Note: This story was dynamically reformatted for online reading convenience. To our Readers, Despite our urgings provided with substantiated proof, the administrator at StoriesOnline has not done anything to dissuade a new writer at SOL from using the pseudonym 'NightHawk.' We wish to reemphasize that the person posting to StoriesOnLine is NOT the author of the Kelly series and has NO connections to the "JAMES World" characters. Your understanding is appreciated. Sincerely, The authors of the James and Kelly series. ============= (C) Copyright 2002. M.C. All Rights Reserved. All Reproduction for fee or profit forbidden. Copies of my stories can be downloaded from: </files/Authors/MikeC/> What do you think of the story? Send comments and suggestions to MikeC@NSpace.net ============= James Part IX. Soaring Visions James 66 It was almost nine when we landed MiniMax and drove back to the Marina; Lucy was there and waved us down. "Morning guys!" She grinned, "Sara and Sherri have just left to check out the course." Then she took our hands and whispered, "Good thing I was here first this morning; just before tee-time, Dad and the girls' parents came down to look for them, so I told them they had gone out already." She grinned conspiratorially, adding, "It wasn't exactly a lie, since they DID go out... about 12 hours earlier! Oh," She handed me a folded piece of paper, "This is for you, Dad says it's the map to the secret cove on Drake's Island, which I guess you've discovered already! So? How WAS last night?" "Fantastic!" Jules said, "Especially when Sara hooked a big 'cuda and almost got pulled in herself! Then we lit a fire and spent the night on the beach, under the stars!" "Oooh, sounds great! I wish I could do that..." She sighed, "And the airplane is yours?" "We own it together, yes." "That's so cool! So you fly all over the world?" "No, hon, it's strictly for local flights, a thousand miles or less." "Must be fantastic though to be able to go anywhere!" "That it is!" Jules allowed, "The amphibians can land on water as well, so they're very handy. But we have to be really careful about rough weather. Even more so than with boats." "Can you take me up in it?" "Sure, if your parents say it's OK, or, if I'm busy, you can ask James." Jules tweaked my cheek, "He's not just a pretty face, you know!" Which, for some reason made them break out in laughter. We turned at the sound of Gyro's throaty roar and joined the dozens of spectators who had already gathered to watch her come down the channel on full throttle. From our vantage point it was easy to see why Gyro was so impressive. With less than 15% of her hull in the water, it looked like she was riding on air, yet the wing kept the tracking straight and sure, neatly deflecting any waves that threatened to unsettle the boat. As it drew nearer, the other reason for its popularity also became apparent. Both girls' eyes and faces glowed with joy and excitement as they thundered by and showered us with their roostertail. "Is it just me," Jules panted in my ear, "Or has EVERYONE got the serious hots for the girls?" They did a few more high-speed runs and then, apparently happy with the results, cruised back slowly, waving to the large crowd that had collected along the waterfront to cheer them. Lucy led us through the guarded gate to the docks, saying, "Dad stepped up security and he asked if you could autograph some brochures for him." She showed us one, nicely done up with pictures taken from the catalog surrounding one of the Monster Cuddy in the center. "Then he'd like us to join them for lunch at the Clubhouse." Al had posted his staff as guards to prevent the boat and the girls from being swamped. They organized everyone in a row and handed out the color pamphlets so they could have them signed. "You know the wing worked even better than we'd expected?" Sherri said excitedly, as she pulled me down next to her on the bow and I was handed a pen. "We didn't try any full out runs until we had a chance to check over the channel this morning, but we got a slightly improved performance envelope and much better groove authority, I think the smaller wing surface and more streamlined support helped. Then we got to talking about maxing the acceleration and top speed, and Sara thinks we