Ben and Stree: Clone Saga

Chapter 4 - Meet the Boltons

In the large empty room that was the cargo bay of the Avatari, Ben and Streek stood facing each other. They wore only their bra and panties and were both in a fighting stance.

"You should not have come back here Cockroach! Your Kung Fu is no match for mine!" said Ben, imitating the cheesy dialogue from Kung Fu holo-films.

"You have disgraced my dojo, Hamster-Girl!" replied Streek, "...I will restore my honour by defeating you!"

"Then let this be our final battle!"

Streek circled Ben with her fists raised, keeping light on her feet, ready to spring into action. Ben had her guard up and was watching her intently. Several different plans of attack filled Streeks' head, multiple combinations of moves that she could come at her opponent with.

No, wait for her to make the first move, block and counter

. Ben was obviously thinking the same thing, she wasn't moving to strike, she just kept facing Streek with a stupid smile on her face.

Soon Streek was getting impatient,

Okay then, I'll make the first move.

Streek feinted a kick and then struck out at Ben with a combination of left and right punches aimed at her head, Ben blocked each one and then quickly kicked forward at her chest which Streek only just managed to turn and dodge in time.

Streeks big boobs left her a little off balance, and Ben didn't hesitate in coming at her with a flurry of punches. She staggered back as the blows came at her, and one hard punch landed on her jaw. Streek dropped to the floor and spun her legs around in a wide sweep, which knocked Bens' legs from under her, making her drop to the ground.

Both girls sprung up from the floor again with smiles on their faces. Even Streek, who was rubbing her stinging jaw. They raised their fists again, and this time Ben came at Streek with an arching roundhouse kick. Streek ducked and punched her in the left boob.

"Owwwlll" Ben cried out as she blocked a second punch. Streek threw another punch and Ben grabbed her arm and twisted her body so that she was throwing Streek over her shoulder. Streek came crashing to the ground, but soon bounced up to her feet again.

"You hit my tit!" said Ben rubbing her sore breast.

"Get used to it girl, cos' I'm bringin' the smack-down!"

"Bring it on, Cockroach!"

The two girls began trading blows again, they were blocking, dodging, punching, kicking and throwing like seasoned martial arts masters.

This is fuckin' amazing!

thought Streek as she fought,

I can't believe this is me doing this.

Dr. Arnott had agreed to use his Alien Mind-writing machine to download Martial arts experience directly into their minds. He had not found a way to use the Xenoform machine without causing brain damage, but Ben and Streeks' regenerating nanobots were able to repair the damage it caused.

The process had left them with debilitating, excruciating headaches for half an hour. Afterwards they found themselves with a vast knowledge of unarmed combat. They learned scores of different styles, disarming techniques, Kung Fu philosophy, pressure points in the human body and fight strategies, the information was suddenly in their heads and easily accessible.

In their minds they had fought hundreds of opponents. They couldn't wait to spar against each other and try out their new abilities. Dr. Arnott offered the empty cargo bay.

As they went on, they were getting more used to their bodies and gaining more confidence, pushing the limits of what they could do, and their intensity went up a few notches.

Bens' strong blows were occasionally hitting their mark and were very painful. Streek learned she had to keep her guard up, or she would get pummelled. A few of her strikes were getting through Bens' defences too.

Streek pressed the attack with a flurry of punches and kicks that drove Ben back to the wall. Ben kicked off the wall and tackled Streek hard, she then used her wrestling moves, grappling with Streek as they hit the floor.

Their glistening, sweaty skin rubbed against each other as Streek writhed beneath her. Streek continued struggling and Bens' big tits pressed against her face.

"Ngghh, get off me!" yelled Streek

"No, I got you now Cockroach, admit defeat and I'll go easy on you."

"Get off you fat bitch, it's not a wrestling match."

"Mixed martial arts, anything goes, you lose, I win."

"Fine, get off me, you won." Ben released Streek and got off of her. Streek sat up, both girls were covered in sweat and breathing heavily. "...this round." said Streek.

"That was awesome!" said Ben.

"Fuck yeah, If only we could do this shit before. We're not gunna get raped again, the next ass-hole who tries it will get the crap beaten out of him."

"Yeah, like those Cunts back at the Full Boot."

"Things are looking up Ben, we're now ass-kicking Kung Fu masters and the Doctor is going to help turn us back to men, once we find the Cloning Pod."

"Provided we recover it before the Bluecoats."

