Rare Earth, Rare Seed

Her mouth felt right. That's the only way I can describe it. Hell, blowjobs are blowjobs, some better, some worse, and the worst one I ever had was great, but this was of a different order. Her full lips caressed me and her mouth was a warm cavern of delight, a soft glove fitting itself round me and suckling me tenderly. Her eyes were closed, her thick lashes trembling on her high cheekbones. The scarcely audible humming never stopped and my shaft quivered as the vibrations rippled along it. One hand crept to the base of my cock and lifted me slightly, letting me slip deeper into her mouth, and the other slid into her crotch, pushing through the tangled fleece as her fingers searched for her own pleasure zones. I tried to move my hips but couldn't, still trapped and immobile while my balls tightened under her ministrations. My breath was thickening as the pressure mounted, then the door burst open.

'There's a jeep on the trail and a laptop on the porch and... MOTHER! What in hell's name are you doing?' Ayesha's head whipped up and my cock thudded against my belly.

Framed in the doorway stood a naked young woman, a backpack slung casually over one shoulder. She was a slimmer version of Ayesha: the same blonde hair, but cut short on top and neatly trimmed below; the same ripe figure, but more slender, the flesh tauter and less weather-tanned; the same heartstopping face; as beautiful as her mother, but a fresher, less experienced beauty. Her blue eyes were snapping fire and she looked ready to kill.

'Who the hell is this, and why the hell are you blowing him, and why the hell is the warden wound up like a cocoon, and you'd better start explaining right now.' Ayesha had risen to her feet..

'I don't like you usin' them metal world curses, Sapphire, and I'd be purely grateful if you quit. It ain't the sort of language to use in front of your mother. I never shoulda let you assimilate so much. Now close your mouth and listen, and when you done that, talk to the warden. She's crankier than an unmilked goat.' Mother and daughter faced each other and I sensed a faint faraway buzzing. Part of me knew they were communicating and the rest of me wondered how I knew. Moments passed like hours as I watched them. Sapphire's eyes got wider and her jaw dropped slightly. Then she looked up at the ceiling and closed her eyes. After a minute she lowered her head and looked at her mother again.

'Are you sure?' Ayesha shrugged and jerked a thumb at me.

'Look at him hard and close,' she said, 'and if you wanna check, taste him. Gaia's womb, girl, if it looks like a duck and it quacks like a duck, then it's probably a duck.' The younger woman turned and looked at me.

'Who are you really, Mr. Campbell?' Her eyes were as compelling as her mother's and I closed my own in self-defense.

'Either I've gone crazy and you're a hallucination, or you two are a pair of crazies, or there's something I don't have a damn clue about. I came up here on business.' I paused. 'I guess it's me that's crazy. I ought to be spitting nails, but I'm not, and damned if I know why.' I felt a whisper of breath on my face and opened my eyes. She was leaning over me, so close I could feel the warmth of her body. One perfect breast brushed my chest as she examined me. Her blue eyes were mesmerizingly deep. She shuffled back and examined my cock with care, then straightened up and shook her head slightly.

'Hell, I don't know. Will you excuse me a minute?' Before I could answer she took me into her mouth, swallowing me right to the base, then letting me slide slowly out as her tongue probed and swirled. Her eyes were half-closed and she looked as if she was blind-tasting a fine wine. I half-expected her to spit. Her hand snaked under my buttocks and I felt her finger slide into me. My cock jerked involuntarily and as she bent her finger and rotated it I ejaculated without warning. Her cheeks bulged as she took my seed, then she lifted her head, her lips tightly closed, and stood up. I was still spurting and the last gouts landed on my belly, trickling and pooling in my navel. She swirled my semen round her mouth, then swallowed and beckoned her mother.

'Taste.' Ayesha knelt and sucked the cum out of my navel, performing the same ritual. Then she swallowed too and their eyes met. Sapphire nodded imperceptibly and turned to me.

'What's your real name, rogue?' I was still gasping from her attentions. I wanted her mouth on me again so badly that it hurt. Her lips had felt as if they were taking me to a place where I belonged.

'My name's Peter Campbell because anything was better than John Doe.' She frowned, and when she spoke again her voice was harsh.

'My mother and I are going to deep probe you, Mr. Campbell, and the warden will be watching. If you try to stun she'll hit you so hard you won't wake up for a week. OK?' I felt a surge of fear and tried to hide it.

