Pilot 05: Obscured by Clouds

"The invisible thing. Yes, we have noticed it. You are here to fight these Pret?"

I wondered how they could have spotted Emma.

"Well ... as I said, I am on a reconnaissance mission really ... but if need be, I will of course fight them, yes. How could you spot my cloaked ship, by the way?"

"There is need, great need, stranger. And no, don't worry; we haven't developed technology to detect your craft. There was no technology on this moon before the Pret came."

"I see. My name is Jon, by the way. Those two are extensions of my ship Emma. I call them Alpha and Beta, but they are essentially one with the ship. What are the Pret doing here, if there is no technology in this place? And who are you, really? You look like Darians, but I have a hunch that you are not."

"You are correct Jon; we haven't been Darians for a long time. We are the Guardians of Life. We will show you what the Pret are doing here when the time is right. I am the Trar."

"Is that your name or some sort of title?"

"It is both. Please follow my associates to the tent over there while we discuss what to do next. I heard that our scouts have interrupted your affirmation of Life. You may resume this now, if you wish."

"Affirmation of ... oh, you mean ... ah well, I was sort of done anyway."

"Dawnmaker, as you think of it, has a way of enhancing the appetite of all living beings. You will feel what I mean soon enough. Go now."

I nodded and we were led to a large tent. The little monkey remained with the old man. I noticed that the Guardians watched Emma's hands with greater curiosity than me, which wasn't overly surprising, if there really was no technology on this moon apart from the Pret's. The tent was empty except for a bed made out of leaves and moss right in its centre. The Guardians who ushered us there disappeared to rejoin their group.

"Would you like some more sex, Jon? We could both pleasure you, you know."

"Thanks, Emma, I would rather think about those Guardians though. Maybe later. I think they might be telepaths."

"There is no way I can scan for that Jon, sorry."

"He said I was thinking about this moon as 'Dawnmaker'. I am pretty sure I haven't uttered any such thing."

"That is correct Jon, I have no memory record of you saying that. But then again, this is how the Darians refer to this moon also."

"Well, but if they detected the biological component of the ship, this would explain how they could. Are you still in direct contact?"

"No, Jon, we are too far away for that. But I would have noticed scans. Did you enjoy what we did earlier?"

"Yes, very much. Why are you asking? You were there, after all."

"I want to do it again. It is almost as nice as flying."

"Oh?"

Emma's behaviour was puzzling, especially now that her hands had lost contact with the ship. Her androids weren't capable of feeling, let alone feeling horny. Could it be that this was the effect the Trar was talking about? That even machines were affected? Was that possibly why technology was forbidden on this moon? I giggled when the thought occurred to me that the first Darians coming here might have decided it when they had to ward off sexual advances of their robots, or drones and computers. But then again, Emma had started hitting on me long before we were even in this sector.

"Jon, can we take off these uniforms? You could still distinguish us by our hair-dos'."

"Well, go on then."

I was still caught up in trying to solve the mystery that had presented itself here. But within seconds my thoughts shifted to something completely different. I was wondering if they, or at least the ship with its biological component, could actually experience an orgasm. Nah, the Scnrgsis were brilliant, but could not have possibly accomplished that. Or could they?

"Do you girls know whether you can actually come from any sort of stimulation?"

"I don't know Jon. Would you care to try?"

Before I could retort anything we got a visitor. Beta's little monkey leisurely waltzed into the tent, climbed up her leg, briefly inspected her nipples, then snuggled up to her face again as it had done before.

"Hello my little friend."

The monkey made some smacking sounds and pulled her hair.

"That's right Ntk. I am your friend."

"Ntk? Is that the name you have given it?"

"I don't know Jon. I think he introduced himself, but I don't have a memory record of that event occurring. There must be a malfunction in my memory unit."

This was chilling news. The last thing I needed now would be Emma experiencing problems. Something was affecting her profoundly. The little monkey made lots of smacking noises again.

"Yes, Ntk, we would like that too. Jon, why don't you take off your clothes also?"

"You are communicating with the monkey? Why isn't my implant translating for me? Aren't you using a similar matrix?"

