The Passenger Ch. 08

Anne nodded.

"Gawrran females have similarrr bundles of nerrrve endings, but these arrre located interrrnally and arrre shaped so that they surrround the male memberrr on all sides durrring penetrrration. As such, the male memberrr optimally stimulates the female durrring copulation, and she rrreaches orrrgasm typically within a few minutes."

"So female Gawrrans always come first?"

"Yes, in morrre than one way. But although up to this point the main differrrence between the human and Gawrran mechanism of sexual interrrcourrrse lies in the size of the parrrts and the way they line up, frrrom herrre on things begin to differrrentiate morrre significantly. It is the female's orrrgasm which causes the rrrelease of cerrrtain chemical cues that in turrrn trrriggerrr orrrgasm in the male. This in turrrn rrreleases male horrrmones that furrrther supporrrt the continuation of the female orrrgasm. Frrrom then on both the male and the female sustain each otherrr's state of orrrgasm, which continues in both parrrtnerrrs without interrruption, typically forrr six to eight standarrrd hourrrs..."

"Six to eight hours of orgasm?" Anne interrupted. "That is..."

"Yes," Por said. "By human standarrrds that is indeed quite long. The experrrience is extrrremely intense forrr us, and plays a larrrge rrrole in continued pairrrbonding. Both mates embrrrace and hold each otherrr, sitting face to face while they experrrience a continous and intense state of orrrgasm togetherrr forrr hourrrs on end."

He smiled his good smile.

"Howeverrr, keep in mind that the Gawrran mating season only occurrrs once everrry seven standarrrd yearrrs, so you may considerrr this some forrrm of compensation. Morrre imporrrtantly, though, both the female and male orrrgasm play an imporrrtant rrrole in the rrreprrroductive prrrocess. Both the female ovum and the male gametes arrre only prrroduced in rrresponse to cerrrtain horrrmones, which in turrrn arrre rrreleased only durrring orrrgasm. Afterrr sufficient time has passed, the female rrreleases the ovum, followed shorrrtly by otherrr chemical cues that cause the male to ejaculate the gametes that have been prrroduced in grrreat quantity durrring the hourrrs of sustained orrrgasm. Ferrrtilization is prrractically guaranteed at that point. The male's ejaculation also terrrminates the state of orrrgasm in both parrrtners thrrrough the rrrelease of otherrr horrrmones."

"Wow..." Anne said softly. "I had no idea..."

"You will underrrstand why the compound manufacturrred by Mr. Raz'Rwwrr Grllrrlrr's company is so popularrr."

"But wouldn't that mean a big change to Gawrran society?" I asked. "I mean, a cyclic mating season means cyclic births, but if you now can mate whenever you want, that pattern will be disrupted. That could upset a lot of things."

Por nodded.

"If the compound werrre to facilitate rrreprrroductive interrrcourrrse rrrather than rrrecrrreational mating only, that would indeed be trrrue. The social consequences in parrrticularrr would be devastating. Howeverrr, while the compound does mimic the horrrmones that facilitate arrrousal and subsequent mating, cerrrtain key components arrre missing. As a rrresult of this, the female prrroduces no ova. Parrrt of the compound is eventually metabolized within the body of the male to prrroduce the trrriggerrr forrr ejaculation. If that werrre not the case, the state of mutual orrrgasm would prrrobably continue indefinitely until both parrrtnerrrs would die frrrom exhaustion."

"What a way to go..." Anne mused.

"Perrrhaps," Por said. "But we believe that such an occurrrance is best avoided."

"I'm sure," I said. "But while this is all very interesting..."

"Peace, Harrrvey," Por said, smiling his good smile. "Satisfying the desirrres of the mind is as imporrrtant as satisfying the desirrres of the body. Frrrom the rrreadings we obtained you have alrrready dealt with the laterrr rrratherrr well. I can only prrrovide the forrrmerrr."

I smiled.

"Point taken, doc. But right now my mind wants to know if you did manage to get anything useful out of our little experiment."

"We cerrrtainly did. The most interrresting aspect of the rrreadings we obtained is the interrraction between yourrr mate's pherrromone levels and yourrr own. While the Gawrran pherrromone and horrrmone prrroduction with rrrespect to mating is essentially a linearrr one, yourrrs appearrrs to be morrre of an interrractive and adaptive prrrocess. Anne's pherrromone levels rrrespond to yourrrs, and yourrrs to herrrs, both rrresulting in many interrresting compounds being rrreleased into yourrr cirrrculatorrry system in levels that varrry thrrroughout the courrrse of yourrr mating. And by interrresting I mean these rrresults arrre quite useful forrr ourrr parrrticularrr purrrpose."

