Her nickname is "Tanj", and she's certainly living up to it. For her, it seems, “There Ain’t No Justice.” As a young engineer on a tramp space freighter, this Cheetah-morph found herself the victim of a scam, sold into slavery, and trained as a sex-slave. Sold to pirates, she finds herself as a pawn in a much larger struggle. This story contains bondage, non-consensual sex, and hopefully some humor, adventure and intrigue. Adults only, PLEASE!

This is a work-in-progress, and more will be added to it Later; please stay tuned and have patience!

Tanj's Tales: Aspiring Author

Stardate 2404.01 By Kittiara

Prelude 1:

Hunger. It had known only hunger. Ever since its birth, it had been ravenous. The emanations that it lived on, that nourished it, that it craved, were occasionally felt, but frequently only at a distance. It had traveled the narrow corridors that were the only world it had ever known, constantly on the hunt, always seeking to assuage its terrible hunger….

---

Helen sighed. Everyone else in her maintenance section, the “ground crew” for the Raider “Pete’s Paw”, had been invited to Ramos’ birthday party. Everyone but her. Oh, she probably could have gone, if she’d chosen to. No one would have been so crass as to turn her away at the door, but she knew she’d be ignored the whole time. And what fun was that? It wasn’t that she wasn’t good looking, although she wasn’t. A mix of short and long hair felis domesticus, her fur was kinda patchy. It gave her a mottled look. And despite all her exercise, she had a big butt. That might not be so bad if she wasn’t flat-chested. And her fangs were crooked. All of that could be fixed, of course, given enough money, but she seemed to be perpetually broke. Her biggest problem was her personality. She just didn’t have any. She felt as if she were “psychically invisible.” She was there, but no one ever seemed to see her; no one ever seemed to notice her.

Unless of course they were looking for someone to pick on.

She sighed, and crawled into the ductwork. Here, down in the bowels of the station, the duct was big enough to stand up in, and just downstream of the electrostatic precipitators, it was pretty clean. And she was alone. No one to torment her. No one to tease her. No one to ignore her. Just her, and the rushing wind. It was a good place to be alone; a good place to get away from it all….

Food. It sensed food. Warmth. Motion. Thoughts. It slithered through the duct, moving as fast as it could, trying to close with the prey before it escaped….

Helen felt something touch her foot; she’d found a reasonably clean spot, reasonably dark, and settled down to just BE for a while; to just exist without anyone tormenting her. To try not to think. Oh, she would have preferred some dark woodland, some forest or canyon, but she’d only read about places like that. The steel duct, the sounds of machinery, that was what she knew. What she was used to. But she wasn’t used to things touching her in here. Pulling a pencil light from a pocket on her coveralls, she clicked it on, and directed it at her feet.

It looked like a small puddle of tar, about the size of her paw; but it was moving. Moving feebly, but moving. It seemed to be trying to force its way between her ankle and the cuff of her jumpsuit pants leg. For some reason, she wasn’t afraid, just curious; “Hey, little… ah… fellow, what are you trying to do?” She reached for it, just as it managed to slither its way into her clothing. Giggling she jumped to her feet, to dance an impromptu jig, her feet making hollow booming noises on the ductwork floor. It wouldn’t come loose; in fact, it seemed to be moving higher, up her leg. Laughing, as it tickled, she yanked the zipper to her jumpsuit down, and shrugged out of it, trying to extract the creature, whatever it was. “Figures; they haven’t cleaned the ducts in so long, things are growing in here…” she laughed to herself.

Pulling the jumpsuit inside out, yanking it off of her left foot, she moved her paws, trying to find the creature. No, it didn’t seem to be hidden in the fabric…. Running a paw down her stomach, she felt along the inside of her left thigh; no it wasn’t there. It was then that something grazed across her crotch.

With a yelp, she shoved both paws towards her crotch, just as the THING pushed its way under the edge of her panties. Half howling with laughter, half howling with terror, she resumed her jig as she tried to extract the thing!

It was twined in her pubic furr, a place where, as fate would have it, it grew long. It had turned to something like tar, and seemed to have flowed between the individual hairs; it was NOT coming off, no matter how hard she tugged. Panting, she wondered if she should go for help… but then she thought of what some of her work mates would say, the jibes, the jokes, the off-color remarks… No, she’d rather die in here, eaten by some horrible alien monster, than suffer through that….

Except she didn’t seem to be suffering…. In fact, the creature’s motions felt rather good. She wasn’t a stranger to sex; not exactly. It was just that her experiences, at least with others, hadn’t been all that good. She’d lost her virginity to Bo, probably because she was rather naive, and they’d both been rather drunk at the time. Of course his comments, later, to his friends, and within her hearing, was that he’d never gone to bed with an ugly female… although he’d woken up with a few. She could still remember their laughter, and pointed looks. Every other attempt had pretty much met with the same fate, and as a result, for years, the only sexual experiences she’d had, had been solo. And even then they were hidden, stolen things, done where no one, she hoped, would observe.

But this… this felt… simply marvelous! Sinking back to a crouched position, her back against the vibrating metal wall, wind tousling her hair, she placed her paws over the now rather sodden crotch of her panties, holding them there, as if in fear the creature might escape!

She gave up trying to keep quiet after the third climax. Of course, given the fact that the fan was only a hundred feet away or so, there was little likelyhood of anyone hearing her….

Panting, she forced her eyes open. She was laying flat on her back, in the middle of the duct, her legs obscenely spread, her panties vanished, probably ingested by the fan, by now. The creature, the delightful little creature was gone. Sitting up, she stared around, in the gloom. If it was there, she couldn’t see it. For a while she felt around; the thing was simply too nice to let go. She’d never had a pet, and certainly never a pet that could do things like THAT to her, but wherever it had gotten to, she couldn’t find it. Reluctantly she found her coveralls, and pulled them back on. Her chrono told her that she’d have to report for work soon, and she desperately needed a shower….

Then she got a sly look on her face. Maybe she wouldn’t shower. Maybe she’d go to work reeking of sex. What would they think? Would they ask her? Maybe she’d just smile slyly and refuse to answer. Yeah…….

The Opposition 1

The Mouse looked at his superior and tried not to cower; “But sir, you have to understand, I am NOT a trained field agent! I’m a SCIENTIST! AND, I was specifically instructed NOT to be present, in case things went wrong. I was NOT to be captured, and the company felt I was too valuable to be allowed to commit suicide, hence my absence!”

The Gnu nodded; “exactly, my dear fellow, why you are being given a chance to redeem yourself, instead of being sent to, ah, “product testing” as your former superior, and a number of other members of management have been.” He leaned closer; “all you have to do, is to kill her, and make it look as if it was yet another operation by that bungler, the Crown Prince.” The Gnu sat back and folded his hands over his considerable stomach; “We figure that the Emperor will solve a number of problems for us, in a fit of rage. He’ll eliminate his only real heir, and with no heir, the entire Empire will be destabilized, presenting us with some marvelous opportunities.” Leaning closer again, the Gnu smiled wickedly; “and all you have to do is kill one person. How, we leave up to you. Now, you have your assignment. Consult the intelligence de… ah, the market research folks, formulate a plan, draw your equipment and be off about it!”

---

The Mouse tried not to tremble as he left the office. Sure, all he had to do was to assassinate a pirate queen, one of the most powerful furrs in the sector, and frame the Crown Prince, possibly an even more powerful figure. He might as well try and assassinate the board of directors! With a sigh, he turned his steps towards the “market research” department. Maybe those spooks would have a good idea…

---

“Oh, yes, yes, I LIKE that. Especially the fact that it was stolen from Imperial Intelligence.” The Mouse beamed at the Wombat in the lab coat; “I can see how that would make my job ever so much easier! But…. what do I have to do to be immune from it? Will I have to wear a respirator? An environmental suit? What about decontamination?”

The Wombat smiled and looked at the colorless liquid in the vial; “Well, actually there’s a simple prophylaxis that we can give you. There’s a neurostimulator that you can take, orally, about six hours before you use the weapon. It will make you immune to its effects. As for the weapon itself, it decomposes into harmless, and difficult to trace subcomponents, after about four hours.”

The Mouse nodded; “Four hours to do what I have to do and then get away. Shouldn’t be a problem.”

The Wombat smiled; “No; shouldn’t be any problem at all…..”

The Opposition 2

The Crown Prince glared at his Chancellor; “But I think it’s a marvelous plan. It allows us to get rid of that annoying pretender, gain revenge on those Gates’ World turncoats, AND improve our position, all at the same time! The HARD part’s already been done! Yes, I know that Fox Bitch didn’t want to give up her new toy, but in the end, I managed to, ah, “persuade” her.” He leaned closer, growling; “My agent will infiltrate the Black Fleet. My agent WILL assemble the matter/Antimatter reaction “brake”, and will see to it that the entire station is blown from existence, using a technology that will point STRAIGHT towards Gates’ World! And then my dear Father will appoint ME head of the task force that will gain his revenge upon the perpetrators!” Sitting back, he gloated; “Just THINK of all the technological marvels we’ll add to our arsenal when we take Gates’ world… After that, assuming the throne should be a pushover!” NOW, have you prepared a list of potential agents for me to review?”

---

The Bunny stared at the Jaguar evenly, obviously not impressed with who he was. And that angered him. Still, her resume was impeccable. And the file from Imperial Intelligence… the file was almost beyond belief. He looked back up at her, and frowned. Large bust, narrow waist, well rounded hips, and a face that could be pretty, if it wasn’t for the one scar from her right eyebrow, across her eye, across her muzzle, to the left corner of her mouth, which seemed to be pulled up in a permanent sneer. As he looked at her, he realized she had other scars as well. On her paws, left forearm, there, on her bare midriff, and another on her right thigh. She wore shorts with many pockets, now all empty, thanks to his security detachment, and a vest that barely concealed her charms. It might have been a “jungle adventurer” look, if you didn’t know her background. As it was, it seemed merely utility dress for a particularly dangerous mercenary.

