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

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                     Planetfall: Resolution of Doubt

Journal Entry 116 / 01026

Seren, Lothess 19, 01026

P'nyssa straightened up and smoothed out the front of her lab coat. She
hoped for a quiet day, especially considering that she had helped Fari
Trahn drop a litter of three yesterday, a rare number for any species,
but especially so for the Pamthreats, since as a species their numbers
had grown much slower than others.

As she walked into the main of the infirmary she examined her PADD
thoughtfully. There didn't seem to be anything pressing. She had to check
in on two broken bones today, one relatively serious burn case, a delphin
poisoning, and one listed as "no reason given." It was the last one on
her list, scheduled for six, and the name at the bottom caught her eye.

"Nance?" she asked.

"Yeah, Nyss?" he replied, looking up from his table. He had a suture
applicator in his hand and a magnifying glass over his eye, giving him
a strange, sinister look.

"Is this accurate? What does Zaid Kincaid want to see me for?"

"Dunno," he shrugged. "She just made an appointment right before you
came in. Asked for you specifically. Said you were a friend."

"I guess," P'nyssa replied.

"Why? Is there something wrong?" Nance turned back to his work. The
femHuman he was working on watched him closely, and occasionally she
would wince.

"No, nothing wrong. It's just weird."

"I can take her if you need," Nance offered.

"No, no, that's okay. I want to take it."

"Suture self," Nance said, running the words together in Anglic into
his favorite pun.

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"Now, then," P'nyssa said, "You promise not to go chasing after anything
in the Battian sea again?

"It's hard, Doctor," Intataka replied. The dolphin hadn't actually eaten
anything, but instead gotten stung while playing 'tag' with a school of
fish. They had turned out to be better armed than he had anticipated. "How
was I supposed to know they had stingers on their caudal fins?"

P'nyssa sighed. The last thing she wanted to do was kill the dolphin sense
of fun and play. A species that was almost never serious, she enjoyed
their company and taking fun away from one of them bothered her. But
sometimes fun had to wait. "I know," P'nyssa sympathized. "I'm glad the
date has been set for lifting ship now, because I think we're all ready
to go home. You'll have to rely on surfing and waiting until we get home."

"It's not easy," Intataka groused.

"Well, if you want to turn all ugly and purplish again..."

"I think I can wait," the dolphin sighed. "Thank you, Doctor Traken."

"You're welcome," she said, stroking his side with her mitten. "Take
care of yourself."

"I shall." The dolphin flicked his tail and maneuvered his way out of
the tent. She watched him and his gravity-suspension rigs disappear out
of sight, then looked down at her PADD. Time to find out what Zaid wanted.

She walked out into the waiting room. Zaid walked in from the outside
at exactly the same moment. "Oh!" Zaid said. "Sorry... am I late?"

"Just on time," P'nyssa replied. "You're my last visit of the day. Now,
what can I help you with?"

Zaid blushed. On the delicate rat it looked lovely, P'nyssa thought,
and this time she was sober enough to watch and appreciate it fully
while controlling any outward reaction to it. Zaid crooked a finger in
P'nyssa's direction, and P'nyssa bent over. Zaid whispered in her ear,
"I want you to trim my fur."

"What?" P'nyssa asked.

Zaid blushed. "I... I remembered reading an article where you mentioned
that one of your favorite hobbies was trimming people's fur, and, well,
mine sorta needs doing." She tugged at loose strands of it that peeked
out between the spandex top and shorts she wore.

Confusion between duty and desire warred inside P'nyssa. If she had to
locate that war, it wasn't happening so much in her head as between her
legs. "That's not the sort of thing we do at sickbay."

Zaid grinned. "That's why I asked your partner to make sure I was last.
You're done for the day, right?"

"Well, yes," P'nyssa replied. "Remind me that I need to talk to him
someday." Her eyes shot daggers through the canvas walls to where she
thought Nance was standing in the other room. But when she looked inside,
Nance was gone, and the second shift was coming onto duty, including
Marcus Hitoshi. "Marc, I'm out."

"Okay, P'nyssa," he replied. "See you tomorrow."

Taking a deep breath and completely unsure of what to do now, P'nyssa
turned around and said, "Where would you like to do this?"

"What's the best place you can think of?" Zaid asked.

