorry, Scooter, Douglas thought. I would never hurt you on purpose. I trust you and love you. I thought I was protecting you. The kiss grew stronger. Douglas stopped the sled and kissed him deep. Then he turned around. "Travis, how about you drive with Ryan."
Travis grinned and went up to the front with Ryan following him. Scooter and Douglas sat at the back of the sled, keeping each other close and kissing. They were too hot and tired for sex even though they were hard, but for right now they wanted to be close. Douglas looked at his love trying to remember what he looked like when he was clean.
It was the middle of the afternoon when they got to the rock. Jim and Scooter figured that if Matthew had seen the side of the rock they saw then the valley should be straight ahead. They headed in that direction and soon saw a couple of clouds on the horizon. Jim said that was just like the valleys his mother made; that changing a planet had to start in a valley where it was closed off. And that's were the clouds were, so they must be going in the right direction.
Another hour and suddenly they were on the edge of a cliff. They stopped the sleds and looked down. It was a deep canyon. Below them were some clouds, and then green. It was hard to tell but it looked like fields and maybe forest. There was some desert in between but most of it was green. And they could see lakes. Water. Lots of water. Cool looking water. Water to swim in and wash in and hopefully drink . "Do you see any cities or anything?" Stevie asked.
"Nope," Ryan said. Everybody else agreed they couldn't either.
"If it's like an Earth colony it wouldn't have very big cities. Plus we can only see part of the valley from here. And it needs lots of forests to make oxygen. The more the trees make the less the machines make. Mom was big on getting lots of trees."
"One question, though," Alex said.
"What's that?" Douglas answered.
"How do we get down there?"
They all looked over the edge. It was a pretty straight drop. The valley seemed more like a bowl.
Jim said it probably was an old meteor crater. They made good places to start colonies because the atmosphere could be held in the bowl until they could made enough to start covering the planet. Ryan asked how they did that, but Jim told him it was too complicated to explain. He didn't really understand it all.
They figured there had to be a way down somewhere. Once again Douglas decided to send out scout teams. Scooter and Jim would head toward the south. He wanted to see how far he and Scooter could send thoughts for one thing. Travis and Jordan would head to the north.
Everybody was noticing that Douglas was splitting up lovers. Douglas knew he was too. He knew the lovers could work together. He wanted everybody to be able to work together, so he switched partners.
He picked Jordan, because he wanted Jordan to feel included. Jordan had gone from the guy trying to get people to do stuff, like he did with Matthew, to a sad 12 year old who was alone and left out. Douglas found out from the twins that early on Jordan tried to push them around some, but they just quit hanging around him. That explained why they never saw much of the twins. They pretty much kept to themselves. In a way Douglas liked that. They didn't let Jordan push them around. But in another way, he saw what nice, quiet, sweet kids they were and wished he could have gotten to know them better. Their being so cute didn't hurt either.
That evening they all sat and watched the sunset on the other side of the valley.
Lovers were sitting with lovers. Holding hands or hugging. Everybody was so smelly and dirty, but nobody cared. Seeing the water down in the valley though made them want to be clean badly.
The only ones not holding somebody's hand were Drew, Drake, and Jordan. Nobody was hard. They were all too tired and hungry and thirsty to even get hard. They were almost out of gas.
"You know something, guys," Douglas said.
"What? That this is the best sunset we've ever seen in Inferno?" Alex asked.
"No. That if Matthew hadn't unbuckled his seat belt and looked straight down out of the window we wouldn't be here looking at it. The whole time he was going in and out he kept trying to tell us what he saw. Green. The valley. I think he even talked about tall or big horse or something like that. Every time he talked, no matter how out of it he was, somehow he knew how important it was for us to understand it. It was horsey green every day. It got us moving to the mountains, looking for his green. It got me seeing the horse rock so we came the right way. It was like everything he did from the moment we hit the atmosphere of Inferno was to save our lives. He was the littlest one here - the youngest, but his heart was the biggest. He was a brave little boy. I love him and I miss him."
