Free Gold

morale is high

On this blog page is Part 6 of the science fiction story Old Time Gaming. In Part 4, Rylla was teleported back to the coast while her Interventionist partner, John Smith, continued to mine gold in the Outback. Rylla is using the body of Sophie, a school teacher in Parramatta, not far from the Port of Sydney. At the mine, Manny the bumpha has adopted the bodily form of Elizabeth. Using her advanced technologies, including teleportation and nanites, Manny began accelerating the rate at which gold was accumulating in the horde at the mine. Neither John nor Max was aware that Manny was in control of their thoughts and memories, so the rapid growth in their gold stockpile did not seem strange to them. 

native Australians

John's morale was particularly high because at the end of each long day of mining, he was able to spend the long night in his tent with a second copy of Rylla. Sophie's younger brother, Max, had made friends with the native children who lived near the mine and he was quickly learning the language of the local people.

You Gain Gold. Old Time Gaming was inspired by the computer game Civilization VI and the Outback Tycoon scenario. In that game, sometimes players are suddenly rewarded by the gift of treasure. 💰 With Manny providing "free gold" that does not need to be obtained by laborious mining, the gold mining expedition soon has as much gold as their camels can carry. In fact, there are not enough camels...

Part 6 of Old Time Gaming. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5.

John did an experiment, testing how deeply a loaded camel would sink into the rain-soaked ground. After that test, he told Rylla, "With all the rain, we need to load less gold on each of the camels. Making the needed adjustment, we now have too few camels. If we want to take all the gold to Sydney, the horses will have to carry some. That's possible if we off-load some of our body weight."

Rylla said, "My horse is artificial, made from nanites. We can really load it up with cargo."

John nodded but warned, "You'll have to artificially broaden the hooves to keep the beast from sinking into soft ground."

John and Rylla gathered together their mining team and explained the camel situation. John said, "The broad feet of the camels will help with the problem of rain-softened ground, but I underestimated the persistence of these rains. There is a practical limit to how much weight each camel can carry over mushy ground. We might as well call an end to mining operations and start back... today."

Max said, "I'm not going back. That gives you another camel to carry gold on."

Liza said, "I'll stay here with Max. We'll continue mining."

John was tempted to offer objections and say that they all needed to stay together. Before he could speak, Rylla said, "I think Max has established a good relationship with the locals." More importantly, Rylla knew that Manny could speak the languages of the natives and would be in no danger. Disguised as a copy of Liza, Manny could take care of Max and allow him to remain at the mine, collecting more gold from the diggings.

trade goods

Max said, "Word has spread among the natives. Folks from far away are coming here to obtain gifts of tools and cooking pots. When you return from Sydney, bring more of these items such as wool clothing that are popular with the natives."

By noon, the caravan was loaded and began the journey back towards the coast. As the afternoon wore on, John and Rylla decided that as long as there was no rain, they would keep traveling. With only a few fair weather clouds in the sky, they pushed on after dark under a bright moon. Finally, with the camels tiring, they stopped and made camp about midnight.

In the morning, there were rain showers and they let the animals rest and graze. John and Rylla had a rather rousing love-making session then lay sprawled on the ground, their limbs tangled together. In their artificial bodies, they had not bothered to even bring along a tent. Laying in the wet grass under a light rain, Rylla began thinking about how their eventual return to Sydney had been anticipated by Manny. She told John, "Manny was rather enigmatic when she made me as a second copy, but she warned me to be ready to meet the other Rylla who is back in Parramatta. I wonder how that other Rylla has been preparing for our arrival."

John playfully caressed the sleek contours of Rylla's body and struggled for a minute to turn his mind away from the joys of their sexplay. "Manny likes to play these games. She could easily tell us what to expect, but she wants us to have a great adventure discovering for ourselves everything that she has planned for us."

"I'm sure that Manny does not want us to get lazy." While she spoke, she lazily played with John's penis. "She expects us to keep thinking and solve our own problems."

