This file is a part of Elf Sternberg's Collected Works on ASSTR.  The
complete archive of Elf's work can be found on his website at:

http://www.drizzle.com/~elf

The author can be contacted at:

mailto:elf@drizzle.com

  ----------------------------------------------------------------------

                              Floating Point

Journal Entry 020 / 00113

Seren, Narrin 19, 00113

January 25, 1997

Emily looked up at the imposing, spherical shape of the spacecraft landed
on the ground before her. The entire situation carried with it an air of
unreality, of something that could not have happened and did not happen,
and yet it had happened and it soon would happen to her. She shook her
head violently again to try to shake out the thoughts that threatened
to overwhelm her.

I'm not afraid. She looked around at her students, some like her stilled
with fear, others talking animatedly among themselves. I'm not afraid. Who
am I kidding? I'm terrified.

"I'm looking for Emily Broderbundtee?"

"Broderbundt," Emily said hurriedly, identifying herself to the speaker.
"The 't' hardens the 'd'; it isn't pronounced separately." The figure
descending the ramp was called a Mephit, she recalled. Many of the
Pendorian species had characteristics similar to those of familiar Terran
animals. Mephit meant 'skunk' in Latin, and the Mephit species had
many skunk-like characteristics, including a stubby, pyramidal snout,
long, black fur with a white stripe down the back, and a long, bushy
tail. This one fit the description perfectly. He wore a ship's uniform
of light beige that lacked shoes of any sort, but otherwise covered a
handsome physique.  An insignia plate on his shirt probably identified
his role, but she didn't recognize it.

"I'm very sorry, Miss Broderbundt. In my language, where you have two
syllables the one without any associated vowels is voiced with its
full name, or its full sound when it's a natural nasal." He smiled and
held out his hand, palm up. She had heard that that position meant he
deferred to her. He was telling her he carried nothing about or against
her. "I'm Eriin."

"Sounds like urine," a voice from behind said. She turned around just
long enough to give the speaker, a larger boy given to bullying already,
as withering a glance as she could spare.

Eriin just grinned. "My son was like that. Still is, although he's not
as bad now. Fortunately in my tongue it just means 'a flower.'" She
saw his eyes dart among some of the students as if daring them to say
something about his name or its meaning. "We have a long trip ahead of
us. You're the last of eight, and we've managed to sit all the rest. Your
visit to our ship should be a pleasant one but there will be some rough
spots. If you would please bring your students on board? And let's get
out of this cold!"

She nodded and turned back to the class. Thirty-two fresh faces stared
back at her, waiting. "Eriin here is going to show you to your seats.
Everyone up the ramp, two rows." She sighed as they formed a large mob
and began trudging up the steps. A loud whistle startled her. She turned
to see where it had come from.

Eriin lowered his fingers from his muzzle. "Your teacher said two rows.
You don't get in until you listen to her." He looked at her. "Sorry,
don't mean to undermine your authority."

"It's not as if I have any," Emily replied. "This is one of the more
troublesome classes I've ever had."

"They're just children." He led them up the stairs and into a round
cabin with a central spire. Chairs were arranged facing clockwise around
the circle, four chairs to a row, all the way around. Another class was
already seated in about half the seats.

"As if children are ever 'just' anything." She smiled. "You know where
we're sitting, Eriin."

Eriin held some sort of electronic clipboard in his left hand and
scratched at the back of his head with the right. "My manifest says that
your class consists of fifty-one students. You're missing nineteen? And,
pardon me, but isn't that quite a large number of children for one person
to be handling?"

"Yes, and yes."

"Where are the missing ones?" he asked as he passed his hand over a
control panel. The hatchway closed behind him with a loud clang. Several
of her students jumped. A wave of trepidation rolled through her as she
watched a second door close over the first, to be followed by six large
bolts sinking into the door's frame.

"Their parents kept them at home." She waited for him to ask. He waited
for her to finish. She did. "A couple mentioned the Pendorian reputation
for... " She paused, looking for the delicate phrasing.

Eriin apparently knew already. "Sex."

She nodded. "A few thought their children would be brainwashed by the
whole affair." Some of her students comments on the bus came back to
her and made her laugh. "Maybe one or two thought their children were
going to be replaced with robots."

"We can't do that."

"Do what?"

"Replace people with robots. Well, we can, but it shows up very obviously
under an X-ray." He watched her shiver. "You're going to meet a couple
of our silicon sentients and mixed-realm sentients while you're on board
the Synergy. Try not to prejudge anyone."

