Chapter 1 Note: The beginning of this story is found in the Caroline Everson joint story. ******************************************************* After the meeting, the General and Sharon went home for dinner. After dinner, the General drew his daughter close. "My dear, it's time." "Time for what?" "It's time I told you about your mother. What do you remember about her?" It had been 10 years since her passing. "Not too much. She was always sick and spent a lot of time in bed." "Yes, the last few years were very hard on her. I really felt for her, but there was nothing that I could do." "I never knew exactly what was wrong with her." "Let me start at the beginning. I first met her when I was a Lt. on night duty at the base. A call came in from a security patrol of unauthorized access and I went to investigate. A flying saucer had crash-landed on the base and your mother stepped out of it. As I approached, she set off a self-destruct mechanism; I'd never seen anything like it before. The entire ship disappeared into a kind of black hole, which then closed in on itself! She then saw me and started to approach. I just stood there dumb-founded at the most beautiful woman I'd even seen. She seemed to read my mind as she smiled at me!" "Wait a minute! You're saying mother was an alien?" "That's right." "Why haven't you told me this before?" "Well, first you were too young to understand. Then you reached puberty, and you had enough to deal with, just growing up. But now that you're about to go into space, I know that it's time to tell you. You are following in your mother's footsteps, and she would be so proud of you!" "What else have I inherited from her? Is this why I'm so strong?" "I always thought that your mother was exremely strong, but she always said that she felt as weak as a kitten. She was never really well the whole time; her immune system couldn't handle the germs, viruses, and pollution on the Earth very well. I hoped that her body would adapt, but over time she just got sicker. Eventually it became too much for her and she passed away. You're right, the last few years were especially difficult for her." "Was she ever as strong as me?" "No,you're far stronger than she ever was. You seem to have inherited the best of both of us; her strength and my immunity." "Wow, that's incredible!" "She left you a recording. Part of it is in English and part is in her native tongue. I don't know if you'll be able to hear it, some of that language's sounds are beyond human hearing. I tried but was never able to duplicate any of her sounds. I called her Ariel, that was as close as I could come to pronouncing her real name." "Can I hear the recording?" Gen. Horshac produced an audio tape and placed it in the player. Sharon listened intently. As the language changed from English, the General noticed a broadening smile on Sharon's face. "Gosh, what a story!" Sharon exclaimed. "What do you mean? Could you understand her?" "Yes I could! I don't know how to explain it, it's as if the language is intuitive!" "Your mother always said that Earth languages were excessively hard. Can you duplicate her words?" "xzzx" Sharon said. Note: Since the alien language uses sounds that humans are not capable of producing, there are no letters or combinations of letters that can be used to convey it, and therefore throughout the remainder of this story, the letter combination "xzzx" will be used to indicate this alien language, irregardless of what is actually spoken and whether the reply is only one word or many paragraphs. "That's amazing!' the General said. "You truly seem to have the best of both worlds! What did she say in her story?" "Well," Sharon replied, "she described her home planet. She said that it was very beautiful, and that she had never seen another to compare to it until she saw Earth. Earth reminded her of her own planet, the plants and animals were similar to her planet's. "She then said that the people on her home planet were very peace-loving; they detested war and were loathe to fight. In spite of this, they were frequently under attack from other aliens and so had to defend themselves. They were searching for a new home planet far away from theirs, to which they could relocate to avoid these aliens and their wars. Mom was on this search when she crashed on Earth. "She also left greetings and messages for her family and friends, hoping that subsequent searchers would arrive on Earth and be able to transmit these messageas back home." Sharon did not tell the General about the rest of the message. She thought it better to keep it to herself. Sharon and the General spoke well into the night. Sharon felt much closer to her mother than ever before.

Chapter 2 The next day over lunch, General Horshac spoke to Sharon. "I just got word back from the aliens, they will be picking you up tonight." "So soon?" "Yes, they seem to be quite anxious." "But we still have a lot to discuss." "Yes, I know. I'll try to get out early this afternoon. I guess supper will be our last meal together for a while. Do you want to invite Pete over?" "No, we need the time together, just the two of us." **************************************************** Late that afternoon, General Horshac entered Sharon's apartment. "What should I pack?" Sharon asked. "The aliens said they would provide food, clothing, and anything else you need, so pack light." "I'm sorry, I'm still in shock that Caroline Everson is coming along! What's up with that?" "Well, it's two-fold. First, the aliens requested that the strongest people on Earth be provided, and she is the strongest. Second, I haven't been able to touch her, maybe the aliens will have better luck. I want you to try to be selected as the leader of the group, that way you can send Caroline on the most hazardous and dangerous assignments." "I'll certainly try. Is there any advice you can give as to what we can expect?" "I've been in contact with some friends that work for NASA. They say that they've never considered that anyone could survive on such a planet; that even an oxygen tank would be too heavy to carry around. One guy did say that normal sample containers wouldn't work, that a regular one lb sample would weigh 1,000,000 lb and would therefore need something specially designed to handle the weight." "That's a good point," Sharon conceded. "General, I've been thinking about this since last night. Did mother ever turn over any alien technology to you?" "No she didn't. I asked, but she said that we on Earth have to learn to walk before we can run; that one invention follows another and that one must precede the other. For her ship's propulsion, a nuclear reactor, which we have on Earth, is used. But it also used a converter, which is made of materials that on Earth have a half-life of seconds, so she would have to explain how these materials are created on her world. But to create such materials, special processes which do not exist on Earth would have to be explained. These processes, in turn, use a power density beyond anything here, the power is transmitted in a new way." "So it really is a case of walk before you run," Sharon said. Now she knew that she had been correct in not revealing the rest of the taped message; her mother had described the ship's propulsion system and had indicated what had gone wrong, causing her to crash. "General, I'd like to take mother's tape with me, also the recorder," Sharon said. "Sure, no problem. I'll get