John gently rubbed the stiff glans of Rylla's clitoris with his finger tips. He let his finger tips begin to vibrate. Rylla moaned with pleasure and climbed on top of him, taking his erect penis into her vagina. His penis began to vibrate with mechanical vigor and he placed his vibrating fingers of one hand back against her glans and with his other hand he stimulated her nipples. After achieving another stupefying orgasm, it took Rylla fifteen minutes to get her thoughts back in order. "It is almost as if Manny does not want us thinking too much. She's arranged things that we spend much of our time lost in the pleasures of our delightful sexplay."

"I think you are correct about that. We don't want to over-think the details of our mission. If we seriously mess things up, Manny will take action to set things right. She can always travel back in time and make corrections. I have to believe that your copy back in Parramatta has been diligently making arrangements for our return... in the role of Sophie McKnight, possibly she has already made plans for selling the gold."

Eventually, the sun broke through the clouds and Rylla reluctantly pulled herself off of John's still vibrating penis. "Let's start re-loading the camels. We can continue our sexplay during the ride." Using their telepathic mind link, they could enter into a world of their imaginations where they could sexually stimulate each-other by means of thought alone. With that ever-present distraction, neither of them devoted much thought to what would happen when their caravan returned to civilization.

As the days went by, the rains periodically arrived and departed and the trails became increasingly soggy and progress was slow. Every low spot in the valleys was puddled with standing water and every little stream was flowing. John and Rylla discussed the possibility of digging a hole to the side of the trail and leaving some of the gold behind, to be retrieved later. However, the next morning was clear with a fresh breeze and they continued on, as before after loading all of the gold onto the animals.

_____________

In Parramatta, it had not been a trivial matter for Rylla to convince Abigail to become her assistant at the school. When Abigail first accepted an invitation from Sophie and visited the school, she said, "I don't want to spend my days teaching kids how to read. I'd rather have that precious time for my writing."

Rylla took Abigail into Sophie's cottage and Rylla said, "I suppose the only reason you came here today was to get me in bed."

Abigail laughed, "I'm not really the sex-obsessed wild woman that people like to gossip about. However, the moment I saw you, I knew that..." She fell silent.

Rylla asked, "What?"

"I liked your smile." Abigail moved close to Rylla and examined her ears. Nodding, Abigail said, "My mother taught me how to identify people who can be trusted."

Rylla laughed. "By stroking my ears?"

Abigail explained, "I knew when you smiled at me. But to answer your question, yes, if you are gentle with me, I'd like to make love to you." Abigail shyly took hold of Rylla's hand and said, "I know that I can trust you."

Suddenly Rylla could see a fragment of Abigail's mind. "You have a regular lover?"

"I've been having sex with my girlfriend Patty for about six years now. Sadly, her family moved out of town and we don't get to see each other very often."

Rylla could feel the girl's hand trembling. Rylla made tea and they played some word and poetry games and eventually the two women were in bed together, providing demonstrations of their favorite sex games to each-other. Relaxing after a most pleasing orgasm, Abigail said, "You have the world's greatest and..." The young writer was at a loss for words. "You can keep right on wielding your amazing tongue... silky soft but endlessly strong... please give me another orgasm."

Rylla hesitated. She was trying to think while also trying to sexually entertain Abigail. Rylla felt there was something that she should remember from her training as an interventionist. She had been trained by the tryp'At for a mission in the 1800s and at the age of eleven, she had undergone a surgical procedure to remove her supernumerary nipples. She'd been told, "It is not unusual for some humans and most tryp'At to have more than two nipples, however, for your mission on Earth, you must appear to be a normal human." Now, Rylla was staring at Abigail's four nipples and was also amazed by the copious stream of vaginal secretions flowing out of Abigail. Rylla playfully slid her fingers around the girl's labia and then slid a finger into her hot vagina. Abigail said, "I love your gentleness." Rylla put a second finger in then all her fingers. Abigail moaned and breathed on Rylla's ear, "I love where you are going with this." Rylla got up on her knees and pushed her fist up inside of Abigail's vagina. The girl cried out, "Oh, that's the spot!"

