Oculus Pt. 02

Sleeping was the hardest part.

Sasha laid on his back in what could be called a bed -- if one stretched the bed to include a flat, black pallet of black metal, ribbed like a human torso, and held aloft by hands that emerged from the ground, creating a grotesquely organic feeling to what otherwise felt like steel. He tossed from side to side, feeling the humid heat of the place pressing to him, and tried to let fatigue carry him away. He'd been through so much, though, over the past few hours.

Clearly, I've arrived in another dimension. A very...alien one, he thought through the possibilities. The Quantum Tunneling Device that he had been testing before he had been stranded here had been 'tuned' to send him to a universe as similar to the one he had left as possible. The simple fact was that there was a near infinite number of universes...but only a small fraction of infinitely could be safely inhabited by human beings, or anything similar to them. The reason was a set of numbers that he had been named the Universal Constants.

These numbers were, in effect, the base rules of the cosmos. How much did gravity pull. How fast did light travel. That kind of thing. Adjusting each of the values altered the end result of any particular cosmos. Too much gravity and a Big Bang could never occur and the entire universe would be a singular point smaller than an atom, locked in an eternal stasis. Too little gravity and the Big Bang would happen -- and then the universe would never change. The vast cloud of simple subatomic particles released by the Big Bang would never clump together to form hydrogen, and that hydrogen would never clump together to form stars, and those stars would never fuse their hydrogen into more complex elements, then release those elements into the cosmos.

Similar causal barriers surrounded the other numbers and the end result was simple enough to understand. There were infinite universes where all life was a singular point, infinite universe where all of the cosmos were a massive cloud of undifferentiated particulates...and between the two were universes where the numbers were just right to form stars. And from those stars, planets. And from those planets, life.

The first few attempts to use the QTD had locked into universes that were mostly a haze of subatomic particles. Cold. Still. Vast. Terrifying, on an existential level. But they were also simultaneously deeply alien and easily understood. Clouds of gas were, at the end of the day, explicable.

This place?

This...City...

It was alien and inexplicable. Because it was also so very...darkly human.

Sasha rolled onto his side and his eyes opened as he looked at the furniture that made up the rest of this room. Ziak, the only other person he had met here so far, had simply snorted at him when he had asked her who the furniture had been. Because there was a sink in the room, like some bedrooms or bathrooms on earth. But rather than a shelf of wood or metal or plastics, the shelf was a woman's legs. Her rump thrust into the air, her thighs pressed together. The fact that she was formed out of metal and gleaming chitin and sleek tubes of metal, like a biomechanical fantasy of a woman, didn't change the distinctly human outline.

Sasha bit his lip, his cock growing harder and harder as he looked at the soft, supple, gray pussy lips that were situated between her thighs. He had thrust his fingers into her to activate the mirror above the sink...

I wonder... Sasha thought -- his head warring between fatigue, curiosity, and a sick lust.

He rolled onto his back, forcing himself to look at the ceiling.

Back on Earth, Sasha Brett had...had a complicated relationship with women. He had only really loved one person in his life -- Mary -- but...he hadn't been very good at expressing it. That had eben the root cause of the rot that had nibbled away at their marriage, until she had sat him down and quietly explained to him that she was going to leave him unless he changed. Sasha sighed, his hand sliding along his chest. He found the slowly, throbbing beat of his heart, the memory of that anxious, knife edged discussion biting into him.

It was easier to think of impossible geometries and alien cities than it was to remember Mary.

I need more than just...math, Sasha! I need you. I need you to fucking notice me! To not just look through me like I'm a...a...a ghost!

He'd tried. He really had.

The worst thing was, Mary had even recognized that he had been trying. But...

It hadn't been enough.

Sasha frowned at the ceiling, trying to think about anything else now. But his mind was sliding along the long, lonely years after Mary, where the only real thing he had was his work and ignoring the news feeds and the occasional time with his daughter. He wondered if she even knew if he was alive, or if the destruction of the laboratory meant they all thought he was dead. He closed his eyes, then focused on breathing in. Breathing out. The only problem was that breathing in filled his nose with a subtle scent -- sweet and wafting and coming from the room. The scent of the woman in the wall.

Sasha clenched his jaw and let eternity tick by, breathing and listening to his own heart beat.

