"Janet's Jungle Peril". Episode 1. For Belle In Boots. (C) 2019-2021. 62 Pages.

No resemblance to persons alive or otherwise, adult themes, fiction & sexual references.

Commenced 20/12/2019. First draft & edit completed 29/1/2021. Needs feedback. Thank you.

Part 1. "The Spoiled Brat".

A twisting knot in the pit of her stomach, shaking, sweaty nervous hands, Carla couldn't believe what she was hearing down her phone. Her course boss Janet screaming through her ear in frustration, expecting nothing less than full compliance, putting her in an awful position, forcing her to make a rushed decision without the time to process the information and she always thought everything through carefully. The idea is ridiculous. Something she did not sign up for. "I can't say yes to that right now," the moment her heart sank to the floor, her voice shaky, her insides wrung out, slightly nauseated, out of her comfort zone. The new undergraduate intern, the expectation, acceptance of everything thrown at her without question, the proposal on her email, her jaw dropping, either a poor joke or a horror story, her thoughts in dismay out loud, "this isn't going to end well." "You have until dinner to work out what you're doing or I will find someone else and you will lose the chance to work on your final year study, which is exactly why you are here, I might add." Janet impatiently blasting her down the phone, her frustrations boiling over, leaping from her chair, clenched white knuckles, furiously fly kicking and violently punching her anger out, her new punching taking a beating over and again. Carla googled the map as per the instructions in her email, the place so remote, whoever thought of this for a fun trip at Erestos Espergo, completely out of their minds, shifting uncomfortably in her seat, the impulse to run away, NASA, her sponsor, eagerly handing over all her expenses money and support payments in advance, a major satellite mapping and survey problem on the table, hoping one of their own bright understudy's could sort it out for them on the cheap.

Carla Bellamy, a final year intern, passing her military scholarship in her second year, graduating with honors and her Ensign, requesting military service early, the Defence Department Navy interested in her geographical and survey math background, with an interest in flight and navigation noted, now in her fourth year, a junior geological surveyor, her university offering her a last chance placement, turning down several defence placements, the thought of being the only person on summer campus with no assignment, possibly having her grants stopped if she refused, the lumps of dread rising in her throat, an unforgiveable failure. She was on thin ice, in no position to refuse any assignment.

There was a tap on the cubicle screen behind her. She turned to the welcome distraction, her attention diverted to a happier topic, an internal university courier standing there patiently with a parcel for her, the joy on his face, delighted to make another personal delivery. "Carla Bellamy", the young man with a cheer, checking the name against his delivery order. "You have a delivery from England", holding out his scanner to the box, waiting for her to accept it. Carla got up from her chair, happy for the welcome moment of distraction, a sigh of relief, shaking off the distress of a few moments ago, signing for the box, the courier in a cheerful voice as he left, have a nice day. Something about what he said covered her in goosebumps, a disturbing shiver, and she shook it off, returning to her desk, looking over the box, happy to find it from Berghaus Direct. Her new hiking boots had finally arrived. She ripped into the packaging and tore open the carton, carefully lifting them out, inspecting them closely, the plush soft leather, her hands trembling as she felt them all over. A lover of hiking and walking boots, her new Highwalker II boots costing her plenty, taking a few painful weeks to arrive into her hands. Impeccably made and presented, without a scratch or other noticeable fault, her discomfort easing, a smile creeping over her ashen face, comforting thoughts of trekking in them in many weird and hopefully muddy places. She secretly loved trashing her boots and travel clothes in whatever mess she could find, her focus fixed on her new footwear. She called Janet back excitedly, her face glowing, "I will see you for lunch to go over the assignment and yes, I'm in, excitement and relief in her voice."

Six weeks later, the two of them took to the air, geological survey contractors to a high-profile oils and minerals exploration company, NASA watching carefully from the sidelines, their task to visit a remote tropical jungle location, collect and record ground samples from near earth satellite infra-red image data from Geosat and EROS, found to contain good signs of mineral deposits near the surface and possibly oil and gas, both highly sought after valuable natural resources, few offers to go help.

The operations company with fifty years of data on the ground at the location though turning up very little, the science people at NASA, also her sponsors throwing at her the chance to prove them right, or the satellite images a hoax. The permits for entering the country and exploring the proposed site, months to organize, a delicate process because of the unstable nature of the government of the country they were visiting, her last chance to work on her fourth year final paper and finish her year on a good note. They met their guide and other government officials upon arrival, their equipment, passports and work visas seriously scrutinized with care, Carla getting the uneasy feeling something was up, their presence not welcome here. After what seemed like hours and clearance through customs approved, the airport building decrepit and falling down, in a state of disrepair, their duty-free alcohol the only confiscation, liquor, apparently banned here, the security men, keen on closely inspecting their luggage, showing off women's lingerie, waving her hands, her eyebrows joining, red faced, yelling in annoyance, her attempt to prevent them tampering with her privates, a hand shoving her back with a warning, mean looking security staff wary of the two attractive foreign women who someone had given approval to allow into their country.

Their transport to a waypoint village in the rainforest,an open tray, partly broken down and beaten up truck, barely driveable down muddy, bumpy tracks through the hot steamy jungle, their cases and equipment bouncing around, their less than one star rated hotel another three hours drive from the airport, the best luxury they could find. The reception desk abandoned on their arriving, the village deserted, no check-in greeting, forced to wait a half an hour, their guide searching for the hotel keepers, cleaning rooms or lazing somewhere, not at all interested in greeting their female guests, women possibly thought of with displeasure or even considered second-rate citizens. They were not off to a grand start, their living and working conditions deplorable, Janet ranting to the guide in Spanish to go find them or there would be hell to pay.

Janet & Carla's Jungle Peril. Part 2.

"The White Hat"

Day two didn't turn out any better, their GPS and satellite phone equipment not functioning well, their exact location on google earth undetectable on their computers, the power also somewhat unreliable, their equipment batteries on a low power charge cycle only, the solar equipment taking its time to arrive, its current location unknown, leaving them behind schedule and unable to pinpoint their exact position in real time and space, time wasted, essential on location testing before they went anywhere or did anything coming up zero. Ground sampling and reporting equipment all checks out ok but the satellite pick up is very poor with ground survey mapping the only other way to get them to their destination until the electronics get connected reliably. The container carrying all that gear, not at the airport when they arrived, so it's maps and compasses for now, their satellite phone not picking up the other survey team that should already be here, but no one seems to know anything about them or their whereabouts. Carla looks at Janet, her steely glare, white knuckled, unamused but for the latest developments. "This is fucked up," aloud in frustration, her face contorted in her usual childlike manner. "We're treated like shit as women, it's not like we're dangerous or something, and half our gear isn't even here and we can't even pick up ourselves or the away team that's supposed to be here already." She picked up the phone to call the hotel lobby, disconnected, slamming it down in frustration, "and they took my fucking fifteen-year-old Glenfiddich. Do you have any idea what that cost," her face puffed up and crimson, teeth clenched, ready to punch someone.

Janet, by now losing her cool with her, "think of it this way hun, we're pioneers here, foreign women have never been here before, and when it's all over we will be all over science magazine global and the minerals and oils briefings, so we're gonna do this properly and journal everything from scratch, OK, you wanna get exposure on your last paper for the year, this is the best opportunity you will have in your life to get noticed. Now get me the medical files and try a nice cup of shut the fuck up will you," Janet, focusing on work, in control of things, her sharp, resolute stare, tension lines across her face, not great at controlling her explosive temper, the younger girl, in way over her head on her most challenging assignment ever, not having the maturity to assess the situation on day two and keep her cool, their assignment still at first base, her decision making already in tatters. "And while you are at it, get out the cameras, go find the guide, get a bunch of photos of this shanty shack we have to live in and that ridiculous thing they call transport, and their highway and start writing a summary in your journal, losing no more shit at me before I send you back marked failed at course and ask for anyone else who might be stupid enough to apply for the position vacant in the jungle I'm about to list if you don't get the hell on with it," her frustration boiling over, her temper mostly kept in check. Janet made her position clear, she needed a mature aged assistant right now to help manage their situation, her help a complaining self centered girl.

Janet got busy, looking over the medical advice and reports for the type of country they were heading into, checking off their immunisation dates, it would be hell even worse should they fall ill with some deadly, incurable disease in the jungle, thousands or more miles from any normal civilization. Her attention drawn to work for a few precious seconds, then Christmas bells, a long familiar cowboy whistle through the glassless open window to their room. Dropping the clipboard, squealing with joy, skipping to the window, heart racing at the welcome familiar sound, looking out into the street below, her hands grabbing onto the window's ledge, almost falling out as it crumbled to dust in her hands. A fully working vehicle, a real one at that with another behind, both covered in jungle foliage and solar cells, a hand waving to her from the driver's seat in the first, holding an unmistakable white cowboy hat.

Her spirits immediately lifted, her facial expression from anger to joy in an instant. Their first away team had arrived, her contact on the ground, Enrico Sinata, on location to help things along. She yelled out through the window with joy, waving her arms. Her saviour had arrived. He barked at the local men to get moving along with the equipment, six of them running for all they were worth from the benches they were sitting on, smoking three-day-old cigarettes, ignoring the complaints of the women. Janet ran down to meet him, relieved he had finally showed up. Somehow, Enrico, Yucatan by birth, with years of travel to similar locations throughout the world, his grasp of the local language able to get them running off in panic and quickly do as he required, a five-year contract to watch over the survey operations and keep things running smooth, no easy task, revelling in the hostile environment.

Janet ran from the room, down the stairs, out the door and into his arms, the two of them embracing, then kissing deeply for a time. They gazed at one another closely, Janet pressing her mouth against his, a rush of blood to her head at the contact. Her arms wrapped around his muscular arms and broad shoulders, glad to see help had arrived. "I have missed you", she paused, the glow in her expression, "and what took so long, we are not welcome here," playfully chiding him for lateness. Smiling at each other, they kissed deeply some more, Janet kissing him with genuine sincerity, her fingers on the back of his neck, his hair standing on end, making up for lost personal time between them, in relief her knight with cavalry had finally arrived.

They had not seen each other in four years, on the same graduate team from the same university, years earlier. She remembered his masculine but soft stare melted her anger instantly, rarely finding her in a rage. Enrico possessed some impressive skills, team management one of them, linguistics another, also able to source the most amazing things from nowhere, and he had other skills she would forever keep to herself. His grin wide upon seeing her as he stepped from his jeep, a deep intimate bond, and upon learning of her contract for a time to perform surveys and take samples, he pulled out all the stops to get her team back up the mountain as quickly as possible. A dangerous place to stay as women, especially foreign women, not welcome and even considered bad omens and with moral reason. Rumors among the village locals of demons in female form, stealing children for food, some of the strongest village men disappearing without a trace, adding to the fear of them.

Carla meanwhile, out taking as many photos as possible, carefully doing as instructed, Janet's wrath fresh on her mind, her earlier sharp outburst ringing in her ears, screwing up her face and flinching at the sound. She noted the finest details for her project journal, the part-time journalist on this trip, a gun with statistics and reports, degrees in digital media and journalism for good measure. An intensive space science research project completed for NASA in her first year, a trophy plaque and a know it all terrain watch, her prized possessions, her best achievement yet, the first non-male to do it, the math for that assignment taking months to research. But no denial, her fundamental flaw, the maturity of a twelve-year-old know it all, and worse, she knew it. She took photos of the away team and video of Janet making out with Enrico. The shine in her eyes and glow on her face, noting she was happy to see him here, her angry face wiped away in an instant.

Enrico whistled out to Carla, grabbing her attention, waving his trademark hat, excitedly beckoning her over to the group, carefully eyeing she was on her own in a dangerous place, stopping from taking her snaps of the village, casually walking over to the group. He introduced himself to her warmly, reminding her sternly that when he whistled and waved his hat; It was a sign to hurry, the reasons he would explain to her later on. Two more jeeps arrived soon after, Enrico joyfully leading them to the last one hurriedly digging out a bag, showing them their confiscated duty free liquor, laughing and his beaming grin, a finger to his lips, telling them he would also explain later. He ushered them to their travelling seats, noting the time was short, rains fast approaching, a rough, uncomfortable ride ahead, darkness approaching, more tropical rain storms on the weather radar for the long night ahead so they must hurry as quickly as possible, no time to delay.

Enrico invited Janet and Carla to jump in the first jeep to help move things along, and to keep out of sight, explaining he taught the natives spanish in his time here and the joys of blue agave tequila, and tobacco, responding to his will quickly if needed. He winked as he left them in the jeep, barking instructions, sending the villagers scurrying for all they were worth, and in short time equipment packed securely, Enrico, glad to be going from this place. He left two parcels of cigarettes and tequila with the local police station for safekeeping, asking the police chief to keep extra armed patrols on at night with plenty of torches lit around the buildings, especially the hotel for a few days, the smell of the women enticing evil beings during the night. With that done in quick time, he whistled out to the convoy team swirling his hat. The procession quietly left the village, the men crowding around the police station office, zombies keen for fresh tobacco.

An hour down the road, Enrico pushed a button on the dash, hidden panels opening up in front of them. Janet, relaxing, the rocking motion sending her into a sleepy trance, awakened by the GPS tracker beeping away on one screen showing the four vehicles as red dots on a white line snaking its way through the never ending dense jungle, catching on dangerously sharp vines, bouncing over ruts and sliding around, Enrico quietly cursing the track and the weather, hunched over the wheel. The satellite phone cracked into life, Janet awake and quickly on the handset hearing a voice calling echo one, over and over. Echo stood for Enrico and one for the vehicle one. Enrico handed to Carla a clipboard with a few papers with information scribbled on it, her seated in the middle, her arms folded, pursed lips and a half frown, the smug school girl look, not a clue what was going on. He asked her to hold the clipboard so Janet could read it and turn the pages as she needed, while he carefully guided the convoy along the precarious muddy track deeper into the jungle vegetation, the track, a muddy bog of ruts and potholes, a goat track, heavily rooted and rocky, Enrico doing his best to avoid the worst of it, as Janet finished with the chart over the phone and hung it back in its case. Enrico looked at Carla, asking in a serious tone,"have you ever been in quicksand before?". Carla wide eyed at the thought, a veteran of sinking fully clothed for fun at the local clay pit mine in her youth and submerging herself, a good swimmer in military basic training, but nothing like what he was proposing, and shook her head at him, with a firm, "no I haven't".

Continued..

Janet & Carla's Jungle Peril. Part 3.

Enrico looked past her at Janet's blank stare through the windscreen, the thought in his head what the hell was she doing here. This wasn't fantasy island, this place easily killing you without you even knowing it. Janet's pained response, "undergraduate intern from NASA, and her last chance assignment," rolling her eyes, a soft shake of her head, her arms folded, eyes closed, nothing to see of interest outside. Enrico nodded, the silent, oh God no look, and radioed to a checkpoint further down the track, notifying ahead they were on their way as the procession of jeeps turned a sharp right hand steep uphill incline, stopping at a clearing. The view, a stunning Garden Of Eden enclosing them. They parked on the edge of a steep gorge, a torrid river crashing its way downstream, way below them. Across from them, a waterfall cascaded a thousand feet or more from above their heads, crashing down a sheer cliff face, the jungle vegetation, vast coverings of exotic colored plants and vines of flowers, the plants fighting for any foothold they could get in the sheer-sided gorge almost a hundred feet across, the only way across a dangerous-looking swing bridge, swinging precariously on thin, aged ropes. Janet jumped out of the Jeep snapping photos of the awesome sight, turbulent angry waters through the narrow gorge, deafening, the sheer cliffs towering over them, the river far below, the amazing sound and smell of nature at her best filling her senses. Enrico climbed out and with the help of some other men dragged some vegetation and tree branches from across the track, the path ahead hidden to anyone who didn't know it was there. The path followed the gorge, climbing higher into the mountains, their campsite about an hour away. The convoy of jeeps went through, the entrance covered up, the tyre tracks brushed out by vegetation, any rain removing them altogether.

From the track, their view followed the gorge for a time, veering off as it climbed higher, covered over in jungle vegetation, the headlights of the vehicles on high-beam, no light visible, the foliage scrapping the vehicles. The vines grabbed hold, breaking off like a bridal train and after an hour of slow climbing, the ground levelled out and after a short drive and a few more bends they arrived at Enrico's campsite, the jeeps a slow-moving carpet of shrubbery. Janet, quick to get out of the cramped Jeep, though happy for her travelling company, flocked by a host of people, other scientists on the expedition, arriving months before Janet's team. Some were guides and other trustworthy persons the team had befriended along the way, mostly with the offer of clean water, food and shelter for fetching and carrying services, the rest belonging to Enrico's team of jungle specialists, all jungle veterans, many years jungle living and terrain experience between them.

The camp buildings, some decrepit, mere humpies, fabricated from old bits of tin, others mostly prefab huts and some shipping containers, Enrico explaining to the arrivals it was once a thriving mining camp for an exploratory mineral mine, an explosion in a tunnelling system because of a buildup of flammable and toxic gases, the death toll into the hundreds, the project abandoned, the parent company running it collapsing financially. The site's major buildings dug into the vast tunnel system in the mountainside, the prefabs transformed into offices and sleeping quarters, the tin buildings, latrines and showers, clean fresh water supplied by the frequent rains, purified of harmful bacteria, a human formicarium.

Erebus One stood thousands of feet above sea level on the edge of a vast plateau overlooking a rift valley, the sun rising directly into it in the morning. The jeeps quickly parked up in their shelters, the jungle ripped from them, silently emptied and cleaned, plugged in to charge on battery systems. The solar systems covering the site providing power for days at a time, no diesel fuel, Enrico's design and logistics teams forced to improvise and fit the all electric jeeps from scratch, the building team taking months to get the site in a functional and habitable condition a few years before, some items choppered in, some items brought in by road, the only ground access, the goat path they had followed. Enrico showed Janet and Carla around the main site buildings, equipment and bags soon unpacked and taken to their sleeping quarters. Performing a time check he requested they attend a site briefing in two hours, introducing them to their assistants and guides, completed radio checks, warning them to never explore or venture off alone, and to check their radios often. With that he left them to unpack and hurried off to organise the freshly arrived supplies and check on the late afternoon meals and rations. The site a twenty-four operation,and he ran it like clockwork. Everyone at their station or task at the required time or there would be hell to pay.

Janet's team added an extra two mouths to feed, the food stores easily fully catering for over six months, twelve months on rations and during the peak of the rainy season nothing to do but analyze samples, perform maintenance and prepare reports on the sites progress towards goals and prepare for the next ground surveys prior to fresh sampling. Janet attended to quickly organising her office and equipment, glad to find she had three operational fans in her hut out of four, the faulty one missing a power cord altogether, instructing her two assistants on how to set up her office and sleeping quarters, tested the lights and solar hot water, glad to find hot water, a welcome shower later on and change of uniform.

She ferreted through her bags for a tasty drop of scotch, Enrico somehow recovering the precious liquid from customs police upon arrival. Reliably resourceful as always, Janet in high spirits and glad to be spending time away with him. Her grants cashed up on an indefinite timeline, potentially staying for years if she wished, the expectation their work would continue. She took a swig and re-corked the bottle, rinsing her mouth, screwing up her face, a burning in her throat, shivering at the wake up snip, returning the bottle to its hiding place and locked her medicine cabinet, changed her boots, slipping into her new Zamberlan Vioz Lux, the most comfortable hiking boots she had ever worn. Her thoughts on her team's progress, monitoring the time as their meeting time was near, lateness with Enrico not an option.

Carla, almost unpacked when she got to her hut, three down from hers, her Spanish rusty though able to convey her tasks to her assistant and guide her office set up and running in no time, the radio, lights, solar water and back up power all functioning as it should. Janet handed her the prized Glenfiddich telling her to take a swig and go easy on it and lock it away safe, alcohol consumption although allowed, strictly regulated to downtime or the end of the day and then only one glass or two at most unless Enrico gave allowance for more for whatever reason. Eyes on the site map in search of the meeting room, finding it eventually, a large prefab, squeezed into a side tunnel near the entrance, the rock face in the mountainside just outside, power from the mains feed and backup generators and solar systems outside. Janetquickly introduced herself around the group, some of whom she knew already, the extensive team, well able to complete the task before it, hopefully without accident, serious injury or disaster, as had happened before, the site history not good at all.

Enrico arrived soon after, his trademark white cowboy hat, as usual without a mark on it, tossed onto the boardroom sized table in front of him, showing the meeting was open, taking two bottles of scotch from his side bag, passing them either side of himself, motioning to pass along to each person. He called the meeting to order, noting the time, his soft gaze over his reading glasses round the room, discussing the matters on his list, welcoming Janet's team to site, excitedly explaining they were here to survey and plot the next two phases of the project, possibly two more if the results were as expected. He invited the medical officer to speak, also the site second in charge, going over the site induction checklist, rules and warnings, handing out malaria pills and new medical kits to the new arrivals.

As a backup to medical, Janet, a qualified nursing midwife by trade in a prior job in medicine before turning to environmental systems then geology, an automatic medic station and theater assistant if something bad happened, and a need for surgery. There had been the odd broken bone case in the past but mostly infection from the wild nature of the jungle and failure to abide by the strict hygiene standards. Enrico then invited Janet to introduce her team and explain her position and team goals as he sat back in his chair, a wry smile, soft eyes watching her intently. A beautiful specimen not altered much since meeting, her curves and womanly attraction as strong to him as ever. She asked for questions which she answered, one directed at Carla, who stood up and spoke, Enrico instinctively tagging her as the weak link, making a note that he would give her extra support staff until she settled in and keep a close eye on her. The meeting concluded the scotch returning to the medical officer for safe keeping, both bottles now half empty. Enrico thanked everyone for their prompt attendance with a warm smile, sternly noting that punctuality to the program timeline was of highest priority, asked everyone to check off their radio alarm again, reminding everyone, a cautioning tone and fixed stare, no venturing anywhere unscheduled or alone for any reason. With that done he put on his hat and the meeting ended, everyone checking their watches and torches as it was late in the evening, the ominous sounds of tropical storms heralded by lightning across the valley and over the further away hills in the distance, a sure sign plenty of rain was on the way, the automated weather radar right on the money, warning of drenching tropical rains.

Janet's team left together as per protocol, carefully instructed on preparing for the nights weather, her two guides in the hut next to her, then Carla's guides, then Carla's, then a store hut with supplies, hers with another hut directly across from her, the huts in a small group, well anchoured into the mountain rock and joined by safety lines just in case, the solar power keeping external lights going on low and the water for washing hot. Janet saw Carla to her hut for a brief chat and final questions, reminding her to check the night can for snakes and other such nasties before she used it then returned to her own hut, pegging the door open and tightening her front awning, a sigh of relief in her mirror. A cheeky playful grin at herself, posing this way and that, letting down her hair and shaking it out, the humidity frizzing it up, a sharp, "fuck," her brush catching in a knot, teeth clenched and eyes closed as she reefed it out, growling at the ripped out hair. Kicking off her boots under her work table, ripping her socks off, a soft sigh, her hands gently massaging her tired feet, spraying them liberally with insecto and antiseptic, having sternly advised Carla twice to do the same the moment she got in.

She set her hut flow fans on low, dimming the lights to conserve her solar usage then turned, looking herself over in her mirror, undoing her shirt a few buttons, running her hands up over herself, admiring her shape, a soft spraying of exotic perfume and checked her mozzie net over her cot to ensuring it was properly closed, then turned around, a smile becoming a grin, startled to hear a knock at her door.

Hers eyes fell on Enrico, leaning on her doorway, his hat dipped down on his head, his grin from ear to ear. He held up a half bottle of scotch and a bag of night time dried fruit and nuts delicacies. Everyone kept them for night time energy snacks. Without looking up, glad to see her alone and looking comfortable, silently watching her grooming, asking in Spanish if anyone was home and could he drop in to say hello. Janet ran to him, her arms around his neck, kissing him strongly on the mouth which he returned in like manner, their arms around each other as he kicked off his boots, casually asking if she would like some company after her busy day and long journey, his soft tone and gaze melting her as usual.

Janet released him from her grasp, sheer joy on her face, her eyes glistening, closing the mozzie net at her door, eagerly throwing off her shirt and pants, tossing them aside, standing boldly and invitingly in front of him in sexy satin briefs and a full cleavage bra. He offered his dowry, Janet straight faced, considering his fine offer, his dowry suddenly acceptable, beckoning him with her hand to her table, putting his gifts down quietly, dropping on it with her legs open, inviting him closer. She removed his hat and set it on her head, the two of them wrapping around each other silently, Janet's legs firmly wrapped around his waist, pulling him closer, soft eyes surveying the thoughts of the other. Enrico's strong hands grabbed at her under her thighs, dragging her to the edge of the table, lifting her legs higher, his hands then gently at her breasts, feeling her all over as they passionately kissed for all they were worth, making up for lost time between them.

Continued..

Janet & Carla's Jungle Peril. Part 4..

Janet ran her fingers through his hair, the closeness of his body, his masculine scent, heaven to her nose, long missed, the feeling and memory of them together returning to her in an instant a sharp catch in her breath, tingling shocks through her clenched teeth, eyes firmly shut, the physical touch and his scent, heaven to her senses. She ripped off his t-shirt, tearing it from his body, her hands lightly over on his muscular chest and arms, the man of her dreams and fantasies back in her arms once more. Kissinghis neck, her desires taking control, the journey to get here, one problem after another, at this moment, all her doubts swept away, losing herself to his touch, soft gaze, and that voice, whispering for him to have his way with her as he pleased. "I've so missed you, her words trailing off", the sultry look in her eyes, gazing at him and lost, softly talking dirty to him in Spanish. Feeling the expanding bulge in his pants, she pressed firmly against him, a pulse of excitement and pleasure bordering on lusting between her thighs at the pressure on her body, a sharp contraction, catching her breath, a fluttering in her chest heightening her desire for him.

Desiring his comforting presence and physical affections often, and miles apart on different projects, eons apart, together once more. Janet offered herself to him willingly from their first meeting, keeping the emails he sent, where he was located and what he was working on, hoping for the day she would see him again, overjoyed to have him whisper dirty things in her ear in Spanish every time they met. The last time she saw him by accident, one down time at home, on university break, and leaving a diner alone after taking lunch, texting out of boredom to a local girlfriend on her phone as she was leaving, not looking up as he opened the door to enter, himself stepping aside as she left, softly wishing her, "good day beautiful lady," in his soothing voice in Spanish. She caught her breath, tripping over her own feet, dropping her phone, the message deleted by accident, squealing in delight, throwing herself at him with hugs and kisses, screams of joy at seeing him, their meeting purely by chance. She took him home in delight and excitement, cooking up a traditional meal, the rest of the day and night at her apartment on campus, her phone on silent, her afternoon plans immediately on hold, the memory of that amazing day flooding back to her as they kissed for a while, only stopping to laugh and giggle, and take sips of scotch, back on familiar personal ground, her tingling ears, whispering in Spanish his dirty thoughts of her, asking if he could spend the night with her in her hut, their personal coming together electrically charged, always explosive.

Far too long for Janet, earlier today needing his strong leadership, counsel, guidance and presence, hearing a familiar whistle at the time she needed it most, at the end of her tether. Amazing to her, her savior first, able to provide at the time sheneeded most, a man of trust beyond measure, the connection between them something she desired her entire life in another person without knowing it. Janet changed into fresh underwear, ready for what was next. Her mind and body invigorated at his presence and touch, not to mention the hot shower and the other things he did to her, screaming the paint off the walls, their highly charged sex brutal. Her evening and night dedicated to him for a time, to catch up on lost time as they sat on deck chairs near the open door and chatted about their lives apart and the present and their roles and responsibilities in it. Mandatory 22:00 radio checking, with everyone checking in OK for the night, the tropical storms closing in with monsoonal rains, drowning out all other sound during the night, as usually happened up here when the heat of the day disappeared with the sunlight, the humidity however, always steamy hot.

Janet set up her camp airbed, deflated in a storage case, brought along just in case, the two of them blowing it up manually, taking turns as it was large, taking up most of the floor space in her hut, grabbing some covers and cushions for themselves, the lights out, the emergency light outside the only light, snuggling down on the airbed, snacking on fruit and nuts and the occasional swig of scotch, the next few days of downtime to go over instruments and double check everything again and then again to ensure they had missed nothing. Janet undressed fully, removing Enrico's clothes, fresh from a shower and change, snuggling down for the night as the rain and storms moved in, Janet reaching for her lover, remembering what he had said earlier, determined, if he was willing, to hold him to it.

Enrico, sensing her exhaustion, drew her up and onto himself as they lay still, gently caressing her, pulling her leg up and over himself, helping her to relax and settle down for some much-needed rest. She had a busy two days' hard travelling behind her, overdue for a good sleep and to rest for a while. Janet lay next to and partly on top of her lover, collapsing into his loving care, her blanket of protection and strength, her free hand softly at his loins, her other arm around his neck and shoulders, caressing and fondling him with both hands, her gentle touch soon falling still, her head resting on his rising and falling chest, the contact of his body comforting her with hisstrength, his arms around her as she drifted off to sleep, content to be in his arms and on expedition once more, the distance and time between them meeting again far too great. Both already once divorced from other partners, she wouldn't hesitate to wed him should he dare to ask her, the two of them highly experienced in what they were doing together to make it a permanent adventure. Janet denied her deep love and affection for him from a long time ago, when they first met. Enrico unwittingly made a distinct impression on her, always reliable, affectionate and her strength, something she would remember for the rest of her life.

She awoke in the morning, the memory of the night before vivid in her mind, her radio buzzing, the 6am check in. She stretched, her arms and legs draped over him, Enrico awoke at her movement and the noise. Grabbing the two radios, Janet slipped back into bed with him as he stretched, them both checking in, Enrico advising control that he was with her in her hut and they would take breakfast later on, asking for the site second in charge, who quickly responded, to go over the plans for the daily routine over breakfast with the day crew as he had done many times before in Enrico's absence, settling down again. Janet got up, quietly locking the hutdoor, theairconditioner on dry, removing the humidity, the cooler dry air comforting as they settled back down into each other's arms once more, resuming their relaxing morning wake up contact and company, kissing and cuddling once more. Gazing into his eyes blissfully content, her mind and body at this moment only for him, his hand gently on her thigh, pulling her leg up, bringing her closer, their lips making contact once more. Wrapping around each other, the arousal between them rising, no barrier preventing their touching, Janet once more accommodating his pleasures, her body electric, impaling herself on him from above, another explosion finishing them quickly, throwing her head back as they climaxed, her nails clawing at him, her breathing once again ragged gasps of pleasure as he filled her insides deeper than she thought possible, in sensory heaven, demanding in Spanish he fuck her brains out. Enrico flipped them both over, slapping loudly against her, pounding her, her hair pulled back, his fingers knotted through it as she screamed out expletives in Spanish, her clenched teeth, demanding he fuck her senseless, her teeth biting into his shoulder as he tortured her with sexual bliss once more, Janet almost losing consciousness at the brutality of their sex, invigorating, explosive, fulfilling. She dropped exhausted, her body limp, giggling, laughing, happy drugs surging through her veins, hot sweating and out of breath completely satisfied.

