F L O T S A M
By Leem
June 1999 - February 2000
Author's note: some of the concepts in this story were inspired by Margaret St.
Clair's 1953 story "Thirsty God" (reprinted in Change the Sky and Other Stories,
Ace Books, Inc., 1974). The use I have made of those concepts is however
original, and no plagiarism is intended.
The name Zairbhreena is used by kind permission of Cobalt Jade
(http://members.aol.com/cobaltjade), author of the erotic Arabian Nights saga,
"The Tale of Lassok and Zairbhreena".
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
IT would never have happened, Alyssa reflected (on those increasingly rare
occasions when she was able to think clearly), if she and Jenette hadn't been so
impatient. If only they had avoided that shortcut through the Adumreb
Tetrahedron they would have arrived safely on Planet Galatea. Did it really
matter that they would have missed Festival? Another five years didn't seem such
a long time to wait, considering where their hurry had gotten them. If only...
but now, of course, it was far too late to do anything about it.
"L OOK at these figures," Alyssa had said on that fateful day. "I knew we
shouldn't have left things to the last minute. I've been checking those
navigational readings your genius brother gave us, and it turns out his figures
are off by twelve days. Twelve days, Jen! Festival will practically be over by
the time we get to Galatea."
Jenette could feel Alyssa's frustration building like a storm cloud. "Are you
sure?" she asked. "I could have sworn -"
"Yes, I'm sure," said Alyssa, "and right now I could swear at that idiot
Jennoth."
"Hey, come on, don't talk about my brother like that," muttered Jenette "If it
hadn't been for Jennoth we'd never have had the creds to hire this ship."
"I could have found someone else to give us the loan for the ship, and a decent
navigation computer," growled Alyssa.
It was an old argument, and one that Jenette had little chance of winning.
Alyssa and Jennoth were simply two of those people who would never get along.
Oil and water.
"I could almost suspect him of doing this deliberately," said Alyssa, "But even
he wouldn't be so crass as to ruin Festival for you. Not even to spite me." She
sighed. "No, it's just his incompetence that's ruined it for us this time."
Her anger was understandable. Festival was the greatest spectacle in this part
of the galaxy. Legend had it that it began as a victory celebration after an
ancient war. The war was long forgotten, but the celebration had developed and
expanded to encompass practically the whole of human endeavour. Festival was
fourteen days and nights of song and dance, theatre, poetry, sporting
tournaments, feats of endurance, acrobatics, florronism, storytelling, food and
wine, fantastic illusions, light sculptures, zero gravity ballet,
dropvaulting... and, of course, the one thing without which Festival would not
be Festival: sex! Sex, sex and more sex. Real, virtual, human, android,
heterosexual, homosexual and everything in between. Every conceivable taste
would be catered for (as well as several inconceivable tastes).
And Jenette and Alyssa were going to miss it.
"Well, at least we'll make it in time for Final Day, won't we?" said Jenette.
"Maybe," Alyssa replied, "but by then all the best places and accommodation will
be taken. And so will the best men. We'll probably end up watching Final Day on
holovid, and even with full-sense reception that's still no substitute for the
real thing."
Jenette sighed. Alyssa was clearly determined to turn this crisis into a major
sulk. The fact that both women had telepathic abilities had the potential to
make the situation much worse. Their irritation with each other would be
transmitted and retransmitted and fed back until, by the time they reached
Galatea, the atmosphere on board their small ship would be intolerable. (For
that matter, the literal atmosphere would also be quite stale. Because they had
not foreseen the extra time, they had not stocked sufficient air recycler
filters to last the additional twelve days.) "Look," she said, in the most
conciliatory tone she could muster, "are you sure there isn't some way we can
make up the time? No wormholes or anything that Jennoth might have missed?"
"Don't you think I've already - ?" snapped Alyssa, then sighed. "All right, I'll
check again, but don't hold out too much hope. The only time your brother
doesn't make mistakes is when I'm counting on him to make them."
Oh well, thought Jenette, at least re-checking the navigation programs would
keep Alyssa occupied for a while. Leaving her friend to her calculations,
Jenette took a shower. At least the water recyclers had no shortage of filters.
By the time Jenette returned to the bridge, Alyssa's fury seemed to have abated
somewhat. "I think I've got something," she said. "Take a look at this chart."
"You know I'm hopeless at reading navigation charts," said Jenette. "What am I
supposed to be looking at?"
"Here. This yellow line represents our course. Here's the Seabright System where
we set off, and over here is Galatea."
"All right. So?"
Alyssa sighed. "Look, the shortest distance between two points is a straight
line, right? But as you can see, our trajectory twists and turns all over the
place. Most of those detours are designed to avoid navigational hazards like
stars and black holes, but right here there's a wide curve that takes us around
a huge region of empty space."
"Wait a minute," said Jenette. "You're not suggesting that Jennoth added an
unnecessary detour just to slow us up? You said yourself he wouldn't ruin
Festival for me deliberately."
"Well, no, but maybe he thought he was doing it for your own safety."
"What do you mean? You said there are no hazards in that part of space."
"That's right, there aren't," said Alyssa. "Looks like he was just being
superstitious."
"Superstitious?" said Jenette. "There's only one 'superstition' I can think of
that would be relevant. You're talking about the Adumreb Tetrahedron!"
"Yes," said Alyssa, "the so-called ships' graveyard. The only reason Jennoth
routed us around that part of space is that it's on the edge of where the
Tetrahedron is supposed to be. If we fly straight through it we'll shave eleven
days off our journey and be home for the second day of Festival. We'll miss
Opening Day, but we can still catch all the main events." "And all the best
men," she added telepathically, accompanying the words with a suitably risqué
image.
"But the danger - " Jenette protested.
"What danger? I told you, it's nothing but superstition. I can't blame Jennoth
for wanting to protect you - come to think of it, that's about the only thing I
can't blame him for - but there's really nothing to be afraid of."
"I don't know," said Jenette. "What about all those ships that disappeared
there?"
"Oh, come on, Jenette. Don't you know that over three thousand ships pass
through the region every year and never report the slightest trouble? This whole
'ships' graveyard' thing is just a myth."
"Are you sure? What about the Ocean Gypsy and the Zairbhreena? Those ships were
on routine missions inside the Adumreb Tetrahedron, and they vanished without a
trace. No wreckage. Nothing. They just stopped transmitting, as if they'd fallen
into a black hole."
"Those ships vanished over two hundred years ago," said Alyssa. "Spacecraft were
more primitive in those days. Hyperspace technology was in its infancy. There
were a million and one things that could have gone wrong. The fact that they
both disappeared in the same region of space is just a coincidence. There
certainly aren't any black holes in there."