Douglas didn't mind this time that they saw his tears. Looking at the sun setting in the valley he knew he was the leader of this group. He suddenly knew with all his heart and soul that he had a lot to do with them sitting on the rocks looking down at the green valley. He was the one who had led them here. He'd had lots of help from the friends he loved. But in the end he kept them going and brought them here. Now, somehow, he had to figure out how to get them home, back to Earth, because that was what he was going to do.
All of them but Drew and Drake were crying. But then they started too. They didn't know Matthew that well. They talked some on the "Starkeeper". But they missed their parents. They felt homesick and alone. They didn't care about the valley. They just wanted to go home.
Alex was holding Mike tight. Mike was sobbing thinking of his little brother. He remembered that night he sucked Matthew in his bed. How it seemed too good and so right and so full of love. Matthew was sweet and loving and trusting. He missed him terribly. He just hoped that Matthew didn't die alone and scared buried in the tent, that he died quickly in the storm. He promised himself that if they ever made it home he would do something special in the memory of the little brother he had found on the "Starkeeper."
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When morning came the new scout teams were ready. Douglas was going to mindread with Scooter and see for how long and how far they could do it. He was going to have Stevie go with Travis at first, but then he decided to have him work on the radios again. They had some time to do it. There had to be some key, but even Stevie couldn't quite figure out how to make them send at a longer range. They never realized how short they broadcast until they were in the desert. Another mistake, Douglas thought, but not a terrible one. They only needed the radios once and that was at the twin peaks. He was glad he didn't have to split the group though, because then they would need them badly.
Travis took a radio with him. So did Jim. But unless Stevie could figure out how to make them work over a long distance they were useless.
Douglas kissed Scooter good bye. Jim and Stevie kissed. Travis kissed Ryan. Jordan looked lost until Ryan took him and kissed him too. Jordan grinned. The two scout teams took off in opposite directions.
Douglas sat under one of the sleds. He had his eyes closed and put all his energy into his thoughts. It wasn't much energy now, and he wondered if that would make a difference. If they could send farther when they were strong and not so hungry and thirsty and tired.
My sweetness....I'm with you all the way. All the way. Send to me and I will send to you. I love you, I love you, I love you.
Scooter sent his thoughts back. But as he got farther they started to break up. Soon they were gone. Douglas could feel Scooter's love, but he couldn't read his thoughts any more. He was thinking about about how awesome it was he and Scooter could read each other's thoughts. He figured Scooter was about a mile away before he couldn't read him any longer.
Travis was using his handset talking to Stevie but he faded out fast. The radio didn't even send as far as my thoughts, Douglas thought. He wished Stevie could figure out how to get the radios to send farther. Each scout team would be back in three days. Then he figured they would head south. With a radio he could have Scooter's team wait until they caught up. Or call a team back if a trail down was found.
He decided to cut water rations to a bottle a day. He knew that was a killer. They could see lakes down below, but they had no water, and he didn't know how far they would have to go to get down into the valley. Plus he gave the scout teams extra water since they were walking.
Now they all were going to have to wait.
Stevie spent the morning taking apart a handset and putting it back together with parts from another one. He pushed buttons and put in codes. All he got from both teams was silence.
Drew and Drake were sitting in the shade of a rock. They still were a little sore from the crash, but they were getting better. But like everybody else, they were weak, tired, thirsty, hungry and dirty. They looked at all the water in the green valley below and wished they could go for a swim and get clean.
Drew told Drake what he saw happening the other night between Scooter and Douglas.
"What to you think they were doing" Drake asked.
"Some kind of sex thing. They kiss all the time. Everybody does here. It's weird but OK at the same time. But then it was more than kissing."
"I wonder why they do it?"
"If it feels like what I did then I guess I can see why. Have you tried it yet?"
"Not yet. I want to but I'm so tired it's like I don't care."
"Me too. I did it once since. I wish I could do it more."
