Pax Multi Pt. 06

"And...and this...this is Endless Song Echoing Upon the Depths."

Lou had never seen a Upkin diplomat in the flesh before, not since he had first set foot on Earth what felt like weeks but was in actuality years before. But he had seen them on the screen and read about them in book and he had rather foolishly thought that he had maybe gotten at least a fraction of what it was like. He had told himself that it wouldn't be too shocking, if he mentally prepared himself.

I'm really dumb sometimes, Lou thought, his hands shaking as Beatrice stepped past him to the edge of the artificial ocean and looked down upon Endless Song.

It wasn't that Lou was scared precisely. It was just that he was in sheer awe: the Upkin diplomat was nearly thirty meters long from the incredibly broad sweep of her nose to the curved flukes of her tail, which lifted from the water, creating a glittering cascade of water droplets, sloughing down into the artificial ocean. It was not a true blue whale in shape and conformation -- there had been modifications and additions to adapt the cranium to the initial purpose of the uplifted blues. There were the extra bone spurs along the forehead that were supposed to contain implanted radio antenna, there were the extra eyes for situational awareness, and there were the tentacles that frilled off the sides of her ribbed cheeks, each able to reach out almost twelve meters and grasp with the same strength as a human man.

One such tentacle flowed from the water and reached out to Beatrice -- who was using her moth body for this meet and greet. She gingerly took the tentacle tip in her own dark hand and shook it as the entire artificial ocean seemed to buzz with a deep, resounding song.

The translation harness that Endless Song wore turned that song into a cheerful, matronly voice.

"It is an absolute delight to meet you, Beatrice Benoit."

Beatrice knelt down, her eyes wide. "Your body is very similar to the designs I used for my bioforms in the upper atmospheres of gas giants. But far more dense!" She paused, then blushed. "A-And by that, I mean, I hope that you did not have too uncomfortable trip from orbit!" She looked up at Lou, clearly hoping she had said the right thing. Lou gave her a tiny smile -- honestly, after the past few days, he wasn't sure if there was something that Beatrice could say to offend the Upkin.

"You try having a calf or two, ha ha!" the blue whale's chuckle was as warm as her normal habitat was cold. "Oh, I do hate space travel -- but no one else in the Upkin was up to heading all the way out here to continue the peace talks."

"I admit, I am confused by this talk of continuing the peace talks," Beatrice said, sitting down and casually dangling her legs down into the water -- which made Lou freeze. In the long annals of interactions between the Neopolitan Star Kingdom and the Upkin, he knew that the deepest, most easy offense to give was to 'treat them like animals.' Though no Upkin had ever actually been kept in zoos, the cultural memory of it had soaked into them like a burn after having scalding water dropped on you. It stung still, centuries later. But if Endless Song was disturbed, she didn't show it. Instead, bioluminescent patterns that had been designed for giving orders and signals to deep sea commandos flickered in a complex geometric pattern along her back.

"If there is any way that I can elucidate for you..."

Beatrice nodded. "Well, I have stopped fighting humans. And humans have stopped fighting me. And I have married Louis. And we have consummated our relationship, though he has yet to sire a child in my body with wombs, but that isn't required for the peace talks. What more is there to talk about?"

"Quite a forward wife for a Neo," Endless Song said, her voice full of mirth at Lou's mortification. He sat down beside Bea, whispering to her.

"You know, ah, you don't have to tell people..."

"I am attempting to train you out of your mortification," Bea said, cheerfully. "No one else in the United Human Polities is ashamed of or embarrassed by their sexuality. And furthermore, I enjoy bragging about you, my husband." She smiled, then looked down at Endless Song. "I think I am going to be as transformative for the Neopolitan Star Kingdom as they have been for me!"

"That seems quite likely!" Endless Song laughed. "But to tell you, honestly, these peace talks were arranged while our understanding of you was more rudimentary. You had not even chosen a name at that point, and we did not know the true extent of your hive mind's capacities or how it functioned. There are many different models we theorized about -- for instance, if you were a consensus created by billions of individuals, rather than a distributed intelligence, then it was thought that a similarly complex diplomatic arrangement would be required as it would take to formalize the capitulation of any other interstellar state."

Bea nodded, slowly. "Well, it shall be much simpler."

"Indeed," Endless Song said. "Now, we must discuss, how many of your worlds are oceanic. How many are arboreal?"

