Date: Fri, 6 Apr 2012 06:40:38 +0200
From: Amy Redek <adultreading@gmail.com>
Subject: Cronos. Part One.

        This story is for persons of eighteen years or over.  All comments,
good or bad, are welcome and all will be answered.

        Part One

     They were on a small treeless plateau about 1700 feet above sea level,
on what were the lower slopes of the Eastern side of the Andes range of
mountains. The Colorado River was only a mile away in this far corner of La
Pampa, Argentina.

     The campsite was in the form of an upside down horseshoe. On the lower
left side were the two latrines, suitably screened but open to the skies,
with proper toilet seats fitted to the planks across the dug trench. A
short distance up was the open air washbasins set up next to the two shower
cubicles that were also screened. Behind these was a small tower with a
hundred gallon plastic water tank on top to provide the head for the
showers. A jointed plastic pipe had been laid down to the river where a
small petrol pump could be started to fill this tank.

     On the turn of the horseshoe were two four-men tents set up for the
labourers to sleep. Next, dominating the top was the mess tent with the
kitchen on the left hand side to which another pipe had been run for
cooking and washing purposes. The canvas sides were always down except for
the front. This was left open as they were at a high enough altitude not to
be bothered by mosquitoes or midges. The flies would get in whether they
had screens up or not, but they were lucky in not having many of them
around. In front of this, a good ten yards away, a pit had been dug for the
purpose of a camp fire.

     Turning from the mess tent and placed down the right hand side of this
horseshoe arrangement, were four large single tents for the use of the
senior members. Between this last tent and the latrines and below the
campfire, four large trestle tables had been set up ready. One was for maps
and the others for the cleaning and labelling of the finds.

     Down at the open end of the tented area was a large pegged out
rectangle, approximately ten yards by forty; in the middle of which lay the
exposed bones of a Brontosaurus, for this was a palaeontology dig for the
prehistoric animal.

     One of the joint leaders was Professor Martinez de la Rosa from the
University of Buenos Aires and also curator of the Museum of Antiquities in
the same city. An elderly man of medium height, his hair was beginning to
thin and showing signs of grey. Being of Spanish descent, he was quite
swarthy with his craggy face and dark brown eyes below his bushy
eyebrows. Though fit, he was beginning to put on weight around the midriff
area. His English was limited, but he spoke enough to be understood, though
he did tend to get his tenses and adjectives wrong. He had the tent that
was closest to where they all dined.

     The tent next to him was occupied by his assistant, Manuel da Silva,
who didn't speak any English, a young eighteen year old student from the
same university. He did his own notes and those of Professor Martinez.

     Next to him, moving down a tent was Doctor Audrey Summers. Her main
function was to photograph the site as well as each stage of the exposure
of the prehistoric beast, and then each bone as it was retrieved. When it
had been cleaned at one of the tables, she then labelled it and marked
where it had been found on their large detailed map. She meticulously
recorded each piece in her note book, and then in the evening would type up
her notes for both of the professors to read and check each evening after
dinner. Her Spanish was limited to a few basic words and had to make known
her requirements through the occupant of the last tent. That was Professor
Brendan Fowler, joint leader of the expedition.

     He hailed from Boston and at the age of thirty two, was considered, in
spite of his age, to being one of the world's leading authorities on the
Brontosaurus. He deemed it polite and politic to make it a joint leadership
even though he and his university were funding the dig. After all, it was
Professor Martinez's find after all. He was only invited to the dig because
neither the Museum nor the University of Buenos Aires could afford to
finance it.

     The rest of the crew were made up of Argentineans. Six from the
nearest town which was La Copelina and two from Buenos Aires. Bahia Blanca
was the nearest city that boasted an airport. It was about three hundred
and sixty miles as the crow flies, or nearly six hundred over rutted and
unmarked roads, and even worse tracks cut through a small jungle before
reaching the plateau. As the truck had been hired from B.B., as the city
was referred to, two men had been hired to drive it, one of them being a
mechanic. These two were constantly employed to drive it back and forth
between the camp and the city for supplies, mail, and any other odds and
ends that the people at the camp requested. This left six men to clean and
help around the camp and site as required, one of them being the cook.