“I see you’ve been to Gates’ World.” The Bunny nodded, ears flopping a little. The Crown Prince put the folder down on his desk and regarded the creature. “I take it the enhancements worked, then?” Again she nodded, a simple bobbing of her head, the minimum motion necessary to convey her answer. The Jaguar leaned closer, elbows on his desk, chin on his paws; “But it didn’t quite work right, did it? Her permanent sneer deepened a little, and she shook her head, a minimalist “no”. The Crown Prince growled; “Tell me about it”, getting tired of her silence.

She shrugged; “There was an interaction between the drugs used to enhance my reaction time, and the drugs used to prevent chemical interrogation. As a result, I can’t tolerate anesthesia, and my immune system rejects just about everything foreign.”

The Crown Prince nodded; “So…. You can’t get any cosmetic surgery.”

The Bunny nodded; “worse. If I get injured, on the job, or off, there’s almost no way for a doctor to do anything. I either heal, or I die.”

The Crown Prince nodded; “Kind of the end of your career, isn’t it?”

She nodded; “Look, cut the crap, your highness. I’m here because you’re offering a helluva lot of money for a minimal risk job.” She leaned closer; “I want to retire. I HAVE to retire. But I’d rather do it in style.”

The Jaguar nodded; “and the fact that you get to frame the Gates’ World techies for it is just frosting on the cake?”

She shook her head; “The portion of the cartel you’re trying to frame had nothing to do with the section that screwed me up. I don’t believe in punishing the innocent.” After a moment she continued; “This is just business. Besides, emotion always gets in the way. Lets keep it simple.”

The Jaguar nodded; “Thankyouforyourtime, we’llbeintouch.”

---

The Bunny smiled, and looked at her briefing papers. She’d known he’d pick her. Oh, he didn’t want to. It was obvious he didn’t like her, probably because she wouldn’t fawn all over him. But she was the best qualified, and in the end his desire for getting the job done right overrode his other emotions. Opening the folder she started reading. After a while, she shook her head. She’d seen some screwed up operational orders in her time, but this one took the cake. Throwing the folder on her bunk she stood and stretched. There was one good thing, about the whole thing, though. If their fancy gizmo could indeed cause the station’s matter/antimatter reactors to blow, there wouldn’t be anyone left who could tell that pompous ass that she hadn’t followed his ridiculous plan….

Prelude 2

It took her a week to get up the nerve to go back there. Afterwards, after the glow had faded, she’d gotten to wondering about it. What WAS that thing? Could it be poisoning her? Was it a parasite? She’d pretty much resolved to find another place of solitude, when it all seemed to come down on her. A fitting broke, as she was working on it, and that got the crew down on her. For being clumsy. For being stupid. And from that, for being anything less than their ideal of perfect. Not that any of THEM were perfect, noooooooo. When her shift ended, she decided that she needed a friend, and there was only one entity on the station that seemed to meet even her generous criteria. Something that gave, without seeming to take; something that could accept her for what she was. After wandering the corridors for a while, apparently invisible to all around her, she slipped back towards that one access port.

She’d been there for about an hour, and was about to give up, when she felt the touch. Again, it started at her ankle… This time, she didn’t turn on the light, didn’t jump up. She remained as she’d been, leaning against the wall, legs spread invitingly. Her jumpsuit was folded neatly, next to her, and she was bare from the waist down. Except this time, she’d brought a small plastic box, with a snap lid. Why shouldn’t she have a pet? There wasn’t really a point in coming back here each time, was there?

The creature seemed larger this time. More than a pawful. As it did the most delightful things to her, a portion of it actually slipped inside her. She could feel it, stretching her, slightly. It seemed to throb in time with her heartbeat, in time with the delightful rippling motions it was making over her clitty. It felt good. It seemed as if it was no time before she was howling, as it took her to her first climax of the evening.

But it wasn’t done, there. It continued, its pattern occasionally varying. It was almost as if it was learning what she liked and what she didn’t like. And sometime around her third climax, she must have fainted.

Again, she awoke, flat on her back, in the duct, her chest heaving, her heart pounding. She expected the creature to be gone, but a quick survey of her feelings demonstrated that it was still busily at work between her legs. As it took her towards yet another shattering climax, she wondered how she’d ever find the strength to get it into the box.

As it turned out, she couldn’t. After her fifth climax, the creature was obviously exhausted, and yet as she tried to pry it from her dripping sex, it flowed through her fingers like water, and vanished in the dark. “OK, if that’s the way you want it, I guess I’ll just have to meet you here.” She smiled, and mentally reviewed her work schedule as she felt around for where she’d left her jumpsuit.

Prelude 3

Her problems were increasing. She’d thought things would get better, and in some respects they HAD. Her work mates had remarked on the change in her, asked her who her beau was, asked her, teased her about what was going on in her life. She’d told them in no uncertain terms to mind their own business, and when Luke had pressed, she’d actually hit him. Admittedly it was with a static discharge wand, and couldn’t possibly have hurt, but the very act seemed to have surprised them. The teasing had fallen off, at least to bearable levels. But they’d taken to following her, obviously curious, obviously determined to find out what was going on. She was having to get very inventive to slip away from them.

And the creature was growing. It’d long since passed the point where it could simulate a rather decent sized cock fucking her. It had passed the point where it could simulate a cock in either orifice. THAT had startled her, the first time it had done that to her; she hadn’t been raised to think of anal sex as anything but filthy and perverted, but… Well, the creature had decided to explore her back passage and there hadn’t been a thing she’d been able to do about it. But, in time, she’d come to rather enjoy the sensation. Of course, it was much more gentle with her back there….

But recently it had changed. It had spit in two. And both of THEM were growing. While one plastered itself against her crotch, the other fondled her breasts, and occasionally extruded a phallic shape into her mouth. She’d found it really rather tasteless…. Er, rather, ah, “without taste”. Oh, her upbringing hadn’t thought any more of fellatio than it had of anal sex, but there was something almost soothing in sucking on a cock in her mouth as the creatures moved in pussy and ass. As she staggered up from her latest session with “the twins”, she realized they were each now almost of the size the original creature had been before it had split. And her sessions were winding up being so long, she was having to take days off to indulge herself, and her pets. She’d even taken to stocking the duct with drinking water, and snack bars. If those things split in two again, she might never get out of there. That thought made her chuckle; did she really WANT to “get out of there”? Maybe not….

Kittiara’s Writing 1

Kittiara examined the rust on the bars of her cell. In the controlled environment of a space station, the corrosion could only be one of two things. One was that it was an affectation; that it was “decorating” to make the facility look more intimidating than it was. If that’s what they were after, they were doing a good job. On the other hand, it could be Jinx. Somehow the Kurani thought the Skunkette wasn’t happy in her cell, and that displeasure was manifesting itself in corrosion. For a moment the Kurani had a vision of the station disintegrating around them, as Jinx became more and more frustrated. It was time to do something. Definitely time.

The guard on duty was a Ram. He was of medium age, and an athletic build, but walked with a slight limp, and seemed to be missing an eye. Probably a pirate injured in some raid, and forced to take a different job, due to “disabilities”. He wasn’t disabled for THIS job though, as the bulge in his skimpy loincloth revealed. Kittiara watched him pace by, as he prowled the kennels, keeping an eye on his charges. Leaning against the bars she smiled at him as he strode past; “Now I just bet Master has all sorts of interesting stories to tell, from your experiences here….”

The Ram paused, and for a moment looked as if he were about to rebuke her for speaking, but then he slowly nodded; “Kitten, you wouldn’t believe what I’ve seen…”

The Kurani smiled, careful not to show her teeth; “Oh, I’d simply LOVE to hear your tales…”

The Ram grinned; “And in what coin might you pay, for the telling?” He knew perfectly well, he could have her, or any of the others, or ALL of them together, at his whim, but she still smiled, and by way of an answer sensually licked her lips, her muzzle just slightly between the bars…..

The Ram panted, eyes closed; he’d come so close then, so close to cumming. Trying to collect his wits, he felt the Kurani’s tongue stroke the underside of his shaft encouragingly, and he coughed to clear his throat; “Yeah, that Chinchilla, she was something. Long, silky hair; there was a Coyote bitch that used to come down here, to check her out, just to brush her hair. They’d sit right over there, the Chinchilla on her knees, the Coyote on a folding chair behind her, and she’d just run the brush through her hair over and over and over. Finally, just before it was time for her to “return” her, she’d have the Chinchilla eat her out, and all the while she’d be running her paws through that long, silky hair.” The Kurani’s tongue flicked over the head of his cock, eliciting a gasp. He knew she wanted him to think of another story; heck, he’d told her dozens. Of course, she’d rewarded him with at least a quartet of orgasms, some of them truly mind-blowing. Panting, he reached through the bars to take hold of her ears; “Enough. I have GOT to get back to work. Finish me.” He could almost read her thoughts in the cast of her face, in the tension of her muscles, in the feel of her tongue on his shaft; “All RIGHT, finish me now, and I’ll come back later and tell you some more.” And then her head was moving again, his shaft sliding in and out of the O formed by her lips, moving over her rough feline tongue. It didn’t take but a second for him to regain that position, trembling on the very edge of his release, and then she was shoving him over the edge, and throwing back his head, he howled.

Tanj paused just inside the door, as the Kurani sucked off the guard. From the look on his face, he was either in extreme pain, or extreme ecstasy, possibly a bit of both. Staggering, he pulled back from the cell, leaning against it, his paws on the bars, his body held so that no matter how she tried, the Kurani could not reclaim his cock. For a long moment he stood there, head hanging, chest heaving, and then he gathered himself and thrust himself upright. Without even looking at Tanj he turned, awkwardly, and staggered off, only occasionally looking into one of the cells….