"They weren't the only ships to vanish," said Jenette. "I once scanned a
telepathic article on the Galactic Mysteries grapevine site, that said over
three hundred ships have vanished there in the past two centuries."
"So that's, what, three ships every two years, out of six thousand? I bet if you
looked at any part of the inhabited universe the figures would be the same."
Alyssa sighed. "Look, Jen, I promise you that nothing will happen to us if we
take this shortcut. We'll arrive on Galatea in plenty of time to see the best of
Festival, and we'll sit on the balcony drinking Chivrian cocktails with a couple
of good-looking men," (she projected an image of the scene into Jenette's mind),
"and we'll laugh at Jennoth for being so superstitious."
"Well... I'm still not sure about this...."
Alyssa sighed once more. "All right, look, we need to decide within forty-three
hours if we're going to make the necessary course correction. It's getting late
now. Why don't we sleep on it?"
Although they shared sleeping quarters Jenette and Alyssa had separate beds,
having never felt the urge to make their friendship a more intimate one.
Besides, as Alyssa had pointed out, there would be lots of attractive young men
on Galatea during Festival.
YEARS later, Jenette could not recall just how Alyssa had persuaded her to agree
to take the shortcut. Perhaps Alyssa was a telepathic influencer and did not
realise it. In any case, her powers of persuasion were to have unexpected
consequences.
Precisely forty-three hours after their original argument, Alyssa entered the
course correction that would take the ship through the Adumreb Tetrahedron, and
ten days later they entered the legendary ships' graveyard.
"There," said Alyssa, waving a hand in the direction of the featureless
viewscreen. "You see? Nothing. Just empty space."
Jenette was still nervous. "Alyssa, have you ever wondered why it's so empty? I
mean, there are no stars or planets for tens of light years. That can't be
normal."
Alyssa made an impatient sound. "The matter in this region was probably
dispersed by a supernova shock wave millions of years ago. There's nothing
supernatural about it."
"Well, I just hope you're right," muttered Jenette, "but I just can't help
feeling nervous about it."
Alyssa sighed yet again. She had been over the same argument with Jenette tens
of times and had grown profoundly weary of her friend's irrational fears. Even
so, she persisted: "Jenette, there is nothing out there. That means there's
nothing that can harm us. No asteroids, no black holes, no nasty alien warships
bristling with neutron cannon. We are perfectly safe, and we'll be on Galatea
before you know it." She leant back in her seat and stretched her arms. "I'm
already there in my mind's eye. We're both strolling down Central Promenade with
a half-naked asteroid miner on each arm. And I'm sorry to have to break this to
you, but my two are a lot better than yours."
"Maybe," Jenette began, "but that's assuming we ever -"
"That's it," snapped Alyssa. "I'm going to the cabin. You can stay here and look
at the nothing that's threatening us out there. You can call me if there's any
trouble, but you won't, because there won't be any."
Later that night, shortly after Alyssa had turned in, Jenette entered the cabin
and began undressing quietly. Good, thought Alyssa, at least she has enough
courage to leave the ship on auto. Now we can both get a good night's sleep.
She was wrong.
SHORTLY after midnight, ship time, Jenette and Alyssa were woken by strident
alarms. Hastily pulling on some clothes they raced to the bridge.
The region of space ahead of the ship no longer looked placid and empty. The
stars in the distance appeared to swirl and dance. It seemed their light was
being warped by something in the ship's path - something that could not be seen
clearly, but which seemed to be drawing the ship toward it.
"What is it?" cried Jenette. "Is it a black hole?"
"I'm not sure," said Alyssa. "I've never seen anything like it, not even in a
training holovid. Hold tight, I'm going to try to reverse away from it."
The ship lurched violently.
"Oh, God," said Jenette. "You know, this reminds me of an old flatscreen vid
series from the Dark Ages - the Twentieth Century or thereabouts. There was this
ship with a female captain and it got lost and was trying to find its way back
home and it seemed like every episode they'd encounter some strange glowing
cloud and debate whether they should explore it and every time they did they'd
get into trouble and escape by the skin of their teeth and then next time they'd
just go and do it all over again - "
"Stop it," Alyssa projected. "You're getting hysterical. You're rambling." With
an effort, she projected "CALM" at Jenette. "And do try to remember to breathe
when you talk."
The ship lurched once more. "I'm glad I insisted on having seatbelts installed,"
muttered Alyssa.
"Never mind seatbelts," said Jenette, "couldn't they have fitted some kind of
anti-nausea device?"
"Hold on to your dinner if you can," said Alyssa, "I'm going to have another
try."
The ship tossed and turned like a leaf in a tornado, but try as she might Alyssa
was unable to break the ship free from the anomaly's gravity. Jenette's dinner,
by contrast, was doing its very best to escape the gravitational pull of her
stomach.
"It's no use," said Alyssa. "We're headed straight for it."
With an almost superhuman effort, Jenette managed to control her nausea. "I knew
this was a bad idea," she muttered. "I just knew it."
Alyssa was forced to admit that she was right. There had been something
dangerous in the Adumreb Tetrahedron all along. If only she hadn't been so
impatient... but all she said to Jenette was, "There'll be plenty of time for
recriminations later. If we survive this." The ship lurched once more. Jenette
and Alyssa felt as if space were being pulled inside out, themselves along with
it....
ALYSSA was woken by the sound of more blaring alarms, and by Jenette yelling in
her ear and her mind simultaneously.
""Lyss! Lyss! Wake up! Wake up, Lyss, we're going to crash! I can't land the
ship!""
For a moment Alyssa was confused. "Land? But there are no planets out he - " But
as soon as she looked up and saw what Jenette had seen she was forced to revise
her opinion.
There was a planet, and they were headed straight for it. It was already close
enough to fill the forward viewscreen.
"Shit," Alyssa muttered. She was already frantically working the controls.
"Where the hell did that come from? We're less than a thousand kilometres from
its surface. We're already experiencing atmospheric friction. It's too late to
pull away. Hold tight, I'm going to try for an emergency landing."
"What do you mean, try?" demanded Jenette. "Don't just try! Land!"
Alyssa did her best. The small ship was buffeted wildly by atmospheric
turbulence, and friction produced an alarming red glow in the viewscreen. At the
same time the planet's rocky surface was approaching at an alarming rate.
Jenette was convinced that they were about to be killed, but although she could
not prevent some of her fear from leaking out, she managed to keep silent and
allow Alyssa to wrestle with the controls.