"Our bedroom on the Handele."

"Then let's go there."

Impossible to think of anything else to say, she looked up at the ceiling
and said, "Lance, make it ready. Okay, Zaid, let's go." Zaid smiled and
turned, leading the way out and around the Mission Control tent to the
SDisk shuttlecraft. She waited for P'nyssa to join her, mostly because
she didn't have the authority to use the SDisk herself. They teleported
onto the Handele, where P'nyssa took over the role of leading Zaid down
the hallway and into hers and Ken's and Aaden's cabin. Leading Zaid into
the bathroom, she pointed to a chair and said, "Sit down, Zaid. We need
talk first."

Zaid's face grew concerned as she sat down. "Something's not right."

"No," P'nyssa agreed as she pulled up a chair of her own. "Four days
ago you turned me down. Now you're here asking for something that only
happens between me and some very special people. What changed?"

Zaid blushed. "I thought about it," she said. "About your offer. And
I realized that it would be stupid to turn you down without at least
listening a little more."

"I was drunk."

"And a little frustrated, from the way you were talking. I didn't need to
be a telepath to recognize that... I've been a bartender on and off, but
long enough to know what I'm hearing when I'm hearing frustration." She
smiled. "What was bothering you that day?"

P'nyssa smiled. "Actually, it was just a stupid day. For some reason
I had been knocking over tables and dropping things and misplacing my
PADD. It had all added up. Just one of those days where every time I
turned around something else was going wrong. I needed to get out."

Zaid nodded. "There've been days like that."

P'nyssa leaned a little closer. "Listen, about Aldea lome'..."

Zaid stopped and calculated. "You mean last Thursday?"

"Yes," P'nyssa said, hoping they were talking about the same day. Pendor's
six-day weeks never matched up with Terra's seven- days weeks. "I'm
sorry about that."

Zaid shook her head. "I was being pushy, P'nyssa. I asked you a very
personal question you probably didn't want to answer and I told you a
very personal story you probably didn't want to hear. I really wanted
to be your friend because I thought it would be very 'con to befriend
P'nyssa Shardik, but I didn't realize what I was getting into."

P'nyssa nodded. "Zaid, I wanted to get you into bed because, while I tend
to be more skewed towards mels, I really like the attention of women and
the alcohol really made me feel how much I'd missed it." She sighed. "I
let myself get out of hand."

Zaid's hand closed on P'nyssa's tentacle gently. "If you needed to feel
that way and say those things, then it's good that you did. I'm just
sorry I bugged out on you like that." P'nyssa nodded. "Now, why do you
only trim fur for 'special' people?"

P'nyssa took a few moments to put her thoughts together. "Medicine is one
of the most intimate things you can do with another person. It involves
invading their body and predicting their future, easing their pains
and healing their wounds. And it becomes very personal, but it's not an
emotional relationship like the kind between two people in love. Cutting
someone's fur involves all of the same things, including trust, because
the trim could come out all wrong and that would be a disaster. I would
rather do it only for people I feel something romantic for."

Zaid nodded. "Would you still want to do mine?"

P'nyssa grinned. "Do you trust me? I mean, I've never cut a Neorat's
fur before."

"I guess I'll have to. All I want is to have it cut down down to about
10 mils all over. It's over twenty now and it's getting into everything."

"That is long," P'nyssa agreed. "Okay, sit down and get ready." She
picked up the beginning shears.

Almost two hours later, she backed away. Zaid turned and looked in the
bathroom mirror, scratching gently at her fur. "Looks good."

"You're sure? I left it a little long around the outsides of your arms
and legs, and cut it below five on the tops of your hands and wrists,
and your feet."

Zaid stretched as she stood up. "It's fine, Nyss. I need a shower,
though."

"Right through there," P'nyssa pointed.

"Join me?" Zaid asked. "I figure I have to lose that virginity sometime."

"Are you sure you want to make love with a non-rat, non-male person?"

Zaid reached her hand out. "Yes."

P'nyssa smiled and placed the brush in her hand onto the tabletop. She
took Zaid's hand and allowed the shorter fem to lead her into the shower.
"Uhm, you know these controls better than I do," Zaid said.

