Date Point 10y7m AV
The Alien Quarter, Folctha, Cimbrean, The Far Reaches
Ava Rìos
Human access to the alien quarter was strictly controlled: Ava didn’t get in at all without proving she was up-to-date on her Frontline treatments, declaring her reason for visiting, logging her itinerary, passing through a decontamination biofilter force-field, and donning a tracker that reported her position to CCS and timed her stay, up to the maximum duration of four hours.
Fortunately, her press credentials – and, frankly, her name – helped her with the declaration and itinerary part. Gabriel would have been furious if the CCS checkpoint officers had explicitly shown favoritism to their boss’ daughter, and he’d have been disappointed in Ava had she exploited it, but they were allowed to be a model of manners and polite helpfulness. Her trip through the checkpoint was uneventful, even if the biofilter did make her teeth feel funny and made her ear piercings tingle.
Once through, and with the tracker on its lanyard politely ticking away her precious two hundred and forty minutes, the first step was getting some pictures. She unholstered her camera and ran a practiced eye over the architecture, looking for interesting angles, framing, lighting, or places where she could achieve something interesting with depth of field.
There had been some civil complaints when the Quarter had been walled off. People had made alarmed noises about ghettoization and even apartheid, but the harsh reality of biology had made a physical barrier delineating where in here ended and out there began not only necessary, but inevitable.
On the outside, the human side, every effort had been made to hide it or, where that wasn’t possible, to ensure that it wasn’t an ugly wall. Buildings butted up against it, planters and trees obscured it, and in the places where the pedestrian precincts of the town center exposed it, it had been given over to artwork. One section was even the back wall of a public stage.
The ETs made no such attempt to sweep the wall under the rug. It was there, it was stark, and it was solid, as if they quite sensibly wanted a constant reminder that the well-meaning people on the outside of that wall could accidentally kill them all.
Ava mentally scribbled a note to use that thought in whatever article her visit produced.
Everyone knew where the checkpoint and sole access to the Quarter was: It fronted onto Riverside Park a stone’s throw from the Multi-Faith Center. The idea was to facilitate human/ET mingling, and it largely worked. The black-and-white-robed furry Brothers of Clan Starmind ambling back and forth between the Quarter and the Center, often deep in conversation with a human counterpart from Folctha’s small Sōtō monastery, were such a familiar sight in that part of the park that they’d long since ceased to be a joke and were now just part of Folctha’s culture.
Ava had never told anybody that Father Gyotin had only discovered Zen Buddhism thanks to her. She hadn’t expected it to go so far – the common knowledge had been that ETs tended to view human religions with a kind of bewildered incomprehension. When she’d pointed Gyotin towards the shelf containing the Buddhist literature, she’d never imagined that six years later there would be Gaoian monks earnestly sweeping the gravel paths.
The area inside the gate was an extension of the park, but with alien architecture and alien plants, carefully imported and protected from the native life by the forcefield roof that capped the whole wall. That forcefield was one of Folctha’s major municipal power sources, and doubled as a biofilter and a way of keeping the imported birds and bats from getting in. Under its aegis, alien insects flitted between alien flowers, and were snacked on as the foundation of a small but balanced alien food chain.
One of a pair of Vzk’tk croaked something at her as they daintily passed, and she hastily turned on the translator built into her tracker.
“I’m sorry?” she asked.
“I said ’good afternoon’.” the Vzk’tk replied.
“Oh! Well, good afternoon to you too.”
The slender blue alien nodded his head slowly and carried on his way alongside his partner. Ava grabbed a snapshot of them going, framing their gracile silhouettes against the pale grey solidity of the wall.
She spent the first of her allotment of safe hours ambling around the Quarter, taking it in and recording what she saw, swapping lenses often, playing with filters, lighting and framing. She paid special attention to the banners and fabrics that hung from the buildings, and to the buildings themselves.
Ava had read up on architecture to help her with her photography, and decided that the ET edifices lived somewhere in the general neighborhood of Expressionism, minus the concrete Cold War obduracy and with a subtle stretching quality which reflected the fact that several alien species were twice as tall as a human, or even more. The buildings were all high-sided, curved and slender, and adorned with hanging banners. Brightly colored canopies were strung between them so that they sheltered the streets from the nightly rains and made them glow with inherited colour when the sunlight diffused through.
