The Pasture in Space - Revolution

His cock strained, twitching inside of her as the building in his bulging balls finally shot out his sack. It send pulsing waves out from the shaft, Tara feeling it in her pussy as his seed worked its way through his head. In rope after rope, the semen shot inside of her, filling her with a warm, gushing liquid. It sprayed inside of her pussy, coating every inch of her inside with the incredible volume of the fluid.

She let out a cry, and one last, trepid orgasm combined with his. The strength of his ejaculate forced him out of her body, only halfway before finishing. The rest of his semen still continued its impossible flood, pouring out over ass and pussy as she remained on her hands and knees, shaking and spasming, until falling onto the earth.

Her backside, her buttocks, her pussy, inside and out, all covered in the alien's seed. Not an inch of her below the waist wasn't wet with the slippery, sticky product of their love.

She let out a deep breath, collecting herself, needing to restart her mind.

Are you okay? I hope you enjoyed it.

"The best telepath in the galaxy, and still you have to ask if your woman came?"

Very amusing.

"I usually am," Tara said.

She turned on her back, his cock shrinking and yet still brushing up against her thighs. Looking down, she noticed a few gobs of semen still clung desperately to his urethra. She adjusted, moving her lips to swallow a long strand of cum clinging to his cock. It was salty, sweet, a little more viscous than a human's, but largely the same. She savored the taste, letting it slide down her mouth.

Then she stood up, cum dripping down from her body as she kissed her lover.

"I'm so glad to be doing this with you, Thonon," She said.

I love you, Tara.

"And I will love our child," Tara said, her hands reaching down her bare belly. She could almost sense something growing inside of her. "I can't wait to meet our precious little flower."

You will not have to wait long. The gestation period is three days.

"Three days? Thonon!"

Are you not pleased? Pregnancy can be difficult for your species.

"I am... I just..."

It certainly wasn't her imagination. Already her body had started to change, her tummy beginning to swell.

"Okay..." She said. "I guess I'm as ready as I'll ever be."

17

Aiden met her before Tara made it halfway back from the beach. He walked briskly, his brow furrowed, his graying hair windswept and unruly. Tara did not need to be psychic to read his expression. He wore the demeanor of a man in the depths of despair. Her mind wrenched its way out of its post-orgasmic haze, trying to access the hub of humanity, only to find her connection blocked.

"What's happened?" Tara called before he had bridged the distance.

The elder did not know what to say. He almost trotted, closing the distance before speaking, his eyes on the brink of tears.

"You must leave," He said. "Immediately."

"Aiden! This is my home."

"For your safety! For his, for your child's, leave now!" Aiden said.

"Aiden! How... why do we..." She started. "How do you know?"

"We may be blind to your interactions with the alien, but we are not dumb," Aiden answered curtly. "We have been suspicious of Thonon motives for some time."

"Suspicious? Why? Aiden what is this all about!"

"Has your new lover told you what happened to his galaxy?"

"There was a disease..." Tara said.

"Yes, but why was there a disease? And how could it exterminate the entire galaxy? There is one predominant theory - a complete lack of biodiversity."

"What are you saying? How do you know this?"

"I do not know this. WE are compiling theories, based on spare evidence and biometric scans of your body. The cycle between eukaryote and prokaryote cells in successive generations necessitates the need for immense resources, undoubtedly synthesized telepathically."

"So what?" Tara said.

"Thonon's species creates planets where these two mutually dependent species dominant, to the point of mass extinction. Give enough time, the only organisms capable of compete are microbes, bacteria and viruses targeting the apex species.

"I don't understand. We stop disease all the time, and our telepathy pales in comparison to Thonon's."

"Individually, yes. But given the resources necessary to provide for any child like the one you are carrying, it is doubtful the alien population of the Andromeda galaxy could have even reached the millions. There simply aren't enough resources to support a large enough population to focus their telepathy on the innumerable microscopic being multiplying at the expense of their larger targets."

"How, how could you know this?"

"I wish I could show you," Aiden said. "But you have been expelled from the collective."

"Expelled? They can't do this!"

