Quaranteam: Blae's Seven

An adjacent story in the Quaranteam universe.

Thanks go to CorruptingPower for letting me play in this universe, and a big shout out to the other spin-off authors, who are now getting rather numerous, for their help and encouragement.

Ruairi Blake

is the cousin of Aisling Blake (partner of Andy Rook) and Dermot Blake her brother, characters in CorruptingPower's original Quaranteam stories.

Naimh O'Sullivan

is the older sister of Siobhan O'Sullivan from my own Quaranteam: Team Tim story and will be joining Ruairi in a later chapter.

Quaranteam: Blake's Seven

Chapter 3a --

Emma

Chloe

Jumping the queue.

Wednesday, 26th August 2020

Ciara was waking up lying on her back, awash with emotions which settled out to an overall feeling of hope, something she'd not felt for a long time. But having bonded with Ruairi the previous day, she could now feel a future that had, until that moment, been hidden from her even after she'd become aware of the vaccine. She could also feel the warm bodies of both Rebecca and Ruairi pressed against her own and without really thinking about it, she knew that Ruairi was on her left and Rebecca to her right. The feeling was alien to her, but at the same time appropriate and comforting.

As she became more aware, Ciara could also feel a pressing need to visit the bathroom. Rolling to her right and opening her eyes, she found herself staring into Rebecca's.

"Morning, Beautiful, how are you feeling?" Rebecca enquired.

"Like there's actually a future," Ciara replied. "But can we discuss this after I pee?"

Rebecca rolled to the side of the bed and stood up to allow Ciara to get up. Once Ciara was standing, Rebecca wrapped her arms around her friend, giving her a long hug. "Feck, you feel good," she stated.

"Toilet?" Ciara suggested.

Taking hold of Ciara's hand, Rebecca led her through into the living area and then to the bathroom, both of them completely naked.

Once they were in the bathroom, Rebecca closed the door behind them. Ciara stood, looking at her friend. "A little privacy would be nice here," she suggested.

"Totally overrated," Rebecca replied. "I've watched Ruairi fuck you and cleaned you up after you passed out, and that's on top of what we've previously done together. If you don't sit and pee, then I'll go first."

Ciara quickly sat and gave a big sigh as she relaxed and reduced the pressure in her bladder.

"It feels so good, doesn't it," Rebecca crooned.

"What, having a fecking pee?" Ciara responded.

"That too. But no, I'm talking about Ruairi thrusting inside you, feeling him cum."

"I've only experienced it the once and blacked out straight after, so haven't got a large body of experience," Ciara observed, before adding, "but it did feel good."

Ciara finished peeing and stood up but before she could flush, Rebecca took her place and just carried on talking. "You'll get a lot more times with him, we'll see to that." Turning to look towards where the bedroom was, Rebecca continued "Ruairi's awake now, I can feel it," before standing and flushing the loo.

Ciara closed her eyes and concentrated. Opening her eyes, she looked unhappy. "How do you know? I can't feel anything."

"I felt a disturbance in the force," Rebecca stated, waggling her fingers in front of her.

The two women proceeded to wash their hands before brushing their teeth, Ciara using her electric toothbrush. Once their teeth had been brushed and mouths rinsed, Rebecca hugged her taller friend, whispering "We're together forever," before locking lips and initiating a kiss that could strip wallpaper whilst pushing her naked body against her friend's.

Finally breaking apart, they made their way back to the bedroom holding hands, where Ruairi was reclining, having just woken up.

"You know that Rebecca can sense you, don't you?" Ciara enquired, standing naked before Ruairi with Rebecca at her side, hips touching, one arm around each other.

"Yeah, she said something to that effect after she woke up. I can't even imagine what that feels like in here, though," Ruairi replied, tapping his head with a finger.

"Oh, I can sense you strongly at this distance," Rebecca stated, as she started to run her hands up and down Ciara's body. "I wonder if it's a sense that can be developed?"

"What do you mean?" Ruairi enquired.

"Well, sort of exercise the sense, help it to become stronger," Rebecca explained.

"Is that even a thing?" Ruairi asked, before turning to Ciara. "Has anyone else reported a similar effect?"

