Double Team
Chapter 237
“The reason I was in this place no longer mattered. The harsh reality stared me in the face and demanded an immediate decision.”
—Laura Anderson Kurk, Perfect Glass
16 JULY 2023
I need to decide what I’m going to do, or at least what I want to do. Everyone has agreed to write down their feelings about the service and extending our contract. Then we’ll meet this afternoon and decide as a family what we want to do.
Will Forsythe has made a very kind and generous offer to our whole group. He wants Marvel and Hopkins and Company to continue deputation work, touring around the country to expound on the benefits of the National Service and the progress it is making under the new law. The law has only been in effect two months and it’s taking a little time to work out the kinks. He’s offered most of us who entered the service a year ago a five-year extension so Rachel and Livy don’t have to commit for more than six years total since they are a year ahead of the rest of us. We would all have the same release date. The contract would include promotions and significant pay increases, effective immediately. In addition, we are encouraged to continue developing our patron base and producing an independent program each month. Since our deputation concerts are mostly repeated content, the only way to get new Marvel and Hopkins content would be through our network.
So, should we take it?
Dad records our birthday words each year. On my sixteenth birthday, I said, “I don’t know what the future holds, but I’m thinking I might want to do something service oriented. I don’t know what it is. I just think we need to take more responsibility for the condition our world is in.”
At the time, I was thinking of service as being something like serving meals to the homeless at a community center or counseling distressed people. I thought we needed to not depend on the purchased service provided by churches who got government grants to run shelters and food shelves. We needed to be more individually responsible.
Maybe I needed to expand my idea of what service really is.
“Is your head clearer now?” Rachel asked before I’d finished spurting inside her. She held me and milked my cock with her incredible pussy muscles. I’d been in my room all day. I spent some time playing the guitar and some time writing. Mostly, I sat and thought about what I’d vote for.
“I think you cleared my entire body,” I chuckled.
“Well, I came up here to fetch you down for family meeting. Everyone has been going crazy trying to keep their decision private until we are all together. You were smart to stay in here.” It hadn’t been my idea to have everything in private and a group reveal, but it was easy to go along with. We got a quick rinse in the shower and then went to the dining room where we’d gather before dinner.
“Who wants to go first?” Donna asked. Livy practically bounced out of her seat. “Yes, legs?” Donna laughed.
“I vote we stick with the service. I’m already out as of last month, but they gave me a limited extension so I could run in the Internationals. There is no place I could possibly get as good training as I can at Blacksburg. And no way I could pay for it. If we don’t extend as a group, I’ll extend for two years so I can compete as part of Team USA in the Olympics. I’m going to win this.”
“I think that’s the best choice you could make,” Rachel said. “You really have a chance at this. If we do this as a group, though, we should negotiate in the extension that we all get to go watch Livy in Paris.”
“She was amazing,” Nanette agreed. “We should all have been there in Bulgaria.”
“Rachel?”
“I’ve got a good job I really enjoy. With the service commitment to keep us together, I don’t see any reason not to sign on.”
“Me, either,” Beca said. “Not only am I getting to work closely with Joan, I’m in school and learning lots more about content management. This is a good job.”
“Ditto,” Joan said.
“I’m one of those who will get nine years’ service out of this,” Em said. “I’ve gotten my certificate in logistics management this year and could probably walk out and get a job anywhere. But this one’s fun. I’d like to stick with it.”
“It’s rare to get selected for a dance company for a season. This is almost a sure thing for seven years,” Brittany said. “If Sophie will continue to choreograph and lead us, I’m in.”
“It’s a little more complicated for me,” Sophie said. “You are all discussing the option of extending your service. I discussed my position with the National School and they’ve assured me that I am secure as long as the group is here.”
“I’m up for another good role this fall and they are talking about a touring production in the spring. I might not always get to be with the rest of the family when we tour, but I’ll get far more opportunities here than I could manage going from regional theater to theater trying to catch a big break. I’m willing to sign the extension if everyone does,” Desi said.
“Cindy?”
“Oh. Um… I like playing with the orchestras, but I really just want to perform with Jacob most of the time. It will be hard work for us to build up our following with new music each month, but I have faith in Jacob. I’m with him wherever he goes.”
