Gift from Outer Space Ch. 06

Left alone, Renee's thoughts would gradually return to thoughts of Nina, and with a guilty conscience.

She picked up her datapad once more and began recording to Nina. "Oh I wonder," she said, not knowing if Nina would ever get her message, "Is it all going to be okay in the end? It just seems so easy now. So easy, but, if . . . If things were truly easy, I would be able to see you now."

She got up, tightened her robe, and carried the databook outside her room to stand at the window. She recorded the fantastic view, colored clouds of dust illuminated by bright stars in the inner parts of the galaxy. "Oh Nina," she sighed. "Isn't it fantastic? I hope you get to see this someday. I hope I am there to see it with you, too."

***

TheAmphitryon had a patrol route to follow. It would take a number of stops before Renee would reach her destination. Renee had been told there were 12 cycles left. The ship marked each cycle by dimming the lights in the halls for several hours. Each time the lights changed, Renee counted down one cycle.

"We pulled out from a port called Penny Shoal today," she said, recording another short log entry for Nina. "Now we're heading to our next wormhole. They said our next stop is a small mining outpost, and we might pick up some cargo."

"The lights in the hallway go dim for a few hours a cycle, their word for a day. The dim time is called the ship's night cycle. It helps them keep on a schedule. However, each time the lights change, I know another cycle has passed, and I'm that much closer to Pleasure Castle. Oh, it's so scary, so scary, Nina. My only solace is looking out of the windows at space, and seeing each new spaceport where we dock."

Renee used the data book to take pictures of multicolored nebulae billowing away from around shining clusters of baby stars. She saved movies of star ports busy with starship traffic. She recorded the dance of a three sun solar system, in which a white and a blue star orbited around a larger red star. They orbited around each other so rapidly that their motion threw off brilliant plumes of fiery plasma like feathery arcs that burned bright in the hazy vacuum. She recorded a view of a red giant that was ringed with a broad, shimmering plane of dust and ice, like Saturn.

The beauty of these sights captivated her in wholehearted awe and amazement. When she witnessed the grandeur of space, it lessened the terrible pain of her past. It trivialized the life she had on Earth. She could even dismiss for a while the guilt she felt, knowing that back on Earth her parents were in grief and agony over her disappearance. She wondered if she would ever be able to tell them what happened and make them whole. Someday soon, she hoped.

It was one of these nights as she stood alone in the passenger deck, looking out at the stars, when Macy and Leifa rounded the corner.

"Oh, it's you two. Hi," Renee said with a smile.

"Who else?" Macy laughed.

"How are you tonight, candycane?" Leifa asked. She could see by the look on Renee's face that the young lady was in no mood for jokes.

"It's night cycle aboard the ship. That means one less cycle until I get to Pleasure Castle." Renee swallowed and stared out of the window.

"I'm afraid," she whispered.

"There there," Macy soothed. "Leifa knows something about the place. Why don't we sit down and ask her about it?"

With that, they entered Renee's stateroom and took seats on the edge of the bed. Renee lay down and looked up at Leifa.

"Before I arrived at Pleasure Castle, I was born in a far off star system," Leifa began. "Like all Avashai, I was cloned and grown to full size in an Alhani factory. I don't even know where. I was instilled with knowledge for a very long time before I was awakened. On the day of my awakening, I was fully grown, and looked no different than I do today."

"I had been purchased by Behtor's nobility class to serve in the Pleasure Castle. There, I was a kind of sex servant. My first job," Leifa paused.

Macy gave her a meaningful look.Don't scare the child.

Leifa gathered her thoughts once more and started from a more general perspective. "Pleasure Castle is like a college or university. There are different curricula for different beings. For instance, we Avashai have our role there, and even a few classes. Lower class gorgonites take their classes, whereas humans and prospective symbiont hosts each have a different set of course loads. All professors are gorgonite. Lady Vera is the headmistress, the top professor. She looks like a tall blue lady, but internally she is essentially a machine."

"An android?" Renee asked.

"Yes," Leifa said. "That's kind of like it. She is a very powerful and ancient gorgonite. I think she was created over eight fluxes ago. She can generate force fields and electrical shocks, all sorts of energy and force. She rarely uses her powers though."