"Not that I know of, but I'll make an enquiry," Ciara stated. Almost to herself, she added, "I wonder why Rebecca has developed the ability?" Shaking her head, she looked up at Ruairi. "We're keeping you from getting to the bathroom and I need to exercise my jaws as I've missed at least one meal while I was out and I'm fecking starving." Turning to look at Rebecca, she added, "Let's get ourselves dressed and see what there is for breakfast."

"Oh OK," Rebecca responded, sounding a little despondent. Perking up a little, she added, "Ruairi and I made an inventory of the available food here and roughly planned out the menus until we move to Emma's. I think that we planned for eggs, bacon and black pudding today, with plenty of toast and brown sauce."

By now, Ciara was nearly dressed. Having dug into her holdall, she was wearing underwear and a pair of shorts and was just dragging an old and baggy tee shirt over her head. Conversely, Rebecca was still dressed as she had been up until that point, which is to say that she wasn't wearing a stitch. As Ruairi passed her on his way to the bathroom already wearing a pair of loungewear shorts, he kissed her on her cheek. Rebecca came out of her reverie and quickly found some suitable clothing from her pink holdall.

= = = = = = =

Ruairi could smell the food before he'd made it as far as the kitchen. Watching them before they noticed him, he was immediately aware of how familiar they were with each other, something he hoped he would also feel in time.

Ciara waved him to sit at the kitchen table and quickly presented him with a mug of coffee, while Rebecca brought him a plate of the cooked breakfast. Ruairi thought that this was something he could definitely get used to, but worried for his waistline.

He was soon joined at the table by both Rebecca and Ciara, each with their own hot drink and cooked breakfast. Ruairi made a mental note that Ciara was drinking tea.

Ruairi was lost in his thoughts about how comfortable it felt to be sitting having breakfast with these two beautiful women, when Ciara's phone rang. Standing, she pulled it from the pocket of her shorts, before quickly moving away from the table to answer the call.

Ciara returned a few minutes later looking upset. "Feck, I've got to go into work," she exclaimed. "I've just been informed that we've had two adverse reactions this morning already and the doctor who should be on-call for emergencies today needs to stay at home to look after her son as her husband went into a regen yesterday after bonding their new partner and they're both still passed out."

Sitting, Ciara quickly finished her breakfast before running into the bedroom, emerging soon after having changed her attire to something more suitable.

"Go, Kee," Rebecca urged Ciara, getting up to hug her friend. "We'll start getting packed up for our move tomorrow."

"Pack like you would for a two-week holiday, Becca," Ciara suggested. "Leave everything you don't need here. I don't think we'll be spending too long at Emma's." Moving to the front door, Ciara put on a facemask before leaving.

"Well that's a bummer," Rebecca stated. "I was really looking forward to the three of us fooling around together."

"Then we'll just need to get everything packed up and ready to go as quickly as we can to leave plenty of time when Ciara gets back," Ruari advised.

Which is what they did. Not wishing to leave any dirty laundry, they loaded the washing machine and set it going after reading all the labels and selecting a suitable programme. They then separately sorted through their things, choosing what they were going to take with them and packing it into suitable suitcases and holdalls. That doesn't mean that they didn't have sex, although they avoided the bedroom to prevent the bedding needing to be changed. Ruari again took Rebecca up against the large window, but this time they were both naked and it was in daylight. One elderly man walking his dog saw more than he bargained for when he glanced up, receiving a smile and a friendly wave from Rebecca.

= = = = = = =

It was just after two o'clock when Ciara finally returned, knocking on the door as she didn't have a key. Rebecca was quickly up and was soon holding Ciara, who looked ready to explode.

"What an absolute clusterfuck," she exclaimed.

"Come and sit down," Ruairi suggested, as he started to put the coffee machine on. "Have you eaten?"

"Not since I left," Ciara replied. "I didn't have time to think, let alone eat. And as soon as it was all sorted, I just wanted to get back here."

"So coffee OK, or do you want a cup of tea?"

"Coffee's fine," Ciara responded. "I do enjoy a cup of tea with my breakfast, though."

"Do you need to unload?" Rebecca enquired, sitting down next to Ciara on the two-seat sofa and holding her hand.

"I know I shouldn't, but if I don't tell someone, I'm going to go mad," Ciara exclaimed.