Bea cocked her head. "They...are all?" She looked at Lou, her antennas twitching. Lou felt confused as well. He glanced at Beatrice, then looked back at Endless Song as Beatrice continued: "I have terrafromed each terrestrial world to support as wide a range of bioforms as possible, while also ensuring they are tectonically stable. While their current configurations aren't perfect, I will have to change each of them in a hundred or so million years once the continents shift again, I think I should be able to keep up with that rate of change..."

"Excellent," Endless Song said. "The Upkin Kindred list of reparations will begin at three planetary oceans, roughly on par with the Atlantic and Pacific, and arboreal regions. We have exact kilometer and biodiversity requirements, but-"

"Reparations?" Bea asked while Lou gaped in shock.

"Yes, of course?" Endless Song said, her voice growing slightly stern as she continued. "These peace talks did not begin with your marriage. They began with your surrender, Beatrice Benoit. And the Upkin Kindred want what they are owed -- in the only thing that has any value: In land, sea and air."

***

"Of all the blaggardly, ungentlemanly, unfair, unkind, dishonorable..." Lou was caught from his pacing by Bea's wasp body. She took hold of him with her hands -- so dainty and small and warm -- and then levered him down into the bed. She swung her legs wide, her wings buzzing, and then molded her entire black and yellow body onto him. She was currently clothed in a ruffly dress that had been designed to accentuate her curves even more than they already were accented -- and as she was built like an exaggerated hourglass, it was almost more lewd than if she had been naked. Then it got considerably lewder than that as she mashed her full breasts against his face and muffled his words in her sleek, black flesh.

"Be quiet, husband," Beatrice's moth body said, then turned to GF and Amy, who were both gaping at the display on the bed as Lou struggled -- trying to both free himself while also not harming his wife's body. But since she felt so delicate and light, and he felt so wrathful that he wasn't sure he could control his own strength, he found himself ineffectually pushing at her shoulders, while her dark lips nuzzled against the top of his head, her nose breathing in his scent. "I need to have your advice, GF and Amy."

"Of course," Amy said.

"What can we do for you?" GF asked.

Bea's wasp body slid her hands along Lou's sides, catching his fingers and guiding his hands to her breasts.

"I..." Bea paused as Lou tried to balance pushing at his wife with not trying to grope her so openly infront of two others. He fell into a murky shadowy space between the two extremes, his fingers squeezing her, feeling the soft molding of her flesh against his fingers, while her waspy rump ground against him. Lou felt as if he was about to faint from the embarrassment...and the arousal. His cock was so hard he could hardly believe it. "The Upkin have demanded I cede territory to them, due to the losses they took in the war. I have gone through the cortical stacks that I have recovered, using the scanner you provided. None of them are Upkin."

"They wouldn't be," GF said, sighing. "The Upkin communities on Charon were mostly aquatic -- they were wiped out by the concussive blast in the water. It'd have turned everything to powder and jelly."

"This is as I feared..." Bea said, her antennas drooping sadly. "I cannot provide reparations in the lost egos of those slain in the war, by me..."

Lou forced himself to shove the lovely wasp-woman off him and to the side. He sat up. "No!" he said, angrily. "I can understand their feelings -- but this isn't a capitulation. You didn't surrender unconditionally -- you sued for a peace, a just peace, a lasting peace!" He stood up, his hands clenching. "There wasn't a single battle in one of your home systems, there are no troops on your home planets, nothing that would normally allow for the diplomatic pretext of annexation or-"

"You're thinking about this like a Neo!" Amy said, shaking her head. "It's not like there are people on those planets -- there are bioforms, which are controlled by Beatrice." She looked at her. "It'd be like...moving your legs so someone else can sit in the same subway, right?"

Beatrice blushed. "It...would be a logistic challenge to...to move the subunits. It may be more efficient to simply recycle them and reconstitute them elsewhere, and leave the biomass for the Upkin..." She bit her lip.

Lou crossed his arms over his chest. "B-But those are your worlds. You built them!"

The warm, soft pressure of the wasp body pressing to his back made him tense. Her hands slid along his chest, her nose nuzzling against his neck, while Beatrice looked at him with her moth body. "I didn't build them," she said. "I just...tidied them."

"Tidied, yeah!" GF said, shaking his head. Then he paused. "Wait, shit, don't give them a damn thing."