     Being close to the river was a godsend to them all. It meant plenty of
fresh water that came from the snow capped mountains of the Andes was
therefore clean and unpolluted for drinking, cooking and more importantly,
washing, so that they could stay clean and fresh. This pleased Audrey more
than the others knew, because at her last dig, she finished up smelling
like the latrine pits because of the lack of water for the purpose of
washing.

     The water and the tank had been the first major problem. They'd run
the hose down to the river where the pump was situated for the first
filling of the tank. This went off okay and it was more by luck than
judgement that it was turned off when it was nearly full. This water level
would be checked daily, and when getting low, the man would walk the mile
to the river and switch on the pump. This done, he sat down and promptly
fell asleep. It was only when the water started pouring over the edge of
the tank did a minor panic set in. One man had to run the mile and switch
off the pump and kick the other man awake.

     Audrey then had the tank emptied, slowly, so as not to flood the
workings and then get a man to mark the insides of the now empty tank. Then
setting up a system of men every three hundred yards to say when to switch
off the pump. Standing up on the ladder, she watched the rising water and
timed the rising water up to each mark. When near the top, the signal was
passed down the line for the pump to be stopped. Then on a daily basis,
when the level was checked and found that it needed refilling, she would
calculate the time the pump needed to run. The man was then given an alarm
clock that was pressed to start it when the pump went on. When the alarm
sounded, the pump was turned off, so that became the procedure and they
didn't have any more mishaps from then on with the water.

     The routine of the camp was well established as they had been there
for four weeks out of the estimated sixteen it would take to clear the
site. It would be a fine specimen for the museum that would be lucky enough
to get it, because it looked as though they would be able to retrieve at
least ninety five percent of it if not more.

     Dinner was over and a fire had been lit in the pit, and the four of
them sat in comfortable chairs around the warmth of the fire talking. The
labourers tended to sit in the mess tent and play cards of an evening,
leaving the bosses to themselves.

     `I was pleased very much that you accepted our offer to dig here,'
Martinez said, puffing on his post dinner cigarillo, talking to
Brendan. `Your work in this field is well known, but I know nothing of
you.'

     `There's not much to tell really,' he began modestly. `I was raised on
a ranch that my parents owned and could ride a horse before I could even
walk. It wasn't a working ranch, but more of a holiday place for them.' He
left out the fact that it was covered in oil wells and made enough money
for them all to be indulged. `It was such a great place that they couldn't
drag me away from it, so they got a tutor in for me as we were a long way
from any schools. Well he got me enthusiastic over geology and the wild
life that lived all around us. Enough so, that I went to college and then
university where I majored in Geology, Biology and various other minors,
including Archaeology.'

     Audrey had leaned back in her chair, coffee cup in hand and watched
this man, leaning back in his chair smoking his pipe. His tall rangy body
completely relaxed, the solid muscles of his forearms gleaming in the
firelight. She could imagine him in the saddle of a horse, his heavy thighs
urging the beast on as he rode the plains, the wind whipping his hair about
his dark blue eyes.

     `I graduated Sigma Cum Laude and stayed on as a tutor,' he
continued. Audrey bringing her mind back to him speaking. `Then I was
offered a chair and became a professor, and I specialised in
palaeontology.' Again he didn't mention that his family had endowed enough
money to the university that there was not much more they could do for him,
though in time he would have gained the chair, such was his knowledge of
his subject. The money had helped him to get it sooner rather than later.