"We can," Aiden said. "We must. The creature growing inside of you will need feeding. It may grow large enough to consume the byproducts of an entire world."

"What of it?" Tara said. "We can support that without batting an eye."

"We can, but will this new species exist only as one individual? Will your child not one day breed? And when there are thousands of these aliens, competing against humanity with their superior telekinetic powers? We can barely content with Thonon, isolated and alone. What will his kind be like together?"

"He's not like that! He's good..." Tara said. "He just wants to save his species."

"He may be good," Aiden agreed. "It doesn't matter. Saving his species may end ours. And... if the pattern continues... culminate with the extinction of all life. The Milky Way following the Andromeda Galaxy into ruin.

Tara almost collapsed in shock, her hands cradling the potential threat already expanding in her uterus.

"He can't... he wouldn't."

She sank to the ground.

"Tara, I don't know his character like you do," Aiden said calmly. "But the collective finds him elusive, vague, and distrustful."

"He's not. Aiden... his species, his family, friends, they are all gone."

"I know," Aiden said. "I am not suggesting a lack of sympathy. Only there is a large segment throughout the galaxy who believe it unconscionable to allow the birth of a race which will threaten our existence."

"They can't! Thonon would stop them!"

"He certainly would," Aiden said. "We have considered the casualties involved in such a confrontation. He is a formidable adversary, which is why the more moderate minds of the galaxy have reached a different consensus."

He took a deep breath, almost unable to form the words.

"Providing you insist on keeping your offspring... You are to be excommunicated. Complete cut off from the rest of humanity. Follow through with your course of action, and be exiled from our worlds. I spoke to save you. You may settle outside our galaxy, but should another alien attempt to colonize a planet in the Milky Way..." He paused, tears beginning to fall. "It would be an act of war..."

"War? How easily you embrace genocide! How violently you jump at delusions and apparitions! Humanity at its pinnacle, stronger than ever before, and yet so weak to wish to kill a child, to exterminate a species all in the name of safety! Save me? Save yourself! You announce a drumbeat that leads humanity into the past, brandishing your brains as brutally as bludgeon. You should be ashamed."

"I am ashamed," Aiden said. "Tara, I advocated for you. The encounter has torn the collective to pieces. It will be generations before many of the rifts heals. This is the best offer, the compromise. Leave! Now! Before they change their mind. I am sorry. I tried."

Weeping, they met each other in one last embrace.

Within the hour, Thonon's disc shaped craft hurtled them upwards, out of the universe and towards a new home.

18

"Thonon, it's coming!"

She let out a moan as the contractions increased in their intensity. He managed the pain the best that he could, swerving the ship to avoid the countless debris of the asteroid field.

Hold on - I can land us here.

"Where is here?! In the asteroid belt?!"

My instruments indicate large iron deposits.

The ship dodged another scrap of rock, just barely. From her position, laying down on a makeshift bed in the center of the spacecraft, she imagined hearing the sounds of small chunks of rock rattling around the hull. She struggled to find her feet, making her way from the cockpit, holding her now swollen belly.

After just three days, she gave the appeared of being nine months pregnant. Only unlike a human fetus, there had been no kicking, no internal squirming. Instead, she could hear it. The beginning of telepathic communication between the pair, not quite words. Feelings, emotions, fear, hunger, love, all attuned to her mind.

It almost made up for the devastating withdrawal from the rest of humanity. It was like being struck blind and deaf, her main apparatus from interacting with the galaxy removed without being replaced. She almost considered all those moments when she envied the pioneers and exiles the naive longings of a foolish school girl. Almost...

Managing the controls simply by staring at an alien language on the viewport, stood the being who made her decision worthwhile. And though Aiden's theory created a small amount of doubt at his love, an unspoken question lingering about the designs of their future offspring, she never wavered in her devotion to him, to them.

"You can't possibly want to root him there?"

Without an intrinsic understanding of the binary nature of her child's gender, Tara often reverted back to one gender or the other, depending on her mood. There had been little time for discussion in the past few days. Thonon explained with a heated passion that intergalactic travel took considerably more than three days to complete. Even then, there was no guarantee the next galaxy would be viable. So many stars had already expired, their light simply illusions to the naked eye, dependent on the great distances traveled.

