Human Collection Vessel

Kurt Sanderson walked through the bazaar that ringed Feidak's spaceport. It was amazing what having some credits to his name did for his experience off world, and one of those was definitely being able to learn more about the planet he'd now called home for the last few months. For example, he'd obviously known he was on Feidak, the hazen home world. The monkey-like natives were omnipresent running businesses and shops and more which made sense, the town existed to extract as much money as possible from the galactic Society who operated and even lived there.

He'd also known that the city was called Breidak which at some level he'd recognized was similar to the planet's name but it wasn't until he was out having drinks at a local establishment frequented by off-worlders like himself that he'd learned a little more about the structured hazen language that meant the city was actually named after-

"Out of my way, you oblivious fool!"

He was startled out of his thoughts by the aggressive voice and barely managed to jump out of the way of a tall, four-legged creature the size of a horse that pushed past him, impatiently making its way through the crowd. As it passed, he realized that wasn't the right comparison, it was more like a centaur except... instead of a human torso welded to the front of a horse, it was a humanoid with upper arms and a head that looked even more like a mythical centaur. Well, so long as you ignored the short blue fur that covered it, that is.

The tall creature passed him angrily and continued back along the way Kurt had come from. He marveled at the self-confidence it must take to be so aggressive in a crowd full of so many different kinds of creatures, some of them carnivorous. Maybe marvel wasn't the right word here.

"Dick," he muttered, watching it go.

"Oh, hello! My name is Purlan." He turned towards the sound, confused, and saw nothing. "Your pardon, please, I am down here," the voice continued. He looked down and found himself looking into the face of what could have almost been a caterpillar back home, if caterpillars wore clothes and were three feet tall and at least twice that long. The being before him had raised its head to make eye contact with him so the first few rows of feet were off the ground.

"Ah, sorry, yes, hello Purlan. My name is Kurt." He extended his curled hand in greeting. Over the past few weeks, he'd noticed how common it was for creatures here to do what was basically a fist-bump when meeting people. As far as he knew, it wasn't a hazen custom so he wondered if maybe some ancient member race of Society had introduced it. The not-caterpillar returned the gesture then looked back in the direction of the departing alien jerk.

"I apologize, Kurt, I thought you had introduced yourself as Dick, I misunderstood." It paused and looked back to him. "I confess that I was watching the Radak most closely than I was watching you so I may have mis-judged...." It paused, apparently querying the ubiquitous translator buds that everyone seemed to wear. Kurt had recently begun to recognize the tell-tale look of someone doing this after belatedly learning how to do it himself after an embarrassing but ultimately profitable misunderstanding last month, back when he'd gotten into the line of work that had done so much to improve his situation.

"My further apologies, I now understand that you were not introducing yourself after all. With additional context, I now recognize that the word you used was a pejorative. If I'd paid better attention to my surroundings, I probably would have picked that up earlier." The short yet massy looking creature bobbed its head up and down and began to back away as if to leave.

"It's ok Purlan, it's nice to meet you." He felt as if his confidence had improved along with his credit balance and also that he'd found meeting the wild collection of different creatures that frequented this city-sized commerce zone was the best part of living off world. Well, he corrected himself mentally, one of the best parts. There were some pretty great parts, on the whole.

His new acquaintance stopped its departure and waved its antenna. "You were right, by the way," it told him after a moment.

He cocked his head. "About what?"

"That radak was absolutely, without doubt, a real dick." It made a hissing sound that, after a moment, his buds translated as laughter. He chuckled.

"No argument from me. I wonder what its deal was?" The being in question was now out of sight but he could still hear an occasional squawk or squeal from that direction. The caterpillar creature rustled its body fur and his translator overlaid the word '[Shrug]'.

"I don't know, but then again, I don't know that I've met a friendly one before so maybe that's just how they are."

The two stepped closer and began to chat. Kurt found himself enjoying the company, he hadn't done too much to really establish a good social life outside of work yet and aside from an occasional meal (and sometimes more) with the Praden couple that had been his first clients, he mostly stuck to himself.