"She also had some toady professor around there when last I left," Leifa continued. "Seppa, I think his name was. Hmm." Leifa paused to think for a moment, and Renee waited for her to resume speaking.

"Back then, gorgonite students were terribly misbehaved around Avashai. They were always on the lookout for us. They would rub our markings just to see what we would do. Inevitably, this would lead to some regrettable sexual encounters. It was just a game to them, but the game was condoned by many of the professors."

"That is why we Avashai don't like to discuss our markings," Macy added.

Leifa nodded. "They would chase me down the halls and corner me. There were so many rooms and passages, but many were off limits. There was this one gorgonite male who would touch me here," she said, pointing to her elbow.

"It was just his way of humiliating me. Even female gorgonites would chase me in packs. They would try to squeeze my black toe, you know. To get my penis to come out."

"It sounds like prison," Renee said, worried. "Leifa, I didn't know you had a penis!"

They both nodded. "We both do, but it's hidden." Macy said.

"Do you, um," Renee hesitated. "I-could I, um,"

Leifa willed her vulva to morph into a seven inch erection, complete with balls. She smiled at Renee sheepishly. "You didn't know about this? I'm sorry."

Renee reached out to touch it. She gingerly wrapped her fingers around it.

"Leifa!" Macy scolded. "Get back on topic."

Leifa allowed her cock to retract back into her body and she was normal again in seconds.

"I guess I should try to describe the students with the symbionts. These students were considered the elite. Unlike the gorgonites, they could not misbehave. If they broke any rules, Lady Vera herself would get involved in the punishment. Everyone was afraid of her."

She cursed her loose tongue too late.

"Didn't you say Lady Vera is who is probably going to deal with me?" Renee asked, in a murmur that threatened to break into a sob.

"Probably," Leifa admitted.

"You might as well know," Macy added.

Renee was reeling with dread. Something inside of her snapped. She curled up into a ball, turned her back to the Avashai, and cried.

"You see what I've done," Leifa said. "I've just scared her terribly."

Renee sat up. "I-I'm okay," she said, her voice choked from her tears. "It's not your fault. I just want to get by, I want to live to see that my friends are okay. I want to live to let my parents know what happened to me."

Leifa sighed. "We'll help you."

"How can you?" Renee retorted. "You're going to be stuck on this ship. What can you do?"

"I promise you, I promise that I'll do my best to get this databook to your friends," Macy said.

"I have friends on Serra-5, friends who once lived in the castle," Leifa added.

Renee turned away, miserable with despair.

Macy patted Leifa's knee, and the two stood and left. The gloom of the night cycle cast a dark pall of fear over Renee.

"What's going to happen to me?" she murmured.

***

When that last cycle finally came, Macy and Leifa gently informed Renee that it was time to climb back into the stasis pod. Macy asked for her forgiveness, and added that she had done as much as she could to help her.

Renee nodded. She felt stronger after her journey. "You kept your promise to comfort and care for me, the one you gave me when we first met."

Leifa smiled, almost tearfully. She took Renee's data book and promised to deliver it to a friend with the means to help. Ironically, Nina was only a few feet away, but she was locked in stasis. Anything they put in or near her stasis pod would quickly be found by others long before Nina would ever get her hands on it.

It was a tearful goodbye for the girls. Macy and Leifa would continue to accompany Chester on theAmphitryon, and would soon be far, far away from Serra-5. They told Renee that eventually they would return to Katagree, a remote star port. There they would then rejoin their old master, Jink.

Renee lay on her back in the capsule, but she was so frightened her whole body was trembling. Once she was in place, firm restraints wrapped around her wrists and ankles. Once more, dozens of tiny probes and tubes connected into her. Once again she felt her body grow cold and sleepy.

It was done. Renee looked as though she was about to go into her sleep. Suddenly she panicked and struggled to break free from her bonds.

Seeing this, Leifa burst out sobbing.

"Now Leifa, you need to be strong too," Macy said sternly. "I know you have strong feelings for her, but Avashai can forget."

Leifa shook her head. "Then I am not like most Avashai."

Macy gave Leifa an impatient look.

Renee could not see Macy and Leifa. She could only look up at the ceiling. As fast as it came, her panic faded.

