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: Shardik's Revenge

Journal Entry 147 / 01023

Loende 01023

"Hi, honey, I'm home!"

"I'm sorry, Ken, but your cabin is empty," Lance announced in his calm
and even tone. I sighed and tossed my PADD onto a chair, walking into
the kitchen and pouring myself a glass of milk. I'd been on a milk binge
recently, and I wasn't sure why. It would pass.

"Oh, well," I said to the AI. "Lance, can you tell me when they'll be
getting home?"

"P'nyssa is on her way. Aaden has stopped by Viewport and will probably
be there for quite a while, considering the number of people he is
associating with right now. Your children are presently attending a play."

"Thank you," I replied, following it with less of a sigh than a simple
exhalation of frustration. I waited quietly for P'nyssa. After a few
minutes, she arrived, the doors opening to let her in. "Hi!" I said.

She smiled and skipped over to me, giving me a hug and kiss. "Hi
yourself," she said brightly. "How was your day?"

"Can I ask you a question?" I asked, ignoring hers in the process. "Is
it just me, or has Aaden been a real jerk recently?"

"So you've noticed it to, then?" she asked. "I don't think it's just you.
He has been rather annoying the past couple of weeks."

"Any idea why?" I asked.

"Actually, yes. I talked to Aramo about it, even. I've got a very clear
idea why," she replied. "The longest Aaden has ever been on a starship
is six months, and that was during our rescue. He hates space travel,
but he's officially the reason this mission is going. He asked for
this. So here we are, a year into the mission, and he's just starting
to realize that, even before he gets to do his job, we have three times
as much time left to go, with very few shore leaves in between. He's
feeling very pressured, and I'm not surprised.

"Combine that with his reputation, and with the quality of people on this
mission. There are twelve hundred people on this ship. The Alanailen party
you two and Kathy threw was incredibly successful, Ken. The people on
board are adventurous... they'd better be, they're spacefen. You and Aaden
are very good at presenting sadomasochism as a form of self-adventure,
and some of the people on board now seem to see the link between the two.
Aaden has a reputation as a successful sadist and as an excellent master.
And he's available. You're rather vocal in your wish to be selective,
and it's kind of obvious that you have your hands full right now. Aaden
seems to be free."

I started to get the picture. "He's compensating."

"Exactly," she said. "He's afraid, he feels claustrophobic and, even with
you and me here, he feels alone. He's overblowing his ego as 'Mister Big
S/m Top,' and he's got the skill to pull it off. He deserves most of his
reputation. He's just getting a swelled head about it. He's got a small
contingent of people looking to him for advice and for a very personal
kind of adventure, and suddenly he feels the importance he's always had,
and he's not handling it well. Sometimes you don't handle fen very well
either, Ken."

I nodded. "So," I said, sitting down at the kitchen counter and propping
my chin up in my palm, "what can we do about it?"

"I don't know," she said, with a slight smile. "Wait it out is a typical
suggestion. Do you remember when you observed that having a regular
lover made sex less important? That you knew that he, and I, and you,
would all be here tomorrow, and maybe it's okay to put off lovemaking for
today?" I nodded. "Maybe he's doing a bit of that. Aaden's not an idiot,
eventually he'll come back to us and realize how stupid he's been. An
alternative, and one only you could pull off, Ken, is to do a scene with
him at your next Alanailen party."

"What do you mean?"

She leaned over and explained. She must have seen the smile on my face
when she was done. "Nyss... you're getting good at this."

She kissed my cheek. I turned my head and kissed her lips in return;
the kiss lasted longer that way. Then she laughed softly and said "It's
the environment."

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

"So I can rely on you to help me?"

"You're sure he won't hate me afterwards? I mean, because I'm..."

"He'd better not. It's my damn scene. I dictate what happens."

"Then I'll be there. If she lets me."

"I'll let you."

"Then I'll be there."

"Good."

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

The decor was ridiculous. Someone in the llerkindi contingent and someone
from David's crew had similar interests in similar periods of history
for their homeworlds... the age of high-seas piracy. The llerkindi was
characterized by bright colors, flowing cloth, and mirrors, the Terran
by the damned parrot. Both cultures used death symbols on flags and
sails, although the llerkindi symbol was more stylized than the skull
and crossbones.

