NOTE:  This and all preceding and subsequent chapters
are copyright 1993 by Milford Ray Slabaugh.  All rights
reserved.  Permission is hereby granted to post this story
to other BBS'es, provided it bears this language.
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                      PLANET OF DESIRE

                         Chapter 20
                    "The Best-Laid Plans"

     Ivan heard tromping from nearby, and he looked around
to see David coming toward them.  Behind him were a couple
of other Marines; Ivan didn't recognize them.
     "You did it, Andrew." David said.  Obviously he had
overheard the entire exchange.  "You saved the day for us
all."
     Andrew wiped at his face and tried to act military.
"Thank you, sir."
     "What are all of you doing here?" Ivan asked.
     "Captain Swenson sent us here by a different route.
You nearly ran into us with your circular path.  We had to
hide, quick.  Just in case something went wrong, though you
two had things well in hand.  That was amazing shooting,
Andrew."
     "Thank you, sir."
     "Jesus Christ." one of the Marines said.  Ivan looked
at him, then to the point in the sky where the Marine
pointed.
     Dark shapes, high in the sky, struggling.  Ivan
estimated them to be half-way to the angel's mountain.  But
the shapes were fluttering, hard to see.
     Until a man-shape detached itself from the others and
plummeted downwards.  An angel-shape broke off from the
others, attempted to catch the man, but the fall was too
fast, and the angel returned to the sky.
     "So goes the Commander." David said, from the top of
the rock.  "The angel didn't catch him.  A fall from that
height is definitely fatal."
     "Definitely.  Oof!" Ivan said.  "Poor fellow.  I didn't
want him to die."
     "'The best-laid plans of mice and men....'" David
quoted.
     "Yes." Ivan agreed.  "Perhaps it's better this way.  I
just wonder what Captain Swenson will want to do now."
     "I'll tell him." David said, pulling out a transmitter.
     "We had those all along?" Ivan was incredulous.  "Then
why weren't we given one for the first trip?"
     "Batteries are nearly gone, and these don't work on
solar cells.  Poor planning by the military.  I don't dare
do anything but speak as fast as I can."
     Andrew had gone around the rock.  Ivan caught the image
of him disappearing, and followed.  Andrew was sitting on
the ground, back to the rock, looking at nothing.  Casually
as he could, Ivan sat down next to him.  "You okay?"
     "Yes, sir."
     "Call me Ivan, Andrew.  We'll be seeing a lot of each
other from now on, I promise.  That is, if you want to."
     Andrew smiled.  "All right, Ivan.  We're going to leave
the Marines?"
     "Everybody is, except maybe for a few hard cases.  No
reason to have the Marines on this planet.  We're not at war
with anyone, and this is going to have to be our home from
now on."
     "Yes." Andrew mused.
     "We'll set up a little farm, and raise up sons, and
spend our days having lots and lots of sex, with each other
and anybody you choose."
     "I'd like that." Andrew said.  "Let's get going back to
camp."
     "So soon?" Ivan grinned, and reached for Andrew's
groin, nuzzling with the palm of his hand the young,
hardening cock inside the fatigues.
     Andrew sighed, and he nuzzled Ivan's neck, the barest
hint of a rasp of beard on the delicate skin there.  Ivan
winced and pulled away, lifted Andrew's head by a finger
under his chin, the deep brown eyes locked with his, gentle
with trust, the lips slightly apart from need, and Ivan
reached for those lips and pressed them to his, his tongue
slid into the young Marine's mouth to be greeted by a warm
suckling motion.
     Andrew sent his hands into Ivan's shirt, and the
buttons seemed to part of their own accord, to offer Ivan's
body for Andrew's exploration.
     Ivan drew them both to the ground, Andrew on top of
him, his legs parted to let Andrew nestle between them, and
they fought their clothing off, now with hands fumbling from
eagerness, lost in each other.
     Ivan arched his back, lifting them both to let Andrew's
hands slide his pants and boxers from his hips and thighs,
and Andrew panted ardently, as his knees fought for a
purchase on the jungle ground, and his cock crept among the
foliage in search of the warm puckerhole that pulsated in
anticipation as the pink cockhead found it in the grass.
     Andrew seemed at that point to find restraint, so
gently and slowly he slipped his cock into Ivan's ass,
letting Ivan feel it all out, with no pain at all, no
discomfort, just a gentle push that was like a homecoming.
     Inside him to the base, Andrew sighed and stopped
there, and they kissed, Ivan letting Andrew do as he would.
     "Damn!" came a burst of expletive from their side.
     Ivan looked over to see Private Gorman with his hardon
in hand, a look of disgust on his face.  "Is there a
problem, Private?" he asked.
     "I wanted thet fur mahself, suh, but Ah see as yuh're
occ-yupied, Ah'll have tuh find mahself someone else."