After a few minutes, the being before him paused for a moment, then spoke again. "New friend Kurt, I don't wish to presume, but would you have any interest in sharing a meal or drink? I've only arrived recently, and it would be nice to speak with someone who has been here longer, and I can tell we have at least some things in common already."

Kurt started to agree when his tab buzzed and his buds spoke to him in that special voice reserved for it. He held out his arms apologetically. "I would love to, Purlan, but I just got a message from my- well, I guess it's not exactly my 'work', but, it's the place that pays me." He stumbled over his words, not sure exactly how to describe what he did.

The blue caterpillar creature, he realized he hadn't learned what it was called yet, twisted its head slightly in a gesture the buds referred to as '[Curiosity]'. "What an interesting way to phrase that. What kind of not-your-work-but-pays-you perhaps-employment do you do?" it asked.

"Sorry, I guess it's more accurate to say that I'm a... contractor?" He tried again. "I work at, uh, for the Lower Feiden Extraplanetary Fertility Clinic. I mean, they pay me to do jobs," he stumbled out.

"Yes, that is how my society defines employment too, I think. Regardless, what is an 'Extraplanetary Fertility Clinic' and what do you do? I can walk with you for a little if you don't object to the companionship." Kurt nodded and began working his way towards the clinic, a walk that happened to take him in the same direction the rude not-centaur had gone a few minutes earlier. He wasn't sure how well the other being would be able to move in the crowd but it kept up as he walked so it must have its own tricks despite being so much lower to the ground.

"So, it's like... let's see, there are species that can't reproduce without external assistance in some way, and the clinic helps them with that. It's a big problem for beings that have taken up long term residence here and don't have all the resources of their planet to draw from," he explained.

"Resources like?" Purlan, he noticed, seemed to slip between the people in the crowd before they noticed him, somehow avoiding getting stepped on.

"Like... ok, he started again," thinking of a good example. "So there's the Praden, are you familiar with them?"

"Yes! I did a profitable series of trade with a praden merchant over the years, I hope we meet again."

"Well I know a couple who live here, they're my first real friends." And more, he thought to himself, but that was a different conversation. "So as you may know, the praden use a host during their mating for part of the process."

The blue caterpillar was silent for a moment, thinking. "Yeeeeees," it allowed after a moment, "yes that's right. We talked about that once, they use a creature as a host, a.. Zeldek?" it asked, obviously hunting its memory for the name.

"Z'dek," Kurt corrected, "close. Imagine if you live off-world with your praden mate and you want to start a family but you don't want to leave what you're doing to go back home and find a herd of Z'dek to host the fertilization process."

Purlan seemed to chew this over. "I take it to understand that a Z'dek is not practical to bring here?"

Kurt shook his head. "They're sizeable creatures, so no. Anything's possible with money, but..." he shrugged.

"And I assume that an artificial host is-"

"Is not socially acceptable," Kurt interrupted. "Not among the praden and many other species. At the clinic, they do help some species in exactly that way if there's a way to assist in a fertilization or," he thought, then continued, "or whatever, I'm not really an expert, but there are many species where that's just not practical or appropriate for different reasons. In those cases, they need some other kind of host."

The creature made a gesture his buds translated to '[Nodding']. "I understand, my species has its own challenges. Perhaps my mates and I should visit this clinic too sometime." Up ahead, the clinic in question came into sight. Kurt hadn't seen the tall creature that had passed by so angrily earlier so he figured it must not have been going to one of the shops or businesses they'd passed.

"So your work, you find these hosts, perhaps?" it asked curiously.

"Well, not exactly-" Kurt began to reply.

"You care for them, perhaps?" They approached the door and Kurt slowed.

"Not that either, it isn't quite-"

"Then what do you do?" They stopped just outside the door. Kurt thought for a moment, then figured out how to communicate it. He ran his arms up and down his body, pointing at himself.

"Z'dek," he said.

Purlan stared for a moment, then suddenly laughed, but in a friendly way Kurt could tell.