After several minutes of this, Alyssa said, "Altitude one thousand metres. I
think we're past the worst of it. All I have to do now is find us a landing
site."
The ship was still rocking like a wild equinoid, but at least it was flying
horizontally. And they were flying by daylight. A pale orange sun was
penetrating the clouds. "Look, there," said Jenette, scarcely daring to believe
their luck. "Just past those mountains, I thought I saw a flat plain."
"I think you're right," said Alyssa. "Let's take a closer look."
As the ship flew over the mountain ridge, Jenette's observation was confirmed.
There was a broad plain stretching for tens of kilometres in every direction,
its featureless grey surface broken only by what seemed to be sparse vegetation
and a number of small rectangular structures that almost seemed too regular to
be natural formations.
"We're safe!" Alyssa exclaimed. "All we have to do is make a nice soft lan - "
But even as she spoke, a sudden violent eddy caught the ship and hurled it
toward the ground. Fortunately for Jenette and Alyssa, the ship's emergency
stasis generator activated, saving them from potentially fatal injury. An
omniscient observer would have seen the two women freeze like statues at the
controls, remaining rigid and immobile as the ship struck the ground and skidded
for hundreds of metres. But they of course knew nothing of this, until the ship
came to a standstill and the field was deactivated.
" - ding...?" said Alyssa. For a moment she was confused by the sudden change in
their circumstances, but soon figured out what had happened.
So did Jenette. "The stasis field must have come on," she said. "I think we're
down."
Some people, thought Alyssa, have an absolute genius for stating the obvious.
Biting back a retort, she began to check the ship's systems for damage. "Well,"
she said after a few moments, "under the circumstances, things could have been
worse. The hull's intact, apart from some minor heat damage and some dents. The
engines are damaged, which means we won't be going anywhere for a while - "
"What do you mean, a while?" Jenette demanded. "How long exactly?"
"Don't panic," said Alyssa (yet again). "A day or two at most. The self-repair
system's already begun to operate. And there's more good news. There's nothing
wrong with life support - at least we still seem to be breathing." Jenette
seemed unamused by this quip. Alyssa continued. "The sensors aren't damaged. We
even landed right side up. Hey, look at that! This planet has a breathable
atmosphere! If the bioscans don't show up any harmful organisms we'll be able to
refresh our air supply. And if it's got fresh air it's bound to have fresh water
as well. I'm telling you, girl, we must have the luck of the devil."
"Maybe, but - " Jenette faltered as Alyssa shot her a withering glance, but
pressed on: " - just where in the universe are we?"
"Well, by my calculations we were about six days from the other side of the
Tetrahedron, but I can get a more exact fix from the pulsar detector."
Pulsars could be found throughout the galaxy. They were tiny but massive
spinning neutron stars, which emitted rapid radio pulses in time with their
rotation. Each set of pulses had a characteristic frequency, which meant that
pulsars could be used as precise navigational beacons.
"Since we're on the ground we'll only be able to scan above the horizon, a
little less than one hemisphere because of the mountains, but that'll be more
than enough to give us an accurate fix."
But after a few minutes she muttered, "This is weird."
"What is?" demanded Jenette, who seemed eager to pounce on any tidbit of bad
news.
"Just look at these readings."
"Lyss, I can't read the readings, remember? Just tell me what they say. Please?"
Another sigh. "All right. Basically, what they say is that there are no pulsars
where they should be, and lots where there shouldn't."
"But that's impossible," Jenette protested.
"You're telling me?" said Alyssa.
"Are you sure the chart hasn't just got turned upside down or something?"
With an effort, Alyssa managed to control her impatience. "Jenette, the first
thing the scanner does is rotate the previous set of pulsar readings through
three hundred and sixty degrees in every direction in order to find a match with
the latest data. The system is as close to infallible as it's possible to get.
And what it's telling me right now is that we are not in any known region of
space. I don't understand it! How could we lose an entire universe? I mean,
you'd think it would be too big to miss!"
"Maybe we didn't lose it," muttered Jenette. "Maybe it lost us."
"What do you mean?"
"That thing that we fell through... I think it was a space warp or something.
That's why there were no stars or planets in the Adumreb Tetrahedron. It
swallowed them all up. Including this one, I guess. And all those missing ships.
And us too."
"So what are you saying?" Asked Alyssa. "That we're in some other part of the
universe or something?"
"Either that, or maybe we're in some other universe altogether.
"That's ridiculous."
"Is it? I thought that's what the instruments were telling you. Unless you've
got a better theory."
Alyssa had no answer to that. For several minutes neither woman spoke. Jenette
sat staring at the viewscreen. There was little to see beside the grey plain.
One of the squat rectangular formations stood a few hundred metres from the
ship, resembling nothing so much as one of those hideous examples of dark age
architecture - a twentieth century office block.
Suppose, Jenette thought, just suppose it really is a building... but that was
surely absurd. The planet appeared to exhibit no sign of intelligent life. Even
so, she felt a strange curiousity about the object which kept drawing her gaze
back toward it. This is ridiculous, she thought. It's just a big square rock.
Probably shaped by the wind or something. But still her eyes were drawn to it
like iron to a magnet. Finally she turned to Alyssa and said, "Lyss... you said
the atmosphere's breathable, right?"
"That's right. It's actually a lot fresher than the crap we're breathing right
now. Like I said, if the scanners don't show any harmful life forms I'm going to
replenish the onboard air tanks from it."
"Well, in that case," ventured Jenette, "do you think we could go outside?
Maybe... explore a little?"
"Now wait a minute," said Alyssa. "I thought you were the cautious one. We don't
know what might be out there. After what we've been through already, you're
still willing to take that kind of risk?"
"I thought you were the adventurous one," retorted Jenette. "And you're the one
who said there wasn't any danger in the Adumreb Tetrahedron, so don't talk to me
about caution!"
For a while Alyssa did not reply. Great, thought Jenette, now she'll sulk for an
hour. But she was wrong. After some moments staring at the viewscreen, Alyssa
muttered, "I could swear that formation out there looked like almost like a
building."
"I'd accuse you of changing the subject," said Jenette, "only it's really the
same subject. I'd like to take a closer look at that structure. Just suppose it
is a building? A real alien artifact, and we could be the first to discover it!
Where's your sense of adventure now?"
"Right now my sense of adventure is asking me just what I find so compelling
about a rectangular, grey rock."
"Maybe it's because it's the only remotely interesting object out there,"
muttered Jenette.
"Well, one thing's certain. If it was built by aliens they didn't have much of a
flair for decoration."