One or two of her students had had the foresight to bring plastic straws
and paper. A spitball firefight raged in the cabin. She raised her voice.
"Hey!"

They all stopped and looked up. Eriin looked down at his clipboard again,
consulting the display screen. "Now that you're here, we're going to
get moving. Welcome aboard the shuttlecraft Dragon, of the Pendorian
Interstellar Fleet, such as it is." He seemed to chuckle under his breath,
and Emily found herself liking Eriin. Behind her, other Pendorians entered
the cabin by coming down a ladder leading through the roof of the spire.
As they passed her, she identified them by species name. Felinzi, she
thought, and Tindal. "My name is Eriin, and I'm your guide for the next
four days. I'm guessing that most of you already know where we're going?"

"The Moon!" a few said in loud and disjoint chorus.

"Your moon, to be exact. Pendor already has a moon in its system." He
smiled. "It's going to take six hours to get there, most of which will be
spent right here in this room. So I hope some of you brought stuff to do.
Other than toss spitwads at one another." He looked at two of the older
boys, who gestured back with classic 'Who me?' expressions. "Hey, I did
it too when I was younger. But you guys are not going to make a mess of
this spaceship."

A chime sounded on his clipboard again. "Ea?" he said. Emily recognized
the word for 'Yes.'

Another voice spoke to him in a Pendorian tongue. "Ea, inath." He looked
up. "Everyone in your seats and with your belts fastened. They're
six-point harnesses, so they're a little tricky." He proceeded to
explain the seatbelts, the spacesickness bags, and the emergency
procedures. Emily took a seat he indicated as he spoke and followed
his instructions carefully. Hers was mounted directly next to one wall
and in such a position that she could watch the rest of the class. The
Pendorians had thought carefully before building this room.

As Eriin spoke, a deep vibration began to hum under her feet. The hum grew
louder and increased in pitch, although it seemed as if it would never
crawl out of the deep bass rumble it held now. "We were expecting more,"
Eriin said as he sat down and buckled himself in. "I'm sorry some of
your students couldn't make it. It still seems like a lot of people." The
other two Pendorians buckled themselves in next to her and Eriin.

"Budgets. They don't want to spend any more money on the school system."

"Do they, whoever they are, expect your students to succeed?" He shook
his head sadly. "I'm sure you're an excellent and qualified teacher,
but do you really have the energy to teach fifty students at a time?"

She returned the gesture. "No, not really."

Eriin touched her hand, startling her. She withdrew it. "Well, for the
next five days consider me an adequate assistant." He looked down at her
hand. "I'm sorry. A good habit among Pendorians, but not so rewarding
with Terrans."

She nodded. "Just not used to being touched. At least not by adults."

He smiled. "You're unpartnered?"

"Divorced," she said. "About a year ago."

"Divorced?"

"Legally separated from David, my husband," she tried to explain.

"Oh, I remember. The state recognition and enforcement of a contractual
obligation between love partners. It probably sounds awful the way I
say it."

"No, it sounds about right, if a little technical." The rumble increased
to a whine.

Eriin lifted his clipboard to his mouth. "We're going to be taking off
in less than a minute," his voice boomed out of overhead speakers. "Hold
on tight."

The ship lurched slightly, and then tilted upwards. To Emily, facing her
students, however, it felt more like downwards, although she knew from
the sensations that the ship was ascending into the sky. Her students
screeched, some frightened and some thrilled and all of them surprised.

The roaring continued for several minutes before slowly dying away.
"Everyone remain in your seats," he said once again through the intercom.
"We are now heading towards Luna, your moon, and a rendezvous with our
mothership, the Synergy. We will spend four days and three nights on the
Synergy, coming home this Friday afternoon. As I said, it'll take a while
to get there. In the meantime, it is now safe to open the windows." At
each seat mounted closest to the wall, the window shields came open,
allowing the children a good look out. There wasn't much to see; the
Earth was behind them, after all.

"That ought to keep them busy for at least five minutes," the Felinzi
said, her voice a deep purring sound. "Eriin has been bad at introductions
again."

"Zoot!" Eriin said. "I'm sorry. M'Leja and Fahr, meet Emily. Emily, M'Leja
and Fahr. Together, the three of us are going to be your student guides.
I'm glad you two could make it."

"Me, too," M'Leja said. "Although I'm really surprised at how few people
they have teaching in those schools." She looked at Emily carefully. 'If
there were more than eight people in a class I ever took, I can't
remember it."