"That doesn't sound good," Ruairi stated, putting a cup of coffee on the table for each of them. "I'll make us lunch," he added, returning to the kitchen.

"It was two young women, neither of them more than nineteen or twenty," Ciara began. "They're friends, one the daughter of a government minister and the other the daughter of a businessman. Their fathers have been friends since they were boys, so the girls, sorry, young women, have grown up together. God, they looked so young."

Ciara stopped talking for a few seconds to collect her thoughts and take a sip of her coffee before putting the mug down again. "Anyway, when I arrived, they'd locked themselves in the lavatory. Thoughtfully, they used the gents as that left the ladies free for all the other women. It took a while, but eventually I managed to coax them out and took them to a small weights room, part of the fitness centre that we're not currently using.

"It turns out, they didn't really understand why they were there, although they'd already been vaccinated by that point, having sat through the presentations too scared to ask questions. They started panicking when one of the nurses had asked them about the men they were to be paired with, which in each case was the other's father. This was a complete shock to both of them, as all they'd been told before they arrived, brought by their fathers, was that they were getting a vaccine to protect them without any further information. It turned out that everything had been arranged by their fathers, who had even completed their Oracle questionnaires for them. Now, if someone had bothered to check, they'd have seen that the AI system had flagged both of their profiles as being suspect, but unfortunately no one did."

At this point, Ruairi returned with sandwiches for each of them. "So, their fathers were doing a daughter swap without informing them?" he enquired.

"Yeah, basically," Ciara confirmed. "Totally fucked up, I know."

"The poor girls," Rebecca exclaimed. "To think that their fathers think so little of them that they could trade them like Pokémon cards."

"Anyway," Ciara continued, keen to get everything out. "I asked them about boyfriends. They both had one, although I got that one was more serious than the other. I set Gillian the task of finding out about the boyfriends while we deleted the young women's Oracle profiles and got them to actually complete them for themselves. I sat in with them and answered their questions on the different fetishes to save them the time and embarrassment of looking things up."

Seeing that her friend was struggling a bit, Rebecca moved to give her a hug. Ciara turned to her and patted her hand.

"Well, Gillian had her answers and they weren't all good. The serious boyfriend, if I can call him that, was still alive and we sent one of our security team to fetch him, but the other had recently died. This was slightly less than the devastating news that we thought it would be for the young woman concerned, but she was still very upset."

"Wow!" Rebecca exclaimed.

"By now, all the other women had been dispatched to their respective destinations and it wasn't long before the young man was brought in looking highly confused. When the situation was explained to him, though, he willingly took the Oracle questionnaire. Both young women had settled down by this point and it was obvious that their panic was in response to the situation, not the vaccine and, given the amount of time that had passed since they'd been vaccinated, we could release him and his girlfriend straight away. We asked the other if she wanted to go with them, but she declined. Anyway, a different security team member escorted the couple out through the back door, taking them to his small one-bedroom flat which isn't far from here. We'll need to arrange more partners for him and he'll also need to move soon. But that, as they say, can wait for another day."

Ciara paused to take a bite or three from her sandwich, before continuing her story. "Gillian and another member of the security team really enjoyed going out and arresting the two fathers, who were sat outside in their cars, bringing them back into the gym in handcuffs. The pair of them were swearing and threatening all sorts of things, until Gillian pointed out that everything they said was being recorded by her bodycam.

"Given that one of them was the government health minister who nominally has overall executive responsibility for the current rollout of the vaccine, I had the unenviable task of phoning Helen McEntee, the new Taoiseach, and explaining the situation to her when I was finally put through. I'd already met her, of course, when she came for her own vaccination. Her response was swift. The minister has been stripped of all his responsibilities and they've both had their Oracle profiles frozen and will receive no new partners until the Taoiseach feels that they've learned their lesson. God, you should have seen their faces when they were given that news!"

"Had they other partners planned, then?" Ruairi enquired.

"Yes, a few," Ciara conceded. "We're currently checking them to see if there's any indication of foul play, given that both men are overweight and in their late forties. We've also initiated a deep dive into all the currently planned pairings to ensure no other foul play and will look at those that have already happened as time allows, although there's currently no way to undo what's been done. It's the best that we can do in the circumstances, along with asking each woman to confirm that they're happy with their prospective partner before vaccinating them going forward."

