A Big Shiny Blue Marble Ch. 54

In my eyes, you are the male that I have selected for me. I think that I know what is meant by 'open-ended'. To me, it means that I will likely never see you again."

He sighed and thought about it. This had been one of their problems and he could see it from her side. He could even agree with her on many points. But he was what they'd trained him to be and there hadn't been that many choices open to him. He couldn't tell her where he was going anyway, and it was only more proof that she'd been correct.

He looked at her and ached to be there with her, to hold her and never let her go. But there was no way that it would be permitted and they both knew that, so he tried to smile and it caused beautiful Jerrthi to almost crumble before his eyes.

"Please care for your health and your life, Jerrthi," he croaked, trying to hold back his own emotion. "I treasure my memories of our time together and you know that I wish you only the best. If I ever can ..."

"I will try to wait for you, Bronn," she moaned a little, desperately trying to keep it together in front of him, "Try to complete this and come back to me somehow. If you can do that, I do not care if we have to live in a real grotto to hide from them, I want only you. I do not think that I will look for another. Communicate with me when you are able."

She leaned forward onto the bathroom counter and she began to sob much harder, closing the line when she couldn't stand it any longer.

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Jayne was unhappy as she walked. She smirked bitterly and shook her head. No shit.

All that she had was her life and that was about it. But what was that? What had her choice given to her other than to remain alive? She was the pet of a large green-skinned and quite dead female known to her only as 'Monnie' and in order to remain alive; she had to do things for her keeper which disgusted her.

Mostly because of what Monnie was.

It wouldn't be so bad otherwise, she thought. If they were elsewhere and if the girl was like her -- living and drawing breath and NOT feeding her ego and spending a large part of her time seeking places where humans lived together in numbers so that she could feed her ever-growing horde of demons, they might have had something before. It would also help if it wasn't always made quite so clear to her that her 'cuteness' was one of the few reasons why she was kept in the first place.

And if Monnie wasn't what she was and they'd met under other circumstances, Jayne thought that they could have had something nice back then. She hadn't started out wanting the affections -- or lust -- of a half human, half goblin whatever Monnie was, and she'd certainly never wanted to spend as much time as she now did with her face buried between a pair of thick and strong (and green) female thighs. But she might have found that she'd have wanted a relationship like this otherwise -- as much of a surprise as that had been to learn about herself. Of course the threat of her death had been a strong inducement at the time, she supposed.

But not when those thighs and what lay between them were as cold as they were. It was like licking a side of beef hanging up in a cooler and worse. And when Monnie wanted to do that to her, Jayne thought that it was killing her to have to look enthusiastic and keep up the charade.

What human girl wants to be poked and prodded with a long, wet, cold -- and dead -- tongue in that place?

And she hated how it was always held out to her that Monnie could fix this and turn her so that the coldness wouldn't be an issue then.

Great, Jayne thought with more disgust. It never seemed to occur to Monnie that her little pet 'Goldilocks' might have an aversion to being dead and having the thirst which Monnie had to constantly try to slake.

She'd had to remind Monnie -- yet again, that being here near a stadium packed with humans who would soon be torn apart and eaten, mostly while they were still alive and screaming, was not exactly her cup of tea. "You suddenly remember me and then you have your demons bring me a moaning, dying human and you think I want to eat that?" she'd say and Monnie would remind her that if she ordered it, Goldilocks would eat it and like it.

That had been almost her death on more than a few occasions, But Monnie had been contrite each time and now they had their system. Monnie would take her to where they were planning to eat and she'd give her little pet a few coins beforehand to go and buy herself some human food from a street vendor or wherever she liked. She just had to return when it was time to go or whenever Monnie needed her 'hot little mouth' again during or after the feast.

Jayne would nod and actually have to thank her benefactor before walking off quickly, knowing that she had little time before this began, thought the few hours of freedom felt great to her.

The sadness of this was killing her, though. She'd make the attempt as she searched for some food to buy and she'd try to warn people as she went that they'd better leave and soon if they wanted to live. She even told them why.