"Warehouses," Fahr said. "That's what they are, really. Warehouses for
the children, warehouses for the elderly, and all the people in between do
the mechanical crap necessary to keep their antiquated culture alive." He
smiled apologetically. "I won't say that to your students, Emily."

"Sometimes, I think you're right... "

"Fahr," he reminded her.

"Fahr."

"Miss Broderbundt?" one of her students called. "I don't feel so good."

Eriin sprinted to the boy's side. "Motion sickness," he said, looking up
at Emily. "It'll keep happening as the gravitational shifts start tossing
their stomachs around. Right now, the interior cabin is perpendicular to
the axis of travel, which means that as along as we maintain some kind
of acceleration, their stomachs will stay in the right direction. But
for about two hours, we'll be at no acceleration, and your students will
have a couple of upset stomachs."

She nodded. He had been right. It would be a long flight.

  ----------------------------------------------------------------------

The doorbell chimed softly. At least, she hoped it was the doorbell. "Is
someone at the door?" she asked aloud. She listened for a moment.
"Gabriel, is someone at the door?"

"Yes. It is Eriin."

She rose painfully to her feet and made her way to the door. She turned
the doorknob and opened it. "Hello?"

"I came to see how you were doing, Emily. You looked very tired when we
finally closed all the doors on your students. It would look bad on my
record if you were to collapse. My job is to be your second hand." He
looked down at the tables. "May I sit?"

"What? Oh, yes, please. You've been wonderful, Eriin."

He collapsed into a chair. She followed his example. "Sorry, don't mean
to be rude. I'm just tired."

"And well you should be. It probably hasn't even occurred to you that
you're 380 thousand miles from your planet."

Emily froze. "Space... " She inhaled the word. "I'm in outer space."

"The final frontier, the undiscovered country, the last great adventure,
yadda yadda yadda." He chuckled.

She looked at him with surprise. "How can you be so cavalier?"

He looked puzzled for a second, then smiled. "How can I not be? I've
been here before. I've been stuck in this can for nearly six months."

She laughed. "I guess you have. I didn't think of it that way."

"Our ships are just now breaking twenty times the speed of light. Even
at that speed, it's two and a half months to get here."

"And that much to get home again." She sighed. "Are your family with you?"

"No, I'm afraid not. My son is growing with his mother. We didn't get
along, his mother and I, really."

"I'm sorry."

"Me, too." Eriin sighed and closed his eyes.

"How old are you, Eriin?"

"Why do you ask?"

"Because, well, because Pendorians are supposed to live a long time,"
she said. "I just wanted to know."

"How old are you, Emily?"

"I'm thirty-six years old."

He laughed. "I'm eleven."

"What?" she asked. "That's impossible. You're full grown!"

"You must remember, about a decade ago, the Tleils of the Mephits? I
was one of those. I'm one of the oldest Mephits there are, and I'm just
eleven years old. I was born into an adult body and with a full set of
memories, but no experiences to bring them up. I've just been learning
for the past decade what it means to be me. We call that incorporation
shock. One of the things I did to learn about me was to mate with a lot
of the wrong people. My son came from one of those."

She felt the sadness inside him as he spoke. She wanted to say something
to ease his pain. "I'm sorry. You still haven't found anyone right
for you?"

"Not really. I don't expect to, either. Not for a long time. I've had a
couple of friends who were also lovemates, and they're still friends. But
nothing really clicked." He put his hands over his eyes, resting his hand
on his muzzle. "Oh, Fah, listen to what I've done now. I'm not supposed
to be telling you this stuff."

"Why not?" Emily asked. "Can I get you something to drink?"

"A glass of chocolate milk," he said with a grin.

"I thought chocolate was poisonous to you."

"It's a mild poison to Felinzi, much the same way as alcohol is to you.
But they drink it anyway for the flavor and the taste, they're just more
careful about it than you or I have to be."

She nodded, rising from her table to the food dispenser, requesting
what he had asked for and brought it back. "You still didn't answer
my question."

"Which one?"

"Why aren't you supposed to be telling me 'all that stuff?'" She tilted
her head from side to side as she quoted him, smiling.

He grinned back. "Because... because it's personal stuff, and I'm not
supposed to be getting personal. I'm a professional ambassador training
to work with children here. Besides, I talked about sex. I'm not supposed
to talk about that, remember? It'll give you the wrong impression."

"I've already got the wrong impression," she said. He gave her a quick
glance, and she gave him a reassuring smile in return, followed by a
fierce blush. Followed yet further by a wide yawn. "Sorry."