could delay the rev limiter a bit..." Sara joined us with the laptop and, as she absent-mindedly scribbled her name on brochures, consulted the engine nomographs. "Yeah, we can go another 250rpm and still have a margin of error... Plus," She grinned at Sherri, "You can monitor rpm better than any meter!" She punched in some numbers, "No problem, we can go down 2 inch-pitch and get maybe a 12% improvement over the hole-shot and still get the 85 top speed..." "Are you still worried about measuring the top speed?" Jules interjected, "Don't, cos Al's gonna arrange something with Peter that'll solve that problem!" "That's a part of it, but mostly, it's to wring a bit more performance from the boat... Hmmm, need to talk to Peter myself... Hey!" Sara giggled, "I can send him email from here!" She started pecking away at the keyboard, "This is way cool! I can stay online all the time!" "Honey, you're holding up the line here!" Sherri reminded her. Sara sighed, as she closed the laptop and looked at the crowd, "Ah, the price of fame!" She resumed signing again. "Not to mention the public adulation!" I added. She leaned her head on me, "I wish we could have some of THAT now, in private!" She kissed me, "Do you KNOW what this does to me?" Her hand slipped around my waist. "Hey, now BOTH of you are holding up the line!" Sherri laughed. She crossed arms with Sara behind me, "Can I join you?" "Look!" Jules nudged us, pointing, "It's Celeste... and Kelly!" We waved, but they were too preoccupied with giggling to notice us. They, however, WERE noticed, and a hushed murmur went through the collected crowd. I turned and said to Lucy, "Those are our friends, Kelly and Celeste, can you bring them through to here?" Lucy dashed off, as the crowd threatened to swallow Kelly and Celeste, but suddenly a path appeared for Kelly as she towed a very impressed and amused Celeste behind her. They met at the gates and were admitted as the guards closed them on the last of the autograph seekers. All the way down the dock-walk, Celeste was making faces at Kelly and saying, "Is this better? Does this work?" Their trip took a while because Kelly was doubled over with laughter, wheezing and leaning on Celeste. The guard who was helping Celeste with a large package gratefully dropped it by the boat at her gesture and left. Celeste waved at us, complaining, "Kelly has this new way to do 'The Look' and she won't teach me!" "I'll teach you! I WILL! OK? Just promise you won't start practicing on your own!" Kelly laughed. "That's better!" Celeste looked us over, "OK! Inspection time!" She pointed to a spot on the dock, "FRONT AND CENTER!" We scrambled to parade-ground stance in a height-ordered line, Jules and Sherri jostling to see who was taller. Sara waved Lucy over next to her, "So I'm not the shortest one here," Adding, "Stand up straight and do what Celeste tells you to!" "Just don't bend over, whatever you do!" Giggled Sherri, who'd lost the match to Jules. "You! No talking in the ranks!" Celeste pointed, "Bread and water, and hard labor!" "Damn!" Sherri muttered, "And it was my turn to be on top too!" "Hello Lucy!" Celeste shook her hand, "I'm Celeste. Very pleased to meet you!" And gave her a soft kiss on the forehead. "Hi honey!" Sara smiled, "I missed you!" With a warm hug and a kiss. "Look at you!" Celeste wiped a spot of grease off her cheek, "Working too hard, again!" They kissed tenderly. Celeste turned to Sherri, "And you, my sweet? Happy?" "Yeah!" Sherri grinned, "But I miss you... and our music!" They touched hands. Celeste hugged Jules, "Sister dear? How goes the battle?" "Pretty good, you can probably keep the car..." They hugged briefly and Jules steered Celeste to me. "Hi..." She whispered. "Hi, hot stuff..." I pulled her to me and I held her gently, "Don't I get a kiss?" I lifted her chin and touched lips softly. Jules took my arm and leaned over, "Go on, ask him!" "L-later..." Celeste barely whispered. "Then I'll do it!" Jules laughed, as she ducked a rather ineffectually punch from Celeste, who was nestled in my neck, "She wants you to take her flying..." "Sure, OK..." I said. "Wait, there's more!" Jules was giggling now, "She wants to take you somewhere above 5280 feet..." Celeste blushed hotly and held on me tightly. "Hey