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This section covers the arrival of Kerstin Broberg.
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"Leonov said. "I'm glad that you see it that way
George. However, you and Marita must be assured that your security
is our problem, not yours. If things had been a little different
I would have told you what I am now going to tell you in a more
relaxed setting. Miss Broberg, who will act as Marita's double
will arrive tomorrow. She may need some rest and time to recover
from the difference in time zones when she gets here.
She will leave San Francisco at 19:00 local time. Usually the
trip to Heathrow takes around three hours. A floater will bring
her here as soon as she has cleared customs etc." She should
arrive at around 14:30 Greenwich. Both of you will be at work
when she arrives but Ivan and I will do our best to make her welcome.
Ivan has arranged that she has a cabin next to yours with a connecting
door. Her bed is exactly like yours so she should not find it
uncomfortable."
Marita asked. "May we see her cabin before she arrives?"
"Of course. I wanted you to check that it would suit a woman
of your size."
"If it is anything like our cabin, I am sure that she will
like it."
Leonov said. "I know that neither of you have had dinner
yet. As you prepare for dinner, you will have the chance to see
Miss Broberg's room through the connecting door. Your voiceprints
will open the connecting door until 14:00 tomorrow. After that
the door operation will be set by an agreement between you and
Miss Broberg. Gurprit will program the outside door and the connecting
door on her side to respond to her voiceprint shortly after she
arrives."
George asked. "What measures will be taken to ensure that
Kerstin is not replaced by an imposter like Admiral van Wijk?"
The Council has taken precautions to ensure that Miss Broberg
is never left alone from the time she leaves to College to the
time she arrives here. Unknown to her, Lt. Cdr. Adedeyo will be
her bodyguard."
Marita said. "It will be good to see Boku again. Kerstin
will be in the safest hands possible - and I almost mean that
literally."
George said. "How will Boku travel all the way without Kerstin
knowing that she is with her?"
"Lt. Cdr. Adedeyo will be the second pilot from the College
to San Francisco. She will then be a cabin attendant from San
Francisco to Heathrow. At Heathrow she will signal to some plainclothes
police if all is well. They will arrange that she bypasses customs
as a Spacer so that she can get to the floater park before Miss
Broberg gets there. She will then pilot the floater here."
George said. "After what happened to Sergeant Fisher, what
precautions will be made to make sure that a switch cannot occur
at San Francisco or Heathrow?"
Leonov answered. "You are persistent George. Lt. Cdr Adedeyo
will carry a voice print recogniser with her to check that the
woman who looks like Miss Broberg sounds like Mis Broberg. As
a cabin attendant she will also have the chance to check fingerprints
too. At the Heathrow end, she will be dressed without a disguise
as the floater's driver. If Miss Broberg does not recognise her,
Lt. Cdr Adedeyo will lock the floater and call the police. Miss
Broberg has been given some special coaching in disguises by Lt.
Cdr Adedeyo so she should be able to recognise her and be surprised
to see her."
"That sounds pretty foolproof to me." said Marita. If
a switch were made at either airport, while Boku was not watching
her personally, a switch would be discovered in minutes."
George said. "I have just had another dreadful idea. What
if a switch had been made before Kerstin arrived at the Spacers
College?"
Lt. Singh has already covered that possibility. The Swedish police
in Sundsvall routinely keep recordings of all radio messages for
a year. Miss Broberg's voice had been recorded a lot at known
times. He contacted Admiral Chang who then contacted the Queen.
She arranged that certified copies of the police recordings were
sent by courier to Admiral Chang for comparison. Since Miss Broberg
was speaking in Swedish on the recordings, he arranged that she
should give a talk to a group of students at the College about
her police work. There was a Swedish Spacer in the group who asked
her in Swedish about radio procedures. Miss Broberg answered in
Swedish and gave examples that exactly matched parts of the recordings.
She wasn't conscious that she had answered in Swedish for a moment
but then she translated for the benefit of the other Spacers."
"I have been caught like that." said Marita. "It
is an automatic response, particularly if one is not using the
other language regularly.""
"Admiral Chang arranged things for that very natural response.
He has been caught like that himself so he knew that it had a
good chance of succeeding. Now, if someone spoke to me in Russian,
I would have difficulty in answering in Russian because I have
been using English constantly for so many years. Now you two,
it is time you went on your way. As ever, you take the security
problem very seriously and always ask very pertinent questions.
Now get some dinner - and that's an order." he finished with
a smile.