He finished off the glass. "I should go. Most of your students are asleep,
and I should be too." He stood up. "Just wanted to check in and make
sure you're okay."

"I'm okay," she replied. "Goodnight, Eriin. Thanks for talking with me."

"It's my job," he replied with a wave. The door closed behind him.

  ----------------------------------------------------------------------

After assuring Eriin that she had slept well ("Like a log." "How do logs
sleep?"), Emily found herself herding an even smaller group of sixteen
students through the zero-gravity recreation section of the starship.
Buried deep within the rotating craft, the cylindrical spaces near the
ship's nominal 'front' were sectioned off for a variety of purposes,
one of which was sheer exercise. And goofing off.

"How can he run in here?" one of her students asked, pointing to a tall
human who was effectively running around inside the space.

"He's creating his own gravity," Eriin said. "Each time he takes a step
forward, he pushes himself this way." Eriin demonstrated with his hand,
showing a straight line. "But the floor does this." With his other hand
under the first, he showed the curving wall coming. "As they move this
way, they come together, his feet and the wall. As long as he's careful to
correct his tilt, he can keep doing that all day. Or until he gets tired."

"That's how everything on the ship works," one of the younger girls
explained.

"That's right," Eriin said. "Very good. Now, you're free to fly around
in here for an hour or so. We have a lifeguard on duty watching you,
so no roughhousing. There will be other students along in a short while."

Emily took a few tentative pulls along the walls, then finally decided to
take a deep breath. She pushed away from the wall. Her mind interpreted
the enormous distance between her and the far bulkhead as height, and
she was more than a little surprised when she did not immediately fall
down and die. She closed her eyes. Her body felt still, comfortable. The
children were making noise nearby, but it was all laughter. There were no
shouts of anger and recrimination-- yet. They would come eventually. They
always did. But for now she could enjoy the sensation-- the first time
in her life-- of being completely and totally free. She floated. She
felt peaceful.

"Miss Broderbundt!" The voice pulled her out of her reverie. "He's
pulling on my hair."

"I did not! I mean, I'm sorry! I was just trying to get to the wall."

She sighed and uncurled herself from her thoughts. Back to duty.

  ----------------------------------------------------------------------

"Checking up on me again?" she asked.

"Just want to know how your day went," Eriin said. "Fahr mentioned that
one of your students got sick all over you at dinner."

She grunted. "They do that. Each floor of this ship is at a different
gravity. How does anyone ever get used to that?"

"You do, eventually," he said. "You seemed to enjoy the zero-gravity
room this afternoon."

She smiled tiredly. "Actually, I did. I'd like to do that again sometime."

"We could go now," he suggested. He took out his ubiquitous clipboard and
examined it. "Number six is empty right now. I could reserve it. Doesn't
look like anyone else wants it for at least a couple of hours."

She looked at him, hard. "The children?"

"M'Leja has the current shift. We can go without anyone knowing."

She was sure it was just an innocent offer. That didn't still her
uneasiness, or her desire to go again to the zero- gravity room. She
nodded. "Okay. Let's go."

"Just a second. There. Room reserved for two hours."

"We're not going to be there that long," she objected.

"You could fall asleep. Your eyes look pretty heavy, Emily." She closed
her eyes and found they didn't want to open again. When she did open her
eyes, she saw him smiling. "Come on. I'll make sure you get back to your
cabin for a good night's sleep."

She nodded. He opened the door and led her through the ship to an
elevator. A voice told her in English that she should be aware of the
lowering gravity as the elevator ascended.

The elevator stopped deep in the core of the ship where the gravity seemed
to be the lowest. A loud, deep metallic sound rang in the elevator as it
had early that morning, and with a lurch she felt herself suddenly free
from the pull of gravity. "We're here," Eriin said. The door opened onto
a curved hallway that seemed to stretch forward for a great distance. "Two
doors ahead," he said.

She floated upwards to the door he pointed. The symbol on the door looked
a lot like a letter 'p' with two rounded tops side-by-side. "Six?"

He nodded, sliding his hand over the control. The door slid open. She
pulled herself into the room. "It's darker than it was this morning."

"It's night," Eriin explained. "It's also warmer. Since we can't carry
enough water to really afford hot tubs, this is the local equivalent. It's
about as peaceful, at any rate."

"Mmmm," Emily sighed as she floated into the middle of the room. Reaching
the far wall, she bounced off and came to a halt. "You're not like my cat.
She hates water."

