Shards Ch. 05

Author's Note: I've got to admit to an oops/correction. Assuming you've already read the previous chapters, you might (or might not) notice that I have shortened the distance from Teclewt to Earth, from 97,000 light years down to 47,000. Why? Because I forgot to sanity check the 97,000 number when I started writing this story. The diameter of the Milky Way is about 100,000 light years, with Sol and Earth being about midway between the galactic center and the edge. As a result, the furthest any star in the galaxy could be from us is about 75,000 light years away, at the outer edge on the opposite side from the core. Any point 97,000 light years away is actually outside the galaxy. Shortening it to 47,000 puts Teclewt most of the way around the galaxy, but still within it. Changing this has required me to rewrite the pieces of Chapters 1 & 3 which referred to the 97,000 distance and I have resubmitted those.

February 27, 2016

Two weeks into Zack's transformation, as we prepared for sex during another group date, ze asked me, "Will you initiate me, Dan?"

"What, you mean you want me to be the first to enter your new pussy?" I asked. "Why me and not Cathy? Zir cock is already working."

As it had when Cathy transformed Nancy's body, the female-to-Nova transition had only taken a week and ze had already screwed me on several different nights in the preceding week. Zack still had a week to finish zir transformation, with the vagina ready but not connected to the uterus yet.

"You're my best friend and I know you had to let go of some hesitation to let me enter you that very first time. I want to return that trust and show you that I've embraced being Nova instead of male. But, if we don't do it tonight, I will either have to wait until after Cathy gets me pregnant or make you use a condom."

"Do you want Cathy and Nancy involved?" I asked.

"Not a group position for this," ze answered. "Just you and me, face to face until we've both had an orgasm. Okay? I know you could just read my mind to know how I'm feeling about it in another position, but I want that eye contact, too."

"Alright, let's do it."

Once we were all naked, Zack lay back on the bed, stroking zir cock to stiffness, while spreading zir legs to spread open the newly revealed vagina. The inner labia that had developed were the largest any of us had and my mouth actually watered at the prospect of exploring them at some point. My own cock was rock hard already, as I climbed between zir legs.

Nancy and Cathy spooned to our right, Nancy entering Cathy from behind and reaching around to slowly stroke Cathy's cock as the two of them watched us.

I stroked the head of my cock between Zack's labia, looking to stimulate zim, but ze suddenly reached down to grab my ass and pull me forward. I sank only about three inches into zim on that first stroke, the walls of zir pussy resisting me from going further. I received a burst of pain from Zack through the empathic link.

"You feel huge, Dan!" ze said.

"You're basing that on empathic experience of three people who were already used to being fucked, Zack. I'm actually smaller than you. However, you didn't give yourself a chance to get turned on enough before grabbing me. Just because your cock is hard, that doesn't mean your pussy is ready. You aren't dry, thank god, but I can tell you're clenching down on me from nervousness. That's why you're too tight to let me in and it hurts to try. The more turned on you are, the more you relax and you'll find it easier," I advised. "We're not in any rush. I'm going to use some slow, short strokes until I know you're ready for more."

Not moving more than an inch or two, I stroked in and out for about a minute as I gradually felt Zack relax around me, feeling it happen from both sides of the link. "A little more?" ze asked, hopefully.

I slid another three inches into zim, without the same resistance as before and then maintained forward pressure and sank the rest of the way, until my belly was pressed against the fingers still stroking his cock. "Oh, that's good," I said, resting for ten seconds before I slowly withdrew three inches and then pressed inward again.

After three more of these strokes, I leaned down and kissed Zack on the lips. Ze squeaked, briefly, before returning the kiss. Telepathically, I asked, 'Still feeling a little of that homophobia, buddy?'

Still kissing me, ze answered, 'Only a little. I want you to fuck the rest out of me.'

'Deal.' I pulled back further and pushed my entire length into zir relaxed sheath. Ze moaned, both into my mouth and into my mind. Over and over I stroked into him, increasing my speed. I broke our kiss to raise myself onto my hands over him and began to thrust more strongly.

Zack reached zir hands to my chest and began to caress my still-growing breasts, giving me shivers. "Oh, fuck!" I said aloud, when ze pinched both nipples.