A while later, checking the time on his watch, nearing eight thirty, he had to get going, Janet nodding her agreement that she had things to organize for her own team. They reluctantly rose from the airbed and packed it up, showered and dressed, Enrico spending a few minutes to go over her itinerary for the day, arranging a time to meet with her for a planning meeting later in the day, more so to ensure Carla was on track with her responsibilities and that her welfare was intact. This expedition not something she should have taken on as her first international ground survey trip, the environment and terrain highly dangerous to the untrained and inexperienced. She would need protecting, and if need be, they would have no option but to send her back. The team's safety paramount, Enrico not taking anything to chance or putting anyone's life at risk. Worst case for the duration of her stay, confined to the site for data entry and statistics reports, learning how to perform sample analysis, and matching the samples with the survey charts, Enrico thinking up front he might put her on the scientific team as a junior to learn the ropes, keeping her out of harms way for now.

He slipped Janet's boots on and tied them up firmly, voicing his like of them, his hands gently feeling her feet, then legs, then stood up. Wrapped around each other, kissing passionately, her left her to her thoughts, promising to get her a cowboy hat from his collection as he opened the hut door and left, reminding her to turn off the air conditioner to preserve her solar use, winking at her as he left, calling on the radio to work out where the day crew was at for a check up meeting and to look over yesterday's samples and complete his reports for the day before.

Continued..

Janet & Carla's Jungle Peril. Part 5.

Janet straightened herself up, shivering at the thoughts of the evening, night and morning, taking a deep breath, invigorated by his presence and comfort, slowly getting a grip on herself and her composure, gazing in satisfaction at herself in the mirror, his manly greatness pounding her into oblivion, her thoughts for the rest of the day focused on explosive sex with him. Flipping her airconditioner off, she called up Carla on the radio, getting the response she was in her hut looking over map references and reviewing core samples against previous unchecked infra-red satellite images from EROS, a flag raised to provide an update. Logging the depth of the core and sample readings against the GPS locations while updating the map database with underground summaries, she noticed errors or discrepancies in the mapping data, her usual screwed-up face, the wheels turning in her head as to the cause and solution. Her journal updated first thing in the morning, after jumping out of her rough unbalanced cot, adding photos and a summary from the day before, watching the video of Janet and Enrico greeting each other and making out more than a few times, wondering about their obvious personal connection, herself never seeing or hearing of him through Janet before now, curious as to the history of their close intimate connection. She was also curious as to yesterday's question about quicksand; unsettling her somewhat, unsure of how to bring it up.

Janet knocked on her door then entered, finding her hard at work, busy with her assistant and guide, carefully mapping a zone recently explored, EROS asking for a checkup on the mapping, core samples carefully taken at intervals against the grid coordinates provided with the images, her skills in survey work clear as she asked various questions about the terrain and ground density, identifying serious holes in her data, the infra-red images in some spots showing the wrong colour density compared to the samples taken, noting further investigation in many locations. She called out a cheerful good morning to Janet as she entered, summarizing in under a minute she found holes in seismic and infra-red data and images from the last six months of operations and mapping, some grid references from mapping not matching actual on ground coordinates, her reports and summary on this previous work updated on the site servers, completed in under four hours. She was up at 5am, eager to get to work, handing Janet her completed report. Janet, surprised and impressed by her diligence and professional work manner, read her summary, noting her recommendations, all sound and supported by compelling evidence. Some of their data seriously incorrect, requiring immediate rechecking. She looked at Carla noting her outstanding work, radioing for an immediate department head meeting, Enrico acknowledging straight back he would be there shortly to check on things before approving it.

Enrico arrived in a few minutes, Janet to the side silent letting Carla do her work, confident in her ability to convey the message to Enrico, impressed by her findings, answering his questions, Carla adamant after checking three times, finding several problems with their site data and statistics. Enrico agreed, although scratching his head at the math jargon, completely lost as he read her summary and recommendations supported by compelling evidence. Serious problems existed, holding out his hand to her formally welcoming her to the site team, promoting her on the spot to statistics and data controller, inviting her to join the scientific team at her earliest convenience, and to get up to speed with things, allocated office space and extra staff as she needed, offering his sincere thanks for getting to work so quickly and bringing these matters to his immediate attention. Carla thanked him for his praise, locked onto his deep alluring gaze, asking for him to lead the way so she could get started and have some breakfast, missing meal time calls, the five of them packing up her equipment, Enrico calling in for help to move her office immediately.

Within thirty minutes Carla was in her own airconditioned prefab office at site control, her team setting up her computers and equipment, the site maps pinned to the walls with the tables of core samples and relevant mapping data and statistics information in front of the correct map for easy reference, quickly drawing up the mapping errors and printing her reports as Enrico knocked at her door, greeting her in Spanish, asking if her could enter. Carla replied in Spanish that he was welcome to inspect anything in her findings he wished, her engaging smile, confident in her work, pointing out the maps on the walls with the red lines she had drawn up showing the errors in mapping, of which she uncovered several.

Offering her presentation, Enrico asked her to chair her first official team meeting, Carla confidently replying with a grin she was ready to go, satisfied beyond doubt as to the conclusions in her report, but was hungry. With her maps and pages of data and summaries in hand Enrico motioned for her to follow him to the boardroom, her maps quickly pinned up around the room, her summaries spread out on the table while food and bottled water arrived, quickly ploughing into breakfast, inviting her morning assistant and her guide to join her at the head of the table for questions or information, long-term site workers, their knowledge of the site the most detailed on the team. The rest of the invitees arrived soon after with Janet arriving last, keeping well out of the way, Carla's work the focus. This was her domain, right in her element, Janet revising her review of her, as all she had done was unpack, attended her site induction and spent her first night on site engaged in constant gratifying explosive sex then getting up late while her assistant was up early, getting to work immediately, pulling their statistics and mapping processes and systems to shreds in her first four hours of work.

Everyone quietly took their seats Enrico placing his hat on the table calling the meeting to order, introducing Carla to the site management team, explaining her position and experience in survey and mapping then reading from her summary he motioned to her highlighted mapping errors and incorrect sample data from the last six months, inviting them to read her report then ask questions as Carla got into more breakfast, waiting for their responses to her alarming findings, hoping they accepted her recommendations. Inexperienced in the jungle, but top of her game in survey and mapping, earning a university double degree in environmental survey and mapping, coming top in her class by miles, then smashing out geology in almost the same fashion, her university mentors pleased by her work, her immaturity and initial lack of confidence for the field almost getting her suspended and her grants cancelled with this expedition for her the last if she failed to complete it. So far she was in front, her personal challenge to keep things that way.

The meeting progressed well for her, everyone thanking her for her efforts to bring this information to light, no one the wiser as to the serious errors in the site data, her reputation for accuracy in data and statistics intact, everyone thankful and noting her important first contribution to the team. One question changing her confident expression, making her shiver. The time required to review the site mapping system from the beginning of operations and compare it with all the site samples, fifty years work potentially down the drain. Her cool, confident response, she could start on a new system immediately, but her server would need to double in capacity and performance, the size of storage needed for mapping huge, and the moment up-to-date information was at hand she would pass it on. Enrico, breathing a sigh of relief at the outcome, stood up from his seat asking for a vote to add her experience to the information-sharing systems management team, to which everyone agreed she was welcome to join, the approval given, all available resources provided so she could get to work. With that the meeting concluded, everyone shaking her hand, congratulating her for her efforts, all smiles on their way out, with Enrico and Janet staying behind for a catch up after everyone left. "Questions?" Enrico asked. Her immediate answer without thinking, "only one," she grinned then a cheeky smirk. Where is and how soon could she get into the quicksand? He laughed at her response, Janet giggling, also offering her thanks, telling her she wasn't to become her boss just yet.

Janet & Carla's Jungle Peril. Part 6.

"Smoking Guns".

Enrico and Janet left her to return to her office and get her material back on the desk, then a brain wave, logging into the mapping systems history, her login credentials immediately available to her through the electronic mailing system, having access to the mapping and data computer systems, now in charge of mapping and site statistics, on the left hand of the management team, quite a promotion in only her first day. She spent a few hours happily downloading the current and previous survey data, pleased with her results, determined to solve the accuracy problems, compiling it into a project timeline she drew up on an old large chalkboard she found in another storage hut, four people struggling to lift and carry it, the end wall in her office now covered up by it, a lot of effort needed to lift it up and bolt onto the steel end wall of her office. A few other useful items she scrounged, Enrico giving her the OK to rummage through the many storage huts in the tunnels, to see what else she could find, digging up three old computers that contained the original project site plans with GPS coordinates and other useful mapping data, making her day, exact original reference points to go by. Checking the logarithm files, based on Bgi's "Progress Tabulen" (1620), her prized copy of the old manuscript quietly removed from campus when she left. As earlier suspected, the current mapping system formulae were not the same, someone making a monumental error in their early math, and sought permission to recreate another mapping system based on the original she had found, applying the ancient but highly accurate formulae, uploading it to the mapping server as a backup, updating the Geodetic survey data as she went, rectifying immediately the problems they had with the current one, her finishing the job in a few short hours, squealing in triumph like Rocky, fists raised in the air, bouncing on her toes in elation. Someone getting the initial math wrong in their formulae, the simple explanation, everyone in relief she sorted the problem so quickly. A lot of trig and logarithmic equation scribble on her chalk board, glad she paid attention in math classes years ago.

Enrico and Janet checked on her progress over lunch. Stuffing her face on sandwiches, excitedly explaining the results, Enrico shaking his head in a daze, bamboozled by the math, Janet leaning on the door frame, her arms folded, giggling ecstatically, the highly excitable girl a human scientific calculator. The maps produced from the original data, loaded onto another older discarded server, connected to her own system in her office, now more accurate, providing high detail map referencing data and much more accurate statistics, proving beyond doubt the current system was flawed as she had suggested earlier that morning. She could even zoom in on her new maps and scroll around creating dot points with notes or links to other information, using commercial satellite EROS feeds they had licences for and a unix based web browser overlay app she created, everyone able to log in and see point by point in her time line where everything was at and download or print whatever they needed, all the core sample data immediately updated to every location point under accurate GPS coordinates every time she made then saved an entry. She slumped in her chair after her presentation, out of breath from the excitement, her brain ready to explode.

An old but still working coffee machine appeared at her door that afternoon from catering, her office an immediate hub and key reference point for the ground teams, her mapping and sample data the most accurate anyone had seen produced so far, everyone checking on her maps what to expect on the ground, finding some old plane wreckage from world war II with unexploded ordnance onboard that caused a lot of interest, getting the approval to attend the site in person to survey and map the ground and the wreckage at a later date with a ground team under her command, also finding some suspect areas as well, marked as dangerous ground or needing careful further assessment.

She spent the rest of her afternoon on sandwiches and coffee injections making a collage map of the site, glued to the outside of her office using up much of the A3 paper recovered in one storage hut, taking many trips to get it all to her office in boxes, the quality of it still good after a long time in storage. She also found a hut sized piece of perspex, with no idea how they got that up there, miles from anywhere, using it to cover her wall map, able to write on it in white chalk ink marker, making notes for the map readers. Her office in a few short hours turned into the main data compiling center and computer room, her computers automatically updating the ground and core sample data from the scientific team even if she wasn't there to do it herself, automation saving her a lot of time, now free to check in from her hut at night, though she would spend most of her time with her maps and core sample data, providing the scientific team in one day with accurate up to the minute fresh data for the entire site, correcting some poor math, normally weeks to produce, removing the problems of the current system by referring to the old system she recommissioned, adjusting it to suit the needs of the present. What a mind job, Carla thriving on the challenges before her, determined to prove her theories and explain them using compelling evidence and complicated math equations.

A call over her radio from Enrico asking if she were free at 17:00 hours to assist him with something, promptly at Janet's hut at 16:45, curious to know what was up. Janet partway through changing into an exploring outfit, with Zamberlan boots, chaps, a knee-length safari skirt, riggers glovers on her belt with a knife and compass pouch, a sweat scarf around her neck and a weird-looking cowboy hat on her head. Enrico raring to go, clapping his hands as she entered, asking if she was up for a bit of local exploring, pouring over maps all day and might like to get out into the fresh air for a while to explore some of what she had been staring at all day. She changed into exploring uniform in under ten minutes, ready to go. Enrico produced from behind him a triangular pouch noting on her application profile she possessed a current federal shooter's licence and she talked about it with him at length wondering where the conversation was going. He offered her the pouch, explaining. Qualified enough to hold and use firearms for hunting and safety reasons when out on the ground, Enrico asking her to sign for her firearms and ammunition if she wished, her leaving and returning soon after signing off and producing for him her in date licence, her approved to hold and use both handguns and up to medium calibre rifles and impact shotguns. She signed off on the sheet and handed it back. He then produced for her from out of sight a brand new Marlin 336W 30-30 lever action rifle with scope in a case and a chit from stores for ammunition for her sling that he also handed her, storing one hundred rounds at a time. The pouch contained an authentic American Civil War era Colt 45 with a store chit for one hundred rounds of ammunition and a belt sling to go with it. He went on further. If you had a current explosives ticket we also have dynamite on hand, the three of them laughing at the thought of Carla in charge of explosives and her personal firearms, her thoughts of calculating blast damage, yep she was up for that. He also asked her not to enquire how he got it into the country. Live firearms kept on-site, purely as a safety measure, just in case.

Her gun rack already installed in the masters hut, the only person to access it, four other site team members holding licences for weapons, two pending approved as their licences were not present on site, the two other being Enrico and Kevin, the site designated master at arms. With that they left for the masters hut and stores, Carla still unbelieving as she signed for the keys, locking the case away, the arms master asking for her to explain the aesthetics of the rifle then strip and reassemble it on the table in front of them, explaining its functions as she went, her completing the task easily, then off to stores, filling her ammunition slings, wrapping them around herself, looking rather dangerous, something like an Indiana Jayne, wrapped up in bullets and brandishing dangerous weapons. With that done, Enrico told her we're going hunting at first light so be up early and he escorted her back to the masters hut, her signing off on her ammunition count, the actions open on her weapons, showing the master at arms empty chambers, then locked in her gun cage with her rifle and ammunition, The name Ensign Carla Bellamy on the front of it, her licence number underneath her name. Free to carry her handgun with her all the times, a safety weapon on site, the rifle only coming out for designated purposes, or for mandatory regular inspection, so she loaded her handgun pouch onto her sling cowboy style, hanging loosely down one side around her waist, and packed her sling, filling it with ammunition leaving five holes empty in the front in case she had to unchamber it, leaving one in it for emergencies.

Stopping at Enrico's office on the way back, Carla whispering wow to herself, looking at Janet wide eyed. Enrico's office hut, something out of a museum with all kinds of trophies from his adventures in the jungle, it all going everywhere he went, almost twenty years of work and travel behind him. He offered a pick of a hat for herself from his collection, taking an immediate liking to an Akubra Cattleman he collected in Australia on a visit, Carla questioning him on letting her have it, Enrico explaining she deserved it for her good work on her first day, telling her she had put the camps operations ahead by a full three months in eight hours work, ushering her out the door, returning to Janet's hut, offering Carla a small map and compass explaining this was on orienteering exercise, her two guides along for the trek. Enrico radioed in they were going to a sector bravo 10, and he repeated bravo 10, getting the return message they were free to go on their way.

Janet handing to Carla a sheet of paper inscribed with a bunch of way point grid coordinates, her guides loaded with wooden surveying spikes and a hammer and a bag filled with red and green ribbon and a staple gun loaded with heavy duty fang like staples. Enrico eyed Janet, catching her stare at Carla, aware of her thoughts. Could she actually map her way around, taking her digital skills away for a test on-ground exercise, testing her mapping ability, leaving the technology behind.

Carla grabbed her prized satellite GPSNAV watch from her bag, a gift from NASA after successfully performing a complete and accurate grid reference map project, picking out a small insignificant crater on Mars for her first year final paper, an extreme task, the reason she attempted it in the first place, winning a science award for her work, pointing out some elements in the ground no one knew existed, turning the space science industry on its head, a female, non recognized, non scientist making the undeniable discovery, highlighting the importance of valuable resources on the red planet that could assist with building projects, allowing humans to build and live there permanently, her conclusions and recommendations: Let's all go live on Mars, because we can. Her reward from a very impressed and grateful for her efforts NASA, on her discovery of metals in a tiny crater on Mars, a sophisticated watch with a sun dial element you can set from the ground if satellite access failed or an EMP explosion, the watch live tested in the Mariana Trench to a depth on 30,000 feet, accurately mapping out part of the ocean floor near the bottom of the trench and also useable to the same extent on the moon. Highly accurate in GPS positioning, calibrate able for space or deep under the ocean surface. Enrico in stunned silence today, in awe of her mapping expertise and scientific statistical data skills, learning just now of how she completed her Mars project, making a major scientific discovery, not even Janet aware of her NASA award. Her sponsor NASA, her university projects monitored by NASA, even taking her to the edges of space, offering her time on a zero gravity project, passing her tasks and assessments with ease, the work physically demanding, constantly nauseated.

A human GPS positioning blood hound, able to sniff out the smallest in ground detail and map it to within a thousandth of a degree on a chart or more, four decimal places in her calculations, as she happily explained, close to forty feet on the earth, depending on your position and distance to the poles. Bloody amazing, he thought to himself, today even finding a warplane half buried in the ground and well hidden by dense jungle canopy and foliage, the metal flux and magnetic field images giving it up easily. He shook his head in disbelief, wondering what she would come up with next, aware now of the secret. Simply point her in the direction you want her to go, leaving her maturity out of the equation, the rest taking care of itself. Asking Janet quietly how she had come across her in the first place, her mapping instincts and skills way beyond tier one level in mapping scientific ground data, well past her years and capable of accurately surveying Mars for land development for humans to live there, no mention of her lack of ground experience in her application recommendation from NASA.

Carla looked up after setting her watch to her exact location on earth, noting the date and time, elevation, relative humidity and temperature, and sending the data off by satellite to her computer systems as a test, asking for Janet to write it all down for reference and accuracy checking later on, even noting the suns position regarding true north on the sundial, correcting the exact time by a tenth of a second. Her look at Enrico asking for permission to go, his open hand in the direction she was pointing, already on the scent. Laughing at Janet, her stare at her, a sparkle in her eye, "do you trust me?"

Charting their progress on the map, and checking her bearings with her compass, following Janet's grid references exactly, her guides staking the ground points showed by her waypoints, scanning into her watch the barcodes on top of them, not making a mistake on any, until after an hour of time of trekking through jungle and along tracks she ran out of reference points they stopped, Enrico calling in that they had arrived at their bravo 10 destination. He reached out for Carla's arm, making her freeze and look at him, her thoughts distracted from her work, offering her some water, asking her to drink to replenish herself with some hydrolyte, to keep her body and mind in great shape. He lifted his hat to her, grinning as he said, welcome to the team. Carla, a confused look, missing the point, Janet quick to explain she had successfully led them to a newly discovered sitethey would map, survey and investigate by taking ground samples and stay at overnight, returning later the next day, only an hour from camp, and she had passed her first site exam with 100% pass mark, both her and Enrico very confident, she could lead a team anywhere, and bring them back safely, her compass skills spot on and her watch incredible in its level of mapping accuracy, her composure in this hostile environment worthy of the leadership skills she possessed without even knowing it, despite her young age.

Enrico patted her arm, giving her the all clear to stop for the day. They would make camp here, radioing his intentions to make camp at their current position, calling back in at 22:00 for a normal radio check in. The reply came back; the message understood. Enrico checking his watch for the time, noting that Carla had given them an extra hour of daylight, not expecting that she would get them to their check point so soon. He ordered for them to rest and make camp, the guides straight to work cutting stout branches for the five ground sheets, or over sheets if it were to rain, and they rolled out their gear, the guides gathering good wood for a fire to heat water for washing their feet and cook their rations, the two of them local hunters soon returning with local game, some hares and a fat large lizard, apparently a local delicacy, rich in fat and vitamins, plenty of meat for the group of five for the night, adding well to their ration packs of vegetables and staple of fruits and nuts. Enrico called Carla over for a weapons check, both loading their firearms fully for the night as was the protocol, the day moving into late afternoon, the camp day time crew now at dinner time, the evening crew on station, the camp rotating in watches, similarly to military posts, and out here Enrico would use the same policy, both him and Carla sharing gun watch just in case a rogue animal came looking for a feed at their camp during the night, their lives threatened by it, always two of them on watch at a time in four-hour intervals.

Janet slumped to rest near Enrico, rolling out some logs to sit on, digging divots into the ground to hold them still, the guides quick to dismember some stout trees then a good deal of brush for a canopy, the logs quickly cut up for seats, setting them close together around their campfire, their swags tied off the ground, and under cover of brush and ground sheets, getting in to some dinner of fresh meat and vegetables, their guides making short work of the hares in a broth with vegetables, the lizard soon to be slowly roasting for added nutrients later on, the rest of it preserved in locally selected leaves for flavour, lasting a good day or two for a boost of energy and vitamins as an emergency ration and very good local cuisine. Evening turned into night, the daylight slowly fading into darkness, the night time critters out on the prowl for an easy meal, strange sounds in the night keeping them on alert, with Enrico looking across to Janet over their delicious meal asking her openly, "do you think she's ready in Spanish". Carla looked up at them both from her seat on the side, deep in discussion with her guide over the lizard and hare meal, discussing the preparation and cooking methods, asking how you determined the animal was fit for eating, some things out here deadly poison if consumed. Her focus shifted, Enrico and Janet, staring at them intently, sitting up from her meal and discussion with her guide, excusing herself, thanking him for his help with the day and with their meal and night preparation as she stood. Enrico patted the log beside him, inviting her to sit, Carla interested in finding out what was going on. He casually placed his arm around her shoulder, telling her she had done an amazing job on her first day, well beyond what anyone expected of her.

In the corner of her eye she saw something move and froze, and in horror at what she saw drew her Colt 45 and without hesitating cocked it, her stare through Janet making her freeze and wide eyed, her weapon pointed at her head and fired, the shot ringing out far into the night. The night animals took flight at the disturbing sound, the ground animals scurrying for cover, Enrico jumping in fright, Janet throwing herself to the side instinctively, an enormous snake hanging just above and behind her, unnoticed by even the guides, lifeless, its enormous head opened up by the bullet, its body twitching in death. The creature, an enormous jungle python, sized up Janet from behind, ready to make an easy meal of her despite the camp fire and human activity, desperate for a good meal, going against its instincts fatally, Carla easily killing the creature in a split second without hesitation, her weapons training spot on. Janet, however, aghast and shaking, realizing in horror she had almost become the creature's meal upon looking behind herself, screaming in fright at the sight of it. Enrico's radio wailed, then all of them, the gunshot reaching camp in the still night, the unmistakable noise heard miles away in the jungle darkness. Enrico, quick to reassure they were ok, Carla having dispatched a dangerous man-eating python, confirming no injuries.

Janet jumped to her feet, throwing herself at Enrico in shock. Carla composed and eyeing the now dead creature, ready to give it another bullet if it dared to move. "How do we cook that", she calmly asked her guide in Spanish, squinting at the dead beast, her stare at Enrico, with a sorry I had to look, telling a distraught Janet it was good and dead, smoke still wafting from the end of her Colt 45, ready to give it another round. The snake drooped from its attacking position in the tree behind her, its stealth almost getting it a meal, it's movement its undoing, a sharp Carla reversing the stakes, creating a meal for days out of it in a split second, her breathing calm, her aim sure as she holstered her pistol after loading another round into it, removing the hot spent cartridge, tossing it to Janet as a souvenir.

Coolness under pressure, her quick reflexes saving Janet's life, if the snake had got her, the shot most likely killing her instead. Janet slumped onto a log seat, shaking and sobbing her heart out in relief, Enrico wrapped around her, consoling her, Janet reliving Carla draw her firearm and freezing, her blank in shock stare at her, pointing it at her head, staring through her, her eyes wide in horror, remaining still until the shot rang out over her shoulder, thankful the aim was on target with the snakes huge head. It would have taken her for sure, hunting knives not likely in killing the beast before she was dead, her bones disjointed and her ribs crushed in mere seconds, the snake able to eat calves and other medium-sized prey by crushing it, disjointing its skeletal frame easily, killing it, then taking it off for a feast, not needing to eat for some time. Carla got up from her seat inspecting her kill, her guides helping her to drag it out from its hiding place, its enormous length plain after they got it out, the massive snake easily able to take a human being. In hiding for some time, watching the clearing and avoiding the daytime sun and heat, waiting for a meal to come along, watching them the entire time they set up camp, waiting for the right moment to strike, with Carla beating it to the kill by mere seconds. Never up close with something this big, running her hands over its dead warm body, feeling its muscular strength under its tough scaly exterior, glad it was dead, turning to her group with a proud grin on her face for killing the man-eater saying cheerfully that dinner was up.

Their radios went off again, Carla taking hers and looking Enrico in the eye calmly told everyone on the channel to shut up, calling for the medical officer who quickly responded, calmly reporting a man-eating snake now dispatched, a human life in danger, it about to make a meal of Janet while sitting at camp and eating their meal, and all was well with no injuries, the situation under control, asking for help at first light to retrieve the creature for examination, fresh meat for everyone as it was enormous, the five of them alone unable to bring it back. The report came back they would have a team out at first light, their waypoints already plotted, their destination highlighted on one of Carla's computers and maps, her GPSNAV watch giving up to the second information via satellite telling them exactly where they were every step of the way, her watch sending data every five seconds, her programming it that way before they left, now thankful she had set it up, taking photos on it of the beast from where she blasted it dead.

Janet looked up at her, trembling still, her eyes wide, body shaking uncontrollably and drooling from her mouth but more composed in her mind, her body in fight-or-flight mode, slowly coming to terms with almost being eaten by the snake, it a few feet behind her and poised to strike, stalking her for quite a while, savouring the meal to come, it's focus on the easy meal it's undoing. Enrico got up from his seat inspecting first hand the still snake, not having seen one this size before in his life, shaking his head and offering his prayers to it in Spanish, his hand running over the majestic creature's body, the size and weight of it unlike anything he had seen here. Carla went to Janet, hugging her firmly, sobbing and shaking then looked at Enrico asking if he brought scotch, a shot of it maybe bringing her back to her senses. A nod he had some, quickly offering it, Janet in Carla's arms and mumbling incoherently, unable to control herself, drooling all over herself, frightened out of her wits and in shock, her body releasing her bladder where she sat, Carla whispering Geez Louise to herself and dragging her to her feet, supporting her as she urinated without bodily control, her calling in Janet as an alert one on her radio, Enrico joined them anxious for her welfare, agreeing the right call to make, needing to get her out of there as soon as humanly possible, Janet scared out of her wits, not coping well. The two of them supported her weight until she stopped urinating, forcibly feeding her scotch through her chattering teeth telling her to swallow it, the hit of scotch making her shake her head as it was strong, brought along for antiseptic in case of cuts to kill any infection, used now to wake up Janet and bring her back to her senses. Within a half an hour they heard voices calling out to them in the darkness, a medical team immediately dispatched in the dark in response to the alert one call, the site chopper useless in the dark of night, Janet still not responding to Carla or Enrico. Carla now in charge, Enrico letting her keep control of the situation, his priority on keeping Janet safe in his arms, the medical team using torches and sonic beepers to find their way, following the GPS waypoints from Carla's watch and stakes as waypoints, dropping glow sticks as they went, eventually finding them. Janet quickly lifted, loaded, tied and covered up on the stretcher they brought for her, a team of twenty night workers arriving to collect the snake and the team and return as quickly as possible.

Continued..

Janet & Carla's Jungle Peril. Part 7.

The team carefully made its way back, the ground team carrying the snake over their shoulders, over ten of them needed to lift the enormous beast, chanting a local tribal feasting song as they went, thanking the jungle gods for providing them with a handsome prize, the brave lioness able to take it swiftly down, offering it safe and rightful passage to the underworld, the laws of the jungle unbroken, Carla unknowingly giving herself hunting status among the site crew, the news quickly spreading that she had killed a sacred and proud jungle monster, the animal a king among beasts in the jungle, a ritual to honour its life already underway, with fires lit to light their path as they returned with it. Enrico called to Carla to take point as they left, their camp broken down and their fire out, while he remained with Janet, still in physical shock, needing quick medical attention, the remaining hunters bringing up the rear, chanting about their prized meal in elation, the noise getting louder as they arrived closer to site, the site team all out in the night to welcome the mighty beast and honouring the lioness that killed it for them, a guard of honour bowed low to the ground upon their returning, the snake providing quality food for everyone, a delicacy among tribal legends, this day heralded as the day the lioness arrived in camp, her presence a welcome good omen, the camp in high spirits over the days events.

The medic chief quickly got Janet into the medical hut, sedating her immediately, her vital signs good and on monitors, now partially asleep, her body relaxed in safe care, the medics waiting to see how she would respond when she woke up, giving her an iv of fluids and other drugs to relax her and give her rest.

The master at arms called for Carla to count off ammunition and sign off on it, deemed worthy by the tribal men in camp of the title of lioness, her skill in dispatching the snake unlike anything anyone had seen, the size of it a worry to the management team, her and Enrico attending the emergency management briefing to file their reports of the incident, Enrico summarizing the events, with Carla answering the questions directed at her, the medical report provided soon after on Janet's condition.

Enrico took Carla by the arm, taking her off to the celebration and killing ritual, telling her it was the right thing to do in honouring the beast she had killed, providing appropriate justice to local lore for closure to its sacred life, explaining the beast was sacred, but she had no choice in dispatching it, confirming he would have done the same. The noise was deafening as she arrived at the circle, almost everyone in attendance, most of the men gathered in tribal costume and war paint by now, the atmosphere fever pitch, hollering and whooping all around, Carla being attended to by witch doctors, adorned with coloured paint, feathers and other such tribal finery, the crowd of only men, as this was not a ceremony for women, all of them in awe of the lioness, raising her onto a wooden dais after removing her shirt and shorts and boots, leaving her in just her underwear and passing her above and around the gathering many times, the prized snake laid out on forked branches dug into the ground over a fire pit, with everyone passing it, paying it homage and offering prayers for its safe journey to its ancestors, many of them fearful of its size, many of them never seeing such a creature in their lives or traditions in history, it purely a legend or myth until now.

