From Friends to Lovers Ch. 30

When Talia and I reappeared at the campsite the next morning, the others were already up and about. Beth spotted me first, wrapping me in her arms. "OK?"

"Definitely."

I kissed her, and she looked curious. "Mm, something sweet."

I grinned. "You'll have to ask Talia about that."

Beth gave me a knowing look. "Oh, I think you can count on it. Want breakfast?"

"Please - and coffee if there's any left."

Talia smiled. "So, I have some other matters to attend to, but perhaps later it would be possible to travel back with you? You already know much of what is important about this planet, and I think the next part of our work can more easily be done on your world."

"Of course," I reassured her. I did a quick calculation in my head. "If you return at nightfall, it'll be evening too at home."

Talia raised her hand in farewell, shimmering and fading. "Till then," her words lingered in the air.

Marie glanced at me. "I'll send a message capsule, let them know to expect us."

She chuckled. "After all, the envoy of an alien race probably ought to have some kind of welcoming committee, no?"

We spent the day gathering as much information from the instruments as we could, then packing them up carefully. Over lunch Beth gently quizzed me about my time with Talia, and I saw her growing look of wonderment as I described our encounter. "I wonder how their other gender's made, then? And whether -" her sensual shiver betrayed that her question was far from purely academic - "they could be with a human girl..."

She grinned. "But regardless of that, I'm sure Talia won't make us wait too long to discover how things work between us, too. That sweetness..."

"Earth calling Beth," I teased, echoing one of her favourite phrases. "Come on, let's finish clearing all this up."

Talia reappeared as promised as the reddish sun was setting, and we made our way back up the hill to where the portal was still shimmering. This time I was first, Beth and Sarah behind me, and I turned on the arrival ramp to see Marie emerging from the portal with Talia.

Marie stepped off the platform, speaking to the technicians, and after a few seconds the surface of the portal collapsed, dispersed.

The Vice-Chancellor had returned to welcome us back, and he looked distinctly overwhelmed by Talia. "Ah, welcome, Madame Ambassador, er..."

She took pity on him. "Thank you. It will be my privilege to serve our peoples in whatever way I can."

Marie came to the rescue. "It's fine, Bertie. We can introduce Talia to the press at the next briefing - in the meantime, she's coming with us, and we'll keep you informed."

Talia looked around curiously as Marie drove us home from the lab. "Much has changed on your world."

I made a mental note to ask her what she already knew of Earth, and after a few more minutes we arrived at the house. "First order of business, hot showers," said Beth determinedly. "Tim, why don't you go with Marie, and Sarah and I will look after Talia in the en suite."

Marie grinned at me. "Well, I do need someone to wash my back."

She and I were the first to return to the kitchen, feeling very much fresher, and after what seemed a long time the girls reappeared with Talia. I blinked, recognising one of Beth's dresses, and a knowing smile from Beth brought up all sorts of questions, none of which were likely to get an immediate answer - had the girls introduced her to their most intimate items of clothing, had they taken the opportunity to become more familiar with her body as they got clean, or afterwards...

Beth was shaking her head, smiling. "I don't need Talia's telepathic skills to read you like a book. To answer your questions - yes of course, absolutely, and later."

My jaw dropped, and would have dropped again if that had been physically possible as all three of them collapsed into a fit of giggles. Finally Talia caught her breath. "It feels so good to relax - I know we have a lot to do, but I can't tell you how much it means to be with you all as a family."

I nodded. "We should definitely have our evening meal soon - Talia, is there anything you don't eat?"

She shook her head. "Our diet is very different to yours, but I'm determined to at least try everything - I'll say if something really doesn't work for me."

Dinner was simple, fish fingers and chips, and Talia nodded as she squeezed more ketchup onto her plate. "It's good."

We finished our meal, and I glanced at my watch. "My body has no idea what time it thinks it is, but probably a good idea if we turn in soon."

Marie covered a yawn. "I'm struggling to keep my eyes open, actually - we might as well stick to calling it jetlag."

She leaned over to kiss Talia. "We can get better acquainted another time, can't we."

Marie headed upstairs, the door of her room closing, and Beth grinned at me. "Let's go up, and you can get the answers to those questions you had."

When we reached the bedroom, the girls quickly undressed and climbed on the bed, arms around each other, watching Talia turn to face me with a smile. "Now you can discover all of what your companions chose for me to wear."

She reached back to lower the zip of her dress, letting it slide from her shoulders and stepping carefully aside. Underneath she wore one of Beth's short silk camisoles, her nipples already visible through the thin material, and a sheer thong. I wondered fleetingly how different the sensation would be for her if I were to tug at the thong, the narrow strip of silk pressing into her soft valley...

Talia stood patiently, as though time was of no consequence, but Beth cleared her throat, raising one eyebrow. "We were hoping you'd bring her over here before too long."

I took Talia's hand, drawing her toward the bed, and she knelt gracefully by Beth's feet. I joined her, wrapping my arms around her waist from behind and kissing her hair. "We didn't really explore very much in the shower," Beth confessed.

She reached out to caress Talia gently. "But you have beautiful breasts..."

Sarah too extended hesitant fingers to stroke softly, and Talia closed her eyes, breathing in. "Mm, that feels lovely."

I caressed her bottom with my hand, suddenly curious to know how else Talia differed. As if reading my mind, she moved her thighs a little apart, and I slid my hand between them, fingers stroking her through already-dampening silk. "Oh, take it off," she breathed.