"Maybe when we get rescued."
"Do you think we will?"
Drew saw a couple of tears drop down his brother's cheek. "I don't know. I miss mom and dad. And we were going to finally see Jeffrey again. Now we might never see them again." The tears came down hard now streaking his dirty cheeks. He saw Drew was crying just as hard as he was.
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Scooter and Jim stopped to drink. They looked down into the valley. Scooter thought he saw something between a couple of clouds.
"Look down there, Jim. Looks like buildings."
"Yep. It does."
"Wow." They looked down for a long time. Finally Scooter said, "I wonder who lives there. And what they look like. I wonder if they're dangerous. It could be dangerous to go down there. They have to be smart though. Look what they've done here."
"Just like what my mom does.. And dangerous or not, I guess we have to go down there. We can't live much longer up here. We're all getting weak. We can't go much longer."
Scooter picked up his backpack and they kept going on. He was happy that his old friend was with him. He would love it if Douglas was with him, but being with Jim made him feel happy. Scooter grabbed his hand and they walked naked together in the sun.
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Travis and Jordan stopped for a drink. They were both very tired. Douglas's plan was for them to go until dark, then go until noon the next day. Then they would turn around and go back. If they didn't find anything and if Scooter didn't, then the group would head south, double where Scooter went, and hope they found some way down before the water ran out.
"Jordan, can I ask you something?"
"I dunno. I guess so. What?"
"On the 'Starkeeper' you always seemed to be looking for trouble. Here, except for a couple of times, you've been way different. Why were you always trying stuff? Like what you did to Matthew? Sometimes you could be so nice, and then you'd team up with RC and we all would hate you. You seem like a pretty good guy a lot of the time."
Jordan looked at the ground. He didn't want to talk about this. The "Starkeeper" was like his kingdom and he could rule it. This trip was harder than some because the boys on it were different. And he couldn't even get the younger ones like the twins. Only Matthew seemed to follow him, and he lost him too. And now he was not only lost, but dead. It wasn't until Matthew got hurt that he realized how much he really liked him.
"We all need to be together, Jordan. You don't need to tell me. I just want you to know we need you. And Douglas trusts you, since he let you be a scout."
Jordan liked hearing that. They got up and kept walking. Only now, Jordan was walking next to Travis as much as he could instead of behind him.
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At the camp Stevie was about to give up on the radio. He had tried changing almost every part and pushing every possible combination on the menu. Nothing changed. It wouldn't work long distance. Evening was coming. They were getting ready to settle in for another night. Douglas went to look at the sunset. Alex came and sat beside him.
"Nice sunset, huh Douglas?"
"Yeah. It looks beautiful down there. Water and food so close and so far away."
"You'll get us there, Douglas. You've done great. From getting us started, to handling RC and Jordan, to getting us here. You didn't let us down."
"I lost Matthew." He didn't mention probably losing Robert Charles. It was like nobody cared.
"And you gained Drew and Drake. They would be dead now without you deciding on the scout teams. We've been through so much and we still have thirteen. That says a lot."
They sat quietly for a while longer.
"Douglas, why didn't you let the scout teams each take a sled? They could've gone farther, faster."
"First, you can see looking both ways, you can't always drive a sled along the cliffs. They would have to get out and walk a lot of it anyway. Second, we have a couple of guys getting pretty tired here. What if the sleds don't make it back? What if something happens? Brett has been so tough, but he can't walk a long way. The twins are holding up pretty good, but they are little. I'd rather have the sleds. I haven't been planning very well before for if things go wrong, I guess it's time I did."
"Things are going to start going right, Douglas. But you're doing great. I'd like to see a group of adults do what we've done. Think about it. Me and Mike are the only ones over 14 years old, but we've survived in space, found a planet, landed on it, and survived on this hell hole of a planet. And we're still going. We love each other and work like hell for each other. With RC gone, it's like our only goal is each other. I dare any group of adults to do all this and not fight and argue. And a lot of that is you, Douglas."