Tanj padded up and looked at the Kurani as she licked her lips; “What did you DO to him?” From down the row of cells, she could hear Jinx’s throaty laugh.

Kittiara smiled and shrugged; “I got him to tell me some of the stories he’s gathered, while working here.”

Tanj frowned slightly and nodded; “Uh-huh. Stories.” Blinking she shook her head; “Well, that’s why I’m here. You, Missy, have work to do.”

---

“I don’t understand why she had to come.”

Kittiara turned and looked back at the Skunkette, trailing them by a few feet; “Oh, she’d been in the kennel long enough, I think. For, ah, “health” reasons, it was time to give her a change of scenery.”

Tanj frowned; “what’s wrong with her health?”

The Kurani laughed; “no, Dear, it wasn’t HER health I was thinking of…..”

Kittiara’s Writing 2

Ralph looked up as the trio came through the door. He saw Tanj look around, and knew instantly he never should have raised his head; as their eyes met, the Cheetah smiled; it was a cold smile, and the Tiger idly wondered if he’d survive whatever it was she had in mind. “Ralph, I’ve got a small job for you.”

The Tiger swallowed hard and nodded; “Yes, Mistress?”

The Cheetah stepped closer, holding out the leash attached to the Skunkette’s collar. “I want you to take Jinx here, and…” the Tiger all but winced, waiting… “Show her a good time.”

The Tiger’s eyes snapped open; he hadn’t even realized he’d closed them; “IbegYourPardon?”

Tanj shrugged; “you’ve read the report on our most recent action?”

The Tiger nodded.

Tanj smiled; “Well, strange things seem to happen around this lady. When she’s happy, we think good things happen. When bad things happen, it can get grim. Jenka wants these two kept in the kennels, and later they’ll have to go back; but in the meantime I want you to…. Undo whatever the negative vibes from the kennels may have done.” Tanj smiled, and tugging on Kittiara’s leash, led her towards one of the conference rooms.

Ralph looked at the leash as if he were holding a Tyrenian Death Adder. He had indeed read the report. Slowly his gaze traveled along its length to the Skunkette.

Jinx took in the look on the Tiger’s face, and burst out laughing; “Oh, REALLY! Its not THAT bad. Come on!” Turning, the Skunkette marched out of the Intelligence offices, dragging the Tiger behind her.

Tanj handed the Kurani a cup of coffee, and sat down across the small table from her. “Okay, before I turn you loose on that novel, I want you to tell me everything you can, about Jenka, the Crown Prince, and how it all fits together. Everything.”

The Kurani smiled; “you’re going to need a bigger pot of coffee. That one won’t last nearly long enough.”

Tanj waved a paw; “I’ll have Engineering run a pipe from the galley. However long it takes. If I’m going to help Jenka through this I have to know what I’m up against!”

The Kurani nodded and started to speak.

---

The resort was exclusive, incredibly expensive, and THE place to be. Sarani, daughter of the Count of Shambala grinned as she entered the lobby, followed by a small army of porters, carrying her luggage. Not only was she here, but she was here without her parents, nanny, bodyguard, or any other form of control. It was a graduation present from her parents, and a subtle message that they now considered her an adult. The freedom was heady.

Her suite was larger than she’d expected, and could not have been more luxurious. And the view of the lagoon was incredible. She felt that if she’d wanted, she could have dove off of her balcony, and landed in the crystal blue waters. Not bothering to put anything away, she shed her traveling clothes, pawed through several suitcases and trunks, and finally found the scandalously skimpy bathing suit she’d purchased just for the trip. Pulling it on, she grabbed a beach towel, and headed out for that picture-perfect beach.

It was exactly as she pictured it, and not at all what she’d expected. The warm, fragrant breeze ruffled her hair, the sand, and the water were exactly as she pictured it, and not a single fur on the beach was wearing a stitch. How could she show off her new bathing suit, if no one here wore them? And could she actually go out there, in public without it? Swallowing hard, she grabbed the string at the nape of her neck, and pulled; the bow came apart, the top half of her suit started to fall. It took a conscious effort not to catch it, but instead to pull the string at her back, and then the one at one hip. She stuffed the scraps of cloth under her beach towel, and with her back straight, strolled onto the beach as casually as she could.

He watched her moment of panic, watched her blush, and then in amazement, watched her strip off the silly bathing costume, and step through the gate and onto the beach. He watched the sway of her hips, the set of her shoulders, the way her muscles moved, under her fur, and knew he had to have her…..

She spread the beach towel on the sand, in a spot not too remote, not too close to any of the others. As she glanced around, she began to think maybe it had been a mistake to come here alone… and then he caught her eye. He was sitting on a rock, half way out on the headland, the sea crashing around his feet. He sat there, elbows on knees, just looking at her. Blushing, she stretched out on the towel, not quite facing him, not quite facing away. And the next time she glanced in that direction, he was gone.

She saw him again, that night, at dinner. He was casually attired, and at a table by himself. And for most of the meal, he never even glanced at her. Not until she was almost ready to leave; then she found his smoky eyes staring at her.

She’d had hundreds of suitors; the oldest daughter of a Count would, no matter what she looked like. She’d handled them all with aplomb, at least until this point. But now, there was something in his gaze that sent her scurrying to the powder room. By the time she’d gathered herself, and returned to her table, he was gone.

She saw him the next day, in the market in the village; again, he was watching her, a half-smile on his face. She saw him several times, at a distance, as she moved through the stalls, and shops, but when it came time to return to the resort, he was nowhere to be seen.

Both moons were full, their light reflected on the water, the sky filled with a trillion stars. She stood on the balcony, and tried to pick out the ones her father ruled. Lost in thought, she never sensed him come up behind her, until he spoke. Later, she couldn’t remember what he’d said, or how the conversation had started. She only remembered that he was soft-spoken, and that he made her laugh. They wound up walking on the beach, the surf washing across their feet. He was the perfect gentlefurr, seeing her to the door of her suite, kissing her paw, and then withdrawing. Perhaps too perfect. As she let herself in, and closed the door behind her, a part of her wished he’d followed her in, and ravished her.

The following days seemed to be from a fairy tale; he was there for her, to take her mountain climbing, in the interior of the island, showing her places that the tourists never found, treating her as if she were a Princess.

It was towards the end of her stay, when it happened. They’d been walking along the beach, when, in jest she’d dashed away from him, darting into the jungle at the water’s edge. For a while, they played hide and seek, and then, by a pool fed by a small waterfall, he caught her, exploding out of the foliage, knocking her to the sandy ground. For a moment he looked deep into her eyes, as he lay atop her, her wrists held tight in his paws. Then, lowering his head, he kissed her; kissed her hard, kissed her hungrily. They wound up spending the night there, right there, in the throes of passionate love. And at daybreak, they bathed in the pool, and laughing, made their way back to the resort.

She watched as one of the hotel employees approached; she felt him stiffen by her side, and wondered what could be wrong; but it wasn’t him that the message was for, but her. She had to return home immediately; there’d been an accident. The family aircar had crashed; her father was dead, and her mother gravely injured. With tears filling her eyes, she ran to her suite, to gather her things.

He helped her pack, helped her to the limo, saw her to the starport. And that was the last she saw of him, for many a year…..

Tanj blinked, and took a sip of her coffee; it was stone cold. Staring at it in wonder, she wondered just how long the Kurani had been talking…. Looking up she growled; “Jenka’s mother, I take it?”

The Kurani smiled; “Indeed. And you can imagine who her beau was.”

The Cheetah nodded; “so what happened?”

Kittiara’s Writing 3

She stared at the face on the video screen. He looked different, in the dress uniform. “Why didn’t you TELL me you were pregnant? Did you think I wouldn’t CARE?”

Serani kept her face calm, kept her composure; “To be frank, when I found out I was pregnant, I was in the middle of settling my parents’ estate. You of all people must know what its like to have duties like that suddenly thrust on you.” She saw him wince, and knew her retort had hit home. Of course his father hadn’t died in an accident; it had been an assassination, but both had been sudden, and unexpected. Or at least she THOUGHT he hadn’t been expecting it…. Some of the rumors she’d heard since… Some of the rumors she’d heard since were some of the reasons she’d never told him. “By the time I had my head above water, had my father’s domain running the way it should, well, you hadn’t called. Not so much as an e-mail. I figured it was just “ships passing in the night” and let it go at that.”

She could see the pain on his face; “I too had…. Things to attend to. And in fact, it has only recently come to my attention that there was “issue” from our, ah, time together.”

Serani nodded; “so?”

He looked as if he were about to explode; “Don’t you think I have an interest in my.. in OUR daughter? Don’t you think I want to meet her, to get to KNOW her? She’s my oldest child! Don’t you know what she could mean to the Empire?”

And that was the crux.

---

Schedules had been difficult to mesh. The Countess of Shambala literally had worlds to attend to, and the new Emperor, well, he had the whole Empire to attend to. Finally, however, they were able to force a period where they could both be in the same place at the same time…

Serani watched her daughter as the ship docked. Despite offers of transportation on a naval vessel, she’d specifically taken public transportation, a mixed freight and passenger vessel, of good repute, to give her daughter a slightly wider range of experience. But from the port they’d boarded the ship at, to the Imperial homeworld, they’d had an escort. Not every merchant ship traveled with a squadron of Destroyers. And on the last leg of the trip, a pair of Cruisers had joined them. Never too close, but always there. Although she never told her mother, Jenka was secretly upset. She’d seen so many holos of pirate tales, and thought it would be a marvelous adventure to encounter them in space…

Jenka watched through the big viewport in the passenger’s lounge. The space station was HUGE; much larger than anything she’d ever seen before. There seemed to be ships everywhere. So many furrs rushing in so many directions. She was going to have all SORTS of stories to tell her classmates when she got back…

Serani nodded cordially to the robed official that met them as they debarked. Curiously, he seemed to be alone; somehow, she’d expected a larger reception. Still, he was most efficient at arranging for their baggage to be forwarded, and with a smile, led them to a waiting transport.