"Yes, but just suppose it was, Lyss, just suppose. The first concrete evidence
of alien life, after humanity has been searching for all these centuries! Can
you imagine how rich we'd be? We could buy Festival!"
"Well, don't start counting your fortune yet, Jen. As far as we know it's just a
rock."
"So let's go and find out. It's the only way we'll ever know for certain.
Please, Lyss?"
Once more Alyssa spent several minutes gazing at the viewscreen. Finally she
muttered, "All right. We'll go."
Jenette could scarcely believe her friend's change of heart.
"God knows I'm doing this against my better judgement, but neither of us is
going to get any sleep until we find out for certain what that thing is." She
could not prevent a stray thought from leaking out: "And if it stops Jen's
nagging so much the better."
Although Jenette caught that, all she said was, "Thanks, Lyss. I promise you
won't regret this."
It would not be long before she realised the irony of her words.
WITHIN an hour the two women were trudging across the barren landscape, leaving
the business of repairing the ship in the "hands" of its self-maintenance
systems. The bioscanners had confirmed that the planet harboured no harmful
microorganisms, the temperature was a mild fifteen Celcius and the surface
gravity was only eighty-five percent of Galatea's. So the journey of a few
hundred metres over flat terrain would hardly be a strenuous one. Casually
dressed and wearing sturdy boots they proceeded toward the rectangular
formation. As they approached it it remained as grey and featureless as it had
from the ship, but they felt a subtle yet irresistible compulsion to inspect it
more closely. Yet when they arrived at the object they could find no sign of
intelligent construction. To all intents and purposes it was just a rock
formation. Profoundly disappointed, Alyssa was about to suggest returning to the
ship when she felt Jenette's mental cry: "Over here, Lyss! I've found
something!"
It was an opening. Tall, perfectly rectangular and located in the exact centre
of the broad grey wall, it could not possibly have been the result of natural
erosion.
"My God," said Alyssa. "You were right. It's a pity we couldn't find something a
bit more impressive, but it's definitely artificial and it's not human. As soon
as the ship's fixed and we've found our way back to our own part of space, we'll
have to report this to the nearest Science Foundation bureau... hey, wait! Where
are you going?"
"Inside, where else?" projected Jenette. "That's why I brought a biolamp. I
figured if we were going to investigate a squillion year old alien building, we
might find they hadn't left the light on."
By this time Jenette was already inside. Alyssa saw no choice but to follow and
try to keep her out of mischief.
The inside of the formation - or building, as they must now call it - was almost
as featureless as the exterior, but the biolamp showed up faintly coloured
geometric markings on the otherwise featureless walls.
"Not much of an artifact," muttered Alyssa.
"I can still sense something about it, though," said Jenette.
"Yeah, me too. I could have sworn we'd find something in here. I don't know why,
I just had this - "
" - Feeling. Yes, I had it too. Well, maybe there is something here, but
underground. There could be lots of chambers beneath this one."
As it happened, she was quite right. In fact, at that moment strange machines
were stirring far beneath their feet. They had been observing the ship ever
since it began its approach to the planet. For centuries they had awaited the
return of their masters, and although Jenette and Alyssa were of the wrong
species the machines had no way of knowing that. As soon as the ship landed,
they had turned on their telepathic beacon. To the original builders of the
mysterious edifice the beacon was simply a directional signal, but upon Jenette
and Alyssa it produced a subtle but ultimately irresistible compulsion.
And so they had come. And the devices beneath the floor were prepared to go to
work on them.
Once they were certain that their occupants had come to stay, the machines began
to emit another telepathic signal, one that worked exactly as it was designed to
do. Alyssa just had time to see Jenette slump to the floor, the biolamp falling
at her side, before she too fell unconscious.
Once both humans were completely dormant the machines began to scan their
bodies. It had been a great many years since they last had a subject to work on,
but they had no sense of time. Jenette and Alyssa were not quite what the
machines were used to, but after pondering the matter for some while they
decided that they fell within the range of acceptable variation. After a brief
pause the scanners transferred their biological data to the building's
processing mechanisms, which set to work with mechanical efficiency. A few hours
later, their tasks completed, the processors - perhaps feeling a certain
mechanical satisfaction for a job well done - shut themselves down. The process
was of course never designed to work on humans, but by the time the women
realised the. full extent of its side effects it would be far too late to do
anything about them
JENETTE woke feeling stiff and dehydrated. She regretted not bringing any water
with her. She must have been lying on the hard stone floor for hours. The
biolamp was still lit, lying on the floor where it had fallen. Nearby, Alyssa
was also stirring. When Jenette sat up her clothing felt strangely tight, and
her boots were hurting her feet. Then she noticed her hands. Her sleeves were
several centimetres above her wrists, but that was not the most astonishing
thing she saw. "Lyss!" she projected urgently. "Lyss, wake up! Something strange
is happening!"
Alyssa was instantly awake. "What's wrong?" she said. "Hey, why are my clothes
so tigh - " Then she saw Jenette, and could only stare in astonishment. "My God,
Jen! You've turned blue!"
"I know. So have you."
It was true. Their hands and faces, even their hair and fingernails, had turned
a uniform shade of aquamarine. Only their eyes were unaffected. "This is
impossible," said Alyssa. "Hair and nails are dead tissue. Even if something
changed our skin pigmentation somehow, our hair and fingernails wouldn't have
been affected. We must have been drugged or something. We're hallucinating."
"I don't know about that," said Jenette. "You seem as lucid as ever."
"You want lucid? All right. We're leaving. Right now!" And with that Alyssa
leapt to her feet. There was a sound of tearing cloth, then a sickening thud as
her head struck the stone ceiling.
When Alyssa came to once more the first thing she saw was Jenette's blue face
hovering above her own. "Good, you're awake," said Jenette. "Don't try to get up
yet. You hit your head on the ceiling."
"But the ceiling's more than two metres high," muttered Alyssa.
"Well, so are you now. And me. I can't explain it, but somehow while we were
unconscious we turned into... blue giants. And you thought a blue giant was a
kind of star, right?"
"You shouldn't joke about this. We have no way to tell the full extent of these
changes. They might be dangerous. We should get back to the ship right away and
take a full medscan."
"All right, but you should rest a bit before you try to move. That was a bad
bump." Jenette put a hand to Alyssa's forehead. "That's strange," she muttered.
"There's no lump there. Does it hurt?"
"Now that you mention it, no. This is getting weirder and weirder."
"Maybe blue giants just heal fast," said Jenette.