"Maybe. But a lot of it started on the 'Starkeeper'. And started with you and the concert for Mike. That brought us all together. So you better take a lot of credit."
"Who would have thought that a trip on a starship would be full of gay boys who end up finding lovers and loving each other."
"This might sound funny, Alex, but I wonder if a bunch of straight boys could have done this. I wonder if they would have stuck with each other like we have. Our love has helped keep us together and survive like nobody else could."
"You might be right, Douglas. We're a pretty special group."
"I miss Scooter."
"I know. I missed Mike when he went with you."
"Mike and I did some stuff with each other. I hope that doesn't make you mad at me."
"No, I'm not. You needed it. Mike told me. I could never be mad about that. We all made an agreement back on the 'Starkeeper' about having sex. I love you both. I love everybody here."
The sun was pretty much set. Down in the valley they could see lights. Houses and towns they figured. There were intelligent beings down there. They both wondered why they hadn't seen any signs of them before. Like fliers or something or even something on the radio. But then, if this was the only colony on the planet, they didn't have much reason to leave it. But they should at least be exploring in fliers or something. Jim said Earth colonies had atmosphere stations that needed checking. It was weird they didn't see something.
Alex pulled Douglas close and kissed his lips. Doug kissed him back. They watched the sunset and turned back to the camp. Mike had seen them kiss. It made him smile. Mike didn't mind that Douglas got into a sleeping bag with Alex. He was going with Stevie. Douglas had a lot of pressure on him and seemed to need to be hugged every night. Mike was happy to have Alex give it to him.
Drew and Drake got a tent to themselves this time. Drew was going to show Drake what he found out about jerking off. He lay naked on top of his sleeping bag. He closed his eyes to think a sexy thought, and just like that he was asleep. Drake fell asleep right after him. Everybody was too tired for sex of any kind, even jacking off.
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Scooter and Jim got into their sleeping bag. They only took one backpack and one bag so they could trade off carrying it. Scooter spooned his old friend and they fell asleep.
Travis and Jordan crawled into their sleeping bag. They touched because they had to, but were back to back. But as Travis started falling asleep, Jordan turned around and spooned him and hugged him tight. They fell asleep touching closely.
When morning came Travis and Jordan started south again. They walked for an hour when Jordan said he needed a rest, so they stopped. Travis looked at the naked little 12 year old. Travis bet when he was clean and fed he would look really cute naked. He'd never seen him naked on the "Starkeeper". But when he wasn't walking around with an attitude he had been cute there. But now they were all dirty and naked and some of them had cuts and bruises and sores. Their hair was long and messy. Every day is a bad hair day, Travis thought. But they're all still sexy. Now that's a weird thought, he thought. My friends are all sexy. Not just Ryan. Maybe I really am gay, and it's not just Ryan who is sexy. He got up. He was too tired and hungry to think.
Jordan got up and went up on a flat rock up by the cliff. He took a pee against another rock. Then he noticed something. The flat part on the other side looked worn. He went over to look. It looked almost like stairs. Then he saw that it started down the cliff. He got down on his belly and looked. The cliff wasn't as steep here, and going down it in a switchback was a trail. It was the way down. He got up and ran to tell Travis.
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Scooter and Jim figured they still had three hours to walk. All they saw was straight cliff going down. Looking ahead they couldn't see where there would be a trail going down. But Scooter felt that tired as they were, they should go as far as the promised Douglas, because who knew what was ahead.
"Jim, have you ever thought about what the aliens down there would think of us?"
"Well, first Scooter, I think we're the aliens, not them. It's kind of their planet, even if they aren't from here."
Scooter laughed and saw what Jim meant. "Well, you know what I mean. Look at us now. Dirty, naked, looking like hell. They sure won't think much of humans when they meet us."
"Well, maybe they will think we're supposed to look like this. Who knows. I mean we don't know what they look like. Maybe they're all hairy and shit."