Jenka looked around the interior of the arrowhead-shaped craft. It was obviously meant to carry furrs, with carpeting and wood trim, and even cup holders, and yet, there was something about it that suggested it was more than it appeared. Tugging on her mother’s sleeve she purrred; “Mommy, can I go watch the Pilots?”

The Pilot was a young Serval, and yet he moved with an assurance that seemed well beyond his years. Smiling at the young Jaguar, he folded down a jumpseat for her between and a little behind the pilot/copilot seats. She watched as they undocked from the space station, and then oooooohed as the stars wheeled, the station vanished, and the little craft dropped like a rock.

Serani watched the navigational display from where she sat. It was obvious that all traffic in the area had been held, for their departure. There may not have been a grand reception at the spaceport, but they weren’t quite coming in by the back door either…..

The small craft screamed through the atmosphere, the turbulence of its passage buffeting the passengers. Jenka watched wide-eyed, as the pilots brought the craft down, MUCH faster than any ship she’d ever been on before. She decided right then and there, that she liked this, and wanted, some day, to be able to fly like that.

Serani watched the Nav display. They obviously weren’t headed for the capital city. “More likely the Summer Palace” she thought to herself as the craft streaked across the terminator, and into darkness.

The landing pad was well lit, but as the craft descended, Serani looked out at the bulk of the summer palace. Most of the windows were dark. It was obvious that the place wasn’t fully staffed. Perhaps he wished a quiet, private time, to meet his daughter. And maybe, just maybe, he was trying to keep her out of the public eye, trying to keep from acknowledging her to the entire empire? And maybe, just maybe, she was reading more into this than she should……

He was there, when the door opened, and the ramp extended. He looked a little older, and somehow, a little more… severe. Well, her experiences had changed her some too; she wasn’t the carefree young thing she’d been, back on the beach. Forcing a smile, she took her daughter’s paw in hers and descended the ramp.

Jenka watched the furr smile, and give her mother a quick hug. Somehow it seemed more formal than the hugs she was used to getting from her mother, and she could tell by the way she held her tail that she was tense…..

“And this must be Jenka…” The big male was crouching, to look her in the face; she stared back, undaunted, and curious.

Her mother stroked her hair; “Yes, this is our daughter.

The big male smiled; “Pleased to meet you.” Rising, he looked at her mother; “Lets go inside; we have a lot to talk about.”

The ice cream was very good; her favorite flavor. How had they known? She sat in the kitchen, under the watchful and attentive eyes of the cook, and her helpers, and slowly savored the treat. She could hear her mother and that other furr…. The one that was supposed to be her father, talking. It sounded as if they were having an argument. While the voices were low, and reasonable, there was that edge of hullmetal in her mother’s tone that said that she’d made up her mind and would NOT have it any other way. Jenka smiled and took another spoonful of the ice cream and felt a little sorry for her “Father”. When mother got like that….

The Emperor growled and paced the Veranda. “Dammit, Charles, Why won’t she listen to reason?”

The Elephant shrugged; “Probably because you’re pressing so hard. You should have met her with roses and not talked of this for three days. You should have wooed her. You should have shown her the romantic figure she remembered you to be.”

The Jaguar waved a paw, Yes, yes, YES. But I’m due in Eranta this time tomorrow. YOU know I can’t miss that! There isn’t TIME.”

The Elephant nodded; “Yes, I know. You could have played with the child, and read her a bed time story, and had breakfast with them and never mentioned any of this. Saved it for next time; perhaps then there would have BEEN a next time.”

The Jaguar waved both paws in a massive shrug; “She deserves to know the score. Hell, she could probably tell ME what my duties in that area are!”

The Elephant nodded; “Yes, she’d be the first to agree that Shambala is neither close enough, nor powerful enough to make for a good political marriage. And that’s the very reason you should ignore all conventional wisdom and pursue her. SHE has a very level head on her shoulders. The way she’s managed her Father’s holdings in the wake of his demise demonstrates that.”

The Jaguar groaned; “Yes. Yes, she has. But the Imperial court would never accept such a marriage.” He turned to look at the Elephant; “Dammit, Charles, you KNOW I’m not as free to act as everyone thinks! There are things REQUIRED of me. And a politically correct, well-connected heir is one of the things that I’m expected to provide. The Sultana of Gorza, or the Dutchess of Yyala, the Princess of Dal-Hedgeworth, any of those would provide ties to political, financial, and industrial strengths that would reinforce the position, authority, and power of the Emperor.

The Elephant shrugged; “And yet, we both know that competence is the prime factor in the ratification of a new emperor. At least on paper.” After a moment, he continued; “The Sultana has an idiot for a brother; there is weakness in her genes. The Dutchess has numerous rumors of improprieties trailing in her wake. Her moral character may leave much to be desired. And the Princess….” The Elephant shuddered; “well, lets just say that someone beat her with the ugly stick, and beat her badly.”

The Emperor sighed and nodded. For a long time he just stared off into the Jungle.

Jenka sipped her orange juice and watched carefully. The furr… her FATHER was talking with her mother. He had his head down, and was holding both her paws in his, and seemed to be apologizing. She grinned to herself; she’d been right; he must have lost the argument last night with her mother! After a while he released her paws, kissed her on the forehead, and with several other furrs, headed for the landing pad. After a ship had ascended, her Mother came and returned to the table on the veranda. She was quiet for a long time.

Kittiara’s Writing 4

Tanj rose and went to refill her coffee pot, only to find the pot had run dry, with a layer of black gunk on the bottom, with the pot almost too hot to touch. She quickly turned off the warmer. How long had she been listening? Looking back at the Kurani, she stifled a yawn. “So where did it go from there? No, don’t start again; just give me the summary. What time is it anyways?”

Kittiara shrugged and smiled; “I’m afraid I don’t wear a watch”. Of course, aside from her collar she wasn’t wearing anything. “As for Jenka and her mother, well….. Two years later, the Emperor married the Baroness de Marchionne. A year after that, Jenka’s mother married. Most will tell you that she married below her station, taking a commoner for her consort.” The Kurani smiled; “Others will tell you she married a good furr, who looked after her interests, and her, with devotion. And Serani had several other offspring, by him, before he died. For a while, things went on, quietly, with both the Countess and the Emperor absorbed in the various facets of their lives. But then the Emperor’s wife died, some might say mysteriously, and then the Countess’ husband died, again, some might say, mysteriously. It would seem the Emperor’s attentions had turned back to Serani….

---

Jenka watched the shuttle land. Her Father. Again. After years of absence, he’d suddenly started making visits again. Her mother was in the big house, pointedly not there to meet the Emperor. And yet, no matter what her mother said, she couldn’t leave the task to servants, so she’d come. As he exited the shuttle, his face broke into a big smile; “Ah, there’s my little girl!” Jenka sniffed; she wasn’t that little. In fact, she had just recently turned sixteen. As she hugged her Father hello, she caught a glimpse of someone else exiting the shuttle…..

He felt her stiffen as he held her, and knew. Releasing her, he turned and waved; “Ruprecht, come over here and meet your half-sister.”

Jenka stared at the heir-apparent, and wondered what in the world had possessed him to bring HIM here? Did he think that his true son’s presence would make things go easier with her mother? Perhaps he was trying to demonstrate that, by having an heir, there was no pressure, on Jenka or her Mother. Forcing herself to be calm, and polite, she greeted the boy. He looked to be about thirteen, and rather scraggly looking. His eyes kept darting around, and his pawshake was almost painfully limp. After a moment’s silence, Jenka turned back to her Father; “I’ll show you to the guest quarters now, if you like.” She pointedly didn’t say “your” quarters…..

Ruprecht stared at the female’s ass as she walked in front of them. Pity she was related so closely; he wouldn’t have minded getting into those tight pants. And who did she think she was, meeting the Emperor in clothes like that; why, it looked as if she’d just come from the stables! Looking around, he wondered what there was to do in a benighted place like this….

Dinner that night was a somber affair. Somber, if you discounted Ruprecht using a spoon as a catapult to sling poi at one of the servers. His father’s rebuke scarcely slowed him at all; in fact he didn’t seem as if he was going to stop at all until Jenka stretched a leg under the table, and running out her claws, lightly rested her foot on his crotch. THAT got his attention, and earned her a withering glare. At the head of the table, Serina just smiled, something NOT lost on the Emperor.

Things went downhill from there.

After dinner, Jenka stayed to help the staff clear the table. The Emperor, and her mother had retired to the veranda, and she could hear them talking, quietly. Ruprecht had gone off with his “tutor”, as apparently he had some homework that was overdue. Jenka thought the tutor was more his “keeper” and at some subtle signal from the Emperor, had dragged the cub off to keep him from getting into any more trouble.

“I’m sorry to hear of your recent loss. From everything I’ve heard, he was a good furr.”

Serina nodded a bit stiffly; “And I’m sorry to hear about the de.. about your Empress.” She turned to look searchingly into his eyes; “It was a most sudden, and unexpected event….”

He chuckled; “Don’t believe everything you read in the tabloids. I really didn’t have anything to do with it.” He took a sip of his brandy and looked out over the forest below; “Yes, we had our differences, but we were working on those. It was nothing to commit murder over.”

Serina watched him; the set of his ears, the way his tail moved, and decided that it was at least possible that he was telling the truth. That or he was a very accomplished liar. That too was possible. She took a sip of her drink, carefully prepared by her staff; it only looked alcoholic. “It was a remarkable coincidence that my husband should pass away so very close on the heels of the Empress.”