As she sat back, Alyssa noticed for the first time that Jenette was
bare-breasted. "Jen, why are you... why are we naked?"
"My clothes were too tight, and my boots were killing me. I figured yours must
be too. Anyway, you needed a pillow and your clothes were ideal for the job. We
can wrap them around us if we need to, just until we get back to the ship..."
she broke off as a spasm crossed her face.
"What's wrong?" cried Alyssa. "Are you in pain?"
"Oh... God!... no," gasped Jenette. "Just the opposite. I just suddenly..
felt... incredibly... horny!" By way of demonstration, Jenette had begun to
stroke her clitoris. And even as Jenette had spoken Alyssa realised she was also
becoming aroused. Sensuously; intensely; irresistibly.
All thought of danger forgotten, they could do nothing but pleasure themselves.
As time went on, their ardour only increased. No matter how intense their
orgasms, they still needed more. After a while they began to share their
sensations telepathically, but in the end the only thing that could satisfy
their aching need was physical contact. And so, although neither of them had
ever had sex with a woman before, Jenette and Alyssa found themselves making
frenzied love to each other. For hours their passion grew, their orgasms
becoming more frequent and intense until they seemed to blend into a single
continuous blaze of ecstasy. They could no longer think, and could scarcely move
except to stimulate each other. Home, Festival, the Adumreb Tetrahedron, alien
artifacts... all were forgotten. The only thing they wanted was for their orgasm
to last forever. But even blue giants do not have unlimited sexual energy, and
eventually their fiery rapture faded into the embers of unconsciousness.
While the women slept, alien substances continued to course through their
bloodstreams, reacting with the huge dose of sexual hormones they had
inadvertently triggered and causing further physiological alterations.
HEIGHTENED sexual desire was a side effect that would have surprised the
designers of the biological processors. Countless millennia before, their
species had sought a new home, having almost destroyed the original. But the
best they could find was only marginally suitable for them. It was colder and
dryer and received far less health-giving ultraviolet. Any colonists would be
horribly uncomfortable and their lives would be short. Fortunately for them,
their technology provided a solution. If they could not find a planet with a
better climate, they would adapt themselves to suit this planet's. After some
years of research an automated process was developed which would adapt the
colonists to their new environment, right down to the genetic level so their
offspring would also be suited to the planet's climate. It was not long before
colonists began filtering through the biological acclimation plants that had
been set up on one of the colony's less hospitable continents. The grateful
colonists raised a small and fairly cheap memorial to the volunteers (at least,
their government claimed they were volunteers) who had been horribly killed or
crippled during the research phase. Then, leaving the automated plants to their
fate, they rebuilt their technology and began to do to their new world what they
had done to the old.
It was one of their research projects - a failed attempt to create a new type of
hyperdrive - that resulted in their planet's entire solar system, along with a
few hundred thousand others, being swallowed up by a rift in space. In the
upheaval much of their technology was destroyed, and though they did their best
to rebuild, an alarming fact soon emerged: they were beginning to forget how
their forefathers' technology worked. An unexpected side effect of the
acclimation process was that each new generation was slightly less intelligent
than the last. When they realised this they tried desperately to reverse the
trend, but to no avail. Within another thousand years their entire species had
reverted to tribalism.
Meanwhile the processing plants continued to wait patiently for new visitors.
And eventually, through the rift in space, the visitors had arrived.
JENETTE and Alyssa woke lying side by side and face to face, one arm lying
across each other's body, feeling relaxed and euphoric. Their arousal had
finally faded, though their hands were still in each other's vaginas. "Quite a
night, wasn't it, blue girl?" projected Jenette.
"That's an understatement," Alyssa replied. "It was a lot of fun, but we've
really got to get back to the ship. The medcomp can figure out what's happening
to us and maybe even reverse the process."
"Why bother to reverse it? Can't you imagine the impact a pair of horny blue
giantesses would have on Festival?" She tried to sit up. "Oh. God, I'm stiff.
We've been lying on this hard floor for too long."
Then she tried to move again, and so did Alyssa.
"That's weird," Jenette projected. "I can't seem to move my legs. They really
must have gone to sleep."
Then Alyssa felt Jenette becoming afraid.
"Oh, my God," projected Jenette. "They haven't just gone to sleep. They're
completely stiff! I can't move them at all... I can't move my arms either... I
can't sit up... I can't even turn my head... oh, God, I can't move! I'm
paralysed! I can't move! HELP ME!"
"Jen... I can't help you. I can't move a muscle either."
"What are you 'talking' about? This is no time to fool around! I really need
help here!"
"Jenette," Alyssa projected as earnestly as she could, "I'm not fooling around.
I really can't move. We both turned blue. We both got bigger. We both got horny.
And now, God help us, we're both paralysed."
She waited a moment while Jenette absorbed this. Jenette projected, "Maybe...
maybe it's just temporary, like the arousal we felt. Maybe it'll wear off in a
few hours. It can't be permanent, can it, Lyss? It can't!!!"
Alyssa realised that Jenette was in denial. "Jen," she thought, "I think this is
what happened to all the other crews that disappeared in the Tetrahedron. They
never returned because they couldn't move. I'm sorry, Jen, but I'm afraid it is
permanent."
When Jenette finally replied, her thoughts were bleak. "So we're trapped, aren't
we? We're just going to lie here until we die of thirst or starvation. Oh, God,
I'm sorry, Lyss. I should never have insisted on coming here." She wanted to
burst into tears, but couldn't even do that.
Alyssa gave the mental equivalent of a sigh. "Hey, if anyone's to blame it's me.
I was the one who wanted to take that shortcut through the Tetrahedron."
"I guess it doesn't really matter who's to blame," Jenette replied. "There's
nothing we can do about it, so there's no point in recriminations."
"Maybe it's nobody's fault," projected Alyssa. "I felt as if I was being drawn
here somehow. Maybe this place was designed to lure people here and trap them"
"But why?" asked Jenette. "And who or what would want to do anything like that?"
"I don't know. I just wish I knew what happened to the other people who came
here. We didn't find any bodies here."
"That doesn't prove anything. There are lots of these buildings scattered around
this plain. The other crews might be lying in them."
For a long while neither of them had any further comment. They continued to send
commands to their muscles, but there was never the slightest response.
After a long while a thought occurred to Jenette. "Lyss," she projected, "do you
feel thirsty?"
"No, I don't. Strange. It's been hours since I drank anything. You too?"
"I remember now. I was feeling thirsty when I woke up the first time, in fact I
was almost dying for a drink. But now I don't."
"And you don't feel hungry either?" asked Alyssa. "It's been hours since we last
ate as well."