'Don't try to make me think you're my mom.' I closed my eyes and clamped my lips shut. After a moment the buzzing began in my head again. I tried to resist it for a while and it faded, but then it came back with a rush and everything went black again.

The cabin was bright with evening sun. I was still naked and my head ached like a bastard and I still couldn't move, but I didn't care about that: I had more pressing needs. I turned my head and was eyeball to eyeball with Sapphire. She was kneeling, watching me closely. Her eyes looked different somehow, and when she spoke her voice was mellower, more as if I was a person.

'How are you feeling?'

'Lousy, and ten seconds away from incontinence. Do I just piss where I am?' Her hand flew to her mouth.

'I hadn't thought.' She stood and looked at the ceiling, muttering something authoritative, then turned back to me. 'She's still suspicious, but she'll behave. Up you get. Behind that partition in the corner.' She bent and raised me by the shoulders and I managed to swing my legs off the bed. They still felt heavy and I was forced to shuffle. She shadowed me, obviously trying to avoid helping.

'Your thug still has hold of me,' I said grumpily, 'and I feel about a hundred ten years old.' She almost smiled and piloted me round the screen.

'In the corner where the drain is. If you need to squat, go ahead. It goes down to a composting pit.' I did as I was told and felt a wave of relief swirl through me as my bladder emptied. She politely averted her eyes as I performed.

'You'll feel better if you have a shower,' she said when I'd finished. 'It's cold, but very clean. Twist that pipe above your head.' I tried to reach up but my arms weighed about thirty-seven tons each and I couldn't raise them higher than my waist. She made an exasperated noise and stepped into the cubicle with me. 'I'm sorry about this. When we've talked and you understand a bit more she'll relax. She's very old and very set in her ways.' She was standing distractingly close to me and I could smell a light floral scent that seemed to rise from every part of her. She twisted the pipe and a sudden stream of ice-cold water exploded over us. I gasped involuntarily.

'It comes straight from the stream. Can you handle it?' I managed to shrug.

'I never had a hot shower till I was eighteen, except in the foster homes, and not all of those. Soap?' She reached behind her and picked up a pot of what looked like mud.

'Scoop and scrub. Mom mixes it and it's the best.' The cold water had tightened her nipples into hard little knots and my cock stirred, brushing her thigh. She raised her eyebrows but said nothing, then looked at my dangling arms.

'Damn warden. I'll scrub you. Stand out of the flow and hold still.' She scooped up a handful of mud, put the pot back on the shelf and started at my neck. The goop was slightly gritty and rubbed up into an astringent lather which she spread over my chest and shoulders with firm, strong strokes. She squeezed round me and treated my back the same way, then squatted and I felt her hands running over my buttocks and down my legs. She swatted me. 'Don't tense up.' Her fingers teased into the crease of my ass and cleaned the day's sweat away with a couple of firm swipes. I felt her straighten up and she moved round to face me again. She scooped a little more soap-paste, then dropped to her knees and began to wash my stomach, her hands sliding over me, moving inexorably downwards. The inevitable happened and I felt myself thickening in anticipation. The cold water sluicing down my back didn't seem to have any effect. Her hand slid past my groin and grasped me.

'There isn't much that puts you off, is there?' Her hands moved busily, lathering my crotch and groin and my cock grew as she worked, till it was straining upwards. She cupped my balls experimentally. 'Still full? I'll help you with that in a minute.' She stood and tipped more goop into her hand and rubbed it into my hair. 'Good job you keep it short. I don't know how mom manages with hers, but she won't cut it... stand back and rinse.'

I rotated slowly under the stream, letting the lather slide away, and tried to force myself to think. Mt headache had gone but I still didn't know what was happening. She and her mother had put me to sleep and when I'd woken up everything had changed: I was being treated like family, and now it looked as if I was going to get another blowjob. It wasn't just country hospitality, and why wasn't I doing something to satisfy my curiosity? I felt weary and passive and at the back of my head there was an unfamiliar sense of being safe. She twisted the pipe closed then sank to her knees in front of me again and grasped my balls gently. The tip of her tongue flickered out and swirled over the head of my cock and my attempts at thought vanished.

'Uhh, your mother...' She looked up at me and raised her eyebrows.

'One, she's off gathering roots, two, she can damn well wait her turn, and three, who cares?'

*Wait her turn?*

My cock twitched at the thought and she pulled me delicately past her lips and drew her tongue along the bottom of my shaft. As she closed over me I felt her shiver and when I looked down I could see that her face was already slightly flushed. She grabbed my buttocks and forced me deeper into her, her eyes closed. There was a faint buzzing in my head and I knew that my arousal was stirring hers.