     `This is my second dig here in South America, and it looks far better
than the last one. Especially the company,' and he winked at Audrey as he
said this. She felt shivers run down her spine at his recognition of her,
and wondered if he ever considered her as a woman instead of as a
colleague. She took special care each evening by putting on a dress and
taking care of her face with just the lightest of make-up. She had fallen
in love with him from the first meeting at the airport in Boston. She had
been tired from the flight from London and felt somewhat dishevelled as she
came out from immigration and customs. Then this tall dark handsome well
dressed man had enquired after her name, and then presented her with a
small bouquet of flowers and wished her happy landings in America.

     She loved the way he moved and dealt with everybody in an
authoritative way in the handling of her luggage out to the waiting car. It
whisked them off to a hotel that he had booked for her and waited whilst
she showered and changed before taking her out to dinner. Try as she might,
she couldn't remember what it was that she had eaten or drank at that
meal. She sat and listened to his voice throughout the meal, glad that she
had taken up the offer to work under him. Then she had blushed at the
double entendre, and he, seeing the red flush on her face, mistook it for
her being tired and overheated. He apologised and the meal was soon
finished and he saw her back to her hotel. Lying in bed, her tiredness gone
for the moment as she hugged her pillow and thought back as to how it all
began.

        She had been raised in a middle class family, and with just the
trace of a London counties accent, had gone to a state school in her early
years. Here she became a straight `A' student, getting four A levels
enabling her to get easily into Oxford where she read English, Biology and
Anthropology. There she gained a first class degree allowing her to embark
on her first love which was Palaeontology, where she earned her doctorate
following a brilliant thesis on the subject.

     She had just finished a three month field trip in North Africa and was
back home when she'd received a call from her old university
professor. He'd heard on the grapevine of an intended trip in South America
being headed up by Professor Fowler of Boston. He had written to him and by
return of post had instructed him to ask if she would care to join. She
jumped at the chance knowing of Fowler's expertise in the field. With many
thanks to her professor, he arranged the details for her, and here she now
was, in love with her boss.

     Her mind went back to them sitting by the fire, him with his legs
stretched out as he smoked his pipe and mentioned about riding a horse
before he could walk. Of how she imagined him astride one, his thighs big
as they gripped the sides of the horse, but now she was visualising him now
as being naked. Seeing that his thighs were not just big, but strong and
finely muscled. His chest broad with shoulders that matched and two
powerful arms holding onto the reins as he came up and pulled the horse to
a standstill beside her.

     He smiled down at her and she suddenly felt herself become wet between
her thighs as he swung one leg over the pommel of the saddle and lightly
slipped off to stand in front of her. Her eyes immediately looking down to
see that his penis in its flaccid state was still a powerful looking organ
as the head of his cock was well down below the partially hidden scrotum.

     She felt like a rabbit before a cobra, mesmerised by the sight of his
prick swaying from side to side as he walked towards her and took her into
his arms. He pulled her close to him and she felt his cock starting to rise
up against her shirt front just above the waist. She sighed and tilted her
head back for him to kiss her and she felt herself go all limp and he held
her in his arms for a few minutes during this kiss and then slowly lowered
her down to the ground.

     His hand came up under her skirt and she felt his fingers part the
gusset of her panties and began to finger not only her clitoris but also
pushed two of them up inside.

     She came out of her reverie finding that it was her own fingers that
were masturbating her as she hugged the pillow to her breasts and cried out
that it wasn't him on top of her and not far off of putting that beautiful
organ of his up inside and fucking her out there in the open air with only
a horse as the voyeur.

     She cried at what she was not getting but continued using her own
fingers till she had her orgasm and only then after that release, did she
fall asleep, still hugging her pillows.

     They stayed in Boston for two more days, where he showed her around
the city and also checked out her wardrobe for the trip. He was satisfied
with what she planned to wear while on the dig, only getting a couple of
small extra items which he refused to let her pay for. Soon, packed, they
were on a flight down to Buenos Aires. Here they were met by Professor
Martinez and soon introduced to his assistant, Manuel.

