Galactic Slut Ch. 06

Chapter 6

Cultural Divide

We arrived at Havint two days later. The planet was a mad house. In addition to the normal traffic to the system, there was the mass of diverted traffic from Pascal's World. Added to that, the news of the first contact with a seventh space faring race had made its way to Havint as well. It took a full day to receive landing clearance and even then, the Yirminthin was going to have to take off again after a day. I hoped the Captain was able to complete Its business by then.

Brusjin and I had just as much trouble finding a hotel to stay at. The prices were predatory and, unlike passage on starships, trading for sex wasn't an option (sexual availability on a planet was high). While we did have a fair amount of cash, we would have to move on relatively soon. Our money came from the interest from certain investments that Brusjin had made some time ago. Normally we could live off just the interest. The sexual trading we (I) did actually allowed the principle to grow on a good month. On Havint, we were going to have to dip into the principle. Neither of us was willing to leave before being reunited with Grankt.

Normally, with all the extra people here, and the strong interest in current events, searching the data nets for information on new applications for Federation membership would've been hell. Thankfully, Crystal's facility with accessing computers let us short circuit the delays everyone else was experiencing. In the last few weeks, there'd been four new applications for membership. Of those four, two had slavery as an institution. Brusjin's society wasn't an abolitionist society per se; it was more concerned about keeping planets from suffering colony status. Brusjin's and my interest in eradicating slavery had us focus on the two slave planets, as we thought of them.

Unfortunately, the two planets we were interested in were on opposite sides of the Federation (actually they were outside the borders, but in different directions from Havint). The first planet called itself Quisnet. They hadn't yet entered their industrial age and were still dependent on muscle power for their industries. Politically, the planet was a mess. There were numerous separate societies, many of which had no contact with each other; at least until contact was made with the Federation.

At one time, there was a motion put before the Federation Council to prohibit interference in the development of pre-space flight societies. It was soundly lobbied into defeat. The economic possibilities created by a technological divide are immense. There are times when it seems like the strength of the Federation economy is dependent on there being more primitive worlds to trade with. What that means is that a planet of very individualistic nations now has universal knowledge of all the nations on the planetandthe ability for those nations to obtain advanced weaponry. Ironically, protectorate status is actuallyeasierfor these balkanized worlds. Without that coveted status, they would soon bomb themselves back to the Stone Age.

The second planet, Xylonia, was in far more danger. Xylons were an amphibious race; something quite rare in the universe. They were actually into their information age of development and had set up primitive (compared to ours) bases on their two moons. There'd be planets in the Federation with a strong motive to reduce Xylonia to colony status. Amphibians can settle more worlds than other species. Even when a planet's surface is hostile, the presence of water oceans makes the planet available for the amphibian. You see, as long as the atmosphere is breathable by oxygen breathers and the oceans are water, there's only so much that can be wrong with those oceans. Even better for the Xylons, they were adapted to ocean depths, making the entire ocean available for them.

More important for Brusjin and I was the nature of their slavery. The institution of slavery comes in many forms, from the relatively mild indentured servitude, which allowed the slaves eventual freedom; to class based total slavery, where one class of people are always slaves with no hope of freedom. Xylonia had such a slavery. And, like over half the planets with this extreme form of slavery, Xylonian women were slaves from birth until death. Bringing this planet into the Federation was a must.

Crystal and I started studying everything we could find on the planet and the race. Unfortunately, there wasn't much to study. Xylonia had only been discovered a year ago and very little study had been done on its culture and people. Most of their society lived in the oceans. They had, however, extensive settlements on the small land masses that made up 5 percent of the surface. This was where most of the industry took place. This is normal since the first industry for any race is fire (the primary reason that aquatic species almost never developed industrial societies).

The only oddity I encountered was that plural marriage seemed to be the norm on Xylonia. Actually, I use the term plural loosely, since there doesn't seem to be anything but tripartite unions; two males to one female slave. While plural marriages happen in most Federation planets, they aren't common and every two gendered species developed dual marriages as the norm. For this two gendered species to develop tripartite marriage as their norm begged for investigation. I wondered why such an anthological study hadn't been started yet.