He turned and raised an eyebrow; “I know what you’re thinking, but no, I had nothing to do with that either.” He spread his paws wide, almost spilling his drink in the process; “I can’t prove it, of course. Lord knows, someone with my resources could easily have accomplished both…. Events, but I didn’t.” he looked back across the tops of the trees and sighed; “how can you prove a negative?”

After a while, he turned back to her; “Have you considered my… request, to let Jenka study at the Imperial University? You know she couldn’t get a better education anywhere….”

Serina smiled; “Actually, she’s been talking about the Exploration Service Academy…”

The Emperor blinked and then winced; “Do you know what the…. Casualty rate among those furrs is? Something like one ship in twenty is never heard from again! If her career lasts even a dozen years, the odds are…. No, its too great a risk!”

Serina raised an eyebrow; “Are you telling me… are you telling your DAUGHTER that she can’t pursue her dream?”

The Emperor sighed; “If she wants to go to space, The Imperial Naval Academy would be glad to accept her.” He turned to face the female; “They can teach her the latest technology, she can drive the fastest, the most powerful ships…” He winced; “Even those engaged in combat operations, either against pirates or on the frontier, have a better chance of survival!”

Serina turned and stared out at the horizon; “I will let my daughter make up her own mind. I will advise, but I will NOT dictate.”

The Emperor opened his mouth, and then a different, more guarded look came over his face; “As you wish….”

---

Ruprecht smiled; it had been childsplay to slip away from his mentor. In this strange structure, he’d found that the bathroom off his suite had a door to the outside. It opened onto a patio; the patio had both a swimming pool, and a hot tub. He hated the water. Wouldn’t be caught dead swimming! But the architect had certainly provided him with a handy exit. The low wall around the pool area had been easy to hop. And now he was strolling down a path, through some garden. There was another building ahead; maybe there was something interesting in there.

The groom was snoring softly in the corner. The riding beasts shuffled in their stalls nervously as he slipped through the door. Looking about, he grinned; he was right. Jenka HAD come from the stables. Tiptoeing forward, he looked into the first stall. The creature was lizard-like, with powerful hind legs and ridiculous tiny forelegs. It stared at him as if trying to figure out if he was good to eat. Ruprecht snorted. Still, it gave him an idea…… Retracing his steps, he returned to the bathroom, to fish something out of his toiletries bag….

The refrigerator near the door to the stables held large plastic bags of some sort of fish. Ruprecht shrugged; they’d looked like carnivores, and maybe the creature HAD been trying to figure out if he’d be good to eat. Taking his pocketknife, Ruprecht slit the belly of the fish, and poured in some of the foul tasting gunk the doctor had given him, back when he’d had stomach trouble, from eating too many Antarean puffballs. Grinning at the lizard-thing, he tossed it a fish. Moving faster than Ruprecht had thought possible, the creature snatched it out of the air, and then cocked its head, looking at him with one eye, as if to say; “got any more?”

He wound up feeding the first creature at least a half dozen fish; by then the others were clamoring to be fed too, so he gave each of them a few fish, each laced with the laxative. When the bottle ran out, he didn’t see any reason to keep feeding them, no matter how insistent they were. Tidying up, he slipped out before the groom could be awakened by the increasingly noisome creatures.

Jenka was awakened by the sound of scurrying feet. Peering out her window, she watched as three servants with mops and buckets hurried by, heading for the stables. Somehow she just knew something was wrong. Pulling on a pair of shorts and a vest, she hurried after them.

The stables were a mess. There was excrement everywhere. All of her riding beasts were on their sides, moaning, tails thrashing. The staff veterinarian was there, and there seemed to be plenty of help, so she just watched. After a while, she caught the elbow of a passing furr and asked what had happened; the servant just shrugged; “Ma’am, the Doctor thinks they’ve been poisoned, but I don’t think anyone’s really sure, yet just WHAT happened.”

Ruprecht looked up, and grinned as Jenka stormed into the dining room; “What in the HELL did you do to my animals?” she growled. Ruprecht just smirked, but deigned to reply. The Emperor looked from Jenka to the boy and back; “Care to tell me what happened?”

Jenka watched the shuttle lift. She’d personally escorted them to the landing pad, to make sure that sorry sack of shit had gotten on the shuttle, and not snuck off again. Her story of what had happened had brought denials from Ruprecht. It was suggested, by one of the Emperor’s staff, that Jenka had no proof, and that perhaps she should apologize to the Heir Apparent. Instead Jenka vowed to prove her accusations, and had stormed off, to find some help. As she left, the Emperor wondered if perhaps letting her strive to prove her accusations had been prudent. She most probably was right, and if she DID prove it, he’d have to take action. And that could be difficult.

In the end, the Veterinarian had identified the toxin. This had been matched to a prescription issued for Ruprecht, although the bottle that had held the medicine hadn’t been found. One of the Emperor’s party admitted he’d packed the medicine for the boy. The “tutor” admitted the boy had gone missing for over an hour. Ruprecht was still claiming that “anyone” could have lifted that bottle from his luggage, and that he’d simply gone for a walk, until Jenka found his pawprint on the food locker. THAT had been enough for the Emperor, and with apologies to Serina, AND to Jenka, he had departed, somewhat ahead of schedule.

Good riddance.

---

Tanj yawned, her head propped on one paw; “So….?”

The Kurani took a sip of water and smiled; “Two years later, Jenka found that the Exploration Services Academy simply wouldn’t accept her application, despite the fact that her grades were more than adequate. She of course blamed the Emperor. There were a number of things, seemingly random occurrences, that all tended to make it attractive for Jenka to indeed attend the Imperial University, and she, and her mother, concluded that it was a conspiracy. Her mother moved further and further away from the social circles of the nobility, and that only seemed to sway the opinion of her peers against her. After all, who in their right mind would rebuff the advances of the Emperor? Eventually, Jenka realized that her “disobedience” to her Father’s wishes was having a negative impact on her mother, and in the third year of her studies at a regional University, she dropped out, and “ran away from home.” And thus we come, by several twists and turns, to the present situation.”

Tanj nodded; “Yeah. Well, it certainly helps to understand the background, to know where they’re coming from. Now all I have to do is figure out what do DO about it all. But, for the moment, we need to find out what’s happened to Jinx, rescue Ralph, and get you two back to the kennels.”

The Kurani smiled, and rose, in simple obedience. Her smile however, suggested that it might not be quite that simple

The Opposition; Infiltration

The Mouse examined his credentials for the twentieth time. He had his new name memorized as well as a few salient facts about his background. He knew the product line he was supposed to be selling forwards and back. “Market Research had come up with something that would get him in the door, but still probably not be bought by the pirates. As a result he wouldn’t be caught in in-depth negotiations over such trivialities as unit cost, delivery time, and performance guarantees. Instead he’d be able to cool his heels as he waited for transport out, giving him plenty of time for his REAL mission. If everything went right, this should be a cinch.

The Bunny sat in the port’s bar, with her back to the wall and her eyes on the door. It was a boring place, in the middle of nowhere, and she’d been here for almost a week. Still, it was where she’d been told to catch the transport to the Black Fleet’s station. She chuckled, imagining a regularly scheduled transport leaving from a major port, for a pirate base. On the first night there, a rather drunken spice farmer had made a move on her, and she’d sent him, and two of his friends to the hospital. Since then she’d been left strictly alone, which was just the way she liked it. As she sipped her rosieta water, she watched the Mouse. His clothes were too good, his manners too refined. He sat at a table in the bar, and waited, just as she did, and she was fairly sure he was headed to the same place. He just didn’t fit in, and that puzzled her. She took another sip and wondered what business he might have with the Pirates.

Gill watched the monitor, set just below the bar top, where only he could see it, as he ran a bar towel over the mug he’d just washed. It was his job to make sure furrs heading for the Black Fleet’s station passed muster, and he’d been waiting for the background checks to come in, before he signaled the Transport. Nick’s freighter was actually grounded on the other side of the planet, its crew enjoying their shore leave while everyone waited for clearance.

Bo looked at the Cheetah and shrugged; “Ma’am, the ID’s are patently false. We KNOW they’re false; neither of them check out. But that in and of itself doesn’t mean anything.” He waved a paw; “Half the furrs on this station came here on false identities!”

Tanj nodded; “I know. Its just…. Considering the state we’re in, I’m nervous. The fact that you can’t find ANYTHING of their real identities bothers me.”

The Serval shrugged again; “Well, that’s not COMPLETELY true. The Mouse checks out with Webcorps arms. THEY at least acknowledge he exists. Maybe his false identity fooled them, maybe they don’t care, maybe they’re in on something with him. As for the Rabbit, there are indications that she’s a mercenary, but we can’t get anything more concrete than that.”

Tanj nodded; “OK, we can’t delay the transport any longer.” She grinned; “Nick has probably forgotten who he works for, and Jenka’s probably going to have a coronary at his expense account. Tell him to pick up his passengers and come on home. BUT, keep an eye on those two when they get here, and pass the file to Kath; maybe her Imperial Intelligence buddies can come up with something.”

The Serval nodded, and padded out.

Kittiara’s writing 5

The look on Ralph’s face, as the door to his quarters slid open was one of blatant relief. Tanj swept her eyes across the room; the bed was rumpled, there were several empty bags of potato chips scattered about and at least a dozen empty drink glasses.

Jinx, with a game controller in her paw was staring at Tanj and Kittiara in supreme frustration; “Dang it! I was just about to beat him!”

Ralph rolled his eyes; “For the fourth straight time, on the seventh series. Who taught this…. lady to play computer games? She’s VICIOUS!”

Kittiara listened to the full grown Bengal Tiger complain about the petite skunk and just had to laugh.

