The Farmer’s Daughter

Chapter 2 – Greater Efficiency

“That big of an increase just can’t be coming from a simple reshuffling of the harvesting pattern. There has to be an external change.” Tim was pacing in the living-room while I lounged and updated some code for our radar system.

“Well, I can’t imagine what it might be. It’s not like our ground is any different than anyone else’s, and even the weather hasn’t changed significantly for at least three seasons.”

“And yet, I can link the timing of the increase to the first shipment you sent after starting your new rotation system,” he continued.

“A fluke?”

“Maybe. Do you have readings from the testbed harvester yet?”

There was a beep and a notice on my terminal.

“Just coming in now,” I replied. Tim stood behind me to look over my shoulder. I found myself acutely aware of his presence, and a warmth came to my cheeks.

“Is the efficiency elevated?”

I studied the data. “It’s… yup, 21.2 percent above normal. Even higher than the last batch.”

“So no fluke. But what’s causing the increase? We’re missing something here. Tell me, Rachael, what can you test?”

I thought about it. “My sensors give me data in infra-red, UV, most radio bands, the visible spectrum of course, and even microwave. Nothing is out of the ordinary, at least not from a farming standpoint. I have basic seismic sensors. Nothing but some low-level background activity there. Chemical sensors report all materials used in crystal formation to be nominal. No foreign… wait… what’s that?”

“What’s what?”

“Look right here…” I pointed to the ground sensor. It was showing the presence of several unknown compounds in very very low quantity. So low in fact, that the sensor was reporting it as a possible miscalibration. “I’ve never seen that in the list before. Do you recognize that chemical signature?”

Tim stood upright and looked shocked. “That can’t be right. Not at the surface. Rachael, do you use any kind of markers to guide the bots? Something like a stake in the ground maybe?”

“Well, I use lasers to help keep them on path, does that count?”

“What about paper tags?”

I frowned. “Paper? No. Where the hell would we get paper? Why? What is that stuff?”

“It’s cellulose. Basically, plant fibers.”

Now I was shocked. “I suppose something might have gotten caught in the sensor tray, but I doubt it. There are no plant forms on the surface, Tim. It’s too hot. Exposed to the surface heat they wouldn’t last more than a few hours. Seriously. That has to be an error.”

The man was frowning in thought. “What about below the surface?”

“Uh, the crystals grow on the surface. They’re not plants.”

“No, not the crystals… Actual plants. You said they were in cave structures all over the planet. How deep are those caves?”

“I… I’m not sure. I can check the net if you like.” I was curious myself and started a search. I also had a building knot in my stomach. “Are you saying that perhaps the plants are breaking through or something?”

“Maybe.” Tim took his seat on the other couch. “It would explain why you’re seeing cellulose in your soil data.”

“Planetary geological surveys say that the caves can extend from the surface down to almost eight hundred meters. That’s a pretty deep ditch. This article indicates that the plants creating the tunnels may be searching for water and could be pushing so deep in order to follow a descending aquifer.”

“Does that link have geologic mapping? Does it show the tunnels?”

I followed a few leads. “No, but there’s a link to some seismic surveys that have basic zones. The data is a little old, but most of the larger caves should be in there. Why?”

Tim got up and then sat next to me on the loveseat. I took a quick breath and pushed back my libido.

“Can you show it to me?”

I opened the map overlay data.

“I don’t know where anything is on this,” he said, leaning slightly against my shoulder. I felt the warmth of his body through my coverall and blushed. “Can you zoom to our location?”

I tapped my terminal pad a few more times and the image rolled and panned in. In a moment there was a blue bordered zone labeled, “McConnelly Ranch” filling most of the screen.

“Where are the crystal fields,” he asked.

I pointed to a section just North of the main complex. As I did so, I saw that one of the larger cave structures passed under the exact point I was indicating on the map. My stomach fluttered.

“Oh my god…” I said, staring at the screen. “Wait a second…” I tapped the pad and zoomed back, then I told it to overlay orbital images indicating crystal rich zones. As soon as it came up I felt queasy. “Holy shit!”

“I’ll be damned. The crystal fields and the plant caves line up almost perfectly,” exclaimed Tim next to me.

“You realize that can’t be a coincidence,” I said, shaking slightly. “They have to be linked in some way.”

“Yup. But which is linked to the other? Are the plants using the crystals, or do the crystals just happen to grow above plants?”

I shook my head and set down the terminal. “This is too freaky. I need to do something else and not think about those plant things so close to the surface like that. I mean, this whole facility, this house, is built right over a cave! Are those things going to reach up through the ground and try to get inside?” I stood up, panicked. “They could be waiting below the surface right now, ready to…”

“Rachael, stop!” Tim stood as well and took my hand. The sudden contact made me jump. “Stop,” he repeated more soothingly. “Anything below us has been there a while. We are completely safe here.”

I shook my head. “You don’t know that. That seismic data is over four years old. Those caves could be way bigger now. This whole place could drop right into the ground! It’s happened before, you heard my father. Oh god… We have to leave, we need to get out of here.” I started to look around, my head swimming with fear and adrenaline.