it for you." The General returned with the recorder and tape. "Well, it's time to go. The pickup point is on the base. Nervous?" "Not really, excited with anticipation is more like it!" "That's my daughter! Your mother would be so proud!" *************************************************** Meanwhile, Caroline and Paul had their own way of saying goodbye. Luckily for Paul, his house was still intact afterwards. "You know I want to go with you," Paul said. "You know I want you to," Caroline agreed. "But the General was adamant, only us four girls are going. Maybe next time?" "I'll hold you to that," Paul replied. "You know that I'd much rather have you hold me to you," Caroline smiled. **************************************************** It was shortly after dark when the spaceship arrived. It didn't look that impressive, only about 10 feet in diameter and about that in height. It didn't actually land; it hovered about a foot off the ground. A door slid open and a small figure appeared. This was obviously a gray, with a large head and frail looking body. "Welcome aboard," he said. Sharon entered the ship. The interior was sparse, with eight seats that reminded her of the ones in bus stations. Amazon Girl entered next, Sharon noticed that the ship continued to hover. Then Caroline entered. The ship thudded to the ground as she stepped on! "More power!" yelled one of the grays to another at the control panel. The ship quickly began to hover again. Then Sarah entered the ship. One of the grays closed the door. The ship then began to rise in the air. There was a humming sound from the engine, but otherwise no sign of power or thrust. Nevertheless, a glance out the window showed that the ship was rapidly accelerating. "You will be on here about an hour, then you'll transfer to a main ship on the far side of the Moon for the rest of your journey," the gray said. "In case you're wondering, this is just a shuttle. I think you'll be suitably impressed with the main ship." Sharon leaned over to Caroline and asked, "What do you have in your bag? Judging by the way the ship hit the ground when you boarded, it must be quite heavy." "Just a small warmup 10-ton dumb-bell," Caroline replied. "I couldn't resist bringing it along. It will weigh 10,000,000 tons on the planet: maybe I'll actually be able to feel its weight then." Sharon then asked Amazon Girl, "I don't understand how you beat me arm wrestling. From what I've heard, SuperGuy is the strongest of the super heroes, and I know that I'm way stronger than Tom Frank!" "You know Tom Frank is SuperGuy?" "Yeah, I knew him before. He was strong then, but nowhere near me. Then after the accident, I saw him again working out. Those weights he was struggling with wouldn't even give me a good warmup!" "Well, the General is in charge of us. He told me to let Tom think he is the strongest, but I refuse to do that. The most I'll do is to let him think that he is as strong as me, but I won't let him beat me." "OK, now I understand. The General is quite concerned about Tom's fragile mental state." "What happened to him anyhow? Tom won't say much about how he got super." "You know the expression, 'His elevator doesn't go all the way to the top'? That's what he was like before. He was in Special Forces assigned to guard an ammo dump filled with chemical weapons. Lightning struck the dump and maybe him as well, causing an explosion. When the dust cleared, everyone else was dead and Tom had super powers. But now, his elevator is stuck in the basement!" "I hadn't heard anything about that. Unless...Was that when the town's population was killed by the enemy?" "That was the cover story, that the ammo dump was destroyed by the enemy as part of an operation to deploy chemical weapons on the town. But like I say, the chemical weapons were actually ours. We just blamed it on the enemy to discredit them." "But Tom would know the truth." "He may, but his mind is so fried that I'm not really sure. The General sent him to Army psychiatrists, but they said Tom was psychotic, that he couldn't separate fact from fantasy. They said he thought that he was a super hero." "But he IS a super hero!" "I know, it's like Alice in Wonderland! Evidently, there is nothing in psychoanalysis to account for super powers." "How do you know all this?" "I'm the General's daughter. One of the reasons that I'm here is to keep an eye out for him. To avoid suspicion from the others, let's keep this to ourselves."

Chapter 3 One hour later, a view from the window revealed an immense vessel, over a mile long and almost as wide and tall. The shuttle entered the hangar deck of the larger ship and came to a stop. The hangar doors closed. "End of your trip, ladies," said the gray. "An escort awaits you outside." With that, the gray opened the door and motioned. The four ladies left the shuttle and saw another gray outside. This one was also small, only about 4 ft tall. He spoke,"Welcome to our ship. Was your trip on the shuttle satisfactory?" "Wow, this thing is huge!" Sarah exclaimed. "This is just a part of the hangar deck," the gray explained. "Wait until you see the rest of the ship! But first let me take you to your stateroom. The trip will take about 9 hours Earth time, so you can get some sleep on the way." As the gray led the way, the women all followed Seeing a metal support column, Sharon decided to test it. She placed her hand on the 2 ft thick piece and slowly tightened her grip. Her fingers easily sank into the metal as if it were mild steel. She then twisted her hand, buckling the column. The sound of screaming metal caught the gray's attention. "What's going on here? Please don't destroy my ship!" "Sorry about that," Sharon said sheepishly. After what seemed an eternity, the gray finally stopped at a door. Like the others on the ship, this one slid open using a card-key type device. "This is your stateroom. If you require anything, this is your call button. If you leave your clothes here, we will wash them for you tonight. We also have other clothes you can wear if you wish." The women entered the room and looked around. It was like a suite at a fine hotel; there were a separate living room/den lounge area, several bedrooms, and a bath. Sharon started to ask what everyone thought, but before she could utter a sound, Amazon Girl put her hand over her mouth, stifling her. She then put a finger to her lips, signalling quiet. Amazon Girl carefully inspected the room and removed three hidden cameras and four hidden audio bugs. "OK, I think it's safe now to speak," Amazon Girl said. "What was that all about?" Sharon asked. "Why are they spying on us?" "I would expect them to," Amazon Girl replied. "They want to know how we really feel and what our intentions are." "But that's invasion of privacy!" Sharon protested. "Only on Earth. And who are you to complain? What were you doing with that column? Could you be any more obvious?" "I just wanted to compare it with Earth metal." "Well? How did it compare?" "It felt and bent like mild steel." "I would think that what we really need to determine is the toughness of the hull," Amazon Girl pointed out. "I agree," Sharon said. "And we need to select a leader of our group among ourselves. We also need to start planning what we need to do." There was agreement on this. Sharon was elected leader. The ladies then had as good a night's sleep as possible, considering their beds were sized for grays and were only 5 ft long.