For a minute Rylla methodically fisted Abigail and said, "If you move in here and help at the school, we can play these kinds of games every night."

"But then I'd..." Abigail bit her lip an tried to suppress a small yelp of pleasure. "I'd never get any writing done."

Rylla pulled her hand out of Abigail and rolled out of bed. She went to Sophie's chest of drawers where Rylla pulled out a spectacular artificial penis that she had "inherited" from Sophie. Rylla brought the sex toy back to bed with her and rubbed it against Abigail's wet labia. "Only the glans of your clitoris is where my tongue can reach it. With this little helper I can fully stimulate you, the way nature intended."

Abigail stoked the fake penis with her finger tips and said, "The only thing un-natural about your fist is how silky soft your skin is." Rylla proceeded to make use of tongue, fingers and the pretend penis and half an hour later Abigail cried out, "Yes! Alright! I'll move in here with you and teach at the school."

Rylla chuckled and said, "The job comes with fringe benefits." She told Abigail about her maid, Elizabeth. "So when you grow tired of my tongue, you can move on to Liza's. The girl is a real oral sex master."

Abigail sighed contentedly. She was now playing with Rylla's breasts. "Does Liza have big breasts like these?"

"No, not quite so large." Rylla had inflated her breasts (Sophie's breasts) slightly, just to excite and please Abigail.

Abigail said, "Sometimes I imagine what it must be like to jiggle when you walk. And what about horseback riding? How do you do it with your big breasts bouncing around?"

"I often experience orgasms while riding. You just want the right kind of silky fabric next to your nipples when they are wildly bouncing up and down."

"Mother says that my breasts will grow when I get pregnant." Abigail kissed Rylla's stiff nipples and briefly sucked on her right nipple. "Mother has big breasts now, but tells me she was like me when she was young."

"Really Abigail, simply enjoy yourself the way you are. I like the way you make love, and you don't need floppy breasts to satisfy me, or a man." Rylla could not stop herself from asking, "Does your mother also have four nipples?"

Abigail giggled and touched one of the little nipples that decorated her upper abdomen. "Not only that, she has four breasts! The lower two are tiny, but cute little swellings, nonetheless. She does not advertise them widely, since some would call them a devil's mark."

After Abigail departed from the cottage, Rylla was left wondering about the weak telepathic contact she had experienced with Abigail. Rylla felt certain that Manny had not been playing some game of disguising herself inside Abigail's body. Rylla guessed: Abigail must be genetically similar to me, so much so that our minds are especially well suited for establishing a telepathic linkage. Rylla felt the tip of "her" (Sophie's) ear and the little notch that was there. Abigail had the same feature and upon close inspection, during their love making, Rylla had noticed that both Abigail and Sophie had unusual dentition, with canine teeth that were morphologically flat, like incisors. Rylla had not previously noticed this feature in Sophie's mouth, but after discovering it, she could easily see that Abigail had unusual teeth. Rylla tried to remember what she had once learned about the special features of Neanderthal teeth, but she had never really been interested in that subject and now, living there in 1814, Neanderthals were as yet unknown to science. All Rylla could remember was that there was something different about Neanderthal incisors.

A week later, Abigail had grown comfortable with the school children and eager for her regular sexplay with Rylla and had also by then experienced a pleasant love making session with Liza. Then, after a boisterous two hours of making love, Rylla told Abigail that she was going out of town, but provided no details. "Take care of the school until I return."

Abigail complained, "You are a sneak, Sophie. You hired me to be your assistant, knowing that you would run off and abandon me."

"Sorry about that. However, I also know that you enjoy both the children and Liza. Just don't continue trying to turn these children of shop-keepers into poets. That's not going to happen."

"What about Clara Boyd? I think she has some artistic talent."

Rylla shook her head. "Fine, help Clara write poetry. Some day you can open your own school of the arts." 