Carla dressed in ornate tribal finery, turning into a jungle spirit and invited to lead the procession of dancers as the killing ritual began, long held in tradition from their cannibalistic history when women, offered to their gods for adultery or other breaches of law, or for being born unfertile and unworthy servants or criminals punished, the justice, barbaric torture, the victims kept alive, screaming out for death, their suffering silenced by it. Horrified at disrobing out here, required to undress fully, her nakedness visible to all, her right to light the fire under the creature to cook it, allowed to wear her pistol sling only, the item used to bring the beast down, throwing her underwear to the fire to the whooping and frenzied chanting of the men assembled, following the ritual as directed. Enrico gave her wise counsel, his place in painting her over in red and blue-coloured dye and earth, telling her to remain calm and do only as directed with certain men only allowed to touch and paint her naked body, safe from harm and the centre of attention at this strictly men only jungle ritual. Painted up in the colours of the largest jungle feline predator known, made to wear a tail of brush and feathers for ears and instructed to urinate in front of the snake as it was legend that large felines would mark their territory after making a kill, forcing herself to do it on to the fire, the men's voices screaming out in pleasure as she claimed her first rightful kill in their jungle home, the lioness hunting down a feast for them all for days to come, hero status above the men, some calling her a goddess sent down in human form to care for them with what she had done.

The ceremony went on long into the night, Carla getting into the spirit of things, crawling around on the ground in stealth looking for a kill, then approaching the snake, lunging at it in a mock killing, through mime and actions describing the event that brought it down to the satisfaction of the crowd of men, resuming her seat on her dais and handed a long shafted spear adorned with feathers, beads and other such finery, her prize for her kill, lifted high above their heads, men laying down on the ground in front of her to bless them with good fortune as they carried her high, walking over the human carpet, the procession then heading off to a quicksand pit nearby with only a handful of men allowed to attend this sacred offering to the gods, honor drums and beating sticks pounding away, the atmosphere fever pitch. Carla handed her gun belt to the chief, calmly stepping into the warm pit of quicksand, placing her spear across the small pit to help her escape, the chief summoning the spirit of the snake, with Carla fully submerging herself, sending the spirit of her kill into the ground, then resurfacing, slightly panicked but able to escape, raising her spear into the air. Screaming out into the night as loud and as long as she could, her shrill angry roar causing brave stout men to shiver with the intensity of her cry, then asked to lead them back to the ceremony so they could begin eating the prized animal, Carla handed a ceremonial knife and cutting herself the first piece and eating it, the taste like muddy chicken, handing the knife to the chief who cut into her killing hand, the blood dripping onto the snakes body over chanting, as the dancing began around the fire, the meal turned slowly to cook it thoroughly, Carla in awe of the intensity of the ritual she would endure long into the night.

She remained in her muddy spirit like costume until the frenzy of the ceremony was over, Enrico allowed to attend to her, asking if she was ok, praising her for her composure and explaining the importance of what she had done regarding tribal law, telling her she was the first female ever allowed to attend such a ceremony in history, the punishment if one ever saw one, death by having their throat cut over a fire, their flesh burned while still alive, their screams repentance for their crime until they died then, cooked and eaten by the tribal elders, the family of the female criminal publically shamed, stripped of any status. Carla in disbelief, her obligations completed, her rights of passage as a hunter in the local culture in blood and honor. Enrico carried her sidearm, inviting her to shower and dress more appropriately, although if she wanted to on this night run around as she was completing the ceremony until the sun rose with a new dawn to celebrate life, an interesting experience, deemed honourable inline with her status. Carla laughed with him, inviting him to play in more quicksand with her, Enrico laughing, she more than likely would enjoy it, hinting that Janet had done so more than once, also informing her Janet would be well soon, just in shock at seeing Carla aim her pistol at her then fire, then seeing the predator just behind her with its head blown open, too much for her to take in but in time she would be ok.

Carla asked of it was ok to return to the quicksand pit with him as the moment seemed right, her spear in hand to experience it further, Enrico encouraging her to explore it further as she wished in safety, the pit shallow and used for education and ceremonials, otherwise uninteresting and left alone. She took his hand thanking him for his guidance and trust, telling him her journal would make interesting reading when they returned to civilization, the two of them laughing that she was pride of the jungle at this moment, a piece of history, a legend among the natives, her story repeated to future generations for centuries to come. Placing his arm around her shoulders, enjoying their body contact as they walked, then helping her step down into the quicksand pit, placing her spear across it as before to escape. Enrico sat down next to her on the edge as she went down into it, becoming aroused at the feel, taking her time to experience this unfamiliar sensation, Enrico encouraging her enjoy it as she deserved a personal reward for her efforts that day.

Carla quickly sank to her hips in the warm wet substance, her body tingling, her teeth clenched, the undeniable sensations within, tiny fingers of it all over her skin, teasing and pleasuring all of her at once, this a new experience for her, never getting into any but wondering how it would go in secret for some time, previously telling Enrico of her love of sinking in mud and deep clay pits. Her sexual arousal increased, her eyes wide, mouth wide open gasping as she looked at him, the lustful mire claiming her inch by inch, slowly dropping into the earth, the danger clear, climaxing more than once without control and enjoying her moment in safety. Submerging herself more than once to get a proper feel for it, her orgasms electric, contractions between her thighs causing sensations deep within herself not experienced before this moment, desperate for air as she surfaced. Enrico welcomed her into tribal womanhood, as he sat and watched, assisting with her tribal education, stating that some ventured too far in their rituals and drowned in pits far too deep to escape, an honourable and fitting end under tribal law for females. With that said, She came up out of the pit once more, her lungs at bursting point, wiping her eyes, five curious tribal elders approached and sat down to watch the lioness partake in a personal ritual in the pit, Enrico quietly whispering for her be calm, company had arrived, and continue with her pleasures, it perfectly normal under the circumstances, the elders interested to watch her perform some kind of ritual on herself, admiring her strength as they chatted amongst themselves about her bravery and hunting skills, rare among females with few ever attaining the status. Acknowledging the elders seated around her, breathing in gasps, a small group gathering to witness her personal ritual, a tribute, honouring the adolescent female, accepting her as a member of their society.

Carla rose out of the pit to her hips and took up her spear waving it over the group of men around her wishing them peace and good fortune in Spanish, with Enrico explaining this was her personal cleansing ritual, a means of separating herself and disconnecting from the men only ceremony, the elders impressed by her respect for their laws and culture. Enrico took a handful of dirt from the ground summoning for her to come forth from the pit cleansed before their gods and he threw the dust at her body, the elder tribesmen finding it virtuous followed the example, honouring her as she got out, still shaking from pleasuring herself for the first time in quicksand, loving the feel of her first time quicksand sink. Her body showered in the fine clay dust from the earth, Enrico advising her carefully of her next move. A good time to leave and partake of more snake as she was, the tribal elders following her back to the ceremony, now only a feast, the tasty snake partly devoured, with plenty still left over. Carla could freely wander around as she pleased, still the lioness guarding her kill, but allowing the men to share in the feast with her, drying quicksand caked to her body, covered in the fine clay dust from the ground, apparently transformed by the Gods. Sharing in her kill, something jungle felines never do in the wild unless alone with siblings, cubs having to wait their turn before eating, hoping for scraps after the kill. She sat cross legged with a group close to her kill and ate some more, sharing it around to them, the men in awe of her bravery and composure, surely sent from their ancestors as a gift of good fortune.

The chief approached her carrying a basket in his hands and she turned towards him on her knees bowed low to the ground; her head down and her hands raised to receive it in both submission and respect of him as a female of their tribe. He placed the basket in her hands then backed away from her, leaving her in peace.

Janet & Carla's Jungle Peril. Part 8.

"Basket Case".

The hand woven ceremonial basket held sacred aromatic leaves and the enormous head of her kill; the chief having cut it off presented it to her as a trophy, the head mostly recognizable, the mouth intact and opened slightly, the eyes bright galaxies staring forward in death, the memory of her seeing it about to take in its gaping mouth the totally unaware Janet from just over her shoulder as she enjoyed her camp dinner, their eyes fixed on each other, a gun pointed at Janet's head, still vivid in her mind, making her shiver. She got up from her place; the men bowing to her as she left, in search of Enrico. Holding out to him the basket when she found him, cutting for himself a nice snake steak, asking him how they could safely keep and preserve her prized snake head, a massive wall or desk mount once cured in the same manner he had his own trophies from his adventures, in one day collecting three trophies of her own. He remarked that his report on her first two days progress was glowing, her ability to perform her work without question, saving the team months of work in a few hours though he initially had his doubts, her bravery, composure and leaderships skills first rate, her moment of saving a human life from certain death a remarkable feat on its own, her place on the team cemented, her induction into both womanhood and an honoured hunter of the tribe and in the jungle's folklore culture, something incredible to witness. He offered for her to attend to a hot shower and change of clothes, the caked clay and quicksand surely irritating her skin by now, going with her to her sleeping hut. And then they would deal with the snake.

Carla took out her camera asking Enrico to take photos of her with her hat, spear and snake head trophies, covered in quicksand and fine clay dust for adding to her journal, the snake photos already taken at camp before the medic team arrived to help them return with it, several extreme photos on her watch. He snapped a few for her and waited while she silently showered then returned to him clean and naked, comfortable to be in his company that way, dressing herself then asked him to explain his connection with Janet if he wished as it was none of her business. He said they would discuss that later as he was anxious to check on her, inviting Carla to go with him to see her, if the medics permitted it to which she agreed. Carla checked her sidearm for rounds, setting her pistol sling in place, hanging loosely down western style at her side then put her hat on her head, inviting Enrico to take more photos with her spear and snake head basket before they left for the medic station.

Janet by now waking up, recovering from the fright of her life, sporting a headache and an awful taste in her mouth from vomiting up her dinner, her bodies natural reaction to the stress of the moment, more composed and sitting up, her vitals normal as Enrico and Carla entered the hut, the medic giving the all clear to see her as all was well. Janet reached up to Carla, with hugs and kisses, thanking her for scaring the life out of her and for saving her life, a sure snake meal had she not fired her sidearm at it, holding on for support, swinging her legs around off the bed table, her arms around Carla's neck passionately kissing her on the mouth in thanks. Enrico grinned at them both, loving the girl on girl contact, Carla surprised then responding to it likewise, kissing deeply for a few moments, their tongues exploring each other, Janet gripping her body tightly then grabbing a feel of her breasts as she let her go. "Can't wait to see the photos", Janet grinning at her, explaining she already knew of the events of the ceremony, her hands to her head as it was pounding, feeling unwell but back in reality within herself. Enrico filled her in on the details of Carla's induction into the tribe, a heroine of their culture forever, a lioness, true to the status it evoked, the entire camp abuzz in excitement of the events of the day. Janet in observation in sickbay til the morning, asking for a change of clothes as she didn't smell right, Carla laughing that watching her thoroughly wet herself was an interesting sight, Janet grimacing at the thought of it. Carla wrapped her up again kissing her, sensuously fondling her breasts in return, her nails digging into her slightly, growling like a feline in her ear, making Janet laugh, calling her a bad kitty as Carla and Enrico left her to rest, returning to enjoy more snake, the ceremony all but over. Carla cut themselves some more, Enrico telling her the skeleton, in preservation as a reminder and warning of the jungle dangers, and the knife hers to keep, the chief offering it to Enrico after either the snake meat consumed or daylight arrived, whichever came first.

Enrico took the basket to have it cared for and cured to prevent it from decomposing any further, returning to their sleeping quarters for some rest the time past midnight; the sun visiting them again soon, heralding a new birth of life, heat and humidity, the night sky free from rain and storms, filled with the stars of the milky way galaxy shining down, filling the sky above them. Carla pegged her door open to allow the fresh air in, climbing into her cot, quickly falling asleep, wondering for a moment, the feeling of a woman with her for company then dismissed the thought, telling herself she was mad for thinking of it, the feel of sensually kissing her first woman and feeling her curves and breasts, tingling sensations all over as she drifted off to sleep, suddenly worn out from the day, her watch alarm set for 06:00 so she didn't miss breakfast.

She woke to her alarm; the sunlight streaming in her door, the humidity of the day already in the air, it was going to be hot, Carla's thoughts returning to Janet, making her get up and shower and dress quickly, gathering Janet a change of clothes from her hut then off to see her, past the ceremonial ground from the night before, the snake now gone, as daylight had broken and she took up the knife embedded in the post that held the snakes head, looking over it feeling the sharp strong blade in her hands, the chief leaving it there for her to find on her own, the life in camp returning to normal, the tasks of the day underway. She quickly sheathed the knife, keen to get her out of the medic station and back to work, Janet on her feet when Carla arrived, firmly embracing her. Carla enjoyed the sensation for a second time, giving her back equally from herself, watching intently as Janet stripped then changed, eyeing her body for the first time, noticing her curves and shape, shivering slightly, secretly wondering what she would be like in bed or in soaking rain or slimy mud in her clothes or even better, her sexy underwear. They went for the morning breakfast as the alarm sounded for it, finding Enrico already there, the two women holding hands as they entered the meal hut, letting each other go as the men got up from their seats, noticing Carla enter, then parting in the meal line so she could be first, someone ushering her to the front of the line, Carla blushing at the attention.

She took her full breakfast meal, whispering thanks to the kitchen staff, all of them bowing as they served her the portions allocated and she sat at the table Enrico pointed to then waited for what felt like an eternity with all eyes on her as she sat waiting for Janet and Enrico to get theirs and join her, the sense that she was the buzz of the day and the centre of everyone's attention unsettling her, but she resisted the urge to get up and run, enjoying her breakfast, others arriving to join her, chatting cheerfully about the previous days events. David Hughes, the site science director sat down across from her and she glanced at him casually mentioning there was a dot on one of her maps she had noticed, worthy of investigation because of the infra-red colour shift, asking him to consider looking at it, as it might be something noteworthy. He nodded to her silently then plowed through his breakfast, excusing himself shortly after, having finished it in record time, returning to his station and getting back to work out of the humidity and already torrid heat. Enrico, already aware of her instincts, asked for her to elaborate, but she waved it away. Probably nothing worthy of attention, but he already had his suspicions and if she mentioned it, then it was worthy of serious investigation.

He met with her after breakfast, going over her maps, her computer data ready and waiting to tell her the sky was falling if she wished it, her picking up on something, a tiny peak in a colour shift in one of her satellite images, the one before and after showing her nothing, but enough to raise in herself the question of what it was or just a glitch because of sunlight or something else of no value, her instincts as per her Mars paper. Enrico had nothing to go on by the images on her map, but the look on her face and her agitated body language and posture gave every sign she was onto something worth exploring. He asked for her to zoom in on the map in question, several small red dots visible when she hit the centre of her point, and zooming in they viewed an image of a physical shape, heavily pixilated, somehow familiar but inconclusive. Enrico radioed to put an exploration team together on the coordinates, noting the site was nearby and away from any dangerous ground. He radioed Janet informing her of the find, and asked Carla to set up a team to lead and investigate her find, making sure medical supplies and food and water were in abundance as it was hot and steamy, more than usual, and to call him immediately should she find anything worth further investigation. She nodded she was ready to go after yesterday's incident, opting to leave her rifle in its cage, but signing out her sidearm with the master at arms before she left. Enrico patted her on the shoulder, confident he could leave her to do her thing without his supervision, saying, "gracias senorita", as he left to continue his morning checklist.

Carla called up her loyal guide and tracker, at her side in minutes, discussing the plan, her team and supplies at her door in mere minutes, more than a handful of bodies in support, ready to follow the lioness to anywhere if need be, everyone jumping to her every whim and need, eager to get the expedition underway. Setting her watch into GPS seek and find mode after ensuring all was ready they set off, calling in her destination coordinates to control with the response that she was all clear to go, Janet and Enrico now in the control room to monitor her progress on her satellite feed and screens in her office, every step and sound recorded in high detail, her computers able to cope with and compile the data flow without losing a frame of data or image quality. She carefully staked out their route, setting up video and photo vantage points ahead of the intended position of investigation, then crept forward to investigate her dots. She picked up several heat signatures in front of her, but tiny compared to her size, recording the sounds of her environment picking up on an animal, not sure of its origins.

She highlighted the audio signal on her watch calling on her radio for someone to report on the sound she had captured waiting for a response. She got an immediate call back from Ellie, the site biologist and a gun with paleontology, her excitedly telling her to keep monitoring, Carla calmly pointing out a series of tiny bird like prints in the soft mud, carefully marking them, the GPS locations displaying a red dot. Photos sent back from her watch, Ellie calling back they looked remarkably birdlike but nothing on file on them for this site, asking for more information. Carla captured a few close ups, her watch and cameras zooming in on her placing a measuring marker next to one to record the actual size. The sound heard again coming from the thicket of vines in front of her, and she laid herself down on the wet muddy ground, not disturbing the prints, keen to know what made the distinct animal like sound. She replayed it, an immediate call back, then played it again, and got another, Ellie asking for no one to move, everyone holding their breath as the infra-red showed several small red dots on the screens in site control, moving cautiously towards Carla, who lay prone and still. They were tiny life forms, creatures of some description, everyone desperate to know what she had found.

Taking out snake meat from her snack pouch as a food oriented test on animals, playing the sound again, getting two distinct responses. She tossed some meat forward, the smell of food immediate to the animals in the thicket, but still cautious as something else large and alive detected by their sensitive noses closely nearby, Carla's heartbeat and body electrical signals though the earth and smell causing alarm to the little creatures, interested in the smell of the fresh meat, keen to have a free meal. She tossed a bigger piece of meat closer to the sounds, tempting the little creatures out, one of them brave enough to poke its head out for a look, the science team clapping and cheering at the sight on their screens. Carla tossed another morsel of flavorsome food close to it and waited to gauge the response. It nervously stepped out from its hiding place and devoured the morsel of meat, Ellie exclaiming she had found a dinosaur like creature. It was like a lizard but on two legs, with a backward shaped pelvis like a bird with a long tail, and two shorter front legs with long fingers, a lizard on two legs and upright, perhaps. The animal grabbed at the meal in its long forefingers, devouring it, proving it a carnivore perhaps, everyone on the edge of their seats over the find.

Carla threw a bigger piece to it, encouraging it to come closer, playing back her sound again as another appeared, then another smaller one, possibly a juvenile, poked its head out for a cautious look. Carla threw a big piece, closer to herself, the three of the lizard like creatures fighting over it, squealing in delight as they ripped it to shreds, the video and still cameras all zoomed in, Carla's fingerprint lines in high detail on her upturned hand, as one of the dinosaur like creatures ventured out and took a piece of food from her hand, her fingers touching the animal as it ate from her hand, not daring to venture further. Ellie meanwhile squealing in hysterics in the control room, her searches on the creatures for similar known living animals coming up zero, the only resemblance, a small creature long extinct, the science team in disbelief at watching Carla now with several animals of various sizes crowding around her hand, devouring the morsels of the snake she was dropping, everything caught on video and still cameras in high detail, her quietly describing their skin and behavior, her watch picking up her audio and video signals, relaying it to control. The meal finished, every piece hungrily eaten, the largest animal venturing bravely forward, sniffing her fingertips, accepting a touch and a stroke of its chest from her fingertip, Carla remaining still, doing her best to contain her excitement and not alarm the little creature. She played her sound back. The creature looked her in the eye and responded, then quickly disappeared back into the thicket and into hiding from predators, curious but instinctively fearful of the enormous creature feeding them without so much as a stir, not intending on eating them all up.

Carla remained prone in the mud, elated at the find, surely not dinosaur like creatures, Janet watching her in it on the main screen noticing her thighs and shorts in the soft wet mud, and her beautiful backside sticking up at her, her focus glued to it, the thought of her wet, muddy underwear under her clothes making her shiver, her excitement and arousal rising as she thought about sliding her hands up into her shorts and feeling her muddy body, Carla unaware Janet was watching her intently on her screen. Ellie clapped and whistled loudly, the rest of the team cheering and joining in on congratulating Carla on her find in amazement, Ellie excitedly asking for ground samples, keen to get some samples from the ground analyzed, and patched the video and audio feeds to her workstation, sitting at her desk replaying the scenes over and over, noting the behavior and shape of the little animals, in disbelief that she was watching living dinosaurs, it just not possible they were living creatures. Enrico called over the radio for the team to pack up and return, but to mark the site and preserve it as much as possible, Carla taking more close-up photos of the footprints on her watch, sending the images to Ellie for investigation and research in case it rained, washing them away. She got up to her knees and turned around, her front soaking wet and covered in mud, her underwear sticking to her skin under her clothes, soaked in it and she took samples of it for Ellie from various places near the footprints, taking more photos, Janet wide eyed at seeing Carla covered in mud from her knees to her neck, excusing herself then going to Carla's office to replay her live feeds, herself interested in the little creatures behavior but more focused on Carla lying prone in the mud, her erotic thoughts dirty about the things she could do to her and wondering she was wearing underneath.

The team soon returned to camp, cheers all round in the science lab at the significant biological find, Carla's little creatures possibly unclassified, her now absorbed in the work of paleontology, curious to find out about the little animals she had hand fed. She showered in her clothes, washing the mud off taking her time to rinse them clean, then changed into fresh shorts and a tight fitting top, the picture of a large jungle cat on the front, under a fresh open shirt tucked into her shorts, her boots muddy but wearable. She hung her clothes out to dry then went in search of Ellie to download the watch data images and samples she had collected, excited to hear there was important research over her find, everyone dumb founded that the little animals even existed. The science world again turned on its head by Carla, another prominent and astonishing scientific discovery, an accident on her first field trip, and it wasn't even in her field of expertise.

Ellie hugged her excitedly when she arrived, taking her hands, dumping her in a chair, replaying the images over and over, pausing one frame, a close up high detail shot of Carla's fingers stroking a little dinosaur like creature that was eating out of her hand, Ellie excitedly asking if she could send it off to her boss in London, for verification of the creatures biological status, what if it was in fact a relative of long extinct dinosaurs, or was one in its own right, Ellie's arms around her shoulders, her hands patting Carla and softly caressing her as she sat in her chair replaying the videos of her feeding them over and over. About five minutes later Ellie's desk phone rang, everyone turning to her. Not a common thing for the site phones to ring unless an emergency or significant event. It was Dr Richard Anthony, Ellie's boss in London, chief of paleontology at her university headquarters in London, ecstatic at what he had just seen, asking for more details about the high shutter speed images of Carla's hand feeding what looked like miniature dinosaurs. He was processing the data on them and would get back to her, asking if he could share the files with colleagues in the US, for further verification, also asking who the zoo keeper was. Ellie handed the Carla the phone, her boss eager to speak with her on the discovery.

Carla introduced herself to the well-known, respected member of the global science community, explaining her position on the team, and the events surrounding the photos, doctor Anthony congratulating her on her find, asking for consent to brief a copy of the incident to his office with a report, permission sought to publish her findin his science journals, the science world about to find out who she was, apparently hand feeding dinosaurs in a remote jungle on a survey expedition to find minerals, the whole story quite extraordinary, attracting immediate global attention. Carla looked at Enrico, asking for consent to proceed with the request for more in-depth information, Enrico giving her the go ahead after thinking about it, Ellie clapping her hands and jumping for joy at the news. The surprise phone call ended, Carla stunned at what was happening over her finding a red dot in a single infra-red image.

Continued..

Janet & Carla's Jungle Peril. Part 9.

"Scrubs".

After a while she excused herself from the buzz in the science lab, returning to her office, musing over survey data and complete her report as expedition team leader, forwarded to Enrico and to Janet, relaxing back in her chair checking the ground samples and survey data for anything noteworthy then made herself a coffee, the powdered milk not tasting great, certainly better than nothing and drinkable, watching her little dinosaurs as she fed them on her screens. Janet poked her head in her door then quietly entered, grabbing a chair and sat close to her, taking her hand, watching her screens with her in silence. Carla got up and made her a coffee then resumed her seat, typing notes under each of the images, describing the events of each shot and the behaviour of the animals as she fed them, then saved them to her journal files, sending the updates to Ellie, her final paper of the year hopefully scoring well, with a long way to go before completion. She reclined back in her chair, her hands over her face, relaxing, then felt Janet's hand on her thigh, gently stroking it, making her shiver, her leg twitching from the sensations it caused. Janet's hand slid up further, making her shake, her mouth firmly shut and her eyes closed, then slip softly between her legs, her fingertips slipping up under the seam of her shorts, Carla shifting in her seat slightly, Janet's fingers sliding up further, her hand fully inside them, her fingers caressing the material of her knickers then slipping gently into them, clawing at her hot skin above her mound, making Carla shake and shiver, her hands covering her face, the intimate contact between them heavenly and finding herself not wanting to break from it. Janet leaned over and skipped back a few images, replaying a small video sequence of Carla lying prone in the mud, her thighs and shorts sinking down into the soft top mud and set the image to replay, watching it over and over, telling her what she was thinking, Carla blushing at the thought of Janet playing with her in the mud fully dressed and soaking in it.

Enrico appeared in the doorway, this time without the usual knocking and immediately excused himself, closing the door on his way out, the only noise in the room, the air conditioning adjusting itself to the room temperature and humidity level to keep the computing systems cool and dry. Janet pulled Carla's chair over by her feet, then pulled her up out of it, sitting her on the edge of her desk in front of her, slipping off her boots feeling her legs softly with her hands, making her way up them to her thighs then got up and locked the door. She slid her chair up to her, parting her legs to bring herself closer wrapping her arms around her waist looking her intently in the eyes, thanking her for saving her life, deeply indebted to her for life, Carla smiling at her as she slid her hands along her arms then over her shoulders and took her up from her chair, her legs wrapping over her hips, drawing her close, her arms around her neck, teasing her with her lips, then slowly closed in, kissing her deeply on the mouth, loving her taste, then released her, kissing her again with more feeling, to which Janet responded, the two of them making out for some time, loving the sensations of their kissing and intimate contact. Carla's desk phone buzzed at her for a full minute as they softly and passionately kissed, finally releasing herself from Janet and putting it on speaker, asking who it was.

"Hey Carl, its Ellie" childlike excitement in her tone, telling her she hand some exciting news of her dinosaur like animals, Carla, screwing up her face in annoyance, busy working on-site survey maps and would check in on her later, then hung up and returned to kissing with Janet, her hands under her shirt and around her back, teasing her softly with her fingertips and nails, massaging her gently with her hands, the two women passionately kissing, Carla thinking she might invite her to her cot that night, hoping it might rain. She whispered about her wanting to spend the night with her, Janet telling her she had an airbed to make the night more comfortable, working through the afternoon on more ground survey data then check in with Ellie before dinner, then call it an early night to maximize their time together. They parted from each other satisfied with their intimate moment then returned to their work, looking over their mapping schedule for the next month, drawing up their next maps and plotting carefully the coordinates for the next batch of core drilling and seismic recordings, spending the best part of the afternoon except for lunch hour, getting everything ready for data entry. The day ended, Carla closing up her office and walked Janet back to her hut to gather her airbed and clothes, clearing out a space in Carla's hut for the bed, then sensuously showered each other until the hot water ran out, dressing for bed, picking out what the other was to wear, calling in their 22:00 radio check.

The nighttime rains closed in around them, everything else quiet as they snuggled down, watching the lightning through the open doorway, the door pegged down strongly and her awnings double pegged to keep them tight, her mozzie net tightly closed, and all the lights out, the two women getting to know each other intimately, Carla asking for a soft first lesson on deeply pleasuring another woman, Janet overjoyed to spend the time to help her learn whatever she wanted to, the two of them wrapped around each other for the night on Janet's comfortable airbed, the tropical storms outside providing them good cover, no one out tonight, a night of peace together undisturbed.

Shifting her position, turning herself around onto her side lifting Carla's leg up, softly kissing the back and inside of her thigh, Carla's body responding to her touch, Janet finding a sensitive spot biting her on it, her legs shaking, her hips bucking at the intense, never before felt sensation, up til now her intimate experiences only with men, this new experience sending her into outer space with intense pleasure and tingling sensations all over igniting her arousal. Finding the soft touch of a woman drove her wild, Carla remained silent, her eyes closed, Janet slowly breaking her in, their night only beginning. Janet moved to her other leg giving it the same treatment but with more pressure in certain spots, finding small hot spots and working them to give her the most she could, working her way up, then turned herself around, her hands running up into her knickers then mouthed her through them, sucking and biting her over her mound, careful to avoid the places Carla was begging her to touch, the anticipation of what was coming from this new experience leaving her shaking and shivering, tingling all over, small electric shocks through her teeth and body, her mouth dry, her hands grabbing at the bedding. Janet made her way up her body then laid herself down on top of her, sweat dripping from her body in the heat of the night, she undid her bra dropping it onto her then pressed down against her, rubbing her hot sweaty breasts up and down her body, stopping to explore her more, finding little hot spots all over her and working them, maximizing her first girl on girl session, stimulating her all over, driving her wild.

Carla was hot and covered in sweat, the humidity stifling in her hut with the door open. Janet got up and turned the fans on to circulate some air, opening the mozzie net and then closing the door, turning the airconditioner on, the hut slowly cooling, the humidity sucked out of the air, her eventually getting Carla up and into the shower, soaked in sweat, Carla soaking wet between her legs, her creamy essence running down her legs, sweaty and slimy, feeling rather uncomfortable as Janet washed her down then went to her knees clasping her hands in hers then went down on her, an explosive orgasm rippling through Carla on the spot, her first at a woman's touch, the sensation building deep within from places she didn't know existed within herself, her body tensing up against it, a strong contraction between her legs making her squirt all over Janet, soaking her hair and covering her face and body with her sweet essence, her releasing a load of sexual and body tension while Janet hungrily sucked, licked, kissed and bit down on her pleasure spots, thrashing her throbbing clit with her tongue, Carla's orgasm lasting minutes. Janet expertly kept her on edge, lifting a leg over her shoulder to support her weight, Carla having trouble standing upright, turning the water to cold to refresh herself, Janet expertly manipulating her sexually, Carla calling out in tears for her to stop. Loving the first time sensation of a woman loving her body intensely, Janet eventually let her gothen stood up wrapping around her, kissing her so softly, Carla tasting herself in Janet's mouth.

Janet removed their underwear using it as scrubs, soaking them in body wash, rinsing her playmate's supple body down then her own, Carla absorbed in her deep bodily sensations, recovering from the explosive orgasm Janet had given her, ready for a break. Janet sensed she needed some rest, turning her around massaging her shoulders and back moving down to her legs, firmly squeezing down on her muscles and body as she rinsed off then led her from the shower and dried her off then herself, then lead her back to the airbed, laying herself down and Carla over the top of her, the airconditioner doing its work to cool the torrid heat, the room now more comfortable, the two women clean, dry and refreshed as they cuddled up. Carla quickly fell asleep on her, Janet's arms wrapped around her, kissing her softly, her hands running through her hair and down her back as she rested peacefully, resting properly from her first intense and busy days on the expedition team, her experiencing some things both shocking and violent but able to cope with everything going on around her and performing her duties without question; her work performance at an exceptionally high standard despite the environment and her unfamiliar surroundings. Janet then relaxed down to sleep with her, the two of them resting in the comfort of each other's arms and legs despite the noise of the tropical storm outside. Continued..

Janet & Carla's Jungle Peril. Part 10.

"The sun God beckons".