"What?" Amy and Beatrice asked at the same time. Lou felt a momentary flare of happiness -- someone agreed with his instinctive sense of raw aggrieved injury. Then he blinked and added his own 'what?' to the chorus, since...well...Godfucker. That was it, why would Godfucker take the hardline.

GF leaned back in his seat, tapping his fingers together. "The Upkin aren't just the Upkin. They kinda fall into five big groups -- most of them are fine. The F.O.Bs -- oh, uh, Friends of Bonobos, they're all the bonobos and apes and other Upkin that have decided to be socialized similar to bonobos. They're chill as hell, practically AnComs. But the Dolphin Clades and the Chimpbol are practically Feds. Who wants to bet they're more than happy to run out and get those planets -- and have decades, centuries, to build population and power bases without UHP oversight. We're going to be going from a tentative to a factually interstellar species. The UHP will not survive the most fashy of the Upkin getting their own colony planets. Which, by the way, are all ecologically perfected paradise planets."

Lou blinked, then turned to Bea. "He's got a point."

Bea blushed. "B-But...why would Endless Song suggest such a thing? She's neither a chimpanzee nor a dolphin."

"Well, firstly, the Upkin groups aren't split on species lines. There's always variations -- heck, I think more than half the Dolphin Clades aren't even dolphins. And secondly, she might just be happy to get them out of her hair." GF paused. "Her tentacles, at least."

Bea frowned. "I must consider," she said, then stood. Her moth body walked to the window, then leaped out -- buzzing away as she did so. Her wasp body nuzzled against Lou's neck, kissing him gently. Her hands slid along his chest to his belly and his cheeks heated as he coughed.

"W-Well, uh...thank you for your advice, Amy, GF," he said, nodding to the two of them. Amy and GF nodded to him. Amy looked as if she wanted to ask something -- but then as she watched one of Bea's hands dip lower, she closed her mouth, smiled, then stood as Lou gave her a serious look. She took his meaning, it seemed, as she and GF started for the door, with Amy saying.

"Goodnight!"

Then the door closed and Bea bit down on Lou's neck. Her tiny, sharp teeth dug into his skin and she made a very tiny 'nom' noise as she did it. Lou yelped. "What was that for?"

"I wished to bite you," she said, simply.

"Just...for no reason?" Lou asked, then squirmed as her dark hands reached down, undoing the latches on his belt, tugging eagerly. "I thought you needed to consider..."

"I can consider quite deeply while you are fertilizing me," Bea murmured, pushing at his pants with her fingers, her large, full breasts mashing against his back. Her voice was a cool breath against his ear as she murmured. "And it will take your mind off the assassins and politics and debates and put your mind onto filling my womb with your fertile seed."

"Well, I...uh..." Lou coughed, and as his pants slipped down, his member sprang free, thrusting eagerly into the air as her hands reached around, gripping him. It looked so akin to leather gloves, and yet she felt so warm, so soft. So alive. His heart hammered in his ears as he found it hard to think about anything but her fingers encircling his girth, lifting his member upwards as she nibbled gently upon his ear. "I...uh...a-are you sure we are ready for...for children?"

"Do not worry," she murmured in his ear. "I am still attempting to determine how we can interbreed properly. So, each..." She paused, then said, with slow, careful deliberation. "Each warm...heaping ball full of hot, hot cum you pump into my eager pussy will give me yet more variables to examine and methods to experiment with." Her hand fondled his balls, squeezing them together gently as she spoke and Lou felt as if he was about to pass out.

"Y-You...have been reading naughty books..."

"And watching naughty movies!" Beatrice said, her voice so chipper and happy that it startled a laugh from him. Her hands went to his hips and then shoved him forward. Her wasp body felt definitely a bit stronger, in terms of the upper body, than her moth form. But she still hadn't really fixed the mass difference -- after all, she was still able to fly. The end result was that her shove sent her skidding backwards away from him, like pushing against a wall. Lou chuckled, softly.

"I am overcome," he said, his voice dry as he let himself topple forward into bed. He rolled with the sprawl and ended up on his back, arms flung wide, and he let his tongue loll out of his mouth, his eyes going crossed in a dramatic exaggeration of death and defeat. Bea placed her hands upon her fuzzy yellow hips and scowled at down at him.