Chapter 4 The next morning, the ladies awoke and were escorted by a gray to a large dining hall where they had breakfast. The meal of pastries was served by browns. The browns were larger than the grays; being about 5 ft tall compared to 4 ft for the grays. Their uniforms were baggy, unlike the tailored ones on the grays. The browns also always looked down and never at anyone's face. Although there were many officers in the room, none were brown. Sarah asked the question, "Why aren't there any brown officers?" A gray laughed, "The browns know their place. They don't have the brains to command, but they can at least follow orders." Sarah was disturbed by the answer. It reminded her of events on Earth. But she kept it to herself. After breakfast, a gray escorted the ladies to an office. The senior gray spoke, "Welcome to our ship. We are grateful for your assistance, we've never encountered anything like this heavy planet and aren't sure how to proceed." "We'll do what we can," Sharon said. "What seems to be the problem?" "We can't get a ship anywhere near the planet without having it crash. So we don't know anything about the planet." "If it crashes, at least that would indicate that the planet has a solid surface," Sharon pointed out. "Very impressive," the gray said. "But I didn't state it precisely; we lose contact with our ships and they never return. Sorry for the language." "That's fine. We're glad that you can speak English", Sharon said. "To assist you, we're going to need a lot more information." "We'll be happy to provide it, just let us know what you need." "Why don't you give us a tour of the ship to start, I'm particularly interested in the engine room and its capabilities." The gray escorted the ladies to the engine room. "What we have here is the main engine. It is a nuclear reactor. Radiation from it passes through a converter which surrounds the reactor and changes the radiation into gravitational enhancement energy. This energy is directed to the large dish you see over there, the dish focusses the energy onto a planet as directed by the bridge." This sounded like the propulsion system on her mother's ship. But rather than letting the aliens know of her knowledge, Sharon decided the wiser course would be to play dumb. So she said, "I'm unfamiliar with the term gravitational enhancement energy. Could you explain it?" "Think of a natural magnet and how strong it is. Now think how strong an electromagnet can be. It's the same here, the engine creates an extremely powerful gravitational field which causes the ship to be attracted to the planet which lies in the field of the dish. By redirecting the dish, the ship can move through space, skipping from planet to planet." "Then what's the problem with the heavy planet? There should be a strong attraction to it." "That IS the problem. You see, when our ship approaches a planet, the dish is directed away from the planet, causing attraction to a distant planet. This balances the gravitational pull of the near planet and allows the ship to hover or to have a soft landing. But with the heavy planet, the gravitatioinal attraction is so great that the engine cannot overcome it." "How close to the heavy planet can you come and still maintain orbit?" "This is about our limit, for a ship of this size. When we try to launch a shuttle, it is immediately drawn into the planet." "What do you know of the heavy planet? What is its surface temperature? Does it have a breathable atmosphere?" "Thermal imaging shows a surface temperature of about 130 degrees Fahrenheit. There is an atmosphere, but our sensors can only detect the outer ranges; we're not sure if it is consistent to the surface or not." "Let's return to your office and brainstorm," Sharon suggested. "I'm not familiar with that term," the gray said. "I just mean we'll sit around and kick ideas back and forth. One of us may come up with something and that will get the others to thinking." "What an interesting idea!" said the gray in wonderment. "But first, why don't you return to your stateroom and freshen up before lunch?" *************************************************** In the stateroom, Amazon Girl found and removed four more hidden cameras and three more listening bugs. "OK Sarah, out with it!" Sharon said. "I know you were thinking something at breakfast and again in the engineroom." "It was just the statement at breakfast about the browns knowing their place. I've heard the same thing on Earth with the British colonialists and native peoples and in the United States south. These grays are bigots!" "Hold on," Amazon Girl said. "We don't know enough about the browns. Instead of being two separate but equal races, maybe it's more like a person and a chimpanzee." "Separate but equal? Now where have I heard that one before?" "Now girls, we're not on a civil rights crusade here," Sharon pointed out. "I just thought it should be mentioned," Sarah said. "One of the problems with bigotry is that the bigot thinks of people not as individuals but as part of some race. You hear things like, 'they are savages" or 'they are slow learners' instead of 'he is a slow learner'; everyone of the race is painted with the same broad brush." "But how does that apply to us?" Caroline asked. "I see her point," Sharon said. "If we make a good showing of ourselves, the aliens will think that Earthlings would be difficult to defeat." "Although that may be true," Sarah said, "that wasn't the point. I don't know enough about them yet, but I'm wondering if they selected Earthlings because we remind them of some other race that they have used in the past. I just don't understand why they need our help and I cannot comprehend that they do not understand brainstorming!" "We will attend the meeting after lunch," Sharon said. "But afterwards, we need to split up; there are too many unanswered questions here. Caroline, why don't you take another look around the engineroom and maintenance areas. Amazon Girl, why don't you see what you can find out about security and key-cards. Sarah, why don't you try to visit the brown quarters and speak with some of them. I'll try to visit the bridge and learn about navigation and control." The girls all agreed. After lunch, the meeting was cut short by the girls and they went their separate ways to gather more information.