congratulations!" They cried, as Celeste fidgeted and sighed. "She bugged me and bugged me for lessons until I HAD to!" Pouted Jules, "All the time spent flying when I should be watching the markets... It's all HER fault if the IC deal dies a horrible death!" "That's bad, isn't it?" Kelly asked. "Heck yes, but it ain't gonna happen... But don't tell my sister..." She laughed and waltzed away from Celeste's kick. "Hey! Kell! You haven't said Hi yet!" Sara said. With a wide smile Kelly went and introduced herself to Lucy. "So," Sara continued, "I hear you found the man of your dreams!" as they hugged. "Yeah!" Kelly smiled, "Although he's been so much a part of me that I had never realized that he's ALWAYS in my dreams!" "We're SO happy for you!" Sherri added, "And the OTHER reason for your happiness?" "Oh, Laura? What can I say?" Kelly was grinning and preening now, "I have to thank you for opening up that facet of me..." She sighed, and put her hands on Sherri's cheeks, "And Brenda and her 'Touch!'" She reached for Jules' hand, "And you know I was so envious of what you guys had - even though I thought it was a passing fad." She shook her head, "But now I see just how simple and obvious it is!" She kissed Jules, "Once I unlearned the lessons the School of Hard Knocks dealt me!" "No," Celeste said slowly, "You didn't unlearn, you just moved on to the next phase. You have to get past the mistrust and suspicions... And learn to recognize that there's that person - someone you KNOW will never betray your confidence and trust," She sighed, and kissed my cheek, "And it is so very much better, if you can find more than one..." "You said it!" Kelly grinned and, turning to me, "You are one lucky bastard!" "Am I lucky enough to get a kiss from you?" Kelly looked around, "Er, is it OK, guys...?" "You mean you got your hot little ménage going and you still want more?" Sherri laughed. "No..." Kelly glittered, "But think of it as giving me a chance to redeem my self-respect." She sighed, "After he made me behave so atrociously last time..." "What's so atrocious about feeling good?" I smiled. She looked at me for a minute, then nodded, "Damned if you're not right. I don't have to apologize for feeling good, do I?" She leaned and kissed me on the cheek, "There!" She laughed, then she whispered, "But you're the only man whose leg I'll ever hump!" Celeste tugged me to the large box sitting on the dock, "This is from Nicole, she FORCED me to bring it here at great personal hardship, I want you to know!" "Here toots," Celeste handed a CD to Sherri, "The CD you asked for... And you, my jock sweetie..." She took out a large envelope and handed it to me, "Your University admission forms - courtesy of Ms McGill and Columbia University. Nicole wants you to consider a science field as a minor, since you seemed interested in that areas." She turned to Sara and Kelly, who were off to the side, yakking a mile a minute. "Hey, this part is for you!" Sara danced up, "Look at me!" She said, holding up a 7x11 shot of her in the Regan 17-footer, hull completely out of the water and spray all around. "You, my breathtaking darling, are absolutely amazing!" Sherri leaned on Sara, "Can I get your autograph? On my body?" She nibbled Sara's ear, "With your tongue?" "Then I should check out the writing surface for you first..." Jules laughed as she made a grab for Sherri. "Help me, James!" Sherri ducked behind me with Jules close behind her. "Stop! Stop! You're gonna tear my top!" "Stop squirming then!" "Here," Sara handed me the photos, "And don't move!" She slipped around my back as well, "Hey, save some for me!" "You're a bad girl, Jules!" Said Sherri's pouty voice, "Mmmm, I'm gonna tell my Mommy on you!" "Go ahead! Explain to her how your nipples got all hard!" "And wet!" Giggled Sara. "You're a bad girl too, Sara! I'm gonna tell YOUR Mommy!" Sighed Sherri. "You want to tell her now? You want us to stop?" "Mmmm, no, not right now, ahhh, ahhh, i-it can wait... Ooooh! That's SO naughty!" Sherri shivered against me. "Do it again!" I could feel their bodies squirming against my back as I stood my ground with a moronic grin. "What ARE they doing?" Lucy asked, trying to squirm out of Kelly's embrace. "Sherri's got something in her shirt, they're helping her!" Celeste