"Are you mocking my lack of physical strength?" she asked.

"No," Lou said, drawing himself more fully onto the bed.

"I will have you know, my Terror Talons can sheer through the armor of your main battle tanks," she said, grinning slowly, her antennas twitching, rubbing together. "That is as much me as this body is." Her hands slithered along her belly, ruffling the yellow fur and rubbing along the smooth black skin that delineated the stripes on her form, until she cupped her large breasts. Her fingers found her jutting nipples and she gently rolled them between her fingertips, crooning softly. "But I believe you find this body far more appealing?"

Lou felt his mouth going dry as he watched her sauntered forward, rolling her hips. Her wings buzzed slightly, sending her flying up, then dropping down, her thighs spreading wide as she captured his cock with the softness of her thighs and her belly and the warmth of her cunt, pinning his member against his belly as her eyes looked into his eyes. She placed her smooth, rubbery hands onto his shoulders, pinning him down with a tiny shove. She grinned. "Do you not, my husband, Lou?"

Lou breathed in slowly, then whispered. "I...uh..." He gulped, slightly. "I am going to say...this is very surreal in a certain way." He gulped again. "You're Beatrice. But part of my brain is reminding me that you look nothing like her..." His hands gently gripped her hips as she leaned forward, her eyes sparkling.

"I am me, Lou, my husband," she whispered, and then she kissed him. And as her full breasts pressed to his chest, and as her hands cupped the back of her neck, and as her wings buzzed to press herself more fully against him, Lou felt that last bit of uncertainty slide away. This was Beatrice -- his wife. And he needed her more than he needed oxygen. His hands gripped her ass, squeezing, then slid up to the small tail that protruded from above her rump, his hand gently gripping her stinger, which quivered and twitched. A small bead of white fluid dripped form it -- which made Lou break the kiss, panting. He looked back down at the stinger, blinking a few times.

"W-What...does your stinger do?"

"Oh!" Beatrice said, her cheeks flushing gold. "I...well, I...was asking for advice on how to design the body from Amy. And GF."

"Oh no," Lou whispered.

"And GF had the excellent idea of a paralytic aphrodisiac!" Bea said.

"Oh no," Lou said, his eyes widening. "Bea!"

"He said that you would enjoy it a great deal, once you had been injected," Bea said, brightly. Then she paused. "Wait. But if you would not enjoy it before being injected, then...injecting you...would be immoral..." She rubbed her chin, thoughtfully, as Lou shook his head slightly.

"I swear," he murmured. His hands, despite his shock and his disgruntlement, were continuing to glide along her body, ruffling her fur, finding her breasts. She moaned, softly, sweetly, as his finger found and teased her nipple. "Those two are bad influences upon you..." He leaned upwards, taking her nipple into his mouth, tasting her alien skin, his eyes closing as he sucked upon her, drawing out a moan that was sweeter than ambrosia as her head rolled back, her thighs spreading wider, more wantonly. She was buzzing slightly, her entire body literally purring as the wing-muscles inside of her ticked over like cooling engines. Her fingers gripped Lou's head, keeping him against her nipple as she panted and mewed quietly.

"Oh Lou, oh yes, my husband, yes!" Beatrice's panting added some extra mechanics to what was the delightfully simple task of sucking on her nipple. Lou was more than willing to tilt and move his head around, to use the movement of her body to accentuate her pleasure. His free hand was gently sliding down her belly, to find the smooth blackness of her sex. She was soaked. Completely soaked. And...sticky?

His hand drew back and his mouth slipped away from her breast, leaving her glistening with his spittle -- the accentuation all the more intense considering her already rubbery skin. Lou lifted his hand, looking at his fingers, then blinked as he spread his fingers, watching the sleek, golden web of glistening juice that connected his fingertips.

"Honey?" he asked.

"Yes, that...ah...Amy's idea!" Beatrice said, nodding. "It is quite good at lubrication. But it is also nutritious!" She paused. "W-Well, it mostly provides glucose and sugars. Which are produced from this body only when I am aroused by your pheromones. For other people, I produce no honey." She grinned. "That was my addition to this body, for I believed the additional sense of ownership would please you."

Lou's cheeks flushed. It did. It did a lot. But admitting that aloud felt so very unchivalrous. A proper nobleman didn't own his wife. They were partners, lovers, and shared souls. But...

God that was hot.