"No, I don't. What does it mean, Lyss?"
"Well... maybe it means we won't die of hunger or thirst. Maybe something's
keeping us alive without needing food or water."
Jenette thought about this for several moments. "Does that mean we'll just lie
here paralysed for the rest of our lives?" she projected.
"You know, technically speaking, we're paretic rather than paralysed, since we
can still feel..."Alyssa sent.
"Who cares what it's called?" Jenette retorted. "Being able to feel only makes
it worse. We could be trapped here forever. Oh, God. That would be worse than
being dead. It's just like being dead, except that we're able to experience it!"
"I can't believe it could end like this," Alyssa replied.
In fact, she was right. Their adventure was far from over.
AS it turned out, Jenette and Alyssa were not the only beings who had sensed the
artifact's telepathic beacon. It had also been felt by the local residents. The
signal was a rare occurrence, and they knew that whenever they felt it, it meant
something special had happened. And so they set out to follow the beacon to its
source. (Their bodies would be of no interest to the building's processing
system, since they carried the genes of those who had already been processed.)
Several hours had passed, and in their state of sensory semi-deprivation the
women had fallen into a kind of trance. They were awakened by a noise at the
chamber entrance. Reflexively, they both tried to leap up, only to be cruelly
reminded of their frozen condition. "Lyss, what is it? Who's there? I can't
see." projected Jenette.
"I don't know," Alyssa replied. "I can't see either. I just hope to God whatever
it is isn't hostile."
After a moment, they became aware that someone, or something, was leaning over
them. It seemed quite short, even allowing for the fact that the women had
grown. Neither woman could see the creature clearly as they could not turn to
look, but in the corners of their eyes it appeared somewhat humanoid. That
didn't necessarily make it intelligent, of course.... The creature and its
fellows chattered excitedly for a few moments. Then Jenette and Alyssa felt the
creatures' hands - or paws - touching and stroking them all over, a sensation
that was both disturbing and arousing.
"Oh, God," thought Jenette, "you don't suppose they're going to rape us, do
you?"
"Actually, I was afraid they might want to eat us," replied Alyssa.
"I just hope you're joking, Lyss. Hey, you! Aliens! Can you hear me? Hello!"
If the creatures were able to receive Jenette's thoughts they gave no sign of
it. Instead they broke off their pawing and began to dance around the women,
chanting rhythmically.
"No use trying telepathy on them," projected Alyssa. "They're obviously far too
primitive." She could not have guessed, of course, that the creatures were the
descendants of a highly advanced technological species. It was a fact that they
themselves had long since forgotten.
"Now what are they doing?"
"Maybe they're preparing to sacrifice us to their gods."
Jenette had a thought. "Maybe they think we are the gods. After all, we came
from the sky, didn't we?"
"Right. And now we've been "miraculously" transformed into living idols. After
all, what could be better from a priest's point of view than a god who just sits
there and can't answer back?"
"God, now where are they taking us?"
The creatures had stopped dancing and were lifting Jenette and Alyssa onto their
shoulders like pallbearers. (For the first time in hours their hands slid out of
each others' genitals, resulting in a mild, and unfulfillable, sexual arousal.)
There were at least eight of the creatures, four to each woman, and they
continued to chatter excitedly as they turned the women face up, supporting
their arms, legs and shoulders, and carried them feet first through the doorway
into the hazy red sunlight. Their clothing and biolamp were left behind,
suggesting that the creatures had no curiosity about them. The women's heads
slumped backward, giving them an upside down view of where they had just been.
As their bearers turned past the corner of the stone edifice, they could see
their ship less than five hundred metres away. It must have finished repairing
itself and replenishing its air supply by now, and would be patiently awaiting
the return of its crew....
FOR hours the helpless women were carried across the featureless grey plain by
the small aliens. From time to time their - what could they call them? Captors?
Worshippers? - would stop, setting their burdens down gently, so they could eat
and drink. (The humans continued to feel neither hunger nor thirst. This almost
certainly confirmed Alyssa's theory that something else was sustaining them.)
Lying face-up, Jenette and Alyssa were able to get a better look at them. In the
course of several such stops they were able to build up a detailed picture of
the aliens. They seemed to be about 130 centimetres tall (compared to the women,
and assuming that they had grown to about 210 centimetres). They were certainly
humanoid in form, possessing two short, powerful legs supporting barrel-like
torsos, two long arms with what appeared to be two elbows apiece, and hands with
three long fingers and what seemed to be two thumbs, one on each side of the
palm. They wore no clothing, and the fine brown fur that covered their bodies
did nothing to conceal their large, human-like genitalia. There were both males
and females in the group, and the females also boasted big, pendulous breasts.
The aliens' faces had ferocious looking, elongated jaws with masses of small,
sharp teeth. But their large slanted eyes, although not appearing very
intelligent, did seem to display emotions other than mere savagery. Or at least
so the women profoundly hoped.Somehow, in this arid landscape the aliens managed
to locate small streams from which to drink. They ate what appeared to be strips
of dried meat, taken from shoulder pouches that looked like leather. This
suggested that there were large animals somewhere on this continent although the
women had not seen any. At any rate, the fact that they apparently had plenty of
meat was a possibly reassuring sign. Whatever they wanted the women for, it
probably wasn't as food.
As the day wore on, they were carried upward into the cooler, less arid
foothills of the mountains. Eventually a cold drizzle began to fall. To the
women it was like a subtle, exquisite form of water torture. "Where do you
suppose they're taking us?" Jenette asked, as the creatures - seemingly
unconcerned by the rain - carried them on into the deepening twilight.
"No way of knowing," Alyssa replied, "but I just hope it's somewhere warm and
sheltered. Right now I'd settle for a nice dry cave."
As the women were carried on through the night, the drizzle became colder and
more persistent, eventually turning to sleet. Apparently oblivious to the cold
and damp, the aliens marched onward and mostly upward with their living cargo.
Jenette and Alyssa were afraid they might freeze to death. But would death
really be less preferable than continued existence in this state?
As dawn finally began to break the sleet eased off a little, and in the dim
light the women began to discern what seemed to be buildings, or what might once
have been buildings. It seemed to be the ruin of an ancient city. A little later
they found themselves being carried through a grey stone tunnel. When they
emerged from the other end they seemed to be in a stadium or amphitheatre of
some kind. Several circular tiers surrounded a huge stone arena that was open to
the sky. On the far side of the arena a number of the aliens were engaged in
what might have been wrestling or a mating orgy.
"Look, Jen!" Alyssa projected. "Do you see what I see?"