"Useful, how?" Anne asked.

Por smiled his good smile.

"Therrre is no tactful way of saying this, so I apologize if I sound disrrrespectul. The fact of the matterrr is that durrring mating a numberrr of horrrmones arrre rrreleased which essentially rrreduce the higherrr brrrain functions, orrr even shut them down entirrrely. No offense, Harrrvey, but this effect appearrrs to be farrr morrre prrronounced in human males than it is human females orrr in Gawrrans, if yourrr rrreadings arrre anything to go by."

"That figures," I said to myself. Myself agreed.

"You're quite right, doctor," I replied. "We often say that men tend to think with the wrong head. It's a well known problem."

"I am not familiarrr with that exprrresssion. But the fact that therrre is one to rrreferrr to the phenomenon in question is significant in itself, and encourrraging in the context ourrr prrroject. We should have no prrroblem forrrmulating a compound to trrriggerrr it. Howeverrr, morrre data might be rrrequirrred. I hope you will have no objection to rrreturrrning herrre forrr furrrtherrr experrrimentation if the need arrrises?"

"I thought you'd never ask," Anne chuckled.

* * *

"What I don't understand," Anne said later that day, "Is why everyone is so afraid of AI."

We were back in the apartment, sitting on the balcony, sipping our steaming mugs. The air was crisp and clear and fragrant with life, and the view was still achingly beautiful.

"Well," I said slowly, "I suppose much of it has to do with the fact that many people are afraid of change. And AI changes everything. There is only so much thinking an organic brain can ever be capable of, but an AI brain has no such theoretical limits. You can make it as big as you want. Or, and this is what scares many people, an AI could decide to augment itself. Or herself. Or himself."

She frowned.

"That makes no sense to me. I mean, I'm not stupid, but I'm not a lot smarter than most other people."

"I don't think that smart is the way to look at it, Anne. Let me put it this way. Do you remember that first night on Manaka? You were running that docking simulation on the nav computer when I woke up."

She nodded.

"You said it looked interesting," I went on. "I'm not sure that's the word I would have used. Docking is one bitch of a job. It's usually the final thing a pilot learns to master, and there's almost no way it can be done without crashing unless you have at least several years of flight experience under your belt. That's why most pilots let the nav computer handle docking even when they have the necessary experience. It took me eight years of flying before I got through that simulation. I can do a manual docking by now, but I'd still prefer a computer-assisted one. But you tackled that simulation right away, without any previous experience, and you got it right the first time."

She looked at me.

"Does that... scare you?" she said, softly.

I smiled and shook my head.

"No, it doesn't. You manage learn some things far more quickly than I do. So what? You still love me, right?"

She nodded.

"Good. Because I love you, and nothing else matters, as far as I'm concerned."

I decided that this would be a good time to kiss her, and she had the same idea, so we swapped spit for a while. But we didn't go any further than that, still satisfied as we were from the intense lovemaking we'd shared earlier. We spent the rest of the day together, talking; just enjoying each other's company. We talked about everything and anything, but mostly about the things we wanted to do together, the places we wanted to go together, the changes we wanted to make to the Slowboat, and the life we wanted to share.

And gradually I realized how, before I met her, I had just been going through the motions, and that's all there had been to my life. I'd continued to move cargo from where I could pick it up to where I could make a profit on it; I'd maintained the Slowboat properly as any good captain would; I'd kept up my skills and my knowledge of procedures and my exercising, simply because that's what you have to do when you're a spacer, but other than that... I hadn't really been going anywhere. I had been staying where I was; nothing more.

But now everything had changed. Anne had turned everything around. She was so easy to be with. Not just that; I could no longer imagine my life without her. Or rather, I didn't want to. I hadn't known anyone like her since...

"It's alright, Harvey. You can say it," Lisa whispered in the back of my head.

Since I'd lost Lisa.

"There," she said in the dark silence of my mind. "Was that so hard?"

Yes. Of course it was. I knew she was gone. But facing it was something I'd avoided as much as possible. It hurt too much. Even though she had never been completely gone. She would always be a part of me. But until I met Anne, that had only made the pain worse; not better.