Carla woke up, not sure if she was dreaming or awake. She looked at her watch and had a thought. She logged in to the audio channel on her watch, scrolling through the playlist until she found Universe by Anevo and Laura Brehm, welling up with tears for no particular reason as she lay there listening to it, softly singing along with dancing with the universe over and over, breathing in time to the lifeblood of the music. Happy she was alive, her senses prickling and shivering with goosebumps, adrenaline jabbing her from her slumber. She took a deep breath then, for whatever unknown reason had to get up and greet the morning, the sun rising, her sudden desire to experience the bringing of life to the new day. Janet rolled on her side away from her gaze, sound asleep, Carla careful to untangle herself from her body, her emotions swelling for no particular reason with the song on playback over and over. She dressed lightly in jungle shorts, a tight fitting camo top, and shoeless, stepped quietly out into the early morning sunrise, carefully closing the door, not waking her lover, taking her spear with her and danced as the early sunrise lit up her world over the forest of trees around her, far into the distance over the canopy of rainforest. Her senses alive, and breathing in the fresh morning air deeply, she lifted her hands to the heat of the early morning sun, greeting its face with gratitude and joy, her tears of happiness and satisfaction dried on her cheeks, her emotions in check.

She twisted to a noise behind her, five other people following her mood, sensing she was being watched as the chief stepped forward in appreciation of her morning virtues, dropping to the ground as he approached in submission to his authority. He raised her up from the ground and turned her around holding out her arms, asking her to continue her dance to the song in her heart and show his people what it was to dance as they had forgotten what it was like to wake and dance to the feeling in their souls. She played the song again as he wished, pouring out her heart and soul out into the morning daylight as it broke, singing the song aloud in Spanish as it was the only version she had, the tribes folk behind her copying her steps, half human dance, half animal like, as she thought of her life, full and alive and the moment she shot and killed the snake, and the moment she made love to Janet the night before, the moment she fed dinosaur like animals from her hand, and the moment she saw the cascading waterfall from thousands of feet above her crashing down into the ravine beside her, these memories of her life here and now things she would cherish and remember for the rest of her life. After a time she paused in her dance and bowed herself low to the warmth of the sunlight with her eyes closed, her offering accepted, the heat on her skin welcome despite the intensifying humidity.

She turned slightly into the warmth on her face and she sat there on her knees facing the sun; her spear on the ground pointed towards it, her arms out to the warm rays of the sun, feeling the strong pulses of radiant light it was bringing her, breathing in and out then raised herself up still on her knees her hands up to the sky thanking the gods in Spanish for giving her life this day then she got up and repeated her steps three and four times over then bowed back down on to her knees, facing the sun again, thankful that it was shining out towards her with tears again in her eyes, but for joy that she was alive and grateful for the air she was breathing. She got up and brought her legs together, then bowed at the rising sun, thanking it aloud in Spanish for greeting her so warmly, giving her purpose and life for another day. She picked up her spear and turned, stumbling over her own feet with her next step in shock. The Impa and elders behind her with about thirty other clan's people, mimicking her steps like she was a fitness teacher, them all feeling her emotions, not able to express it in their own words.

She explained to the chief she saw the early morning light, grateful to be alive, thinking of a song that made her happy and rose to dance in the early morning light's rays, apologizing for any wrongdoing and customs she had broken. The chief approached her, admonishing her as a daughter of the sun, bringing light into their darkness, showing them by her example the virtues of good and life and expressing a real appreciation for it. He asked if she would be happy to do it again, as he saw it as a good means of fitness for the mind body and the soul before they started their day, honouring her for reminding him of the virtues of their past ways, a piece of their daily routine and culture, to partake of fitness in the morning as the sun rose, things long forgotten, becoming lost in time. He said she should return to her house and to the lover in her bed and wake her in the same fashion as it would be good for them both to be in the same frame of mind then he would join her for breakfast and to chat further.

With the revelation her secret exposed then candidly spoke of it, Carla returned to her hut, collecting her spear as she left, refusing the Impa not something she would do on any day. Quietly letting herself in, smiling to herself, finding Janet still asleep, she silently slid down into the rough camp bed with her, snuggling up close, her clothing tossed aside, making herself comfortable, Janet oblivious she had been out dancing in the early morning light. Carla felt empowered, refreshed and alive to take on the day. Janet stretched then rolled over into her arms, pulling Carla's leg over herself, making soft noises as she lay there, still asleep. Her 6.30am alarm went off, buzzing softly, her hand reaching over turning it off, reaching for company, pulling her towards herself. Carla silently giggled at her lover, cuddling up to her, her arms and legs wrapping around her, Janet softly mumbling what was the matter, partially awake. Carla explained softly that she had just spoken with the chief outside and he knew exactly what they were doing. Janet turned her face to her after she repeated what he had said, looking at her with a don't toy with me look on her face. "Ask him yourself over breakfast", Carla said, laughing, as she thought about getting up, tired of the bed and wanting to get on with her day, full of life and energy, and she mentioned, "I'm taking morning fitness classes at his request from now on as the sun comes up". Janet confused what had happened, as Carla slid back into her arms. "Him also saying I should return to my lover and wake her up in a good mood just as I am", laughing and tickling her, kissing her, her mouth to her breasts sucking on them lovingly, her fingertips softly drawing little animals on her skin. Janet shuddered with Carla's early morning touch on her mouth and arousing body contact. Carla flipped herself around, reminding her that breakfast was at 7am then went down on her lovingly, Janet moaning in delight at her early morning surprise, Carla throwing her quickly to an explosive orgasm, tonguing her wildly, getting her off intensely, gripping her ass tightly, her face drenched in musky essence, Janet's bucking body underneath her, her lustful moans, her hands grabbing at her hair, loving the morning affections. The chief's words made more sense about getting her up in a good mood as she pushed her aside and rolled onto her back, licking her fingers, wiping the mess up with her lips and tongue, savouring the taste, content with her morning.

Carla shoved her lovers twitching body aside, bouncing up from the camp bed, washed her face, calling out to her to hurry or miss breakfast and she was going without her if she wasn't ready, and to leave the airbed, using it later so why pack it up. Janet reluctantly rolled off it and pulled out the valve, the noise like a camel farting, Carla laughing at the sound. She ran and fell on it with her, laughing and kissing, the air hissing from the valve, then rolled it up, Carla calling out sharply for her to get a move on. Janet got up, showered and dressed in record time, leaving hand in hand for breakfast, the men standing as they entered, Janet dropping her hand as the men ushered Carla to the front of the line. With her meal in hand she sat at her usual seat, invited to another table, slightly confused, then realised the Impa was serious in his request to take breakfast and chat with her.

Realising suddenly there was no lying to him on any cause, she silently took her seat opposite him, her head bowing in respect. The camp elder, or medicine man, Impa as he was better known, called for Janet to sit next to her. Janet obliged his offer, refusal not an option, nervously seating herself next to Carla, respectfully greeting him similarly. The chief mused over them quietly, studying the obvious intimate connection as he ate his meal, sizing them both up. Janet's hand in her own for comfort and support, the unmistakable afterglow, the chief not missing a beat, telling her not to fear in Spanish, she was neither in trouble nor danger. Carla relaxed at his words, the stifling tension broken instantly, then started on her breakfast, the chief interested to know about her morning and why she was so keen to greet the sun. Carla explained as she devoured her meal she had a comfortable night at peace with her womanly company as she desired to learn about it and slept soundly, waking in a good mood to a favourite song and greeted the sun, grateful for life, offering her dance in appreciation of making her vibrant and ready to start her day, the cycle of life renewed for another day. Her experiences here so far giving her a new appreciation for living a good life to the full, waking this morning expressing her joy at being alive. She also said she woke her lover happily, both in a good mood, arriving on time for the morning meal, ready to meet the needs of the day.

The Impa chatted with her at length about her work, finding small animals that she hand fed, and her fear at having to take a life to preserve one, Carla reliving the event for him, tears in her eyes a firm grip on holding Janet's hand tightly as she spoke, the chief not expecting a foreign female to have so great an impact on camp life, passing through this test of life so well, others not so fortunate in their life choices. As Impa, leader of their culture and community, quietly grateful for their survival and pleased to hear their work was progressing so well. With that he excused himself from their table, thanking Carla for her honesty as he left, leaving them to continue their breakfast alone. Enrico quietly took a seat across from them, wishing them both good morning, asking with his eyebrows raised how they slept, eyeing them pensively. Carla turned her nose up to him, laughing about it, telling him in a cheeky girl like manner about their pleasant evening, and having slept rather well, also she led a small fitness class that morning, the chief asking if she would do it again sometime. Enrico sat back in his seat, taken aback by the event. Not something previously routine, but if good for morale and wellbeing, and sanctioned into camp life by the Impa, no one daring to argue the point.

Continued.

Janet & Carla's Jungle Peril. Part 11.

"International spotlight".

"Anyway, ladies", he paused, creating some drama with his tone, stopping them in their train of thought, catching Carla's undivided attention. "I have some significant news", the grin on his face a mile wide, unable to hide his secret any longer. "What exactly have you done now?", Janet's pained response, knowing full well he was capable of anything, her stare fixed on him. Enrico waved his hands innocently at them across the table. "We are international news headlines, as of early this morning, and you miss Carla, have turned the science world on it's head for a third time. Your hand feeding what they agree to as dinosaurs by the science community has gone viral, along with Motadura, the formal name for your mythical snake". "Fuck me dead", Janet whispered softly, shaking her head in disbelief, she desired appropriate attention for their work, sure, but this result, beyond her comprehension, the photos and blogs of their recent discoveries causing mayhem while they slept, the science world's attention focused on a speck of uninhabitable, high altitude rainforest in the middle of nowhere. "They have already thrown thousands of investment dollars at us for more details, and everyone who is anyone, is desperate for more information". Carla cupped her hands over her nose and mouth, whispering, "oh fuck", to herself, shaking her head. Janet, however, burst out laughing, rocking back and forth in her seat, all eyes on her for disturbing the normality and peace of camp breakfast. Leaping up from the table and grabbing Enrico by the arm, Janet dragged him from the mess hut, leaving Carla in a state of shock, staring into space through her half eaten meal, the images of the past few days racing through her mind on repeat at near light speed.

She gathered herself after some time, cleaned up the table, silently washed their eating utensils, the noise in the mess hut shut off, the lioness quietly moving about, as if about to prey on some poor unsuspecting soul. Thoughts to herself of the morning as she left, returning to her office and computer images, data, and reports, printing off the latest batch of seismic data and infra-red details, EROS and Geosat keeping her busy, focusing on her work, not the drama in the outside world she had created in three days on expedition. Her desk phone buzzed as she mused over the latest ground survey reports, good signs from the core drilling samples matching up nicely. Her hand irritably flipped it onto speaker, her other wrapped around a fresh hot coffee, an almost hysterical Ellie excitedly calling her. "I will be over latter, Ells, I need to get the seismic data checked and submitted before I do anything else", Carla slightly agitated by the fuss, calm and resolute, determined not to let it all go to her head, showing great maturity, if only to herself, the rustling papers and low din of the fans and air-conditioning, the only noise in her hut. She carefully rechecked her figures, spending an hour in peace, emailing off her reports, a link to the outside world added to her growing list of contacts, the GEOSAT office, and a response from her sponsor, NASA, scoping her out for information on her survey work, the science community eager for anything she might feed them, regardless of the insignificance of the information. Her radio buzzed, Enrico asking where she was at, ignoring him for the moment, confirming her findings, signing off on the latest batch of boring data, her computer's synthetic voice system, cheerfully confirming her submissions, telling her to have a nice day as it went back to sleep, leaving her in silence.

David Hughes quietly tapped on her door then entered, a wad of papers in his hand. Carla stood upright, leaning over the back of her desk chair, smiling as he entered. "Morning David", her cheerful greeting, sipping on her coffee, inviting him to make himself one, having missed him at breakfast. "Sorry to interrupt", he muttered, noting she was alone. "Thanks for wrapping this batch up so quickly, you can CC me from now on when you send it off to GEOSAT, I don't want to check your data anymore, it's solid", his bemused look at her, his quiet tone, his mind on other matters he desperately wanted to bring up. "I've allowed you full control of the account and send them whatever they want", clearly using this discussion as an excuse to see her, his eyes not making contact, Carla sharp on how to read people, her eyes narrowing, her enquiring look now a sharp stare, not amused at his hiding his true intentions for her. "What can I do for you David?", Carla's cool flat response, sensing a ruse, more than this on his mind, her mood changing by the second into something more sinister, far from the peace she was experiencing only moments earlier, her fingers tapping annoyingly on her chair, a dead giveaway, her mood transforming rapidly. "Can we have a meeting sometime soon, I want to get you onto another project, more biological than boring rock data". Carla cooly picked up her whiteboard duster from her desk, ready to throw it at him. "Ellie is the resident dinosaur expert, name them after her please", Carla voicing her displeasure at the reason for his visiting her, pointing her weapon at him dangerously. "I don't want to hear any Carlasaurus talk or anything like that. As exciting as the find is, from an infra red dot I found, I don't want to run around chasing T. Rex, or what ever else is lurking out there. That jungle book monster snake scared the shit out of me and worse", she paused. "I almost shot Janet in the head and, I'm not joining any fossil hunting party". Screaming out her words at David, her peaceful demeanor reduced to shreds in seconds. Carla let fly at him with her duster, her anger and frustration boiling over to the surface, venting it unrestrained as Enrico walked through the door to David's left. Her duster ricocheted off his hat, knocking it from his head, the missile flying out the open door. Her tone, more aggressive the more she spoke. Passing by on his way somewhere else, heard the tone and diverted his course to investigate. Unable to take back what she had let go of in anger, watching in horror the effect of her cause as he walked through the door, dropping her coffee, smashing the cup into millions of tiny shards, she ran to Enrico, apologizing profusely as she returned his hat, sacred to him, no one allowed to touch it, well, maybe Janet and only when in private.

David quickly left her office, realising as he earlier thought, the topic might get her offside, and not wanting to tackle her or the subject of dinosaurs any further, he intelligently made a swift departure from both her sight and hearing. Enrico, grabbed at her arm where he stood, slamming her body against his own in quick response, a wicked grin the only sign she was off the hook, and he smashed his mouth against hers, stifling her raging screams into silence, wrapping her up tightly in an explosive release of love, compassion, understanding and passion, as only he could. Carla's fire instantly snuffed out, the veins pounding in her neck, adrenaline rushing, Enrico catching her off guard and smashing through her defences, his leg pushing between hers, pushing them slightly apart, and he held her there for a moment. Carla, in a furious state of mind, instantly caved in to him through an invisible force, returning his kiss with full measure, savouring his affections, wondering what Janet would say. Sensing her body yield to himself, Enrico let her go, the eye contact alone questioning her. Carla thanked him softly, reassuring him the explosion was over as she replaced his hat on his head, apologizing again for knocking it off, David the intended victim of her rage and assault, the business of dinosaurs, no longer a joking matter. He helped clean up the coffee on the floor and the demolished mug, making her a fresh one and one for himself and, to change the subject entirely, asked for a review of the communication she forwarded to GEOSAT and EROS earlier that morning. Leading her to her desk and plonking her in her chair, he sat on the corner of her desk as she composed herself, presenting to him her findings, pointing to the core samples and maps while explaining her recommendations. He had a way of stopping angry women in their tracks, Carla grateful for the unexpected response to her outburst, more or less back on task, Enrico quickly defusing her explosion of rage.

Carla dropped her hands to her lap when she finished her report, her emotions back flipping on her, the telltale glint in her eyes, warning of approaching salty tears, the immediate response to leap into his arms again, this time for emotional support. Enrico held her, cradling her as she wept, the vulnerable side of her exposed to him, and he comforted her as her father would do, then let her go, appraising her again with his eyes, making her laugh as she wiped her tears away. "I've warned the team already, no more dinosaur chat, it worried me this might happen," genuine concern in his voice for her. "I'm ok", Carla shrugged, angry with herself for her outburst, David deserving what he got, sorry Enrico endured it, her peaceful morning mood destroyed in an instant, like her coffee mug. "How about we get out that rifle of yours and go shoot at something, I have something in mind that might cheer you up". Carla had a blinking thought of lining up David for a firing squad, in her head, hitting him with a hail of bullets, the sound, sight and smell of death and gunfire, real in her senses, making her laugh back at him, dismissing the thought, interested in what shooting exercise lay ahead, keen to break out her Marlin 336, able to kill large cows and bigger with a single round.

The master at arms, Kevin went over the safety drills, Carla going through and explaining the motions of her action positions, Enrico listening quietly at her side, the Marlin quickly pulled to pieces and reassembled, and rechecked, Carla then given the ok to belt up with one hundred rounds, a formidable-looking cannon over her shoulder as they left. With radio checks completed, the map Enrico gave her the only guide, once again her GPSNAV watch getting them to the exact point as shown, and after an hour of jungle trekking, Enrico called in they had arrived. The sight before her was amazing.

The destination above their camp, higher up the mountain, her description a quarry of some sort, a row of benches at various heights at one end, the other end a dug out mud wall, a few hundred metres away, covered in bits of whatever was lying around, car doors, some old oil drums, bottles, plates and other such things, spread about the place, laid out as targets. Even some bits of an old war plane, the painted circles, still visible, tempting targets, waiting to have holes drilled in them. Carla spied an old surfboard, her eyebrows raised, Enrico unable to explain how that got there. She spent some time setting up her range, excited to let off some steam, the Marlin capable of dismembering water buffalo or bigger with a single round. A few hours later, her hands shaking, another spent cartridge ejected into the drum to her right, the board, in chunks and pieces, no longer recognizable, the red circles of the plane wings, drilled to her satisfaction with holes, concrete blocks utterly destroyed, roofing tin, shredded. She was a reasonable shot, dangerously cool and collected with firearms in her hands. The smile on her face when Enrico called time showed she enjoyed her range time, the morning disruption to her day and the ugly incident with David, a distant memory.

Enrico showed the team around the old mine site, long abandoned because of a massive underground explosion and funding foreclosures, Carla somehow sniffing out two more old servers from the long deserted huts and overgrown buildings, determined to return with them, her computer skills with some work to do to bring them back to life. They found no other items of interest, the call to return to camp issued soon after lunch, an hour and a half for the return trip. Carla carried one computer box carefully guarding it from damage, determined to keep it and find out if it worked, possibly useful, her curiosity providing her with the drive and stamina to carry it back, the guides swapping out with the other one, sharing the load around, Carla refusing to give hers up.

Back at camp and with her weapons checked and signed back in, straight off for a refreshing shower. She had not seen Janet since breakfast, her mind at the minute on the morning play, wondering what she was up to as she pleasured herself for a time, the hot water running out before she climaxed, reluctantly getting out and into fresh clothes and boots. Back in her office, a do not disturb notice on her door this time, she opened the two computer boxes, making notes on her desk pad, one well corroded and maybe only good for spare parts, the other in excellent condition. She dug out a screen, keyboard, mouse, and the cables to set it up, giving it time to breathe the humidity out of it, blasting it with cool dry air from a desk fan, or risk blowing stuff up when she turned it on. The fans still moved when she spun them, the power supply fan quietly responding, spinning on mains power test. Leaving it for a while she put the spare one away, going through her notes on the computer specs, finding to her surprise it was one of the original mine site servers, who knows what secrets it might hold.

Returning to it later on, she took the useable parts from both boxes, making one super box, and powering it up, she jumped for joy, clapping her hands when the boot screen appeared and the booting up process started. Connecting it to an isolated service and power, to protect her working one from damage, the file verification and recovery process began, the password battery long dead, luckily left in factory mode, no guesswork needed. The old computer still worked, despite years of neglect, a gold mine from a disused mine for her. Carla breathed a sigh of relief and in computer heaven, starting the file recovery process then left it to run, monitoring it while working on her mapping, her GPSNAV watch finding her shooting range quarry site to the exact coordinates, perplexed how she had not come across it before, the detail clearly visible under zoom, a note made against the site, of the number of rounds fired, their lunch and the two computer boxes found in a long abandoned store hut. She blocked out all external influences, her door firmly closed and off limits, even Ellie, the scientific office told sternly to leave her in peace, no mention of animals or trekking to find things, Enrico leaving her to do her thing and to do it well. He buzzed her later in the day, inviting her to dinner, even Janet getting a no reply.

Getting the computer up and running the straightforward part, and after several hours of recovery and restoring the original system carefully back to operating glory, Carla making a frightening discovery. The old site maps were fine, just ancient by up to fifty years, but matching none the less, on her end. The logarithm and ground data files, however, for determining ground density and core product were way out, hers taken from the old back up when she found holes in her original data that were unexplainable. She put everything on hold to investigate her find, the old computer easily giving up to her the location of every natural mineral resource within a two hundred-mile radius, and then she crunched the numbers, screaming out in shock at the numbers displayed on her screen. Billions of dollars in raw materials were sitting right underneath and all around them, and for miles around, her old periodic elements charts coming in handy when she shakily went over the core sample records, some dating back fifty years or more. She ran the tests again to verify the numbers, getting more information the second time around, fossilisation records dating back millions of years appeared in her data. Carla hurriedly attached more screens to expand her work, linking up an old storage back up box on permanent power, still alive even if the power went out, capturing everything she was looking at. She buzzed Enrico and Janet for some dinner, keeping her secret and emotions in check. The time well past dinner, by now starving hungry.

Dinner soon arrived, Enrico recognizing the box she was fussing over, a multitude of screens flickering all kinds of data as she whizzed over the antiquated keyboard. She called out hello to them both, asking Janet to lock the door, smiling at them, handing out to Enrico her first evaluation report. "You gotta be fucking kidding me", he blurted out in English, Carla with her hands flying, smashing out more data, shaking her head, a stern, "no, and no, it's correct. I've checked it over again", verifying the accuracy of her findings before printing an element report. "I've checked it over and over and it's correct, then I called you quietly". She stood up straight, her arms folded, lips pursed, a don't test me stare in her gaze. Millions of years old minerals lay all around them, gems, gold, precious metals, her mineral deposits list went on for pages, all in abundance, they were rich beyond belief and for centuries to come. We can go fossick in a creek just over here, she pointed to a line on her wall map, there's a ton of gold in that seam alone, her fingers pointing to an infra-red image, a density difference, the acoustic responses to ground testing nearby verifying between both systems that a huge seam of something lay a few hundred metres to the south. A rough terrain, rainy season creek lay there, snaking its way down the mountain on her maps, in exactly the same position according to her GPSNAV watch, hiding a wealth in mineral deposits. "Are you sure?", Enrico demanding reassurance from her as to the accuracy of the facts, Carla adamant the numbers were accurate. He handed the report to Janet, telling her to keep it confidential until verified, Janet's eyes popping, "that's fucking insane", her response after reading page one, the three of them glancing at each other. Enrico called a closed meeting over the radio, informing the management team where they were, not out of the ordinary, they were taking dinner, Carla working overtime on a new computer model for a new potential site, the response, they were all good. Carla dumped pages of data on the minerals records, pinning info tabs to her wall map, then came across some documents that made her shiver, printing them after backing them up to her own secure server, one of them in particular, a disturbing read, her hair standing on end as she read some sections out loud for Enrico and Janet to hear.

Continued.

Janet & Carla's Jungle Peril. Part 12.

"Paper Trail Betrayal."

By the early hours of the morning, Carla had GPS plotted several nearby locations, worthy of initial investigation for a survey team, a months work in advance, her computer data model on the old server she found at the mine, producing a model of mineral data like nothing she had seen before. It dated the maps and data entries back fifty years or more, and pinpoint accurate to minutes and seconds on the physical ground. Somehow, a team had spent decades in secret, surveying the mountain ridge and plateau they were sitting on and for miles around, a lifetimes work, the long-lost journals and documents, if truthful, told a story of mis-management, sabotage, and murder, a plot afoot to keep the truth of the mass of underground wealth private. An accident on a massive scale, the damning reports and evidence, documents and other secret information, due for release to expose the scam, an explosion of epic proportions causing hundreds of deaths, closing the operations company down, corporate espionage, deceit and murder on a grand scale.

Enrico spent some time going over Carla's report on her computer find, pages long, a detailed log from the second she stumbled upon it, under a pile of rubbish in an abandoned site hut in the mountainside, the day she innocently explored the old site and let off a few rounds of her firearms, til the recommendations page and closing statement, this document alone, highly classified, people would die if the information got into the wrong hands or became public knowledge. She got the rusted out box operational over the course of a few weeks under Enrico's watchful eye, carefully documenting the progress she made in restoring it to health, the rusted out case discarded, carefully bench building it on a static mat in her office, replacing cables, and after delicate component repairs, she got it to run, her computer skills top notch.

The second box held in secret, years of site data logs of ground samples and ground survey reports, employment records and a few documents listing the personal information of everyone who worked at the site, dating back fifty years, back to the time of the first visits and surveys. Also found were medical reports, hundreds of workers either dead or missing over the course of the site's operations. Carla read and compiled her evidence carefully, Enrico locking everything away securely, the information recovered telling of greed, disaster and murder on a grand scale to keep the lid on the wealth underground secret, a pile of dangerous damning evidence in their hands. Absolutely billions of dollars in wealth, beyond comprehension, lay all around them, someone actively involved in deliberately shutting the place down, the information never seeing the light of day until now.

A month later, the accurate surveys, ground samples and acoustic models completed and drawn up, pointing to surface gold worth thousands of dollars alone, scratching the surface as to the extent of it all, Carla's model, deadly accurate as to the location underground, Enrico calling a secure management meeting to discuss the next step. A select few persons attended, Janet excluded, the information sensitive, Enrico allowing Carla to produce a meeting report only, withholding all the bad news, the meeting going on for hours behind locked doors. Carla spent her meeting time recalculating her numbers, some skeptical of her figures, the proof in her thirty surveys and samples, spot on at every site, her numbers highly accurate. The team sat in stunned silence at the news, the legal team suggesting for a committee, instituted to manage the project independently, perhaps even buy out the licence rights and start their own licenced mining and exploration project, the eyes all round the room, everyone on edge at the suggestion. Enrico called for calm and for silence, everyone with the same thoughts, how could they possibly raise the funding to buy out the project.

Carla, in one sentence, "I can ask NASA for money, in exchange for gold for spaceships. I've been there and have some contacts at the top, I've almost been up there, on my way to Mars, but couldn't afford the insurance or the cost of travel to pass the exams and re-survey my crater, they even named it after me, I found out later on." The group sat in silence for a few minutes, each to their own thoughts.

Enrico studied her carefully with his eyes, Carla quietly circling the table as they discussed the possibility of such a venture, stopping behind him, her hands confidently on his shoulders, her thumbs and fingers, delicately caressing his neck as he surveyed the surrounding responses, not missing anything. "I can invite someone here for a visit, perfect for an observation of a near stellar event or comet. The air is clean, the view spectacular from up here. I can get some equipment sent in and do some star mapping and ground mapping to verify the numbers, let's say the electronic math is wrong, why not verify the equations using the stars? My concern though," she paused, "the Impa and these people and the county's retched government, and," she paused again, "we have an open licence." Carla dumped a pile of reports on the site's commercial holdings on the table, offering for each person to read one. Enrico jumped at the pile, reading the top one out loud. She had gone to great lengths in researching the site licences and obligations to all parties, the parent company sending her piles of documents without question, Carla asking up front when she started work at the mine for the option for a licence and legitimate claim rights, the parent company willing to come to the table, but for a price. "How did you get this, and what idiot gave it to you?", his glare in her direction. "I saw the potential, and asked a few questions," her casual reply as she continued calmly circling the room. "NASA is interested in mining Mars, straight up, so we can live there, and beyond, so why not offer them rights to mine on earth first, gotta start somewhere, might as well be here. We've certainly discussed it over the last four decades at the highest level, a perfect reason for the ball to roll in our direction, under the guidance of the US military and space administration." "Erestos Espergo, will get notified accordingly of an interest in partnering. If NASA buys out the project in the interest of science, exploration, and assessing a viable space raw materials program worth billions, so much the better, and, if the raw materials needed lay at their feet, a simple carrot before the donkey," she added.

Carla had become the operations manager of her own project, in her mind, perfectly achievable, and certainly viable, and she continued on. "NASA, are certainly bait able to come to the table, certainly able to buy out the operation, and the country, if the stakes were high enough, and there's no shortage of cash. Mars research indeed, well within the space agency capabilities, the essential materials to build the machines to get them there, right under our feet, and I'm here, helping them get there." She finished up, slumping back in her chair, her face covered with her hands, not daring to look up at the reactions, all eyes staring at her, the group in silence. She felt a soft touch on her right arm. "Honey, if you can pull that off, you can have my Amazon stocks in full." The person next to her, in disbelief at her suggestion and blunt proposal.

Maybe young and nae, but on this business, Carla, top of her game, sharp as a tack, bold as brass, openly throwing it out there of the option to buy out the project and fund research on Mars, making billions of innocent dollars, wealth beyond belief. Incredible to some present, thinking after serious discussion, it might work. "Are you sure of the value underground?", a serious question, directed at her. Carla lept from her seat, pulling down her newly created minerals dispersal site map on the wall behind them, holding it down until it locked in place. The colors intense, splattered over hundreds of miles around them, then pulled down a transparent color terrain map, locking it down over the top, providing a visual of the ground elevation, with the deposit's information underneath it. "I got this one from NASA defence satellite imaging last month thanks to Janet and EROS," Carla describing her maps, her infra red pointer, directing their attention to features and color points, her eyes fixed on Enrico, looking for his support and backing, finding a blank stare, her eyes moving on around the group. Her wall computer screen then crunched out the numbers based on deposit density and world market figures, the dollar figure on her screen, causing an explosion of discussion, the value displayed, hundreds of billions of US dollars.

Continued.

Janet & Carla's Jungle Peril. Part 13.

"The first woman on Mars".

"You have got to be fucking insane, girl," an immediate response across the table. Carla's classic response to the negative attitude, "did you ever ask for the whole apple pie from your mother, in front of the guests?". "No," she elaborated. "You took a small piece, and with cream when offered, savouring the sweets, desiring the whole pie, yet not with the means to digest it." "So you waited patiently, savouring a small piece at a time, until they left the rest and you could take more of it, sometimes to share, sometimes for only yourself." "With the approval of the board granted I will draft an invitation report to NASA, offering a proposal, and wait for a response," her resolute stare at each person, Enrico in awe of her ability to present such a proposal, her idea so far off the map it seemed ridiculous to even consider it.

A month later, she excitedly called Enrico for another meeting. Exploration on another site underway, her reports on the deposits at their feet, a ground mineral seam rich in Tantalum, worth billions in its raw state, sought after and valuable, useable in electronic manufacturing. Millions of exact tolerance electronic components needed, a space ship costing six billion, two hundred billion the projected cost to get a team of four humans on Mars, around twenty years for the project timeline. Carla focused on a confidential costings report from NASA, her security clearance getting instant approval to access it, the normal process taking months. According to her site data she had available resources for two potential space vessels in the ground, according to the minerals and elements in the raw form report, the space agency requesting immediate confirmation of her numbers, someone realising the potential value of the ground elements, her background checks giving her the green light to make further comment and provide more information as requested.