"Oh, I love hot tubs. But these are fun, too. I'm going to turn the
drifters on. If you're off the walls, they'll keep you from drifting into
them, unless you want to. They're just small air jets. You'll probably
never notice them." She nodded. "You'll be fine in here. I'll look in
on you in a little bit. If you need me, just call Gabriel and I'll be
here as fast as I can."

She turned to look at him, putting her body into a slow spin as she did
so. "Whoops."

"Careful," he said. "Rotation is what really upsets your stomach if
you're not prepared for it. Anyway, see you in a little bit." He closed
the door and left her without giving her a chance to thank him.

Alone, she stretched out this time, putting every muscle under tension
momentarily before letting it all come back with a great sigh. Drifting
unsupported in the center of the cylindrical room, no more than twelve
feet wide and maybe twenty long, she felt the warmth finally penetrate
her body and her face. The room felt almost too warm for her. She wanted
to be free of her clothes.

The very idea bothered her. Eriin could come back at any moment. The
idea of taking her clothes off in a room this large likewise disturbed
her. She had never taken her clothes off anyplace larger than her
bedroom and this place was huge. It felt like a public space, even if
she did have it all to herself at the moment. Yet the idea did have its
appeal. If someone caught her naked he would probably be a Pendorian,
people who as far as she could tell weren't in the habit of making a
great fuss about naked bodies.

She made her decision, tossing off her shoes and socks, pants and blouse,
finally bra and panty. She bundled them all into the seat of her pants
and pulled her belt tight, hoping that would keep them all in one place
for the rest of the day. She tossed the bundle away from her gently,
hoping that she wouldn't create too much opposite reaction that would
push her towards the wall.

She closed her eyes and let her body drift out. Her limbs stretched out
to their most comfortable position, the muscles reaching the point of
least tension, the least pull of one against the other in her arms and
her legs.  Finally, she just drifted in the low light.

Eriin seemed to be awfully nice to her. She knew that part of that
resulted from his sense of duty; he had come here to learn about humans--
Terrans, she corrected herself-- and his apparent specialty, Terran
children. In that regard, he did very well, but then she couldn't imagine
Pendorian children differing that much from their Terran counterparts.

She liked him. Part of her hoped she could stay in touch with him after
this whole experience had ended and she had returned to her duties as
a grade school teacher in a Pittsburgh suburb. And part of her realized
that she still did not know what he felt like. Every once in a while over
the course of the past two days she had caught herself staring at him,
wondering if his fur felt anything like her last cat's. He always wore
long-sleeve shirts and full-length pants, which covered up everything
except his head and hands.

She drifted, thinking of Eriin.

  ----------------------------------------------------------------------

"Emily?"

The voice reached her through a hazy wall of fatigue and relaxation.
"Emily?" she heard again, and finally blinked, opening her eyes.

"Eriin?"

He smiled at her. "You fell asleep. You've been in here for nearly an
hour and a half."

"It was so... " She looked at him and realized she could see his bare
chest of black, black fur shot through with the random, single white
strand here and there. "You're naked."

"Correction. You're naked. I have shorts on. Although if there weren't
Terrans on board, I probably wouldn't be wearing them, either."

She glanced downward at her brown skin and his lanky, furred body. He was
right; he wore shorts, blue ones with green triangles, but her clothes
had drifted away to a far corner of the room. She quickly covered her
body with her hands, trying to hide what he had clearly already seen. He
chuckled, guileless. "Should I get your clothes?"

"If you would."

He took her by the shoulders and turned her around towards her clothes.
His touch burned against her skin; it aroused memories of David, the good
memories of him. It made her want more, but with a gentle shove to the
middle of her back, he sent her sailing away from him. When she reached
them, she stopped up against one of the handholds set into the wall and
turned to see him in the opposite side of the room. "Newton's law of
opposites," he called as he launched himself off the wall. She watched
as he soared through the room, completely at ease in his environment,
and came to a graceful halt on the wall less than a yard away from her.
"Fortunately, the ship's a closed system."

She looked at the bundle in her hands and tugged at the belt to get it
open. "You are very pretty, Emily." She tugged harder, blushing. He didn't
notice and continued speaking. "It's a shame you Terrans try to hide your
loveliness and your variety. Even when you dress, you all dress the same.
Men are worse than women. They like seeing that every other man is
dressed like them, everyone else's advantages and disadvantages hidden."

