Tripletit - The Story So Far

The last woman passed me back to Melinda. Shona had left the room.

"Shona's gone to change, Ricky. She'll be back in a minute or two. We've agreed to restrain ourselves while she's away, even though that will be hard."

"I'm pleased to meet you, Melinda, and the rest of our," I emphasised 'our', friends. Thank you for welcoming me to Trib."

"Trib?" one of the others queried. "We're friends, Ricky. Among friends and in private, we're on Tripletit, and we'll use our tits to show how welcome you are."

"...as Shona's husband," Melinda added quickly.

"Of course, and our friend is your wife. But your marriage?"

"You know about that," Melinda said. "It was on the News. They have an Earth-type marriage - for life."

"But...?" Several of the women seemed disappointed.

"But when on Tripletit, Shona and I will behave as if we are married according to Tripletit customs. When we are elsewhere - then we are married for life, just the two of us. Here? I don't know whether any of you are married, and I understand that it doesn't matter whether you are or not, if you want..."

"...to stuff your mouth full of tit." Melinda finished for me, demonstrating with her own breast as Shona re-entered the room, formally dressed.

"We did agree," Melinda said, "To restrain ourselves when you were gone, Shona, but you're back."

Shona gently lifted me from Melinda's arms.

"And I'm claiming my husband, and keeping him until we get to the party."

It wasn't a challenge, just a statement.

Outside the apartment door was a large pile of flowers. There were also a dozen or so more of Shona's friends, keeping back a group of women. Shona lifted me to her shoulders and carried me through the corridor and towards the stairs. I was smiling and waving as we went in a confusion of pictures being taken and shouts of "Ricky!".

Outside the building there was a police cordon behind which hundreds of women were shouting and screaming at me. This was ridiculous. I'm a mining engineer, not a Pop Star, but the reception was like a red carpet event.

The police, all very large Tripletit women, surrounded the group as we walked the few hundred yards in the twilight to the hotel. Inside the foyer the manageress began to welcome us formally as Shona lowered me to my feet. She gave me a gentle push.

"When in Rome..." She whispered as she lowered me past her face. I took the hint and walked straight at the manageress and held out my arms to her. Her speech ended abruptly as she picked me up and swung me to a breast, smiling broadly.

"Thank you, Ricky and Shona," she spluttered as my mouth sucked. "I didn't expect..."

She might not have expected but I'm sure she had hoped.

When she withdrew her breast, I said:

"Thank you for the bouquet. Can I meet the other staff, please?"

"You mean it, Mr Trewartha?"

The manageress was startled. Shona and her friends were grinning broadly.

"I'm a Trib citizen. I'll follow Trib customs, and I want to meet them." I said.

The receptionists and catering staff formed a queue. I was passed gently along them. It took a quarter of an hour, and a lot of giggling, before I was passed back to Shona.

In the conference suite, apart from about thirty of Shona's friends, a real Tripletit Pop Group, one of the most famous on the planet, were already on a raised dais. Their lead singer was wearing the shortest and smallest dress I had yet seen. Her legs went up and up and her breasts were barely covered. She was clutching a microphone stand and about to launch into her first number, but my actual appearance and small size seemed to have thrown her.

"That's Ursula. She offered to come for nothing, just to meet you," Shona whispered to me. I took the hint. I walked across the floor to the dais, and held up a hand so that Ursula could haul me on to the stage. It was too high for me to climb unaided.

"Thank you," I said to her, still holding her hand. Ursula seemed shocked to have me standing in front of her, my head lower than her exposed navel. I lifted my other arm. She pulled me up and held me in front of her face, my legs dangling.

"And thank you for welcoming me," I hinted. She actually blushed before shrugging her dress off a breast and offering it to me. Before my mouth took hold I asked:

"Can you sing with me here, Ursula?"

"Sing? With you there? I would be delighted to," she answered.

She did. She sang a song about the pleasures of small Earthmen, with me clamped to her breast with one arm. Between verses she shifted me to the other breast. I looked off the stage. Every woman in the room was looking at me, apparently jealous of Ursula. At the end, the applause was deafening.

"Ricky," Ursula had switched off her microphone and was whispering to me, "be careful out there, and try to leave early. Trib women party hard, particularly when they have plenty of alcohol. Earthmen are usually advised to keep avoid Trib parties like this. Even though they are your friends, friends can do stupid things when they are drunk. You're so small, and so cute... They might get carried away."