Chapter 5 After dinner, the ladies returned to their stateroom. Amazon Girl removed all bugs. "All right, report time," Sharon said. "Caroline, what did you find out?" "I checked the engineroom again. I asked a lot of questions, but didn't get many answers. I don't think the engineering grays know the theory of the engine. I also looked at the maintenance area, the equipment is similar to what you would find in a machine shop on Earth, but it is well equipped." "But how can it be that they know so little? Are you sure they weren't just stonewalling you?" "No, I don't think so. They said they can do minor repairs, but for anything major, they just replace the engine. The broken one is returned to a maintenance base for repair." "Amazon Girl, what did you find out about security?" "The grays were very reluctant to say anything. I checked a door on my own, it is easy enough to open by hand, but sets off an alarm when you don't use the card key. Security responded in less than 5 minutes." "What did you do?" "I hid and watched their response. They checked the door for proper operation and then left." "Were they armed?" "Yes, they carried what looked like rifles. But they didn't have a magazine, so they're probably some kind of laser beam device." "Sarah, what did you find out about the browns?" "I visited the brown berthing area. I tried to speak to them, but they don't know English. They do have a language, though. I pointed to several objects and spoke the English word, they responded with their own word. But I don't know how to convey a concept, such as 'What are your future dreams?'" "Can you speak any of their words?" "Only with difficulty. Their sounds are different from ours." "I'll visit them later," Sharon said. "I may be able to make their sounds." "So what did you find out about navigation?" asked Amazon Girl. "I went to the bridge and asked a lot of questions. The engine controls are all by computer. Instead of actually guiding the ship, they punch in a number code; that sets the engine power level and dish direction. The number code is determined by previous voyages; the first part is the voyage number, and the second part is the applicable point/part of the voyage." "How do they know that information?" "I don't know. There is no book to go by, so they must have it memorized." "So, what's next?" asked Amazon Girl. "We need to start thinking about how we can get to the heavy planet," Sharon replied. "After all, that's why we're here. Also, it will alleviate suspicion on the gray's part." "All right, how do we start?" Sarah asked. "We need to build a vessel," Sharon said. "Why don't we just jump from the ship?" Caroline asked. "After all, we're invulnerable!" "We don't know the surface of the planet, or even if it has a solid surface. We might just go right through it," Sharon replied. "Also, how would we get back?" "Same way, we would just jump off the planet back to the ship," Caroline replied. "Have you ever experienced gravity this high? How hard would you jump to reach this ship? If we jumped with too much force, we could hit this ship like a missile. Or if our direction was off just a bit, we would sail right by it. Finally, we're here to assist the aliens, they will need something to transport them to the planet." "What kind of vessel would we build?" asked Sarah. "I've been thinking," Sharon replied. "Remember the early Mercury space missions of the US? They used a huge rocket and a tiny vehicle they called a capsule for the astronaut. Can we build something similar?" "What, a rocket?" Sarah asked. "No, but something along those lines. We can use the largest engine the grays have and build a tiny capsule on it for us. That should get us closer to the planet." "How close?" Sarah asked. "I don't know, we'll have to test it to find out. It won't actually have to land, either. We can rappel if need be." "Rappel?" Caroline asked. "You've seen movies where a helicopter hovers over a building, right? Someone in the copter drops ropes and guys slide down them? That's rappelling." "But the grays don't know the atmospheric composition on the surface. They don't even know if the planet HAS a surface!" Sarah insisted. "That would be one of the first tests," Sharon replied. "Once we establish how close the capsule can get, we will lower something onto the surface to get an air sample." "What would we lower?" Sarah asked. "Have you ever seen a harbor being dredged?" Caroline replied. "They use a clamshell bucket to pick up loose items. The bucket is in two pieces, hinged at the top and counter-balanced so that when raised, the halves are together, but once on a solid surface, the halves come apart. We could use that; if the cable slacked, then we would know that the planet's surface was solid." "All right, that sounds like a plan to me," Sharon said. "Let's get some sleep, we've got a busy day tomorrow." "I'm not ready to sleep," Sarah said as she looked at Caroline. "But I am ready for bed, if you'll join me." Caroline smiled at Sarah. "Show me what you've got," she said as she flexed an enormous bicep. "Gladly," Sarah replied as she flexed her own bicep. Sharon's pussy was getting wet, just seeing the four biggest biceps in the world. "Can I join you?" "Sure, there's always room for one more," Caroline smiled.