It was futile to struggle now against the path she was on. She had climbed into the capsule. She had allowed the restraints to be placed on her. She had been walking into this trap from the moment she placed the base of the alien phallus against her body and wished it to become real.

She wished her only problem was trying to pay her own way through college. Now she faced the unknown, and found herself woefully unprepared.

***

Mort Seppa was an obsequious beetle of a professor. He had been Lady Vera's assistant for twenty years, and the tall blue Headmistress was starting to tire of him. They walked down the columned passage, her heels pounding like a metronome. It was a sound that always sent students scurrying. No one else save Vera's bodyguard was present in this vast, echoing chamber.

The bodyguard trailed behind them. He had blackish-green skin, white eyes, a horned snout, and a thick prehensile tail. His powerful thighs tapered to graceful hind legs that belied speed and agility. Although not much taller than Lady Vera, he was many times more massive. Each of his muscular arms were bigger than her body, and he had four of them. Most disconcerting of all, the huge creature's footfalls were inaudible even in the profound quiet of the room.

Lady Vera had ordered Renee to be restrained on a table, isolated from others, while aboard theAmphitryon. If her demands went according to plan, she might have only a box with an inert symbiont inside.

The fact that five large stasis tanks were lined up before her did not bode well.

"I want to see it myself," she announced, although she already knew the symbiont was still attached.

She walked straight to Renee's canister and looked inside.

"Idiots!" she screeched. Her chromatic voice echoed ominously.

"Shall we initiate an investigation of the delivery vessel? I am certain we could find a culprit," offered Mort, knowing that failures and setbacks enraged Vera.

"Seppa, Seppa," she sighed. "I tire of you. I shall enjoy watching my Bohee hounds tear you to pieces some day." This was something Vera had been saying for almost a decade, always in a gentle tone.

"For now you shall listen and follow my instructions precisely. Deliver the symbiont to dungeon 12, Room 100. As for the rest, bring them to dungeon 4, and place each of them in separate rooms. Tantalus shall do the questioning. Make sure he finds out why that symbiont is still attached."

***

Tantalus the Dungeon Master was a gorgonite made to look like a huge, demonic insect. His orange, mantis-shaped body stood ten feet tall. His narrow torso was lined with six spiny insect legs. Instead of two mantis claw arms, however, he had two very long, black, human-like arms with massive clawed hands. A pendulous phallus protruded from his chest.

Tantalus' function was less of a class teacher, more of a disciplinarian. He was in charge of the dungeons. If anyone was sent there, he had direct knowledge of it and was responsible for "corrective reform" of that individual.

Which is why Leifa contacted him about a favor. She asked him to spare the four human girls any discomfort, and instead release them. There was no point in asking him to release Renee. Even Tantalus would never get away with such gross negligence.

Once released, Leifa's message asked that he deliver a data book to them.

He was in possession of that data book now.

Over the centuries, Tantalus had compressed and discarded many memories, but he kept a photographic memory of Leifa. During the first two of her years at the school, she kept a low profile. However during her final year she was sent to the dungeons for fighting other students and eventually, even professors.

The gorgonites at the school had mistreated her for far too long. She finally fought back, maiming any who dared to get too close. Each time she broke a jaw, or crushed a gonad, she was sent to the dungeons for corrective punishment.

Seppa told him that she had developed a calculating and rebellious demeanor. Tantalus was charged with teaching her to be a sweet, submissive, and grateful Avashai. The "lessons" he gave her were more pleasure than pain. He had no desire to punish Leifa, yet she had a taste for hanging from chains. She even enjoyed the bite of his sharp bristles against her skin. As she dangled from his chains, he had fucked her every orifice with his massive cock until even he did not know where their role-playing stopped and reality began.

She seemed more an eager participant than a prisoner. Each time he came while administering one of his sadistic punishments, she seemed to exult in it. At times she could have maimed him if she wanted to. She could have bitten off his penis if she dared, but she played along with the rape charade. She knew that he could have treated her much, much worse.

He had let her off all too easily, because in Leifa's case it seemed the right thing to do. Now that she needed his help again, he was happy to assist once more. For old time's sake.