I was getting closer to my orgasm when Cathy screamed in zir own climax beside us. When ze reached her hands to touch my hip and Zack's, ze linked both of us into zir experience. I exploded almost immediately, filling Zack up, as Cathy's cock, being jerked by Nancy, sprayed both of us with cum and then Zack's cum flew between us as well. After several strings criss-crossed my stomach and chest, they dripped onto Zack's. Through the link, I felt Nancy was cumming, too.

"What a mess," Zack said, when we were all done.

"Oh, we can clean you both off," Nancy said. "Tongue baths are fun. And with the empathy, I bet it feels even better. On your backs."

Zack and I both lay on our backs and Nancy moved over Zack while Cathy moved over me. They chased every droplet they saw on our skin. Through the link, I felt like I was licking myself, tasting both Zack's and Cathy's cum as slightly different flavors.

When Cathy had gotten my skin mostly clean, I pulled zir pussy over my face, as I cleaned up Nancy's cum from zir labia and sought out more from inside. Cathy grasped my cock and stroked it back into another erection, then sucked it into zir mouth.

Meanwhile, Nancy had zir mouth pressed to Zack's pussy, chasing my cum. When Zack moved zir leg and crossed it over mine, we linked again and I experienced Nancy's tongue moving over those flared labia. When Cathy reached over to take Nancy's hand, the empathy flared stronger. It was only the fact that we were still recovering from the last orgasms that kept us from ejaculating again, although I felt the tremors of a small vaginal orgasm coming from Zack.

I switched to sucking Cathy's cock as ze moved to lick my labia and pushed two fingers inside me. Zack and Nancy were sucking each other's cocks and I felt the odd sensation of my wet cock cooling in the air while I sensed the other three cocks in hot mouths.

I experienced a vaginal orgasm well before my cock was ready to ejaculate again, then felt the echo of Nancy doing the same as Zack sawed two fingers inside zir while still sucking on zir cock.

Soon, one orgasm triggered another, all vaginal, until finally I recovered enough to feel my cock ready to shoot again. 'I'm gonna cum,' I thought, causing Cathy to take me back into zir mouth to catch the load that gushed out.

Nancy's ejaculation was next and soon it felt like we were all cumming at once, leaving us utterly drained.

"Does it seem like it's getting more intense, to you?" Zack asked, when we could breathe normally.