Someone had gone through a great deal of trouble to make an authentic
"pirate" bar, although the llerkindi elements were more befitting what
I would perceive as a first-millennial Arabian setting. That's just my
culture showing.

Still, as an Alanailen party, it was going pretty well. The music was
rhythmic but not painfully loud, the play so far was pretty light and the
atmosphere, although a little weird (who am I to judge?) was definitely
fitting. Not to mention that I'd forgotten how much I loved full blouse
sleeved pirate shirts.

"Aaden!" I said over the music, closing in on him. He was sitting by
the bar, a mug of some orange fruit juice by his hand.

"Ken!" He replied, stepping forward and giving me a hug. "Hi! Glad you
could make it!"

"Are you kidding?" I said. "I wouldn't miss my own kind of thing for the
world. I'm glad you made it." I had a channel open in my head to Lance;
he was giving me a reasonable local awareness of my co-conspirators as
they, too, closed in on our location. "Hey, can I ask you a question?"

"Of course you can ask me a question, Ken."

"Are you ever going to bottom to me again?"

He blinked, looked away abashedly, then looked back. "I will. I want to,
I just don't seem to have the... I don't know."

"But you want to bottom to me," I replied.

"Yeah."

"Soon?"

"Sure," he smiled, looking enthused.

I consulted the map in my head; there were four mels now local to me. I
turned around to one sitting at the round, wooden table by the bar,
tapped his shoulder and said, "Good. Take him."

There was a brief flurry of activity as the four people near me rose
up and grabbed him, mostly by the arms; I heard chairs slide around and
tables get pushed out of the way. I had my back to him as it happened,
and there was a fast stab of pain at the back of my head. He had grabbed
my hair!

I turned to him; my hair is long enough for that. "Let go," I said,
glancing at the four mels holding him. Two looked concerned; the other
two had smiles. "Let go," I repeated, snarling helpfully.

"I said 'soon,'" Aaden hissed. "Not now."

"Let go of my hair," I growled. "I'll lose the hair before I lose to you.
Now let go." I think I convinced him; I felt completely sure that my will
was stronger. I was ready to lose my hair, which is a personal treasure
to me, before I let him squirm out of this scene.

He let go slowly, taking his arm back. "That table," I said, pointing
the square one apart from the rest. "Put him over it, now." The four
mels hauled him to the table and threw him down on top of it; although he
struggled, it wasn't doing him much good as we fixed leather shackles to
his wrists and tied them down to the legs of the table. Ropes were fixed
around his thighs, and then these were tied to the other legs, spreading
them apart. His furry sheath and testicles hung down marvelously between
them, and I ran my hand casually over those small, soft eggs, squeezing
them gently.

I reached out to one of the mels, and he handed me what I had prepared
earlier; a basic riding crop. "You know, Aaden," I said gently, "You've
been a real asshole recently." He whimpered softly. "And I'm tired of it."
The music slowly died down; people were paying attention. Although when
he's top and I'm bottom, I like doing public scenes, the other way around
is usually much more private. People very rarely see me in the role of
dominant. So there was a lot attention suddenly.

"You've ignored me, you've ignored P'nyssa," I said. I slammed the riding
crop down hard on his upper back. He started, rattling the table. "And
I'm not going to take it anymore." I hit him again.

"Ken!" he snarled. "Please!"

"Please WHAT?" I asked him, walking around to the front of the table and
kneeling to look in his eye. "Who said this had to be erotic? Who said you
had to enjoy yourself?" I stood up. "Now shut up and Take. What. I. Give.
You!" I growled, emphasizing every last word with a noisy, painful strike
of the riding crop.

"Your clothes are in the way. Knife," I said, pointing to one of the
people I'd asked to help me. A small, beautiful leaf of a blade was soon
in my hand, a maneuver Aaden must have appreciated since he knows had
afraid I am of knives. "So I'm going to cut them off." He whimpered.
"Don't move, or I'll make a mistake." Cutting the soft silken cloth off
of his torso and legs wasn't difficult, although he did tremble a lot
as I did so. "There," I said. "That's better."

I walked around behind him, ran my hands over his now-naked ass, and
then dropped two slashing strikes to each calf. He moaned, throwing
himself at the limits of his restraints.

"Stop squirming!" I barked. Two more to his thighs. "Okay, that's it,"
I said. "Blindfold and collar him."