"I cannot answer this, Jon. My translation matrix is inactive and yet I know what Ntk is saying. I believe he is accessing my programming."

Now this was getting really weird. I decided to address the monkey directly.

"Ntk, can you understand what I am saying?"

To my surprise the monkey simply nodded. Okay, but at least that meant Emma wasn't going crazy. And that this wasn't an animal, but almost certainly an intelligent being. Alpha came up behind me and started opening the organic connectors of my combat suit. I got the distinct feeling that she didn't act completely out of her own volition, which was more than just a little scary. How could this little monkey make her do things?

"Ntk, are you influencing my androids?"

This time the monkey shook his head. He must have picked up those gestures from me earlier. His hand described a circle. I understood. It wasn't him, it was the moon. Beta had joined Alpha peeling me out of my suit and feeling me up.

"Should I be alarmed?"

I distinctly felt that I had lost control over Emma's hands, yet I felt incapable of even asking them to stop. Whatever this moon did to them, it was also doing something to me. There I was, asking a little green monkey for reassurance. I wasn't thinking straight. Or was I? The monkey shook its head again.

However, by that time I wouldn't have cared either way. I was standing in the middle of the tent, my eyes transfixed to a little green monkey, while Alpha licked my arsehole and Beta my balls. The arousal hit me like a tropical wave, washed my conscious thinking away and reduced me to a state of mere feeling. Four magnificent hands made sure every inch of my skin was included in the spectacle, while the two eager tongues played with my most sensitive areas. Alpha pressed her head between my thighs and when I opened them for her she took over my testes from underneath, while Beta admitted my stiff member into her virginal mouth club. Of course she already had Alpha's expertise, who felt the urge to insert first one, then two of her slender fingers into my anus.

It didn't even bother me that we had an audience all of a sudden, as one Guardian after another entered the tent and quietly sat down, forming a circle around us and creating a weird background sound by blowing air through their version of nostrils. It sounded a bit like pipes without actually producing tones, but a melody nevertheless. However, Beta's blowing was so much more interesting that very moment and my contribution to the sing-song was more on the moaning and groaning side. She actually applied constant suction while the tip of her tongue performed tremolos on the underside of my helmet. If I'd been capable to think at all that very moment, I would have probably thanked the Scnrgsis and Palidians for their extraordinary engineering skills a thousandfold. Instead of thinking, I came into Beta's mouth.

Beta did something odd. She didn't swallow but spit each drop of my hot load that she had thus collected onto her right hand, first offering a taste to her android twin, then going around the circle where each of the present Guardians took their sample with their frog-like darting tongues. Apparently the taste of my spunk met with their approval, as they blew even more fiercely, sounding quite happy and chuffed. Alpha in the meantime wrestled me softly to the floor and sat down on my face, making perfectly clear that it was up to me to solve the riddle that had preoccupied me earlier. Again, I was amazed how much detail the Scnrgsis got right, her pussy not only looked and felt like a woman's, it actually tasted like one too. Her clit grew also; so did my cock again, as Beta had finished her celebratory round and returned to the scene of her triumph.

While I lapped and licked Alpha as best as I could, Beta managed to revive my knob rapidly and impaled herself on me. The hissing and blowing in the round changed to a rhythmical humming, matching the rhythm of her humping me, swelling in speed and intensity until everything dissolved into a sea of moans, groans and ecstasy. It was like everyone was coming at the same time, not just the androids and me, but all life on this moon contracted and expanded in the waves of our orgasm.

It took ages until my thoughts returned. The Guardians left quietly, only the Trar remained for a second, Ntk on his shoulder wriggling his shoulders, which Darians did as a sign of great satisfaction.

"Now you are part of Life. Life is precious. You will help us protect it. Rest now, we are about to enter Daria's shade. We will leave at first light."

The weird thing about it was that I knew exactly what he meant, but if asked to explain it, I couldn't have.



Chapter three – Crystal Lake

The night lasted around nine hours. No further explanations were offered to us, we simply took off into the dense jungle. As I felt that just wearing only a utility belt would have made me look ridiculous, I wore my combat suit again, although it had never felt more superfluous. The androids felt the same way, and it had taken quite a long discussion before I could convince them to dress again.