The terraces surrounding the arena contained upright oval niches at regular
intervals, many of which appeared to contain blue figures.
"My God! Do you think they're other survivors, like us?" thought Jenette.
"If you call this surviving," replied Alyssa. "Hello! Can you receive me? My
name's Alyssa and this is Jenette. Please talk to us!"
By way of reply, the women received lots of confused sensory impressions, many
of them erotic, but no coherent thoughts. At least one thing was certain: they
were human.
"Why can't they reply more clearly?" sent Jenette.
"Maybe they've gone insane from being paretic for so long," replied Alyssa.
"Oh, you're a great comfort," Jenette retorted.
After a brief rest their bearers picked up the women once more and carried them
upward past the lower terraces. When they reached the fifth level they set the
women down again for a few moments. For once they were seated in an upright
position with their backs against a pillar. Jenette found herself facing one of
the niches. What she saw there astonished her. "Lyss! Look at this through my
eyes!" she projected.
The blue figure that sat helpless and paralysed in the niche was not human, nor
was it one of the natives. It was a tall, graceful and beautiful creature with
long, slender arms and legs, an angelic face with large, cat-like eyes and fine
blue hair that fell below its shoulders. Upon its forehead was a circlet, which
bore a small, glowing jewel. It was impossible to tell what colour the creature
had been originally, but Jenette could not help but imagine that its skin and
hair had been golden. It had a pair of small, pert breasts with prominent
nipples, but astonishingly it also had a remarkably long, narrow penis that
stood throbbing and solidly erect. A species in which the males suckled their
young, perhaps? Its green eyes scanned Jenette's body with quiet interest. "Can
you receive me?" Jenette projected. "I'm sure you must be intelligent. Can you
tell me who you are and where you're from?" The creature closed its eyes for a
moment, then stared intently at Jenette. She seemed to feel its thoughts
reaching out, but frustratingly could make no sense of them. She tried linking
minds with Alyssa, but no matter how they, and the alien, tried they could not
communicate. "I'm sorry," thought Jenette finally. "I know you want to talk to
us, and we'd love to talk to you. I don't know if you can understand me, but I'm
sorry this had to happen to you. You're very beautiful, at least in our eyes."
The alien closed its eyes again as if in acknowledgement. Perhaps it did
understand. And then the natives came and carried the women off again.
A few minutes later they found themselves set down again before a pair of empty
niches, which presumably were to become their new homes. At least, thought
Jenette, the overhanging tops of the niches would keep the rain off unless the
wind was blowing toward them. Chattering excitedly, their bearers departed.
Next to the vacant niches was one whose occupant certainly was human, an
attractive young woman who appeared to be in her mid-twenties. She also had a
glowing crystal fastened to her forehead. Her eyes stared fixedly ahead, and she
seemed not to notice the new arrivals. Her nipples stood firm and erect, as if
she were sexually aroused. "Can you hear me?" projected Jenette.
At that moment the crystal upon the woman's forehead faded and took on the
appearance of dull glass. "Ohhh," she projected. "They've... they've stopped.
For... a while. So... hard to... think while they're...." For the first time her
eyes moved, and she gave a long, pitying look at Jenette and Alyssa. "So it's
still... happening. It got... you too... I guess... it'll... never stop...
trapping... people. I'm... so sorry... for you. You know... you'll stay alive
without... needing food or... water, don't you? You won't urinate... defecate
or... menstruate either. It seems there's... some kind of... energy field...
keeping us... alive... almost like... we've been turned into... plants that
can... live on... air and atmospheric... moisture alone."
"Can you tell us your name?" asked Alyssa. "I'm Alyssa, and this is Jenette."
"I'm... Jade. Jade... Schreiber. I was Chief... Clerk aboard the... Zair...
Zairbhreen...a."
Jenette was astonished. "But that's impossible," she projected. "Unless there
were two ships with that name... Jade, can you remember what year you set out?"
"Yes... I think so... it's hard to... remember sometimes, but... yes, it was...
Galactic Era... 1049."
"Oh, my God," sent Alyssa. "Jade, it's currently GE 1267! If what you're saying
is true, you've been in this condition for more than two hundred years!"
"Two... hundred?... No, that can't be... hard to tell... how long, but... I kept
telling myself... it couldn't last... forever... that I was... old and...
someday I'd die... and be freed.... Two... hundred?"
The shock in Jade's eyes was tragic to behold. "Jade," projected Jenette, as
gently as she could, "How... how old were you?"
"The day... we got pulled into that... cloud, or whatever... it was... was ten
days... after my sixty... fifth birthday. I was... looking forward... to my
first... rejuve treatment... when we... got home."
"Jade, I don't know how to tell you this," thought Jenette, "but something has
rejuvenated you. You don't look a day over twenty-five. And even after being
paralysed for all this time, your muscles are still firm."
Jade gave a humourless mental laugh. "What's... the use of... having perfect
muscles... if... you can... never use them?"
That was ironic, thought Alyssa to herself. And there was another irony. The
victims of the Adumreb Tetrahedron had received a genuine immortality treatment,
and no one back home would ever know about it.
"But if... what you're saying... is true... then there... really is no...
escape, not even... death. We're... trapped here... forever.... It will...
never... end... they'll... just go on... using... us."
"Using us for what?" demanded Alyssa.
"Why... sex, of course." Jade replied. "You see... this jewel I'm... wearing.
All of us... have them. They're... some kind of... empathic amplifier... attuned
to the... native's sexual... responses. Don't know... where they... found them.
Ancient... technology, I guess...like the... things that altered... us. We...
feel the natives'... amplified sexual... sensations. When... our bodies
respond...the... jewels... feed our orgasms...to the natives... and so... it
goes... back... and forth...amplified by... the jewels... until... it's
almost... agony. The men... have been... altered somehow... they have...
permanent... giant... erections, you know. Forty... centimetres... or... more...
and we... can't touch... them... such a... waste! They... can't ejaculate... any
more... just as... well, I guess... otherwise... we'd all... drown... in it...
but... they always have... multiple... multiple orgasms. Like the... women.
There are... others here too... aliens... not sure if they're... male or...
female... hermaphrodites, maybe..."
"Yes, we saw one of those," projected Jenette.
"Right. And the more... of us... humans and... aliens there are... in the...
niches the... more intense...it gets... for the... natives. We're like gods...
to them... and... groups of them... take it in... shifts to... worship us...
sexually. Day and... night. They perform every kind of... sexual act... you
can... imagine, and we... can feel... every single... touch. Everything. It
never stops, except... for a short... while... like now. They're probably
just... waiting until... your jewels are... prepared."