Our decision made, we simply waited for Grankt's arrival. It turned out to take less time than we'd thought it would. Four days before what we expected to be his earliest arrival time, we received a vid-phone call.

"Brusjin, I've returned from my Lustrum Sojourn. Where shall I join you?"

"Grankt, it's a pleasure to see you. How did you get here so soon?"

"Word of the capitol's closure made it to home world, so I diverted to Havint."

"Great! We're at the Mylon Arms, room 2351."

"I know of it. Expect me in 35 minutes."

While I have a nearly infallible sense of the passage of time, Grankt has just as infallible sense of how long things will take, especially trips. At 35 minutes on the dot, he knocked on our door. Brusjin checked the security monitor and let him in.

If you haven't seen a Gravelian, they're an intimidating sight. Grankt was typical of his species. He stood about two and a half meters tall and weighed 200 kilos. I'm sure none of that mass was fat. Covering most of his tough saurian hide was Gravelian body armor. The ballistic cloth was embedded with a reflective mesh that made him nearly impervious to lasers. His mouth was full of razor sharp teeth (he never showed them, but I'd seen them on another Gravelian during sex). His hands have no claws, yet the muscles in his fingers could crush most species' bones.

His equipment was no less formidable. The traditional Scather was sheathed on his back. The meter and a half long blade was razor sharp and could, when wielded properly, cut through a ship's bulkhead. His Mark VII dual was at his hip, ready to spew forth laser beams or explosive shells, depending on which he thought he needed. I, however, was most impressed by the equipment he carried that wasn't readily visible. He had scanning contacts in his eyes that allowed him to see wavelengths other than light. He'd never be surprised by scanning fields, security nets, or spy beams. His left ear had an earpiece translator, as expensive a piece of hardware as could be had (Brusjin and I wore larger headset translators when we needed to). A tractor harness allowed him limited flight for short periods of time. All in all, he was equipped to keep us safe. I've missed having him around.

"Grankt, it's good to see you again. Everything went well, I hope?"

"Yes, sir. Any trouble while I've been away?"

Grankt would expect nothing but the truth, so Brusjin let him know what happened. "A member of the Hellfire group tried to kill Susan on Pascal's World. We had vital information that was time sensitive and the only way to stay in system long enough to deliver it was to have ourselves arrested. While in custody, an officer, or someone pretending to be one, tried to poison her."

"How did you survive, Susan?"

"That was Crystal's doing. It can adapt my body to metabolize harmful substances."

"A useful ability. Kershah, Crystal," came the formal greeting of one acknowledged warrior to another. I'm not sure that Crystal would appreciate being viewed as a warrior. "Are we bound for a new world?"

"As a matter of fact, we are. Xylonia is a slave world inhabited by amphibians. Opposition to their entry into the Federation will be stiff. This is what we know about the world and its people. I need to arrange transport, if I can."

"Good, I'll make preparations for a water environment as well."

Brusjin and I, with Crystal's help, started searching the port logs for ship destinations. Since Crystal joined with me, finding transport has been easier than it used to be. Mostly this was because It allowed us access to computer systems that we normally couldn't reach. We still had to negotiate the price, but Brusjin was an old hand at that. Soon we had three likely prospects heading in that direction. One was listing a destination of Xylonia itself. I left the negotiations in his hands.

I was a good trade negotiator before my betrayal by Collin and the resultant slavery. Actually, I still was an excellent negotiator. However, when it came to transit payments, I had one major disadvantage. Federation law makes it clear that if a person is personally involved in a business transaction that includes their own sexual activity then that person is a prostitute. Of course, we all know that prostitution is legal throughout the Federation; but you have to have a license. Said legal document is not only incredibly expensive, but requires that the Federation receive a share of the proceeds. On the other hand, if a third party makes the arrangements, then there is no prostitution involved.