     They all shook hands and Audrey noticed that Manuel's hand was quite
soft and not a bit calloused like that of the Professor's. It was obvious
from this that it was his first dig and she looked at his slim build and
his big, dark wide eyes that had quite long lashes for a boy and had a
feeling that he might have been slightly on the effeminate side.

     Audrey was surprised that there was to be only the four of them, but
Brendan told her that they would recruit local labour as they were easier
to train, rather than have some know it all students who could make a mess
of things. A truck had been purchased on Brendan's behalf, and he
personally interviewed men to act as the drivers. With that settled, it
came the turn of getting all the equipment together. Martinez had already
been apprised of what Brendan wanted, so it was ready in various shops for
him to inspect before it was purchased and loaded aboard the truck. This
was then sent off for the run down to Bahia Blanca, a trip of three days,
Manuel going off with the two drivers.

     Audrey and Brendan were then the guests of Martinez for the next three
days, showing them the city and of course his museum. Audrey and Brendan
stayed in an hotel as Martinez only had a bachelor flat. Then the three of
them flew down to Bahia Blanca and met the truck. Here they completed the
loading with fresh and tinned food purchased locally. They had given the
two drivers the day off to rest before resuming the journey to the site
where the bones of the Brontosaurus lay. Another truck had been hired to
carry the three of them and the surplus supplies onward, and also to pick
up the extra manpower in La Copelina. It took them four days to reach the
town, and they soon recruited the six men they required and two days later,
reached the site.

     Though this was Audrey's second dig, she hadn't witnessed the erection
and preparation of a camp before. She was amazed at how quickly it was set
out and erected. The trucks had been cleverly loaded so that every piece
came off in the order of where it was going to be placed. Brendan and
Martinez supervising the placement of tents with two men being detailed off
to dig the latrine tent. Another two built the water tower before unrolling
the pipe down to the river and fixing up the pump. There was nothing for
Audrey to do until the tents had been erected and she could then help by
erecting the cots and laying out the sleeping bags and see to the smaller
details, such as the lamps etc.

     It was late afternoon before the water was flowing into the tank that
had taken four men to place on the top of the tower. The cook had been
impatiently waiting for this water so that he could start preparing the
evening meal which everybody looked forward to after a tiring day. The
driver of the hired truck stayed overnight before leaving, wishing them
luck out there on the plateau.

     All hands were up early next morning, and as soon as breakfast was
over, inspected the place where the first bone had been found. A marker had
been set there by Martinez when he first visited the place with the peon
who had found it. He'd told them the story on their trip South of how that
had come about.

     The large rib bone had passed through several hands before it found
its way to the museum. He had been quite excited when he saw it, and
immediately began tracing back till he found the man who had first handled
it. They then visited the site and he saw straight away that this would be
a tremendous find, so he marked the spot and began to speak to various
universities around the world. He pinned his hopes on Brendan and was
pleased that he and his university agreed to finance the dig. It had taken
three months of negotiation to finally bring it all together, and now they
were here, ready to begin.

     Audrey took many photographs as the men measured out the area, posts
being driven into the four corners before the secondary posts were put in
and the plot subdivided into areas of approximately a square yard each.

     Within a week, all the top soil had been removed to reveal the almost
complete looking skeleton of the now extinct Brontosaurus. They had all
been excited over this and were soon removing the bones, piece by piece for
Audrey to catalogue in her notes. Every evening, the days finds after being
labelled, were boxed up ready to be taken to the warehouse in B.B. by the
truck on its weekly run.

     The animal had fallen onto its left side, so over the millions of
years that it had laid there, the right hand side of the rib cage had
collapsed down and were the first to be cleared. Then the area was swept
clean so that they could then see clearly the full length of the creature
now ready to be taken up from its death bed.

     Now, Audrey reflected as she listened to the men talking before the
fire, that they were so far ahead of schedule, that they would finish well
within the sixteen weeks planned. What did she have to do for him to
recognise that she was totally in love with the man sitting in the next
chair she wondered? With a heavy sigh, she stood up and stretched, yawning
as she did so. Then bent down to put her empty coffee cup on the ground,
letting Brendan see the cleavage of her breasts before straightening up.