Carla met with Enrico and the management board again, reading from her NASA report, discussions underway in private and behind closed doors, an immediate security embargo on the highly sensitive information, Erestos Espergo receiving a request from NASA to visit the site and hold private meetings to discuss the possibility of joint ventures in mining natural resources in the interest of space science. The process had begun a long way from a Mars landing, but at least the process had motion. She received more funding from NASA, a wardrobe and uniforms arriving in an airdrop at her quarry, the site taking weeks to prepare, all site rubbish removed, the old site offices partially restored and the power reconnected, major repair work on the power generation systems, building repairs taking weeks, NASA getting the green light to set up camp and test first hand the progress of operations, the initial reports encouraging, the lengthy legal processes passing the approvals, although the US Appropriations Committee took their time with some approvals, in lengthy discussions in secret, the lid shut tight on the project. Her next confidential report sending Carla into stunned silence.

NASA purchased the abandoned upper level mine for an undisclosed sum, a team soon arriving to take control and manage the project, Erestos Espergo jumping at the chance to recoup from a failed investment, eagerly coming to the table in discussions, happy to be rid of the project once and for all, fifty years of financial waste, embarrassment and legal turmoil finally behind them. Carla appointed to the site management committee as senior survey manager and ambassador, Enrico given a seat as observer, a NASA senior official soon arriving, laying the groundwork of the project, popping champagne the day the announcement became official, a team taking only a few weeks to get the site back to operational status, a small NASA chopper flown in for site hopping, an industrial strength landing strip for loading small choppers hastily built at the lower site, the jungle cleared and the ground reinforced, their own scientific survey team flown in to review Carla's survey work and her projected extreme numbers, taking their time to carefully evaluate the accuracy of her work.

Three months of repeated surveys later, Carla's piles of reports and compelling evidence meeting the NASA standards approval, her ground data now classified US government property, no further mention of their work in dinosaurs or minerals in any public forums or information libraries, removed from existence. She proudly wore her NASA office uniform with USN Ensign badge to her next lower site management team meeting, the mess hall transformed into a boardroom, forty invitees, security staff at the door preventing unauthorized entry. Her only gripe waving a reg flag to a bull for an eternity, someone in the top brass finally waking up. All eyes on her stocking clad legs under her short skirt as she chaired the meeting, the clip clip clip of her shoes, softly walking about, dressing up an important part of business, a little smugness wouldn't hurt, her cheeky subtle gaze at Ellie, making her blush, shifting uncomfortably in her seat. Ellie and Janet took seats as observers, Carla keen to address the archaeological and paleontological aspects of her recommendations, this aspect pure science, handing exciting work to Ellie's team, brushing her neck as she went by her chair, passing a sharp static shock through her fingers, Ellie shivering, catching her breath, a sense of insecurity at the rush of blood to her face, sizzling contact on her skin. Carla cold as ice pointing out NASA's interests in the scientific value of finding what appeared to be dinosaurs as a side project, the go ahead given to explore that quietly, based on her photos and videos, displaying them on a projector on the wall of the mess hall, oohs's and ahh's from the NASA team, the evidence overwhelming as to the existence of such creatures, the go ahead given to gather as much information as was possible and quietly.

Her pile of reports handed out, kicking her chair with her foot after the piles of sandwiches found their way over, stuffing her face with one as she read through her summary, casually circling the boardroom tables, no less than thirty members from all departments, cheekily taking up Enrico's hat and dumping in on her head, A soft touch on his shoulder, a wink and soft smile, a nod that she could wear it, Janet shaking her head, the warning look as her tensions pricked up, the girl treading on thin ice over that, never touch that hat, sacred property to her, Enrico giggling over her facial response. The meeting went on for hours, NASA finally getting a say in projections and timelines, outlining the plans for the future.

"The Whole Pie".

Her office moved permanently, spending more time up top, qualifying for her chopper licence, her wings granted after flight exams and one hundred hours flight time, properly assessed as competent to take to the skies. NASA now her employer, Carla promoted to the office of project systems information manager, Janet disappointed at seeing less of her, no one ever considering their work or her impact on it would explode into the juggernaut it had become. Enormous amounts of funding thrown at them for the next five years, a private company set up to manage the mining and business affairs, licences approved and granted, the management committee and herself becoming wealthy individuals almost overnight.

Security was tight, almost constricting, her neck tag getting her access to everywhere and everything, no longer the survey intern, Carla coaching others in her ground survey and mapping skills, her knowledge of the accepted systems and practices, mandatory safety systems, and her maturity beyond her years, later on earning her Masters in Geological Survey, her university professors in awe of her achievements. Now in her second year onsite, the time passing quickly, her credits stacking up faster than she imagined, four graduate certificates on her wall in her office in only two years, her NASA flight certificate and Navy Ensign badge and plaque pride of place on her desk, along with the first photos she took two years earlier of Enrico and Janet kissing, the day she first set foot in the country. She was fast becoming legend, hot property in the science editorials, strange thing was, apart from some vague details on her hand feeding long extinct dinosaurs and her achievements on extreme distance Mars crater surveys, no information on how to contact her, her education and academics and other personal information existed under search, a complete whiteout, a NASA internal website mentioning her as an information systems contact, otherwise invisible.

One night, delayed with some surveys in her old office, and too late to chopper back in the dark, she returned to her old hut for the night, kept as it was, her uniform, hat and spear where she had left them, the enormous snake head beautifully preserved, the gleaming bright eyes, a constant reminder of her stare at Janet, moments before she blasted it lifeless. Spending the night at the lower camp, Janet and Enrico joining her, her Glenfiddich from two years before still three quarters full, and slightly aged, passed around and enjoyed Carla taking an enjoyable break from work. The topics of discussion, dinosaurs and reptiles, and the first woman on the Moon or Mars, laughter all around at the thought. A long-term bond and strong friendship between themselves, cemented by a near death experience, Janet forever grateful for her life, indebted to Carla forever for saving hers, lovingly holding hands as they sat and chatted, the strong emotional attachment every time their eyes met. The unusual cool of the dry season night air drifted through the pegged open hut door, spending most of the night up talking. Enrico and Janet taking up living quarters together some months earlier, Carla missing that event, their obvious relationship and connection now out in the open, a strong long term magnetic attraction between them, now inseparable, some light discussion of a marriage, Carla overjoyed at the news.

Completing her pre-start checks the next morning after breakfast, a few interested folk watching on, a warning light appeared on the instrument panel of her flying machine, Carla wisely calling in for a safety and maintenance check, her personal inspection not picking up anything damaged or broken, the tropical climate taking its toll quickly on machines. A mechanical repairs team quickly ordered and dispatched to inspect it, finding a stress fault in some delicate components in the rear rotor turbine, a fatal crash the result if it failed mid-flight. Carla loved her chopper, taking Janet for aerial sorties, NASA building a console for her, designed around her GPSNAV watch, a similar device fitted for survey sorties, a test project to test a navigation prototype device.

Her machine repaired the next day, she took Janet for a quick spin, Janet's stomach turning during the precarious flight, Carla standing the agile craft on its nose on a tall rocky spire, thousands of feet high, one skid lightly touching down, Janet screaming for her to get her back down, her hands on the windscreen and terrified, the ground thousands of feet below her, the small craft magically defying gravity. Carla laughed hysterically as she took photos of the view, returning an anxious Janet safely to earth, fighting with the seat restraints in a panic to get back on the ground with her feet, Carla leaving after lunch, confirming her chopper was operating normally, zooming upwards, loving her newfound appreciation for flight, dreaming of the day she could take off for Mars to survey her crater in person, that event a miracle if it ever took place, her eyes on the whole apple pie, desiring it all, no question of doubt in her mind at her ability to achieve it. NASA rewarded her handsomely for her efforts on projects and towards team goals, not a mere fluke in the void of science, this girl actually thought about the processes to make crazy ideas a reality, no road block standing in her way.

Mining operations began in small test drillings, the Tantalum field she stumbled across, one of the richest, Carla's chemistry skills getting a workout, quickly moving from mapping and survey to geology, learning about mineral atom density as she broke down the samples and analyzed them, her Tantalum find a rare technology-critical element, highly corrosive resistant, a small pile after separating under gravity worth millions of dollars in the raw form, and she was sitting on hundreds of tons of it, the newly formed and secret raw materials division of the space agency performing cartwheels over her samples, over ninety percent pure in most cases. Her long list of rare-earth or valuable elements across her maps, mostly high grade metals in easily separable ores, reducing the costs of extraction extensively. Carla applied herself to geology, smashing out a one year university short course in less than six months, working tirelessly, her fifth certificate presented by Janet, all pride at that meeting, except for realising that her words three years earlier, "she wasn't to become her boss just yet" had become reality. Janet watched as Carla, initially an inexperienced, nae and fragile girl, transitioned into maturity, her management skills and enthusiasm towards achieving audacious goals amazing, able to carry anyone with her in everything she put her mind to, achieving unbelievable success through every obstacle, even defying gravity in a tiny chopper a feat Janet would never experience again, refusing every offer to get in for another ride, more than slightly jealous of her one time understudy. Carla in complete control of her environment, her eyes on the whole pie to be the first woman on Mars, digging up and processing the first raw materials then handing them to the people designing and building the spaceships on a plate.

The first three years of surveys, mapping, test core drilling, analyzing then extracting and processing raw materials passed quickly, the timeline for the project signed off for a further five years, fully funded for up to ten. Carla completed her second year in geology on her twenty-fifth birthday, and a mind twisting pre-space flight orientation exam, her Lieutenant Jr Grade commission not long after that, the project office throwing her a surprise birthday party, the site chefs delivering an enormous feast, everyone eating heartily for days afterwards.

Two high-level science lab technicians arrived from Houston, assisting Carla in the raw products lab, the work shared among three geologists and expanding quickly, the type and quality of the required product highly critical, ahead of the project timeline and under budget. The first shipments of minerals in small tonnage, carefully batched and made ready for transport, farewelled to great fanfare, the day marked importantly and historically on the calendar, the expense to get it underway worth it. Janet's university expanded its core earth sciences and geology programs, sending fresh interns to learn the ropes, Enrico repeating the task many times as performed three years earlier, except his salary had doubled, Janet promoted to survey operations manager, taking over Carla's computer office and missing her company, Carla now chained to the upper mine site, up to her neck in rocks and the space program.

"A few small steps for Mankind".

Carla received the news her critical first exams on pre-space flight and near earth navigation passed with merit and in the bag, receiving a letter of commendation and an invitation to Houston, a pioneer for future women of space, a second set of gruelling follow-up tests completed not long after, her Mars crater surveying work from a few years before the big test, expanding on her original work, a prototype console of her GPSNAV watch launched to the outer limits of earth atmosphere, tested in mapping the globe in small chunks, Carla invited to test fly it, more than qualified by her extensive experience on earth to take it off the ground. Janet heartbroken at the news, leaving for the space station to remap the surface of the moon using a prototype later design system, Carla's job initially, at one hundred thousand feet to get accurate detailed information on ground composition and mineral density based on her Mars crater experiment, the expectation in her accuracy on the ground, maintained the further from the ground you went, dynamite on paper but untested in the real world.

"A few small steps for mankind," Carla's last words to Janet the day she left, a quivering in her voice, hugs and tears of goodbye, sad to leave her work family behind three short years after she nervously arrived, passing her Geology Masters not long after, flying a new chopper out to sea for pickup by the Navy, stunned to receive her Second Lieutenant commission while at sea, passing the course with merit, her prototype NAVSIT console passing all tests. Her future awaited her though, excited to be going home for a while then upwards, like kilometers upwards to get her space legs to prepare for the space station, the real test making her survey systems accurately map across vast distances, NASA keen to inspect the results while the ships to map near-earth bodies in space became actual machines, capable of getting them there.

Six months later, during a survey team meeting in the early hours of the morning in Ellie's office over an important fresh find the phone rang, Ellie taking it up, an immediate alert on her desk video screen, someone calling in via video phone. "Hello", her cautious response down the phone line, gazing at the blank screen on her desk. A few seconds later, Carla appeared on her screen, waving and speaking, the audio a few seconds behind, Ellie screaming out in sheer surprise, everyone rushing over in excitement to see what the fuss was about. "Hey everyone", a familiar voice on the speaker, Janet almost collapsing, her emotions getting away from her, slumped in a chair, visibly upset. Carla incredibly lying flat, swinging around in the air in zero gravity and tethered to something, dressed in a weird-looking space outfit, her hands waving, "look ma, no hands," the team clapping and cheering in response. "We are making seventeen thousand kilometers an hour above you, so I have only a minute to say hi as we pass over." Janet sobbed, unable to speak, Enrico comforting her, his arms over her shoulders, calling out to Carla asking what it was like up there. "The view is amazing, come look," Carla turning a remote camera in her hand towards a nearby spaceport window, the view of the earth spectacular at night. She turned the camera back to herself, moving closer to the monitor. "How are you guys doing way down there," recognizing everyone crammed around the video screen, Enrico wrapped around Janet as she struggled to control her emotions, taken by complete surprise at seeing her live on the screen, a quick minute to chat the only time available. "I got the report on the dinosaurs, Ellie, was a great read. Whose idea was the Carlasaurus, anyway." The line went dead before anyone could respond, the space station travelling at close to seventeen thousand kilometres per hour, using the earths gravity to sling them around in the void of space like a stone on the end of a string swung around at high speed. Janet sat in stunned silence, moved to tears at seeing Carla zooming around in space and hearing her voice, her memories of their time together repeated over in her mind, saving her life with a bullet having a huge impact on her, the intimate times shared treasured memories forever.

Carla passed her Mission Specialist NASA Class II space physical and pre-deep space flight assignments in fine style, her medical checkups met with disgust, frequent uncomfortable tests performed on her body and mind, time in space having a detrimental effect on human mental and physical capabilities well documented since the 1950s. Week after week in a claustrophobic tiny simulator, or nauseated, her virtual spacecraft performing its functions flawlessly, side scanning her allocated zones with pinpoint accuracy, hundreds of photographs and side scans later, her project getting the tick of approval. Losing some weight and suffering from fatigue upon her return to earth, spending months in recovery, her body clock slowly adjusting and returning to normal, her Melatonin reactions recorded as normal. Eager to get the all clear to take a break, spending some time at home with family, then the offer of making presentations at her university, leaving as an intern, returning a qualified female class 2 astronaut and Navy Second Lieutenant, her presence in lecture rooms, at study groups and meal times causing chaos, everyone excited to meet her, grab selfies and learn more of her exploits. Her duty then required her to return to sea for a full tour of assignment to prepare for promotion exams.

Not everyone passed the pre-space flight medicals and gruelling exams, Carla in the top two percent of her classes, graduating with honors in everything she attempted, her Silver NASA Flight Pin now Gold, and a promotion in rank in line with her command in space and academic achievements. Her return trip at sea of nine months an absolute blast, her new bird capable of standing on its tail or nose while hovering still, a feat she would repeat often, a female Class 2 NASA pilot re-writing the flying rule book on choppers, some daring stunts performed while at sea. On one flight holding the bird tail high vertical over the attack cruiser's pitching flight deck as it made fifteen knots, the officer on watch going berserk at the scene, another even more daring, a survival at sea pick up of a sinking vessel's crew. An emergency EPIRB beacon and distress call going out, the fleet immediately altering course to intercept in a class 2 tropical storm, Carla hovering dangerously low to the waves in high seas, lighting up the survivors life rafts, a dangerous rescue of fifteen terrified sailors. Carla cooly put her male counterparts to shame, her mission completed without incident, the first flight crew refusing to take off from the fleet carrier as it pitched and rolled dangerously in a high seas, an embarrassment to the fleet air arm. A woman from NASA, and decorated naval officer safely completing the task without flinching after calmly volunteering her services to save them, her classified NAVSIT panel locking onto the EPIRB signal, guiding the rescue team straight to it in zero visibility, the rescued sailors grateful for their lives and stunned to find a female pilot at the head of the rescue mission after it was all over.

Her boredom over the surrounding men at sea gave her the chance to study hard and blow off some steam, showing them a thing or two about flight and what it is to command men, not once considering personal contact, silently wishing for attractive female company and finding none, often thinking of Janet and what she was up to at night in her hut. She joined the fleet navigation team upon request a short time after making First Lieutenant, easily passing her Command Officers exams, taking watch at night, driving the ship, skipping the regular queue to promotion to First Lieutenant a full year early, her early promotion causing a wave of protests, the ship's executive officer having none of it. Carla showed them all up by her cool head under extreme pressure and ability to get the job done, her XO enthusiastically thanking her for her service before she left, her promotion to Lieutenant Commander on the flight deck of the carrier, awarded by the then fleet Admiral, the entire officer staff in parade dress for the award ceremony, offering her a permanent station in his first line of attack fleet if she wished it. His glowing report of her service, broadcast to the entire ship of her exemplary performance, a commendation of bravery in her personal file from her previous XO, a second ribbon of service bar presentation for her NASA Class 2 certification, no mention of the rescue mission making the public news. She politely refused a permanent billet with her old XO as Fleet Navigation and Flight Operations Officer, sending him a personal letter of thanks and reluctant refusal stating her sound reasons.

A world away, another year of survey mapping and mining progressed towards Christmas, mining operations switching to high gear, raw materials output and delivery increasing by the month as systems of delivery of service improved. A call on the comms a few days later of incoming transport, Enrico keeping this information quiet, Janet unaware Carla was returning to complete further survey work, new equipment developments requiring immediate testing before launching into the void of space on a newly built survey rocket, her first real test, an unmanned deployment to the moon, Carla's job to map in more detail, a small potential landing zone requiring thorough investigation, the mine site the most suitable and cheapest place to work from on the ground, the altitude and clean air the best option for accurate results when processing commands to the tiny craft she would drive single-handed, UV interference and pollution at sea level possibly disrupting the signals significantly, putting the twenty billion dollar project precariously at risk of failure, not an option for concerned investors.

Three days later, a call through the comms at site to prepare for incoming transport the next morning, the recovery team scrambling to the landing pad later that day for a mock emergency drill, fire and safety teams in a rush to receive crippled incoming air transport, two teams of change over scientists on rotation arriving for real the next morning, one craft to remain behind, a newly fitted out chopper arriving in support, Enrico in sheer joy after reading the passenger list, a familiar name, the pilot of the second craft carrying important research equipment and passengers, Enrico relieved to see her returning safely to earth and recovered.

He called a site management meeting the evening before, presenting a checklist to the team of what to expect the next morning, delicate equipment arriving, the outgoing team, preparing to leave, accommodation made ready for the new arrivals. Enrico invited Janet to attend the arrival with him the next morning, an hour trek up the mountain after breakfast, the lower site team ready to receive incoming, needing to man handle some equipment back down, the upper mine site with the space to handle the larger choppers, Carla in command of the second smaller craft, arriving later, her flight licence limiting her to smaller capacity vehicles only.

The sound of rotors faintly at first in the distance an hour after they arrived up top, radar plotting confirming two craft, one a few minutes behind the first, the landing platforms made ready the day before, a cool head needed to land choppers halfway up a mountain in higher altitude. The ground crews took cover, the enormous chopper creating much excitement, one this size never seen at this higher altitude, carefully depositing its payload safely unhooking, hovering overhead, the load quickly fork lifted away, touching down delicately, the noise from the rotors deafening. Enrico in awe at the size of it through the viewing platform window, capable of safely airlifting tons of equipment, great skill needed to maneuver it, Navy pilots with years of extensive training, greeting him as they signed in, quickly taken to their short stay quarters for a shower, change of uniform, a tasty hot meal and site induction.

Ten minutes after the first chopper shut down the second one arrived, glinting in the sunlight, the familiar blue NASA logo plastered all over it, the US Defence Logo on the nose, the pilot and co-pilot behind the reflective nose screen, hidden from onlookers. This one a smaller cousin, delicately landing on the pad, the whirring of the rotors however much louder than the one before, taking a full minute to shut down, a ground crew running over to open the hatch and lock down the wheel chocs, Carla expertly dropping the delicate machine with pinpoint accuracy, dropping the power plant into cool down mode for a minute, shutting the enormous blades down once her instrument panel shutdown sequence lights switched to green. The ground crews tied down the blades of both choppers, securely bolting both aircraft to the ground, the cargo soon emptied, Enrico getting the green tarmac light to venture out to the landing pad to welcome the new arrivals, their bags soon unloaded. Five NASA changeover crew and equipment on the second team safely on the ground, the pilot the last person to leave the vehicle.

Carla left her helmet on as she softly stepped down the ladder, patting her new baby for its safe delivery as she touched the ground, loving her brand new vehicle and current on earth assignment, a class 2 NASA pilot and Navy Lieutenant Commander, her point of departure a secret location far out to sea, the trip taking over two hours to complete. Janet stayed behind the white painted line in front of her, not having the flight crew certification, greeting the new arrivals, accepting their deployment credentials and personnel folders, marking off their individual ID tags and calling in that all were present except for one. Taking her flight bag over her shoulder and removing her helmet, replacing it with her pilots cap, her NASA wings proudly displayed on her cap above her two-and-a-half bars, Carla grinned from ear to ear as she removed her flight glasses, Enrico and Janet immediately recognizing the pilot. She ran the last few metres to greet him, dropping her bags and lunged at him, wrapping her arms and legs around him as he spun her around, a long embrace and kiss between them, Enrico eventually putting her down, a long hug between them, Carla overjoyed to be home, if only for a short time. He walked arm in arm with her, taking her bags, Janet with tears of joy streaming down her face as she stepped over the line, Carla running into her arms, longing for the moment they would meet again, so much to catch up on. Janet's vision blurred as she marked her off her checklist, checking her military ID and signed her in, Carla handing over her papers for checking, Janet confirming over the radio everyone had checked in.

"I'm starving", Carla declared, Enrico showing her the way to the security checkpoint, the guard at the door standing smartly at attention, saluting her rank of Lieutenant Commander, Carla thanking him with a firm salute in return, her ID tag clicking the door lock, the light turning green, clearance to enter the site buildings. Her bags disappeared to her modest lay over suite, and after a hot shower and change into less formal uniform, she dived into a hot fresh meal, on station since 4am, her last meal at sea at 2am. Savouring the delicious meal, in amazement at the changes to the site since the day she let off a few rounds from her rifle a few years earlier. Janet kept her personal distance through Carla's meal and site induction, shaking hands with the outgoing crew as they prepared to leave, Carla wishing them well on their way as they departed, spending time on the pad with the flyback crew, assisting with final checks on her headset, banging loudly on the hatch after she secured it in place, the large chopper's engines taking a full minute to get the blades to takeoff speed. Carla stood in front of the cabin, giving the all clear to lift off, raising her arms up and down slowly as the chopper lifted off, her arms guiding the pilot as it made clearance, her arms across her chest, showing it was clear of obstruction and the direction of travel, saluting the pilot as the bird turned, the engines becoming a roar as it left, the racket audible for some time after it disappeared from view.

Janet stood back in silence, taking in the scene as the huge chopper departed for sea on the return leg, Carla returning with equipment for testing, then who knows what, not in a position to discuss her assignments. The rest of the day spent on catch up, Enrico offering a tour around the revamped mine site, an excitement about the place, a multitude of people hearing quickly of Carla's arrival, Ellie's voice over the radio excitedly asking if she had landed. She inspected the minerals stillages, three times the space as before taken up by batching equipment, the raw materials carefully sealed, weighed then labelled, military security staff on guard around the clock. Retiring to her quarters for the night after another good meal, ready for a good nights sleep, a soft knock at her door as she prepared to turn in, Janet softly asking if she could visit for a while, eager for her company, unable to rest or relax. Carla welcomed her inside with a genuine smile, sensing her obvious discomfort, quietly closing the door behind them. Janet threw herself at her as it silently shut, a long embrace in silence between them, Enrico wisely giving them space, Janet mentioning earlier to him she would drop in for a catch up. Wrapping around each other, sensuously kissing, Janet savouring the contact, missing her deeply, pulling at her clothes, passionately kissing her with all she had in her, Carla giving her space to get it out of her system, something different about her now, not able to put her finger on it.

"Can I unwrap my birthday present now", Janet's awkward giggling question, Carla catching her breath, unaware her birthday had passed. Resuming their kissing, taking Janet's hand to the zip on her day flight suit, softly pulling it down, whispering "happy birthday", as her suit sprung open. Janet wide eyed at her breasts instantly, turned on by the sight in front of her. Carla had certainly changed while away, developing in her upper body strength, Janet admiring her new shape, hands and lips all over her in excitement, her hands trembling as the flesh in them tightened up and lifted, her nipples hardening quickly at her soft touch, Janet's lips and fingers torture on Carla's body, her own excitement boiling over. "I Love what they have done with you", Janet whispered, spinning them both around, pressing Carla up to the wall of the hut, peeling her flight suit off her shoulders and dropping it to the floor. Her back view was even better, a soft, "Geez Louise", her trembling hands tracing over her muscular frame, kissing her back, her fingertips dropping down her sides, wrapping her arms around her hips, slipping both hands over her taut abdomen, her fingers gently into the front of her underwear, her hands over her mound.

Carla gritted her teeth, her body responding to the physical attention, tensing up from the undeniable sensations growing inside her, a set of hot lips on her back, a soft tongue licking her in places, fingers teasing her body, her breathing in gasps. Janet's breathing quickened in response, her fingers finding moisture and intense heat. Slipping carefully underneath her, Carla gasping at the pleasure of the moment, a thumb pressing on her hardening clit, two fingers hooking over her sensitive bump gently probing her insides and squeezing together, a sharp contraction, a gush over the hand inside her, collapsing into a pleasurable orgasm, her quiet moans in Janet's ears, all she wanted to hear for the rest of the night. Janet wiped her hands all over Carla's trembling, sweaty body, cleaning up the mess with her mouth, moving down her body slowly then between her legs, the mouth contact giving her intense pleasure. Janet ate her for what her life was worth, a muffled, "I owe you my life", her tongue teasing her, sucking her deep into her mouth, Carla gasping for breath, a hand to her mouth to stifle her screams, the noise outside covering up the events taking place inside. She collapsed in orgasmic bliss, screaming as she shook and shuddered, struggling to keep herself upright, covering Janet's face in musky essence as she let go with a bang, Janet gripping her thighs tightly, supporting her weight as she mauled her for all she was worth, sucking and biting down on her with varying pressure, sending Carla into melt down.

The night passed slowly, the dry season night air more pleasant by far. A hot shower later and collapsing into bed in exhaustion, Carla drifted off to sleep, Janet intent on watching over her during the night, her heart breaking as she thought of her leaving, their destiny once entwined, now separating, most likely permanently. She cried herself softly to sleep, waking to her alarm, Carla staring at her as she opened her eyes, a sense of love overwhelming her as she burst into tears, Carla wrapping her up in comfort, pulling the covers up higher, crooning softly as she cradled her in her arms, wrapping her strong legs around her, Janet displaying mixed pent-up emotions at her sudden return after a long absence. Carla had a day up her sleeve, her next scheduled flight to the lower camp with test equipment the next morning.

Her pager on her desk went off, beeping to the point she took up the annoying device to shut it up, the surprising message, asking if she would like breakfast in her quarters, replying with a double helping please and for two. Twenty minutes later it went off again, her breakfast at her door, a soft knock as she silently got up, a towel around herself, her personal security guard smiling at her, two trays of food in hand, officers of rank allowed to dine in quarters. Carla handed the MP at her door twenty bucks US for his trouble, bemused how she deserved security escort, her bird outside under constant guard. She inspected the two steaming hot meals approvingly, slipping silently back into her cot, wrapping around Janet, loving her body warmth, Janet responding with a sleepy who was that. "Just breakfast at my door", Carla laughing as Janet's radio went off, Carla quick to grab it, cheerfully offering good morning to Enrico. Breakfast delivered for two, and we will check in with you later in the morning. There was no reply.

Carla jumped onto her cot, wrestling with Janet, straddling her, stronger and on equal terms, still sensing something wrong, determined to get the annoying splinter in her mind resolved. Janet opened her mouth to speak, Carla smashing her with a loving kiss, restraining her wrists, softly grinding her waist, grinning coyly and laughing at her, softly asking her what the matter was. Janet's composure instantly changed, her happiness vanished. "You're going to leave again, most likely for good", her words trailing off, another soft kiss more seductive than the first meeting her tingling mouth. Carla pulled out the covers from beneath her, throwing them over her, her hands clawing at Janet, teasing her sensitive places, fully aware of what made her tick sexually. She softly dropped on top of her, her mouth to her breasts, Janet exploding, her own fire from last night not dealt with. Carla teased her on purpose, Janet swearing at her for her teasing, desiring release from her lust. Carla painfully slow in her caresses and body torture, Janet exploding the second she mouthed her through her underwear, her tongue barely touching her bulging throbbing clit, bucking against her as she thrashed about, screaming out, electric sensations jolting her body, demanding erotic release from her sexual and nervous tension, her sexplosion lasting minutes, Carla expertly keeping her on edge until she dropped in exhaustion, her morning energy depleted to zero.

A hot shower and change of clothes later, Carla into a fresh day flight suit and boots, bra-less under her T-shirt, diving into breakfast, Janet satisfied in her dreamy morning release and shower, her teeth clenched as Carla ate her into oblivion earlier, her mind still on it as she hungrily dispatched her meal, quiet chat between them on the day ahead. Leaving her hut but not alone, a surprised MP at her door, Janet in alarm asking what was wrong, Carla showing her ID tag and Janet's, "it's OK, just military security", taking her cap off her head as they left, no saluting her today. Carla took her out to her beloved new bird for an inspection, running her hands over the shiny smooth bodywork as she looked it over. "Sorry I can't take you joy riding in this one, it stands on its nose better than the other one", her grin at Janet as she squirmed, the memory of that flight turning her stomach, not daring to ask for another flight. Later on in the morning Enrico called a meeting on the next days equipment transfer, Carla dumping a box of NASA caps for everyone on the table, Enrico tossing her another cowboy hat trophy, passing around the traditional scotch, Carla refusing, the next person refusing to accept it, Carla taking a tiny sip and passing it on silently. She discussed the nature of the flight and the contents, explaining the reasons, quickly handing back to Enrico, resuming her seat next to Janet, almost in her lap, her fingers tenderly stroking her thigh, steam, invisible from Janet's ears as she boiled at the sizzling contact. Janet added her piece to the meeting, shaking off Carla's hand as she stood up. The meeting quickly adjourned, Enrico inviting them back to his office for a minerals briefing, scheduled in two hours.