     "Maybe some other time." Ivan said.  "Right now, it's
just the two of us.  Try Lieutenant Martin."
     "Yes, suh." And Gorman went away, in search of some ass
to fuck.
     Andrew giggled as he squirmed, sending his cock around
and around inside Ivan's ass.  Then he started a gentle
series of thrusts, fucking Ivan at last.  "He seems taken
with you, Ivan."
     "That cock of his has to be ridden to be believed."
Ivan smiled in return.  "But there's something to be said
for a more modest endowment."
     "Like mine?"
     "Yeah.  With Gorman, it'd never be this nice."
     "I'm glad you like it." Andrew lifted Ivan's buttocks
slightly with his hands, and nibbled at Ivan's neck.
     Ivan looked into Andrew's face, marveling at the effect
of the mist.  It made Andrew into the most desirable man in
the world to him, made him want to spend the rest of his
life like this, lying here, impaled on his cock.
     "Agh, gah, yes, Gorman, yes." came David's cries from
around the rock.  "Fuck me, man, harder, harder!"
     "Oh, yay-us, suh, yay-us!"
     Ivan had to laugh.  Gorman had gotten himself an
officer after all.
     Andrew giggled with him, and then started tickling
Ivan's ribs.  "Kitchie-kitchie-koo." he said, just as if
Ivan were about five years old.
     Ivan burst into laughter, and Andrew kept it up,
tickling him and fucking him and Ivan found the two combined
somehow, making the entire episode more enjoyable, playful,
filled with life.
     When Andrew stopped, the passion itself began.  The
smiles left their faces, and the body's sensations, free now
to concentrate on sex, seemed to do so more thoroughly than
before.
     It must be the mist, Ivan decided.  They must be bathed
in the mist right now, but Andrew's face was so near to his,
so kissable, so sweet-tasting his skin, that Ivan didn't
look to see.  He swung his body into the fray, adding his
thrusts to Andrew's, Andrew grunting into his ear, all
gentleness gone, and they were animals in rut, not thinking,
doing nothing at the moment but fucking and being fucked.
     Ivan groaned, and that single outlet focused his
energy, he orgasmed, erupted, spewed Andrew's stomach with
his sperm, drenching the young Marine with every ounce of
his energy.
     Andrew moaned, seemed to take power from the hot seed
that splattered him, and jerk-spasmed, hunched, tossed
rather than acting by conscious volition, he filled Ivan's
ass with his come, a flow that dribbled out of Ivan's ass
and soaked the ground beneath them, and Andrew fell onto
Ivan's ample chest, heaving there with the gasps of breath
as he fought to return from the nothingness that lurches
near at orgasm to swallow up the unwary soul.
     Ivan held Andrew there, his hands fondling Andrew's
back and the slick puddles of sweat that clung there.  He
looked again at Andrew, seeing him still as the desirable
stud he was, smiling at the mist's power over his eyes,
enjoying the sensation of being made love to by the ultimate
man.
     "Are you two finished yet?" David asked them.
     Ivan looked over to see David standing over them, nude
but for boots he had put on but not laced up, shirt in his
hands.  David's face was that of a friend, kindly, but not
with the glow of need.
     Ivan looked back at Andrew, felt a smile crawl on his
face as his lips moved of their own accord, and Andrew
smiled back shyly, timid now, and Ivan reached his hand out
to touch Andrew's cheek, reassure him, and his hand lingered
there.
     "We need to get moving, you two." David insisted.
     "Soon as the mist is gone, we'll get up.  Until then,
why bother." Ivan said.
     "Mist?  What mist?"
     "The mist that's around us." Ivan said.
     "What do you mean?  We were just talking about how
clear today seems to be.  There's no mist around."
     "Really?" Ivan looked over at David, back at Andrew.
The eyes like shining jewels on skin like alabaster.  "It
seems to be bothering me a good deal right now."
     Andrew got up, and smiled, said, "I gotta take a leak.
Back in a moment."
     Ivan, jumped to his feet, reached out and kissed Andrew
hastily, a haste that seemed to lose its urgency in the
execution.  He tore himself loose, and Andrew scurried into
the brush.
     David stepped up and put his arm around Ivan's
shoulders.  "What made you think the mist was around?"
     "Well, the way Andrew looked.  His face, it's so shiny
and clean, and his eyes are, well...."  Ivan felt suddenly
embarrassed.  "You know how the mist makes people look to
you.  But if it isn't the mist, then what is it?  Are my
eyes going?"
     "Nothing wrong with your eyes that hasn't happened to
everyone some time or other.  You, my friend, are falling in
love."
     "Really?" Ivan was startled.  He had to admit he hadn't
been in love for years, and fought to remember the
adolescent crushes, how the objects of his desire looked.
"Maybe."
     "Maybe nothing." David teased, then turned serious.