Tanj took in the look on Jinx’s face, and waved a paw; “Finish the game, Ralph, and then we’ll have to get these two back to the kennels.”

Ralph nodded resolutely and turned back to pick up his game controller. It was only a few minutes later when the Skunkette was howling in victory, her aircar having crossed the line a good ten seconds ahead of the tiger.

Jinx had to use the bathroom, and then insisted on helping Ralph clean up, and then she was hungry again; it seemed as if it took forever, but finally they were back at the kennels….

---

“I’m sorry, Tanj. There just isn’t any room. All the cages are holding two furrs apiece, and in some cases three. Don’t believe me, look for yourself!”

Tanj stared at the Aardvark and nodded; stepping into one of the corridors, she looked left and right as she paced down the row of kennels. Sure enough, every one was full. In one cage, three female mice stared back at her sadly; they seemed to be the ones with the most room. In another cell, a male Horse and a male Lion were almost lying on one another. She hoped they were good friends. Finally, she made her way back to the guard’s station; “What happened?”

The Aardvark shrugged; “I’m told that Bradford’s squadron had some particularly good luck. It seems some merchant types had heard of the recent unpleasantness here, figured we were out of commission, and took a shortcut. Bradford nabbed the whole convoy.”

Tanj sighed and nodded; “Okay…. I guess we’ll have to make other arrangements.”

As she’d feared, the holding cells on most of the ships docked at the station were full as well. The liner, the Eastern Star, had been ransomed back to the owners, the insurance company paying a tidy bounty for its return, so the stasis chamber was unavailable. Several frustrating hours later, they were back at Tanj’s quarters. “I guess you two will just have to stay here, for a while.”

The Kurani smiled softly and Jinx bounced up and down in glee; “Goodie… hey, got anything to eat, ah, “Mistress”?”

Tanj just sighed.

Kittiara’s writing 6: Confrontation

Jenka, predictably, was NOT happy. She wasn’t happy that the slaves she’d ordered confined weren’t. And she was especially unhappy that Tanj had learned so much, things that she’d tried for so long to keep anyone from knowing…. And as expected, she had her own way of showing that displeasure.

Tanj hung, suspended, upside-down, in the middle of Jenka’s quarters. A spreader bar kept her ankles almost painfully widespread. Her arms were bound behind her in a monoglove, the ring at its tip also tied to the ceiling, pulling her back, so her breasts pointed almost straight down. Weights hung from her nipple rings, and every motion was felt as they swayed and bobbled.

Jenka sat, crosslegged, on the floor, watching her pet sway. The interrogation as to just how much that meddling Kurani had told her had turned into girl-talk; the prompts with the paddle and riding crop had turned to more sensual caresses, and strokes with the feather that Tanj hated so much. Things were winding down; she’d worked most of the frustration out of her system. Well, at least her frustration with the Cheetah…..

“No, I don’t really HATE him, per se. I find him arrogant, and annoying, but its entirely possible that just comes with the job. You know he still tries, from time to time, to get me to “come home”…. Mother always said how much he’d changed, and yet I suspect she’d changed a lot as well. I just wish he’d go away and leave me alone!”

Tanj smiled, and tried to twist her head to look at the Jaguar: “I suspect, Mistress, that you have so many problems with him, because you’re so much alike.”

Jenka jerked as if she’d been shocked, and a moment later the riding crop came slicing down onto her unprotected quim; “That’s a NASTY thing to say! I’m not like him at ALL!” After a moment she sighed, and rose to her knees, to lick softly at the spot she’d struck; “Well, not much like him. Sorry, Pet, I didn’t mean to…”

Tanj nodded; “ ‘s OK, I understand.” After a moment she whispered; “But wanting him to leave you alone, isn’t going to MAKE him leave you alone. And then there’s Ruprecht. HE isn’t going to back off. What are we going to DO?”

Jenka paused for reflection, for a moment, as she nibbled on the Cheetah’s left labia; after a long while, she muttered; “I don’t know.” And then she sat back, and smiled. Tanj, twisting, doing her best to look at the Jaguar, suddenly felt cold inside. Jenka positively beamed; “I know. I KNOW! I know JUST what it’ll take to make ‘em BOTH leave us alone!” Leaning closer, staring at the Cheetah’s upside-down face, she purrred; “We fake our deaths! We VANISH. If they think we’re dead, they’ll HAVE to leave us alone!”

Tanj thought for a moment; “There might be some utility in that….. But, maybe we can kill two birds with one stone….”

Jenka turned and looked at her; “how’s that?”

Tanj shrugged, a difficult motion, considering how she was tied; “Well, Ruprecht obviously wants the dimensional gate technology. I’m not sure if he wants to suppress it, or use it, but either way, he’s VERY interested in it. What if we were to use something like that, to make it look as if we’d vanished, as Elysium did. We wouldn’t have to be dead at all, just out of reach. And its something they might believe…”

Jenka nodded; “might work. Might be simpler than just dying; you can bet your bottom credit either Ruprecht or the Emperor, or maybe both, wouldn’t believe we were dead until they saw the bodies. With your way, we don’t have to provide bodies….. And our “investments” could continue onwards, “in trust” instead of having to be completely abandoned… Yeah, we need to think about this…. But not right now. Right now, I’m tired, and am going to get some sleep. You need to get some sleep too….”

Tanj groaned. Jenka’s idea of her getting some sleep had been the application of a bondage hood. With her mouth filled with soft rubber, robbed of sight, and sound, Jenka had filled her pussy and ass with powerful vibrators, set to random patterns. As a parting gift she’d rubbed something on her labia and nipples that just seemed to drive her wild; it felt cool and burned at the same time, made her itch, made her writhe, made her howl into her gag, even when the vibrators weren’t running. As she hung from the ceiling, twisting and turning, the weights hung from her nipples flying, she wondered if Jenka was having a good night’s sleep…….

Morning brought relief for aching joints, when Jenka let her down. The Jaguar certainly looked as if she’d slept well. With her arms still bound behind her, Jenka had the Cheetah lick her to three quick climaxes, before she released her for the day’s duties. “Now, you understand that you are not to pass any of this information on to ANYONE. Not Zassa, or Wanda, or Chris, or John. NO ONE. And you’re to make sure that Kurani doesn’t tell anyone either. If it gets out, YOU will be the one punished.” Jenka straightened and crossed her arms over her chest; “I am NOT interested in Imperial Society. NOT interested in my fa.. in the Emperor’s job. Not interested in ANYTHING he might have to offer! Is that clear?”

Tanj nodded; “Yes, Mistress.”

Jenka nodded back and swatted the Cheetah on her bottom; “Good. Now get to work. I want a preliminary plan as to how we’re going to accomplish the vanishing act by the end of the week!

Revelation

John listened to the Tiger talk, and frowned. This could be the biggest threat ever to face the Black Fleet….. or the biggest opportunity. Finding out if there even was a problem would be risky, but… well, someone had to do it.

Kittiara looked up from her terminal as the Stallion came through the door. She hadn’t heard a chime, so he must have authorization. She wondered what he was here for.

John watched the Kurani dictate to the word processing program. Her voice was smooth, well modulated, and very, very fast. She sounded like she could put most auctioneers to shame. And yet the computer seemed to be capturing every word; he didn’t see her pause to edit anything. Whenever HE used voice recognition software, he generally spent more time fixing mistakes than actually writing. He was envious. Forcing his attention away from the Kurani, he looked around the room. The Skunkette was curled up on the couch apparently watching a soap opera. He grinned at her, held up the leash, and crooked a finger at her.

He was suddenly aware of the Kurani; she had stopped talking and was just looking at him. Her face was entirely neutral, and yet there was something in her demeanor that was not quite proper for a Slave, when regarding a Master. He tried to Ignore her.

Jinx blinked, but rose smoothly from the couch, moving to kneel before the Stallion He clipped his leash to her collar, and turned, to head for the door. Behind him, he heard the Kurani rise, to pause the video. He didn’t look back, but tried to retain his resolve. It wasn’t easy.

“Today, Slave, you’re going to earn your keep by pleasing several furrs. Friends of mine. Do your job well, and you’ll be rewarded. Fail to please them, and you’ll be punished.” He didn’t even look to see if she’d nodded in acknowledgement of his statement, although he dearly would have loved to have tried to read her body language.

The door was unmarked, as most of them were. The Stallion knocked once on the door, and then hit the button, opening it. Jinx tried to keep her eyes downcast, as a proper slave should, but somehow it just didn’t work. She caught a glimpse of the Stallion handing over the leash to someone with brown fur, and risked punishment by raising her eyes. She found a pair of friendly brown eyes looking back, from a flattish head with small ears, a big nose, and a bigger grin. “Hello!” The voice matched the face, and she couldn’t help but smile in return. “hope you’re up for some fun today!”

Jinx nodded demurely and stole a glance around. There were at least three other Otters in the room, and they were all grinning…

John let out a sigh when the door closed behind him. If the Santini brothers couldn’t keep her happy, no one could. Those otters were crazy, but they were also a lot of fun. Turning towards Ops he headed off to benchmark the current successes and failures of the Black Fleet.

The Skunkette staggered through the door; her fur was a matted mess, her hair in disarray, and she had a huge grin on her face. Turning, to walk backwards, she waved through the door; “Thanks, Guys, I had a great time! Think he’ll let us do it again tomorrow?”

An Otter’s chirp of laughter floated through the door; “Oh, that’d be Lovely, but unfortunately, we’ve gotta work. Maybe the next time we have a day off….”

Jinx sighed and nodded, and blew the Otter a kiss; “Hope so!”

Kittiara raised an eyebrow; “Have a good time?”

The Skunkette nodded; “Yeah, a great time. Nothing like a pack of Otters for a rollicking good orgy!”

The Kurani chuckled; “You know he’s testing you, don’t you?”