“Rachael, relax. Nothing is going to happen,” said Tim, trying to calm me. It wasn’t working.

“We can take the smaller flitter… yes that would work.”

“No, Rachael…”

“We would have to pack light and… SHIT! We can’t go to one of the other farms! The same thing could be happening to them! And the city is too far away for the smaller craft… oh shit… shit… shit!”

“Rachael! Look at me,” he said loudly while grasping my shoulders so I couldn’t turn away. Our eyes locked. “I won’t let anything happen to you. Do you understand?”

I didn’t say a word. I simply stared into those eyes as my heart raced uncontrollably. And suddenly I understood. I wasn’t panicked about the caves, or the plants. It was Tim. I was transferring my sexual tension into fear.

The moment I accepted this fact, every bit of panic and nervousness transformed immediately back into pure, undiluted arousal. My whole body tingled with warmth as I blushed, and then gasped. My eyes widened, and I saw Tim actually pull back slightly in shock, or perhaps even fear. If he rejected me…

Suddenly, I was moving forward, my hands reaching around his waist and sliding up his back as I brought my body up against his. I tilted my head slightly back and to the side, then closed my eyes just before our lips met.

Sparks. A warm, almost prickly sensation traveled down my body and pooled in my pelvis. Groaning, I pushed my whole body forward in a single deep undulation as my thighs parted and my breasts pushed hard into his chest. Tim, to his credit, only hesitated for a microsecond before joining in. As the kiss built up momentum, he let his tongue play forward, and his hands wrapped around the back of my head and into my hair. How long we mashed our faces together that way I couldn’t tell you, but when we mutually pulled back to breathe we were both panting and shaking slightly.

“Please…” I whimpered breathlessly, seeing hesitation in his eyes for the first time.

He frowned slightly. “Are you sure about this, Rachael,” he then asked softly.

“God, yes!” I replied, hardly able to keep from laughing. “I was sure the moment you stepped out of your flitter – the moment you bowed to me. Do you remember?”

“I do.”

“Then, please don’t make me wait any longer, Timothy D. Andrews!”

He read my face for three very long seconds, then nodded once. My instant grin barely proceeded my hands, which reached around and started working the buttons of his shirt in trembling urgency. The removal of my own clothing was much easier, since it consisted of a single zip on the front of my coverall, which Timothy drew slowly downward like a child unwrapping a delicious candy. He gasped slightly when it became apparent to him that there was absolutely nothing else under that coverall save for fifty-two kilograms of hot, squirming me. It’s not like I always went commando around the house, but these were desperate times and all advantages must be taken. Pop would have had a fit.

While Tim drooled over the swath of naked flesh in front of him, I was a bit distracted myself. When I first saw the man stepping from his transport, I was starry-eyed and bedazzled. I would have seen him as handsome had he looked like a complete toad. But since then, I have had plenty of opportunity to readjust my assessment. I can honestly say it has only gone up. Tim really was beautiful, and a lot more toned physically than I first thought. It was an undiluted joy to peel him out of his shirt. But the problem with this was that we were both scrambling to free the other from their garments, so just as I was reaching my hands in over his bare chest, Timothy was folding back my coveralls. This was good and bad. Good, because it exposed my breasts in all their aroused glory. I was proud of my chest, and felt it was one of my best features. Almost any male would agree, but men in general have a slightly skewed appreciation of the female form. But from what I had seen on the viddies, I was at least as well as endowed as the current bombshell starlets, and perhaps just a bit more shapely. My nipples were perky (to say the least!) and matched the color of my chestnut brown hair almost exactly. I was quite excited to present them to Tim.

The bad part about folding back my coveralls was that it forced my arms down, pinning them at my sides where they would be useless in the further removal of Timothy’s garments. In fact, I suddenly found myself unable to do much of anything except pant and moan in frustration. And when I looked up, Tim was grinning, the rat!

With one hand, he held the coverall bunched behind me. The other he let drift slowly over my belly in gradually widening circles. When his fingers lightly traced the undersides of my breasts, I nearly fainted.

“Ughnn…. oh god.. mmmm…”

The tickling digits rounded over my curves and lighted upon my left nipple, which grew even more pronounced at his touch. I could feel my own pulse pounding in the engorged nub and wanted to scream. As it was, I did gasp sharply when he took the hard flesh between his fingers and pinched gently. An electric shock of pleasure shot through my body and fizzled at my tailbone.

I was going crazy. It just wasn’t fair. I balled and stretched my hands repeatedly as I fought to hold back against the growing insanity of lust that was quickly overwhelming me. Finally, I felt Tim let go of my coveralls and bring his other hand forward. Able to move, but still tangled in the garment, it was several seconds before I managed to free my arms. In that time, my lover teased and caressed my breasts mercilessly. I nearly ripped the man’s shirt from his body in my desire to get him naked, and was grateful that he now seemed as eager as I to ditch the impeding garments and get serious.