“Well, I had to put my head in a different space than where I was in order to agree,” I said. “I need to change our message some, but I’d like to stay focused on the idea that we’re making the world a better place. I’m in this to perform a service, not just for the National Service, but for humanity. I’ll sign. Donna?”
“Oh, yes, well. I don’t want to be locked to a contract, but I’m not a member of the National Service. If you are all okay with it, I’ll keep doing my job as contract producer until I need to find someone to take over.”
“Why would you need that, Donna?” I asked naively. There were a few giggles and titters around the table. “What?”
“You might recall a conversation we had some time ago,” Donna said. “After you complete your second year of service, you can have your birth control implant removed. I’ll be in my thirties and would like to get started on our first little one.”
“Little one? Baby?! Oh! Just call me dense,” I said. I looked around the table for backup and Nanette stepped in.
“I guess that leaves it to me,” she said. “I know you were all surprised when I didn’t go out and find a job when we got here. I’d probably be on Donna’s track if I were ten years younger. The thing is, I like being the family manager, making sure the lights stay on, food is on the table, and my wives and husband are healthy and well-cared-for. I don’t sit around eating bonbons and watching soap operas. I go out and volunteer at a couple of free clinics. But I like Jacob’s idea of doing our extended service as a service and letting that be our focus. Whither thou goest, husband and wives, I will follow.”
I guess that settled it.
“We should go out for our dinner now,” Donna said, glancing at her watch.
“Are we going out?” I asked.
“Outside. The crew is all set up and waiting.”
Dana rushed into my arms as soon as I walked through the lower level doors to the back yard. A dozen red and yellow tents were neatly set up in the yard. Four dogs started yapping.
“Dana! What’s going on? Have we been lost?” I laughed.
“No! We’re celebrating and wanted to be with you. Nanette said we could camp here. We’ll be gone tomorrow night.”
“What’s the celebration?”
“We’re being recommissioned.”
“Have you been out of commission?”
“No. But we’re being reformed into a training camp. Tomorrow we are all going in to the OCS to sign an extension to our contracts. Our base next to Andrews is being refurbished with more facilities and the first of August we’re expecting our first class of recruits for training.”
“Wow! That’s great. When did you get dogs?”
“They’ll be training with us. We’ve been in a lot of circumstances in the past year when we could have used search dogs. The twins over there joined service in June and as soon as the computer realized what it had, it assigned them to us. They’re both champion dog trainers and have been working with rescue dogs for fire departments since they were kids. They brought four dogs in training with them and we’ve all been learning how to work together.” I looked over at the dog handlers, dressed in the same green coveralls as everyone else. They were identical. At least from across the yard, I couldn’t tell the difference between the pair of stocky dirty blondes settling the dogs.
We all got dinner off the grill and caught up on our lives in the service and what the new responsibilities would mean after we all signed our extensions.
In the morning, our entire crew was joined by SSR as we ran a full 10k. It was my first run at that length since the shooting and felt good, even though I was way off a six-minute pace. Dana and crew were kind enough to slow down and run with us. The dogs and handlers peeled off at 5k to walk back with most of my pod. Nanette, Livy, Emily, and I ran the full distance.
The four of us found ourselves in the upstairs shower with Dana while the others used the multi-head shower next to the hot tub. The girls showed as much fondness for Dana’s firm round tits as I did. Dana was happy to return the attention as I plowed into her from behind. When we were all sated, we dressed and headed down to breakfast.
This time, when we all headed out to go to the OCS, we were joined by another crew led by Abigail next door. Pod Cheer-up was right with her. Rosie came straight to me to give me a kiss and was quickly followed by Celia, who had paused to kiss Beca first.
“Hey, what brings all you guys here?” I asked.
“Probably the same thing that brings you,” Abigail said. “We’re going to OCS to sign extensions.”
“Are you part of pod Cheer-up now, too?” Beca asked.
“Yep! Much to mother’s shock and horror. Now, not only does she have a fat daughter, she has one who is part of a plural domestic partnership.”
“So, you tied the knot legally?” I asked.
“That’s what’s taken so long for us to sign our extension. We wanted to make sure Abbie was on board with us and then get our partnership recognized officially before we started negotiating the terms of our extension,” Rosie said.
“What will you be doing?” Donna asked.