"No..." he whimpered pitifully. I hit him on the shoulder, a powerful
triple-tap. "Shut up," I said.

I have to admit, he looked really cute tied up like that. And I hadn't
drawn blood yet, which was something I have to watch out for, since
I can't actually see his fell through his thick fur. "You know, my
favorite skunk love, I was going through my old diaries and journals, and
I noticed a few things. I still owe you, dear, I owe you lots. I never did
get back at you for that first scene, back at Michael's Underground." I
turned to make sure the one person I most needed for this scene, other
than Aaden of course, was really here. "I know what you hate, Aaden. And
I know what you fear." I smiled, then snapped my fingers. "Rope."

A length of rope was placed in my hands by a tall, smiling Felinzi. I
reached down in front of Aaden's throat and threaded the rope through
a small D-ring. I pulled his huge, bushy tail up and out of the way,
making access to his anus much easier to reach, tied three loops of rope
around it and secure the two ends of the rope together with a half-hitch
knot and panic loop.

The four mels who had helped me secure him in the first place now slid
a wide, square platform up behind Aaden, and then he whimpered loudly as
he felt two broad, feline feet land to each side of his shoulders. Then
he felt the warm, broad body lay against his back. He whimpered louder,
crying almost. "We all have our fears, Aaden."

"Not a 'taur," he whispered. "Please, Ken, not a 'taur."

"It's only a Ssphynx, Aaden," I replied. I looked down under the length
of their bodies. "Where it counts, a small one even. It's not like I
asked full-sized Centaur." I chuckled.

"Please, no."

"Give me a good reason," I demanded.

"They're so... big, and... powerful. Please, Ken, it's too much, he's
going to be too much." Although I couldn't see them, I knew there were
tears behind that blindfold.

I looked down at him, grabbed his muzzle and pulled up roughly. Even
blindfolded, he had to know I was staring at him. "You listen, and you
listen good. I take 'taurs all the time. You're just weak, Aaden."

"I am not!" He shouted. "I have..."

"You have what?" I snarled. "That's it," I said, looking up at Ssphynx.
"You," I said, pointing to the Felinzi male who had handed me the rope
and the knife, now standing at the other end of the table, "do the
aiming. And you," I said to the Ssphynx, "Take him."

The Felinzi reached underneath the Ssphynx, and there was a moment of
silence. The Ssphynx backed up slightly, and then with cautious thrust
pushed into Aaden. Aaden bucked, thrashing and screaming. "Were you...
unready, Aaden?" I chided him. "That's quite a bludgeon you've got
inside you."

"It hurts," he moaned. "Please, Ken, take him out. Order him out."

"Order him out?" I asked loudly, dropping to me knees until I was a cent
from his nose. "Are you going to make it?" I whispered, concerned. "You
have a safeword, you know."

"I don't... I don't know..." he said. "It's not... not too far. I've
taken more," he whispered back. "This is just so... unlike you."

I stood up and smiled, smoothing the fur on the top of his head. "Benefit
of good training," I said, returning to a volume the audience could hear.
"Fuck him harder," I said to the Ssphynx.

I slid a hand under his throat, feeling the table move with each thrust,
feeling his howls and moans slide past underneath my palm, feeling his
heart beat faster and his veins pulse harder. Feeling his body react to
the obscene, indignant violation. I smiled, and tapped the Ssphynx on
the forepaw. "Hold up," I said.

"Aaden," I smiled, "You are in a public space, tied down naked with 80
people staring at you." He moaned softly. "A Ssphynx is perched above
and fills your asshole. And I'll let you in on a little secret. Your
Ssphynx friend is female, and wearing a dildo."

He raised his head slowly, as if to stare at me through the leather blind,
and shook it, stunned. All he could manage was a whisper, "No..."

"Yes!" Trianna growled, bucking her haunches once to drive the dildo
deeper into Aaden's tortured guts. He howled and threw himself about
with such force the oaken table creaked under his efforts.

"That's right, Aaden," I snarled, grabbing his jaw again. "You're getting
fucked by a fem, dear, and for her pleasure. Like I said, you don't have
to like it, you just have to take it."

"Please... Ken... "

"Uh-uh," I said. "Trianna, put him in his place."

