Proxima Adventure

Chapter 29. Consequence.

Chapter 29. Consequence.

Carl found Charles on the command deck one evening and noted that he was looking at the image of Earth as the ship orbited it.

"What's up?" he said before sitting down next to him.

"I was wondering if it would be possible to live on Earth even in its present condition."

"We would need to construct biogenetic energy units there in order to keep us healthy, and that would entail constructing fusion power equipment."

Charles sighed. "Yeah, that would be a big deal."

"I could see us going down there for short visits, sort of like vacations."

"I'm more concerned about the problems of dealing with children."

Carl smiled. "I'm sure the genius women will take care of that."

Charles chuckled but he realized that it was going to be a new experience for all of them.

After a long silence, Carl looked at Charles with a more serious expression. "I wonder what going on with our robot buddy."

"Yeah, I'm not sure what's happening. Maybe they've eliminated all their enemies."

Carl looked away. "Yeah, there couldn't be all that many robot aliens running around the galaxy. They only come from advanced alien civilizations."

"That's true. Maybe we're done with that."

"Hopefully."

Dave, Robert and Ted entered the command deck.

"Why are you up here this late?" Dave asked.

"We're bored," Carl replied. "Other than the engineering deck, it's a good place to avoid the women."

As if it were a stage play que, Alice, Vicky, Hilary, Judy, Beverly, Mary, Janice, Jill, Felicia, Betty, Gorgia, and Sally entered the command deck and went over to where the men were gathered.

"Is something wrong?" Alice asked.

Charles turned to her. "No. I was just musing over whether we're done with the robot wars."

"God, I hope so. We don't need that nonsense now."

"We're bored," Vicky said. "We want you guys to entertain us."

"It's a bit late for that," Carl argued.

"It's not that late," Vicky retorted. "We don't need all that much sleep now that we've been physically altered."

"How about entertaining us," Carl suggested, biting his lip to avoid showing any amusement.

The women exchanged glances before Alice smiled. "I'm surprised that you would ask us to entertain you guys."

Carl shrugged. "We don't want to disrespect you or offend you in any way."

They laughed derisively.

"You would never offend us," Alice said while still giggling. "We'd love to entertain you guys."

"You don't have to," Charles said with an appropriate serious expression.

Alice gestured as if she were rounding up a group of workers. "Get your butts up. We owe you a show."

The guys reluctantly stood up and followed the women out of the command deck. The four guys went with Alice, Vicky, Hilary, Judy, and Beverly in the elevator together.

They remained silent while it dropped to the quarters deck. The other women rode the elevator down and joined them in the corridor before entering Charles's quarters and going to the pool chamber.