"Yeah, well ...I pity anyone who gets in my way!" said Streek smacking her fist into her palm.

The door slithered open and Makita entered the room.

"Sorry to interrupt you lovely ladies, but your new outfits are ready" said the white Plated android.

"Lovely ladies?" said Streek, it was a big change to what she was calling them before.

"Yes, I hope you like them, though no doubt you will look fantastic in any outfit."

"Did Dr. Arnott reprogram your speech again?" asked Ben.

"Yes he did, thank you for noticing."

"What? Did he program you to flirt with us now?"

"Yes, oh you're as smart as you are pretty."

"That's all I need." said Streek, "...A robot cracking on to me."

"Better than her calling you a slut." said Ben.

"Oh I can still talk dirty if you want me to."

"You don't even have any genitals, you're all talk!"

"I can always install certain attachments, and I'd like to remind you, I excel at everything I do." Makita gave Streek a wink with her grey, human-like eyes.

"Okay, you're creeping me out a little now." said Ben, "...you were saying something about outfits."

"I have laid them out on your beds in your quarters. Just let me know if you want me to lay anything else out on your beds."

"Dr. Arnott is a strange little man. Come on Streek, let's hit the showers."

A little later, Streek come out into the large octagonal central room of the ship where Dr. Arnott and Makita were. She was wearing her new outfit that consisted of a black mini-skirt, low cut olive green top, which showed off her bulging cleavage and an open, orange-brown, long sleeved jacket over it, she also wore a large brown belt around her waist and the boots she bought in Port Redland.

"Stupid 'droid, I don't wear skirts!, why couldn't you have made me a pair of pants?"

"I designed the clothing based on the latest fashions in New Heidi. Plus it shows off your lovely legs." said Makita.

"I don't want to show off anything! I don't care about fashion, I just wanted a T-shirt and pants like I had before."

"Wearing the latest fashion will help you blend in." said Dr. Arnott. "...But Makita, I think you should have taken into account that Lisa here was recently a victim of sexual assault, she is not comfortable wearing revealing clothing."

"Not comfortable, I see" said Makita, "...Correction Noted. Do you want me to start again honey?"

"Not right now, we will be at our destination fairly soon."

Ben walked in, she wasn't wearing a mini-skirt but had a pair of dark brown short shorts on. Her red top had long sleeves but also opened out in the front to show her cleavage. The outfit showed her curves well and looked good on her.

"Nice work Makita." said Ben "Red is my favourite colour. Hey Streek, lookin' good!"

"Yeah thanks, shame I can't sit down without flashing my panties, stupid mini-skirt!"

"Well at least you have one satisfied customer." Dr. Arnott said to Makita.

Dr. Arnott turned to the girls, "I trust you're both happy with how the mind-write went?"

"Hell yeah, it's freakin' awesome." said Ben.

"...and the headaches have completely gone?"

"Yeah, no worries."

"Good. Perhaps later on we can do more, firearms training, languages, computer hacking, piloting. But we don't want to push it, the human brain is not to be toyed around with, even a self repairing one."

"Did the Aliens know Kung fu? How is it that the Alien machine could teach us human fighting styles?" asked Ben.

"The Alien machine makes it possible to load experience into the mind, the actual content comes from many Deep Brain Scans conducted by the Federation. They scanned elite soldiers, tournament champions, experienced Masters, even dangerous criminals, and compiled their combat experience."

"So, no Alien Kung fu styles?"

"We don't know anything about the Aliens. The machines held no data about them, nobody has ever encountered them."

"There was one time, on pre-warp Earth."

"Oh, here we go." said Streek.

"They called it the Predator, it came to Earth to hunt." said Ben.

"That is just pre-warp mythology." said Dr. Arnott. "...We've lost a lot of our histories from the time before we set out into the galaxy. So we just have a lot of stories. Some of them may have a measure of truth to them, others are just fanciful."

"I think the Predator was real. He came to hunt the Earths' greatest warriors. This wasn't in the time of Rocky Balboa, so that times' equivalent was Arnold Schwartz. The Predator hunted him down with advanced technology and killed all his comrades. but what's the best way to survive when you're being hunted? Is it to run? ...to hide?"

"Become the hunter." Streek said in a bored voice, she had heard this story before.

"That's right, become the hunter. That's just what Arnold Schwartz did, he hunted the Predator, and battled him, and slew him. The Aliens didn't come to Earth to hunt any more after that."