laughed. "Sure!" Lucy scoffed. "Does she mean this?" Sara whispered. "But there's two of them then!" Jules responded. "Guys, mmm, stop..." Sherri moaned weakly, "Mmmm, one more kiss... Mmmm, that's it..." She sighed. Eyes glittering, Sara and Jules came around and gave me a quick kiss, watching as Sherri clung to my back and panted. Celeste looked at us and smiled, "Are you quite finished?" "Now I have an itch..." Sherri giggled. "Yeah, really..." Celeste turned and pulled a large silver object from the box, like an overgrown hood ornament for a Rolls Royce. "Recognize this?" She turned it up upside down and Sara cried, "The wing!" She turned to Sherri, "They did it! They built your wing!" "Remember the bouncing-taffy lightbulb?" Celeste explained. "CE did some more research and developed this material out of it. At 950 Centigrade, it goes gooey and can be molded into any shape. Nicole gave them your calculations and they sinter-formed a master, then made the wing from it." "This is incredible!" Sara showed it to Sherri. She hefted it and rapped a knuckle on it, "Heavy, and solid..." "You're gonna be surprised," Celeste smiled, "It's been vacuum formed - meaning that it's hollow inside! The material, which they call PhaseMetal, is 2-1/2 times denser than titanium and has double the strength..." She grinned, "I memorized this part. At 950C, PhaseMetal is loose-covalent bonded, making it soft and malleable and can also be worked like molten glass. But upon rapid cooling, it changes into an Amorphous-phase alloy without the lattice-dislocation weaknesses of crystalline structures, which is what gives it the superior strength." "There! I've done my part!" She said and watched Sara and Sherri run off to get the wing installed. She took my arm, "And I'm going flying with Mr. Wright!" Jules gave us kisses, "Have fun guys, remember lunch in a hour and a half!" "Er, maybe you can offer our regrets..." I said. "You're a mind-reader!" Celeste exclaimed, leaning on my arm. "Regret what?" Lucy asked. "Regret that they will not be able to make lunch." Jules said, taking her hand and Kelly's. "Come, let me tell you more about PhaseMetal..." Celeste followed me into the marina, out a side door and I led her to the cart. She nestled by my side and pulled my arm around her shoulder, "Mmmm, I'm starting to enjoy myself..." She sighed and leaned on me, kicked off her running shoes and stretched out along the seat. "Just occurred to me - I'm on holiday!" She reached back and stroked my hair, "No more dresses or heels!" "Not much of anything else either!" I looked over her gaping shirt. "Do you think they're getting a little pale? I need to give them some sun!" She fluffed her collar and her tanned puppies grinned back at me. "Hmmm, the guys around us don't seem to find them lacking at all!" There were a dozen boys getting an eyeful as we drove slowly through the 'Strip' traffic. "They're just being polite!" She smiled and waved to them, then turned and kissed me, "They can tell I'm a mere shadow of my former self..." "Hmmm, interesting. But I honestly think the present self is even hotter than your former self!" "You would! Because you know you could be screwing me in a minute! They only have me as eye-candy!" She teased them with a faint smile and a not-quite look, "Hmmm, this thing of Kelly's really works! They're like hypnotized!" She giggled and hummed on my shoulder and rolled her eyes around, "Perhaps I can show them more...?" "No." "Oooh! You're so bossy! I like take-charge kinda guys!" She turned around and leaned her face in my neck, "You can tell me to do things for you and spank me when I disobey... With the hairbrush!" She sighed. "Why are we stopping?" "To get a new hairbrush. Plumb wore the last one out." "You are such a darling!" She laughed delightedly, "Ask and I shall receive! But I didn't know restaurants sell hairbrushes!" "That's to make sure I keep my strength up," I poked her ass, "You got a tough hide, woman!" I stopped her, "Wait..." I pointed to the sign that said, 'No Shoes, No Shirt - No Service!'