Scooter laughed. But, he was tired. He didn't want to let Douglas down, but they had to turn back. He couldn't keep going. And if Travis and Jordan didn't find anything, then they would be coming back this way anyway. They just would slow down when they got to this spot. He would set up some rocks as a marker of where they turned back.
Suddenly the radio squealed. Then a voice came over it. It sounded like Douglas. Stevie came through again, Scooter thought with delight.
"Scooter. Jim. They found a way down. Come back. Over."
Scooter unclipped the radio from the pack. "My sweetness! We're turning around now. We'll be back before it gets dark. I love you. Over."
"I love you. Good job. See you soon, my love."
Scooter felt more full of energy all of a sudden. He and Jim turned around. They found a way down. There would be water and food down there. And who knew what else.
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Stevie looked at Douglas with a big smile after he got through talking with both sets of scouts. Travis and Jordan would wait where they found the trail until the sleds got there.
"Another miracle, Stevie." Douglas kissed him on the lips.
"Not really. I should have figured it out days ago it was so simple."
Stevie had been going through the sled onboard computer menu. One choice said power options. He always figured it had to do with the power chips, which were working perfectly, so he never went into that menu. This time he went into it and surfed through it. He came across one that said radio. He pushed the screen and got a power boost choice. He pushed it and it said boost on. His heart was pounding. He wondered if this was it. If the sled was needed to boost the radio.
He picked up a handset and pushed in the numbers for Travis's radio. Travis answered with a surprise voice. It worked! And from there he found out that they were just starting back, that it looked like they had found a path down into the valley.
Stevie was mad at himself for never thinking of the sled computer, that the handsets were connected to the sled. But, better late than never, he thought. They now had communication.
He knew this was going to be important for them.
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Scooter and Jim got back just before dark. They were so exhausted that after hugs from their loves they collapsed right into their sleeping bags.
Douglas knew they had to leave early. Jordan and Travis didn't have much water left. They had enough to last until the end of today, unless they cut back, which since they weren't doing any more hiking they probably did. Douglas and Alex looked down at the lights again. Soon they would be there. It was going to be a whole different adventure. Hopefully, one that would get them back home. Now the big question was who and what they would meet down there. Douglas crawled into his tent, and went into Scooter's sleeping bag. It was so nice to be touching his love again.
That morning they started the sleds and headed north. They could travel fairly fast. They were in contact with Travis and Jordan and by early afternoon they met up with them. They looked at the trail down. It was carved in the rock, probably by laser tools. It was steep, but not too steep. It was pretty narrow, but not to be dangerous. There were an extra few feet from the side of the cliff.
They would have to be slow and careful but they had room to walk, at least if the whole trail was like this. Since they didn't know how long it would take them to go down, they would start in the morning. They would need the whole day and they couldn't just stop and sleep on the trail. They were going to take all their water and food. It was just about gone anyway. The biggest kids would carry the most.
They spent the afternoon packing and figuring what to take. They had to leave the sleds behind, of course. Douglas was going to miss them. Without them they would have been dead long ago. They had been lucky. Except for the broken track they worked perfectly. And the broken track had let them see the horse rock and find the valley. From what Douglas saw if they had kept going in the same direction they would have missed it.
That evening they looked down into the valley again. All thirteen boys were sitting together. The love was flowing like electricity. Even Jordan was part of it, and the twins were feeling it.
"You know something?" Douglas asked.
"What?" Brett asked.
"Pretty soon we are probably going to be the first Earthlings to meet an alien race. It could be good or it could be horrible. But I have a feeling that whoever could make a valley like that on a planet like Inferno can't be all bad. Evil people don't make things like that valley. But whatever, us, a bunch of kids, we're going to be the first. We've survived hell, and tomorrow we're going to make history. Even if nobody ever knows about it. Guess we should be pretty proud of ourselves."
They let out a weak cheer, and even as tired and weak as they were, they let Alex and Stevie lead them in a song. It made them feel good. They headed for the tents for the last time. Tomorrow would be another long day.