Carla entered the boardroom, Janet dropping her hand at the door, stuck to her side like glue from the night before, the attendees immediately on their feet, a rousing applause in her honor for a few minutes, Carla with another box of caps, softly dumping them on the table as the noise died down, quietly thanking everyone as she took her seat. Enrico went through the briefing, discussing Carla's original model, including the holes in the data, explaining the problem-solving process. He invited her to take the chair, everyone in anticipation of her comments, Carla spending an hour over viewing her thought process, discovering the mine site's original data, and the process and timeline to their current objectives. Reading from a NASA report, the organisation and investors ecstatic with the results delivered, displaying her original numbers on the screen, stressing the importance of the continuation of their work, thanking everyone for their efforts. She handed around a small sample of high grade Tantalum, explaining its chemical formula and potential. In summary, she noted on the important steps taken to explore the solar system around them, hinting of exploratory work on both the Moon and an upcoming possible unmanned survey mission to Mars and the work involved advancing, and to protect, pioneer and explore opportunities in the future, mentioning obstacles as simply challenges, handing the chair back to Enrico, another rousing applause as she took her seat, taking a good sip of scotch on the second passing.

Enrico asked for questions, Janet immediately raising her hand. "So when do you leave for the moon so we can get to work," the room silent as Carla got up from her seat, eventually dealing with the topic, taking a whiteboard marker in her hand. She drew some circles and a few lines on the board, noting the real time-space distances between them. "Three months of near earth observations from here, that's us," highlighting a dot on a circle, "the moon at 225,000 miles, the closest it will be for several years for us to study the location, the equipment to do that arrived with me. Ten years from now," pointing to another dot further away, "Mars will be in the same position a mere 33,000,000 miles away, the closest in around 60,000 years, so they say. Our work will focus on-site surveys of areas suggested as containing mineable resources or places to land and build. Three months from now I will take our project 225,000 miles to the moon, ten years later, hopefully to Mars," her eyes around the room to show her intent. She circled the room while speaking as in previous discussions. "NASA has the money, no problem there. The idea discussed long before we landed on the moon. I've done some test scans up there and it is possible." A pause, her resolute gaze passing to each person in turn. "Where we come in is simple. Can't take materials to Mars, full stop the end. Small pieces only to the moon. Too costly. We mine here for quality materials to build ships and survey as far out there as we accurately can, then we dig holes, same as right here. The cost so much less this way, and all we need is this." Her hands on the table, her stare across the surrounding faces. "Brave souls to put up their hands and go." The applause erupted again, then died down. More questions answered, Enrico closing the meeting, inviting everyone to lunch.

The usual fuss over meal time erupted in the mess hall, clattering and noisy chat, the room falling silent as Carla stepped through the door, Janet hot on her heels followed by Enrico. A rousing cheer erupted, Carla invited to the front of the line, the focus of attention, a NASA specialist table set up to the side for VIP's, two MP guards on duty over the lunchtime rush checking off RNQ cards, no card, no entry, a strict and enforced policy. Throughout lunch, unknown faces stopped by her table to shake hands or say hello, a myriad of questions thrown at her in passing. Escaping the barrage by leaving as quickly as possible, a thought in her head to counter the volume of requests dumped on her for information. She went to work on a two pronged education plan, the go ahead response returning less than thirty minutes after she sent it. Janet agreed to look after Geology Science, Carla taking on Astronautics, the plan to open up lectures on both topics, increasing the awareness and education of the willing participants, drawing up subjects, starting with the raw basics, changing course material as the need arose. Notices went up around the site that afternoon seeking registrations of interest. The next step, review the responses and go from there.

"Your snake got me in a dream".

Her pre-flight checks completed later in the day, confident all was green, Carla called up Ellie, chatting for a few minutes, booking sometime the next day, promising to drop in to review the responses to their dinosaur theories, interested in a catch up. Back in her comfortable suite for some quiet time, switching off for a few hours with nothing to do, lounging around on her cot, listening to soft music. Janet dropped by, nervously asking to spend the rest of the day with her, wrapped up in her arms and small talk, benefitting from the company and much needed down-time, Carla with a burning sense something was amiss with her, missing something important, unable to comprehend the issue, her questions waved away as nothing.

Janet had thought little of it, Enrico and the doctor quizzing her a few times, picking up on subtle hints at first, Enrico noticing it more in Carla's absence, vague or depressed, her discussions with him sometimes off topic mid sentence, her mindset or train of thought losing focus on the reality of the minute, once having to shake her out of some dream she was living in while awake during an important meeting, Janet angrily snapping back at him awkwardly, immediately apologetic, removing herself from the meeting, visibly disturbed about something off topic.

Later that night Janet snapped, suffering a violent flashback of her snake incident in her hut as she slept, except it got her, Carla aiming at her and not firing, feeling the agony of the constricting beast crushing her as she slept, waking up screaming and unable to breathe, ripping her cot net to shreds in terror, smacking her head on her desk as she fought it off to escape her nightmare. The cot net collapsed on her during the night, her emotional state causing the tremor in her mind. A good swig of her scotch later to calm herself, awake for the night, unable to focus, twitching or shivering nervously on the floor of her hut having violently destroyed her cot, broken into pieces, Janet breaking it up in terror like it was wet clay, her arms around her knees, rocking back and forth, her body racked by numbing pain, more scotch down but unable to shake herself back to reality. Fatigue getting the better of her as she sat soaking wet in her clothes in her shower and drank scotch, the cold water running, falling asleep that way.

Enrico found her that way in the morning, pressing the alarm on his radio as he entered her living quarters, a scene of destruction, her blood splattered about the place, Janet not answering the 6am check in request. She had flipped her lid, somehow destroying her quarters during the night, breaking her arm in the process, screaming out in pain as he turned the water off, gently taking her arm to wake her. Her empty bottle of scotch in the shower, a bad sign considering her recent behaviour, quietly calling for the medical team, one or her arms distended and bruised, her wrist offset, Enrico seriously concerned for her welfare. With the help of the medical team she was quickly quarantined and sedated for her own safety, Carla on the radio at breakfast, noticing their absence. Enrico quietly played it down until she went in search of them, Enrico hiding something. Carla faced him up and furious, going ballistic at him outside the medical hut, Enrico calmly holding her back, his hands up prohibiting her entry, Carla's instincts in-tune, something seriously wrong. He took her to Janet's sleeping quarters, "oh my fucking God," from Carla, in shock at the destruction, the empty scotch bottle in the shower where she slept, her blood still splattered around, the incident investigation in progress. Enrico calmly told her what he found after she missed check in. "She's fucking flipped her lid man," her stare at Enrico after surveying the destruction. "I knew there's something wrong, and I've asked her repeatedly, but I can't put my finger on it," her eyes drawn as she surveyed the extensive damage, a sinking sense she had missed something important in her emotionally.

The medical reports and concerning recommendations on Janet read later on, Enrico in shock at her serious injuries, however getting down to the business of moving delicate equipment to the lower camp, the order and schedule for the day on a strict timeline, personnel adjustments acceptable, work schedule adjustments, absolutely not, Enrico with a huge task on his hands, grateful for Carla's leadership skills, logistics expertise and steadfast support, at his side for the rest of the day. Enrico waited patiently for Carla to wrap up her flying operations checklists, adamant he would not visit Janet without her. The good news for the day, transferring equipment down the mountain, running like clockwork. The next day was plug in and test, another day spent on equipment. Enrico filed his reports, Carla anxiously pacing his office, highly agitated, rubbing her hands, her eyes constantly on him as she paced about as he finished up, her thoughts on the medical suite and the patient. His radio buzzed as he finished his last paper, the doctor asking for him, Carla pleading with her eyes to go see her, Enrico in two minds but unwilling to break a promise, asking the doctor if she could visit with him, the all clear given.

He read the medical report outside the ICU room, and it was bad, shaking his head, the sinking sense in his heart, a failure on his part to recognize the warning signs, the incident party his fault, attempting to understanding her reasoning, disappointed with himself for coming up blank, angry with himself, his flaw, blindly not paying attention to her emotional needs. Janet listed as medic one in twenty-four care ICU on arrival, switched to surgery during the morning, her work status revoked and unable to travel home. The indicators in her responses to assessment she had suffered a psychiatric episode of some magnitude during the night, and a fractured Radius and Ulna in her right arm, and a gash to her forehead and bruising to her neck, transferred to high care isolation for immediate x-rays and surgery, further investigation of other injuries required. Enrico placed an immediate ban on all alcohol and having his suspicions, her snake incident reports and medical reports, musing over the information in his hands and searching himself for the answers quietly. Janet A Grade in everything before that, something triggering something catastrophic in her the night before, requiring a triple sedation during the day post surgery, unable to function and in terror every time she woke up, and able to destroy her bed with her bare hands like that violently breaking her arm, no visible weapon capable of that in her suite, the security footage showing her going inside for the night and that was it until he arrived in the morning. With no other option left he called an emergency management team meeting, requesting Carla be present and the medical officer, gathering the reports from her file, her snake incident somehow a catalyst, hoping Carla held the keys to the mystery, her association with Janet clearly intimate, her bond greater than his by far, somehow missing that as well.

The medical officer arrived last, offering apologies, a complete mental and physical capacity assessment of Janet underway as they met, immediate surgery to her broken forearm completed, her bump on the head a minor injury. Enrico had no option but to declare her on immediate stand down, shock remarks and looks from the surrounding team, refusing to answer questions, her performance exemplary, a driving force in their team for four years, Enrico stressing the serious nature of the events, asking for confidentiality and silence on the matter outside the door, all enquiries into her welfare to go through him only. Her work divided up, Carla taking most of the Geology management, a team under Janet reporting to himself directly with Carla offering support, her systems not failing since implementation three years before, her hands already full, survey projects on earth and her upcoming moon assignment, the last thing he needed, another key member melting down psychologically and seriously incapacitated. He adjourned the meeting, Carla and the medical officer remaining behind. "You two need to come clean about Janet", his stern glare at Carla more than the doctor, his arms folded, thumbing his document annoyingly, his frustrations on the table. "I want to know everything, starting with you", his hand directing Carla to spill everything about her, calling a closed meeting over the radio.

The discussion past two hours, lunch called to his office, an updated report on Janet arriving over lunch, awake and lucid though recovering from multiple surgeries, a request for Carla to visit her. "We need to observe her carefully, and no stress or worsening of her condition", the surgical doctor asking for a therapist to observe from outside the room, recommending Carla approach her with caution but as normal, the medical team needing to piece together the last nights events, her visit the most likely influence to get the information in conversation, her presence hopefully welcome and positive. Carla agreed to go, taking a shower and changing, Janet's favorite fragrance delicately splashed and a few minutes with the therapist in private before she went in.

"Knock knock" she softly called out, tapping on the door, the day nurse opening it with a smile, "she's been asking for you since she woke up, so take your time and just be you", the welcome, comforting advice. Carla waiting nervously, her palms sweaty, and nervous, lumps rising in her throat, holding back tears but patiently waited, deliberately looking away from her, the suite nurse noting the observations, her iv checked and adjusted slightly to make her more comfortable while in recovery, a full theatre suite around her, a reassuring touch from the nurse on her way out, explaining where the bell was as she left them in peace. She nervously approached the beside, Janet bruised and banged up like she badly lost a punch up in a bar, her right arm in fresh plaster, slightly sedated, recovering from surgery to her double fracture and her broken jaw. She partially looked up wincing in pain, hearing the familiar voice, having trouble moving her head, a neck brace firmly in place, an x-ray finding compression in her cervical vertebrae, the result of smashing her head against her desk, falling asleep in the shower worsening the injury, oblivious to the headache and blood pouring down her face, the shower water running red. "Come sit with me", her words pained and drawn out, Carla understanding she had serious injuries, but not prepared to see the full extent herself, quietly taking a chair and sitting with her, wanting instead to run for the door and escape the scene and cry.

The therapy team took notes, watching and listening carefully from the observation window on video capture, Carla getting exactly the responses they needed to evaluate her state properly. Janet reached for her hand barely able to move, a beeper on her monitor going off, the nurse in the next room, quietly checking on her, her heart rate up a little, asking if she needed anything to make her more comfortable, a little pain killing fluid added to her IV mix, Janet more comfortable in a few seconds, Carla thanking her for attending so quickly.

"I can go if you want to rest", Janet weakly grabbing her arm for company, a slight shake of her head, her eyelids opening further, the lights dimming slowly by themselves, able to see her better. Carla weakly smiled back at her, a pathetic attempt at bravery, serious bruising to her face, eyes blackened and puffy, a distension in her right jaw, wires poking through her cheek to hold it in place, painfully showing Carla her missing tooth, opening her mouth a little. Carla did her best to cheer her up, desperate to know what happened but shaking and fearful of the answer. "Enrico is outside with the doctors, we need to know what happened to you so we can fix you and we need you at work, there are too many rocks to count", Janet attempting to giggle, her body broken and in pain all over, coughing a little, Carla wiping up saliva and blood from her incapacitated mouth, her face numb from her jaw reset, breaking her jaw as she hit the floor, doing herself some serious damage. Carla regained some composure, looking at her intently, stroking her hand and fingers softly, Janet responding positively, asking how the day went. "So who did you pick a fight with last night, you beat yourself up pretty bad," making light of the extent of her injuries, Janet focusing on her more clearly, able to speak a little, the painkillers in her system providing welcome relief. "My cot net fell on me, your snake got me in a dream, and you didn't shoot it", Carla horrified at what she had dreamt. "It was only a dream, nothing more, your cot net maybe like snake skin wrapping around you, and I killed it good and dead", Janet stopping her. "I was terrified and tried to get away, smashing up my room and hurting myself," her voice trailed off, her emotions welling up. Carla reached for the buzzer, carefully wiping her tears up, more blood colored drool escaping her mouth, the nurse quickly on the scene with her, a reassuring hand on her shoulder, a soft nod and reassuring smile at Carla, doing a great job with her level of care, Janet responding beautifully.

She tired quickly from the activity, Carla getting up to leave, Janet holding her tightly, asking her to stay as she continued. "I drank all my scotch," "and fell down in the shower," "Enrico found me in the morning and took me to the hospital," her words trailing off again, another cough hurting her chest, her bruised ribs reminding her they were intact. Carla grabbed more tissues, a solid mix of saliva and fresh blood running down her chin from the edge of her mouth, Carla wincing herself as she delicately wiped it up, praying she wasn't hurting her further. "Lie still and rest," Carla comforting Janet with her soft voice and gentle touch but quickly losing control of heart breaking emotions herself, an awful sinking feeling creeping over her. "We can talk about the snake later, it was only a bad dream so don't worry about it anymore, and I'm here to keep an eye on you, Enrico is worried, everyone is", Carla stopping the conversation, Janet getting upset and exhausted from her terrifying ordeal. "I need to go to the bathroom and I will be right back", forcibly removing Janet's hand and pressing the buzzer, the nurse attending her, quietly keeping her company. Carla's vision blurred over, desperate to escape the room for some fresh air.

She ran past the group outside the ICU room into the bathroom and vomited up her lunch, a terrible sickening feeling throughout her body, Jasmine, the therapist running in to see if she was OK, Carla disturbed and physically sick at Janet's condition, bursting into tears, feeling her pain as she relived the event herself in its horror, mostly disturbed by her words, so much damage to herself in reaction to her dream, she must have been terrified. "She said I didn't shoot the snake, and it got her," breaking down and collapsing on the floor. Jasmine rushed to get Enrico for support, the staff closing the bathroom to give her time to recover, Carla in physical and emotional shock at Janet's condition, her words ringing in her ears, sick to her stomach. Enrico burst in, his arms around her in comfort, Carla in distress for a while, needing help to get up, taking time to compose herself, slamming the cubicle door open and vomiting again, a disgusting feeling inside her, imagining the scene as Janet described it, vomiting again, sobbing in sorrow, if she hadn't killed it Janet's torturing dream a certain reality.

Enrico helped her up, wiping her face, a wet towel cooling her down, the shock of the event over, her body's natural defence mechanisms taking over, deeply nauseated but in control, washing her face, standing on her own two feet, Enrico and Jasmine in close attendance as she regained her composure. A short time later back in the room, Janet eager for her return, the nurse explaining she was feeling unwell, just upset at her condition but would be back, Enrico bringing her back in and sitting with her for support, Janet's condition seriously affecting her to the point of sickness, a brave girl to continue the session, the doctors happy with the outcome of the discussion. After a time Janet fell asleep, Carla able to release her grip and quietly exit, a look at her sleeping peacefully over her shoulder as she left, the doctor and therapist then attending to her, a short debriefing on how it affected her, congratulating her for the brave manner in which she handled it, Janet giving away her horror secret in five minutes flat, her recurring nightmare never ending day after day, the last one frightening the wits out of her, her body abusing itself violently because of the long term emotional stress, finally reaching breaking point.

"Home away from Home".

Carla flew down to the lower site with Enrico the next morning, the distress of the previous day dissolved, proudly showing off her flying skills, her focus on work, firstly catching up with Ellie in the science control room for most of the morning, the world excited to find tiny living creatures closely resembling dinosaurs, a Carlasaurus, based partly on the name of the person who discovered them, the acceptance in the wider science community depending on the approval of some unknown committee, an attempt to verify the species in progress. The afternoon time spent reviewing the last two years work with Enrico, signing off her reports for the higher office, the yield on extractions significantly higher than the projected model, the two lines on her projections chart on her office wall, taking two different directions, her reports welcoming news to the board of directors, the only bad news an injury to a key person, apparently falling down and breaking her jaw and arm, Janet's condition closely monitored, a long recovery for her, six weeks alone on her fractures, her psychological state another matter demanding serious scrutiny, a mention already of co-habiting for her own personal safety after her hospital stay.

Carla, despite up to her neck in rock data, took time to visit Janet three or four times a day to keep her informed and her spirits up, Enrico checking in on her daily and alone, noticing a distinct change in her relationship with him, distant with him post accident, reluctant to enter personal conversations, their earlier level of intimacy missing. Janet held another secret, one should never reveal something like this, her deep love for and attraction to Carla, more of an obsession for her closeness and company, suffering bouts of depression and anxiety at her absence, not daring to mention it, keeping it to herself as it consumed her. Jasmine picked up on something between them via the therapy sessions, closely monitoring their interactions, everything recorded and studied, the picture becoming clearer through the sessions, Janet five weeks post accident, up and about for three, eager to get out of hospital. Declared medically fit, apart from twinges in her neck and headaches at random, her compressed neck giving her trouble, physiotherapy helping with that, Carla experimenting on her as she learned sound massaging techniques, Janet's improvement immediately noticeable.

A few therapy sessions later, Jasmine got the root of her emotional state out of her. Janet's emotions and frustrations boiled over into anger in one session, angrily asking if she ever loved someone so deeply, what would she give to keep the connection, Janet answering her own question with, "I will give anything to keep her", stopping in her tracks, her knuckles white, her anger boiling over into rage, realising what she had said, her secret now out in the open. Collapsing into her chair, her hands over her face and sobbing, partly relieved her feelings were out, partly ashamed for openly declaring her love for another woman. Jasmine commended her honesty, the rest of the session on why she felt that way, her snake incident weighing heavily on the argument, Janet indebted to Carla for her life, the constant thought, what if she missed or didn't fire through fear following her everywhere, constantly on her mind, over time Jasmine helping her deal with her anxiety and emotions, perfectly normal under the circumstances, deeply affected by a traumatizing life experience.

Janet's progress improved by the day, a closed meeting called to discuss in depth what to do with her now, Carla invited to attend the post meeting discussion and for her opinion, Jasmine discussing with her privately Janet's state of mind and the option to co-habit, giving her time to respond, Enrico then invited into the discussion to review the outcomes, agreeing for now to let things play out, Janet given approval to return to light duties but under constant watch, Jasmine keeping close contact with her, Carla at her side as before, their roles reversing.

Carla visited Janet the day of her hospital release, helping settle her into new quarters, a larger 3x suite, paintings on the walls, soft carpeting under their feet, modest furnishings, Janet unable to choose her personal space from a choice of three, her hands in the air, laughing as Carla jumped on all the beds, one a little softer grabbing her attention, claiming it as her own. Permanently housed up top, emptying her bags to unpack, voicing her disapproval of the robe space, Janet checking out the opposite corner, laughing at the size of hers, double the size. The middle one left vacant, becoming an office, Carla shifting the bulk of her personal equipment with her from the lower site office, her uniforms to the middle suite robe, grateful for a little personal space and working distance between them. Janet dropped her bags, flopping onto her new suite bed, a pleasant change from the uncomfortable four years in camp beds and cots, their new suite more like a home away from home, calling out to Carla to join her and inspect her side, a playful wrestle between them, Janet yielding, but for a kiss, wrapping her arms around her, her mouth tingling, the contact melting her insides, Carla jumping up suddenly at the knock on the door as Janet lay still, focusing on the intimate moment, savouring it until it vanished.

Enrico dropped in to check on things, smiling as he entered, taking his boots and hat off at the door, commenting on the five-star luxury. Living conditions had improved over time, hut accommodation transitioning into homes, a greater focus on social, emotional and physical wellbeing thanks to heavy financial investment in the project. "Wow, nice house", he commented, having a good look around, the bathroom space well appointed, a shared amenities service and small kitchen space for coffee and a microwave, the housing department not missing anything in planning. Enrico drew his attention to Janet, sitting with her, helping setup her computer station and to unpack, checking on her condition. "I will keep an eye on her", Carla in the background as she unpacked her new dress uniform, her cap still in its wrapper. Turning around, her new pristine white dress uniform out of the suit bag and hanging up on the door behind her, her favorite Esprenza teddy against herself, checking herself out in the robe mirror, turning around a few times, a look in Janet's direction. "How's this look?" Janet whistled, "fuck me dead, get into that already why don't you," staring at her uniform and teddy, her mind on her posing for the camera in sexy stockings and uniform, her skirt up her leg, showing off some hot stockings, or something equally arousing. Enrico laughed quietly at her, happy to see her back to her usual self, a recent debrief with Jasmine giving him a better understanding of her emotional state and happy for the personal distancing, giving her time and space to adjust to her recent trauma and post surgery therapy. He mused over her computer data, an excuse to stay longer, Carla looking down at him with a don't patronize her stare, her flight suit unzipped almost half way, patiently waiting for him to leave, looking forward to a hot shower and change, Enrico getting the hint and leaving a short time later. Carla ran off for a hot shower and change of uniform, eager to try out her new impressive looking formal dress code.

A peek outside, an MP already on station at her quarters, her quiet words to him, "I am not to be disturbed unless its an emergency", a nod from the sentry as she silently closed the door, the fresh air ventilation silent in its work, a soft fragrant smell in the room. Carla returned to her bed after her shower, emptying her underwear case onto it to sort through and put it all away, her back glistening and a warm sunset red, her thighs dripping still, slipping out of her underwear, Janet in awe at her sizzling hot nakedness from her desk, a cute short tuft of ginger minge above her mound, her glazed stare locked as Carla slipped into her Esprenza teddy then turned around, checking herself out in the robe mirror, her gaze landing on her, Janet almost drooling and frozen, invisible steam pouring from her ears. "What's the matter", a giggle in her direction, Janet unable to speak, the image of her dressed like that burning holes in her. Carla sized her up briefly then headed for the bathroom again, then returned, trying out her crisp dress uniform over a cleavage popping satin bra, shapely girdle and stockings, her underwear silky smooth and sheer, Janet quietly frozen in her seat, her glazed stare as she changed a second time. "Are you going to finish unpacking over there?" Janet sat upright up, her arms folded, leaning back in her chair. "I think I'd rather sit here and stare at your beautiful naked ass and gorgeous tits thanks," Janet laughing, the ice broken, shaken from her dreamy state, her awkwardness replaced by happiness, the sight before her eyes causing her to salivate, her pulse rising, alluring dirty thoughts tapping her on the shoulder, shivering at the images in her mind.

Carla dropped her case on to the floor, turning around, straightening up her jacket, her hair back in a regulation bun and clipped, a soft brush of makeup and her best red lip gloss. Straightening up her cap on her head and turning around again, her gloves on her hands, looking for a response. "So what do you think?" hitching up her skirt a little and adjusting her straps, digging into her slightly, shifting her stocking to a comfortable fit, a flash of her underwear across the room as she dropped her leg and set her skirt straight, a soft smile at her from across the room. Janet reached for her camera, snapping her a few times, "can you back up a little," Carla not sure of what she meant, there simply wasn't the space to do that. "Like, 30 seconds ago little." Carla picked up on the gist of things, stepping closer to the center of the room and into a full squat, parting her legs, her left leg turning out to the side, her satin lined skirt riding way up her legs, her taut sheer silky panties in full view and hiding nothing, her sexy stocking top and upper thigh mesmerising through the lens, her hands to her knees, manicured nails and gloss, her infectious smile all over Janet's camera lens. "Fuck me Carl, best thing I've seen in months," Janet taking a bunch of photos at various angles, eager to drop her camera and jam her favorite toy up her panties and fuck her senseless like she was, the view smoking hot, making her eyes water. "I could drop you in a vat of warm chocolate and fuck you all night, just like that," her camera going off, adjusting the focal ring for a few close ups of thighs and stocking tops, one ultra close up of her shiny taut gorgeous sheer satin and lace panties, a cheeky bump through them, the flash going off, capturing the shine and bump perfectly, Janet quickly going back through them, happy with her work. Carla stood up, laughing at the misty lustful eye contact, knowing exactly what was on her mind.

Janet looked dazed and confused, her hands in her lap staring into space through her, Carla changing her focus sensing something backfired, Janet quick to stop her, taking her time to speak. "I told Jazz,"... "what my problem is," stammering a little, intent on telling her something important. "I told her,"... "my problem is I love you, more than that,"... "I can't bare to be away from you," tears welling up in her firmly closed eyes as she confessed, finally having the courage to tell her how she felt about her, breaking down into tears, Carla not having the words to answer her properly.

Carla shifted uncomfortably where she stood, "and I've been selfishly teasing the fuck out of you all this time," suddenly aware of the cause of all the trouble, Janet deeply in love with her, completely missing it, wrapped up in herself. "I'm so sorry J," Carla unable to turn back the clock to before these events changed their lives forever. "I hate the thought of you,"... "blasting off into space and,"... "leaving me stuck here," Janet no longer with the capacity to hold it in, completely breaking down, her face in her hands. Carla was crimson. Hard lumps in her throat, tears in her eyes. Janet with the courage to get it out of her system, the thought of Carla rejecting her at the knowledge unbearable. "Oh fuck," Carla sighed, calling for Jasmine on her radio and for coffee, Janet nodding in agreement, wanting once and for all time to get this off her chest, she had to do it now, unable to hold the emotional torture in any longer. She ran to the door, asking the MP to allow access to her quarters, Jasmine soon arriving with coffee and three helpings of hot fresh dinner, Carla helping her with it as she removed her shoes, Janet in relief at speaking her mind, a massive weight lifted from her shoulders, Jasmine concerned at her state, Carla giving her a reassuring look all was well.

Taking some time over dinner, the meal brightening up Janet considerably, pouring it all out, Carla hung up her jacket, quietly sitting next to her for support and comfort as she ate one handed. Jasmine led the conversation, Carla remaining silent, the words sinking in, keeping her mouth tightly shut, listening carefully as Janet spoke her heart and soul, an hour passing before she slumped, suddenly exhausted from her day. Jasmine praised her for her bravery, a stern look at Carla, nodding her head in reply, finally understanding the problems with her after all this time, wishing she had sorted it out long ago, better late than never I guess, her thoughts to herself.

Jasmine reported in all was well, some in alarm at Carla calling in for support, leaving them both to chat further an hour later, Janet smiling and happy by the time she left, Jasmine happy with the outcome, a final good note in her report on the patient, great progress made, Janet well recovered from her traumatic experiences, her extreme fears no longer under the carpet, embraced and dealt with properly, bravely head on tackling her demons, a brighter positive future ahead of her.

"Feet on the ground".

Her NASA prototype bird returned home soon after, her new site chopper similar to her first craft, fitted out with survey and GPS NAVSIT gadgetry only, able to check information from the air if needed, jungle trekking hours reducing, air transport and technology advancements performing the bulk of the work in a much shorter time frame, the manual labour hours deployed elsewhere. Carla spent some time with Enrico and Jasmine over the next few weeks, her problem now, whether to leave, able to research the survey work from here, the space station relaying to her any ground data she needed via secure satellite feeds, her travelling into space not vital to the project, signing off on staying put on the ground this time round, monitoring the space surveying from here, if it went wrong up there, there was little she could do no matter where she was. The response came back; the agency accepting her reasons, Carla's focus on keeping her feet on the ground, giving up her seat to the space station, the next person on the long waiting list slotting into the program in her place, Janet returning to work managing geology sample analysis and ground work, Carla managing the lunar work, the two projects coming together nicely and without a hitch.

The site engineers built her a smaller version of the space station and Houston simulators, able to control her satellite herself if need be, the control and response functions at her fingertips after release into orbit and manual switch over, three manual control points, two on the ground. The science lab control room also retro refitted, a test connection to the unit on the space station and the Houston control site drawing a lot of attention, the science team viewing the event through a bunch of video screens, the room closed to most staff, video screens of the Houston site providing a good view of what she was controlling, weeks of simulations to prepare for the real event. Janet stood silently behind her from a viewing portal for a major test, her NASA tag gaining her access to the control center, a painted yellow line preventing anyone from venturing too close, a major test on a live satellite worth billions of dollars, Carla in control of the imaging satellite over four intense hours, carefully realigning it to new coordinates. The live drive test completed hundreds of times over weeks on simulation, the same process as performed on the space station, her use of the control keys and joystick delicate, the simulator responding beautifully as she rotated it a few degrees at a time, an image of the massive full moon on her screen, dotting her plot square with a stylus pen, the satellite cameras snapping off highly detailed photos and sending them back to all three locations, the four-hour exercise plus control time completed perfectly. Carla icy cold and smooth with the controls, signing off her control back to NASA at Houston, her control simulator guiding itself, then shutting down, rotating her master control key to off, in relief disconnecting the power, her control point off the grid, her part in the operation flawless.

Slumping back in her seat shakily removing her headset, a rousing cheering behind her, her first actual on ground live drive completed perfectly, her hands to her face, Houston Control and the space station crew congratulating her via voice, Carla both thumbs up in relief, a little shaky afterwards, undoing the restraints and leaving the chair, similar to a mobile gun platform, with a bubble viewing dome, throwing open the hatch, and dropping to the floor in laughter, the site crew lifting the roof in clapping, cheering and whistling, Janet with her hands to her mouth, physically shaking, her heart pounding, the tension unbearable throughout the silent test, everyone in awe at silently watching her ice cold drive of a live satellite first hand. She waved at the assembled crowd, all smiles, then off for a private debriefing, a shower and a meal. Nerves of steel needed every time you took the pilot's seat.