Rylla and Captain Smith rode out of Parramatta in the middle of the night, trying to attract no attention. Taking only occasional breaks, they rode right on through to the following afternoon when they got caught in a rain storm. After dark and after becoming thoroughly soaked with rain, they approached a rancher's home. Doone's knocked on the door. A woman opened the door and said, "Some people don't know enough to get in out of the rain."

Doones ignored her sarcastic barb and said, "Sorry to bother you, madam, but could we sleep in your barn tonight? We'll be gone at sunup and will cause you no difficulties."

The woman looked at the uniform that Doones was wearing and asked, "What kind of soldier are you? A deserter?" She looked skeptically at Rylla, and asked, "Sneaking off with your sweetie?" Not waiting for an answer she said, "Come in and eat." A man appeared behind the woman.

Rylla said, "We have our own food, thank you. We just want to use your barn so we can get out of the rain."

The man went to a chest and pulled out a stack of blankets. "There's no stove in the barn and these rainy nights get cold. Take these blankets." He pushed the blankets into Rylla's arms. The woman handed Doones a lamp that was burning whale oil. "I hope you two have enough sense not to catch the barn on fire."

In the barn, they took off their wet clothing and wrapped themselves in wool blankets. Doones chewed on a piece of jerky and suggested to Rylla, "We should snuggle together under the blankets and keep each-other warm."

In her artificial body, rain and cold did not bother Rylla, but she felt sorry for the Captain. Figuring that she could warm him up by showing some skin, she took off her blanket and stood up. "I have a surprise for you." He looked at her naked body with wide eyes. "Close your eyes." Reluctantly, he closed his eyes. Rylla bent down and kissed the tip of his nose, then she went to her saddle and pretended to pull a can and can opener out of her saddle bag. However, she simply used her nanites to make the can of salmon and the can opener. Returning to where Doones sat beside the lamp, she started opening the can. 

Not sure what he was hearing, he said, "When can I open my eyes?"

When he smelled the fish, he opened one eye and said, "Canned fish?"

Rylla said, "You can open your eyes. This is from the Appert factory in France. Atlantic salmon." She handed him the opened can. She started nibbling on a piece of pumpkin bread.

He set aside the jerky and began eating the fish and then asked, "Don't you want any fish?"

Rylla shook her head, "We've been gifting items such as this to the natives, but it is a nice surprise for you. Enjoy." She sat down on her blanket.

Rylla had not bothered to cover up her body. He asked, "You are not cold?"

"I don't mind a cool evening after a hot day. The cool air and your admiring gaze feel good on my skin." He looked at her crotch and her pink labia and licked his lips. Rylla said, "I'm still not inviting you into my vagina, soldier." 

They did snuggle up together under the wool blankets that night and the Captain had some trouble falling asleep. Rylla commented on the pleasing proportions of his erect penis and wrapped the fingers of one hand around its hot shaft, "Very nice! This should keep us warm tonight."

He laughed and put his arms around Rylla. "Now that you are nice and dry and warm, aren't you afraid that I'll splash all over you?"

Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux

Rylla giggled, "If you need to ejaculate, please turn the other way. I'm trusting you to remain a gentleman no matter what hardships I subject you to." She began quoting poetry to him. "Ce qui est bien conçu est clairement énoncé Et pour un homme, les mots viennent facilement."

Doones asked, "Is that Boileau?"

"That's me, warning you that if the touch of my fingers causes you to ejaculate, be polite enough to not stain these fine wool blankets. Get up and go splash your sperm on that hay stack." Rylla desisted from touching his erection, but they played a little kissing game for a time, placing little warm kisses on each-others skin.

Eventually he fell asleep and Rylla again took hold of the Captain's penis, thought about John Smith and wondered how things were going at the gold mine. Rylla tried to use her telepathic abilities to look into his sleeping mind, but she had no luck with that.

_______________

Agujero Caliente mine, 1614

Towards the end of a long day, John and Rylla were traveling through a light rain as more storm clouds moved in from the south. They were close to where their trail would link up to the Blue Mountain Highway and trying to reach the ridge line before dark. Rylla was linked to John's mind as he recalled one of his adventures in the Andes Mountains during the time when Spanish explorers were first in South America. Suddenly, Rylla began experiencing a strange disorientation, as if a third visual image was competing with her view of the Outback and her imagined view of the Andes. Then, looking ahead towards the ridge-line, she saw two figures on horseback. "Look!"