"I think we're learning how to let our arousal build higher and withhold from ejaculating," Cathy answered. "So, when we do reach that orgasm, it's accompanied by a vaginal wave, too. I wonder how much further we can go in increasing the intensity."

~~~~~

March 12, 2016

Dr. DeLong arranged for a press conference to take place at a conference room at the hospital.

Except, when the four of us arrived, expecting to deal with the press, there were five people in the room who were clearly not reporters. Three of them wore Army uniforms and the other two were Senator Chaston and Governor Burke, the Presidential candidates. Dr. DeLong was nowhere to be seen.

Two of the military men stepped out of the room, apparently to guard the door. The third wore two stars on his shoulders, apparently a general.

"What's going on?" Zack asked.

Senator Chaston asked, "Which one of you is hosting the alien from the planet Teclewt? All of you?"

'Oh, shit, they know,' I thought to myself. 'How?'

"That would be just me," Cathy said, stepping forward. "I have taken the human name of Cathy, since my Teclewtan name is not recognizable to humans. I initially took the place of Nancy Davis, preserving zir mind in Dan Davis's body, then moved my self into Paige Hansen after an accident which destroyed most of Paige's memories, transferring Nancy back to zir body in the process."

"You're using the new pronouns, I see," the Senator said.

The air around the Army General shimmered, to reveal an honest-to-goodness Teclewtan, except covered in thick black fur under gray garments. Ze was much taller than I expected. Neither the Senator nor the Governor appeared to be surprised by this revelation.

"You may call me Tichawsk, Cathy," ze said, with a raspy voice that was high pitched to the point of being squeaky.

"Teclewt survived?" Cathy asked, as surprised as I'd ever seen her.

"Barely," Tichawsk answered. "Nine cities along the equator hastily erected a series of domes and tapped geothermal heat sources, combined with genetic engineering to give the next generation a pelt of fur three times thicker than mine is now. This allowed a population of about thirty-five million Teclewtans to survive the worst of the cold, before the dust began to settle out of the atmosphere. However, the snow that had fallen reflected solar energy back into space, keeping temperatures too low to leave the domes for another thousand years. When temperatures eventually rose to a sufficient degree along the equator, the survivors began a reseeding of flora and fauna from gene stocks and the cities could interact. Teclewt still endured a global ice age which lasted 3500 years."

"I am gladdened to hear our world survived. But, surely you did not travel all this way just to inform me. Why are you here?"

"The nanites you carry were outlawed. Particularly their ability to allow you to take over a host and duplicate your self. I am here to track down and eliminate them and, if necessary, punish you for any crimes you have committed using them."

"I have done nothing that was not authorized in my orders," Cathy said. "Less, in fact."

Tichawsk said, "This world is currently undergoing a social shock due to a gene-altering retrovirus. You already revealed to Dr. deLong that you thought you might have been the first to be infected, but analysis of the virus reveals it was engineered by the nanites and likely spread from you. A mind scan trial will determine whether you are culpable for that or anything else."

Tichawsk stepped towards Cathy and rested both two-thumbed hands across Cathy's head. Ze stood head and shoulders over Cathy. I could feel fear radiating from Cathy as zir thoughts and memories were scanned. If ze had been telling us the truth, what would ze have to fear?

'Very interesting, Ket——' Tichawsk thought in a mental voice that was just as high pitched, but without the rasp of zir vocal cords. It was the first thought I had been able to mind read from zim. When I figured out the thought was still in English, I realized that ze must have been transmitting intentionally.

'Is Ket zir true name?' I thought. 'Cathy told us it was unpronounceable.'

Tichawsk turned zir head towards me and mentally answered, 'Dan Davis, you are comprehending only the portion of the name that is within your hearing range. The rest is pitched much higher, so that it does not register to your brain as sound, not even telepathically. If I altered the tone so you could hear it, I would also alter its meaning, nor can I use zir human name in this proceeding. Please, no more interruptions.'

As I saw the Senator exchange a look with the Governor, I realized they had heard Tichawsk, too. So much for keeping our telepathy a secret. I shielded my thoughts as best I could, as Cathy had taught us.

Turning back to Cathy, ze said, 'Ket——, I did not imagine a Teclewtan of your era could be so morally restrained in zir actions. Despite clear instructions to only preserve their selves, every other refugee who successfully landed on a world populated by intelligent creatures used their belief that Teclewt had died to justify themselves in taking over as many bodies as they possibly could, replacing each host's personality with a copy of their own. Over and over, they shifted nanites to keep their selves spreading like an infection. The worst criminals managed to replicate the nanites using local technology to spread faster, eventually taking over the entire population and spreading to the next generations, when they bothered to reproduce at all, not accepting binary genders.'

'The result with species where telepathy could be manifested was planet-wide group-think that resulted in complete stagnation and a collapse of the civilization. Without telepathy, they inevitably divided into factions and went to war for primacy, with the same result. Many worlds perished before this came to the attention of the Amal Empire about 1700 light years away from Teclewt. Seeing the nanites as an existential crisis, they destroyed worlds that they considered incurable, to halt the nanites from spreading further and then took precautions to protect its member worlds as the nanite ships passed through their territory and beyond it. Thankfully, Teclewt had already banned the nanites before the Amal tracked them back to us and arrived to punish us. Instead of destroying Teclewt, they helped us finish recovering ecologically and allowed us to join their empire, with the requirement that we were responsible to pursue any further nanite outbreaks as they were detected. Monitoring stations were placed in every inhabited solar system ahead of the probes, to detect their arrival signals, then respond to prevent them from spreading on each world.'