Chapter 6 Caroline was in the maintenance shop. "Do you have any hull-grade metal?" "Certainly," the gray said. "We keep a supply of it for emergency hull repairs. It's right over there." Caroline walked over to the stack of metal plates. She reached out with one hand and grasped one of the plates, then easily lifted the 8 ft square piece of metal. "Wow!" exclaimed the gray. "Four browns can barely lift that!" "I'm not a brown," Caroline said. "No, you're certainly not!" Continuing to hold the plate in one hand, Caroline took a deep breath, forcing out her enormous bosom. Her blouse was under tremendous strain, and her nipples jutted out provocatively. "Do you prefer my figure, or the browns?" Caroline asked the gray; but it was obvious from his reaction. "Excuse me," the gray said as he made a hasty exit. Caroline just smiled. Men were the same, she thought, whether Earthling or alien. ***************************************************** "We'll build the capsule here," Sharon said, indicating the hangar deck. "I remember hearing a story on Earth, probably an urban legend, about a guy who built a boat in his basement over the Winter. But when Summer came and he tried to move it outside, it wouldn't fit through the doorway!" Caroline entered, carrying the nuclear reactor and converter assembly. Jaws of the assembled grays collectively hit the floor at the sight! One woman, carrying something so heavy that only a few cranes on the ship were capable of handling it! And, and...she didn't ever appear to be straining in the least! How could anyone possbly be that strong? She must be the most powerful creature in the universe! And god, she was beautiful! Caroline set the reactor down, denting the floor of the hangar bay. She looked up as most of the grays made a hasty retreat. "Where are they going?" Sharon asked. "They're men, guess they need to take care of business," Caroline winked at Sharon. Sharon picked up on Caroline's drift. Her own panties were definitely wet after that display. "Do you have a blueprint?" Caroline asked. "No, we'll play it by ear," Sharon replied. "OK, what's next then?" Sarah then entered carrying several extremely large I-beams. She set them on the floor beside the reactor. "All right, Sarah, why don't you get the dish and bring it in. Caroline, you bring in the hull plates." After their return, Sharon took charge of directing the ladies in construction. Caroline formed the I-beams to shape by placing them between her enormous breasts and slowy squeezing. The thick metal protested loudly as it easily bent to her wishes. "All right, Sarah, hold the I-beams in position. Caroline, set the reactor down on top of the I-beams." Sharon directed. Once in position, Caroline rubbed her hands along the I-beams, causing the metal to soften under the tremendous pressure and weld itself to the reactor. Sarah began bringing over hull plates, which Caroline welded together in a similar manner. Once the reactor and coverter assembly had been covered, it wa time to install the dish. "Just weld the dish in position," Sharon directed. "What do you mean?" Caroline asked. "The dish has to be able to move to steer the ship!" "It won't be steered," Sharon replied. "The capsule will be released from this ship oriented so that the dish is in proper position. Fixing the dish in position eliminates the weight and complexity of the hydraulic pumps, valves, and reservoirs, and also the computer system and control panels." "What? There's no control panel?" "No, there isn't. The reactor will be controlled on a timer; the reactor will start out at low power level and will slowly ramp up in power level as the capsule approaches the planet. Once almost at full power, a light will come on, letting us know that it is time to open the door and rappel out of the capsule. Once we're on the planet's surface, the capsule will try to pull away, because our weight is no longer on it, but one of us will simply hold on to the rope, keeping it in position. At least, that's the plan." "How do we get back?" "Basically it's the reverse. We climb the rope back into the capsule and close the door. Then we press a button to bring the reactor to full power and start another timer, this one slowly ramps back the reactor power level. This large ship maneuvers as required in order to land us in the hangar deck, where the reactor will be shut down." ******************************************************* The conversation was not going well. "What do you mean, there's no way to remotely control the capsule?" Sharon asked. "The gravity field on the ship affects radio transmission waves," the gray explained. "It also affects light or any other kind of remote actuation device." "On Earth, the military uses wire-guided rockets. Would that work here?" "We don't have any such device," the gray said. "Let me show you how it works," Sharon replied, "and then we'll see what we can work out." **************************************************** "Is this your strongest cable?" Caroline asked. "Yes, it is," said the gray. "Let me see just how strong it is." Caroline placed her hands in front of her and grasped the eight-inch thick cable between them. She then slowly pulled her hands apart. The cable screamed in agony as it doubled in length. "That's 200 million pounds of force," Caroline said. "But let's see how much safety margin we have." She slowly continued moving her hands apart. The cable again cried out as it took the thickness of a piece of string. Still her hands continued to move apart, now the cable was the size of fishing line. "Not bad, that's about 500 million pouns of force." "Five hundred million pounds of force!" thought the gray. He made a hasty exit. Caroline saw him leave and smiled. She then continued pulling the cable, it gave up the ghost at 700 million pounds of force. "Hmm, I wonder..." she thought as she wrapped a long section of cable around her breasts. She then started flexing her chest. The cables initially dug into her skin but stopped as they encountered the muscle beneath. As she continued to flex, the metal began moaning in pain, then louder and louder... "What are you doing?" Sarah exclaimed as she entered. Just then the cable started to snap with a horrendous twang. Freed from the confines of the cables, Caroline"s incredible melons began bouncing wildly. "Oh my God!" Sarah's hands involuntarily stroked her pussy; her juices were gushing! Caroline immediately joined her.

