Two Days after Insight Protocol - Shutdown. Mid Morning, South Eastern Australia.
“Come on in Jim, get your mind off it!” Jeannie yelled at him from thigh deep in the turquoise waters of Jervis Bay. Jim Ploughwright looked up from the jigsaw puzzle of notes he’d made in the fine white sand, the seemingly most important marked by driftwood, a cuttlefish bone or pieces of seaweed.
The white sand squeaked and squealed under his feet as he turned and laughed at her. They had the small beach around the point from Vincentia nearly to themselves being a work day and mid morning. There were a couple of folks picniking at the other end of the curve of white sand bookended by the usual rock shelf. She pulled out her right breast from its bikini cup and tweaked the nipple at him. “Come and get me big boy,” she taunted, giggling.
Jim Ploughwright dropped his towel onto the pristine white sand next to his ‘notes’, then his phone and keys and covered them with his hat. He turned back to the water and pounded his chest, Gorilla style as he did a Tarzan yell. Jeannie giggled again, turned and dove into the water. Jim could see her form move effortlessly and he waited for her to surface and look back for him. The moment she did, he ran as hard as he could into the small waves throwing themselves childlike onto the beach and making as much splash as he possibly could.
Jeannie screamed with pleasure and dove back under water and came up swimming freestyle as fast as she could. She breathed every second stroke alternating her head to the right and then the left side. Jim was a very strong swimmer and always caught her in a sprint but she could nearly match him long distance. He preferred cycling and bushwalking to long distance swimming as his main off duty keep fit regime.
Jim paced himself and caught her easily then matched her easy rhythm and swam beside her for a while as they worked their way out past the south point. The surface of the Bay was perfectly still this morning and it glistened like stars in a turquoise sky. Jim reveled in the flow of the water over his skin and the gentle burn in his muscles from not having exercised like this for a few weeks now.
They came up on the Swimmers Resting pontoon and hung off the ladder laughing at each other. He leant in and kissed Jeannie and she smiled at him through the kiss. “Miss meh, did ya?, Huh? Huh?” she said using the dialect she reserved for friends and family. Jim watched droplets of seawater trickle down the soft chocolate of her cheeks and neck and he reached for her again. Jeannie gave him a wicked grin and climbed up onto the pontoon, then dropped to the timber deck splaying her arms and legs. Jim followed her and smiled adoringly as he wiped the water from his hairy arms and legs then lay down at right angles to her and rested his head on her abdomen. She dropped her left hand down and played softly with his hair, and Jim felt himself relax and drift off.
“So only two days and your back to HQ. Are you sure you can’t wangle some more?” she asked tentatively. “Mmm uhuh,” he replied just barely audible as his head rode the soft rise and fall of her belly breathing.
“Yeah, nah!” and he roused himself and sat up. “Gotta meet the boys at the Spaceport!” He stretched and gazed longingly across the Bay to his favourite snorkeling spots. “The advance teams leave tomorrow via the morning Skylon to Riyadh. I’ve then gotta go back to Canberra to supervise the ASLAV loading with Dozer!”
“I don’t understand why Dozy can’t do it himself, him plenty deadly fellah,” she added breaking into dialect.”
Jim chuckled in that soft way he had when she was having a go at one of her mob. “… and because he’s one of your distant cousins my luv, is why he always defers to me. Deadly or not, I’m his senior officer and his elder, so double responsibility!”
Jeannie sat up next to him and leant her head against his shoulder. “… and promise me your not going?” Jim chuckled again, “Dozer’s the man now, Barden wont let me go much farther away from HQ than here.” Jeannie smiled and put her left arm around his waist and snuggled in possessively. “… and then here with you only because he’s on my wrist,” and Jim held up the VidCom link watch he now wore 24 hours a day.
“Getta deadly price for that with mah Cuz!” Jeannie added as she stood up and watched a pair of Sooty Oyster Catchers chase each other around the nearest rock platform as the tide reached it’s lowest level for the day. “Yeah, sure reckon he’d love the feds comin’ down on ‘im for possession of stolen military tech!”
Jeannie pushed him playfully and dove over the side of the pontoon. She was Wodi wodi clan and though her country was north of here she had cousins and relo’s of all sorts all the way down to Port Eden in Yuin country.
Jim gave her a few minutes head start and dove in after her. He quickly caught up but stayed behind her imagining he could taste her in the water. He made himself remember every feeling and sensation he experienced as they came into the shallows and knelt together in the shallow waves and their soft back wash.
She was his sanity, his sanctuary and the reason he was still alive. He loved her so much he ached with the intensity at times. He had struggled at first with all the family and clan responsibilities of marrying an intelligent well connected Indigenous woman but he had been repaid for his effort over and over again by support and love from Elders and Aunties and Uncles that seemed to appear form nowhere when he needed them the most.
Like old Fred who’d been the first to take him out country and teach him how to listen to the land. Fred was a Feral Animal Control Ranger and probably the best bushman Jim had ever met, even if his deadly sense of humour had scarred the shit out of him at times. Fred had the habit of picking up snakes and throwing them to you to say hello to. Jim was certain it was a test of some sort until Fred had laughed at him saying no he just loved watching white blokes shit ‘emselves!
Fred had taught him which snakes you could play with because their fangs were in the back of their mouth and which ones you spoke real polite to! Jim had learned to use that ability in combat and knowing which contact was deadly and which one was relatively safe became something he was renowned for!
Jim walked over to his towel and picked up his gear. He looked down at his sand diagrams and felt old Fred’s words rise up out of memory. The Djinn Lightning was definitely a poisonous snake and an Incarna phenomena. Jim looked at the sand notes on the Bankers, Sex Slavers and the Drug Lord interventions. He had categorised them into three groups with the other two not necessarily of Incarna origin. To Jim there were three species of snake here, all deadly but not related, but still, somehow all were taking advantage of world events!