The newly-arrived Gaoian females clearly had their own ideas about how their commune was going to look, though. Half-built though it was, it already stood out simply by being wood-framed, though its horseshoe shape and lines complimented rather than clashed with the general form of the buildings around it. Ava took a liking to it immediately – it was a distinctive landmark in a district where for the most part the best way to tell streets apart was the hue of the canopy. Pretty though the Alien Quarter’s streets were, they were a bit repetitive for her tastes.
A pair of cubs rampaged past her as she got close, followed by a resigned-looking Mother who was carrying far too many bags and barking at them to stand upright. “You’re not four-pawed animals!” she called. “Stand up straight!”
She met Ava’s amused eye, flicked both her ears in a gesture of maternal frustration that effortlessly ignored the species barrier and made Ava giggle, and carried on about whatever errand she was pursuing.
“I’m sorry, ma’am?” Ava called. The Mother turned. “I’m looking for a Sister Myun?”
“You’ll find her easily,” the Gaoian replied. “She’s the brown-furred pregnant one.”
“Thank you.”
Myun was indeed very easy to find. She was lying under the shade of an imported tree, watching a video on the holographic HUD that was projected in front of her eyes by the device clipped to her ear, and even though Ava was no expert on Gaori body language, she looked bored out of her mind.
She perked up on realising she had company, and even more so when she realised that she had human company.
“Oh! Hello!”
Ava smiled – the translator had given Myun a youthful alto voice that neatly matched what she could hear of her actual speech. “Hi!” she introduced herself, offering a hand. Myun shook it with the confident air of an ET who was actually fairly familiar with humans. “I’m Ava.”
“Myun.”
“Oh good, you’re exactly who I was looking for!”
Myun rolled onto four-paws and stood up, dusting off her fur. “I am?”
Ava ‘mm-hmm’ed , and produced her press ID. “I’m with ExtraSolar News Network. I was hoping I could talk to you, maybe get your thoughts on some things?”
“The news? I’m not really very important…”
“That’s okay, I don’t interview really important people.”
Myun’s ears turned to the absolutely adorable angle of a Gaoian trying to suss out human weirdness, and Ava decided an elaboration was in order.
“I’m doing what’s called an ’interest piece’,” she explained. “I want to hear your story, help our readers see into your life a little and maybe gain some perspective and understand the world a little better.”
“That sounds… good?” Myun hazarded. “But why me?”
“Oh! My dad’s the chief of colonial security. I was talking with him this morning and he mentioned that you’ve already taken a motion to the Thing about making fusion swords legal on a security license?”
“That’s right.”
Ava beamed encouragingly. “Well, I thought ’that sounds like a really interesting story’ so I came to see if you’d be okay with talking to me for a bit.”
“…Okay!” Myun decided. “Can we walk and talk? I’ve been sitting around for too long and I find that walking around settles my cub…” she patted her belly, fondly.
“Sure! But if it’s okay, could I just get you to sign this, quickly?” Ava dug in her bag, grabbed her tablet and called up the Gaori version of ESNN’s release form. Myun peered at it.
“Consent form…” she read.
“Just to say that you’re okay with me recording our conversation and maybe editing it a bit for our magazine. We’re keen on ethical journalism at ESNN so you’ll get a chance to look at it before we put it up for the public, and if there’s anything you don’t like the editor can work with you. Okay?”
Myun duck-nodded as she read, then signed the form by writing her name.
“Thanks.” Ava put the tablet away, and deftly made sure her smartwatch was recording as they began a slow, ambling walk around the commune grounds. “So, congratulations on the cub. Are you getting close?”
“Any day now. He’s wriggling away in there,” Myun chittered and rubbed her belly again. “This is my first, and he should be a strong one, too.”
“And you’re… how old?”
“I’m eighteen Gaoian years old,” Myun revealed. “In human years, I think that’s… about fifteen.”
“By human standards, that’s a very young age to have a child…” Ava told her. “In fact that’s below Folctha’s legal age of consent.”
“By Gaoian standards, it’s about average. We grow up more quickly.”
“Are you planning to have more?”
Myun imitated a human shake of her head, then remembered she was speaking to a microphone. “Eventually, in a few years. I want to study humans and human culture first.”
“Is that why you came to Folctha?”
“Oh yes!” Myun duck-nodded enthusiastically. “When I was offered the chance I just knew I had to pounce. Ever since I was a cub I’ve been a… you have a word, fangirl?”