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They started off after eating an energy bar each. They each had a backpack. The bigger boys carried a sleeping bag on theirs. The packs were filled with water and energy bars. Douglas had a laser pistol and Alex had the other one. Douglas, Scooter, Alex, Mike, Travis, and Jeremy each had a radio. Each boy without a radio was assigned to a boy with one and told not to leave him. The trail was steep, but not too steep. Scooter mentioned it was horse sized. Wide enough for one, and not so steep it couldn't go up or down the trail. It switched back and forth. They could feel the air getting thicker and more humid. The temperature went down, not up, because it was controlled in the valley, just like on Earth colonies.
A little after noon they made it to the bottom and started into the forest. The trail headed west. They had seen that there was a lake straight west. They stopped to eat and rest, then continued on. Each step was hard. They were so tired, so hungry, so thirsty. Brett felt sick. So did Jordan and Drake. But they kept going on. Scooter kept feeling his next step would be his last but he kept managing to take one more. They were so used to the thin air that the thicker air in the valley was hard to breathe. Brett was having the worst time, and it seemed like his asthma was coming back. Mike and Jeremy had to help hold him up sometimes.
After another hour they turned a corner on the path, and through the trees they saw blue. WATER!!!!!!! Suddenly the steps didn't seem so bad. Suddenly they could see what they had wanted for so long. Before they knew it, they were at a clear lake. It was surrounded by the trees of the forest. A stream ran into it. The bank was manmade and high, but there was what looked like a small beach a few yards from the path. They pulled off their heavy backpacks, their bodies almost feeling like they were floating as the weight came off of them. As a group they went into the water.
It was cold, but it felt great. Cold, clear water. Wet water. For the first time in weeks they were in water. Every boy was crying and laughing and splashing and drinking and washing weeks worth of dirt off of themselves. Douglas hoped the water wasn't dangerous, and even if it was, it couldn't be as dangerous as no water at all. Finally they got completely tired out. They lay on the beach and let the sun dry them off. For a short while, they felt happy. But they were still hungry, still tired, and still lost. They looked to Douglas to see what to do next. If there was ever any doubt about Douglas as their leader it was all washed away in the cold, clear water of the lake. Douglas had been right. He got them from the wreck of the "Moonduster" to the life of the valley. He never gave up. Now they looked at him expecting all the answers.
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They were the Hakaanen. Their planet was Hakaan. They were a peaceful race living on a beautiful planet. When they discovered warp drive they went exploring the galaxy. They learned about terraforming and they founded two colonies. They hoped someday to find other intelligent life, if there was any.
The Haakenen believed in love between the same sex. Men loved men. Boys loved boys. Women loved Women. Girls loved girls. A man went with a woman to have a child. They liked each other as friends, but most of them had partners of the same sex. Men raised the boys and taught them sex and how to be men, and women did the same with girls. There were some of them who lived like Earth couples, which everybody thought was cool. It just wasn't the way most Hakaanen were.
Then bad times came. A starship coming back from exploring a new planet brought a plague back. Sickness hit the planet. People became very sick and died. Millions and millions of people. Almost 1/3 of the population of Hakaan. They quit going into space. Suddenly the starships quit coming to the colonies, and nobody knew why.
Finally a starship with a robot pilot was sent to each of the colonies to tell them no ships would be coming. They didn't want to infect the colonies. They might end up being the last of the Hakaanen if a cure for the plague was never found. Nobody would come again until that happened and the planet recovered. The robot ship was still in orbit around Inferno, which the Hakaanen called Shakaman Prol, which meant Fire Planet. So the boys were close with their name for the planet.
The robot ship came with its message twenty-five years ago. After that things started wearing out, and they had to use and remake parts to keep them going. The most important things to keep going were the atmosphere makers. In a few years they wouldn't need them, but for now to keep the atmosphere making going, and to keep it in the valley, they needed the machines running. That was their air and their water. It was their life.