*How did you know that?*

My cock throbbed again, and she took in a long noisy breath through her nose, then released me and stood.

''I'm not wasting a drop of you. Come and lie down again.' She tugged my prick lightly and led me back into the main room. When we got to the bed she pushed me down and launched herself after me. The long, slim length of her pressed against me, her weight trapping my engorged cock between our bodies, and she shuddered.

'I wish I could use your name.'

*What does she mean?*

'I can't wait any longer.' She wriggled upright and squatted over me, and before I could react she sank onto me and I slid into her in one smooth movement. Her inner walls rippled round me and she adjusted herself, a tiny sound of pleasure escaping her closed lips. She sighed and closed her eyes, then they flew open and she stared at me in disbelief as my erection shrank and disappeared.

'What the hell...?' I twisted my head so I didn't have to look at her.

'I can't do that. It's too... too dangerous.' She was looking shocked and hurt and angry, and when I said that, puzzlement was added to the mix. She lifted herself and looked down at my shrunken cock as it slipped out of her, then reached out and turned my head.

'Dangerous is an odd word. Look at me.' Reluctantly I met her eyes, and a shadow crossed their blue depths as she examined me. 'You resisted the probe so hard, even with two of us focusing. I was afraid there was stuff we hadn't uncovered, and I was right. You've got some hard shields locked in place there. Maybe we should wait till we've eaten and Mom's back. She's more instinctive than me, and a lot better at healing. I'm going to tell the warden to watch you but to let you alone. As long as you don't make any sudden moves she'll accept that. She knows I wouldn't mate with a rogue.' With an oddly tender motion she stroked my flaccid cock. 'This is a symptom, not a cause. Come and help me cook.'

I know when I'm being handled with kid gloves, and that's what she was doing. She stayed away from explanations, preferring to let information drop at random as the occasion arose. On the other hand she kept her word and didn't ask about my impotence.

'It's not being anti-metal or anti-technology, as such,' she said when I looked ironically at the chopping knife she was wielding. 'Mom's more old-fashioned than most, but she's got the heart of the matter right. It's the way it's all become so unbalanced that upsets her, and it's hard to argue with her on that one. Why anyone needs half a ton of metal and a gallon of hydrocarbons just to go pick up shampoo from a mall is beyond me sometimes. A blade, a kettle, stuff that needs more tensile strength than wood or stone... that's what it used to be for... but then it became the basis for everything, and now it's overused, just like everything else.' The conversation wandered. When I tried to help my arms sagged as I reached for the knife. She spat a few choice words at the ceiling and then grinned ruefully.

'She can't understand how you can be of the blood but handicapped too.' She saw the question in my eyes and shook her head. 'Later, I promise, but meanwhile take a look at yourself and at me. We could be cousins. Now mull over the words 'spontaneous mutation', 'cerebral development', 'resource-scarce environment', and put them into patterns that might connect. It's no wonder you're confused after being alone for so long.' She was right about that. There was a mirror on the wall of another partitioned cubicle, and I wandered over and inspected myself. She saw me staring and came to join me, slipping her arm round my shoulders.

'Cousins, see?' She was right. We were much of a height, and had the same eyes and hair, same body type, same posture.

'Why no clothes?' The words popped out before I could stop them. Her reflection grinned at mine.

'Clothes are for winter and the metal world, and right now we're here and it's high summer, and it's a lot more comfortable, and anyway insects don't bother us.' I thought for a moment.

'No more they do. I never really thought about it.'

'I bet you can't remember the last time you got bit. You don't feel the cold much either, do you? The shower didn't faze you and there wasn't a lot of shrinkage.' She winked and moved back to the kitchen area, and I started trying to integrate data.

When I sit quiet and think I usually get results. Being relaxed helps. For me that has always meant shutting the world out, but now I lay on the bed and watched Sapphire idly while I picked over bits of information like a half-smart monkey figuring out how to reach the banana.