No one ever believed her and it was always the same.

Every human being would be killed in the stadium and in an ever-growing radius around it sometimes for a few days before they moved on.

She also knew that one day, one of Monnie's demons would kill her, a newcomer not having gotten the message clearly that the leader's pets were to be left alone and even protected. There had already been a few close calls.

Jayne looked up at the sun's position in the sky and knew that she had a few hours. She went to a little eatery which appealed to her on sight and she looked forward to a quite enjoyable meal there. But it was the people in there - the family who ran the place, which hurt her the most to see, knowing that they would be dead in only hours. She tried once again to warn them and the waitress, a girl near her own age had brought the owner -- her father - out of the kitchen.

He ran her out of there before her crazy talk could frighten away any customers.

She managed to find another place and she kept her mouth shut and found it equally unsatisfying, but she did it and then she went shopping for a few clothes, mostly schoolgirl stuff like Monnie wanted her 'little girls' to wear, and a few tight little skirts and a kind of footwear that she liked herself for their comfort called sneakers.

She shuddered to think of the way that she'd be forced to parade around and act wantonly, rubbing herself on things while Monnie watched until her need overcame her and she lunged, pulling Jayne down to lift one of her legs and rip off the pink underwear that she specified must be worn at these times. Jayne would then have to move her hips as though she loved having a dead goblin's face in her crotch. It had quite the opposite effect, no matter how much the dead goblin crooned to her and tried to make nice. Jayne knew the way of this 'relationship'.

Jayne wondered just how many pairs of pink knickers in her size there might be in the area, the way that she was going through them. To herself, she knew that she never wanted to see another pair again.

Jayne knew the risks, but she was getting tired of it all. There was no life for her down this road. What was the point? Monnie already had her 'training' another little toy, this one a young and very frightened female half Red demon, a girl who was a little larger than she was but every bit as frightened as she was of the slavering beasts which Monnie commanded. She also shared Jayne's loathing of what she was forced to do for Monnie.

She guessed that it marked the still-distant but now visible end of her road. But at least the pair seemed to like each other a lot, so that was something. She supposed that she'd have already tried to make a run for it otherwise. She sighed as she thought of it. A rather small woman like her trying to run from a vampire who could smell her blood. How absurd to even hold the hope of success.

Even more ludicrous, she thought, her chances with a ravenous pack of demons on her tail who could run faster than horses could and who could also fly. Jayne shook her head.

She'd be dead inside of ten minutes.

As she turned back onto the main street which she'd been following, she heard Chan's voice and turned back to see the one that Monnie had dubbed 'Muffin' come running to her in her human form. She felt for Chan. Her mother had been raped out on the family farm by a flock of Red demons and she was the result. But their present set of circumstances did give them each a friend. Chan didn't want to be what she was. She wanted to be human. She ached to be just like her friend, though she never said it.

As they found each other there on the dirty street, Chan hugged her and asked if she'd eaten. Jayne lied and told her no, since she hadn't eaten a lot and the two of them walked away looking for more to buy.

"I bought you some clothes," Jayne said, "but most of it won't last long. It's for Monnie to tear off you, but I did get you a couple of T-shirts and a pair of jeans, and I'm pretty sure that they'll fit you, too. I made allowances for your longer legs, Chan."

"Thanks, Jayne, you're the best." Chan stopped then and Jayne knew that she had to be careful now or Chan would fall into her sadness right here in the street.

"No," Jayne said, shaking her head, "Don't you dare get all wet on me out here in the street. I don't have anything to wipe your tears with on me. Just, ... let's just try to enjoy the time that we have before the shitstorm starts and we have to go back so that we can make the ogre happy. I fucking hate the act that we have to put on, pretending to like licking each other for her."

"But ... "Chan hesitated, "but I like it when we do that. I hate that it's a show for her, but I like you, Jayne and I like what we do then."