***

When he woke, it was to the sound of Ziak rapping her metallic knuckles on the yonic opening that was his chamber's door. Sasha sat up, cupping his hand over his crotch, a reflexive flare of modesty that felt almost totally laughable in this bizarre, nightmarish place. He blinked as he sat up and Ziak nodded to him -- her body glistening under the pale white light that filled the room.

"We're learning today," she said.

Sasha scrambled out of bed. He followed after her as she strode through the small home and outside -- and there, she stretched her arms above her head, her spine arching deliciously. Sasha shook his head slowly, wondering at the biggest mystery so far. Well. No, that wasn't quite true. There were many mysteries about this place that were as stark and gigantic, but it was still one that he was the most curious about: How did a woman made of metal and organic components both manage to look so fucking human. His tongue slid along his lips as Ziak turned to face him, her gleaming breasts bared and jutting and tempting. He clasped his hands behind his back as she spoke.

"The We...that is our name..." She gestures to herself. "We are born of the City and we serve it and we hate it both. The City is our master and our enemy. We depend upon Him for all, but He will take all. He will seek to make us meat." She knelt down, then patted the smooth black floor, the faint sound of hissing pipes and groaning, distant turbine noises becoming slightly louder. "The City is all. There is no escape from the City. Do you understand me?"

Sasha bit his lip and nodded. "You called it a him?"

"Yes," she said, then clicked her metal teeth. "Baphomet sits on his Throne, with one who sees the Future and one who sees the Past. The City is His flesh, the tubes are His veins and we drink of his blood to survive." She licked her lips. "His piss. His cum." She paused, then grinned, slightly. "Stealing it right from his balls." She chuckled.

Sasha shook his head slowly. "The...device you put in me." His hand went to his belly, remembering the feeling of her tongue sliding down his throat, the stinging pain of her tongue tip burrowing into his belly. "The translator?"

Ziak nodded. "Yes?"

"I...it is using a name from my culture for Baphomet," Sasha said. "But that's not quite right, is it?"

She shrugged one shoulders. "Who knows. Do you dream, Foolish? Does your people know the dark desire of the unwilling woman? The wriggling of the tentacle, sliding down a throat that struggles to breathe? Do they know the forbidden bliss of entering where one should not -- of going where one is forbidden? Do you yearn for the loving touch of a corpse?" She chuckled, her fingers gliding along the floor, sensually. "Do you get hard at the idea of strangling a woman?" Her eyes glittered. "Do you?"

Sasha gulped, slightly, his head shaking slightly. "I...uh..." He coughed. "T-There...I mean...w-we all have fantasies..."

"Yessss...We do..." she chuckled then stood. "Then yes. Your people know the City. Come, Foolish." She turned and started to walk off.

Sasha followed after her, trying to not feel awkward about being naked.

"Today, we get you a weapon," she said, nodding. "Foolish you may be, but meat is what you will be without a weapon." She picked up her spear. "Your armor, though, it is..." She frowned. "Wrong. I don't like it."

"My HEDE suit?" Sasha asked. "Where is it?"

Ziak wrinkled her nose. "Tossed it into one of the Thought Troughs. But, ack, they didn't go for it." She shrugged. "Now it's down there, rotting."

Sasha frowned. "That suit is the best chance I have at surviving and learning. We need to get it back." He tried to sound calm and rational and not furious, but...it was hard. Because he was furious. His hands clenched slightly behind his back and he used the same tone of voice he had used while speaking to spoiled billionaires who had complained about the time it had taken to breach dimensional barriers using wholly untested technologies. Calm. Rational. The kind of voice you'd expect from a scientist. "That suit is my weapon, Ziak."

She turned back, narrowing her eyes at him. "It doesn't cut. It doesn't throw..."

Sasha pursed his lips. "Trust me."

Ziak sighed. "Come, Foolish."

"My name is Sasha," he said, his voice a soft growl.

Ziak turned her head, looking back at him. She narrowed her eyes, then turned and started to stalk off. The route she led him along went past the edge of the small village and to the edge of the...well, Sasha thought of it as kind of like a vast, metallic plateau that abutted the plateau that he had begun on. Neither contained one of the ominous pyramids that he could see in the distance. Rather, their flat surfaces were covered with a chaotic assortment of unnatural terrain. The plateau he had arrived on was dimpled by those pools of strange glowing water that Ziak had called 'dreamers.' This one? This one was more chaotic than that, with dozens of narrow ridges of...well, they were somewhere between building and hillock, with tubes and pipes running into and out of them, piercing into the metal flesh of the ground like spears. There were narrow forests of black spurs -- metallic trees without branches or leaves -- and there were other, stranger things that Sasha couldn't see in the gloom.