Chapter 7 "Nervous?" Amazon Girl asked. "Yeah, of course," replied Sharon. "There's a lot that can go wrong." "Well, at least the capsule is unmanned," Caroline pointed out. "Ready when you are," the gray said. "All right, just remember to carefully log down everything we do and the exact time frame; we'll need that information later," Sharon said. **************************************************** Sharon started the debrief. "All right, the capsule was sent out, held its position, and was returned to the ship. We now know how close to the planet the capsule can go and maintain itself in orbit. Comments, Amazon Girl?" "We don't know yet if that is close enough to have breathable air." "That's our next test, we'll check both the upper atmosphere and at ground level," Sharon responded. "Speaking of which, Caroline, what did you find out about the cables?" "The cables stretch to double their length at 200 million pounds force, but remain intact up to 700 million pounds force." "Excellent. Sarah, hows the clamshell container coming along?" "All set and ready to go," Sarah replied. "How much does the container weigh compared to us?" Caroline asked. "If it were the same weight, that would be a good test." "Excellent point, Caroline," Sharon agreed. "I'll add extra weight to it," Sarah said. **************************************************** After dinner, the ladies returned to their stateroom. Amazon Girl again checked for and removed all bugs. "Wow, the capsule actually worked today!" Amazon Girl exclaimed. "What, you doubted me?" Sharon smiled. "So, if the test goes well tomorrow, we'll be on our way," Sarah said. "Let's not get too far ahead of ourselves," Sharon cautioned. "In the meantime, why don't you and I visit the browns again?" Caroline and Amazon Girl were left alone in the stateroom. "So, do you want to tie me up with your 'indestructible' rope again?" Caroline smiled. Amazon Girl returned the smile, she enjoyed the little game too... *************************************************** Sharon and Sarah returned to the stateroom later. "Well, how did it go with the browns?" asked Amazon Girl breathlessly. "Why are you panting?" asked Sharon. "And Caroline, why are you flushed? What were you two doing?" "Just girls having fun," beamed Amazon Girl. "Now where have I heard that one before?" smiled Sarah. "All right, enough!" Sharon exclaimed. "Now, as for the browns. Yes, we visited with them. They can speak, but their language is rather simple. There isn't much in it as far as conceptualization." "So what does that tell us about them?" asked Amazon Girl. "I asked them if they spoke the same language as the grays, they said it was a form of it but was not the same. They can understand most of what the grays say, and the grays can understand them." "Is it a problem with limited vocabulary then?" "I'm not sure, that's certainly part of it. The browns said that their education is more limited than the grays." "Is it limited on ability or on race?" Sarah asked. "Race," Sharon replied. "You seem to be correct in the bigot aspect of the grays." "What does that mean for our mission?" Sarah asked. "That is up to us," Sharon replied. "We need to vote on what to do now." "What are our oprtions?" asked Caroline. "As I see it, we have two immediately: First, we can continue the mission as before, or Second, we can terminate the mission. We can just tell the grays that we will no longer participate and request they return us to Earth." "What if they refuse?" Sarah asked. "We would have to persuade them, probably by starting to tear this ship apart with our bare hands; hopefully they value their lives. Failing that, we could take over the ship, but I don't know how we would find our way back home." "You said two 'immediate' options," Caroline pointed out. "Are you thinking of other options as well?" "If we continue the mission and complete it, then we can see what happens. The grays hopefully will return us to Earth, that will be in their best interest if they hope to use us again in the future. On the return voyage, one of us can stay on the bridge and write down what number settings are being used and for what amount of time. Once we have the information to return us to the Moon, then it will be up to us, there are again two options: First, we can return to Earth on the shuttle, or Second, we can take over the ship, go to the gray home planet, and 'persuade' them to upgrade the brown's civil rights. "It's a lot to consider, I suggest we sleep on it and talk more tomorrow," Sharon concluded.

Chapter 8 After breakfast, the girls returned to their stateroom. "Has everyone considered our options?" Sharon asked. "Before we say anything, I strongly suggest that we go to the heavy planet and talk there instead," Amazon Girl said. "Why?" "It's more secure there," Amazon Girl responded. ***************************************************** In the hangar bay, Sharon loaded 3 heavy bags into the capsule. "What's in there?" asked Sarah. "These bags are weighted with metal to simulate our weight. The air sampler bucket which is also in here weighs the same as one of us, therefore the combined weight will be the same as if we were all on board," Sharon replied. "So if this test goes well, we can use the exact same settings for our flight." "Where's Caroline?" asked Sarah. "She's preparing sample containers. Normal ones won't work due to the gravity." ***************************************************** Caroline was in the maintenance area. She took a hull plate and ran her fingernail over it. The heavy metal screeched loudly as her nail cut into it as easily as a hot knife through soft butter. She formed 8 strips from the plate. A gray watched in awe. "How can you do that?" he asked. "We have to use special torches!" "It's easy for me," Caroline responded. "As a matter of fact, I would love to run my fingers over your chest." Carolline smiled as the gray fled in panic. She then returned to the job at hand, rolling the strips into pipes and pinching one end closed with her fingers. "Now to test it," she thought as she placed her hand inside the pipe and exerted 5 million pounds of force on the pipe. Satisfied that the pipe remained intact, she proceeded to make seven additional containers. Looking at the eight containers, she decided that a harness to hold them would be nice to have, and made one out of extra cable. Completing her work, she put on the harness with the containers and went to the hangar bay. **************************************************** "All right," Sharon said, "this is the final unmanned test. We will use the settings as recorded yesterday to confirm that the capsule responds as expected. Ready for launch when you are." The gray spoke to the bridge to confirm the ship's position and direction, then said, "Ready here. Start the reactor." Another gray pushed a button on the outside of the capsule to start the reactor. A gentle push from a gray started the capsule into motion. Sharon watched as the capsule left the ship. She then closely observed the time. "Raise power to 10%" "10% power," the gray responded. And so it went, gradually raising power to 98%. As power was raised, the capsule began to slow until, at 98% power, it held position. "Open the door and start the winch," Sharon directed. After a time, the winch motor went to zero load. "Surface reached, mark cable length," Sharon ordered. After a minute, Sharon then ordered, "Raise the winch." "Winch fully raised." "Close the door and bring the reactor to full power," Sharon ordered. The capsule began to pull away from the planet. Reactor power was slowly lowered to bring the capsule gently into the hangar bay. A gray pushed a button on the outside of the capsule to shut down the reactor. Another gray cracked open the door and took an air sample. Sharon then fully opened the door and removed the air sample bucket. Caroline had now entered the