She stopped tugging at the belt. "I didn't bring any clothing other
than what I wear at work." She looked at him critically. He hung in
the air only a few feet away, his long fur rolling in waves with every
motion. Out of his clothing, she saw that he had an average physique,
nothing particularly too muscular or too skinny. Handsome, really. His
tail shook out behind him, waving with his motions too. He had big feet,
though.  Large hands as well.

"That's what I mean. You bring with you what you need to function,
not what you need to really enjoy yourself. Of course, you don't need
clothes to enjoy yourself sometimes."

She had half-expected a comment like that from him eventually. "Are you
trying to seduce me?"

"No, not particularly. Oh, I see where I spoke wrong. I meant that you
don't need any particular dress to enjoy many of the things life offers,
even on a cramped spaceship like the Synergy." He looked her over as
she floated along side him. She still held her bundled clothes. "I might
ask if you're trying to make yourself... seducible? Seductable?"

"I don't know, either. And I teach English!" He laughed with her. "And
no, I don't think I am. Why?"

He shook his head. "Nothing, really. You just seemed vulnerable a couple
of times when we've talked. I felt that I wanted to hug you and tell
you that you would make it through the day."

She found herself wanting to accept. And part of her wanted to flee, to
run, to go back to her comfortable, lonely life 384,000 miles away. She
pushed away from the wall and drifted towards him.

When her body ghosted against his, she felt him stiffen, then ease. His
arms closed around her back. His wonderfully luxurious fur stroked
against her skin in ways her brain failed to put description to. It
caressed her body, like the flesh underneath it, yet the touch of his
hands upon her back burned in promises she hadn't even asked for and
didn't know if he'd extended. He sighed softly, the sound loud in her
ears. "You humans are so unused to letting yourself go beyond relaxing."

She giggled. The sound rang peculiar to her hearing. She hadn't made a
sound like that in nearly two years. "I know how to relax."

"Yes, but do you know how to loaf?" he replied. "Relaxing is what you do
to rest and prepare for your efforts tomorrow. Loafing is doing something
completely unproductive just because it feels good."

"I never thought of it that way."

"I have." He pushed her away so he could look at her. "This is just a
friendship, Emily. I've been worried about you. You seem so stressed out."

She nodded. "I have been." Her fingers strayed through the fur on his
chest and belly. "So soft."

"And your skin, so dark and smooth." His fingers stroked along her sides,
tickling her gently. She made small noises. He pulled her closer once
more until they were face to face. She recognized the moment and accepted
it, pulling him close as well. She wondered for a brief moment what his
mouth would feel like, what it would taste like. Then she found out.

He tasted as she would expect from any man, but his muzzle felt completely
different from anything she had ever felt; a wide tip of a mouth but of
the wrong shape to a man's. When she parted her lips he did as well. When
their tongues met the similarities outweighed the differences once more.
He kissed like a man, but gently, carefully, taking his time, letting
her take her time.

As her body pressed against his, Emily couldn't ignore the hardness
growing between his legs. She could feel his solid erection against her
midriff. Curiosity took the better of her and she let her hand drift down.
She found his cock waiting stiff against his belly, and when she touched
it his body shuddered momentarily and he let out a soft moan. "Emily..."

"Let me see it," she asked. He didn't reply. She looked down, maneuvering
carefully. It looked like a penis. Uncircumcised, with a furry sheathing
near the base of the shaft, and with an odd, mottled coloration compared
to its human counterparts, it still didn't look very alien.

Curiosity still running, she leaned closer until she eyed it from only
a few inches away. Then she closed the distance, taking the head into
her mouth. "Emily!" Eriin gasped.

Unless he actively tried to push her away, she didn't take his gasp as a
warning sign. Quite the opposite. She knew what she was doing; David had
more than once complimented her on this particular skill. The fact that
Eriin was going to be the first lover she took since her divorce didn't
bother her at all. As her decisions gave rise to abandoned inhibitions,
she put everything she could into what she gave Eriin.

Her hands gripped his butt. She found herself gripping hard, her hands
slipping on the fur. He put his hands on her shoulder, but only to keep
her from drifting away on her withdrawal.

His cock felt hot in her mouth. She paused with the solid head against
her tongue and closed her eyes. She could feel his cock throbbing
gently. She could take his pulse from her current position. The head of
his cock felt smooth; it had almost a slick, oily sensation to it. The
shaft likewise felt smooth, although more like delicate skin than the
head. She couldn't get away from the comparisons; David's cock had had
so many prominent veins she once described it as gnarled. As for size,
she couldn't tell if any difference existed. Eriin's cock felt as large
as she recalled her ex-husband's. David had probably been average.