"Just a story." said Dr. Arnott.

"I think it's as real as Rocky Balboa." said Ben.

Streek sighed, "Yeah, but you think the Ghost Busters were real as well."

"Why do you think there's no ghosts around? ...Ghost Busters wiped them out!"

"We will be dropping out of hyper-warp soon." said Dr. Arnott.

"at New Heidi?" asked Ben.

"No, we're making a stop at the base."

"Base? what base?, I thought we were going to New Heidi."

"It's the headquarters for an underground resistance movement. You didn't think I was taking on the Federation on my own did you?"

"Uh, ...I guess not, but we need to go to New Heidi, my ship is there ...I think."

"Perhaps we will be going there, but I want to hear from my contact in the Federation first, I need to find out what the Federation knows before I plan our next move. Plus, the Avatari needs recharging, using the stealth field takes a tremendous amount of energy."

"Who is this Resistance?" asked Streek. "...Are you their leader?"

"No, I am a co-founder though. The man in charge is a friend of mine, General Bolton. He's a veteran of the Civil war. Many of the members of the resistance are ex-rebels who still want to continue the fight against the Federation. Some are also ex-Federation who don't agree with the Feds' plans for the future. 'Fight the Future' that's the motto of our little Resistance group."

"Why haven't the Federation smashed you yet?" asked Streek.

"They would certainly like to, but we stay hidden in the shadows, ...figuratively, running covert ops. Our aim is to recover as much of the lost Xenoform Technology as we can."

"And what do you do with it?"

"We use it. We use it to recover more Xenoform Technology, and then when we have it all, we destroy it all. Nothing good can come from that sort of power. I can not begin to tell you how big a threat it poses to all of us."

"Heavy." said Ben. "...So where's this base of yours?"

"It's a makeshift Space Station hidden away in M13, a Globular Cluster."

"Seriously?!"

"What's that?" asked Streek.

"As a Captain, there's a list of things in this Milky Way you gotta steer clear of." said Ben. "...Globular Clusters are on that list."

"Which is exactly what makes it a good place to hide." said Dr. Arnott.

"But that's like saying you're hiding out in the sun! ...Only you're hiding out in thousands of suns."

"Yes. Our ships can handle the gravity, and our shields can handle the radiation. And so far the Federation haven't come looking for us in there."

"Are we going to be there long?" asked Ben.

"I hope not, My Mole will contact us when it is safe for him to do so. I want to get back after the Cloning Pod as soon as possible, like I'm sure you do. But it's always better to gather information first before making your move."

There was a chiming sound, indicating they would drop out of hyper-warp in thirty seconds.

"Ah, looks like we're here." said Dr. Arnott, and he and Makita started walking to the cockpit.

Ben and Streek went to the cockpit too. As they entered, they passed through a holographic view screen that wrapped around the round room, giving a full three sixty degree view. It gave the illusion that the small room was the entire ship.

Ben whistled, impressed by the advanced looking controls and displays. The Avatari made her ship; the Clubber Lang, look like an old junker.

They barely felt it when the Avatari dropped out of hyper-warp, and suddenly the room lit up, as the entire front half of the view screen was filled with bright pulsing light. The filters had taken out a huge amount of glare. Ben and Streek were transfixed, looking at the rippling, pulsing light of thousands of nearby stars.

Makita piloted the ship right toward them.

"Wow!, we're really going into it, aren't we? Does she know what she's doing?" said Ben.

"Always. Don't worry, we've been through here plenty of times."

The ship flew into the Globular Cluster and soon the bright light completely filled the view screen, all around them.

"Want to see something cool?" said Dr. Arnott. He tapped at the console and the light of the view screen dimmed, until there were hundreds of red and yellow balls filling up the screen. They were all different sizes and each one flared and rippled, it was quite hypnotic.

"Wow! that's beautiful!" said Streek.

"The stars you're looking at are super ancient." said Dr. Arnott. "...They were around long before the Earth started to form. To them our life-spans are insignificant. The rise and fall of humanity is but a brief flash to them, and they'll keep shining, sending their light out into the universe, long after we're gone."

Ben and Streek sat staring at the stars for a while, until Dr. Arnott pointed something out. "There's our destination."

As they got closer they could see that it was a glowing, roughly spherical shape. It slowly got larger as they approached it. As they got close they could see that the Space Station seemed to be comprised of many different Star ships, large and small, all joined together.

"That's your base?" said Streek.