The English word sounded a little mangled coming from a Gaori mouth in a strong accent, but Ava had to resist the urge to laugh. “Why is that?” she asked.
The answer she got was much longer, and much more surprising, than she could ever have predicted.
Date Point 10y7m AV
The Box, Omaha, Nebraska, USA, Earth
Julian Etsicitty
“Hey, Etsicitty.”
Allison’s flirtatious mood hadn’t abated through the day. In fact it had only improved after her quiet conspiracy session with Xiù earlier in the evening.
Using his surname was a sure sign that she had something in mind for him, which was always an exciting prospect.
“Yes ma’am?”
“Make the nest up for us, willya?”
Julian wilted a little. The nest was comforting, loving and happy, but it was only for sleeping in. “Yes ma’am.” He obeyed, resigning himself to another restless night.
Xiù grinned at him, taking her hair out of the bun she’d been wearing all day. “Good boy.”
Hope immediately rekindled itself, even stronger than before. Xiù joining in? That was new… and a thrilling thought.
He hurried to get the blankets, sheets and pillows down and arranged. The girls beamed at each other.
“Very efficient.”
“Mm. He’s a good boy, isn’t he?”
“…Too good. He wants something. Don’t you Etsicitty?”
Hearing Xiù use his surname like that dispelled any doubt. He was in for a treat tonight.
“…Yes ma’am.” He said, truthfully.
Allison pushed gently on his chest. “Sit down.” She ordered. Julian obeyed. The light pressure of her hand told him she meant for him to sit in the nest.
“Sit on your hands.” She instructed. Julian swallowed, feeling his pulse really start to get up, and did as he was told. “…And don’t you dare move.” Allison added.
She kissed him lightly on the cheek and then whispered in his ear. “…enjoy the show.”
That done, she whipped away from him. She and Xiù met with a quick kiss and a mutual smile, and they started to dance together, hands on each other’s waists, hips swaying. It was a little awkward on Xiù’s part, but while she may have been lacking in practice, she didn’t seem to be lacking in willing.
Julian gritted his teeth and fidgeted on his hands – already he was beginning to feel the need to adjust his pants and create some extra freedom down there – but Allison had been explicit: No moving.
Allison pulled her t-shirt off and tossed it at him, leaving it draped over his shoulder. Blushing furiously but clearly enjoying herself, Xiù wiggled delightfully out of her sweatpants, which were thrown into Julian’s lap. She posed for him with a hand on her cocked hip while Allison – who after all had more erotic experience – made an even more aesthetically pleasing show of bending over and shedding her own sweats, which she then kicked into his lap
The piéce de resistance was when Allison took hold of Xiù’s shirt and slooowly peeled it off her. Julian couldn’t tell if Xiù’s laughter was from embarrassment or being tickled, but it made that toned tummy of hers undulate beautifully.
Allison, cruelly, then put the shirt over his head so that he couldn’t see a thing, knotting it at the back to keep it in place.
Leaving him sitting there, covered in their clothes was one thing, but when he heard – and, indistinctly through the fabric, could almost see – them strip out of their underwear and vanish giggling into the shower together…Well, that was just downright cruel.
The restrictions affecting his own pants were getting decidedly painful at this point, and his predicament wasn’t helped by the fact that Xiù’s shirt smelled beautiful…
His imagination ran riot. They probably weren’t in the shower for long, but it felt like a minor eternity, especially because he knew how small that shower was, and how close-pressed two people would be if they tried to use it at once… In the dark and quiet with the tantalizing perfume of clean female perspiration filling his world, his mental cinema played a highlight reel of skin and soap.
God the shirt smelled amazing…
When the door opened and they emerged, he faced the worst challenge so far. He knew what they both looked like fresh out of the shower of course, but by now he was so worked up that his desire to rip off the blindfold and look was almost more powerful than his desire to see what they would do next.
“Oh, he’s been a good boy…” Xiù’s voice. Deeper than usual, a little huskier, with a waver of what could only be nerves.
Allison laughed that laugh – the low wicked one that promised good things for his immediate future. “He has…” she agreed. “Stand up, Etsicitty.”
Heart pounding and mouth dry, Julian obeyed. He gasped as somebody’s fingertips trailed down his chest and squeezed him, just for a second, through his pants. The contact lasted only a second, before a warm towel was placed gently in his hands.
“No touching. Just the towel.” Xiù warned.