Tim’s pants dropped without trouble (thank god!) and I sucked in my breath at the sight of his manhood. It was just as beautiful as the rest of him and I found myself drooling. Our clothing gone, I reached my arms around his neck and pulled the man down on top of me on the couch.

If Timothy Andrews is anything, it’s patient. How he managed to find the will to stop at that moment and offer me one last chance to back out, I will never know. Not that I wanted to. Hell no! But it was the most gentlemanly thing anyone has ever done for me, and I acknowledged his query even as I was positioning him at my gates. Then, with the slightest nod of my head and a smile, I welcomed his manhood inside me.

“AHH! UGHNN!” I cried out as he penetrated me right to my core in one smooth motion. Not that he could help it. I was so slick that he practically fell inside me. That and the fact that my legs were firmly wrapped around his hips and were pulling him down hard enough to leave bruises where our hips collided. Laughing aloud with wonderful delight, I finally let my body go. My pelvis rocked slowly against his as my back started to gently arch up. Tim, I noticed, matched my rhythm at once, adding his own pulling and thrusting to the mix. I knew that I wouldn’t last long in the state I was in. Past experiences had taught me that I wasn’t someone who could prolong sex. Maybe I was just too horny all the time, but I almost always came within thirty seconds of first entry. I think I lasted ten with Tim.

“Oh! UGHN! AHH! Y-yesss! Oh god! UGHMMM… UGHNNN! UGHNNN! AHHHH!!”

White sparks obliterated my field of view as orgasm flooded over me. I was only partially aware that my hips were still rolling against Tim’s, or that the rest of my body had stiffened into rigid ecstasy. It wasn’t until the wave of wondrous pleasure subsided some indeterminate time later that I found myself drained and still trembling, with Tim gently stroking my face and playing with a curl of slightly sweat-dampened hair.

“Whew!” I sighed, trying to catch my breath. “I’m… sorry to… have peaked… so quickly!”

Above me, Tim grinned. “We have nothing but time, my dear,” he replied and wriggled his hips slightly. Since he was still mostly erect within me, the tiny motion sent a burst of sharp pleasure radiating out from my spread thighs and I gasped.

“Ahh! Mmmmm… Forgive me for asking, but I hope that I didn’t come so quickly that you…” I let the implication hang.

“You were… distracted.”

“Boy! Was I ever! But… you didn’t answer my question?”

He met my eyes. “I doubt seriously that I could ever hold back while watching you do that.”

“Really?” I giggled. “We’ll have to test that, won’t we.”

“Indeed. Rachael,” he asked after a moment’s contemplation. “Are you… okay? I mean, you were pretty scared there just before we, uh…”

“I’m fine. Goodness, I’m way better than fine. It was all misguided lust, truly it was.”

“Well, if you say so.”

I sighed, relishing the feel of a warm body pressing me down into the soft cushions of the couch. My lover was tracing patterns on my chest with the lightest touch, and the intense attention made me blush slightly.

“Your skin is so responsive,” he said. “I know that what I’m doing is arousing to you simply because I can see the color of your skin change. Just a moment ago, you blushed, didn’t you?”

I giggled, even more embarrassed.

“See! There!” He was pointing between my breasts. “Your skin actually got a bit warmer that time. And look at your nipples!”

I did. “Yeah, they do kinda stand up and say, ‘oh mama!'”

Tim laughed outright. The rapid shifting of his diaphragm caused his phallus, to jerk within me seductively and I gasped. Seeing my eyes widen, the man growled from his belly and I felt his manhood stir.

“I think,” he said as he shifted himself upright, drawing me with him so that by the time we had finished the maneuver, he was seated with his legs up on the couch, my own legs astraddle his hips. “…That it’s time I got a really good look at you.” He let his gaze very gradually work down my body starting at my eyes, and ending between my legs. The whole while, I blushed and beamed, sitting up straight to give him a better view. I was so busy trying not to giggle, that I failed to notice that he had been slowly moving his hips again. All at once my breath deepened and my eyes fluttered in deep pleasure.

“Oh ughnnn… god.” I moaned. I felt his hands smoothing up my thighs, but it was still a surprise when he gently urged my pelvis to move. It only took a few repetitions before I was locked into the motion without his help. That’s when I leaned forward slightly to increase the depth and suddenly felt his fingers slide over both my breasts, trapping my nipples between his middle and ring fingers.

“Ahhh! Shit! Ughmmm!….” I moaned, my eyed wide again. “No… fair… ugh… ugh…”

“I want to watch you come again,” he said seductively.

“I’m not… ughnn… as desperate this time, bucko…ughmm… I can… ughnn… take you… ahhh!… more… ughnn!… slowly… oh god!…” I was watching his face, and so I saw him smile in mirth as I quickly drove myself toward ecstasy. It was a half-truth that I wasn’t as desperate. I wasn’t, but it hardly mattered since my sex-starved body was reacting just as much as the first time, maybe more since I now had complete control of our rhythm… At least in principle. In practice, my hips were already way out of control. Twenty seconds later, I was bucking my body atop his and fighting just to stay conscious as wave after wave of luscious bliss buried me in orgasm. I never did get to see his face as he spent himself.