Amused, P'nyssa dialed up the temperature to the height she wanted, then
increased the pressure until it was too her liking. Zaid placed her hand
under the spray and nodded her agreement. "Then get in," P'nyssa said.

Zaid eased past her and under the direct spray. Small lengths of fur began
collecting around her feet as she scratched and brushed at herself. "Hope
you have furtraps."

P'nyssa shook her head. "SDisk filters." She poured soap into her mittens
and applied them to Zaid's shoulders, massaging the skin underneath as
well sudsing the fur above. Zaid groaned softly, "Oh that's so good."

"Then enjoy it," P'nyssa said. Her mittens slid down Zaid's arms, working
the soap into the Neorat's fur by small circles. Zaid placed one of
her hand on P'nyssa's, then turned around and raised her head slightly,
kissing P'nyssa's cheek delicately.

P'nyssa tilted her head down and kissed Zaid's nose with just as much
care. The smaller rat reacted with a slight start as if she hadn't
expected the gesture to be returned quite so quickly, but soon leaned
into the kiss, pressing her body against P'nyssa's.

P'nyssa allowed her hands to roam along Zaid's body, still getting soap
onto every part of the rat she could reach, then backed away. "Let me
finish soaping your front," she said. "Sit," she said, pointing to the
tiled bench that jutted out of the wall perpendicular to the spray of
the shower. Zaid complied with the request and P'nyssa applied more soap
to her hands.

She allowed her hands to stray over Zaid's chest, stroking her almost
non-existent breasts. Although they were small, Zaid's reaction told her
they were much more sensitive than her own. The brown-furred rat's chest
rose and fell a little faster with each breath as P'nyssa's hands felt
their way down her belly. P'nyssa spread her legs with her mittens,
then slid her hand between Zaid's thighs, touching her cunt gently,
washing and cleaning.

Zaid's legs she finished with just as slow, careful patience. She had
no desire to rush her task because she wanted it to last. Taking the
showerhead from the wall, she lowered the pressure and rinsed the lovely
young fem off, watching the soap stream down her body until the water
ran clear. She grinned and waited until the last of the soap had been
rinsed from Zaid's body, then replaced the shower head on the water,
aiming the water away from them both and dialing the temperature higher.

Zaid watched as P'nyssa parted her legs a little further, lowering her
head until it was just millimeters from her mound. P'nyssa looked up
at her, and she nodded. Then the Tindal lowered her head until her lips
barely made contact with the fur of her mound. Zaid wiggled on the seat
in anticipation. As steam filled the shower, P'nyssa's tongue touched her
between her thickening lips, and she bit her lip to keep from crying out.
The electricity running through her was too much already, and yet she
wanted to feel the touch of P'nyssa's tongue ever more.

P'nyssa pressed the tip of her tongue up into the moistening cleft
of Zaid's cunny. P'nyssa regretted that she had cleaned Zaid so well;
there was little taste left, but a warm flow of wetness from within the
smaller fem was solving that problem. P'nyssa's tongue flickered over
Zaid's cunt, coaxing pleasure from the Neorat.

Zaid responded loudly, too. Her moans started soon and she had trouble
sitting still. Her hands grasped P'nyssa's head and played with her hair
until, finally, she exploded in a shuddering climax that released a flow
of fluid from within her. P'nyssa's tongue kept licking at her lips until
finally she had to push the blue- furred fem back. "That's too strong,
P'nyssa," she gasped.

"Sorry," P'nyssa replied. "I didn't know how much you wanted or how."

Zaid nodded. "I know. That's okay."

P'nyssa smiled and took a seat next to Zaid, pulling the Neorat into
her arms. "That was hot," she admitted.

"It was great," Zaid agreed. "Can I... can I do something for you?"

"Do you want to?" P'nyssa asked.

"I... I do. But I'm not sure how. And after coming like that, in this
heat, I feel a little weak."

P'nyssa nodded. "Tell you what. Why don't we get out, get dressed, eat,
and then go back to wherever you make your home so we can talk some more?"

Zaid nodded, her cheek brushing against P'nyssa's breasts as she hugged
her tightly. "I'd like that."

P'nyssa reached out with her toes; she could just barely reach the
controls, and pushed the pressure down to 'off.' "Just rest a minute,
Zaid. Then we'll go."

"Okay."

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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
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