"No!" he shouted hoarsely, screaming and shaking the walls as Trianna put
her hips into it, fucking his ass mercilessly. This went on for a while;
I stood back to appreciate the sight of her soft, feminine body, outlined
in grey and yellow fur, bucking against his very solid and masculine one,
his skunk's pattern of black and white fur waving back and forth with
every stroke. Around her hips were the black straps of the harness,
and from the sides I could see the dildo dangling from it and sliding
between his solid, furry buttocks. I wished for photographs. They were
beautiful together.

I tapped Trianna on the paw again. "Out," I said simply, smiling at her.
She nodded, grinning back, and slid out of him. Aaden shuddered as
the dildo slid out and dropped down. I smiled and stepped into place
behind his trembling body, slowly pulling the zipper down on my pants
and tugging out my own erection. With enough lubricant from Trianna's
dildo already coating his entire butt and matting down his fur, I had
no trouble sliding into him. He whimpered gently, but I stretched out
over him and whispered, "It's okay, lover... It's just me."

He nodded briefly, whimpering softly as I fucked him; his asshole was
already quite stretched out from Trianna's dildo, and I wasn't getting
much friction. But for both of us, being on the receiving end of one
another is strictly pleasure. I wasn't going to lose my hardness, and
he wasn't going to tell me to stop. I looked down to see my cock sliding
into his hole, my hips getting as slick as his cheeks with the overdose of
lubricant sliding between us. He was wonderfully warm, wonderfully sweet.

I was surprised that my orgasm came at all, but there it was. Growing
within me, alive and awake. I was a little angry at him still, and I think
even that fed my growing climax. I grasped his hips and began slamming
him hard; the audience seemed to fade into the background, going further
and further away until finally I buried my cock inside him and I came,
feeling not just my sex but my entire body pulse in time with him,
his fears and his heartbeat. I sighed gently, laying down atop him and
holding him, wrapping my arms around him.

From lying atop him, I looked up at one of the many people watching and
said, "Untie him."

People moved in from all angles to do as I had asked; it took less than
a minute for him to be free. I stood up, feeling my cock slide out of
him; I put it back in my pants and pulled up the zipper, pretending as
if nothing had just happened. He was lying atop the table, unmoving.

It was almost over. I grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and hauled
him viciously off the table, dropping him to his knees on the floor
in front of me. He seemed barely able to move. "Kiss my boot, Aaden,"
I said helpfully.

He was still unmoving. I slammed two painful strikes against his ass,
then pressed the tip of the crop to the back of his neck and growled,
"Kiss my boot, Aaden, or so help me I'll give you a reason to fear." I
shoved one forward under his nose.

He moved, then, slowly leaning forward. His thick, pink tongue reached
out from his muzzle to slide along the toe of my boot, cleaning the hard
black leather with his spit. He seemed to get into it, wrapping his arms
around my legs; I had to grab the table for balance as he leaned over
and worshipped at my feet, kissing and licking my boots. I smiled and
pressed my boot forward, under his chin, and lifted his face to look at
me. With a smile I reached down and pulled off the blindfold. He looked
up at me; there was wetness staining the lambswool within the blindfold,
and more on the fur about his eyes. "Thank me," I said gently.

His muzzle moved to form the words "Thank you," but no sounds came out.

"Thank me correctly," I said. This was the end of the scene, and my
voice lost it's 'toppish' quality. I was just me again.

He found his voice then. "What more do you want?" he asked, reaching up
and grabbing for my belt; I let him pull me to the ground, into his lap.
"Oh, Ken, thank you so much. Thank you so much; I love you so much." I
wrapped my arms around him as he began laughing and crying at the same
time. He was no longer my submissive, no longer my bottom... he was just
my friend, my lover. I held him tight until he got most of the crying out
of his system, then slowly stood up, reaching down a hand to help him up
as well. He took it, and together we pulled him into a standing position.
I gave him a hug, and then we turned to face the people watching us.

A completely spontaneous explosion of applause broke out, a seemingly
honest expression of admiration and respect for what we had just done. I
beamed a wide smile, and so did Aaden; then he seemed to lose balance,
and sagged back to sit on the table. "Trianna! Get me some water."