She worked at Eriin's cock slowly, regaining the sensation and the skills
that had lain dormant for so many months. The head of his cock slid into
the back of her throat and she accepted it, worrying momentarily that
she might not be able to take him without choking. She managed. With his
hands on her shoulders, she felt safe freeing one hand from its grip on
his butt to take a better grip on the base of his cock.

"Stop," he whispered. "I'd rather go longer than I will if you keep
that up."

She smiled. He pulled her back up until they were again face-to-face. "My
turn," he whispered, and kept sliding her upwards until his head rested
between her legs. "So lovely," he whispered. "And such a bright contrast
to your dark skin!" He leaned forward and kissed her mound. She shivered.

David had never done this. Well, almost never. He certainly hadn't enjoyed
it all that much. Eriin, on the other hand, gently parted her pubic hair
with his hands before pressing that triangular muzzle up against her cunt.
He gently nuzzled his way from side to side, his tongue reaching out
to caress her inner lips, pressing his way into her warming core. Her
body responded. She felt her cunt flood almost instantly with wetness,
more than she would have expected.

When Eriin's tongue found her clitoris she moaned a soft "Oh!" to let him
know he'd done the right thing. His arms wrapped around her thighs and
held him in place as his tongue flickered across her clitoris, making
her feel things she hadn't felt in too, too long. Involuntary moans
escaped her; shudders ran through her. His tongue would slide slowly,
left and right and up and down, over her clit, never quite leaving it
along, but never quite trying to lead her anywhere. Her body went where
it wanted to, and right now it wanted to get to an orgasm.

The shudders ran through her stronger, making her hips jerk without her
wishing. She worried about dislodging him. If he became separate from her
in the zero gravity of this room they would have to reach a wall and join
back up again and by that time the mood might have broken. She couldn't
allow that. She needed him. Her hands gripped his arms to provide one
more anchor. The muscles under his fur felt powerful under her palms.

His tongue pressed a little firmer and her body responded just a little
stronger. Strong enough. The sounds reaching her ears came from her lips,
but she hadn't heard them in so long she almost didn't know what they
meant. The sounds thrilled her. Her body tightened, wound up by Eriin's
kisses and licks. Her body wanted to curl up more and more, until finally
it couldn't wait anymore. The winding inside her snapped and her climax
went off with a loud moan, muffled only by her biting her lower lip hard.

Eriin's tongue took another careful swipe across her cunt. Pleasure so
strong it screamed made her back tighten again. "No!" she gasped. "Too
strong, Eriin. Please." He heard her and backed away. Her grip still
tight on his arms, she pulled him up to her.

The fur around his muzzle was plastered with her juices. "You're wet,"
he said. "It tastes good."

She smiled and pulled him closer. "Ooh! You're good!"

He laughed softly in her arms. "So are you. So wonderful!"

She felt his erection once again pressed against her belly. She didn't
speak a word, but instead pressed him down just enough to get him pointed
in the right direction. He got the idea and, holding his cock, positioned
it against her cunt. Together, they worked to complete their joining. She
felt the head of his cock press against her lips and then make its way
into her body. It slid within her until it could go no further. "You..."
she gasped. "Wonderful."

"Hot," he agreed. "You know, though," he said, looking into her eyes,
"This is supposed to be the hardest way to make love."

"Why?" she asked.

"Because we have to do all the work, both in and out." He chuckled and
let her drift downwards until she was at a square angle to him. His hands
felt firm on her thighs, but that strength was nothing compared to the
firm thrust he gave to his already buried cock, pushing her away from him,
and then his arms pulling her back, his cock thrusting into her again. His
chest and bellyfur tickled the backs of her thighs; the fur on his hips
pressed against her ass. And his cock, his wonderful cock, filled and
emptied and filled her again. And again. She felt deliriously happy with
this hard, thrusting man paying attention to her. Her body jolted with
his every thrust. She could lift her head and see his face... just. His
eyes were closed, his muzzle open. His thrusting became hard, demanding,
hitting her cervix but in just the right way and just the right time,
it felt so good. He had never looked more animal nor felt more wonderful
than he did right then. Her body responded to his thrusting so well,
so wonderfully. And when he came the shout of his joy was joined by her
own growl of pleasure.

She gasped again as he slid out, collecting her back into his arms. "Thank
you," he gasped.

"Thank you," she replied. "That was incredible."