“Water supply mitigation,” Rosie said. “Flint, Michigan got a lot of national attention because the federal government let it go so long without doing anything. But Flint isn’t the only place in the country without clean drinking water. We’re going to start fixing them.”
“That sounds like a huge job. You know how to do all that?”
“We’ll be the lowest rung of workers on each project. The full team includes scientists and engineers and some skilled labor. We’ll be working hard, but think of the service we’re providing in getting thousands of people clean water. With the family to keep us happy and Leslie making sure we have good meals and a cozy bed, the hard work will be good for us.”
“And it’s not going to be isolated for months at a time like Alaska was,” Heather said.
With nearly thirty of us traveling to the office, it took a while to get there. We had to split up on different buses, but by ten-thirty, all three groups had arrived.
Each group met with Will and one or two others in their chain of command to confirm that we intended to extend our contracts. Then we were led into a small presentation theater that quickly filled with people from the office. I thought I saw a few media people come into the room as well. Dr. D sat with our group and congratulated us, as did several other of our teachers and instructors at the school. Jo and Simon were just beyond our group talking to Rachel. When everyone was in and the auditorium was nearly full, Will got things started and announced the signing of our contracts. We each went forward when called and officially re-upped until July 19, 2030. The old man in me roused enough to be surprised a date so far in his future existed.
There was a round of applause and then Will returned to the podium.
“This has been a long time coming and it is an historic moment for the National Service. Not that we’ve never extended a contract before, but this is the first official contract we’ve signed under the new Service Reform Act. It represents the culmination of years of work and planning to remake the service into a dynamic opportunity for our young people to grow, become more educated, and make a contribution to our country’s well-being. And these three teams represent the best of what that contribution can be.” People applauded Will’s remarks and settled in for the ride.
“I want to tell you about the SSR first,” he said. “The Survival, Search, and Rescue squad was a clandestine operation when it began. In fact, it had mixed objectives. It was an experiment to see if a team could be trained as early responders to national emergencies, yes, but was also an operation designed to take Jacob Hopkins out of action and slow or completely block the reform movement. The two people associated with the National Service who started this with funding from a Chinese conglomerate have been arrested and now await trial. The first team leader, found complicit in the attempts on Jacob and on the Reformist Party, and is also awaiting trial. But the rest of the team went far beyond initial expectations and became a rapid response team that has saved countless lives during hurricanes, fires, bombings, floods, and volcanic action. Two additional teams were formed and split off of the original to operate in California and Texas. The rest of the original team, now based at a new facility next to Andrews AFB, has just accepted a commission to train additional classes of volunteers for the SSR and will welcome its first class of recruits in two weeks. Their distinctive red and yellow packs have become a symbol of safety and relief for Americans across the country.” Dana and crew were motioned to stand and receive applause. I was as proud of them as if I was still a member of the team myself.
“Our next team that we are sending out completed its service in the past few months. It is an example of how mindlessly the National Service broke up families and friends to send them to areas where they supposedly had an aptitude. But that aptitude didn’t include things like being sent to the agricultural fields of California to do backbreaking manual labor under primitive living conditions. Yet one of their number and later a second was sent to do exactly that. Leslie’s face became a symbol of all that was wrong with the National Service from the time it was shown to the National Service Review Commission with the demand that we ‘do something right fucking now.’ But the members of Pod Cheer-up also made dramatic contributions to the country in forestry in Alaska, cleaning up the water in Flint, Michigan, and cleaning up an oil spill in the Gulf. They have shown themselves up to the task of improving conditions wherever they are assigned. We might even say that is true of their newest member, the President’s daughter, who has cleaned up several messes here in the OCS office over the past year and a half. They will be managing a team of professionals in the cleanup of water sites around the country ensuring that everyone has clean drinking water.” Pod Cheer-up stood and were recognized.
“What can I say about Pod Octave, the family that has brought reform to the National Service facilitated by Marvel and Hopkins and Company. Long before they actually entered the service, this group was advocating for change and raising a movement to demand it. Let me say that Jacob Hopkins has been kidnapped, shot, threatened. He nominated a candidate for congress, and founded the Reformist Party. He is the one who had the balls to demand the President ‘do something right fucking now.’ And she did—as ‘right now’ as one can do anything in politics.