George and Marita left.
George was pleased to see Undepoldus on the settee as he was
the previous night. George looked at him carefully to check that
he had not used a replica to take his place. George looked for
and saw the now familiar white noise pattern in his whiskers.
He greeted Undepoldus cheerfully. "Good evening my friend.
It is good that you have made your way here safely again."
Marita said. "Undepoldus, there will soon be two of me to
help to look after you. Her cabin is right next door. Would you
like to see it?"
Marita stretched out her arm to see if Undepoldus would accept
the invitation to climb on to her. He had not done so before but
he did this time.
"You will get a better view from up here." she said.
Marita's formfit collar was larger than George's so Undepoldus
found it easy to find a comfortable resting place. Marita approached
the new connecting door and said. "Please open. Bigmar 708."
The door didn't open. George said. Try saying 'Bigmar 207' instead."
Marita tried his suggestion and the door opened. Kerstin's cabin
was similarly furnished to her own but there were a few differences
in the colours of the fabrics used. She then noticed that on an
almost identical settee was an Undepoldus. Because she was carrying
the real one, she knew that it was a replica but she would have
had to look at it very closely to tell the difference otherwise.
Marita called to George to come and look. George was preparing
to shower but he came anyway.
Marita said. "Look, our friend has beaten us to it. He has
arranged his own welcome for Kerstin."
George said. "He likes to play with the replicas of himself.
This morning he had placed a replica in the place where he feeds.
I was nearly caught out by it. If it had been there during the
viewing times, nobody except Undepoldus and I would have known
that it was not Undepoldus. Now I begin to wonder if he is trying
to tell me that he is getting fed up with continually being on
display."
Marita said. "He seems to be able to go where he likes and
I'm sure that he knows that he could go when he likes but would
rather be with us when he can. He wouldn't be here now otherwise."
George said. "There isn't much to choose between this cabin
and ours. Kerstin would be very hard to please if this doesn't
suit her."
"I agree George. She will tell us what she thinks soon enough."
At dinner they were joined at their table by Gurprit.
He said. "I'm sorry if I am interrupting a tète á
tète between two lovebirds but I think that you ought to
know that Miss Broberg will arrive shortly. After all our preparations,
Admiral Chang decided that there had been too much communicator
traffic about her journey for security to be tight enough. He
arranged that she should leave earlier so that any possible attempt
to get to her would be made too late. Martha and Sil will meet
her at Heathrow. Boku will be with her but she won't know until
she gets to Heathrow."
As he spoke, Marita saw Kerstin arrive with the Commander. She
was dressed in a long violet dress with a matching jacket. The
long dark wig she was wearing framed her face. It was clear that
she was dressed to look as unlike Marita as possible. However,
her height and build made the Commander look small beside her.
George tried to visualise Marita dressed in the same manner. He
failed. Kerstin's make-up was in the style favoured by younger
American women and it made a comparison with Marita's face very
difficult.
The three at the table stood up to greet Kerstin.
Marita said. "Hej ny syster! Det glädjer mej att få
träffa dej." (Hello new sister, I am pleased to meet
you.) Kerstin answered. "Hej. Det görs för mej
också Marita." (Hello. The same goes for me too Marita.)
Marita made the introductions in English. "Kerstin, this
is George, my partner and Gurprit, our communications wizard here
in London. Would you like Swedish or English food? The robowaiter
has been trained to suit my tastes but you can order anything
you like."
"I had a meal on my way here. Can the robowaiter organise
real Swedish coffee?"
"Just say the word. It is just like you would get in a kondtori
in Malmö."
"Is it as good as in NK in Stockholm?
Marita said. "Please complain if it isn't."
Kerstin decided to order in Swedish. "Varsågod, ett
kopp svensk kaffe, tack! (Please, a cup of Swedish coffee, thanks.)
The robowaiter paused for a moment then asked "Önskar
damen grädde och socker också?
(Would the lady like cream and sugar too?)
"Jo, bara mjölk" (No, just milk.)
The Rear Admiral arrived to join them.
"Welcome Miss Broberg. I trust that you had a pleasant journey,
even though it was arranged in a hurry."
"Yes, thank you Ambassador Chebychev.
The Commander said. "Miss Broberg, here in the Club we usually
observe Spacer rank as if we were aboard ship. It is usual for
junior officers to address their seniors as 'sir'. This particularly
applies to the most senior officer here, Rear Admiral Chebychev."