hangar bay and placed her sample containers with harness into the capsule. Sharon carried the bucket into the gray test lab and placed it into a chamber. The girls observed the chamber through its viewing window as the bucket was opened. Sand rushed out, the bucket was half full! "Test the sand for any life forms," Sharon told the gray. The gray gave the girls the test results. "The air in the bucket is breathable, and also the air in the capsule. No life forms were found in either the air or in the sand." ***************************************************** The girls returned to their stateroom. Sharon spoke first. "Well, tomorrow is the big day. I suppose a speech is in order..." "Skip the speech," Sarah said. "I just have one question though. Why did the bucket pick up sand? The edges were smooth and had no teeth." "To me, that would indicate that the surface of the planet is soft," Sharon replied. "We may sink in when we land, but it should be somewhat like walking on the beach." "What are we to make of the fact that there was no life form found?" Caroline asked. "It means there is no life on the planet," Sharon responded. "It doesn't surprise me, considering the gravity. What could survive?" "Then why are the grays so interested in the planet?" asked Amazon Girl. "I don't know," responded Sharon. "Perhaps they think that they can make use of whatever minerals are on the planet?" "If they want to mine, surely there are better places," Amazon Girl pointed out. "Just think how difficult it would be to haul away anything, much less heavy minerals, from there." "It was just a guess. Perhaps the gravity of the planet causes changes to minerals, making them more dense?" "If they're more dense, that would make them even harder to remove." "What are you all driving at?" Sharon demanded. Amazon Girl spoke up. "It's just one more thing that's not right about this whole mission. There's obviously something else going on here that we're not aware of. And that makes me uneasy." "I don't know what to say. Except that I think we should go to the heavy planet tomorrow. In fact, I'm more determined than ever. It's the only way we'll get any answers," Sharon said.

Chapter 9 The next morning, the girls had breakfast. They then went to the hangar bay and boarded the capsule. "Gosh, it's small in here!" Caroline exclaimed. "Yes it is, by design," Sharon said. "This way, we can get as close to the planet as possible." "How will we know when we're there?" Amazon Girl asked. "There are no windows." "See these light bulbs? One comes on when the engine is at 98% power, and one comes on when the time has elapsed. When either or both come on, we should be there." Sharon then gave the gray the signal that she was ready, and closed the door. It was dark and confined in the capsule. There was no sense of motion, but 30 minutes later, the two lights both came on. "Well, here goes nothing," Sharon said as she opened the door. The girls all looked out. They could see the heavy planet clearly, but it was quite a distance away. It appeared to be desert, with a small mountain range in the distance obscuring their view. Sharon picked up the cable and tossed the end out of the door. "Caroline, why don't you go first? After you're on the surface, we'll join you one by one." "Why don't we all go down together?" asked Sarah. "Because our weight increases as we approach the surface. If we go together, it would be too much weight for the capsule to handle, and it would crash on the surface." Caroline put on her sample harness with containers, took the cable in her hand, and lowered herself to the surface. The others watched as she went down; they couldn't understand why she was disrobing. She eventually reached the surface, kicking up a cloud of dirt. "All right, she is down," Sharon said. "She seems to be all right. Sarah, you are next." Sarah grabbed the cable and began lowering herself. Again, Amazon Girl and Sharon wondered why Sarah was disrobing. Sarah also kicked up dirt as she reached the surface. Amazon Girl went next. Sharon watched as she made her way down the cable, shedding clothing along the way. Very strange, she thought, as Amazon Girl hit the surface. On a hunch, Sharon removed her clothing before leaving the capsule. As she made her way down the cable, she was surprised as she lost control of her bladder and bowel. It wasn't as if she needed to go, she had used the facilities prior to boarding the capsule, and the flight had only lasted 30 minutes. She landed on the surface of the planet and immediately sank up to her ankles in sand. On landing, Sharon looked at the others. Although she had thought that they were disrobing, actually their clothing had literally fallen apart on them. The place smelled like an outhouse; then she noticed that she wasn't the only one who had problems. "What's happening here?" Sarah asked. "Did they feed us Ex-Lax for breakfast?" "It's a gravitational effect," Sharon replied. Our bodies aren't used to so much gravity; it's causing our internals to think we are full when we are actually not." "Well," Amazon Girl said, "actually it's more on weight. What's left in us weighs so much more now that it is overcoming our normal internal muscles and is just coming out." "What happened to everyone's clothes?" asked Sharon. "That's another gravitational effect," Amazon Girl pointed out. "Zippers are held up by friction, but the gravity on the zipper pull is overcoming the friction on the zipper, and it's coming undone. For cloth, the gravity is making the sleeves weigh so much that they're pulling the seams loose." "Amazon Girl, what happened to you hair?" Sharon asked. "What do you mean?" "Your hair is normally wavy. But now, it's totally limp!" "Another gravitational effect. Each strand now weighs so much that it can't stand up." Amazon Girl tried to take a step, but tripped and fell down. "Gosh," she said as she looked at her boots, "the gravity is making the sole so heavy that is pulling away from the uppers; the nails can't hold it." "I'm feeling light-headed," Sharon said, as she sat down on the ground. "Why don't we all lie down on the ground for a while to let our bodies adjust," Amazon Girl suggested. "The gravity is making our blood so heavy that it's starting to pool in our feet, and that would make you light-headed as well." "Good idea," Sharon said as she also lay down, but suddenly noticed something. "Caroline, grab the cable!" Caroline reached out and took hold of the cable. "What's wrong?" "Without our weight, the capsule will pull away from the planet. Therefore we must either hold the cable or else find something to put on the cable to hold it in place while we are on the surface." "But the cable isn't moving," Caroline protested. "What? The capsule should be puling away!" "Well, it's not! There's no movement on the cable." "Confirm that! Make sure that the cable is not lengthening." "It's not. There is no movement either way." "Is this a problem?" Sarah asked. "Yes it is," Sharon said. "The reason the capsule should be moving away is that once we start to climb the cable to return to the capsule, the total weight increases. We want the capsule to continue to hold position while we are climbing, and therefore we want the capsule to try to move away when we are not on the cable. With the cable stationary, that indicates that the capsule is too close to the planet." "What do we do about it?" Sarah asked. "Well, we're in no immediate danger," Sharon replied. "We'll just go about our planned activities, I'll consider our options during the day and come up with something." "You can lie down and rest for a while if you wish, but I'm feeling fine," Caroline said. "I want to go up on top of that mountain range in the distance to see if there's anything of interest here." "All right," Sharon replied. "But take Sarah with you, just in case you run into any problems. And don't walk too close together."