"Yes, I did say 'makeshift' Space Station, but don't be fooled by its appearance, it houses some of the most advanced technology in the galaxy."

The cockpit was hailed, Dr. Arnott answered it straight away. The face of a fat, silver haired man appeared in a square on the view screen. "Hello, welcome back to Sunnydale Doctor. Glad to see the Avatari is still in one piece. You can park her in the Frigate, bay two"

"Bay two, Roger. Thanks Rolley."

The Avatari approached the Space Station, and passed through the atmospheric shields, and landed in the docking bay of what used to be a Federation Frigate.

"Nice landing, as always Makita" said Dr. Arnott.

"Why thank you Doctor."

Dr. Arnott stood from his chair.

"Welcome to the Resistance girls, come and meet the gang."

"Er...can you please not tell them that we used to be men." said Streek. "...It's kinda embarrassing."

"Technically, you never used to be a man, you were just created with the mind of one."

"I know that, but still..."

"I won't say anything." said Dr Arnott.

They exited the ship through the ramp in the central room. The short old man, the white plated android and the two large-breasted young women.

The docking bay was a huge open room with one side seemingly open to space but closed off by the invisible atmospheric shield. Bright light flooded in through it.

Streek was half expecting it to be very hot in there, considering where they were in the universe, but it was the same cool temperature it was in all Ships and Space Stations.

There were a couple of other mid-sized Star Ships docked there. Dr Arnott turned to his android, "Start recharging her batteries please Makita, and perform the usual maintenance checks."

"You got it honey."

Two people were approaching them, a man and a woman. Streeks' eyes were drawn to the young woman. She had fair skin and was wearing a dark jumpsuit and a jacket, boots and a belt. Her hair was bright red and worn with a pony-tail at the back. She looked to be around the same age as Streek. She was fairly short, but looked to have a nice body with decent sized breasts.

She's hot!,

thought Streek straight away.

The man seemed pretty ordinary. He looked to be the same age, average height and build, he was clean-shaven and had short brown hair. He was wearing a plain white shirt and dark pants.

"Grandpa!" said the girl as she approached Dr. Arnott, and bent down and gave him an affectionate hug.

"Mia, dear, it's so good to see you again." said Dr. Arnott.

"Hey Doc, how are you doin?" said the man.

"Well, thank you Zac. I feel I'm closer to recovering the Cloning machine than I've ever been."

"You and your quest for the holy grail. Are you sure you haven't just been out there picking up young women?, you old player!" said Zac, looking toward Ben and Streek.

Mia looked up at them too, "Who are they?".

"Mia, Zac, I'd like you to meet Bernadette Anders and Lisa McKenzie."

"Hi." said Ben.

"Call me Streek."

"Hey there." said Zac, flashing them a smile.

"Who are they?" asked Mia again. She coolly looked Ben and Streek over, like she was sizing them up. Streek looked into her eyes, they were beautiful, a deep green that seemed to portray intelligence and confidence. She could tell that this girl was tough. Streek was smitten.

"They're clones like me!" said Dr. Arnott.

"Really?" said Mia as she looked them over again. "...With the freaky healing powers and everything?"

"Nano-mechanical Bio-Regeneration, yes. They were created by the Xenoform Cloning Pod only four days ago, they're going to help me find it."

"Have you checked they weren't planted by the Feds?"

"Yes, of coarse. they both took a DBS, no problems there."

"Well then, welcome to the Resistance, ladies. Fight the Future!" Mia said to Ben and Streek.

"Thanks" said Streek, smiling at her, Mia didn't return the smile.

"The Pirate Factions are up to something." said Mia.

"Pirates are always up to something." replied Dr. Arnott.

"I mean something big, and it has to do with Alien Tech."

"Do you have anything concrete?"

"Not yet. We were on Rohme last week and a drunk Pirate Captain tried to rape me. I beat the shit out of him, of coarse, and we took him prisoner. Big stinkin' neanderthal who calls himself Captain Naeme."

"Captain Naeme?!" said Streek, she and Ben both shuddered as horrible memories came back to them.

"Yeah, weird huh? We brought him back here and gave him a DBS, you won't believe some of the sick fuckin' shit he's done."

Oh we believe it!.

"...We didn't get much from him though, he mustn't be in the loop. His girlfriend lead a mutiny against him and took his ship. Now I reckon we should throw him out an airlock, we'd be doing the galaxy a favour."

"Good idea!" said Streek.