Ziak led him past one of the forest outcroppings and to a circular pit in the middle of the plateau. Looking down into it, he could see a kind of warm, white liquid sloshing out of pipes that looked like opening lips, pouring down into a puddle of collected, sharp edged detritus. He could see, too, floating among that mess, his HEDE suit.

Ziak grabbed his shoulder, stopping him. "The Thought-Troughs are dangerous," she said, frowning. "But not lethal." She nodded. "You will not be killed, but you may be forced to stay for a time. I will not rescue you -- you will have to stay and endure. Understood?"

Sasha frowned. "I understand. It won't be lethal...what...might keep me?" he asked, looking down. The climb was actually far less onerous than he might have thought. The walls were covered with easy handholds thanks to the decoration of bone-like spars and protrusions that decorated this entire dimension.

"Her," Ziak said, nodding.

Sasha's brow furrowed. HE saw nothing but black metal in the white liquid. Then, with the languid slowness of a crocodile moving through the water, a tail that was long and spined and tipped with a wicked barb at the end slithered. Metal and chunks of debris jotled and clinked against one another as the tail writhed forward, but before Sasha could see what the tail was attached to, the whole thing slipped down into the liquid, leaving it undisturbed.

Sasha shook his head. "What is that?"

Ziak opened her mouth, then closed it. She frowned, considering. "We...are not all this." She gestured to her own mostly humanoid form. "But We all walk a path -- between the City and ourselves. Some become a part of the City for a time, hearing the song and following it, so that the rest of us might live." She nodded, slightly -- and for a moment she looked deeply sad. "But others do not listen. They...graft. They...combine." She rolled her shoulders. "They become."

"Become what?" Sasha asked.

"Become...night. Dark. Blade." Ziak clicked her teeth. "Sex. Death. Claws." She looked at him, then smirked. "Don't worry. She does not bite. She will just..." Her finger touched Sasha's chest, and she crooned. "Enjoy. If you are caught."

Sasha gulped. "So, you're saying it...she...will..." He flushed. "Have her way with me?"

Ziak laughed. "I said it wasn't lethal. I said it would keep you. What did you think I meant?"

Sasha frowned. "Tell me more about her. How do I keep her off? How do I fight her? How do I do this safely?"

Ziak opened her mouth, then closed it. She pouted. "Damn you, Foolish. I was hoping you would think with your dick and jump down, laughing." She grins, showing metal teeth. "Okay. Here is my advice. First...determine how she sees the City. Some hear noise, but cannot see light. Some cannot feel, but can scent. Some have stronger, some have weaker, senses. To determine this, first-" she stopped as Sasha picked a small, smooth stone from the side of the pit and tossed it down. He deliberately aimed it against the wall -- and it struck there, producing a resounding clang.

The creature that leaped from the water was as lovely as she was horrifying.

She had pale white skin, bone white. Glistening. Gleaming. Her head was hairless and elongated, curving back over her spine and fanning outwards, like the ridges of a triceratops. She had a humanoid face, save for the sharpened teeth, but her eyes were simply smooth spaces -- more striking by their smoothness than simply empty sockets would have been. Her nose was flat and wide, and her neck was ridged with extended ridges of bones, giving her an exoskeletal appearance. Her hips were sharp and bony, but there was sleek, muscular flesh beween the white armor plating, with a pair of small, high, firm breasts on her chest, her nipples midnight black. Her rump was shockingly similar to a human's -- save that she had a long, spined, barbed tail that slashed through the air, plunging into the wall above her head, while midnight black claws flexed at the end of long white fingers, dragging furrows in the metal. She opened her mouth and her black tongue slithered along the wall, tasting the space where the stone had fallen.