Chapter 10 After a bit, Sharon and Amazon Girl both began to feel better. They got up and started walking towards the mountain. It wasn't easy, their feet sunk in to the ground up to and beyond their ankles, leaving deep footprints behind. "Gosh, I feel like a wimp! I haven't felt that depleted in some time," Sharon said. "And I haven't even done anything yet!" "I know what you mean," Amazon Girl replied. "I didn't feel this drained after the last fight I was in. But don't be so hard on yourself, you're no wimp. There isn't a man alive who could walk on this planet. Your legs are supporting over 100 million pounds of body weight. Any normal person would be crushed." "Thanks. But Caroline doesn't seem to be having any problems." "She's a special case. She's the strongest person who ever lived. To even approach her strength, just think how strong that makes you." "So tell me, why did you want to hold off on discussing our plans until we landed here?" Amazon Girl turned to speak to Sharon. As she did so, the yoke of her blouse, the only part of it still left, fell off to the ground. "What's that?" Sharon exclaimed as she spotted a small shiny object on the ground. Amazon Girl looked down at the object and said, "It's just a zipper pull that fell off," but she wrote on the ground with her finger, [I think it is a bug. Don't say anything, just pretend it is a zipper pull.] Sharon nodded as she wrote, [What makes you think that?] but said, "Oh yes, I see now." Amazon Girl wrote, [Let's walk away, then we can talk.] The two walked on in silence until Amazon Girl said, "I think we are far enough away now. I thought it was a bug because it should not have been there; it was not a part of my blouse and I didn't put it there." "But the grays said that communication was impossible due to the engine in operation on their ship. And I believe them on that, otherwise I have to think that they would have allowed normal radio remote control of the capsule. After all, it I hadn't come up with the wire-guide idea, we wouldn't have been able to easily test the capsule." "Granted, but the bug instead of transmitting voice, may be set up like a tape recorder to keep voice until it is read back on the ship." "Yes, that makes sense to me. If the grays are bugging our stateroom, it would stand to reason that they would bug us also." "And that's why I wanted to wait before we discuss serious plans. We're assured of a secure area here on the planet's surface. But we need to discuss this when all four of us are together. First, of course, we'll have to check Caroline and Sarah for bugs." "Of course," Sharon agreed as the two continued to walk. They were close enough to the mountain now to see Caroline and Sarah climbing back down. "Hey you two!" Caroline yelled. "Have we got something to show you!" Amazon Girl put her finger to her lips to signify silence. Noticing, Caroline and Sarah fell silent as they approached. Amazon Girl carefully looked at both women. Neither had on any clothes whatsoever, so she felt safe to speak. "We found a bug on my clothes earlier," Amazon Girl explained. "We can't be too careful." Sarah looked shocked. "A bug? These grays are really starting to get on my nerves!" "What did you want to show us?" Sharon asked. "Come with us and see for yourselves," Caroline replied. "This planet isn't dead after all, we just landed in the wrong spot." Amazon Girl was increduloous. "That can't be! If there is life on the planet, then something should have shown up in the air or sand samples; at least bacteria." Caroline just smiled as she led the way up the mountain. At the top, the four women looked in the direction she was pointing, and sure enough, there it was. "It's certainly a different color, but is it alive?" Amazon Girl asked. "Sure, just watch for a while and you will see movement," Caroline replied. "See, there are two different types of animals there. The one that looks like an overgrown centipede is eating that green thing, must be a plant of some type. Now look in the near distance, see that big snake?" "Yeah!" Amazon Girl shouted. "Now watch closely. The snake sees the centipede eating. It will wait until it is done and then attack." Amazon Girl watched in fascination as the centipede continued dining on the plant, using a horn on its head to peel away layers of the plant and eat them. But the animal evidently overdid it; it could barely move and fell onto its belly, its legs giving out. Seeing this, the snake made its move, crawling over to the downed centipede and starting to devour it. The centipede put up no resistance; if it had, the snake could never have caught it. The whole scene played out in slow motion. It got even slower as the snake finished its meal and seemed to go to sleep; at least it lay there motionless. "God, that's pathetic!" Amazon Girl said."If that centipede hadn't made such a pig of itself, that snake never could have gotten to it. I've never seen animals move that slowly." "Well, remember the gravity," Sharon said. "But you're right, the snakes are barely moving too. If the centipedes move at all, they're in no danger." "Which means that we're in no danger either," Caroline said. "So let's go have a closer look, shall we?"