"Just give it some time.  You're so damned eager to fall in
love with someone right now.  It could just be that you're
searching for some security.  You were feeling me out just a
few days ago, remember?"
     "Yes." Ivan sighed.  "Does the base have a psychiatrist
on the staff?"
     "Yes, but you don't need him.  Just give it time."
David repeated.  "Right now, you need that kid and he needs
you.  That's enough for now.  Just don't let it have you
making a permanent mistake."
     "I'll think about it." Ivan said, then stepped away
from David.  Andrew was returning and he didn't want Andrew
to see him in David's arms.
     Andrew walked toward him, and his whole body seemed to
glow in Ivan's eyes.
     Damn, Ivan said to himself, I'm acting like I'm fifteen
years old.  He remembered how it felt to be fifteen and in
love.
     It felt terrific.
     The trip back seemed to fly by for Ivan.  The pink mist
indeed seemed to be taking a break, and they made the
journey without trouble.  Passion was there, it just didn't
take them over.
     Ivan and Andrew kept to the back of the group, holding
hands.  Ivan felt a little foolish, but it also felt very
right to walk along this jungle with its phallic symbols on
every side, and at least hold hands with someone special.
     The bridge at the trench was in the process of being
dismantled.  Ivan looked down and saw the pink mist below
like an angry river.  "Are we able to cross?" he asked the
privates at work.
     "Yes, sir.  We were waiting for you to return to cast
off the last ropes."
     Ivan looked into the mist and along either side inside
the trench.  "No work being done today?" he asked carefully.
He meant, where are the slaves?
     "Captain Swenson has sent all the natives back to their
homes, sir." the private said.  "He said it's not in the
tradition of the Marines to make others do their work.  Have
to agree with him on that.  We got men at each end drilling
holes to blast, and the trench will be complete."
     "Complete?  Well!" Ivan said.  "I'll want to see that."
     He made it across, and frowned.  The ground seemed to
be trembling beneath him.  An earthquake?  But this was so
mild, but it went on and on.  Like a series of trucks
driving by a frame house too near the road.
     Captain Swenson came up.  "Welcome back, Lieutenant!"
he said heartily, and shook hands.  "Well done, Private." he
said to Andrew, and shook his hand as well.  "You'd like to
see us finish the trench?"
     "Yes, sir, though I was wondering why it was being
done."
     Vid stepped closer and spoke confidentially.  "Well,
some of the men won't want to leave.  We can at least finish
the trench for those who want to stay behind.  I've already
sent the ship off on a test flight, one it won't return
from."
     Ivan looked for the ship, and nodded.  It was gone, and
good riddance.  "When will they blast?"
     "Any second now." Vid looked around, and got the
signals.  "I'll get the men assembled for this sight."  He
walked away, and Ivan grabbed Andrew for support as a
particularly rough rumble shook them.
     "Is this an earthquake, Ivan?" Andrew asked.
     "I don't know.  It doesn't feel like an earthquake to
me.  I don't know what's happening."
     Assembly was blown, and the men lined the trench to
watch the sight.  Vid gave the signal.  Twin blasts roared
and Ivan stepped cautiously closer to see the pink mist
bubble and churn as the water cut into it, overcame it.
There was a crash and spray that splattered him as the water
from each end met near him.  There was pleasure in that
water, the pleasure of the mist.  Ivan rubbed it into his
face and looked for Andrew.  He could make love again as
soon as they were alone, and it was time to look for
privacy.
     "Let's go, Andrew." Ivan said, and Andrew nodded.
"Officer's quarters.  We'll be alone, there."
     They started to walk away, when the quake struck in
earnest.
     Buildings lurched and trees swayed like dancers.  Ivan
dropped to his knees, and pulled Andrew down, it was safer
during a quake to hug the ground.  They were in the open,
and should be safe.
     And the earth cracked in several places, one near
Ivan's eyes.  Just a small crack, but from it spewed...
     Pink mist.
     Mist that washed over the newly-made island, mist that
washed over the men in huge quantities, mist that turned men
into rutting beasts that reached for each other.
     The mist turned off Ivan's mind, it was so strong.  He
reached for Andrew who was reaching for him, and he clawed
his way down to Andrew's fly with his face, and was so
hungry for the cock beneath, he unzipped it with his teeth.
As he gulped down the young, red, enraged cock, Ivan,
somewhere in the part of his mind that was still his, mused
on the battle with the mist that had been fought here.
     Marines had fought the mist with every tool they had,
every plan they could make.  But the best laid plans of mice
and men go oft astray.
     And the mist had won.
     It was too deliberate, this eruption.  Too carefully
timed.
     Ivan knew then that this mist was no marvel of nature.
It was being controlled by someone, somewhere within the
planet.
     He determined to find out where, and why.
     But that could come later.  Now, he had cock to suck.

                      END OF CHAPTER 20

                       TO BE CONTINUED