We arrived at another riverbank, but there was no way for me of telling whether it was still the same river we had crossed earlier or not. Our small group of ten Guardians, Ntk and the three of us boarded four boats, which were slightly larger than the one we'd found the day before. One would have expected the jungle to be filled with the noises of its wildlife in these early morning hours. But it was dead silent where we were, the only audible sounds came from a long distance. That made it even easier to spot the sound, which certainly didn't belong there.

It was a Pret ship flying overhead, from the looks of it in the process of landing. Whatever they wanted to show me, it was probably very close. The river became smaller and completely overgrown; it looked like we were entering a green tunnel. The Guardians steered our boats to the riverside where we quietly disembarked. I couldn't help but admire the fluent and exceedingly efficient movements of the Guardians. The only ones producing sounds were Emma's hands and me. I gathered that we had to be quiet, as no doubt the Pret were near.

We made our way through something so dense and dark that it appeared constructed rather than naturally grown. I would have never found my way through this organic labyrinth – that much was certain. All of a sudden we had reached the edge of the jungle. The Guardians signalled me to be quiet and stay in the cover of the foliage. I immediately saw why. There were Pret patrols on the other side. Several groups of three, sticking out of the shrubbery and hip-high grass that followed the jungle and several of their craft were in the distance. At least two of them were wracks, one actually dug into the ground with its nose.

The three Pret closest to us moved slowly towards our position. Oddly enough they didn't use scanners, but appeared to make only a visual inspection of the area. Even stranger, this proved inefficient enough to cause the death of one of them. The movement in the grass was hardly detectable, but it must have been something of an impressive size nevertheless. All we saw was a dark shadow coming up from behind the Pret, and then heard the sound of its dying moments while the others tried to shoot the invisible attacker. The way they reacted made plain that this couldn't have been the first attack of that kind.

The unmistakable sound of energy weapons came from a greater distance too. The newly arriving craft was about to set down when it exploded all of a sudden in mid-air, spewing pieces of red-hot metal through the air, one piece crashing awfully close to us. I couldn't comprehend what was going on there. Somehow the Guardians were fighting the Pret. But how? Telekinesis? Or was the Pret's technology turning against them?

The Guardian next to me seemed to corroborate my earlier suspicion, namely them being telepaths, as he answered my unspoken questions.

"Life fights back. They have weakened it, but they have not yet subdued it. We need to press on."

Two of the Guardians disappeared into the direction of the two remaining Pret, who had interrupted their attempt to pursue the invisible attacker and looked on at the fiery descent of the remains of the exploding craft. Before they knew what happened, the Guardians surfaced from the grass and split their ugly heads with their sticks. Apparently those had a variety of uses. The next patrol seemed far away enough to ask questions without endangering us.

"What happened to their ship?"

"Technology is not welcome on this moon. Life influences it in unpredictable ways. The first wave of ships they sent got incinerated when the large shields they erected around them changed their polarity and fried them."

"Oh ... I think I am beginning to understand. Is Emma in any danger?"

"No, she is not. Life has accepted her."

"And you all know this because ..."

"All this will be revealed to you once you reach the Crystal Lake."

It was obvious that the female Guardian did not want to elaborate any further and besides, we were closing in on the next Pret patrol. We were fanning out. Without any conscious deliberation I opted for dislocator, a little contraption that shifted its target out of our space-time continuum entirely, a weapon for close quarters, and from the looks of it, it would get rather close and crowded. I saw some dark shadows passing me, and when approaching a small clearing, saw a dark green six-legged creature covered with bony spikes and dagger-like fangs on a four-eyed head residing on a body as large as a deer's. The Guardian next to me told me not to worry. They were on our side.

Everything on this moon was. I started to realise that. And I started feeling something. A mere presence. An indefinable something. But almost tangible. And getting stronger the farther we went.

"Can I use my shields, or would they want to fuck me?"