He smiled. "Yeah, it was. Come on. It's late. You have to take your
students home tomorrow."

She felt dazed. "Can I sleep on the flight?"

He chuckled. "I'm sure we'll find time for you to do that."

  ----------------------------------------------------------------------

With a soft roar, the Dragon lifted away from the Synergy and headed back
for the Earth, for Pittsburgh in midwinter, and for a life of normality.
After four days in space, and her experience with Eriin, Emily felt more
than ready to return to her old life. As she wrapped her arms around
herself and stared out the big window in the transport ship lounge,
she couldn't help but stare out at the stars and wonder. "Specie for
your thoughts."

She laughed softly, recognizing Eriin's voice. "I think there are maybe,
maybe, a couple thousand people on Earth who speak English who know what a
'specie' is."

"It means 'coin,' doesn't it?"

She nodded. "But nobody I know ever uses it. It's an old word, falling out
of our language." She could see his reflection in the glass behind her. He
stood a little taller than she did, still, and he wore a long, flowing
cloak over his form, closed with a clasp at his left shoulder. "Remember
when you told me you were eleven?" He nodded. "I looked it up last night.
The Mephit Tleiling was in 1987-- only ten years ago. January first, in
fact. Not a date you'd be likely to forget. It was less than a month ago.
You're one of those mixed-realm sentients, aren't you?"

"Does that bother you?" he asked.

She didn't turn around. "I don't know. I watched you all morning. I can't
figure out if there's anything different about you, something that feels
like-- like you're not a person."

"On Pendor, I am a person."

She looked at his image in the glass. He still had that same peaceful
beauty she had seen at the beginning of this trip. He hadn't changed at
all. "How did you happen? Where did you come from?"

Eriin paused for a second. "When Shardik makes a new species, there are
a few test-runs, a few where the brain isn't quite right and doesn't
function, or where the endocrine system isn't balanced right. It's an
ugly job. I hope you're pro- choice." She nodded, briefly. "Of those, he
took two whose bodies looked right and implanted special robotic minds
into them. I'm one of those. I was supposed to help my species come to
grips with itself. But I was decanted too closely to the real decanting,
and I came out as screwed up as my brothers and sisters. There's no
difference between them and me, except that my brain is made up of
crystals and theirs is made up of... squishy grey stuff."

She shivered. "Do you really have a son?"

"Yes, I really have a son. We named him Gawain. Maybe someday you might
get a chance to meet him." He sighed. "Then again, maybe not."

Now she turned to look at him. "Why last night, Eriin?"

He looked puzzled. "For all the reasons Pendorians always do that sort
of thing, Emily. It was a nice thing to do for a friend who..." He looked
around. "Who needed a hug."

"You gave me more than that."

"You seemed to want more than that." He paused. "Are you going to turn
me in? Report me to my commander? Go on Geraldo?" She gave him a peculiar
glance. "My memory is better than most. I've studied your popular media.
Pretty frightening stuff sometimes. But, Emily, I'm not any different
than you are. I'm just a person trying to figure out where he fits in
the great scheme of things."

He stood before her, his hands open, his face trying to explain. She
didn't know what to say, what she could express. She had felt betrayed
that morning when she had figured out that he wasn't a Tleil at all,
but something else. But her body had borne the warm memories of a night
with a living, breathing man. Between those two she hadn't been able to
reconcile truth. Now she could. And looking into his face she could see
that he needed to know that she didn't resent his not telling her. Finally
she just said, "I believe you."

He smiled. Then he nodded. "I believe you, too."

She laughed. "Thanks."

"What are you going to do, now?"

"I don't know. But I realized that I should probably get out more often
when I'm back home." She bit her lower lip, reacting sharply when she
felt the bite marks there from last night. "I'm going to have to give
interviews to the local press when I get back." She closed her eyes. "I'm
not sure I'm ready for that."

"The life of one of the chosen ones," he chuckled.

"My students are probably wondering where we are."

"Then you had better go join them. I'll come down in a little bit,
when it won't appear... unseemly."

"Thanks." She reached the elevator, turned, and looked at him. "I
mean it."

"I know you do. You're welcome."

  ----------------------------------------------------------------------


Original document is available from:
http://www.drizzle.com/~elf/journals

The Journal Entries of Kennet R'yal Shardik, et. al., and Related Tales
are Copyright (c) 1989-2000 Elf Mathieu Sternberg. Distribution limited
to electronic media not-for-profit use only. All other rights are reserved
to the author.