She responded quickly, and I pressed the flagon into his hands. He
downed it quickly, and from a large wooden pitcher Trianna refilled
it. He half-drained that one too, then looked up me, water dripping off
his muzzle. "You look silly, lover," I said.

He laughed. "No thanks to you," he said. "You've got lube all over your
silks," he said, touching my shirt.

"Oh, well... they needed to be cleaned anyway."

Kathy had been one of the many observers, obviously as we'd been using
"her little girl" as one of the major props in tonight's scene. She
walked over and said "That was incredible."

"Thank you," I said, reaching out to beep her nose playfully. For some
reason, that seemed to have become the gesture of affection on board.

"It really was. But, uhm, Aaden? Are you up for something?"

"Depends. What is it?"

"Think you can give Trianna a hug?" she asked, leaning in quietly to
whisper, "And when you've got her, don't let go."

He nodded. "I think I can do that. Gimme a few minutes, though?"

She smiled "Thanks."

"Just let me recover some more," he said, finishing off the water he had
and holding his flagon out for a refill, which Trianna carefully gave him.

"Trianna," I said after a time when I thought Aaden looked good enough
to go on, "Come here."

"Yes, Master," she addressed me correctly.

"Give Aaden a hug, and thank him for the evening."

She smiled wide and reached out her arms. Aaden hopped off the table to
wrap his muscular arms around her, locked his wrists together behind her
humanoid half and held her in place. "Don't move, child," Kathy snarled
gently in her ear.

"D... Daddy?"

Kathy ran her hand gently down Tria's humanoid back, then along the more
animal 'taur half until she reached her croup, stroking her tail softly.
People were pointing at them, noticing that something had started up
again by our table. "You made a mistake, Trianna. Ken told you to be
silent for the scene."

"I... I thought..."

"Yes, Trianna?"

"I thought that was so he wouldn't know it was me."

I chuckled darkly and answered her unspoken question. "It was so he
wouldn't know it was a female. But your order was to stay silent through
the whole thing unless told otherwise. Ken didn't say you could speak
after he knew who you were."

Kathy continued, "You made a mistake. And mistakes need to be punished."

"Yes... Daddy."

Kathy reached up to scratch her gently between her ears. "You're learning.
Now then, Trianna, you've only been my child for four weeks now. So we're
going to be gentle tonight. Two punishments. Are you ready to hear them?"

She didn't turn to look, which was good. She just nodded silently,
then said, "Yes, Ma'am."

"Your first punishment is that you will take ten swats from me, right
here, and right now. That is why Aaden is holding you." She walked around
behind Tria and took careful aim at her croup, then brought the riding
crop down with all the strength she could muster. Tria yelped.

She took each blow slowly, carefully, and very forcefully. I guess she
wanted Tria to absorb each one, to feel each one; a common enough rhythm
of punishment. By her fourth Trianna's four feet were prancing with pain
and avoidance. By the sixth she was openly sobbing, and by the tenth
she couldn't help her screaming.

Kathy straddled her body from behind, tapping Aaden on the shoulder to
give her room; he backed away. She held her up, nuzzling her soft ears
and kissing the back of her neck. "Good girl," she whispered softly. "You
took your punishment like a good girl."

"D... Daddy?" she moaned back softly.

"Yes, Trianna?"

"What is my second punishment, Daddy?"

"There is no second punishment, Trianna. I've decided one is enough
tonight."

"Thank you, thank you, Daddy," she said, nuzzling Kathy as she said it.

"To home with you, then, Trianna. I'll see you when I get there." Kathy
got off of Trianna's back and swatted her behind with her hand. "Go."

She nodded, walking slowly and with head bowed out the door.

Aaden whistled low. "You've only been with her four weeks? Wow. I'm
impressed."

Kathy nodded. "She a remarkable person. It's rare I meet someone as
tough as she is. Or as fragile."

Aaden nodded, wrapping his arms around me as he talked. "I know I was
never that strong, in the beginning." He laid his muzzle on my shoulder
and sighed, "I love you, Ken. Thank you."

"Promise you won't ignore me quite so much?"

"I promise," he said softly. Then his paw slid up under my hair and
closed. Not enough to make me fall to a kneel, but enough to remind
me of which the energy in our relationship usually flowed. "Next time,
though..." he growled gently, letting go.

I laughed. "Next time, lover."

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


Original document is available from:
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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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