Sasha stood perfectly still, then watched as the woman-creature arched her spine slowly, slowly, slowly. Her arms remained latched onto the wall, her thighs spreading as she folded herself almost entirely in back, tilting her head down as she hung away from the wall. Her tongue slowly slid from her sharp mouth, dripping with black spittle into the warm white liquid that filled the base of the pit. Her hiss was soft and sibilant -- and her arching spine was almost lewd in how it presented her whole body. Sasha felt himself growing taut, his heart hammering as he watched her exotic form. Then she released the wall, plunging into the water with a splash and a slosh.

The tail was the last thing to vanish.

"No eyes," he murmured. "Tongue looked like it was scenting."

"She could smell your maleness," Ziak murmured, chuckling. "If she catches you, she's going to ride you for days."

Sasha shrugged one shoulder. "I doubt it. I tend to turn women off after I start talking," he stood then nodded. "Okay..." he started to pick rocks up, sighing as he did so. "I wish I had my belt pouch, but...I think I can handle this..." He gulped, then started to mentally map out the route he would take down into the pit, his tongue sliding along his lips. He'd done mountain climbing practice in the lead up to the mission, as there had been no idea what physical trials he might face in the first dimensional excursion. He, at the time, had thought it had been a ludicrous excess in training. He had been planning to go through to another dimension for about five minutes, to test that it could be done.

But, well.

Thank God for needing to impress billionaire doers.

He started to swing his legs over the side and planted his feet against an outcropping of bone-like material. He moved very slowly, carefully, his breath moving steady. He tried to keep his heart from hammering, his breath from picking up. He was like ice in bed, apparently, all he had to do was keep that kind of calm and cool. He used his free hand to hold himself up as he planted his feet on one of the pipes that was pouring water into the pit. As he watched, the debris and detritus underneath him shifted.

With languid, slow grace...a hand emerged from the water. Debris clacked softly as the long, elegant fingers uncurled. She had an extra joint on each finger and her fingernails were nearly as long as his normal fingers -- claws that came to wicked, sharp tips. Water dripped from her knuckles, pattered along her long, long arm as it reached upwards. Her hand caressed the pipe that Sasha stood upon her fingers sliding along the metal tube as if it was a lover. Sasha lifted one of his feet, his body trembling as fear burned through him. The claws rasped, right unerneath where his foot had been and he used his other hand to keep himself balanced, his right leg growing hot as he kept his weight on it.

A droplet of sweat beaded along his chin.

The water parted slowly, sliding away from her eyeless face as she started to emerge, her lips skinned back, showing her sharp, sharp teeth. Her black tongue flicked out as her arm dragged her up, water beading on her breasts, dripping from her black nipple. She hissed, very softly. "Meat..." She crooned, her voice sibilant and crooning. "Speak up...meat...tell me where you are...meat..." She chuckled, softly. "All I want to do is..."

Her tongue snapped back. Her teeth clicked together.

"Nibble."

Sasha was getting half hard now. The bead of sweat on his chin dripped down and fell onto his foot with a soft plip.

The woman grinned. "Meeeeeeeeeeeeeat." She let it out like a sing song.

Sasha's other hand, the one with the small rocks piled in it, flicked as quietly as he could. He tried to loose just one rock -- and he managed it. It arced away and struck the far wall with a clack and the woman surged back and away, smashing into the wall. Her claws scrabbled, grabbing, reaching, her tongue darting out as Sasha took advantage of the noise that clattered and clanked to put his foot down, then jump from the pipe to a small outcropping at the base of the pit, right next to his discarded HEDE suit.

The woman drew away from the wall, hissing. "Clever...clever meat..." She was holding a rock in her hand -- the same rock he had thrown. She licked it, slowly, shivering, then murmured. "Not from the City. Not from the We. This meat is new."

Sasha very gently picked up the helmet of his suit. He held it in his hands.

"Greetings, Dr. Brett," the AI in the helmet spoke. It was a microphone inside of the helmet -- and so, he barely heard it.

The woman, though, had infinitely better hearing.

Sasha had just enough time to hurl the helmet up and out of the pit, to back up, before she was on him. Her clawed hand gripped his throat, her other hand slipped around his back. It was only when she was on him that Sasha realized that she was easily seven feet tall. Her eyeless face tilted forward and her head turned down, her grin wicked, her hissing triumphant. Her tail swayed from side to side behind her as her hand caressed him, gently, gingerly. Her claws rasped against his skin and his dick was achingly hard -- but Sasha managed to sound remarkably calm as he said: "Greetings."