“We’re soaking wet.” Allison added.
Shaking with pent-up arousal, Julian gulped and obliged. He spread the towel wide and, when one of the girls stepped into it, he dutifully but carefully scrubbed her dry. The idea, he knew, was that he shouldn’t know who he was touching, but he could tell – her strong curves and nervous breathing gave her away. Blindfolded and through a towel though it might be, this was the first time Xiù had invited him to enjoy her, an invitation he accepted gently and respectfully.
When he was given a second dry towel and guided onto the other body, he knew he’d been right. Allison was a different shape, longer and leaner, and she shimmied and moved against the towel more confidently, allowing him to linger on her butt and breasts, demanding him to be more enthusiastic.
Too soon, the towel was taken away. “No more touching.” Allison ordered. “Hold. Still.”
Julian swallowed and did as he was told, which was a challenge when he distinctly felt one pair of hands on his hips pull his pants down, and another pull his shirt up from behind – he lifted his arms to help her strip him. That latter pair, judging from the angle, belonged to Xiù, who hugged him around his waist and kissed his spine while Allison removed his boxer briefs. Her skin felt warm, soft, fragrant and damp against his.
“Have fun,” she whispered.
Allison took his hand and led him to the shower. He stumbled along behind her, hard as a hammer-handle, and took a last breath of the shirt as he felt her undo it. It made sense not to get it wet in the shower, but he would have liked to enjoy that scent just a little longer…
The moment his head was free, Allison pushed him into the shower and followed him in.
Julian had been right: Two people in the shower were inevitably pressed right up against one another. Allison slithered past him with a wicked smile, turned the water on, then squeezed some soap into her palm.
When she pressed that palm to his chest, the cold soap sent a thrill through him. A thrill that she sustained by slowly smearing it down his chest, down his belly…
He shut his eyes and wondered whether she’d done something similar to Xiù. He doubted it… but it was a pleasant mental image.
A slippery hand wrapped around his cock, and Allison nibbled hungrily on his neck before whispering in his ear.
“Let’s get you nice and clean…”
Xiù Chang
Julian and Allison were in the shower for a long time, which gave Xiù some welcome mental space first to dry her hair, then to meditate, then to lie on her back and gaze thoughtfully at the ceiling.
What they’d done had been… scary. Thrilling, fun, erotic and liberating… but scary. If it hadn’t been her idea, she might have backed out earlier than she did.
Instead, she was proud of herself. Blindfolding Julian had completed the illusion of his being under their thumb, which had made the whole situation feel more… controlled. The lazy wolf in him that made her anxious hadn’t been so visible any more.
Being given a little alone time had been an important part of the plan. With that time, she’d been able to meditate and really claim the headspace of enjoying those first steps, and to congratulate herself on making what felt like serious progress. The circling vulture of her anxiety wasn’t gone – it would never be gone – but a little mental territory had been retaken from it, which was the most difficult first step.
That done, she lay back and basked. There was one last part of the plan still to come, but she was ready, and even looking forward to it.
The shower door finally slid open and her two lovers emerged hand-in-hand in a billow of water vapor, both looking substantially more relaxed than they had in some days.
Julian did a double-take worthy of a silent black-and-white comedy film when Xiù stood up, still nude, and took the last clean towel off the rack so that she could dry him, just as he’d done for them. Allison gave her an encouraging smile from behind him as she did so.
“Better?” She asked.
“Amazing.” Julian closed his eyes – apparently he enjoyed the feeling of being toweled down. “Are you okay?”
She rewarded his concern with a tender kiss, then towel-tousled his hair. “I had fun!”
“Less nervous now?”
Xiù nodded, but she also swallowed. “Bear with me?”
He hugged her close. “Of course.”
Allison finished towelling herself off and scrubbed her hair out, leaving it lying wild. “That was fucking hot, though,” she observed. “You wouldn’t know it was Xiù’s idea, would you?”
“Don’t tease her, Al.” Julian smiled, as Xiù’s trademark blush reasserted itself.
Allison gathered the towels and put them in the laundry. “Ah, alright, no teasing.” She glanced over her shoulder as she restocked the dry towels. “For tonight.”
“I think that’s the most we can ask for.” Julian said to Xiù.
She giggled. “Very fair. Come on you two. I wanna be in the middle tonight.”
Allison and Julian looked at each other, laughed and nodded.
“Yes ma’am.” they chorused.