Yes, I know what you're thinking: her speaking to me every now and then is nothing but my imagination, and maybe I should get professional help for it. Well, fornicate you and your righteous attitude. There is more to the spirit and soul of a good woman than can be encoded in DNA or whatever equivalent molecule some species use.

"But now you can face it," Lisa went on, in that calm, resolute voice that I had never been able to argue with. "I'm dead, Harvey, and you are not. You still have a life ahead of you. Live it. Be happy. You deserve to be happy. And I want you to be happy. With her."

And then she was gone.

"Harvey? Hello? Ground control to captain Ross!"

I looked up, saw Anne smile at me.

"Sorry," I said sheepishly, "My mind was lightyears away."

She gave me a long, thoughtful look and, not for the first time, I wondered how much the female spirits know of each other. I will probably never know, and maybe that's for the best.

"That's alright," she said softly. "As long as you come back to me in the end."

"That I can promise you, my love," I said. "Always."

Some serious kissing later we went inside and curled up on the bed. We held each other until we dozed off. Gawrr's twenty-nine hour day was just long enough to be tiring, and a bit of shuteye in the afternoon always helps on worlds like this. Also, we had expended a lot of energy earlier that day. The distant sun was sinking toward the horizon when we woke up, and the smell of her hair was the first thing I became aware of through the receding fog of sleep.

"Hmmm..." she sighed as she stirred against me. "I like this bed. We need to spend more time in it."

"That sounds like a plan. But I could use a bath. Or at least a shower."

She sat up and stretched luxuriously. I felt my lust stir, but I ignored it. Oh, the sheer pleasure of watching her! I got us another pair of steaming cups of pick-me-up from the autokitchen; mine the usual high-test caffeine; a less lethal brew for her. We sipped quietly, neither of us feeling the need to say anything. We knew what we felt, and we knew it about each other, too. We really didn't have to say anything. Communicating with smiles, with gestures, with casual touching was all we needed.

When we finally made it to the bathroom, I found that Anne had managed to raise the temperature of the water in the floor-sunk basin. I hadn't even looked for the temperature controls, but Anne obviously had. I still couldn't decide if this was a very large tub or a very small swimming pool. It was designed for Gawrrans, of course, which made it seriously oversized by human standards, and the gently sloping ramp would let Gawrrans gradually exit the pool while letting all the water drain from their fur. And a Gawrran's massive bulk would call for much colder water than what was optimal for us. Still, with the heat turned up it made for an inviting... What?

"Let's call it a cuddle puddle", I said to myself. Myself just smiled.

Anne walked down the ramp and into the water, gathering her blonde curls into a bunch behind her head and, incidentally, striking a pose that was a fifty-fifty mix of classic beauty and come-here-and-fuck-me-sideways-right-now. I followed her. The pool/tub was just deep enough for both of us to stand with the water coming up to our necks.

We washed each other's backs. Then I washed her front as she did mine which, inevitably, soon turned into the all-over caressing we both enjoyed so much. She reached down into the water to find my cock standing up, hard and proud. She began to stroke it, slowly and gently; her fingertips playing across my balls while my hands traced the smooth, round outlines of her breasts, and her nipples swelled and hardened under my thumbs.

She put one hand on my shoulder, one leg around my back as she lifted herself slightly buoyed by the water, and the head of my cock found the entrance to her pussy, nuzzled against it, and slipped in. The water has rinsed away some of her natural lubrication, but there was enough of it left.

I put my hands on her butt, the delicious curves of those glorious buns filling them to overflowing, and I lifted her further as she put her other leg around me as well while her arms found their way around my neck. Slowly I pulled her closer to me, and she rocked back and forth gently as my cock slid deeper into her, until I was buried within her to the hilt and her thighs around my hips held both of us there.

I noticed a strange thing then. While my body was slightly buoyant as it always has been, enough to reduce the weight on my feet to almost nothing when I breath in, hers was not. Maybe it was the metal in her bones and her other prosthetics, or maybe it had to do with lung capacity. Whatever it was, she had a tendency to sink, while I tended to float. Joined as we were, though, together we were almost neutrally buoyant. It was like being weightless without any of the things I hate so much about zero gee.

We moved slowly; my hard cock deep inside her, enveloped by her inner heat. We kissed, we caressed, we drifted. The lovely curves of her butt were round and firm in the palms of my hands, and her tongue was hot within my mouth. One of her hands held the back of my head. She had her other arm around my shoulders, her legs wrapped around my waist; her feet touching the small of my back. But wonderful as that was, our union was much more than that: it was a joining of minds, hearts and souls as much as it was a joining of our bodies.