“It might sound like everything has been on Jacob’s shoulders, but it doesn’t take long to discover his musical partner Cynthia Marvel creates the magic that makes Marvel and Hopkins such a musical phenomenon that people will listen mesmerized as Jacob gives his spiel. Vocalist Desiree Whitcomb commands the stage when she enters and leaves people breathless. Dancers Brittany Adams and Sophie Grant bring a new dimension of life and understanding to some of Marvel and Hopkins’s music. But beyond that, Rachel Evans and Emily Hopkins manage the performance schedule and logistics for five deputation teams moving around the country now, based on the model of Marvel and Hopkins. Joan Long and Rebeca Brown manage, design, and produce over a dozen websites dedicated to the deputation teams and to promoting the National Service. Donna Levy produces the incredible shows and videos of the team. Nanette Schwartz single-handedly launched the rescue of Jacob when he was held captive in the mountains. And Olivia Dayton became the International Games’ 5k Silver Medalist in Sofia, Bulgaria last week, helping Team USA to a first place finish in the games.” Spontaneous applause.
“We now commission this unique team to go out across the nation and tell the next generation of inductees about the opportunities available to them in the service and how to take advantage of them. Wherever you see any one of these performers, athletes, or technicians, you will find their unique message of recovering the dream inspiring people. We are happy and proud to extend their contract as a deputation team for the National Service.”
Will finally backed away from the microphone and led applause as my pod stood to receive the accolade.
“What’s next, Jacob?” One of the reporters asked at the reception following our commissioning.
“Is this where I’m supposed to say ‘Now I’m going to Disneyland?’” I laughed. “We already have several plans underway for the near future. We have a few weeks of rehearsals while we put together our tour material. Then we’ll be in Minneapolis where Cindy will be a featured soloist with the Symphony orchestra. That will start our Western Tour. We’ll be performing in Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington, culminating in another orchestra concert for Cindy with the new Seattle Young America Orchestra. We’ll be back here long enough to prepare a new program for our East Coast holiday tour. There is a lot of information about our schedule and venues on our website. I think right now, though, that I will take my wives home and celebrate by showing each how much I love her.”
“You’ve sure accomplished a lot for an old guy from another world who got transplanted into a young body in this one. Not to mention your eleven wives and a couple of other lovers,” Rachel giggled as she kissed around my jaw. After the signing ceremony this morning, I felt every one of my eighty-five years in spirit, though my nineteen-year-old body was nearly back to full health.
“Rachel, my love, I never intended to make huge changes. I just wanted to live a good life longer. Starting a rebellion or a political party is so far from the apathy I felt toward such things in my other life,” I said as I caressed her and returned the little kisses. We lay naked in the big bed. We’d made our rounds of all our other wives earlier and then retired to the third floor together. We were like a nursery rhyme in which we fed our wives, kissed them soundly, gave them an orgasm, and went to bed.
“Still, you know those mysterious powers must have had some purpose in sending you back. I can’t believe that everyone who wishes to live longer gets transplanted to a different timeline. Surely, we’d run across some of them somewhere. But your powers listened to your wish that you lived longer and said, ‘Oh. Okay. Here’s a new body.’ It seems so capricious.”
“They could have warned me. What if I’d decided to just become a mechanical engineer again and coast through life?” I asked. I dipped my head to suck Rachel’s nipple and she moaned.
“Or, perhaps they just needed to put the right catalyst into the right mixture and let nature take its course. Sort of plausible deniability. Oh, Jacob, I’m glad you aren’t too drained to have something left for me,” Rachel sighed as she stroked my stiff cock. She tugged me to her and guided the head of my cock to her wet opening. “You are a key and they just needed you to unlock the door.”
“The key fits a lot of locks, love. I have to be careful of which ones I open.”
“Push your key into this lock, lover. Yes. I feel you unlocking things in me already.” We played, kissing and nibbling, but when we felt the ascension toward our peaks our eyes automatically locked on each other and we held that gaze through the sighs of our orgasm.
“Whatever comes next,” I whispered, “I face it with you. I love you, Rachel.”
“I love you, Jacob. And so do the rest of your wives. We will unlock the future together.”
End Part XIX
End Book 5: Double Team
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