     `I'm off to bed. Goodnight gentlemen,' she said, turning away from
them and the fire as she walked off towards her tent. The men had said
their replies and watched her walk off out of the fire's glow in silence.

     `That's a fine young woman there,' Martinez observed. `I wish I were
twenty years younger.' His eyes had a twinkle as he looked at Brendan.

     `I agree,' Brendan said, having seen the full breasts before him and
had watched her pert bottom gently sway as she had walked away. Basically a
shy man, he desired Audrey but didn't know how to set about wooing her in
the close confines of the camp. She was very good at her work, very
meticulous and tidy, and was doing well in the overseeing of the fossils
from the cleaning through labelling to packing. He didn't want to rock the
boat by making a clumsy pass at her and thereby ruin the camaraderie of the
four of them. He too then sighed as he puffed on his pipe, knowing that he
was going to have to take a cold shower before going to bed.

     He eventually knocked out the embers of his pipe and rose up.

     `Well it's bed for me,' he said to Martinez, and with saying
goodnight, walked to his tent, passing Audrey's and could see her
silhouette from the lantern inside her tent and felt him start to stiffen
up at the thought of her taking her clothes off and getting onto her cot,
naked. He groaned inwardly and went into his tent and got his douche bag
and a towel and went across to the other side of the compound and into the
shower there.

     He stripped off and opened the valve to let the cold water spray down
over his hot body. His erection was hard and throbbing and though the cold
water did something to ease his tumescence, it still felt thick and heavy
between his thighs as he walked back to his tent with just the towel
wrapped round his middle. He could see that her lantern was now out and he
went into his tent and quickly threw the towel to one side and stretched
out on his cot.

     In his mind's eye, he could see again those lovely breasts of hers as
she had bent down to put her cup on the ground. Then that pert backside
with its little swaying motion move off and cast his mind back to Boston
airport when he had first seen her come walking through from the baggage
area.

     He had been very much taken by her youthful face and figure and she
looked even better when seen close up. It can only be her, he said to
himself, please let it be her, he prayed and stepped forward and asked if
it was indeed the Audrey Summers he was waiting for. He liked the smile she
gave, such lovely white teeth and sparkling eyes that tore into his gut and
he felt himself start to rise up and knew that it was a case of something
that he'd never believed in before. It was love at first sight.

     He had managed to speak without stammering and saw that her baggage
was quickly stowed in the trunk of the car he had waiting and whisked her
off to the hotel where she'd been booked in.

     He'd stayed down in the lobby while she had a wash or shower and to
get changed before he took her out to dinner. He knew he had spoken a lot
of nonsense as they dined and it wasn't until he saw her flushed faced that
he realised that she must be tired from the long flight and quickly took
her back to the hotel, promising to meet her there for breakfast.

     He then went home to where he lived when in Boston which was where his
mother and father lived. He had, like this night, gone and had a cold
shower but still couldn't get her out of his mind. Now at the dig, he was
constantly looking at her as she did her duties there, seeing the swell of
a breast when she raised an arm to wipe the sweat from her forehead, the
action tightening the shirt she was wearing. To also see her slim firm
thighs as she squatted by the area she was sweeping clean with a brush. Her
shorts tightening across the cheeks of her bum and he longed to touch
them. To stroke and even kiss them and then have her thighs open for him to
kiss what was hidden in between them.

     So like that night and several others since, his hand was moving up
and down on his hard and throbbing erection and kept on moving till he gave
out a groan and quickly leaned onto his side so that his sperm came
shooting out onto the dirt floor of his tent. How much he really wanted to
have his prick inside her and it didn't matter which end it went into as
long as it was possible that he could come inside her instead of having his
seed splash onto the dirt.

     He sighed at this temporary release and wiped his still hard cock on
an edge of the rough sheet he was lying on and hoped that one day he would
be able to use his weapon on her.