"Thank you for that," I whispered back as she lowered me from her grasp. "I'll be careful."

I asked to be introduced to the rest of Ursula's group. They put their instruments down and grabbed me eagerly. Ursula held me briefly for another whisper.

"Remember, Ricky, you've made friends of us as well, and we won't be drinking until afterwards."

Reluctantly she handed me back to Shona. As the group continued through their routine I was greeted by thirty friendly breasts. I tried hard to remember their names as I sucked a generous quantity of Tripletit milk.

The women who had already met me were dancing wildly. I hadn't touched the floor since the lead singer had lifted me, but I thought that I might be in real danger unless I kept to the edge of the room. Their large skirts were flailing around. With my head at waist level of the dancers I could be swept aside or squashed.

Shona danced with me perched on the dome of her skirt, my head close to her hair. I had danced with every one of her friends. Some held me like Shona, others tried with my feet on the floor, pressed against their skirts, but they had to protect me from the others. Melinda's dress had a split at the front, revealing a lace petticoat. I was safest with her, because the stiffened sides of the split were behind me and I was almost lost inside her skirt.

After a couple of hours I had to visit the men's room, too full of milk. Melinda, my partner at the time, took me to the edge of the room and I scuttled away, avoiding flying skirts.

On the way back I encountered a chambermaid pushing a trolley loaded with bed linen. She smiled broadly when she saw me.

"You must be the famous Ricky Trewartha," she said.

"I am. But I'm not used to being famous. It's only my first day here."

She looked wistful. When in Rome, I thought. I held out my arms.

"But I'm only..."

"A friend?" I suggested.

"Yes!" she replied eagerly, unbuttoning her uniform. "Thank you, Ricky."

I snuggled against her as her milk gushed into my mouth. She hugged me gently and twirled around in the corridor in a happy dance, laughing quietly.

"I would never have believed I would actually meet you, Ricky," she said as she took her breast from my mouth, "let alone be able to welcome you properly. Thank you."

"Thank YOU," I replied as she put me down. She left her trolley and held my hand as I walked back to the suite. Her hand stroked my head as I opened the door.

The dancing was more frenetic. Several skirts lashed at me as I made my way carefully around the edge of the room to the edge of the stage. Shona was on the other side but it might be dangerous for me to try to reach her. I tried to attract someone's attention but they were dancing too wildly. The group's keyboard player noticed me and held out her hand, swinging me up on stage, before sitting me on her lap as she resumed playing. I leant against her shoulder.

She switched to playing one-handed, opened her dress and exposed her breast. I put myself to it as she went back to playing two-handed. At the end of the song she waved at Shona and indicated where I was. Shona came to claim me.

"Thank you," Shona and I said together.

"My pleasure," she replied.

"Why didn't you ask one of my friends?" Shona asked as she carried me away.

"I tried to, but no one noticed me. I'm too small," I protested. "Your friends are dancing too frantically for me."

Shona looked around. She could see that I was right. Most of her friends had drunk a lot and were throwing themselves around energetically. The group had stopped for a break and recorded Disco music was playing.

"Ursula," I said, pointing at the stage, "said that men don't usually come to these parties."

"That's true, Ricky, they don't. It's too dangerous. But my friends wanted to meet you. They have. Perhaps it's time to call it a night."

"I think so. Will I have to say goodbye?"

"We should Ricky, but I think they are too far gone for it to be safe."

"Can I say goodbye to Ursula and her group? They're sober."

"Of course. They don't normally play private functions, and certainly not free. They only came because they wanted to see you."

"Then I must thank them, in person."

My reception on stage was a repeat of my welcome. They wanted my autograph and gave me an autographed group poster with individual dedications to me. After I had said goodbye to the group's left and right breasts, Ursula turned her back on the dancers and held me close as I suckled.

"I'd like to do more, Ricky," she said, "but we're in public. If I did, we would be all over the media tomorrow. You will be, and probably this party will be. Anyway, your bride is waiting impatiently."

"Thank you, Ursula," I said as she adjusted her dress. "I am pleased to have met you and your group as friends."

"We're pleased to have met you, Ricky, especially as you have accepted Tripletit customs so readily. Remember that you are now our friend..."

"And all of you are my friends, Ursula. Even though I don't fully appreciate what being a friend means on Trib, I know that you have been real friends this evening."