"In that case Mr. Sincayvitch, please would you refer to
me as Kerstin in future in the same way as you would address Marita
as Marita."
Certainly Kerstin, but it is customary for junior rank Spacers
to refer to me as "Sir" too unless mufti is called for."
"I do not understand mufti."
Marita explained in Swedish. "Mufti för Rymderna är
'lägga bort titlarna' men bara när Commanderen eller
ambassadören har sagt vi kan tala mufti." (Mufti for
Spacers is ignore ranks but only when the Commander or the Ambassador
has said that we can.) Marita continued in English. Mufti normally
means civilian dress. Here in the Spacers Club we may be wearing
civilian dress but we respect ranks as if we were in space. You
will have to learn Spacer protocol by copying me whenever possible.
I am sure that at the Spacers College they had more important
things to teach you in the short time you had there."
"They told me that I would learn a lot there but I would
learn much more here. Please forgive me if I make mistakes."
The Rear Admiral made a contribution. "Kerstin, I understand
that you volunteered to become Marita's bodyguard and double.
I am sure that you did not realise what you would have to learn
to be able to do what Marita does. While you are dressed as Kerstin,
we will not expect you to look like and behave like Marita. When
you are taking Marita's place, you will have to be able to convince
people who do not know Marita well that you are Marita. This will
take a little while to learn.
If I may correct the Commander, you, dressed as you are now, addressed
him correctly as Mister Sincayvitch and me as Mr. Ambassador.
If you are taking the part of a non-Spacer you must behave like
a non-Spacer. You will have to teach Marita how to look like and
behave like a non-Spacer. I am sure that she will find that harder
to learn. For example, if a Spacer is dressing or undressing in
the view of another Spacer, it is customary to watch and look
closely at the Spacer's nude body. In space, it is necessary to
know exactly what your colleagues look like nude in order to know
if a formfit has been fitted correctly for mutual safety. For
non-Spacers, this sort of practice is regarded as very impolite.
Spacers do not know the value of currency. They seldom have to
use it. Non-Spacers refer to almost everything in terms of currency
and find it hard to discipline themselves in an environment where
anything they want will be provided free. Now I am sure that you
will need to rest now and begin to acclimatise yourself to Greenwich
time. Marita will show you your room and how your bed works."
Kerstin answered politely. "Thank you sir."
Marita was bald and wearing a heavy woollen dress of the sort
she usually wore at the university. However, the similarity of
the two girls from behind was very noticeable.
The Rear Admiral continued after they had left.
"George, I am glad of this chance to speak to you alone.
It will not be very long before you will have to treat Miss Broberg
as an equal co-partner in every way. With two very tall athletic
girls to look after, it would be a very onerous duty to try to
please sharers as well, as you have done recently. I will come
to that in a minute."
The Rear Admiral paused for a moment.
"Our primary concern is security. We thought about the idea
of trying to find a double for you. We abandoned the idea when
we found that there was no free male Spacer who looked enough
like you. Two might have done the job but they were both involved
in partnerships and neither had much knowledge of ET biology.
We consulted Lt. Cdr Adedeyo about protecting you in the absence
of a personal bodyguard. She said that she had taught Miss Broberg
enough to protect you for up to a minute. If her Spacers were
not able to assist Miss Broberg within 15 seconds, they were not
doing their job properly. She said that normally, Miss Broberg
would be acting as Marita's double when she was with you in public.
It would be unnecessary to have someone else with you to protect
you. If more protection was provided, it would be very obvious
that you were being guarded. That in itself would tend to make
you a target. As you normally wear a formfit, you would be reasonably
protected against pistol bullets and beamers. She said that she
had discussed the security issue with Admiral Chang and Superintendent
Abdullah. They were both in agreement with the arrangements she
had suggested."
George answered. "I agree too sir. However, there have not
been many occasions when Marita and I have been seen in public
together. We only became partners two days ago so there were few
reasons why we should have been together previously. I guess that
will change now, but I am wondering about being seen with Kerstin
as Marita when Marita is at the University. If Kerstin's identity
is to be protected, we will have to make sure that they never
appear in public as Marita at the same time."
Lt. Cdr Adedeyo has trained Miss Broberg to change her appearance
quickly. Miss Broberg cannot alter her height much but she has
been shown how to make herself look taller or shorter. You will
also have to do a course of training with Lt. Cdr. Adedeyo. It
you are trained in her techniques, you will be less vulnerable
and your bodyguards will have an easier time.