Pulling himself out of the remembered past, John looked into the distance. The had occasionally seen natives in the distance during their journey, but these were Europeans. "Two riders. They are coming this way."

Rylla said, "That's Rylla! The other copy of me..."

"Who is she with?"

Rylla closed her eyes and tried to use the telepathic link to her copy. You are already returning?

Yes... we have a full load of gold.

The other Rylla was greatly relieved that the gold caravan had not reached the Highway. When the two parties reached each-other, the two Ryllas jumped off of their horses and hugged each-other. Rylla experienced in her mind a flash-like memory of Sophie holding the Captain's penis. The copy of Rylla who was making use of Sophie's body form could sense that her other copy had happily been John's lover for the past two weeks.

John shook Captain Doones' hand. The Rylla who was still using Sophie's body looked at the heavily loaded camels and asked, "How did you mine so much gold so quickly?"

John shrugged and said, "The gold is there for the picking. The rains have helped. With all the water, we have four sluices in operation now."

Sophie introduced John and Rylla to the Captain. Doones said, "John and I met on the Tripple B." He looked at the long line of heavily loaded camels. "I should have known that you had a plan when you brought these camels to the colony."

The copy of Rylla who was using Sophie's body form looked towards the end of the caravan. She sent a telepathic question to John: Max and Liza stayed at the mine?

He replied telepathically: Yes. They get along well with the natives, so we let them stay and they are continuing to mine more gold.

The other Rylla asked Doones, "You are a Captain in the navy?" 

Doones was giving Rylla's tall, slim body a careful visual inspection. With a grin he replied, "My military training is in artillery, where I attained the rank of Captain."

Rylla could not keep her eyes off of the fine bulge in one leg of the Captain's riding pants. While gazing at his crotch, she mused, "So, you are an expert of the big guns."

Doones laughed. "I've had some experience against the French." He provocatively held up a finger pointed to the sky.

Rylla said, "J'aimerais te voir au travail."

"Cela peut facilement être arrangé." Doones was looking at Rylla's horse and wondering about its origins. It was unlike any other horse he'd seen in Australia. He glanced back at Rylla, who stood as tall as he did. "However, when the war ended, I became an engineer and learned how to build bridges."

Sophie/Rylla telepathically told John: Don't mention Max and Elizabeth by name. The Captain has met the other copy of Liza, who is back in Parramatta.

Speaking out-loud, Sophie explained, "We need to be careful. The Governor wants to prevent word of the gold mine from spreading. We are going to have to disguise the gold shipments as wool shipments."

Captain Doones suggested. "I can requisition wagons from the sheep ranchers. This time of year they have many wagons that are not being used. If we are careful, we can transfer gold from the camels to wagons and pretend that the wagons are carrying wool to the port. Maybe nobody will notice the gold if they can't see it."

Rylla looked off across the hills. "We should select a good location for a transfer camp. We need a location just off the highway where the loaded camels will never be seen by anyone but us. We'll pretend that wool shipments are arriving from the west... by mule train?" 

Doones nodded. "I can have some troops here in two days with their supply animals. We'll construct a fake wool trading post beside the Highway, where it crosses the Nepean River. That's where I'm supposed to construct the first stone bridge in Australia."

John nodded. "Very well. When your soldiers are not hauling gold to Sydney, they can be hauling stone for your bridge. We can make temporary camp here and scout the area in the morning... we'll locate a nice grassy area that be a permanent camel resting station."

Doones looked at the darkening sky. "I'm going to start back. The sooner I depart, the quicker I can have some troops out here."

Rylla told John, "I'm going with the Captain." Telepathically she told him: I need to move on to the next phase of my mission.