If the egg did not take root in the soil shortly after its birth, the being would die. If the collective understood this, they may have caused the death of their child simply through their own omission. Without a world to inhabitat or the time to reach another galaxy, the only other option then was to search for an uninhabited planetoid.

The Epsilon Asteroid Belt

The nearest possibility, still a day's jump away. Another to spend navigating into the interior, dodging the rocks that sprang free from collisions around the binary star system. But as she looked through the viewport, Tara saw what Thonon was considering. This asteroid appeared as large as a small moon, big enough that the smaller rocks orbited around it as they followed their path around the twin suns.

Even so, it was desolate compared to the settled worlds of the galaxy. Barren and empty, soil brimming with iron but little else. The rest of the world a dark gray clay, pock-marked with various craters, large lumps taken out of the surface, carved into ungainly protrusions. It looked like a nightmare world, a hellscape no human would ever consider an avenue for survival.

"Thonon, how could I breathe?"

With my ship, I can make atmosphere adjustments. It would only take a few days. The oxygen levels will remain thin, but viable. It's orbit leaves it in a habitable zone, but just barely.

She let out a wail of agony as the contraction came again.

It's almost time. We have no choice. I have checked the calculations on the six other planetoids in the belt. This is the only one with a viable orbit. There may be others - but we have no time.

"You are worried, what is it?"

I am not worried.

"Don't you dare lie to me, Thonon! Just tell me what's wrong with the damned rock?"

It's low on any other transmutable resources.

"How low?"

Even at maximum capacity, with every adjustment I can make, it will only sustain one of our offspring.

"So... he will be alone? Forever?"

Yes.

A pause lingered between them as the disc slowly started to descend.

I'm sorry. There is no choice. You are too close to chance another planetoid.

"Then this is it," Tara said slowly. "Our child's world..."

Epsilon 7.

*****

In the cave, Gwendolyn watched the birth of the oval shaped creature in front of her, its tendrils still attached to her head. She heard the creature break the action, speaking directly to her. Its language developed more, aided by the memories played out in front of it.

This birth is not typical.

"Why?" Gwendolyn said.

Thonon, my father, used most of his abilities to begin the creation of an atmosphere.

The image played out in front of her, the couple rushing out in the open rock, the thin, almost invisible barrier of oxygen radiating from a disc clutched in the alien's hand.

It took up too much of his focus. I caused my mother considerable pain.

It was difficult for Gwendolyn to watch. The screams of agony, bellowing out, dampened only by the thin, marginal atmosphere. Tara yelled out, squatting, the brightly colored egg shape slowly opening up her vagina past the point that she could bear. Then a moment where Thonon caught her, preventing the girl from falling over as she finished her labor. The alien egg dropped out, immediately burrowing into the earth.

Exhausted, covered in sweat and tears, she passed out in Thonon's outstretched arms.

And when she awoke, Tara called the creature Antonella.

*****

Tara never recovered.

Over the next few weeks, she barely left the ship. The days passed in a blur, alternating between a restless sleep and a fuzzy consciousness. On her best days, she tried to walk down the ramp, to have her feet touch the ground Thonon rapidly terraformed. At first, she assumed these were the after-effects of the pregnancy. Only the symptoms worsened. Her body ached, subject to involuntary spasms and mild seizures. At her worst, Thonon would stop everything, redirecting his entire focus to fight the microbes shutting down every essential system.

But her health still deteriorated. Her lover knew what would happen, though he could not admit it. Dependent on the collective, Tara's natural immune system was almost nonexistence.

We must take you back to Sayshell.

"No," Her body convulsed into a fit of coughing. "You have to stay."

I do not know that I can help you. The nature of the illness is foreign to me. I do not have the healing abilities of your kind.

"Just try," Tara said. "Do your best."

I must take you back.

"And what about Antonella?"

It doesn't matter. We can try again.

"Thonon, what about my baby?!"