That loophole is a side effect to the Federation's slavery laws. Legally, selling a slave or its use isn't prostitution. So the laws reflect that when someone else is involved in the transaction, it's considered a slave trade, not prostitution. Someone, however, was very careful to leave slavery out of the exact wording. All that's required is for a third party to be thebeneficiaryof the transaction. Most of the time, this isn't an issue. Courtesans have their own union and are stringently protected from being abused. No licensed prostitute can be forced to let someone else negotiate. Thus all third party sexual trades involve slaves. Well, almost all. Brusjin and I are one of the exceptions. This is also, by the way, why Brusjin is never a party to the sex he negotiates. If he was, then he'd be a prostitute and would need one of those licenses.

Brusjin turned back from the comm. system. "It's all set. We board the Hergot's Wave tomorrow morning."

"And the price...?" I ask with a smile.

"The usual; sex with the Captain. Captain Hushre is a Narlonian, a female."

Well, this will be interesting. Narlon society has one of the most stringent sexual role divides in the Federation. A normal Narlonian female wouldn't be caught dead off planet. Captain Hushre must be an outcast for some reason. We've found outcasts useful on more than one occasion. Because they're divorced from their own societal rules, they tend to have loose regard for the rules of other societies. This isn't to say they're criminals, just non-conformists.

I didn't have a problem with female-female sex. It happened early in my slavery and a few times since. I didn't know much about Narlonian physiology beyond the obvious that they're a sexual species. I'm sure Captain Hushre would let me know what she liked. There was definitely the possibility that things could get a little rough. Narlonians are, while not as massive as Gravelians, larger than humans, on average. It's been my experience that normally, the larger the species, the moreexuberantthe sex.

Early the next morning, we headed to the spaceport to meet our ride. Grankt was in the lead, scanning for threats. We weren't expecting trouble, but that's when trouble would be the worst possible thing to have happen. One advantage of traveling on freighters a lot is the ability to bypass most customs checks. Space ship security isn't an issue for the most part, but smuggling is. Each planet in the Federation has lists of heavily taxed imports that travelers have to be aware of. Freighters, on the other hand, have such small crews that there is little to be gained by checking them for duty due items. Since the only real reason for duties is to make money for the government, no planet bothers with freighter crews; and that included us.

Hergot's Wave was a Trellian class freighter; right in the middle of the tonnages. It was capable of ground landings, which it had done here, but also carried two shuttles for those times when landing on a planet was inconvenient. The crew was loading the last few cargo pallets with a grav lift and we were waved inside without a second glance. Grankt growled under his breath at the abysmal level of (non) security on the ship. I suspected he'd be taking fast sleep capsules on the trip.

Captain Hushre was at the hatch between the cargo bay and the rest of the ship. She stood a little over two meters tall and must have massed a good 150 kilos. Fine scales covered her skin and her hexagonal pupils dilated while she looked us over; Grankt especially. When we shook, her skin (scales) felt smooth and cool to the touch. Clearly she had no nudity taboos as she wore nothing but her Captain's hat. The only sign of a pussy was a small slit, tightly closed, between her legs.

"Brusjin, Susan, your acquaintance a pleasure to make is."

About a fourth of the languages spoken in the Federation had grammatical anomalies that didn't translate well. Hushre's were milder than most.

"Captain, thank you for agreeing to have us as passengers. It's dreadfully hard to find passenger ships to the outer worlds."

"Problem it not is. Well paid I am. Susan, are energetic sex you ready for?"

"Oh yes, Captain. I've mated with a Gravelian. I'm sure we'll get along famously."

She smiled widely, revealing both rows of sharp teeth and her broad, ribbed tongue. "Much fun we have will."

"I'm looking forward to it. How long will the trip to Xylon take?"

"Arrival five days will take. Xylon many light years distant is."

"Can you tell us anything about Xylon and its people?" Brusjin inquired. "There's not a lot of information on the net."

"On the planet I not go. Too much water there is. Shuttle the cargo down takes. Interaction with the natives minimal is."

Brusjin looked disappointed and possibly a little worried. Admittedly, we had very little to go on, but surely a society in its information age would have a computer system capable of being searched by Crystal. We'd have to talk once we reached our stateroom, whatever that was to be.

"With me please come. I your room will show."