. "You'd better get your shoes on. It's bad enough we'll only get half a shirt's worth of service!" Service, as it turned out, was exemplary, and became even more 'Open and Friendly' after Celeste started adjusting her attire. There was a waiter constantly around us to refill our drinks or to fend off the few autograph-seekers. "What've you been doing? Besides getting even more pretty and sexy..." I smiled. "Oh! Thank you!" She took my hand, "Not to mention horny!" She giggled, "Been trying to catch up on school. Good thing too! Nicole made me do another term paper when I went to pick up the wing." "And how's Nicole?" "Oh, much the same since you spoke to her; sweet, lovable and unrelenting - slogging through her second year of law studies and driving the staff at the Valley Health Clinic crazy preparing them for the new Surgical equipment and rewriting their Health Insurance contracts. And cooking up the Sea-wing with Jules in her ample free time! "CE had some success with PhaseMetal in sports equipment, so they've been looking for strategic partners in other, more esoteric applications, so they jumped at the chance to do the wing. They're hoping to market the sinter-mold-to-PhaseMetal process for custom or quick-turnaround manufacturing. And you? The girls wear you out yet?" "Pretty much!" I grinned as I told her about our adventures on Drake's Island. "Oooh! Sounds like fun! Are you taking me there?" "I was thinking of doing that now. We should test your ground-school knowledge first..." "That's only proper," She glinted, then in a whisper, "Is it going to be VERY hard?" "It will be hard enough." I assured her. = = = I showed Celeste the Island's location on the GPS as I checked the map Lucy had given me. It was the first time I'd gone there during low tide so I was anxious to check out the layout. The tides in the region averaged 5 feet during Summer and low tide exposes more rocks and extra hazards. When the girls anchored Gyro there the night before, they had to be careful to leave the boat in water that was over 6 feet deep at high tide, otherwise we could have found ourselves aground during the night. The map Al had prepared showed the route in for a bay on the Southern end of the island; while the more Northerly one which we had been using was marked as 'Inaccessible'. Clearly there had been enough changes in the topography for Sherri to be able to locate a passage for us. With low tide about an hour away, Drake's Island, which looked like a skewed question-mark when we last saw it from the air, now resembled a sleeping dog, with Sherri's bay tucked in between its head and forelegs, while Al's larger bay was formed by the fore and hind-legs. The low water levels also revealed the sand bars and jumbled rocks which the relentless waves had piled up, like spines and bristles against our 'dog's' back. It also revealed the narrow channel through the shifting sand that Sherri had used to take us into her bay. "Look!" I pointed at a sandbar which made up the front 'toes' of the dog, "That looks interesting!" Just 20 feet long and 8 wide, it was a comma of pure white sand, pressure washed by the ocean and comfortably cool despite the blazing sun. Celeste rolled MiniMax up to the edge and jumped down, laughing as she did cartwheels in the smooth surface. She came back as I tied the plane down to stakes driven in the sand, "Gosh and golly, hon! This is the mostest! Our own little island!" She threw herself on my back, "It's too lovely for words! C'mon!" I stood just as Celeste's shirt flew over my head into the cockpit, to be followed by her shorts. She helped me with my clothes and naked, we ran along the water's edge. "Wheee!" Celeste laughed and danced around me, hair and body flashing golden in the sun. I caught her and hugged my arms around her as she stood gazing into the ocean, "You are Venus," I whisper in her ear, "Born of the Sea; full of life and the joy of life." She turned and tenderly kissed me, "I'll be whatever you want me to be, my love." She stoked my cheek, "But right now I want you to make love to me... OK?" With a soft kiss, I lowered us on the warm soft sand and together, we celebrated the birth of my Venus and our island to the slow, gentle rhythm of the lapping waves. ============= (C) Copyright 2002. M.C. All Rights Reserved. All Reproduction for fee or profit forbidden. Copies of my stories can be downloaded from: </files/Authors/MikeC/> What do you think of the story? Send comments and suggestions to MikeC@NSpace.net