Besides, Nina and the others were inconsequential dirt-worlders. There was only one thing he needed to do before he freed them, and that was stamp their shoulders with a nano-molecular pattern. It was painless, left no visible mark, and could be detected and traced for up to thirty cycles.

As they woke, each girl found herself on a floating chair, riding through the halls of the castle to the castle courtyard.

Kirsten was the first out. She stood in stunned disbelief, not knowing what to do or where to go. She took a deep breath and inhaled sweet, fresh air. She was alone for now, but decided to wait at the door until the others arrived. She looked up at the sky for a moment and was awestruck.

Just moments later, the next girl arrived. "Thank god it's you!" Kirsten said as she saw Josie emerge from the doorway. The restraints popped off and Josie jumped from the chair.

She gave Kirsten a hug, then she looked up at the late afternoon sky. There was a small crescent moon ringed with dust. A path of stars shone in the pink heavens to the west. Josie recognized the glamorous sky from the documentaries immediately. "This is Serra-5," she said to Kirsten.

Bonnie, Josie, and Kirsten gathered in the doorway. They were back to wearing their clubbing attire.

Nina was last, she came out wearing a skin tight neon-red bodysuit, similar to Talon's. She seemed just a little self-conscious when she walked out into the courtyard, and the girls ogled her in an effort to determine if the suit was actually opaque. Either way, there was no mistaking her hard nipples and the outline of her camel toe. The supple material clung to every millimeter of her curvy body from the neck down.

"These are the clothes they gave me," she said, smiling briefly. "Where is Renee? Have any of you seen her?"

They looked around the courtyard. They noticed several girls dressed in skintight outfits similar to Nina's. No Renee, however.

"They have her," Bonnie murmured.

It was beginning to dawn on them that many things could have happened while they were in stasis. They didn't even have a clue as to why they had been freed.

They were in a grassy courtyard. Imposing forty foot walls made of a translucent stone or marble formed the courtyard's outer boundary. A few sculptures evocative of trees were scattered about the manicured grasses, and at least twenty or so people were there, relaxing as one might in a park during sunset.

The castle consisted of a tall main keep adjoined by several massive towers, all of which were adorned with minarets and spires.

"What is going on?" they all asked each other. They all began speaking at once, asking a hundred questions, and trying to relate what had happened to them. Nina listened to them talking in confusion. Finally she yelled them all down.

"Quiet! Can I get your attention please? Renee is still in there. She's probably getting some harsh treatment from Lady Vera, who is trying to take Renee's you-know-what."

Josie nodded. "Renee is in there, no doubt about it. They want that symbiont."

"So we gotta bust her out." Nina said.

"Oh, my god. This is like, so not happening," Kirsten broke in. "There's no way we can do that!"

Nina turned to the door. "You guys wait here if you want."

"Stop!" Josie said. "We're not splitting up. And anyway, in a few minutes this courtyard is going to close. We can't wait for you here."

Nina paused, then returned to the huddle of girls.

"How did you know that?" Kirsten asked.

Josie pointed to a floating view screen nearby. It was droning on about the rules of the park. In bold letters, it said the park was closing and counting down the time.

"So okay, we still don't have our bearings," Josie said, more to Nina than to the others.. "We only have ourselves to rely on, and only a few minutes before the courtyard closes." She took a deep breath, and waited for Nina to nod in agreement. "We need knowledge. We need friends."

"Yeah, and we need to come to grips with the fact that Renee is going to go back to the way she was, and there's nothing we can do about it," Bonnie added.

"Yeah you know, maybe they're really helping her by making her normal again," Kirsten chimed in.

Nina glared at Kirsten. "Now I know why Renee didn't give a fuck about you," she snarled.

Josie, Bonnie, and Kirsten stood shoulder to shoulder.. It was clear Nina was the odd one out.

"Nina! Snap out of it, will ya?" Josie said. She took a step forward, smiling weakly. "We have to stick together."

"Come on, hon," Bonnie said, opening her arms wide. The Bronx Boriqua turned to Bonnie and sank into her embrace. "It's all going to be okay," Bonnie assured.

The landscape beyond the castle walls sloped away on all sides to offer a commanding view of the town. Every building and home had either orange, red, or yellow shingles. A magnificent bay gleamed pinkish purple in the evening light, and colorful city lights shone bright in the commercial districts.