It was a long time before our movements became more insistent and purposeful. Finally she grabbed me firmly as her body grew tense and her inner muscles gripped my cock again and again as she came, and she whimpered softly against my chest. A gulf of her inner heat suddenly enveloped the head of my cock, which was nestled deeply inside her most intimate core, and that was enough to set off the fireworks of my own climax. I grunted softly as my cock pulsed, and jet after jet of cum streamed out of it into the waiting depths of her pussy.

For a long time we continued to hold each other, sharing the slow, warm afterglow; the closeness; the tenderness. We caressed and we kissed until we started to become waterlogged. Eventually she giggled.

"I'm turning into a prune," she said.

I smiled.

"You're the sweetest prune I've ever made love to."

She reached down and squeezed my butt, hard.

"Ouch! What was that for?"

"For making love to other prunes, that's what. A captain should be loyal to his crew, don't you think?"

"Mutiny," I grumbled.

"Well, then, maybe you should discipline your crew?"

"All in good time, my love. First we must save you from further prunehood."

I slowly walked toward the ramp, holding her up, my flaccid cock still inside here. That worked well as long as we were both submerged, but as I made my way up the ramp my cock slipped out of her as she became heavier.

"Whups," she said, as a thick gob of my cum ran out of her. "Back up a little. Let's clean up first."

We did that, and the juices of our lovemaking made faint clouds and small strands in the water. Once we had finished rinsing ourselves off, with much giggling, we made it up the ramp and into the hot air stream from the drier mounted overhead.

We spent the rest of the evening relaxing, touching, smiling; simply enjoying each other's company. We watched the dusk deepen within the still valley; the sound of running water far below us a perfect background to the slowly deepening gloom. We lay before the fire together, and we slept in each other's arms that night. Which meant that we both woke up with cramped shoulders and numb arms, because that sort of thing is actually much more uncomfortable than it sounds like, but we didn't mind.

* * *

Raz called the following evening to see if he was available yet. He was. Although it's a little hard to tell with Gawrrans, his demeanor looked positively sunny. I assumed that his reunion with his mate had gone well and that the potency of his latest crop had proven to be up to the challenge.

"Why arrre you smiling, Harrrvey?"

"Oh, no reason," I said. "How have you been, Raz?"

"I am content," he rumbled. "I have sorrrely missed my mate and it is good to be back with herrr. But I have not been a prrroperrr host. I apologize forrr neglecting you. Have you been comforrrtable?"

"Absolutely, Raz," Anne said. "This place is wonderful."

"I am rrrelieved to hearrr that, Anne. Yet I would imprrrove on my hostly duties and invite the two of you herrre. Doctorrr Por'krallarahrrr inforrrms me that he has almost completed his rrresearrrch, so we should begin prrreparrations forrr yourrr continued safety frrrom detection. Therrre is also the matterrr of how to deal with Deke'Rrryderrr and with Verrrgence Sigma. While we can hope they will assume that the two of you werrre eliminated beforrre theirrr strrrike team disapearrred, we cannot simply assume that they will. If my strrrike team failed to rrreporrrt back afterrr an action, I would be distrrrustful as well."

"That's been worrying me too, Raz," I admitted. "Do you have any ideas on what we should do?"

"I cerrrtainly do," he rumbled. "But these matterrrs arrre best discussed in perrrson. May I suggest that we do that tomorrrow morrrning? Tar'Krrraggrrr will escorrrt you to my offices, if that is alrrright with you."

"Of course, Raz," I said. "We'll be there."

"Then I will see you both tomorrrow."

Anne stared at the console's disconnection with a puzzled look on her face.

"What?" I asked.

"I'm not sure," she said slowly. "I guess I'd sort of expected him to invite him to his place. Maybe he doesn't want us to see where he lives?"

I smiled.

"Think about it. If you'd invite guests to your house, you'd probably plan on having lunch or dinner with them, right?"

"Of course."

"Right. The thing is, Gawrrans are carnivores. In fact, they're hunters. Those teeth they have are not for show."

"I know that, Harvey."

"But what you may not know is that they're also active hunters, just like their ancestors were. That lovely valley out there is probably a private hunting park for Raz' corporate guests. There are enormous public hunting parks all over Gawrr, where Gawrrans go to follow their natural instincts every once in a while."