"Z'dek! That's amazing, I would definitely like to know more, let's meet for that drink or meal sometime." Kurt felt his tab buzz again and saw that Purlan's contact information had just added itself. That was a neat trick, he'd have to learn how to do that. "Now I'll let you get to work, it sounds..." The creature tried to come up with the right word before giving up. "It sounds amazing. Please call me sometime, the drinks or meal are on me."

The two exchanged fist bumps again and Kurt walked into the clinic, belatedly unsure if he had just been propositioned or not.

Inside, he recognized the person at the desk. "Sperholt! How's it going?"

The pseudo simian Hazen glanced towards the waiting room then back. "It is going better now, but..." It paused, then started again. "Kurt Sanderson, I wish to... I just wish to make certain you understand that we value you very much."

Kurt hesitated. That didn't sound good. "I'm not getting fired, am I?" After kind of sliding into the role by accident, he found that he'd become accustomed to the benefits of having a real income in this Society. Well, that was probably the same in any society, but he'd found the hard way that without an active trade or labor export from Earth, there were real limits to what kind of employment he could have. He was looking to use his new revenue stream to try and bootstrap some Society-compatible revenue streams back home, but first he needed to keep it going.

To his relief, the clerk seemed startled and shook its tail in negation. "No, no, that's not what I'm saying." It glanced at the waiting room again, then back to him. "Whatever... personalities you encounter, I hope you will understand that we respect and value you greatly. I apologize in advance for the new client... for your next client." The wall to the waiting room thumped like something heavy had hit it and Kurt's eyes widened. He had a sudden suspicion.

"This next client... he has received unfortunate news and will not be able to be home for his mate's next fertility window." The clerk looked at its display and Kurt wondered if it was really reading or just trying to avoid eye contact. "He has chosen to use our clinic to make a deposit to send home where it can be used to fertilize his made, but-" The clerk swallowed hard and looked back up at him. He'd never seen him quite this flustered before.

"His species has, well his society has rigorous views on the use of artificial means of... collecting the sample. They do not apply to the fertilization itself, but the males must use a living host for, ah, for collecting it." It paused, then continued. "And it cannot be manually expressed, their culture requires... the act of mating be performed." Kurt slowly realized that the hazen clerk wasn't just flustered, he seemed to be embarrassed.

Kurt stood there, processing the news. It sounded like Sperholt was saying... that they needed him to-

"The fee will be 500 credits. Again, I apologize in advance because the client is not in a good mood, even for a-"

"A Radak?" he hazarded, drawing a startled untranslated exclamation from the clerk and a tail that stood straight up.

"How did- yes, that is correct!"

Kurt nodded sadly to himself. It figured. "It's alright. Where do you need me?"

The clerk collected itself and pointed to the door he knew would bypass the waiting room and go back to the clinic's procedure room. "Good luck, Kurt Sanderson," it tols him. He nodded and walked towards the door, meeting one of the orderlies he'd worked with a couple times over the last month on the way and who led him through. "Poor bastard," he thought he heard someone say behind him as the doors swung shut and he swallowed. Oh boy.

In the procedure room, he walked up to the strange looking, super complicated and adjustable table at the center and patted one of the cushions. He'd had some interesting experiences on this table and it sounded like he was going to add another one today.

"So, doc, what do you need from me today?" The technician had come in right after them and was already at the console making some adjustments. Somehow they'd gotten off to a rocky start more than a month ago and now Kurt couldn't help from antagonizing him a little whenever they met. Considering what he controlled, maybe it wasn't exactly wise.

"As I have said before, I am not a doctor. Please be quiet." He continued to concentrate on his work and Kurt watched as the chair gradually reconfigured itself into a familiar shape. As it worked, he began taking off his clothes. With one exception that he didn't really like to think about, each of his clients had required that he be cleaned out before... servicing them. The neutral gel that would temporarily pause some of the autonomous functions in his gut while providing him with nutrients during his hosting jobs would then be squirted in and he'd be implanted there in the clinic by one of the other technicians or, like on his first job and a couple others so far, he'd go somewhere with his client and they would do it personally.