Jayne sighed, "I like it too, Chan. I try to do it for us. I just really hate that we have to do it and pretend like it's a show. I just wish that we were somewhere else and that we could just be fucking normal girls who have fun and not always have to be so careful over what we say and all that. One of these days, I'm not gonna go back after I buy something to eat and a few rags to wear. I'm gonna keep on going and try to run for it. I know that she'll probably catch me and kill me or turn me then, but more and more, I'm feeling that it's all I've got."

"Take me with you," Chan said excitedly as she stood in front of the only friend that she had in this fucked up world. "I want to go with you -- wherever you go."

"I was hoping that you'd want to leave with me" Jayne said. "I'd feel a lot braver with you along." She sighed, "I hate the way that she makes me stand there on my toes and lean against the wall with my ass out in the wind and pretend to like the way that you have to shove your face into my ass and lick it."

Chan smirked then, "I don't mind that part so much. You always wash there for me first. I even like it a lot, but I never show how I like it. But I hate it when she says that I have to be a demon then and I know that you don't like that part. I hate being there as a demon in a skirt. What the fuck kind of demon girl does that?"

Don't worry about it, Chan," Jayne grinned, "I'm getting used to you like that and I know that it's still the same person. I'd love for you to do that to me if we were somewhere else and on our own."

They turned and walked off then, holding hands a little, a pair of young females of two different kinds who needed each other as friends in their dark and grisly existence.

"And anyway," Chan said as an admission, "I do love kissing you there and the way that it feels to hold onto you when I do that to you. I love the way that you squirm then and sometimes I really have to hang on. I only hate having to pretend that I'm only allowed to do it because she's forcing us with her threats. I wish we could just go away together and that somebody would just kill that fucking bitch so we could be free."

"We wouldn't have any money then," Jayne reminded her," we'd probably end up as waitresses or dancers and part-time hookers after that -- at best."

"I don't care all that much," Chan said quietly, as Jayne looked over at her friend's Oriental features. She was coming to like the way that Chan looked to her in either shape so much.

"As long as I've got you with me. It'd be worth it to me then. It would be a lot better than what we have to do now."

Jayne stopped suddenly, "I've got an idea. We each save as much of what Monnie gives us over the next few times as we can and then we pick our moment, I guess. That time, we don't buy any clothes. We just have a quick bite to eat someplace. Just something light and then we run.

We go for maybe an hour and then we find a place to hide and sleep, like a place where we can rent a room for a night or two. Then we pay them to watch an hourglass for us and we'll also need to buy some muscle to watch the door so nobody tries to fuck us over.

After that, we have a bath and go to sleep for a little while. I want to be with you and sleep. Just rest and sleep because by then we'll both likely be bags of nerves and worn out. If we do it right, we might have time to play a little all by ourselves for once. We just need to be lucky enough that Monnie doesn't find us the first night. Then we run farther the next day after another bath so that our scents will be harder for the demons to pick up. Every day that we run, we get farther from her and our chances get better. We'll have to get out of this whole area though.

After that, I dunno, but I want to do it with you and maybe try to make our own lives. We might find a couple of guys and all, but I want to live that way with you, Chan. What do you think?"

The two diminutive females stood there in the street hugging each other for a long minute, before they walked away again, each one cursing quietly a little at the way that their tears had caused them to look a little like a pair of raccoons.

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On an intellectual level, the average Merren is a little brighter than the average human -- only one of the reasons why the Merren as a people owned a far-flung intergalactic empire and we earthlings never rose far above the technological equivalent of Huckleberry Finn drifting down the Mississippi river on a raft by comparison. A lot of Merren were brighter than the average and Bronn was one like that.

He wanted to be close to Jerrthi, but he knew that it couldn't be, so he did what he needed to do and what he knew that Jerrthi wanted him to do, and that was to give thought to getting there, doing this investigation and then see about getting home. But he also knew as well as she did that it likely wouldn't be an option that their employers were building into this for him, so he just got on with what he had to do and held his mind on the hope that they could at least communicate a few times. Without the option of returning home, Bronn had to maximize the time that he had before his vehicle went dark and lost power -- if he hadn't starved by then.