I slid the thong down, off, but before I could return to my exploration, Beth's hand drifted lower, over Talia's stomach, her fingers touching the edge of the golden fur between Talia's thighs. Beth's face held a wordless question, getting a nod in response. Beth's fingertips moved lower again, and I saw her eyes widen as she encountered the top of Talia's inviting valley. "Oh..."

Talia closed her eyes, her expression blissful, as Beth's fingers explored. After a few moments Beth brought her fingertips to her tongue, tasting. "Mm, Tim, you must have loved burying your mouth there..."

Beth offered her fingertips to Sarah, and Sarah took them into her mouth, seeming to shock herself with her own boldness as she sucked them. "Mm..."

Beth gave a shiver of pleasure. "I almost can't decide what ought to come next - I can't wait to see what it looks like, Talia, with Tim in you there, just a spurt of his stuff spilling on to your stomach as he reaches the top of your valley while he's coming..."

Talia breathed in as she imagined. "Oh, yes... But something first, Beth. I want to feel how you're different, too."

In response, Beth parted her thighs, revealing the already-wet opening that to me was deliciously familiar, but to Talia must be as enticingly alien as I'd found her. Talia moved a little closer, watching Beth's face as she reached out to explore with her fingertips. "Go inside," breathed Beth, and Talia's expression betrayed mingled shock and curiosity. She slid her fingers further in, watching them as though uncertain whether they would ever reappear.

"Mm," Beth responded quietly. "Talia... perhaps Tim said, we're not as sensitive there as you, but there is one place you still need to discover."

Beth reached down, using her fingers to spread the edges of her soft lips even wider. "Do you see...?"

"Oh..." breathed Talia. "Should I...?" she asked as she bent closer, Beth's gasp of pleasure answering her question as Talia's tonguetip brushed her hard nub.

Talia's expression became more daring. "And if I -"

She suckled gently on Beth's nub, and Beth cried out softly, flexing her hips. "Oh, god, Tali, yes."

I threw a smiling glance at Sarah. "I think it's time we helped a little."

Sarah bent to Beth's breast, and I followed suit, both of us doing what we knew Beth would appreciate most, softly suckling, then ever so gently pressing nipples with teeth. Beth's breathing quickened, and she managed to gasp out, "Oh, Tali, harder with your fingers, it's OK."

Talia pressed more insistently inside her, lips and tongue still varying their touch on Beth's nub, and Beth gasped softly once, then again, before her back arched and she cried out incoherently. "Ohh..."

Talia's face showed surprise and wonder as Beth's enclosing softness rippled, squeezing her fingers. "That must feel incredible when you're inside her," she whispered to me.

Finally Beth was spent, gasping, and I moved to stroke her hair while Talia embraced her from one side, Sarah from the other. "Now you know all our secrets," murmured Beth.

"Not quite," Talia shook her head, smiling. "Tim may think he guards his thoughts, but some of his imaginings are of other things I'm looking forward to sharing with you..."

I glanced at Sarah, her face clearly betraying her own arousal. "Maybe now would be a good time to let Talia see one more way for us to share..."

She breathed in, lying back against the pillow, opening her thighs to me. "If you're careful, she'll see just how much you enjoy what she said - when we both get there at the same time, and I'm rippling around you while you spurt your stuff..."

***

Marie found us the next day still sleeping, Beth's arms encircling Talia, Sarah and I entangled in each other's limbs. "Come on, lazies," she grinned. "Aren't we supposed to be saving the universe or something?"

Talia sat up, rubbing her eyes, her golden hair forming a halo around her face. "Mm. Could we have some of your, what is it, coffee? Then we should begin."

"Better than that," I chuckled, kissing Sarah as I reluctantly pulled away from her arms. "A decent breakfast will set us up for the day."

By the time they all joined me in the kitchen, bacon was sizzling, and Marie poured coffee while I filled plates. "Tuck in."

"We can set the conservatory up as a bit of a 'war room'," suggested Beth. "We still have that big decorating table if we need to spread papers out, things like that."

When we'd finished eating, we rearranged the conservatory, putting the table and a whiteboard at the front. "I'm not sure how much help I'm going to be," Sarah frowned. "Physics, and ancient languages, and all that."

"Nonsense," I reassured her. "Don't forget it was you that pointed out what I needed to do to that last equation."

I turned to Talia. "So, do you want to get us up to speed?"

She nodded. "As you've seen, your world had an outpost in the Magellanic Cloud. If you read the texts from ancient Sumer correctly -" I saw Marie chuckling to herself, obviously anticipating Professor Gray's reaction to being corrected by an apparently young woman - "you'll see that the Sumerians became involved in a battle with the Magellans which eventually engulfed your entire Solar System."

For a moment her face turned grim. "It resulted in the destruction of what was then your fifth planet. You call the consequences of that the asteroid belt. Millions of lives were lost."

As if by some unspoken agreement, we were silent for long moments in recognition of the tragedy, then Talia spoke again. "The Magellan force was eventually destroyed, using a weapon so terrible that it has been outlawed. The outpost was abandoned, the portal closed, and history overtook Sumer so that the technology was lost. Only now have you regained it, and I was sent to give you knowledge of all this."

Talia's words had an ominous ring. "The Magellans are still out there, and they may respond to a new incursion from Earth."