It cannot survive without me. Without an atmosphere, without nourishment...

"So we stay," She said weakly.

We can try again. There will be another chance.

"You know there won't," Tara said. "They would not save me and let me leave again."

Tara.

"What is it that you said to me?" Tara said, coughing. "When I asked about the end of your species? That it was worth it to meet me?

She smiled.

"I feel the same way."

I can not do nothing. To stand idly by and wait to watch you die.

"I didn't say stop trying to save me," She said, forcing a smile. "But I... I have to ask you something."

Anything.

"The end of your galaxy... Thonon, were your people responsible?"

Yes.

He picked his thoughts carefully.

We grew too quickly, spreading out through the galaxy. In our primitive state, we only wanted for our offspring, our species. We proudly believed our thoughts made us wise, made us the only beings who mattered. We caused extinction, deliberately and accidentally. There were those who warned us. We did not heed them.

"Aiden was right," Tara said softly.

All this happened before my time. In my time, the plague had already been born. It took several generations for the spread to engulf the entire galaxy, and by then it was too late.

"Promise me," Tara said. "Promise me you won't let it happen again."

I promise. Tara you must believe me. I would not repeat the mistakes of the past. I bore witness to the end of my kind, barely saved through the sacrifice of thousands. I remember the cost of our ambition, of our arrogance.

"Okay..." Tara said. "Thonon do me one more favor.."

Anything my love.

"Take me outside," She said. "I want to see our child."

*****

Gwendolyn watched on as the sad, hulking alien centaur carried his lover down a dark, desolate shaft bore out through the rocks. With some surprise, she realized this was the antechamber she now sat in, nearly in the exact space where Thonon laid down his human partner. Tara smiled weakly at him, barely able to move her head.

Out from the egg, tiny, thin, barely more than a tiny limp seeped down. The purple tentacle moved slowly, using suction cups to move it a centimeter or two at a time, until it came far enough to reach its tendrils around Tara's outstretched palm.

"Oh Antonella," She said. "How nice to finally meet you."

Mother.

Tara smiled.

*****

Please do not make me show you more.

Antonella almost begged.

It is too painful.

"It's okay," Gwendolyn said. "I understand."

For years I have felt it. His memories. Hers. All I have known. His pain at having failed her. Her pain... because of me.

"What happened to him?" Gwendolyn said. "To Thonon, your father."

No more.

The creature almost wailed.

"It's okay, just tell me," Gwendolyn said.

They killed him!

The psionic scream seemed to slam into her head. The impotent scream of rage and futility that comes with too intense of a loss. It was like a siren blasting against the inside of her eardrums. The telepathic fury enough to pry apart her head, tearing her brain out through her ears. She tried to think, not able to speak, not able to send any message in her mind other than the faint whimpering of pain.

I am sorry. I cannot. I will have to show you.

*****

Gwendolyn looked on through Thonon's eyes as the ship approached. Elongated and ugly, almost like a large plastisteel tube with wings, the machine sputtering down to make its clumsy approach. The engine whined, the whole ship creaking, unused to anything more than the empty vacuum of space. The sides were plated with patches, makeshift and off-color replacements, everything salvaged and slapped together in the most expedient fashion.

Even before looking at it, Gwendolyn knew.

The sight of the ship only confirmed what she suspected with an overwhelming sense of dread. It's all too familiar frame, the dirty grey color of everything, even the shape of the thing. The spaces for those long corridors, the barracks, their milk maid's quarters. Yes, there were alterations, the added pastures, the pit, but the skeleton remained intact.

It was the hub, her home making its final descent.

"The sensors were right about the air quality," Castillo said. "I've never seen a rock with an atmosphere."

"What the hell is this place, Captain?" Izar said.

Captain Castillo pulled down on his silver mustache, absently twisting it as he kept his thumb near the contact of his blaster.

"Might be home," He said.

"You're kidding, Cap, this place?" Izar looked the ramp unbelievably. "It's a dump."

"Are you not breathing air, boy?" Cass waved around at the atmosphere. "Oxygen! Enough to at least harvest. And not a collective world a hundred lightyears away."