"What about the young woman whose boyfriend had died," Rebecca asked.

Ciara bit her lip, retrieved her phone from her pocket and sent a quick text. No more than five seconds later, there was a knock at the door. Ruairi was on his feet and moving towards the door before registering the coincidence. Opening the door, he saw a young red-headed woman standing there with Gillian standing two metres behind her with her phone still in her hand, the grin on her face evident even behind her facemask.

Ciara, who had moved at the same time as Ruairi, took the clipboard from the young woman, signed the form with the pen attached to it by a length of string and dropped it onto the step after removing the top sheet. She then ushered the young woman through the door, closing it firmly behind her. The last thing that Ruairi saw was Gillian approaching the door to collect the clipboard, giving him a 'thumbs up' with both hands.

"Kee?" Rebecca said in a questioning voice. "Surely it was meant to be just the seven of us. Blake's Seven, like we discussed."

"Circumstances change," Ciara replied. "Ruairi, Becca, this is Chloe Byrne. She was looking through the profiles offered by the system and pointed at you, Ruairi. You were near the top of her selection. I'm not really sure why, but I mentioned to her that I was with you, which seemed to make her mind up for her."

"Welcome, Chloe," Ruairi offered, his eyes running up and down the young woman. He could see that she was shorter than both Ciara and Rebecca at maybe 1.68 metres (5 foot 6 inches) tall with a slim physique and modestly proportioned chest, currently clad in a pair of stretch jeans and a navy blue hoodie for University College, Dublin. Having scanned her body, Ruairi looked at her youthful face to see her looking back at him, her coppery-red hair, which was obviously in need of cutting, just reaching her shoulders while her green eyes showed amusement. Her delicate cupid's bow mouth was drawn into a smirk, clearly showing that she was fully aware that he'd just been checking her out. "Sorry we're in a bit of a state," Ruairi continued, "but we're moving to another house tomorrow."

"Feck," Ciara exclaimed. "I'd forgotten all about that, what with everything else that's been going on this morning." Her phone was again in her hand and she was busily sending messages on the group chat explaining the situation.

"You've not brought a bag with you?" Rebecca enquired as Ciara fended all of the questions coming her way to a background of all three of their phones pinging.

"I didn't know that I needed to," Chloe explained, looking down at her feet. "I'm not going back home yet to collect anything either, so I'll maybe need to borrow things for a few days until something can be arranged."

"I'm sure we can sort you out," Rebecca offered. "If not, you can just wear one of Ruairi's tee shirts," she added with a laugh, causing Chloe to look up and smile at him, this time without any implied criticism.

"Then I'd better go and pack a few more," Ruairi countered, smiling back at Chloe. Changing the subject, he asked "I'm assuming you've not eaten yet. Can I get you a sandwich or something and maybe a coffee?"

"Please, that would be wonderful," Chloe replied, giving Ruairi an even bigger smile that lit up her whole face.

"Why don't you come with me, then, and select your filling," Ruairi suggested, holding out his hand to her, which she readily accepted.

Leading her into the kitchen, Ruairi asked, "Has Ciara explained what has to happen, now that you've been vaccinated?"

Chloe stopped dead in her tracks, causing Ruairi to stop as well. The next thing he knew, she'd wrapped her arms around him and was hugging him tight. "Yeah, you're going to fuck my brains out and put me to sleep until tomorrow."

"No regrets?" he enquired. "I gather your boyfriend has recently died."

"So many have died," she replied, sadness evident in her voice. "Many of my friends have lost a parent, a few have lost both of them. And some have lost younger siblings, too. Conor was my daddy-approved boyfriend. He wasn't bad, but he wasn't a keeper, and we'd hardly communicated since the pandemic started."

"Did your father have to approve all your boyfriends?"

"Basically, not that I've really had many. Being in government, he didn't want any scandal. I'm not sure he'll recover from what he and my godfather tried to pull today, though."

Ruairi mentally filed the information as they separated and then showed her where everything was kept before putting the coffee machine back on.

In the living area, Ciara and Rebecca were again sitting together on the small two-seat sofa, each now sending messages in the group chat.