The Skunkette looked down between her legs; “Oh dear, I’m still dribbling…. Need to get in the shower.” Looking up she sighed and nodded; “Yeah, I know. I’ll probably have a couple more good days, and then things’ll get grim.”

The Kurani nodded sagely; “Figured out what you’re going to do, yet?”

The Skunkette growled and shook her fist; “Dang it; how many times do I have to tell you I don’t have that kind of control over it?”

The Kurani just smiled and started speaking softly into the word processor’s microphone.

The skunkette stared at her for a moment and then growled; “If I did, I’d fry your word processor!” Turning she stalked off towards the bathroom.

Kittiara turned, looked after her, and then muttered “Save redundant copies on different memory storage systems every sixty seconds. Enter.”

Kittiara’s Writing 7

The Kurani looked as if she’d slept well too. The Skunkette was still asleep, snoring softly. “Look, I just don’t have time to escort you around, and introduce you to all the furrs that you need to talk to, to get the basic information on the Nikkeldepain raid. Here’s a list of their names, and where they can be found. Use the station’s computer system to find out their work schedule, set up interviews, and find a route to where they are.” The Cheetah grinned; “You’re resourceful. I’m sure you can find a way to encourage them to be… communicative.”

The Kurani just smiled. Somehow, without showing teeth, she made it a very predatory smile; “Yes, Mistress, I’m sure I’ll do fine. I’ve already read the logs on the incident, and I think I’ve got a fairly good handle on what happened, and how to write the story.”

The Cheetah nodded; “Good. Just remember, this is a work of FICTION, specifically slanted to give the impression the Black Fleet had NOTHING to do with it.”

The Kurani smiled again; “Understood. If you don’t mind, I think I’ll start with Zassa; it would appear she had a most interesting part in that little escapade.”

Tanj just nodded and after grabbing a dress, headed for the door. She had way too much to do in the Intelligence office, to hang around here.

She was half way to her office when it hit her. When did the Kurani have time to read all those logs? Surely she must have meant she skimmed only the more important ones….

She was just sitting down when the thought struck her; those logs and reports on the Nikkeldepain raid were all “classified”. You had to have a rather high level password to access them. HOW had she read them?….

Testing, Part 2

John frowned at the status report. Hunting yesterday had been moderately good, but nothing to write home about. And things on the station had been quiet as well. The best that could be said was that nothing really significant had gone wrong. Wondering if he was chasing wild geese, he decided he still didn’t have a statistically meaningful sampling, and leaving ops, turned his way towards Tanj’s quarters.

The Kurani looked up from a table piled high with bits and pieces of electronics. Ralph from Intelligence was with her, a portable diagnostic unit in one paw, and a rather burnt looking circuit board in the other. The Stallion looked at him for a second; the Tiger seemed rather… “frozen”, with the strangest look on his face. “Um… what’s going on?”

The Kurani looked up and smiled; “We seem to have had a computer failure. For some reason the local node burst into flames at about three AM. We’re trying to recover as much data as we can, from what’s left.”

The Stallion nodded slowly; “and… where’s our favorite Skunkette?”

Ralph made a noise somewhere between a gasp and a gargle, and then Jinx was squirming out from under the table; she was grinning widely and licking her lips; “Here, Master. More Otters today?”

The Stallion looked from Ralph to the pile of electronics, to the Kurani and then to the Skunkette; “Um… No. They’re a bit worn out. I thought we’d… ah, there are some others that could use your services, Slave.” He held out the end of his leash. Smiling, Jinx took it and clipped it to her own collar.

---

“These Furrs have just recently won an up-time award for the ships assigned to them; you’re the prize.” Jinx looked from the Stallion to the crew of eight maintenance techs. Several of them stared back hungrily, but a few looked as if they’d rather have gotten a cash prize. Jinx just grinned; she was sure she could convince them she was the better reward. Without asking, she unclipped her leash from the Stallion’s lead, and walked forward, eagerly.

John stepped out of the compartment and retraced his steps to Tanj’s quarters. Ralph had a much more normal expression on his face, as he talked to the Kurani; “There, I think that one’s as good as its going to get….. Yup, tests green; try downloading what you can from it. And to answer your question, no, actually, I’d always intended to loose. I’d studied Tanj very carefully, and felt that she’d be just the kind of Mistress that I wanted. Not too demanding, not too lax, willing to let me pursue my career and interests, and yet still capable of giving me what I need.” He frowned at a circuit board; “This one’s fried completely.” He tossed it into a growing stack on the floor. “And so far I’d say its worked out rather well, although she does have the most annoying tendency to drag us all into the damnedest dangerous adventures….”

The Kurani glanced up at the Stallion, and then down at the logic probe in her hand. She set the probe aside, connected a couple of clips to the strip along the bottom of the board, and pushed a button on the portable data recorder. Looking up at the Stallion she sighed; “Last night I asked Jinx about what she planned to do to reward you for such a pleasant day. She gave me her usual line about not being able to control the occurrences that seemed to crop up around her, and stalked off, with a comment about how, if she could, she’d fry the hard drive I was storing the story on. Then, in the middle of the night, there was this random electronic pulse. It seems to have completely fried the local node. But I’d saved my story on at least six other nodes, as well as downloading it to a data crystal.” She grinned at the Stallion; “Now, it COULD have just been a random event. Stray cosmic ray, that kind of thing. But with her, you have to wonder.”

The Stallion nodded, and still wordless, turned and left. As the door closed behind him, Ralph chuckled; “Bet you keep your mouth shut when she comes back today."”

The Kurani just laughed.

---

Jinx giggled and squirmed. She hadn’t quite figured out how the situation had come to this, but….. Someone had suggested eating her out, and someone else had said that they thought chocolate covered Skunette would taste better, and then someone else had found a couple bottles of chocolate syrup. Now she stood, tied to an overhead conduit, arms and legs widespread, drenched in the sticky sweet stuff, as a half dozen tongues licked her in the most delightful way. She was a mess, and she was the center of attention, and the latter was winning out. Now, if they just had some whipped cream……

---

The Bear chuckled and dribbled some of the chocolate sauce onto his hard cock. Jinx purrred and rocked forward to lick at him. It was about time they let HER get some of the chocolate. As long as the supply held out, she’d suck his cock with gusto. Behind her, the Collie was fucking her hard, and she suspected that he’d been using the chocolate sauce as lubricant. That was a little gross, but the last time they’d tried that the Giraffe lady had spent a good hour licking her pussy clean, her tongue slithering deep into her snatch, removing all traces of the sweet stuff. As long as a tongue like that followed the fucking she didn’t care what they used as lubricant…..

---

The Collie sighed and shook his head; “Jinx, we’re all out of the strawberry jam, and the mint jelly’s about gone too. Waldo went out to try and find some more chocolate sauce, but that was an hour ago, and I think if he could have found any he’d be back by now. I hate to say it, but the party’s over. I’d best get you back.” Jinx sighed and looked around; then she giggled. There was no question in her mind that she’d licked ‘em all!

The Kurani was muttering into her word processor when the Skunkette came through the door. Her fur was sticking up at odd angles all over her body. The Kurani’s nose twitched and she smiled; “Chocolate! Oooooh, did you save me any?”

The Skunkette just smiled, shook her head no, and headed for the bath.

---

“No, I tell you they just sailed right into the middle of the wolfpack. We were in extended formation, to maximize our scanning range, and they sailed straight into the middle of the formation. It was no trouble at all to call in the outlying ships and completely envelop their formation. We hit ‘em from all sides at the same time, and in the presence of such overwhelming odds, they surrendered. Every last blessed one of ‘em.”

John nodded at the Wombat; “Good work.” Turning, he headed back to Ops. It COULD have been coincidence. Things like that did happen, from time to time. But there was one way to find out for sure. He just hoped he didn’t kill anyone finding out.

Kittiara’s Writing: Zassa’s Tale:

Kittiara smiled and put down the PADD. “It certainly sounded like you had a lot of fun playing that “Jane Calamity”.

The Vixen grinned and nodded; “It was more fun using the role to tick Jenka off; that Jaguar can come up with the most delightful punishments.”

The Kurani chuckled; “If you had to pick one incident, what would you say was the most memorable?

Zassa grinned and shrugged; “Most memorable? From Jenka, or just anything?”

The Kurani smiled; “Oh, anything at all; what was your most memorable sexual experience?”

“Hmmmmm.” After a moment the Vixen got a sly look; “I remember a punishment that I received while at the academy. It was incredibly sexy…..”

The Kurani nodded, waiting.

The Vixen’s eyes got a faraway look; “They were doing a fantasy theme, for a party, and I was dressed as a witch, in pointed hat, and long, flowing, and rather transparent gown. They had me suspended in the air, astride a broomstick, although it wasn’t your ordinary broomstick. In the middle of the shaft there was a U shape, designed to fit my crotch. Chains held the broomstick, suspended horizontally, and of course I was secured to those chains. I was leaning well forward, my paws out in front of me, arms outstretched, locked to the chain holding the front end of the broomstick. The overall image was if the back half of the broomstick was embedded in my ass, which it was, and the front portion emerged from my belly just below my navel.” The Vixen grinned; “But that wasn’t the interesting part. Of course, sitting astride that thin U-shape of metal was like “riding the horse” and after a while, it was rather painful. The interesting part was the assemblage below the “broomstick”. Just behind me was a vertical bar descending from the broomstick. This formed the fulcrum for a horizontal bar, sort of like a teeter-totter, under and parallel to the main shaft. My ankles were bound to the far end of the horizontal bar, making me hold my legs out behind me.” The Vixen grinned; “My ankles were held apart by a short spreader bar, not nearly wide enough, if you ask me.” After a moment she grinned; “The way it worked was that I could press down with my legs to relieve the pressure on my crotch. However, when I did that, the other end of the horizontal bar would swing up and drive a phallus into my pussy, through a ring in the U-shaped bar. The problem with that was that the dildo was much too long, and to relieve the pain in my crotch, I wound up hurting myself in other areas.” The Vixen grinned and shook her head; “Of course I wound up fucking myself silly with the device, much to the amusement of the onlookers.” Grinning at the Kurani she all but purrred; “I do believe I was the hit of the party.”