"You have been accepted by Life, no harm will come to you. That doesn't mean that there is no-one wanting to fuck you. I'd be happy to accommodate you if you wanted another affirmation of Life when this is over."

"Thank you for that kind offer. I suppose the fact that I am going into battle with a raging hard-on shouldn't particularly worry me either?"

"Yes, it is the effect of Life. We are getting closer."

I quickly disposed of a Pret appearing in our view from out of nowhere. The Guardian seemed fairly impressed.

"That is an interesting weapon. That was a dislocation field, wasn't it?"

"Yes. This little bracelet here contains the generator ..."

"I am familiar with the technology. It is based on one of my ideas."

She had just the right idea for the Pret ahead of us, which had its back turned to us that was acquainted with her stick in no time.

"Your ideas? I thought you are not developing technology on this moon?"

"I was a promising young scientist on Daria before I got here."

"Hmm, but from what I find in my engrams about its development, it is technology that has been available for more than two millennia."

"Three to be precise. I came up with the idea for it around three thousand seven hundred Daria rotations ago. Twenty rotations later, I was initiated here. I suppose you can't tell, but I am still looking like a Darian girl of forty."

Which corresponded roughly to a twenty-year old woman, as their natural life-span was about twice as long as ours.

"The moon is having this effect?"

"Life has this effect. You will soon know what I mean."

We had to interrupt our little chit-chat as we needed to dispose of no less than four Pret in a row. I got hit by a Pret weapon, but it hardly bothered my shield.

"Are all of you Darians or are some of you born on this moon?"

"No, we cannot procreate. That is the price for relative immortality. It is Life's way of preventing us from endangering the balance."

Another two dark shadows galloped past us and took care of two more Pret ahead. The Guardian dodged an energy shot with a lightning fast movement.

"Now that is what I call reflexes."

"Speed is only an illusion of the superficial. We can see deeper than that."

I sent two more Pret into oblivion and quickly reclipped my power module.

"So what attracts you to me? Do I have particularly pretty molecular patterns?"

"Indeed. Especially the molecules that stand out so enticingly right now. What did you call it? Hard-on?"

Either Alpha or Beta put a larger group of Pret under suppressive fire with energy weapons. The Pret didn't dare to raise their shields. Apparently their ships hadn't been the only ones having had bad experiences with shields. Soon the response to that fire died down.

"Yes. Ah, I see in my memory engrams that your males have a rather bony counterpart they release from a fold of flesh."

"That is correct. And they know how to use them. I can assure you of that. Naturally, we affirm Life as often as we can."

"Naturally. But you are curious how my pride and joy would feel inside of you?"

Bloody Pret. Even flirting became strenuous when one had to dodge energy blasts and make whatever they were dislocated to a crowded place.

"Very. Watch out."

The Pret that jumped me had only a brief moment to enjoy having surprised and overwhelmed me. Then the contents of its head splattered onto my shield.

"Ta. How many more of those bastards are there?"

"Thousands. They are breeding here. And they are building something. Over there."

My eyes turned into the direction her outstretched arm indicated. We seemed to be heading for another rotational darkness, as something extremely bright lit up the dark grey sky in the distance.

"And that would be ..."

"The Crystal Lake. Life."

"An inorganic life-form?"

"Yes. And no. You will see."

What I saw first was a wall, about ten feet high, made from matte dark metal that halted our progress, but gave us time to reunite with the others. One Guardian was missing. The Serao was also not with us anymore.

"Should we wait for them?"

"No. Ntk does not need our protection and F'alla was killed by the Pret."

"I am sorry to hear that. Which reminds me, I didn't catch your name?"

"N'ella. You and your androids have levitation or flight devices?"

"Yes, antigrav units. You want us to fly you over the wall?"

"That is not necessary."

They simply put their ubiquitous sticks to yet another surprising use, almost like pole vault jumpers, the only difference was that they were hanging on to them and got them in a breathtaking manoeuvre not only over the wall, but stuck them back into the earth on the other side, thus dampening their fall. As amazing as that looked, I was pretty sure it took several hundred years to perfect that technique, and our antigravs did the trick just as well.