     The next day was bright, hot and sunny and Audrey was dressed in her
working clothes. Today was a short sleeved light brown shirt tucked into
her khaki shorts. These had been shortened in the leg so that when she was
squatting down, they didn't stick to her thighs. She didn't wear a bra when
working in the heat because the straps chaffed her skin and also
constricted her breathing and movements. Her blond hair was tied up into a
pony tail which in turn, was covered in a wide brimmed bush hat. She wore
sunglasses when working at the tables but if with brush and trowel, she
then placed them in her pocket. White short socks and lightweight boots on
her feet finished off her daily working attire.

     A large bone had just been removed from her square of earth and one of
the boys' was cleaning it for her to label afterwards. In the depression
left by the bone, she gently brushed away at the earth to see if any
fragments were still there to be collected.

     In the deepest part of the hole, her brush seemed to be uncovering a
large smooth stone. The colour intrigued her, it being a shade of grey with
a touch of blue to it, lighter than gunmetal but with the same dull
sheen. It was also rounded as her brush and trowel revealed more, and
because it didn't feel like a stone, she was determined to dig it out
completely to see exactly what it was.

     Slowly an edge to it was uncovered, and following this line, cleared
away more earth to find what appeared to be a strap of some sort. Then she
suddenly realised that this was some form of helmet she was
uncovering. Moving faster now, she quickly cleared enough dirt for her to
grasp it and pull it free from the ground. She put it in her basket and
covered it with the towel she had been using to wipe the sweat from her
face. Was there anything further down, she asked herself? Audrey dug deeper
and around, but didn't find any bones or anything that could be linked to
the helmet.

     The lunch bell was rung in the mess tent, satisfied that there wasn't
any more to be found there, picked up her basket and went and placed it in
her tent. She wanted to examine this herself before she showed it to the
others, so she left it there and went and washed her hands before going to
eat. Eating her meal quickly, she pleaded a slight headache and said that
she was going to lie down for a little while and would they please not
disturb her. Brendan offered to get her some Aspirins, but she said that
she had some already in her tent and left them to finish their meal.

     Back in the tent, she dropped the flap before taking the helmet out of
the basket and placing it on her little table. Then with a fine probe and
brush, she cleaned off the mud and dirt adhering to it before using the
small portable air compressor to blow away the last dust particles.

     Well it definitely was a helmet she mused, as she turned it first one
way and then the other. Not that much different from what any well dressed
motorcyclist wore, the only real difference being that of the face
visor. On a normal helmet, she recollected, the visor was hinged on the
outside and slid up over the front. This had its hinge on the inside and
that it went up between the outer skin and the inside lining.

     Examining it more closely, she could see that there were many
differences between this and that of a motorcyclist's headgear. She'd only
ever handled one before and this was by far much lighter and yet she
couldn't determine what it was made of. The weight told her that it wasn't
metal and yet it didn't feel like plastic either, and she ruled out
fibreglass as not very practicable. Picking up her probe, she tried to
scratch it but bent the point of the probe when she used too much pressure
and didn't make any impression at all to the surface.

     The inside material also baffled her as it was like some kind of
chamois leather, but thicker and even softer. It even seemed to mould
itself to her fingertips when she pressed them into it. Probing the lining,
she could feel that were things beneath and at a guess, thought there was
at least two centimetres difference between the interior and exterior of
the helmet.

     Audrey put it back down on the table and pensively looked at it again,
this helmet giving off its grey-blue sheen like a well oiled pistol. Then
she fingered the supple strap that could possibly be made of the same
material but was as soft as the casing was hard. Nor could she see how it
was attached, there being no sign of a join. There wasn't a dent in the
damn thing, even after a twenty odd ton Brontosaurus had fallen...on...

     `Oh my God,' she whispered to herself. `It was there before that
bloody great green eater fell over. It was under the damn thing and that
makes it about a hundred million years old! I can't believe it!'

                                                               *