Lt. Cdr. Adedeyo's team includes several male Spacers who have
not got regular partnerships at present. I am sure that their
presence will reduce the requests for your services from share
partners significantly."
George said. "Thank you sir for your consideration. However,
it may be a while before Kerstin is ready to accept that aspect
of Spacer life. Although she looks like Marita, she doesn't know
me yet. Marita and I had a lot of experience in relationships
before she became one of my share partners. We knew each other
well before we became full partners. Kerstin has not had the benefit
of that sort of experience. Marita and I will have to introduce
her to Spacer ways in the gentlest way possible. I expect that
it will be a month or two before Kerstin is ready to take Marita's
place as a companion."
"Time will tell George. Kerstin may yet surprise you."
George took his leave and went to join Marita in their cabin.
When he arrived Marita said. "George, Kerstin is very
tired. She has had a long day and has gone to bed. I think that
we should leave her in peace until tomorrow."
George said. "Maybe she is a bit shy too. I guess that she
must have heard all sorts of stories about Spacer life. I was
just saying to Chebby that it will take her a little while to
get used to us."
Marita undressed as he spoke. George always loved to look at her
beautiful body and was very happy in the thought that there was
so much of it to look at.
George adjusted the levitation setting after he joined Marita
on the bed. It was only when Marita started to caress him that
he realised that his companion in bed was Kerstin. Marita's way
was much more direct. He decided to pretend that he had been taken
in by the deception for a moment or two. Kerstin's way was obviously
more nervous and tentative but still delightful. As an expert
in such a situation, George was able to arouse Kerstin rapidly
so that her natural instincts overcame her nervousness very quickly.
When it became clear that Kerstin was really enjoying the experience,
George said. "Processor, summon Marita to come and join us."
Kerstin didn't care. She was becoming engulfed in the throes of ecstasy. George wondered why Marita was taking so long to arrive and then remembered that she had not arranged for the connecting door to be opened by her voice. Marita arrived nude through their front door full of smiles as she saw George with Kerstin. Kerstin was too far gone to notice her arrival. George was providing the necessary stimulation while trying to keep something in reserve for what promised to be a long night. The gravity neutraliser provided infinite softness yet was undisturbed when Marita did a high jumper's flop and landed beside George. George was unaware of her presence until she started to provide him with assistance in pleasing Kerstin. George could not resist her efforts. Marita used her massive inertia to force George to be more active than he had intended on the near frictionless bed. Kerstin moaned and cried out for George to stop. Marita made sure that he did not stop, even when tried to use all his strength to move away from Kerstin.
Marita stopped her pushing when she realised that George had
nothing more to give. She turned George to face her and hugged
him gently as a mother would a child. When Kerstin had recovered
a little Marita said. "Hur var det?" ("How was
it?")
Kerstin didn't answer directly. "Om det här skulle hända
varje natt!" (If only this could happen every night!)
Marita said simply. "It can and does. Why do you think I
became a Spacer?"
Suddenly Kertin exclaimed. "Something touched me! Who left
this brush in the bed?"
Marita laughed. "That isn't a brush, it is Undepoldus. He
likes to stay with George and me at night. Let him explore you.
I can assure you that it is nice feeling."
Kerstin was nervous but let Undepoldus crawl over her, gently
probing here and there with his brown patch.
George's exertions both voluntary and involuntary had exhausted
him temporarily. In a sort of half sleep he struggled to wake
up. By unspoken mutual consent the two girls began to caress and
massage his body.
Kerstin said. "I had the impression that Spacers had more
endurance. It seems that I have worn him out."
Marita replied. "I wanted your first meeting to be as good
as it could be. I forced him to keep going long after he had no
power to keep going by himself."
"I hope that you didn't overdo it Marita. We will both need
his services for a long time yet. We will have to take it easy
with him in future. I must thank you both for providing me with
such a lovely introduction to Spacer ways."
Marita said. "Im glad that you overcame your nervousness
Kerstin. From now on you will feel as I do. I have this extreme
hunger for the comfort and pleasure that George can give me while
I know that I dare not ask too much of him." As she was talking,
Undepoldus had finished his exploration of Kerstin and had transferred
his attention to George. He crawled up beside his face an placed
his brown patch on George's forehead. Then he turned round and
crawled onto George's chest. Soon it was clear to the girls that
George was fully asleep.
PAUSE
The next section covers the arrangements
made for Kerstin.
Viewers familiar with this subject may pass on to the following
section.
Please select PASS or CONTINUE.