One bad thing did happen. While the Hakaanen were peaceful, there were some who weren't. There was a group who wanted to fix the fliers and go back to Hakaan. And they wanted an end to the same sex relations. They wanted no more machines at all, except the oxygen makers. They wanted no electricity. While the Hakaanen never got jealous about lovers, saying love was for all, the Shkah, the group that was different would get jealous about their women. One Shkah killed a man for touching his woman. The man just asked about making a child, since he had his own man lover. Killing hardly ever happened with the Hakaanen. The Shkah would wreak machinery and mess up farms. Once they ruined a reservoir. Finally the Shkah were sent to a small valley over the northern hills. That was over fifteen years ago.
The Shkah lived in the other valley. They had a small atmosphere machine and small poor farms, along with a small reservoir for water. Sometimes they would come across the hills and raid farms. Some people got hurt, but they didn't kill because they knew then the Hakaanen would come into their valley for revenge, and they were outnumbered. But they were not a nice group, and if they could, they would conquer the Hakaanen and run Shakman Prol the way they thought it should be run.
The Hakaanen were the size of Earthlings. They had pointed ears. The adults often had tufts of hair on the point. They had light golden manes that went down their necks and part of their backs. The adult manes were thicker than the children's, and the male manes were thicker than the female. The Shkah colored their manes, making them all kinds of colors, but never golden. They hated the regular Hakaanen and didn't want to ever follow their rules again.
The children discovered sex early. Sex play was part of growing up, and they did it in the open. From the time they were 6 or 7 the boys learned how to make other boys' boners feel good. To the Hakaanen, sex and being naked were all natural, so why fight it? They encouraged it, all but the Shkah, who didn't allow any sex between children of the same sex. The Shkah were teaching that sex like that was wrong, and that they would be punished in the next world for doing that.
Shkah children grew up unhappy and full of hate. But their hate was for the regular Hakaanen who liked sex with the same sex, not for their parents who made them unhappy and full of hate.
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Douglas led the group off the trail and into the woods. They set up camp. They would go on the next day, with full water bottles. He didn't want to be surprised at night. When they met whomever it was that lived here, it would be during the day and not by surprise. The only bad thing was a rain storm in the middle of the night. They didn't get too wet, because they had made some shelters from brush. Jim had warned them if this planet was like the Earth colonies, there would be rain at night. At least until the whole planet became Earthlike. Here in the valley it was probably controlled.
When the rains started they just got up and stood in it, mouths open, naked bodies getting soaked. They didn't care. The rain was like heaven. They all held hands and danced and sang in it. They hugged their lovers wet bodies to warm up after. The twins warmed each other up. Travis made sure Jordan was included with him and Ryan. By the time the evening was over, each of them had orgasms except the twins, who fell asleep hugging each other. Once more Drew wanted to show Drake, and one more time they crashed instead.
The next morning they were refreshed, but hungry. They needed to find food. They went to the lake to clean up and drink. Looking over to the other side they could see dust. Somebody was coming up the trail. They scattered back to the woods and hid. It didn't take long for a wagon to pull up. It was pulled by two beautiful unicorns. A group of what looked like naked boys got out. Some were holding hands. Some were kissing. Some had boners. Their pube areas were hairless. Except for their pointed ears and a light golden mane down their backs, they looked almost human.
The thirteen boys held their breath. As far as they knew, they were the first humans to ever see an alien race. And they looked just like kids like them. Douglas looked at his group. The boys were his. He loved them. He would die for them. But it was time for the next step. He had decided earlier the best thing to do would be for just a couple of them to step out. Mike and Alex knew his plans and would take care of the group. He pointed to everyone to stay. He waved to Scooter. The two naked boys, clean and fresh now, stepped out of the woods, ready to make first contact.
NEXT: CHAPTER 29 First Contact
Constructive comments are welcomed. E-mail me, Douglas DD, at TheHakaanen@Hotmail.com