As the chair stopped moving, he climbed up onto it and sat without prompting. He wasn't sure if teasing Smiley at the controls was a good long-term strategy, considering, but the least he could do was-

He jumped, or tried to, as the cushions on which he sat suddenly parted, pulling his cheeks apart, and the familiar finger-wide probe slipped into his asshole from below. No matter how he tried to anticipate it, somehow it caught him off guard each time.

Over the next few minutes, the familiar cleanout proceeded, fully contained as always, and he paid attention to the device's operation. He'd started to notice that some jobs began with nothing more than a bare, clinical internal rinsing that would then be followed by either a clinical or personal implantation that didn't really push his body's abilities. But when the probe also spent time during the flush stretching his sphincter and insides, he knew he could typically expect something more... challenging.

As the probe swelled inside of him while the liquids gurgled and pumped, he started to realize this was definitely going to be one of the latter. The semi-rigid, fleshy device began ratcheting a little wider and wider over the next few minutes and he could feel it beginning to work deeper into his body than usual. That was an interesting feeling.

He grunted as the first expansion wave traveled down the probe and up past his prostate, an organ that he'd become much better acquainted with over the last few months. This time, the expansion phase seemed to be working harder on the full length of his rectum too and he started to wonder about what was in store for him.

The pressure on his prostate increased and decreased over and over as the device pulsed stretching expansions down its length, each one pushing on that special spot deep within him as it passed. As the minutes passed and the system finished a third and then fourth rinsing cycle, he realized this was definitely an unusual preparation. He looked over at the technician running the console, wondering if he could tell whether the monkey-like hazen was taking some kind of sadistic pleasure in the job but, as usual, he was on his tablet reading, as bored looking as any space primate could look while its big medical system reamed out a human contractor. He consciously relaxed all of the muscles in his ass as much as he could to allow the stretching to do its job.

He could feel his penis standing erect under the pressure from within. He closed his eyes and groaned as another wave of pressure against his prostate forced some fluid out. This one was definitely going longer than usual and deeper for sure. He wasn't sure what that meant for the actual job, but he knew he'd probably find out soon. Through the haze of sensations, he could make out an angry murmur on the other side of the door.

Suddenly, it opened, shocking him, and as he'd expected, the rude Radak stormed in, a hazen orderly right behind him.

"You can't come in here yet, please sir, come back. It won't be long, we can wait back in-"

The radak held up an upper hand, cutting it off without bothering to look. He was staring at Kurt who suddenly felt very vulnerable. Between the immobilizing field that held his pelvis solidly in place on the chair and the giant pulsating tube that was doing such a number on his insides, he was immobilized and couldn't go anywhere. Several hundred kilos of angry alien was staring at him hard, and while he knew most alien body language didn't translate directly across, he didn't think this being was happy.

"Why is it not ready yet?" he barked at the technician who had quickly set down his tab and assumed a position that looked like he was hard at work at his console.

"The subject is still undergoing cleaning and preparation, the work requested demands a higher level of hygiene than most-"

"I don't want to hear your life story, just tell me when it will be read." At no point did the centaur-like creature look him in the eye, it just spoke directly to the technician and even then...

"He will be ready for you in another five minutes, approximately." This was news to Kurt and he started to wonder about the extra cleaning when one of the expansion phases happened and one of those bigger bulges traveled across his prostate.

He groaned and twitched everywhere except where his pelvis was held in place by the field. Another series of drips of forcibly expressed prostate fluid flowed out of him.

The creature looked down at him, dismissively, but more like one would look at an animal or machine. Acter a moment, it shook its head and walked out without speaking.

Kurt sat there, shocked at the alien's behavior and trying not to pay attention to yet another rinse cycle starting inside of him as the probe/nozzle continued to pulse and squirt and drain his lower colon.

"The circumstances of this contract are... not idea."

Kurt looked up and realized it was the technician, the one who had been semi-rude to him since his first visit. He'd never said anything nice before.