Doones went riding back up the trail at a good pace. Rylla's artificial horse had no trouble catching up to him. As darkness fell, they reached the highway and continued slowly in the moonlight. Rylla asked, "Isn't your horse tired?"

"Aye." He wondered why her horse still seemed fresh. "There is a place where we can stop for the night, not too much further along the road."

Rylla and Doones spent the night in the same barn where Sophie and the Captain had stayed the previous night. When the rancher and his wife came to the door, the woman looked at Rylla and said to Doones, "Now you have another woman?"

Doones shrugged. "Sorry to bother you again, but I'd like to impose on your hospitality once more."

The rancher handed over the wool blankets again. Doones said, "Yesterday I noticed that you have quite a stock of wool stored in your barns."

"Yes, I'll sell my wool at the port when the price goes up later in the year."

Doones passed a sheet of military script over to the rancher. "I'll buy all your wool, both that in the big barn and also that stored in your old barn, down in back. I'm offering you double the current market price."

"We're a long way from Sydney." The rancher asked, "You'll haul the wool away on military transport and not charge me a transportation fee?"

"Yes, no fees. Sell to me and you don't have to worry about transportation." Donnes added, "The colonial military needs your raw wool, but I don't really want to explain why. As long as my offered price satisfies you, then we can make the deal."

"I'll gladly take your offer, friend". The two men shook hands. "I'm just wondering how and when you'll move the wool."

"That's my concern, now. I can gather wagons from all the region's ranchers. It may take a few weeks to move all this wool out of your barns, but it will be done."

"Fine." The rancher passed over the whale oil lamp to Doones through the open front door. "I don't suppose you'll come in tonight for a bite to eat?"

"Thank you kindly, sir, but no. I don't want to further disrupt your evening. I'll even apologize for our muddy boot tracks on your porch. Thank you again for the use of your barn."

In the barn, when Rylla took her saddle off her horse, Doones heard a thump as she lowered the large saddle bags to the ground. Thinking about canned fish, he kicked one of the bags and said, "What is so heavy?"

Rylla had placed a blanket over her shoulders, but she was making no effort to hide her long athlete's body from his appreciative eyes. She picked up the saddle bag and explained, "I'm going to have some big expenses in Sydney during the next week. Can I trust you to keep your mouth shut?"

He shrugged and began taking off his muddy boots. "I make it a point not to gossip about a lady's private... business."

Rylla said, "I'd prefer placing our dealings on a firm business basis. Give me your promise, and I'll make it worth your while." She opened up the bag and pulled out a large glistening nugget of gold which she tossed to the Captain. 

Rylla watched the Captain carefully. She had been told by Manny that it was up to her to entice the Captain into going with her to western Australia, but what motivated a man like Doones? Rylla wondered if her other copy had already begun to manipulate the Captain's emotions. All she knew about Sophie's relationship with the Captain was what she had seen in that one mental image of Rylla/Sophie holding the Captain's penis in her hand.

Doones caught the gold piece and repeatedly hefted it up and down, gauging the weight of it. Suspecting that her saddle bags were all crammed full of gold, he told Rylla, "The Governor wants to keep control over all the gold and not start a wild rush into the hills. Following my duties and obligations as a soldier, I should confiscate all your gold right now."

Rylla dropped the bag to the ground with a load thud and let the wool blanket slide off of her shoulders. She walked quickly towards the Captain and forcefully pushed Doones over onto his back. She quickly proceeded to open up his pants, liberate his penis and make love to the Captain. He was so startled and pleased by her behavior that he almost forgot about the gold and his duty. 

Rylla's memories of climate patterns

Rylla felt some frustration from not being able to use her telepathic abilities to look into the Captain's mind. Hoping to captivate Doones and put him into a frame of mind where he would help her with her secret mission, she worked hard to give him some pleasing orgasms. After Doones fell asleep, Rylla tried to remember details of how wind patterns could change when low pressure moved up from the south, bringing rains to New South Wales. However, during the long night, Rylla was distracted by the snoring Doones and could not stop wondering if her other copy had also made love to the Captain.

Next: Part 7 of Old Time Gaming.