SURE enough, after a few more minutes the aliens returned. They were all wearing
jewelled circlets of their own, and they carried two more. Some of them were
already masturbating or fondling each other's bodies in anticipation of what was
to come.
Picking up Alyssa and Jenette, they carefully positioned them within their
niches. The stone was shockingly cold against their bare skin, but they could
not even flinch. Their backs were completely stiff. The aliens posed them like
mannequins, facing forward with their arms by their sides. Then they placed the
jewelled torcs upon their heads, making sure the jewels touched their foreheads.
The moment they did so the women became suddenly, violently aroused. Their
breasts and genitalia were becoming more and more sensitive by the second, as if
they were growing millions of new nerve endings. The increase in sensuality did
not stop there, however, but quickly spread to their entire bodies, becoming
more and more acute until every breath of wind upon their breasts, every drop of
freezing rain on their arms and faces, felt sensuous and erotic. And on top of
that they could feel the aliens' masturbatory sensations as well.
They had long surpassed the point at which they would normally have come, but it
seemed their modified bodies now had much higher sexual thresholds. It was as if
every nerve ending from their heads to their feet had been transformed into an
erogenous zone in its own right. What was more, their senses were telepathically
fused together by the jewels. Each woman could feel everything the other felt,
which only made every sensation twice - no, more than twice - as intense. Two of
the aliens, fighting aside others for the privilege, knelt before Jenette and
Alyssa and thrust their tongues deep into the women's vaginas, while others
sucked at their nipples and still others caressed them all over. The women
wanted to hurl the wretched creatures away, but their muscles remained incapable
of the slightest movement. Over the course of the next few minutes the aliens'
tongues, lips and hands coaxed their bodies to a fever pitch of sensual arousal.
At long last they began to approach their new orgasmic thresholds. When the
first orgasm came neither woman was sure whose it was, but an intense wave of
ecstasy burst from her clitoris and rapidly spread to the rest of her body. For
several endless minutes they both felt as if every square millimetre of their
bodies were climaxing. They wanted to howl and moan and writhe with ecstasy, to
tear the jewelled circlets from their heads... but they could do nothing at all.
They could only remain mute and stiff as statues in their niches.
Over the course of the next few minutes the women came again and again and again
until they thought they would go mad from the intensity of their sensations. If
only there were something, anything, they could have done... but there was
nothing. An omniscient observer would have seen them apparently sitting calmly
with dispassionate expressions upon their faces, belying the turmoil they felt.
They were doomed to remain helpless and inanimate no matter what happened, no
matter what they were forced to endure, for the rest of their lives.
And if what Jade had told them was true, they couldn't ever die!
Eventually the creatures were called away by their fellows. Reluctantly they
removed themselves from the women's agonisingly aroused bodies, and squawked
something that might have been either obscene or reverent before departing.
Jenette and Alyssa felt a profound sense of relief, but they knew it was only to
be a brief respite.
At least their overwhelming orgasms had stopped, although their bodies remained
at an incredibly elevated sexual plateau. Any Festival visitor would have paid
good money just to be brought to such a level of erotic stimulation in the first
place, and yet for Alyssa and Jenette it had become the lowest possible state of
arousal. If the aliens had simply left them in that state forever they might
have considered it a more than adequate consolation for their helpless
condition. But the aliens had other plans.
Down in the arena the women could see a group of perhaps forty aliens, looking
like ants from this distance, standing around in anticipation. Another alien,
which might have been from the party that had brought Jenette and Alyssa, walked
over to them and gestured, then walked into the centre of the group. The aliens
set up a shrill wailing that was probably their equivalent of a cheer. The next
moment they set about caressing, copulating, fellating, masturbating and
buggering each other with gusto.
The exact details of what they were doing could not be seen, but just as Jade
had warned them, Alyssa and Jenette could feel everything they felt: every
touch, every thrust, every penetration, every climax. The women instantly came
and couldn't stop coming. Compared to this, the sexual arousal they had felt
from the aliens' earlier fellatio was a candle next to a forest fire. It almost
felt as if they were on fire. The aliens reached orgasm quickly, but were
capable of frequent re-arousal. Their short but intense climaxes came so often
they usually overlapped, producing a continuous wave of ecstasy that would never
break. From time to time some of the aliens would also fondle their captives'
bodies in person, although it was almost impossible for the captives to
distinguish those sensations from all the others that the jewels were
force-feeding them.
The aliens' sensations were amplified a hundred - no, a thousand - fold by the
telepathic crystals, received and re-experienced by the humans and other
paralysed spectators, whose own bodies responded in kind. These sensations were
then fed back to the aliens, whose own responses were amplified again... and so
the telepathic sensations were amplified back and forth until it was impossible
to tell where their own climaxes ended and the aliens' began. Of course the
aliens were able to remove their circlets and leave whenever they had had
enough. The captives had no such choice. And any aliens that left would soon be
replaced by others.
Alyssa was dimly aware that her face was moist, not from the endless rain but
from tears caused by the intensity of her sensations. The aliens had taken every
woman's dream - permanent sexual satisfaction - and turned it into a living
nightmare. It was more than mortal flesh could bear. Yet there was nothing the
frozen captives could do except bear it, and pray to whatever gods might look
down upon this benighted planet that it wouldn't last forever.
OHHHHHH, GODDDDD, thought Alyssa, wishing she could scream with ecstasy as
helplessly she felt her orgasms, and Jenette's, and all the other captives', and
the aliens', all blending together into one endless, inescapable,
universe-shattering climax. If only I hadn't taken that short cut. If only I'd
followed Jennoth's advice just for once. If only I could MOVE....
And then her last conscious thought wove itself into a loop that ran eternally
through her brain as a counterpoint to her never-ending orgasm: BUT I CAN'T
MOVE! I CAN'T MOVE! I CAN'T MOVE! I CAN'T MOVE! I CAN'T MOVE! I CAN'T MOVE! I
CAN'T MOVE! I CAN'T MOVE! I CAN'T MOVE! I CAN'T MOVE! I CAN'T MOVE! I CAN'T
MOVE! I CAN'T MOVE! I CAN'T MOVE! I CAN'T MOVE! I CAN'T MOVE! I CAN'T MOVE! I
CAN'T MOVE! I CAN'T MOVE! I CAN'T
MOVE!..............................................
The End...?
Author's closing note: call me prurient if you like, but I can't help wondering
if there are any women out there who'd actually like to be frozen in agonising
ecstasy alongside Jenette and Alyssa....