Janet turned in later that night, Carla fast asleep, her night music on, bed lights a soft blue, bed curtain drawn for privacy, Janet wisely tiptoeing around for a shower then bed herself, wide awake for hours, her thoughts on space flight, rocket ships, and that sizzling uniform and underwear on her gorgeous body, amazed at her calmly driving a machine so delicately at thousands of miles per hour and lock it onto a dot on her screen with pinpoint accuracy as she fell asleep. Her alarm for check in went off, an arm reaching over her, calling in for check in, Janet suddenly awake in alarm then flipping over in delight, Carla in her sizzling hot teddy and pressed up against her, her legs through hers, her arms softly over and around her, a smile as she opened her eyes. "You were snoring so loud I came over to shut you up", a smile as she pulled the covers up and over, snuggling down, mouth on mouth, a wonderful wake up for Janet, in complete surprise at her early morning loving and affections, giggling and laughing until the next alarm went off. Carla slipped out of her teddy, draping it over Janet as she nuzzled her playfully, her mouth softly sucking on a breast, moaning softly then kissing her affectionately. Jumping out of bed and stretching, a sharp knock at the door and grabbing a towel, a kitchen hand calling out room service as she opened the door a few inches, the MP at the door with his hands full, checking over the meals, Carla whispering thanks as she accepted them, hot meals delivered to her door. Dropping them on the main desk then throwing off her towel, bouncing her breasts at Janet as she spun around happily, then threw herself back into bed with her, grinding against her, kissing her lovingly, Janet playfully asking, "how much time do we have", giggling and laughing becoming moans, morning pleasures all round, stifled screams, Janet's bed thoroughly christened. Breakfast demolished, showered then into admin uniforms, meetings over the upcoming program, the schedule for the day.

Enrico away at mining operations, stillages made ready for transport, raw materials off for refining and delivery, batch testing reports, his work never ending as overall site operations manager, a simple operation three years ago now a complex machine turning out millions of dollars per day in high grade raw materials, the parent company spending millions on a seaport dock for small to medium-sized shipping, daily pickups flying a short distance, the flight pad a hub of activity, delivering hundreds of tons per day down the mountain in a round-the-clock operation, Carla taking her shifts in flight operations, the best part of her day spent bird watching, the larger choppers giving her a buzz better than scotch as she brought them in or carefully ushered them out during her flight crew watch.

"All Systems Go".

Three months later, the news around the world, a new rocket on the launchpad, preparing for blast off, the buzz of global media focused on its progress for weeks, the NASA flight management team hosting media presentations one after the other, the secret payload not once mentioned, the questions flying as to the reason behind the expense of it building to a frenzy, Erebus One, Carla's site, and Orion Five, the space station, not once mentioned in the scope of things, international governments concerned about secret space age weapons, propaganda circulating to the point, and under enormous pressure NASA had no choice, forced to reveal the purpose of the flight, launching a test remote control craft to take detailed survey mapping pictures of the moon, hinting of another lunar landing, confirming the plan since the beginning to build on it, a jumping off point for extensive research elsewhere, Mars a potential location of detailed research as the cycle continued, possibly ten years into the future. The lid shut tight on the subject beyond that.

The Erebus One control team remained on station in rotating shifts the day of the liftoff, every TV station focused on the event, enormous public interest, thousands taking the day off work or watching intently to get a glimpse outside, lines of traffic miles long along the route of trajectory, the roar and cloud of fire and smoke as the Leviathan One left the ground, climbing to the initial one hundred thousand feet mark in a few minutes as it rolled over and around the curvature of the earth's atmosphere, a few minutes later punching through the thermopause into space, the multiple fuel stages jettisoning according to plan, Carla punching the air screaming go baby go, her team cheering as it disappeared to nothing on the viewing screens. Her team constantly on watch around the clock along with space control, monitoring the trajectory and course, two days to get around the earth to the point of delivery, not a record-breaking event by standards. The Apollo 10, a spaceship that only orbited the moon in 1969, holding the record at the time for the highest speed attained by a manned vehicle with 11.08 km/s, a blistering 24,791mph, Carla as a child dreaming of the day she could fly at that speed. The Saturn V of Apollo 11, also 1969, a lazy 15,000 miles per hour, the first stage alone burning 4,700,000 pounds of fuel on its way to landing humans there, a four day round trip with only two hours on the lunar surface.

Two days preparation later at Erebus control, the nerve-wracking delivery of her satellite into orbit, a major five hour operation to release it gently into moon orbit, the tiny craft named Leviathan 2, performing its functions perfectly despite the harrowing ride to get it there, nothing breaking in transit, a two-man space crew looking it over carefully, Carla jumping for joy and in tears watching it power up and break free from tethering, stretching its arms and panels as it woke up, all systems go. Orion Five in control for now, the closest point of contact, delivering it with precision, Carla immediately receiving data from the host and calling it in on her headset at her panel, two thumbs up, the connection established, talking to her happily from way up there as it slowly circled the moon, the standard 60 nautical miles above the lunar surface, the test photos sent back in amazing clarity and high detail. Carla plotted her capture points on her moon board on the wall, her camera focus site an enormous image broken up into sectors, noting elevations and surface structures, craters and sweeping plains, sharp ravines and towering mountains, a miniscule 1.2 light-seconds away, four human days to arrive at the same point. She happily called in to Houston control, "mission accomplished, over, all systems green and go", her site, Houston and space control going ballistic over the radio, her team signing off their data on the flight up and release, her data showing a perfect flight and release, all the number crunching on paper years ago becoming reality today, the emotional feeling and atmosphere in the team sheer elation, ready for the next challenge.

Her team cracked champagne in a private meeting afterwards, stage one in the bag, close up surveys the next step, ten years to go until Mars, the next target almost half the size of earth and one third the gravity. A 100 pound load here, only 38 pounds there, and no breathable air. A lazy 140,000,000 miles away on average, 227 or so million miles from the sun, a 687 day year in orbiting the sun, the average temperature -87F, a long way from potential human habitation. Those problems thankfully not her concern. Her control room team performed check in meetings daily, three teams on rotation, NASA bringing in specialist flight control personnel, holding off until confirmation of successful reliable connections to guidance and control systems, Carla calling in, "all systems go", to cheering and sighs of relief, that one sentence alone the best news in five years for NASA, ticking off the detailed and accurate close surveys of the lunar surface as achieved, EROS ecstatic over the results, fifty or more years of intense study on that already, their eyes now turning towards Mars, the green light given in secret to deploy the blueprint for that project the day Carla took her first photograph, a selfie and taken outside the ship, with rocks in her hands eventually blown up on her wall, the earth visible over the horizon in the background. The other cherished photo of enormous proportions, a spectacular close-up image of Mars, thanks to Hubble, her lipstick message across it in red, "We Are Coming". Ten years from now, March 2003, Mars orbital telemetry alignment bringing it the closest recorded distance to earth in possibly 60,000 years and very close and 33,000,000 miles saving billions in expense, fuel and payload. Only once in 26 months is there a window for launch at it around the sun, approximately 9 months to get there, hoping it's in the correct position when you arrive.

The accolades, congratulations and awards streamed in, the young and inexperienced team quickly proving itself capable of managing space toys, the results far beyond the actual expectations, their science peers, critics and haters awkwardly silent. Carla spent weeks teaching near earth navigation to her team, Janet's head spinning at the math knowledge needed, geometry, trigonometry, time and speed calculations, what the hell was calculus anyway, that topic alone exploding her brain. Gravity calculations, power and fuel consumption formulae, light energy and photosynthesis, mostly beyond her comprehension, the list of essential things to consider endless, her team never wavering from the task. Months of images taken, hours of painstaking reproduction of the surface features, and then she found it in some infra-red translations, colored rocks, similar in age and density to samples mined here, not enough however to go immediately dig holes in it.

Another smaller rocket took off, replacement parts and lightweight materials en route to Orion Five, a building phase for craft to deposit men on the moon again to dig exploratory holes and return samples of the surface, phase 2 of the project.

Carla received a follow up invitation to the space station, a closer examination of her colored rocks required, Janet heartbroken at the news but coping, joining the NASA data team full time to process the return sample data from the moon, something she excelled at, her project in co-ordination with EROS, her Geology and survey experience and knowledge putting her top of her game and first choice for the job, presenting a thesis on her work the next year, a double masters and professorship certificates arriving not long after. She communicated with Carla every day upon her arrival at the space station, a Mission Specialist and Pilot, photos of her quarters and workplace, another of her in a pressurized suit outside the ship, manually realigning a broken antenna, a small space rock knocking it from its mount, a brave attempt to fix it completed as an optional assignment, an exhausting exercise. Video images of her work taken via her helmet and suit cameras soon landed at control, Ellie viewing them from her science lab, getting the approval to see it, Enrico running to watch her perform the repair in zero gravity in amazement, her glance and wide smile to another camera pointed at her, waving to the crew on earth, blowing a kiss to, "J", calling out hello to her work family, Ellie and Janet taking a bunch of stills of her close up, the beautiful curve of the earth's atmosphere behind her.

Two weeks later she was on the lunar surface, piloting the landing module and collecting rock samples in two-hour rotations over two days, physically demanding work, the sample data beamed to Janet and her Geology team, once chatting together on the radio, everyone in panic as the signal suddenly went dead, Janet screaming at her monitor, the picture and sound returning a few seconds later, a solar flare leaving the sun 500 seconds beforehand, the radiation interfering with the radio signals. A tense moment, the light and radiation sensors going off the charts for a few seconds, then dropping back to normal, everyone on the edge of their seats. "I'm fine," she replied, "calm down everyone," control advising her of the signal loss and the reason for it, Janet breathing again, her heart pounding in her chest cavity, ready to burst.

Two months later she was on her way back down, her mission completed successfully, ticking all the boxes, a Defence Navy fleet on operations to pick up and return her team, a familiar face greeting her after recovery. Her first at sea XO, now a fleet Rear Admiral, helping her from the on deck chopper, saluting her proudly, a safe pickup after splashdown. Six months later, after medical and spaceflight routine debriefings, in a familiar chopper, the regular two-hour flight home. Absolute chaos on the ground that morning, Enrico passing the news to one person of incoming transport the day before, and who it was. Five minutes later everyone knew, a scramble to prepare the landing pad for incoming, the entire NASA team out to welcome her home upon her safe arrival the next morning just after sunrise, the ground controller carefully guiding her craft to the dot as indicated, the noise of her craft's engines and blades deafening through the bullet proof plexiglass viewing window, standing room only as she carefully touched down, cameras going off from all directions, the ground crew scrambling to open the hatch and secure the vehicle the second she shut it down. Two agonizing minutes later she was on the ground, her craft silent, the light on the landing pad green, the MP's unable to keep the doors shut, a multitude of people running out to personally welcome her back, crowding around her, Janet running and launching at her, Carla swinging her around for minutes, grateful to be back alive and in her arms.

The excitement, a hero's welcome home, her second mission into space completed successfully, another line to her service bars, her superiors discussing behind secret doors the next phase of the project, highly dangerous, serious risks to life if anything minor went wrong, how to dig holes, plant explosives and lay foundations for a small landing pad and lay buildings, a tiny spaceport on the lunar surface, the highly secretive next mission, the blueprints certified and approved, the first living accommodation not on earth. Using abundant moon dust and sulphur, the core strength as high as 20 Mega-pascals of pressure tolerance, just a simple matter of melting it with enough heat preventing that.

"Let the pies fly".

Later that day after a shower, change of clothes and a hot fresh meal, a group mobbed her from behind, Carla screaming in protest for security, the MP's held back from assisting her, carrying her off to the mess space, filled to standing room only, clapping, cheering and loud whistling in her direction for minutes after they barged through the doors with her, depositing her on a table in the center of the room, calling for her to stand up, the crowd drowning out the MP's at the door, prevented from entering and ready to bash it down, her team executives calling for calm, eventually convincing them she was in no harm, a huge home coming party swiftly arranged in secret the day before. Two cases of champagne appeared from nowhere, hidden from security personnel, definitely on the banned list, Carla popping a bottle handed to her with a loud bang, spraying the contents around the room then another, covering everyone around her in it, having a long drink from it herself to rapturous applause, declaring the party in session to more noise from the crowd around her, waving at the crowd after a time to quiet down so she could be heard. Her words, "To Mars", bringing the house down for minutes, quantities of alcohol flowing for the next few hours, an enormous buffet of food on offer, her team enjoying an afternoon of social frivolities and reckless fun, a lot of tension from working so hard over the past many months, everyone keen to shake it off and let off some steam.

She thanked everyone for believing in her ideas to the end, others for their unwavering support, one person in particular for her love, loyalty and understanding, her smile in Janet's direction, answering questions about her exploits in space for the next fifteen minutes. Climbing down from the table, the party in full swing, people constantly gathering around and offering her congratulations, Janet quietly taking her aside after the fuss died down, wrapping her up, kissing her passionately, officially welcoming her home, slipping her flight suit zip down a little. The next second a hand appeared from behind her, an enormous pie smashing her in the face, Janet screaming, her hands up to protect herself, another one smashing Carla seconds later, a roar of laughter and applause from the gathering, both of them staring at each other through custard and cream, hysterical laughter, Janet smearing it down Carla's front and into her flight suit, Carla wiping if from her eyes, wrapping her up for a gooey kiss, covering her in it, smothering her clean uniform in custard and cream, both of them reduced to tears, Carls not having this much fun in abandon since grade school as a young child.

Towels were handed out for cleaning up the mess, trays of food handed around to the gathering, champagne and food flowing and consumed liberally for the next four hours, the gathering eventually thinning out in small groups, Janet and Carla returning to quarters later in the evening, the room almost empty, an interesting mess to clean up, a confused look from the MP sentry at their quarters, Janet in dismay at her hair, custard, cream and biscuit base all through it and up her nose. Carla laughed hysterically at her, picking it out from her nostrils in disgust, her own day flight suit covered and partially filled with the same.

A long warm and sensual clothed shower, laughter in their quarters becoming screams of pleasure, Janet's homecoming gift, sexual pleasuring beyond her wildest imagination, expertly torturing Carla with an amazing toy, having kept it secret, rarely using it on herself, now the perfect opportunity to put it to good use as per the intended design, Carla ending up on the shower floor as Janet ate her through her underwear, doing unspeakable magical things to her insides, even poking her ass with it for the first time, Carla in sexual heaven and destroyed, Janet a perverted little slut, desiring to violate her lustfully for years in secret, this the perfect opportunity to perform her wicked deeds on her unsuspecting victim, Carla sore for days afterwards, never speaking of it again.

"I Need You To Sign For This".

A couple of months later, two individual letters of Presidential Commendation arrived in the mail bags, dropped in their personal mailboxes and marked confidential. Not long after that, two MP's stopped them both at their door, refusing them access to their personal quarters. "Excuse me Ma'am, I need you to sign for this," by two, both receiving the same letter by hand from two different security MP's, the addressee's the only difference, having to sign personally for the mail on two clip boards before access to their personal quarters was given. Janet in distress at her door after immediately reading hers, "holy fucking shit", her response to herself. Carla in stark contrast, saluting the MP and accepting her letter, giving him time to scan and verify her ID, a sharp, "thank you gunnery sergeant", then reading it, offering her response in zero time on the back with her personal signature and smiley face and a sharp salute requesting he send it immediately back and with haste. She sensed a glistening in his eyes, staring at him intently, a soft "I wish you godspeed and good luck Ma'am", as he promptly saluted her in return. Josh, her long-term and loyal personal guard, aware something big was up, doing the best he could to acknowledge her rank and offer his personal wishes for safe passage and return, his mind boggling at what lay in store for them. Carla had switched unbeknown to herself, full time to the Department of Defence Navy under NASA guidance, her new uniforms arriving a few days later, a strict culture of military order for her to wear it from now on, a noticeable increase in military personnel to Enrico over the last six months, military people everywhere he looked, and in shock when he saw her next. Carla, a Lieutenant Commander in the US Navy, wearing three bars of service, a Gold NASA pin and a sharp dress uniform, her cheerful good morning, her gloved hand extended to him outside their meeting room, her NASA insignia on the opposite side and side shoulders, the braid of the Navy insignia on her headwear highly distinguished.

"Little Miss Fly Girl".

A few days later Carla threw her now out-of-date NASA uniforms to Janet, her tiny closet full of brand new Defence Navy dress uniforms, camo and NASA dress standards and flight gear, her casual wear left to hang anywhere, Janet loving the smell of her beloved when she opened her closet to dress, gratefully accepting her fragrance soaked pre-worn clothing as hand-me-downs, and lots of it. "Can I have your teddy as well when you go?", a soft look at Carla over her shoulder. "You bloody well can't have that", Carla glaring at her across the room, interrupted by a loud knock at the door. "What is it", Carla yelled out in annoyance, their focus on the intrusion into their personal lives so early in the day. The door opened slowly a few inches, a smug pale young face appearing around the door in her direction, picking up on the angry tone. "Commander Bellamy?" A soft voice asking if she were in the right place, the MP outside inspecting her orders, then saluting her, allowing her access. "Yes, I am she, and what of it", using her new rank, her annoyed stare across the room, Janet intrigued as to who the intruder was.

The door opened further, a sizzling hot young female Navy Lieutenant entered her quarters, saluted her then presented her personal orders, waiting for her response. "Close the door, you don't know who is watching", Carla's authoritarian military tone, Janet in shock at her mean icy response to the beautiful young lady at her feet, apparently sent for some reason. Carla looked over her papers before answering, laughing out loud at reading her name, her name tag confirming who she was. Carla vexed, somehow missing an important fly-in while on stand down, apparently getting covered in custard cream pie while important incoming was arriving, the relief chopper arriving later from another vessel on the same operation. Secret equipment quickly unloaded for her, the MP's quick to usher it through along with herself, a priority on their checklist for the day with a red ID Tag, the chopper remaining on alert one, quickly zooming off again with defence documents and science mail bags in hand, a two hour plus flight, the Navy fleet already turning out to open sea, the chopper needing to catch up, precious time lost over the critical cargo and passenger, the chopper pilot verbally cursing every minute delayed because of her, a rude, obnoxious pain in her royal ass Lieutenant.

"Welcome to Erebus One Lieutenant Foxtrot", a smile from Carla, extending a welcoming hand to the fresh intern, an A grade Navy Lieutenant fresh out of flying school, with no experience what so ever. Your bunk is over there, Cala annoyingly pointing to the other unclaimed bed in the room, and that's my desk and computer, pointing at the middle desk. "If I may, Commander". A short pause as she passed by her, ignoring her extended hand, dumping her bags on her bed, drawing her bed curtain across to be sure of the privacy she expected, a sharp look at Janet. "Your Moon data is good, but not complete, I'm your co-pilot on your Moon missions and we have three months to work our shit out", her rude and obnoxious up front response to her, turning her back on her superior officer, her immediate attention to her left. "And as for you, miss fancy pants", noticing the piles of uniforms and full closet, "stick to your rocks, OK," a stern glare at Janet.

"Now you listen to me little miss fly girl", a sharp response from Carla, her eyes locked on her, immediately losing her shit. "What's the safe near earth telemetry angle of re-entry at 20,000 miles an hour, in degrees and minutes, while your crew is dead and life support is failing fast, Navy Lieutenant Angela Foxling", Angela Foxling, her real name, crimson and blank faced, a soft shake of her head, unable to answer her question. "Well, you better fucking apologize good to your ground control safe zone navigator over there you fucking rude, obnoxious girl," Carla livid at her response to her welcoming and turning her back on her, and then unable to answer a life saving question, her eyes ablaze and furious, pointing to the door. "How bout you fucking get out of my quarters," Carla in a rage and screaming, throwing her orders back at her, throwing the door open and kicking her out, her stern glance at the MP outside, inside herself a raging bull. "She's not coming back in here, I don't give a fuck what her orders say," throwing her bags out then slamming the door, two hands on it with all her strength, screaming in anger to herself and in an awful rage, quietly wishing for something to shoot dead. Janet in silence over the intense outburst, looking to hide somewhere safe, her raging temper not showing itself often, the last time she saw red she shot an enormous living creature dead while staring Janet in the eye over a short distance, her weapon steady and pointed at her head. When enraged, tread with extreme caution, Janet aware first hand of the consequences.

Straight to her computer, a snort and a growl, a report filed on her assumed co-pilot, her immediate request of intent to send her back to sea, marking her unsuitable for placement, explaining her reasons, offering to be informed in future and reviewing potential candidates herself before they were sent, smacking the send key, the document on its way. The request for files on more suitable candidates received at sea a short time later, an immediate recall and apology in her hands two days later, the rude and totally unsuitable Lieutenant in the end returned to shore duty, the fleet staff officer with a history of complaints in his hands about her at sea left with no choice but relegating her to a desk job as Adjutant secretary, unable to keep her anywhere under his command, no promotion offer for her for a long time.

"I Can't Breathe".

Carla pulled out another rack of unwearable, carrying them over to Janet, dumping them on her bed, her eyes softening, her smile slowly returning, shaking off the earlier disturbance. "Would you like some help to try these on", her saucy wicked grin covering up the explosion of rage from moments ago. "Are you armed and dangerous", Janet laughing, scratching her head as to what to do with the mounting pile of clothing, sorting through the pile then rearranging her robe for the fifth time. Finding a jumpsuit that matched her favourite work shoes she excitedly stripped to her underwear, Carla giggling as she struggled to get it past her backside, more girth across her hips, Carla thinner below but heavier up top, laughing at her look after squeezing into it. "That may not fit you properly", Janet screwing up her face, "I can't breathe in this", needing help to get out of it. Carla pulled at the suit firmly, Janet on her bed, her legs stretched out and stuck, cursing the suit, popping out of it and kicking it off in disgust. "Anything a size up from that", warily looking at it all spread out, reluctant to try further in case she got stuck in it, the first one not coming off easily, Carla almost tearing the arms to get it past her hips. Determined to keep some, she sorted through the sizes, Carla dressing in new camo blue, her new flight suits fitting perfectly. Turning to make coffees, Janet making a larger pile of unwearable, less fitting her than did not. "I need to lose some ass", to herself in a whisper, Carla laughing from the tiny kitchen space, her words clearly audible. "You could start by digging up rocks every day on the moon", laughing at the thought of Janet on a harsh lunar fitness program with a pick and shovel, sweating her kilos off in the heat and humidity inside her sealed space suit. She returned from the kitchen, giggling become laughter, Janet staring at her, her head tipped to the side, unamused by the comment, her fingers tapping annoyingly on her bed of clothes, accepting the coffee to change the subject and mood, the beverage actually tasty on her tongue.

Carla went to her computer, waking it up, her attention on work, reading over the notes for the next few days of operations, the moon experiment lasting a full month or more, the powers to be expecting the team to deliver. Attending to her private mail, her attention elsewhere, her interest drawn to a response on potential candidates as per her earlier request. Another knock at the door, Janet running over to check out the visitor forgetting she was still in her underwear, not keen on a repeat scene, a sweet, "Hello darling", Enrico dropping in on them to see how they were getting along, hearing of some drama earlier, interested to hear how the party went, signing off on it on the quiet and notably absent, keeping his distance for a few days and busy with mining operations, a short trip via chopper between camps saving hours of trekking on the ground.

Janet invited him in, opening the door wider, oblivious to her own lack of clothing. Enrico slipped in quietly, his look at her, Janet suddenly aware I'm standing in the doorway all but naked, running to her closet, hurriedly throwing on a jumpsuit, a size up from the previous try on, her backside slowing down the dressing process, Carla highly amused at her embarrassment, returning to him once covered up, her coffee in hand. Enrico welcomed Carla back, "congratulations Lieutenant Commander", shaking her hand strongly, Janet slightly jealous of the hug, embrace and soft kiss between them, clearing her throat, drawing their attention, Carla depositing him on the floor, picking up on her discomfort. "You have done us many great services, brought us so much and from little, and asked for nothing in return. I'm pleased to see you return once again and I have called a head of department meeting, at your agreed time to address the nature and importance of our future work, for which we are all deeply in your dept". All Carla could do was smile, his gracious acknowledgement giving her a tear.

He left the latest report on operations on the edge of her desk for her review, then excused himself, softly closing the door behind him. Janet returned to her wardrobe dilemma, Carla to her desk, thumbing through his report then checking the time.

She slipped out of her flight suit, Janet quietly watching, enjoying the view, noticing the missing cute tuft of hair. She dressed quickly in full dress uniform, collecting her NASA portfolio bag, adding some notes to it from her desk, looking up at Janet. "I have an important NASA briefing on the next Moon images, a five-hour drive coming up, this one's classified, so you can't come in". Go through my clothes while I'm gone to keep yourself busy and see what fits, a beeline for her desk to grab her last papers and radio, a smile and soft wink at her as she left. She double knocked at her door on the way out, the signal to the sentry she was ready, another sentry her escort to the high profile meeting, a closed and classified meeting to discuss a military objective, some important scans needed from her next drive, a classified five hour drive by of a specific location of military strategic and tactical importance, the argument any lunar landing pad left undefended could possibly be attacked, strategic weapons development and deployment next on the agenda.

She arrived at her meeting room with Josh, her personal guard, two MP sentries saluting her at the door, her ID tag letting her in, the first person to arrive. Dropping her bag on the table she surveyed the room, seating for up to ten, making herself a coffee, her attention drawn to a knock at the door, an MP holding out to her a satchel marked classified, her rank and name on it in bold. Carla received the satchel and signed for it, the door closing softly. She prepared her briefing for the remaining meeting members, recognizing immediately who the excluded member was and glad for it, drawing down her wall map of the proposed site, nothing noteworthy about it in her mind as she looked it over, her attention to emptying the contents of her satchel onto the table. Eight ID tags of varying colors fell out and some documents, one file in particular getting her attention, from Fleet Staff with a covering letter of recommendation from her old XO, presenting a potential candidate for her to review, the photo in her file, a stunningly beautiful girl, engaging eyes and a genuine smile, her credentials meeting her approval, the thought in her mind to read it more throughly and check it ticked all her boxes.

Sorting carefully through the tags, all hard printed cards with photo ID and scannable barcode imprinted on the front and back, hers in royal blue, Pilot and Mission Specialist her title, three in red for the control command team, the remaining four grey for design and technical staff in case anything went drastically wrong. She slipped hers over her head, placing her cap on the table; she had the chair on this meeting, highly classified material the discussion. The door opened, the other attendees arriving early, her smile upon greeting them, the on station MP's marking them off and scanning their ID before entry. Carla introduced herself and shook hands, handing them their closed meeting ID's, offering a coffee and directing them to their pre-arranged seating. The member briefs with the name on the front, the seven attendees soon seated patiently, her watch alarm signaling the meeting open, Carla graciously getting up from her seat, all eyes on her as she introduced herself and the team members in person, explaining the overview of the discussion.

Returning to her quarters three hours later, her brain partially fried, her team painstakingly nutting out possible recommendations over two hours, the final agreed proposal locked away for return to headquarters in the next mail bag, unmarked except for a security seal and padlock and a barcode, each person in the delivery chain signing for it personally.

Janet was absent on her return to her suite, tossing her bag to her desk, her cap landing nicely on her bed, an accurate frisbee toss and landing. She hung her uniform up, showered and changed, returning to her desk in a casual day flight suit, a coffee in hand, reading over her mail, a confidential summary of the briefing already in her files, Carla's new security credentials allowing her access to the secure Defence Department Navy web portal, all her files and four years work deemed classified, even her first year university Mars Project, so close to the actual intended program, taken seriously as potentially dangerous information, her university forced to surrender all her data and documents, every public record erased. She read through the file from fleet staffing, her at sea XO personally recommending a candidate, remembering where she met her previously, a junior on the navigation team on her last sea deployment, not having much to do with her apart from some watch keeping and plotting the course and distance to the sinking vessel, NAVSIT information helping her accurately advise on course and speed to quickly intercept with a safe recovery before they were lost at sea.

Carla sent back her response, also forwarded to NASA, seeking approval to give her a test run, the last one a hopeless failure in only twenty minutes on the ground. She reviewed her Mars project data, remembering her excitement over the infra-red images, it only a guess at the time to see what the results were, more so in curiosity than scientific research, spending a week on the data to confirm the accuracy, the rest now history five or so years later, Carla approaching twenty-seven years of age.

"Armstrong".

A week later, preparations underway for more sweeps of the moon, another test satellite drive, this one more difficult to handle, Carla desperately short of a worthy co-pilot, the time line getting tight. A dual control operation of independent systems a larger satellite at almost 13,000 lb dry weight at launch, pumping out weather, mapping and seismic data, never malfunctioning to date, not even a simple glitch, a lazy 13,000 miles an hour, 312 miles up, a sister craft in the Geosat program, one of Carla's favorite initial space research projects, smashing out the math exams on it in no time, catching the eye of the assessors, a note to keep a close eye on her progress, the top score and one percent in her class, way ahead of her peers.

The USGS and EROS plugged in to Janet's mapping data, EROS under contract, a branch of the USGS to monitor remotely sensed satellite mapping images of earth, their eyes secretly on long range accurate test scans of the moon and further afield, still bemused as to the projects success, their eyes firmly fixed on Janet, earmarking her program for plans of their own.

Not long after that a new technical science team arrived, Carla's focus on one person in particular, anxiously awaiting her arrival to her door, nervously pacing up and down the morning she landed. The new arrival to her NASA team soon presented herself at her door, Janet hoping and praying she was better than the last one, her side of the room void of piles of uniforms, her best picks filling her robe, no space left over. She knocked then entered, Carla warmly greeting her at the door, her soft grip in handshake, an infectious smile and sweet tone as she handed over her orders and introduced herself. "First Lieutenant Rosemary Armstrong reporting as ordered", a sharp salute, her pleasant smile becoming a giggle. Carla returned her greeting and offered her inside, her initial perception, a sigh of relief, passing her first tests with flying colors. Janet immediately impressed by her gracious courtesy and manners, commenting on the lovely quarters and patiently waiting for directions to her private space. Carla nodded to Janet to perform the honors and watching from behind, her close inspection of her rear view turning her eyebrows, a sudden turn to her as she put her bags down, their eyes locked on each other, quietly sizing each other up and liking what they saw in each other.

She confidently approached open handed, smiling happily, "thank you so much for inviting me Commander", "not yet i'm not", Carla grinning back at her, shaking her hand again and stronger, neither of them letting go. "You are the command pilot, that makes you the mission Commander", her tone genuine, her sweet innocence, and her stunning looks, her prodigy with some potential, her military record impressive and spotless. "Pleased to work with you, hopefully no sea rescues this time", Rosemary agreeing her heart was in her mouth over the course of the dangerous recovery at sea, relieved when it was over with no loss of life. "Welcome to Erebus One Lieutenant Armstrong", Rosemary laughing in excitement, Carla welcoming her with pleasure, Janet getting a sense of something, too much fun going on over there.