Tichawsk removed zir hands from Cathy's head and took a step back. 'In all of the tens of thousands of years since then, you are the only exception we have found to that pattern of criminality. You have only occupied one human body at a time, making an effort to preserve the host personality or memories, and you spread the nanites to only three other humans, for their benefit rather than your own. Your greatest impact is the retrovirus that is changing Homo Sapiens into Homo Nova.'

'That was never my intent,' Cathy thought. 'I wanted to avoid that kind of attention.'

'I read that from your memories. If it had been your choice to initiate the retrovirus, you would be held culpable for it, but it is clear that your order to modify Dan Davis' sperm cells did not specify a means. Being the simple entities they are, the nanites adapted the virus in Dan Davis' body without considering it dangerous. Realistically, the damage done is to the existing social order, rather than to the humans that were infected, even the children that develop as hermaphrodites. I would not expect the nanites to comprehend that. As well, your purpose was to enable restoring Nancy Davis' personality, when your orders from Teclewt excuse a single personality death but no more. I find that none of your intentional uses of the nanites for body repair and transformation are criminal, beyond the fact that the nanites themselves have been outlawed, which you could not know. Now that you do know, however, it is your obligation to assist in their elimination. Once that is accomplished in all four of you and I am convinced that no other nanites remain in existence on this world, you will be free to continue your life here. That is my judgment, Ket——.'

Aloud, ze said, "Case adjudicated. I only need to order the nanites to terminate."

"Will that reverse the changes to our bodies?" Zack asked. "Dan and I are both pregnant."

"No, Zack Thomas, it will not change your bodies. Under both Teclewtan and Amal laws, the only order I can give the nanites is to terminate themselves. I can not order them to reverse any of the things they have done, even if I wished it. Not the changes to your bodies nor the effects of the retrovirus. I happen to think that Homo Nova will be an improvement, so long as their Homo Sapiens parents can adapt to raising them without gender roles."

"So, how do you give this order to terminate?" I asked.

"Just reach out your hands to mine and I will send the order," Tichawsk said. Nancy and I grasped zir right hand while Cathy and Zack took the left. Despite the direct contact, we could not read Tichawsk's thoughts, his defenses up. A minute later, ze said, "It is done."

"I didn't feel a thing," Zack said.

"Did you imagine that they were going to explode inside you like miniature fireworks?" Tichawsk asked, smiling for the first time. At least, I thought the facial expression was a smile. "They dissolved. Your bodies will treat most of the resulting compounds as nutrients and the remainder as waste, to be expelled in the normal ways. I recommend you increase your water intake to compensate."

"Is that it? Do you return to Teclewt, now?" Nancy asked. "Or do you chase down another refugee?"

"Neither," ze answered. "Detection of signals sent by the refugee ships just before they land are not frequent enough to have a dedicated pursuit force, only one every three or four of your centuries now. Once the nanite issue is resolved on Earth, my orders are to be the Ambassador from the Empire, helping your societies to adapt to the Homo Nova transition, before starting another social shock by announcing that you are not alone in the galaxy, never mind the center of the universe. This will lead to eventual membership in the Empire, should Earth accept an offer to join. All but one of the ships in orbit will return to other duties."

"What ships?" Zack asked. "Were we about to get bombarded or something?"

"If that was the only way to contain the nanites," Tichawsk answered. "I am pleased that it was not needed."

"Along with 8 billion humans," Zack muttered.

I asked, "Would the Empire have made itself known to us, if not for Cathy's arrival?"

"No. Even if you were within the Empire's current sphere, you would be considered quarantined, due to your possession and use of atomic weapons. We only contact worlds outside of that range when they have encountered the nanites."

"They've been monitoring us, I assume. Have they been monitoring all of the worlds that could be in reach of the Teclewtan probes? That's a sphere centered on Teclewt with a radius of 47,000 light years now, isn't it? Even the galactic core has to be inside that, right? Just how big is this Empire?"

Tichawsk answered, "While it was much smaller when the Teclewtan probes first reached it, the Empire has expanded to about a quarter of the galaxy, opposite the core from your world. The only worlds outside of that which are members are those contacted by the probes or gradual expansion from them."

A chill went through me. "Despite monitoring worlds outside its boundaries, the Empire doesn't prevent these probes from landing, doesn't make first contact beforehand to give each planet any warning. Is the Empire not showing up until they're sure the nanites have spread, weakening that world as a potential invasion target? Except, here it's the retrovirus that spread around the world, not the nanites themselves, and you don't have the same standard excuse of eliminating the nanites to justify invading us, do you? Is Cathy truly the only Teclewtan in all that time who resisted the temptation to abuse the ability of the nanites or is that just what you tell new worlds that have come into contact with them? Tell me, Ambassador, how many worlds have been offered membership in the Empire and after turning it down were invaded to get rid of a nanite infection that didn't actually exist?"