*First off, assume you're not mad, and that everything you think has happened is verifiable. What have you got, boy?*

OK then: two naked women who appear to communicate without words and who say they can probe the minds of others; mother and daughter they say, but they don't look a dozen years apart; an eccentric something that's invisible and watches out for them; a prejudice against the overexploitation of resources and a lifestyle that suggests they practice what they preach; a vocabulary that's subtly different, archaic maybe; an open, casual sexuality that doesn't seem contrived; a claim that I taste familiar or... something; an atmosphere that swung from antagonistic to welcoming once both of them had tasted my semen and knocked me out again. Ayesha had mentioned an epidemic of "metal sickness" in "forty-nine". The phrases that Sapphire had tossed into the mix; no mosquito bites; strong hints that I'd found my family; a completely unexpected set of reactions on my part, so far out of character that it shocked me – like for example not demanding my pants, nor agonizing over lost profits. I felt more relaxed than ever in my life, as if nothing strange was happening. It didn't feel like the suspension of disbelief either. Weird. Put 'em together and what have you got? Bibbety Bobbetty Boo. And you're either mad or your world has changed.

That was how Ayesha found us when she returned. Sapphire pottering about adding things to bubbling pots and laying the table; me, stretched out and comfortable, watching her. The older woman's rich laugh rang out.

'Makin' yourself at home then, cousin, are you?'

*Cousin? Again?*

'And you got my daughter runnin' round fixin' your supper? Sapphire, girl, whatever happened to that equality stuff you was shoutin' about a while back?' She put a basket of greenery down and peered into the pots on the stove. 'Smells good too. You been workin' up appetites, huh?' I felt a wave of heat roll over my face and Sapphire looked up sharply.

'Mother, stop teasing.' Her voice was light but held an undertone of authority. Ayesha frowned and a faint buzz sounded in my head, then stopped abruptly. Sapphire spoke firmly.

'It's not his fault, and cutting him out isn't an option any more. We're going to stay vocalizing till we don't need to. And there's more stuff to talk about and some of it'll be hard, so we might need some of your mead to help things along. The food's ready anyway: I've been holding supper for you.' She started ladling soup into bowls. Ayesha looked momentarily chastened, then padded into the corner and opened a tall cupboard. She took out a clay jug and three mugs and brought them to the table.

'Gonna run the show, huh?' she said mildly. 'One of those fool courses you keep signin' up for taught you how? I thought you only went to those things to get laid.' She turned to me. 'Girl's got a libido like a hot spring, cousin, so watch out. I purely have no idea where she gets it from. Not my side of the family, that's for sure.' She rolled her eyes and burst into laughter again and I caught the infection. After a moment Sapphire grinned reluctantly too.

The soup was more of a stew and the mead was more like honey wine than beer. My appetite surprised me. No-one spoke much and I concentrated on getting my ducks in a row. Time to grab a little initiative back. I pushed my plate away and looked at the two women.

'If I sort of think out loud, can you hear me out and correct me later? I think I've been given enough clues. How long ago did it start? Somewhere in the middle ice-age?' The women looked at each other and there was a brief buzz. 'I'll take that as a yes. Let's see, small kin-based populations, food supply problems unless you could hunt real well, lots of space and not many people. Language had to come along, and any higher communication skills would give an edge, especially if they could be hidden. Hunting needs communication. Is there a range limit for what you do? I'd guess it falls off pretty quickly with distance. Umm... one little change in an isolated gene pool could have big results fast. Probably not a patriarchal culture, so lots of cross-fertilization, and the mutation bred true. A different brain-pattern. Maybe a side-effect was increased life-span: that'd give a survival edge too: more group experience to draw on. How am I doing?' They stared at me as if I was a wizard, then Ayesha spoke.

'How d'ya do that? Is it guessin' or've you been kiddin' us?' I couldn't resist.

'Metal world thinking. Instead of whatever you do.' Sapphire nodded.

'I told you some of their stuff was interesting, Mom, but you're pretty closed to all that.' She turned to me. 'Go on ...cousin.'

'Umm, time passed, I guess. Ice came, ice went, people began to increase slowly. Then some eccentric decided to plant instead of just gather and next thing you know there was a village and a food surplus, for the first time ever. Lift-off. But now people were settled, the mutant group was suddenly visible and different, and the unknown is feared, and they had to go underground.... Between then and now, damned if I know, but there's not many of you and you're scattered. Longer life-span... I don't know, lower fertility maybe, and you got way outnumbered: nearly everything in life's a trade-off. And another thing: people who hide long enough get good at hiding, and they're often pretty conservative, use their skills defensively, don't like risk. I'd guess that a lot of myths and legends are a twisted version of some of that.' I stopped and spread my hands. 'That's as far as I got. The warden's a mystery, unless she's another mutation, and the insect and cold-resistance is probably part of the same genetic deal. High libido has to be a plus if you're a low-fertility species.' I raised my mug and finished the mead. Ayesha stirred in her seat.