"Are you by any chance related", Janet's question as to her surname, a smile in her direction, Rosemary finally releasing her grip on Carla's warm soft hand, a tingling sensation through her after letting it go. "No, none what so ever" with a laugh, "though I have met Eric, Neil's son, quite a gentleman actually, at a NASA event while I was in training". "This is your space here", Janet helping her with her bags, thinking this one was the other extreme, way too nice, oozing innocent sex appeal, putting the fleeting thought of competition out of her head, also looking her up and down appealingly. Rosemary looked around the room, "such a pleasant change from drab gray", a sigh and comfortable with her quarters and company, both of them beautiful women. "So any man in your life, boyfriend perhaps?" Janet getting straight to the point, Carla laughing with a headshake, making the guest a coffee and showing her the bathroom and her robe space, Rosemary happily dumping herself on her bed. "If only they were nice boys", her laugh back at her, "but I have to admit I made more than a few girlfriends along the way", Janet picking up on her tone. This one definitely needed watching, Carla missing nothing, handing to Rosemary her hot, welcoming coffee and signing off her orders and returning them to her, taking a seat at her desk, eyeing her up and down, the new face quite a dish, a hint of naughty playfulness about her, Carla's mind on what she looked like underneath. Shaking it off and returning to her mail, leaving Janet to get the essentials out of her, laughing to herself, Janet interested in the unfamiliar girl, quizzing her on her personal life and chatting happily while she unpacked the essentials until the call to lunch. Carla recommended they attend the mess hall in dress uniform and sexy underwear, "let's have some fun over lunch," her plan to stir up all the boys then help her guest unpack properly, the trio excitedly agreeing to the plan, Rosemary with a fit of the giggles, the lunch time MP's calling the place to attention as they entered, Josh on point, throwing open the door, sharply calling "ten hutt, officer on deck," everyone immediately on their feet and silent mid bite or mid sentence, the impact of the three women at lunch time immediately felt, Carla and Rosemary in shorter skirts, and tighter than normal shirts, laughing and giggling like school girls, Rosemary unable to stop her laughter, her mouth firmly shut and in stitches over their chat, their features obvious, Josh keeping everyone standing until they were seated, having no nonsense from anyone. "As you were," from Josh, ashen faced but highly amused, Carla purposely taking her time to be seated, crossing her legs and catching the attention of the entire room. Lunch time on the verge of a riot, their presence causing a massive stir among the men, three ripened peaches in a garden of grey as Carla put it, the trio laughing over the attention, everyone's eyes on them through the meal, Rosemary in hysterics.

"The EROS Has Landed".

Later that evening Janet received an interesting welcoming email from EROS. The Earth Resources Observation Science arm of the USGS contacted her, inviting her to register as a member, a document from NASA as an attachment, the approval already granted, EROS declaring an interest in Erebus One's ability to accurately SAT Map near-earth objects, seeking more data on the findings, unsure how a non recognized scientific team could achieve such accurate data, eager to understand the research method applied. She replied to the email; her focus on her results, not wanting to immediately give away her secrets, why give someone else the credit.

Carla and Rosemary returned later that night, Carla personally signing off her welcoming checklist while showing her around, bumping into Enrico on his way to see Janet, an update on the latest minerals batches in hi8s hand, wanting her to check the sample quality data before he signed it off and sent it to dispatch, total confidence in her, once declaring Janet could tell what a rock was thinking. He greeted her in the usual manner in Spanish, Rosemary enthusiastically introducing herself and continuing the conversation for a few minutes, her linguistic skills top notch. Carla listened in, Enrico impressed by her manner and graces, a very polite girl indeed, offering a soft salute as he went on his way, Rosemary asking about him in detail on the way back to quarters, Josh at attention as they approached, Carla slipping him another twenty and a wink for his help over lunch as she went inside.

"Enrico sends his regards", waving his report at Janet, deep in conversation on the desk phone on Carla's desk, apologizing quietly, not expecting to see her sitting on the edge of her desk, documents in hand, deeply discussing rocks with someone important, hanging up after a few minutes, a beaming smile becoming a giggle, ready to burst over some good news. Janet accepted the report and returned to her own desk without a word, hiding the cause of her elation, getting to the business of his questions, her summary drawn up with pages of accurate numbers on the batch he was sending in no time at all. She kicked off her shoes and relaxed back in her chair, lifting her feet to her desk, laughing at Rosemary and Carla, both curious as to what happy drugs she was on.

Rosemary changed the mood in an instant. "Where do I change into nightwear", intently looking at them, switching her gaze, her question serious. A laugh from Janet, "anywhere you want to, there's no womanly secret here". Carla dropped from her desk and to her own space, dropping out of her day flight suit and kicking it across the floor, down to her sexy day underwear and posing, Janet closing her eyes, her head to her desk, her hands over the back of her head, "you've got a nerve dressing like that while I'm trying to work here, put some clothes on will you at least, I'm trying to concentrate", her eyes covered up, laughing hysterically, making light of Rosemary's serious question. Rosemary thought for a second, impressed by their close personal relationship, happily getting down to birthday suits and thinking nothing of it, their relationship on another level. She jumped up, her flight suit to the floor in seconds, flopping on her bed, legs wide apart, laughing at them in return. "Oh my fucking God, now look what you've done", Janet's finger waggling in Carla's direction as she went further, her sexy strut across the floor, tossing her bra on Janet's desk, her hands on it, swaying her bounty teasingly at her, dropping her panties on her head, a shake of her backside as she dressed into nightwear, getting into the spirit of the moment. Janet looked up from her desk at her across the room, her eyes on her lush body, "don't tease me like that", shaking her head to remove Carla's exotic panties as Rosemary slipped out of hers in the same manner, getting into nightwear, offering coffee all round, checking out the shower on her way past, her eyes all over Carla, seriously checking her out, drawing her gaze to her mound, a twinge of excitement through her body.

Fuck, she's gorgeous, she thought to herself, tingling from what she witnessed. She returned with coffee, running around naked in here apparently quite the thing, a social and fun way to shake off some tension. "Josh is out there for a reason, and it's not for our protection", Janet bursting into laughter at Carla's comment as she returned her attention to her work, glancing up as Carla teased her more. "Fuck off please", her response after a while, unable to stop from looking up at them both, Rosemary just as stunning as Carla, her thoughts on them closer together, shaking her head and getting into her coffee as she worked, eventually getting undressed herself, unable to take it any longer, showing her own bits off as she worked, Rosemary in hysterics at the childlike innocence between them, a burning question in her mind. "How did you guys get to be so close", the mood snapping as she spoke. Janet's body shuddered, Jasmine's reaction training kicking in, her hands shaking, dropping her pen, her hands covering her face, not laughing anymore.

Carla looked at her, holding up her hand for silence. I'd been here a few days, sent on a mapping assignment with Janet and Enrico and an away team. We set up camp for the day, getting our meal underway. A jungle python over twenty feet long sized up Janet from behind for a meal a few feet behind her in the jungle growth and I shot it dead over her shoulder in an instant while staring her in the eye, pleading with her silently not to move a muscle. "Fuck, I'm so sorry", Rosemary's immediate response in horror at her story, her hands to her mouth. "Janet was out of of shape for a while, only recently getting it out of her system, after having a relapse and beating herself up in her room, breaking an arm and bruising neck vertebrae and smacking her head, thus we are roomies now, so we can keep a close eye on her". Carla went over to Janet, her arms around her in comfort, a little distressed, not expecting that to come out, a hug and a kiss on the head to comfort her, Janet's look and pat on her arm she was OK. "I'm better now", her quiet response, "and I owe her my life, and will love her forever", her stare at Rosemary and she meant it. Carla pulled up the files on the incident reports, Rosemary in shock at the sight of twenty strong natives carrying a huge man-eating snake along, its enormous head blown open, a bunch of photos on flash from the site the night it happened, the distance clear in the first photo, her look at Janet, stunned at the photos. "I saw it in the corner of my eye while chatting with Enrico, looked her in the eye and dropped it hard core, no one noticed it hiding there for the two or so hours we were there, could have taken anyone". "Fuck", Rosemary struck silent.

"We have a big pre-briefing and assignment in the morning and you, princess Rosie, are flying the simulator for the next week before we drop a 13,000 pound satellite and re-align is slightly," a tech team is up there for some minor maintenance and we are control assist for the fix, so lights out ladies, alarms for 6am. Rosemary bounced off to the shower first, Janet a little shaken but otherwise OK, Carla sitting on her lap for comfort, wrapped around her for a checkup, Janet's arms around her waist, smiling the discomfort away, nodding she was OK, a comforting kiss before Carla got up for bed, a busy week ahead for her team and no mistakes allowed.

The 6am alarms went off in stereo, Carla up and dressed in under one minute, her uniform for the day laid out before she turned in, Rosemary not far behind. She team messaged for breakfast at 6.45am, no stragglers. Denied the call to order request at the door, the bemused MP quietly marking off their RNQ instead, Carla pushing Rosie, as she called her, to the front of the line, dumping her at the head of the NASA VIP table with her meal, taking the next seat, everyone in and seated by the set time. Making her stand up for the introductions, personally explaining her role and a brief history, the team got down to business, design tech going over the object they were driving and the basics of its design and simple operation. Carla then reminded the team, "despite a simulation test, I want design and tech right on the mark, if something fails, and we don't rectify the fault quickly, it crashes like it was up there for real, and we aint watching anybody up there die". Calling for questions she explained the driving method, everyone on the same page, this same test repeated three or four times a day for the next few weeks. At some point in the future, it would be for real, Rosemary quickly thrown in the deep end.

Janet was tied up and snowed under between delivery samples and EROS data, Geosat sending her job requests, although only data requiring checking against her highly accurate model, time consuming rubbish for her, Enrico receiving back her batch reports within minutes of sending them to her, vital information to go with each delivery, accuracy as to the individual shipment properties absolutely paramount, no mistakes in the materials dispatched, Janet's role deemed mission critical, her Geo skills first class, an honors thesis accepted by the wider science community, much of it deemed mandatory common practice going forward.

Carla and Rosemary gelled like Grease Lightning and Danny Zuko, the Erebus One team fast becoming a well-oiled machine, racking up long hours on many spacecraft under simulation, only the single live drive maintenance opportunity, and completing that task note perfect. Unbeknown to them, an actual test of intestinal fortitude would wake them in alarm in only a few months.

Janet received another undergraduate team, new meat for the grinder, Enrico with his hands full getting them into program, Carla now officially off the program, charting her own course in grand style, assisting with survey sweeps and close charting of the Moon, now the property of NASA under the USN.

"When To Push The Panic Button".

Six months later, the minerals and mining team, round the clock pumping out high grade raw materials, the new geology and survey teams on top of Carla's previous work efforts and results, continuing the standard but at a slower pace, not quite the machine she was. Her alarm went off just after 2am one night, checking it was a false alarm, her desk phone going off three seconds later. Houston was on the phone, a request for immediate help, and it was not a drill. She pressed her team panic button, fifty sleeping NASA specialists suddenly jolted awake. The plant alarm went off moments later, a mad rush and panic, Janet woken suddenly at the noise, her personal alarm silent. Carla pulled Rosemary from her bed in panic, "oh fuck, come on, we got an emergency," screaming alert one on the radio, jumping into whatever was handy to wear, her team scrambling to station, something bad calling them to immediate response and on station. Her well practiced drills repeatedly of when to push the panic button put to good use in the past training sessions, everyone on station in less than five minutes, Orion Five on her headset and speaker, Houston on her red desk phone, so something big was up.

Everyone called in at emergency stations, getting an immediate feed and update from Orion Five and live, an emergency developing with a satellite repair crew team mid-operation, their spacecraft in near Moon orbit. She held her hand up for silence, Colin's shrill whistle ceasing the noise, the room suddenly silent and under control, his arm pointing at her command chair, the phone response giving her a quick update, command control dialing up the frequency to listen to, punching up the live audio feed as it was happening...

"Hey Connie, you copy."... "Oh my fucking God, yes Sean I got you but I can't see you or pick you up, there's now no camera and I got alarms everywhere man, what the fuck just happened."... "It's OK I'm still here."...

"We lost secondary power, there's a bad shimmy, like there's a hole somewhere, maybe a space rock or something, I lost your feed when we got hit."...

"OK. The bent antenna leg from last week finally let go when we took the hit, taking the mirror strut and my tether with it, so I broke off before I gained momentum. The panel would have wrapped me up, the busted mirror shredding me into a salad. I'm in free fall but in contact by hand, so no pieces for you to come pick up."... "The mirror is going away from us so that's the good news."...

"Sean can you hold on and keep talking to me, and hang the fuck onto something."... "Gotcha Connie, I'm OK here, so the radio antenna and relay are gone for sure but keep trying anyway, someone might pick us up. Never should have put it near the mirrors, who designed this thing anyway."...

"I can jet over the other side hand over hand and tether there and maybe find your hole and look things over."...

"I love it when you talk dirty to me Sean, just hold on."... "I think the tether arm is there but I can't see or activate the camera over it, I think it's gone."... "Go around slowly and tether on, but hold on to something, I can't slow the rotation and I need to slow us down to evaluate our damage and flight status and I still can't raise any ground or sky, so I'm live streaming us and hoping somebody sees us".

"I want the frequency of that feed yesterday," yelling in frustration at her team, her arm pointing to command control frantically, Sean the spacecraft tech, calmly relaying the situation outside the ship, the command chair with hundreds of alarms, tossed around like the ship would break up at any second. Carla's team desperately trying to get up to speed and support the emergency response, her blood boiling, furious they were behind the ball and scrambling to catch up, the Houston phone still to her other ear, throwing Orion Five audio to Rosemary, while she plotted telemetry and course of the source vessel, something knocking the crew off course and into a wobble while attempting minor external repairs, critical power and function systems also dead in the water.

A video screen popped up with a scratchy live feed on video, someone hanging on for dear life outside as the ship spun off course and out of control, its orbit projection a little out, but positive by a few degrees, the only other good news, the crew alive and fighting for control of their suddenly stricken spacecraft, one of the team outside performing maintenance when disaster struck them from the other side, nothing on radar. The command and tech teams worked frantically to get the profile data of the vessel from Houston on the display screens so they could see what they were dealing with, Carla screaming into the Houston phone, "I need that fucking data."

"OK, making my way over."... Then nothing, the audio and video going dead for a few seconds, then audio only.

"There's certainly some damage, maybe we hit a rock we didn't see coming on radar."... "It's pretty beat up over here and the camera and side booster controller mounting are gone."... The video returned but broken up. "there's a tear in the outer hull near the secondary induction and regulator space, like a baseball bat went through it, so its taken something out for sure. Can you get radio yet? I'm tethered on and holding on tight."... "Can you get the radio yet?"... "Talk to me Connie."...

"Lemme try on my secure channel link, Connie, you still there?"... "Keep talking to me and let me know what you're doing. NO surprises, OK."...

"I got you Sean, I had to disconnect to change panels. I got warning lights everywhere."... "The O2 is good thankfully, just come control and spin problems for me, and I can't get anybody so go ahead and use your remote camera while on secure so I can see you but watch the power, it chews a lot."... "And hold on tight, it's gonna be a rough ride out there, OK."...

"Roger. I got that, switching to secure remote."...

"This is Leviathan Control calling Houston and Orion Five does anybody copy over, I say again, this is Leviathan Control calling Houston and Orion Five, do you copy over."...

The command team at Erebus projected the ship model on the huge display screens built into the end wall and side walls of the control suite, Colin frantically breaking down the problems while on audio, Carla's hand up for silence as she flipped her headset switch, her stare at the scratchy video from Sean's remote jet suit outside the ship.

"Leviathan Control this is Erebus One Control in the Yucatan, we have you on remote video and audio by 2 over," doing her best to present an in control situation for the crew by her relaxed and calm tone, despite them having none what so ever, the situation obviously perilous.

"You have Carla Bellamy USN on command and our tech team has your ship model on screen and assessing your damage, over." "We got a landline from Houston to assist you and dialed in your frequency. Please advise of your flight status and we have detected a safe change in your orbit path by 2 degrees positive elevation with zero orbital decay and a slight wobble, please advise over."

"Roger that Erebus, flight tech 2, Sean Downey here, nice to hear your voice Carla, I was getting worried."... "We have no onboard comms to home, so nice to hear from you."... "We took a rock to the other side a week ago, lost the radio strut and adjacent mirror just now, so no ground comms, just got hit by a baseball bat on the other side."... "We are over spinning and off balance with a slight wobble but are trying to correct and have a large tear on secondary thrust and regulator outer hull, a broken mirror, away from us, lost an external tether and have no secondary thruster regulator power."...

"I'm stuck outside on remote, can't open the door, almost got shredded by the mirror when it sheared off and in free fall for five minutes, now tethered on the secondary side inspecting the damage."... "Connie Baker is in the command seat with a lit up Christmas tree and our O2 is good."... "We are attempting to slow down so I'm hanging on."... "I need to switch over to hear Connie, but the secure remote on me chews the power heavy, and I'm the only radio, over."...

"Thank you, Sean we have relayed your problems, conserve your battery unless we need to see your damaged outer, we have you on a good plot and you are safe for now. We are working to connect to you remotely to help you regain control, Erebus One standing by and right beside you." "Shit Carla, they got hit twice during external repairs," Rosemary suddenly realising the immediate danger and in shock, a worst likely case scenario. Sean stuck outside and heavily bounced around, attempting to force an airlock manually to conserve what power they had left, his position outside precarious, Connie inside in the command seat, warning lights on every panel in the ship. Carla held up her hand for immediate silence, talking to Houston live, patching the recording from Sean so the two other support teams could hear it, her team the first to get a handle on the situation. "No panic people, let's just get this thing stopped, and I need booster control yesterday Colin", her finger pointed at him, the team with a thin wire of connection, desperately attempting to stop the ships wobble and speed and bring the spin under control, like grabbing a sixteen inch shell fired from a naval cannon, stop it in mid-flight, make it spin slowly in the opposite direction, maintaining the target trajectory, but at a much reduced speed, defying gravity, their plan, theoretically impossible.

Colin and the tech team broke down the damage circuit by circuit, Colin flipping to the Houston tech, the two guys long-time friends and a wealth of knowledge on these sorts of catastrophes, discussing a viable solution for Erebus to keep the link number one and somehow perform a controlled stop while a crew member was outside, never done before live, both crewmen at serious risk, their lives now in Carla's hands. The fundamental problem for Carla in stopping the ship. It was facing backwards, the only thruster engage able the primary main, the secondary dead and side adjustment controlling thrusters, the ones normally deployed, one broken off completely with the main radio antenna and primary power mirror, the other one with no power, a baseball bat sized piece of space debris slamming into the side of the ship, a rock hitting the other side with minor damage a week earlier, that damage now compounded, the damaged piece suddenly breaking off, almost taking the tech crewman with it, the razor blade pieces of the mirror shredding anything it touches, straight through reinforced titanium plate at the speed it was travelling, well able to cut the stricken vessel in half, their spaceship currently salvageable but on the verge of sinking.

Some lights on Connie's secondary control panel switched to green and beeped at her loudly, so she quickly changed seats, flipping the engage switch, Erebus remotely connecting to a backup control system, Colin switching power systems til he found one that linked, the design tech team pulling the spacecraft apart circuit by circuit and re-routing power, keeping life support systems on and functional. Sean performed a manual entry to get back inside for his own safety, leaving the door open to save power, plugging into secondary manual comms, his radio battery below twenty percent and approaching critical. Connie earlier in anticipation, threw a box of fully charged spares in the airlock, needing to leave the command seat to do it, precious but necessary time ticking by, profusely apologizing to everyone for throwing the operating guidelines manual in the bin under her seat.

Flipping her headset to open, a red light blipped on her panel, a soft cautious "hello," hoping for a reply. Carla immediately getting her, then Sean, "Hey Connie, I got you back somehow." "Leviathan, this is Erebus ground co-pilot Rosemary Armstrong, over." "Oh my God Rosie, Connie confused as how she got her," almost in tears, lumps in her throat, close friends with Rosemary from the naval academy, aware she had no control over the spacecraft from the command seat. "Hold still you guys we have you tethered, will attempt a controlled stop burst burn with a 0.05 percent injection from your good primary to slow you down. We need to wait for your wobble angle or you could flat spin, do you copy over?" "Thanks Rosie, this is Sean, im strapped in and awaiting your count down, roger." "Pick up Connie, I need you to help us, over." "I'm in the secondary seat, the primary with no power, OK, and I'm ready," Rosemary switching control to Colin. "Hey Connie, its Colin Belfrey, nice to have you back in our hands, we are relaying everything to Orion and Houston, so we are all right beside you, copy," "Thanks Colin, roger we are ready for your countdown and standing by," her heart in her mouth, this was do or possibly die, everyone on ground on the edge of their seats, praying the maneuver worked.

Connie had her feet ready on the brakes on one side only to prevent the wobble from toppling over, hanging on tightly with both hands for dear life, tightly strapped in to her seat and holding her breath, praying the mounts held up, the thrust injection at exactly the point of negative wobble roll over to stop it inversely without changing the ship's course. That was the plan, Carla crunching the final numbers on the plot with Houston over the phone, precious seconds ticking by. She got the green light, Houston on speaker, everyone getting the audio countdown. Sean strapped in tight, holding on for dear life, some serious rattling coming his way, like a factor 7 or 8 earthquake for five or so seconds, his suit tethered down in its holding block, except he was in it, and the door wide open, another thing never performed live before, not written in the manual.

Zero on the countdown, Colin flipping the switch, Connie counting to five then jamming on the brakes, the brake wings bending, almost tearing off under the enormous stress on the metal, Sean screaming out, tossed around like coffee beans in a can, then quiet, everything still. "Leviathan, do you copy over, it's Carla." Anxious seconds, "I have you clear boss lady," from Sean, "I'm still alive," from Connie, quickly evaluating the flight status, getting a severe shaking in the second pilot seat. "We have reduced overall wobble by over two-thirds Erebus, and thank you for shaking hands, Command Pilot standing by", Carla's numbers quickly blown up, the tech team switching to the main screen with their data, the projected course now straight, the wobble cone heavily reduced, less than the ships diameter on the chart, the cone angle in front of the ship a small sine wave on the main display, the numbers changing slowly negative then positive, the wave now constant, Houston on the phone to Carla, everyone in relief the ship had slowed, the wobble inverted by seventy percent in one maneuver, Sean violently shaken in the airlock, screaming out and losing focus on things, tempted to pee his pants but holding off. "Erebus this is Leviathan, I need to pee", that one comment breaking the enormous tension, everyone laughing hysterically, Rosemary giggling on the headset, "Can you pee out the window to reduce weight". "Negative Rosie", Sean laughing back at her, "it can wait until class is out".

Sean performed the manual lock of the airlock, in a hurry to get out of the suit, seriously shaken not stirred, his relief at needing the bathroom, not good in a space suit, plenty doing it, their bodily functions sometimes losing it under extreme physical and mental duress. Back in the command module, he shared a hug and a kiss with Connie, holding hands in adjoining seats, sighs of relief to each other, Carla's team saving their ship from a certain out-of-control spiral, the Moon's gravity eventually dragging them down into orbital decay, their plot depression angle badly negative, no need to explain the ending of that scenario.

Carla called up Houston Control privately on her phone, her tech team looking at the damage, too risky to attempt repairs, the next problem, getting them back to Orion Five and stopping them on a dot so they could dock, and not able to control the maneuver themselves, dangerous for them and the space station, the station on alert status one, preparing for incoming straight at them, everyone now on the question on how to stop the broken ship when it got to point zero. The plan to let it roll over in orbit around the moon and use the gravity envelope to slow it down more, then nudge it out in a straight line at the exact time, needing to turn it around first, the problem, only one parallel thruster left on the ship, the question how to power up the circuit to fire it and safely turn it around for a controlled burn to stop it exactly at point zero so an Orion crew could manually grab it while slowly speeding up in relative increments for a safe zero speed hook up and dock it for repairs, part one achieved, two parts of the plan left.

Carla's team had achieved something not physically possible on paper, grabbing a speeding bullet making it slowly spin in reverse, inverting the cone wobble and giving it a steady course and speed, the acute positive orbit angle helping to slow it down naturally, the Moons gravity, a long thin stretchy rope, eventually stopping it, so everyone hoped. Orion Five able to adjust its position to catch the ship like a baseman's outstretched glove, a foot firmly on the bag, the Moon, but it was a long stretch, Carla's control team now crunching the numbers on that alongside Orion Five, the numbers read by Houston for rechecking and verification. The decision eventually made with a two day wait for a more desirable and close to perfect orbit height and cut-off angle, another controlled burn to slow it down rather than speed it up an agonizing day away, the safer choice to take more time, and do it slow, the problem remaining on how to catch a 60,000 pound speeding bullet, with the exact weight of the projectile unknown, the catcher's glove unfortunately the space station and her crew. Catching it the easy part, but aligning the seams for a straight curve ball pitch, never put to paper the aeronautics astrophysics scientists with a job ahead of them, an epic catastrophe if even slightly out in their calculations.

Carla's team clock at thirty + hours connected, Houston not willing to try a switch in the batting order for fear of breaking the fragile string, the command crew of Leviathan chatting away normally and performing scientific routines as if nothing was going on, doing a remarkable job in maintaining sanity, everything depending on math calculations and precision timing from the ground, not once considering or speaking of failure. Carla in a boiling hot seat, her composure outstanding as they joked over the radio, another lap of the moon completed, the controlled burn a few seconds more than first calculated, the angle widening positively, the Moon's gravity not quite grabbing the ship as expected, the outcome of that, satisfactory. Phase 2 completed the highly complex recovery phase on the table, almost one hundred scientists coming together to provide the perfect solution with their hands tied and eyes shut, Carla in control of the ball, now waiting for the pitch and the catch.

The jump off burn commenced at the exact point necessary, Carla with a perfect pitch, the trajectory exactly on point, another tiny burn to slow them down a fraction more, the distance shortening painfully slowly. Orion Five needing to speed up and catch the ball at exactly zero speed, not enough, a nasty collision, too much and a missed catch, the timing for the next eighteen hours critical, the Moon as the bag doing a nice job on the space diamond. Exactly nineteen hours, seventeen minutes later, Orion Five made a perfect catch from a perfectly straight curve ball jump off, making the successful grab and hook up at zero point and speed, not a dry eye on the ground or in space, a perfect hook up and docking, three service team members outside, putting their lives at risk to catch and dock Leviathan as quickly as possible on the first attempt. Orion Five gently slowed in tiny increments over a few hours, the gravity shift hardly noticeable, the battered tiny Leviathan gently pulled tightly against the mother ship, all ten of the docking locks secure, green lights on the command module airlock panel, the extent of the carnage more evident up close, the command crew in tears on video, many hands helping them down the steps, hugs all round and shouts of relief in every headset. Carla's control team ecstatically jumping around on video send, Orion Five with a solid linkup, pandemonium for ten minutes, this one for the space science record books, all three sites on video send, Sean and Connie quickly lead away for medical evaluation and debriefing. Sean coming away with a slight hearing deficiency in his left ear, his brain getting a severe shaking, sadly his last space adventure, rejoining the team after a long recovery as a senior on ground technician and flight control engineer. Connie would later jump off again as a permanent command pilot on rotation, eager to do it all again if necessary.

"Congratulations Commander".

Twenty minutes after the clock officially stopped, the control time past sixty hours, Carla slumped in her seat in relief, her command team clapping and cheering as the video feeds cut out, her site data already compiling, taking hours to complete. She pushed her headset off her head, her head in her hands and howled in relief, Rosemary siting quietly on her desk with her arms around her in comfort, shaking her softly, praising her composure and leadership examples, Colin leading a cheer, the noise for some time lifting the roof. Carla's desk phone rang, Rosemary noticing the blinking light and picked it up, Colin whistling for quiet pointing to the command chair, Rosemary with her finger in her other ear so she could hear. Colin ushered everyone back to their seats, no thoughts of exhaustion, Rosemary chatting for a minute then patting Carla on the arm, a direct call from COMSINPAC on her private command line.

"Lieutenant Commander Bellamy here," shaking as she spoke, no clue who she was speaking to. "Congratulations Commander, Bernie Grace here, outstanding job, you girls and guys did a fine job. If any chance of mission success, it was with you. By the way, always make sure you get your rank correct when on the phone to superiors, Commander."

Carla was speechless. Still shaking from the nerve-wracking sixty hours of flight control, Rosemary wrapped around her in relief. "Thank you sir, we will keep the light on for when you would like to drop in and say hello in person". Rosemary took the phone from her shaking hand, holding her arm steady, her thumb rubbing her wrist, shaking her arm softly, thanking her previous XO, now Real Admiral Bernard Grace for his taking time to call them in person, chatting for a minute over her own part in the mission, silently hanging it up. Kissing Carla on the head and swaying her around, her protective arms around her, her soothing words of comfort as she broke down exhausted, the harrowing ordeal catching up with her. Rosemary officially called the team to stand down, a clap of appreciation at Colin, a thumbs up and weary smile back at her, the room vacant thirty minutes later, the ICT team hanging back to finish compiling the rescue data, some immediately leaving, each to their own thoughts, somehow performing a miracle, most of what they attempted in the hope it worked not written in the manual.

Janet meanwhile, aware of the dangerous rescue mission, nervously paced silently about the room for hours, her toes digging into the plush carpet until the door silently opened, Carla's MP guard Josh and Rosemary carrying her back to living quarters for rest, the poor girl dragging her feet along the ground, unable to walk upright, way past exhausted, the on-duty medic called in giving her a once over on her bed and some hydrolyte, her sugar reserves near empty, making a note for a medical debriefing for the entire team, firstly giving them much needed rest, a marathon race of extreme endurance, everyone performing well past their best to the finish line.

Rosemary doted over her to make her comfortable, tossing her shoes aside, peeling off her flight suit, Janet offering her best scotch, Carla screwing up her face at it, so strong, her head spinning immediately, hot burning in her throat, tingling sensations to her toes and shivering. Rosemary and Janet remained at her bedside for comfort and support until she fell asleep.

Janet then pulled Rosie to her feet, standing silent and wrapped around her in relief for a few minutes. Leading her slowly by the hands to the shower in the near dark, soft blue night lights the only light, barely able to navigate in the near darkness. Silently pulling her into the cramped space, almost breaking down herself, wrapping her up with a soft thank you kiss, taking her time with it. Rosemary responded in like fashion, enjoying the comforting embrace, warm soothing water cascading over them, day clothes soaked in seconds. Janet softly at her flight suit, teasing her, slowly easing the zipper down to her crotch, soft hands exploring and slowly unwrapping her, intense silent deep kissing, her hands to her chest, lovingly and softly to her breasts, tongues searching, Rosemary giving in to the unexpected lush affections. "Oh fuck", soft electric shocks through her clenched teeth at the heavenly treatment, spending some time in the shower, a soft tongue and hot lips making their way down her trembling, exhausted body, stopping to examine and explore her folds with sensitivity, varying the gentle pressure, softly biting and sucking on her soft skin, fingertips clawing her thighs, a hand tightly grabbing her ass, stifled screams of pleasure and lightheaded, Janet expertly taking her quietly over the edge of orgasmic bliss, dropping her flight suit. Giving her time to recover, a sensual lathering with her cherry scented body wash. Gently picking her up after a good rinse off, legs firmly clasping her waist, softly padding to her bed, drying her off, exploring her nakedness with interest, wrapping her up in her loving embrace, depositing her gently into her bed, her curtain pulled over and her alarm switched off, soon falling asleep.