We followed the Captain through the gangway to a small room. I suspected it was a compartment for a crewman. Space was tight. It was obviously not meant for more than one person. There was barely enough room to turn around between the bed and the small desk. There was no sanitary station in the room itself, a familiar sight on these freighters.

The Captain left us alone for the first two days of the trip. Surprisingly, the take off was smooth with none of the inertial bleed through I'd come to expect from independent freighters. It was on the second day when Crystal received an answer from the base collective.

[INFORMATION RECEIVED. MAP USEFULLNESS CONFIRMED.]

[What? The map of the heaven?]

[AFFIRMATIVE. PERMISSION MAKE MAP VISIBLE?]

[Of course.]

The now familiar sensation of my body doing things I hadn't told it to do filled me. I took my virtual room and brought up the star map from the Map of the Heavens. Once it was being projected, Crystal had my hands highlight one particular system.

[THIS IS OUR HOMEWORLD.]

[Oh my God! That's where your homeworld is? How are the bases sure?]

[NIGHT SKY VISUALS CORRELATED WITH STAR POSITON DATA.]

[I take it you still haven't managed to put this map relative to our known charts?]

[NEGATIVE. DATA SEARCH STILL IN PROGRESS.]

This information, while huge, wasn't immediately useful. Until we could navigate to the Crystals' home world, there'd be no way to make use of it. Still, I was sure the base collective would be able to figure it out. They'd been exploring and collecting information for several millennia. Brusjin suspected that they were having to make adjustments for stellar motion to try to link star fields from the past with our current star maps. Until Crystal's joining with me had been returned to its normal (for a joining) state, the collective hadn't had a map to compare with.

Captain Hushre came to our room shortly after that. "Susan, are sex you ready for?"

"Of course, Captain. I'm at your disposal."

"Undress you will and with me come."

I undressed and followed Captain Hushre to her own quarters. It was apparent that Hushre's non-conformity extended beyond her own culture's norms. Large cabins on cargo ships are unheard of; yet the Captain's quarters were immense. There was a large four poster bed that dominated the room. The cabin had its own sanitization area.

"Binding you I will be. On the bed you get."

That wasn't part of what I was told. Now, I don't have a problem with a little bondage, but I don't like it to be a surprise. "Now just a minute. You didn't say anything about restraints. What's going on here?"

"Are deal you reneging on? Slavery penalty for on Narlon is."

"I'm not backing out, but I agreed to sex, not to bondage."

"Binding always part of Narlonian sex is."

Damn! I had no idea if she was telling me the truth. If she was, then we did agree to whatever sex she normally engaged in. At the very least, since she wasn't planning to set down on the planet, she could keep us from landing if I didn't acquiesce to her demands. I guess I was going to be playing with a little (I hope) bondage.

I climbed on the bed and let her pose me the way she wanted me. She opted for a traditional spread eagle binding with me on my back. I cringed as she put those dreaded magnetic cuffs on my wrists. I wore those throughout my time as a slave and came to hate them almost as much as the collar. I swear, if she had tried to put a collar on me, there would've been pain.

The cuffs pulled my arms and legs to the corners of the bed, rendering me immobile. Hushre then climbed up on the bed with me, placing her slit over my mouth, and demanded, "Arouse me. Lick and bite me open."

I suspected there might be a certain level of violence involved in Narlonian sex. I just hoped she remembered that I didn't need any biting to become aroused. The slit that I thought of as her pussy was within my reach. I snaked my tongue out and licked along the length. Her skin was cool and dry to the touch. I brushed my teeth against the skin around the slit and felt her shudder in pleasure. The next time my tongue caressed her slit, there was a hint of moisture. The taste was salty with a hint of musk. Her slit was cracked a little and I could feel the moisture seeping from the crack.

I upped the stakes and caught one of the loose edges of her slit with my teeth and pulled at it. She hissed just like a snake and much more fluid seeped out onto my face. Hushre ground herself down tighter to my face, giving me plenty of access to her sex. The slit was fully open now and I could see well developed pussy lips, dripping in juice. I ran my tongue as deep as I could into her and was rewarded with copious amounts of her juices. Her legs squeezed hard, preventing my head from moving in any way.