Jerrthi was a Watcher. It meant that she was one of the ones who monitored the millions of video streams from the thousands of communication and surveillance satellites over Merren and other worlds and who had access to the data streams of the billions of messages which flashed around their empire. He knew what she'd meant in what she'd told him. She would try now and then to search for and pick up on the data streams of his reports. She couldn't access the data itself, but after she'd pulled his system ID and set it into her pad of working memory, she hoped that she could message him now and then.

It was all that they had left.

As he prepared to depart for his assignment, he elected not to spend the time in cryogenic stasis. He chose instead to pack a little extra food which would keep well and learn several types of physical arts at an accelerated pace, plugging his head into the teaching apparatus on board his automated vessel and literally torturing himself by allowing it to fire the synaptic receptors required to be able to feel the movements in his body as his musculature was driven in rapid spasms by electrical impulses matching the movements involved -- literally a form of physical on the job training. He'd be conscious the entire time, feeling the way that his limbs and body would be thrown around so that when he sent the impulses from his mind, his body would respond accordingly.

This method would never be able to replace the years of training in the tried and true methods, but it could come a little close and might be close enough in a pinch. As well, he knew that just by doing this, the patterns and movements would likely allow him to re-learn what had come to him from his genetics, since he came from a long line of the very same sort of individuals.

Every 'day' for a couple of weeks then, Bronn worked himself to exhaustion in the human form which he'd selected, but as his ship neared Earth and began to prepare for entry into the atmosphere, he was going through the ritualized movements on his own. His means of transport wasn't large by any means. It was little more than a space for his practice, a place to wash and eat, a small 'office' if it might be called that and a couple of places for him to sleep. The rest of the space was given over to a little storage for clothes and some odd weaponry, food storage and engineering spaces -- as well as a bay holding three small surveillance satellites for his use on Earth.

But his genetic past had been taken into account, so every 'night', he dragged his bone-weary body off to the small spaces which had been built something like the warm and wet grottoes which lay in the past of his kind.

He came over the horizon in a low arc, electing to land at night off the coast not far from the old Point Mugu Naval station. It took the automated systems a little while, but he swung around in a wide turn and the three little satellites were set out in geosynchronous orbits before the stage which housed them was released to fall into Earth's atmosphere and burn up on entry.

The satellites wouldn't last there forever, their orbits decaying at some point. But it was hoped that he'd have his own eyes in the sky for maybe as long as a couple of years. As well, there were three of them and it would give him a rather precise way of locating things.

He slid past his target losing height as he came around and then, his instructions followed to the letter by the automated governance systems, he hovered in off the coast to settle in the water and submerge as soon as the satellite tests were complete. The craft surfaced before dawn long enough for Bronn to leave, flying inland with his own wings to begin his hunt.

Each day for a time afterward, he'd return to his vessel which would surface to receive him and he'd move along the coast at night, following the leads, reports and rumors of a strange individual who left a trail of death and destruction as he searched for someone named Monnie for his own reasons.

It was how Bronn found himself submerged in San Pablo Bay, scouting around Oakland, California some time later.

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"Run along now, Goldilocks," Monnie grinned as she ran her hand over Chan's belly, some of Chan's blood trickling thickly from her lips, "just come back when you know it's time, that's all."

Jayne looked over at her friend, who lay pale and at death's door, not seeing much at all anymore.

"What are you gonna do, Monnie?"

The large woman smirked, "What I should have done to you a long time ago. You see, Chan is very young and she's also a little uncertain of things -- mostly herself. I didn't do that to her. It's just something that was added to her, being what she was born and wanting to grow up in a human family. Her mother fucked her up this way, being half-torn herself between hating what had been done to her by the demons who caused her unwanted pregnancy and the love that grows naturally in most forms of females for the life that grows in them regardless. Chan hates showing her demon side because she found that she was treated better by her mother if she hid it.