"On Trib, Ricky," Shona interrupted, "what you and Ursula have done together makes you the equivalent of blood brothers on Earth. She and her group will defend you with their lives, and you should be ready to do anything for them."

"Then that's the sort of friends I am proud to have, Ursula," I said.

Shona held me up so that Ursula and I could kiss on the lips. As our lips parted a couple of tears ran down Ursula's face. I touched one with my finger.

"Why?" I asked.

"Because you accepted me unconditionally," Ursula replied. "You have given me friendship and accepted mine without reservation. So many men only want me for my fame. You don't care about that, do you, Ricky?"

"Fame? No, Ursula. It's meaningless compared to what a person is. I know you are my friend. That is far more important than fame."

"Take him away, Shona, please, before I grab him for myself. I want Ricky. He may be famous because he is so small, but his heart isn't small. It's large enough for all of us. Go!"

In the corridor outside the conference suite Shona put me down on my feet. I looked up at her.

"Shona, I have a lot still to learn about Tripletit. Why was Ursula so moved by being my 'friend'? Am I also 'friends' with the hotel manageress and her staff?"

"The hotel staff? No. Not really. They were pleased that you treated them as individuals and you greeted them in a way that is more than just a polite acknowledgement. If you meet them again they would treat you as an acquaintance, offer their breasts, but not like Ursula and her group. With them you have exchanged 'friendship'. That makes a real difference here. All my friends here tonight are now your friends with all that means on this planet."

I explained about meeting the chambermaid, and greeting her as a friend. What did that mean?

"That depends on her, Ricky," Shona replied. "I think she would regard it as a pleasant encounter, something to enjoy remembering, but she would know that you are unfamiliar with Tripletit customs. What more it might mean would be up to you and her - if you ever meet again. Do you know her name?"

"No, Shona, she didn't tell me, but I didn't ask. Does that matter?"

"It is an indication that she was considerate and didn't take advantage of your ignorance. If she wanted to become Ricky's friend, she would have made sure not only that you knew her name but that you knew how to contact her. She didn't. That makes me think she is someone worth knowing..."

"...and someone worthy of being a friend?"

"That too. In the circumstances, most Tripletit women would have taken advantage of your innocence. She didn't. She behaved beautifully. So did you."

We had arrived at the hotel's foyer. As we opened the door the Hotel Manageress rushed towards us and pushed us back into the corridor.

"You can't go out the front!" She exclaimed. "There is a large crowd out there waiting for you, too many for the Police to control. I'll show you the way to the staff entrance at the back."

We followed her back down the corridor, through several sets of doors, one marked 'Staff Only' which she had to use a key-code on, and were obviously in the service areas.

"Straight on, through the next two sets of doors, and the staff entrance will be ahead of you," the manageress said. "I've got to get back. The staff is worried that your fans will rush the building."

As she turned to leave I grabbed her hand and kissed it.

"Thank you," I said.

"That's OK, Ricky," she replied. "You and your wife are welcome here any time."

She rushed off with her heels clacking furiously.

As we went through the second set of doors we could hear a distant hubbub, like an Earth demonstration, but at a distance. Just inside the staff entrance were a number of Tripletit women looking slightly anxious. I recognised one, the chambermaid I'd met before. She looked tired and strained.

"That's her," I said to Shona.

"Then go and say hello," she said, gently nudging me.

The chambermaid was so intent on looking out into the street that she didn't notice me until I took her hand.

"Hello again," I said, kissing her hand. "You didn't tell me your name last time."

"I didn't? No. I didn't think you'd want to know," she replied.

"Not want to know the name of my friend?" I asked. "Of course I want to know."

She looked at Shona who was smiling at us. Shona nodded.

"Ricky, my name is Janet."

"Thank you, Janet, my friend," I replied.

Janet swept me up in her arms and held me against her, hugging me tightly but gently. Her face brightened with happiness. She waved a hand at the other staff who were still looking out.

"They didn't believe me," Janet said.

"They will now," Shona said, coming to stand beside us. "But why are they all looking outside? What's happening out there?"

"More of Ricky's fans, and the media. They've got the whole hotel surrounded. Everyone who goes out is mobbed and questioned about whether they've seen Ricky. Those who have, have been interviewed in front of cameras. We were hoping they'd go away once it was past midnight, but they didn't."

"How are we going to get home?" Shona asked.

Janet looked at her.

"Dressed like that, Shona, you're too recognisable. You wouldn't get more than a couple of yards. You're nearly as famous as Ricky. You couldn't hold Ricky, even concealed. It would be too dangerous. We might be able to smuggle Ricky out with the staff if there was a diversion, but..."

"Ursula?" I suggested to Shona.

"Ursula?" Janet queried. "You mean the singer?"

"Yes, Janet," Shona replied. "Ursula and her group are Ricky's friends too. We're a select bunch, Ricky's friends, and that includes you."

"Me? And Ursula?" Janet was incredulous.

"If you are Ricky's friend, and Ursula is Ricky's friend, then you are linked to her too." Shona answered.

"But I'm only a..." Janet started to say.

"My friend," I emphasised. Janet's arms squeezed me again.

"Thank you, Ricky. If we could get Ursula to leave from the front while we leave at the back, we should be able to get through."

"Even better," Shona said, "would be for Ursula to leave from the back with us. Those outside would ignore anyone except Ursula and the group."

"But how?" Janet asked.

"I could write a note to Ursula, asking for her help" I said. "She'd recognise my signature from the autographs."

"Do it!" Janet ordered, producing a note pad from her apron pocket. "I'll get someone to take it to Ursula."

I wrote a short note, explaining the problem and asking for Ursula's help. Janet, still carrying me, walked across to one of the other chambermaids and tapped her on the shoulder. She turned round; saw me in Janet's arms and her face blanched with shock.

"Janet! It was true!" She said as if not believing her eyes.

"Yes, Ruth. This is my friend Ricky." Janet emphasised 'friend'.

"I'm pleased to meet you, Ruth," I said. Ruth bobbed a curtsey as if I were royalty. Janet passed me for Ruth to hold as she explained about getting the note to Ursula.

"But will Ursula accept it from me, a chambermaid?" Ruth queried.

"Just tell any of the group that the message is from Ricky," I suggested.

"HOW long have you been on Tripletit, Ricky?" Ruth asked. "Less than a day? And you can send messages to Ursula? That's fast work, even for the smallest Earthman I've ever seen."

"Ursula's my friend," I said. "So is Janet."

"I don't know Ursula," Ruth said, "but I do know Janet. Anyone Janet chooses as a friend must be worth knowing."

Janet blushed.

"Ruth! We may be friends but don't make me out to be more than I am."

Shona put her arm around Janet's waist.

"Janet. I know that when Ricky first met you, he didn't really understand friendship on Tripletit. He does now, and wanted to find you. I appreciate the way you treated my husband then. That was the act of a true friend. He knows that and wanted to find you again to show that you are his friend. Now take him from your friend Ruth so that she can deliver that message. It's time to show your colleagues your new friend."

"I'd like to meet them," I added as Janet collected me from Ruth's arms.

Janet walked over to the group of women clustered around the back door. She raised her voice.

"Colleagues! I'd like you to meet my new friend!" She announced.

The first woman who turned, squealed.

"Ricky!"

Janet and I were surrounded by a crowd of excited women. I was passed around them, hugged, and kissed on the face. Shona waved at me as she disappeared through a door.

"Back soon," she mouthed at me.

"Sorry I didn't believe you, Janet," one of the chambermaids said sheepishly, "but it seemed so unlikely."

They were even more excited when Ruth brought Ursula and her group, then startled as all five greeted me as their friend. Janet handed me proudly to Ursula.

"We are staying here overnight, Ricky," Ursula said, "but our tour bus is in the car park. What we'll do is walk across there, wait about quarter of an hour in the bus while we have a coffee, and then walk back. That should provide enough diversion for you and Shona to get away."

"Thank you, Ursula."

"I've found a spare chambermaid's uniform to disguise Shona," Janet said as Shona walked back in wearing an apron and headscarf. "It wouldn't work in daylight, nor for long, but long enough while everyone's watching Ursula. But, just in case her disguise doesn't work, I'm smuggling you out - under my skirt. OK?"

"Yes, friend Janet," I replied.

"Are we ready?" Ursula asked.

"Yes!" came the chorused answer.

"Under you go, Ricky," Janet ordered. I ducked under her dark blue uniform skirt. There wasn't much room inside and I had to crouch to keep my head below her waistband.