Testing 3

The Weasel watched the Horse’s retreating back; “I thought he was mad at us…”

The Boar shrugged; “Who cares.” He turned to the Weasel and grinned; “Don’t look a gift-horse in the mouth, I always say.” Turning, he fastened his gaze on the Skunkette; “Now, my pretty. What SHALL we do with you….

---

John knew things were going wrong when Sleigth’s group was jumped by a patrol of Imperial Destroyers. No one jumps a group of stealthed ships like that, unless someone talked, new technology was involved, or they had some very bad luck. While no ships were lost, and the damage was minimal, it screwed up the intercept they were angling towards. Then Engineering reported that power was out to levels seven through eleven, and they didn’t have a clue as to why. When the cafeteria reported that a freezer unit had failed and all the Tuna had spoiled (apparently in minutes) The Stallion decided he’d had enough, and turned his way towards the docking ring.

The airlock to the raider vessel “Wet Willie” slid open before he had even punched in the access code. The Stallion took a step forward, and then a couple of quick steps back. Something in there smelled like… shit. Wondering if he should have brought his galoshes, the Stallion covered his nostrils with a hand and bravely stepped forward.

Sure enough, the toilets had backed up. Lord, he was getting tired of that. Stepping gingerly he started poking through the living quarters. Those two lived like pigs. He finally found them in what could only have been some sort of “rec room”… The Skunkette stood on tiptoes, her arms bound tightly behind her, her wrists hauled up towards the ceiling by a too-tight rope. Her collar ignored, three nooses had been put around her neck. Two of the ends had been tied to her well-spread ankles, with the third tied to an eyebolt in the ceiling. If she didn’t hold her stance, she’d choke herself. A rather large steel ring gag filled her mouth, and a quick look suggested that her mouth, pussy and ass had been roughly used. John pulled his vibroknife from the pouch at his belt, and cut all four ropes. The Skunkette sank slowly and carefully to her knees, as if she couldn’t quite believe the ropes had gone loose.

John turned and looked around. The Boar was stretched out on the floor. A quick examination suggested that he was out cold, as opposed to asleep, drunk, or drugged. His pupils were different diameters, when the Stallion lifted his eyelids, and there was a considerable bump on his head. Leaving him for the moment, he turned to the Weasel. The Weasel was in a corner, very much awake, but seemingly covered in…. duct tape? He even had a piece around his muzzle. John looked at the Skunkette, who was still kneeling there, eyes closed, and then turned to the Weasel; instead of cutting the duct tape, he found a loose end and yanked.

The Weasel howled in pain. John idly examined all the fur stuck to the piece of duct tape he’d yanked off, and lightly inquired; “What happened?”

The Weasel shrugged; “Damned if I know. We were havin’ ourselves a right good time, when Chester over there managed to slip. Don’t know how he slipped on a non-skid floor, but he did. He came down on that spreader bar, which flipped up and beaned him right on the noggin. Damndest thing I ever saw.”

The Stallion nodded; there was a spreader bar that looked as if it had been made from five centimeter pipe, heavy enough to restrain an Elephant, laying near the Boar. In fact, looking at it closely, it almost looked as if it were bent at one end….

“So what happened to you?”

The Ferret frowned; “Well, the bitch was laughing at Chester, even through the ring gag, so I thought I’d shut her up for a while. Didn’t want to take the ring gag out; she bites. Thought I’d just cover the end of her muzzle with duct tape, at least until I wanted to use her mouth again. I pulled off a strip, and ripped it off, and it whipped up like a snake, and stuck to my arm. I tried to pull it off, but the other end stuck to my fingers. Got it off my arm, but then it stuck to my other arm. Pulled it free of my fingers, and it stuck to my leg. Somewhere along the line I dropped the roll of tape, and the loose end stuck to my elbow. As it fell, the roll UNROLLED!” The Weasel sighed; “It kinda went downhill from there.”

The Stallion chuckled; “And here I thought you were getting into self-bondage.” Reaching down, he gently picked up the Skunkette, and slung her over his shoulder; “I’ve got to get this one back; she’s a loaner and overdue. I’ll send someone around to get you loose, in a bit.”

---

Jinx gasped as the Stallion lowered her into the bath; “Too hot?” The Skunkette shook her head; “No…. hurts on the welts.” The Stallion nodded; “They have any particular reason for whipping you, or….” The Skunkette just shrugged, leaving the Stallion to wonder just exactly what happened. The Weasel had mentioned she bites… But he wasn’t going to ask. If she wanted to talk about it, fine. But he wasn’t going to ask.

---

The Kurani looked up when John Led the Skunk back through the door. Her face carefully neutral, she crooked an eyebrow up; “You OK?” It was obvious she wasn’t talking to the Stallion.

The Skunkette nodded; “Yeah, I’ll live.”

The Kurani nodded slowly; “what happened?”

The Skunkette talked as if the Stallion wasn’t even there, still holding her leash; “Oh, they were the usual pair of losers. Don’t know how to treat a slave, except to beat her. They did everything they could think of to me, but fortunately they weren’t very imaginative. I’ll tell you all about it later, but right now I really need to douche again. One of them had a thing for clove oil and I’m burning kinda bad down there.”

The Kurani nodded, and turned back to her work. Jinx unclipped her leash and waddling a bit, made her way towards the bathroom.

John watched for a moment, and then without comment turned and headed for the doorway. He wondered if those two knew he’d handed her over to a particularly brutal pair, on purpose? He hoped not….. Just before the door closed, he thought he heard the Kurani mutter; “Its good you’re getting her out some; when she’s here, she makes it more difficult to work. But you really do need to choose her masters a little more carefully….”

Testing 4

The Stallion sat in the middle of Ops, reviewing the security logs. Anyone who’d ever been reported for abusing a slave was struck from his list. He then cross-referenced the list with those who’d recently been mentioned by their supervisors for having done above average, or outstanding work. It gave him a couple of dozen names. He then cross referenced that list with those that would be having a day off soon… the list grew shorter….

“John, what are you working on?”

The Stallion looked up into Jenka’s curious face, and swallowed; “Um…. Mistress, I’m trying to match furrs that could use a “reward” with that Skunkette that came in as booty on the last big operation. You know, Jinx.”

The Jaguar frowned; “Why go to all that trouble. Just let the kennel staff parcel her out as they do to anyone else who’d earned a favor.”

The Stallion sighed; telling her why was going to be difficult, but he had to do it….

Jenka shook her head as she looked at the still photographs of the tape-bound weasel; “I really think you’re reaching with this one, John. I appreciate the concern, but….”

The Stallion shrugged; “Mistress, if you don’t believe me, test it yourself. But… I’d be careful. REAL careful…”

The Jaguar frowned, “I might just do that……”

Testing 5

Tanj blinked at the Jaguar; “Me?”

Jenka chuckled; “Of course. Do you think I’m going to risk MY hide in this endeavor? After all, John MIGHT be right. And you are the head of Intelligence. Who better to figure this out?” At the look on the Cheetah’s face, Jenka chuckled; “I think you subscribe to the Stud’s flight of fancy.”

Tanj nodded; “I do, actually. The question is, how to prove it conclusively, and, ah, “safely”.

---

The Kurani blinked; “Jinx? Well, you’d be surprised what she likes and what she doesn’t. She doesn’t like pain, at least not for pain’s sake. However, if she’s having fun, you’d be surprised what she might put up with. Oh, and she hates to be tickled. Beyond that, she’s not adverse to being used in public, as long as she’s the center of attention. She LOVES to be the center of attention….” After a moment the Kurani smiled; “You’re not thinking of doing what I think you’re thinking of doing, are you?”

The Cheetah blinked; “Probably. Yeah, I know, not the safest of things, but Jenka wants proof.”

The Kurani winced; “you’re not the first. I doubt you’ll be the last. All I can say is “good luck.”

---

Tanj winced as she looked at the Skunkette. Phase One. In one of the station’s commons areas, the Skunkette stood on tiptoes on a pedestal, her paws bound behind her back. A pole mounted on the floor extended up, to fill her sex. From it, a small platform extended out in front of her. On the platform was a switch, identical to the ones under her heels. There was a small pulley suspended from the ceiling. wires from her nipple rings ran through the pulley, to a weight, hovering just over the switch on the platform. The Skunkette had to lean back, putting tension on her sensitive nipples, to keep the weight off the switch, just as she had to stay on tiptoes, and not let the back of her footpads touch the switch beneath them. For if anything touched one of the sensitive switches, she’d receive a shock. The wires connected to her nipple rings were one side of the circuit, and the pole in her twat the other. As her muscles tired, she found herself bobbing up and down, the pole sliding in and out of her pussy, and if she happened to let one of the switches make contact, her motions increased significantly as she tried to stop the shocks. Tanj had been through a similar punishment once, and hadn’t enjoyed it at all.

However, this little exercise had been couched more as a competition than as a punishment. Nearby, Zassa stood on a similar pedestal, impaled on an identical apparatus. The one who lasted longer, got a treat, and the one who hollered her safe word first, well, other punishments awaited…..

Jenka sat in Ops, watching on a monitor. She had the feeling that things were going to be rather boring, that this was all a wild goose chase. Both of the fems were getting tired, slowly moving up and down on their poles. It looked as if Zassa was going to be the winner, as the Skunkette’s muscles were visibly trembling. The Jaguar smiled, thinking that wasn’t particularly surprising, considering the exercise regime Chris had her on…. As a shock rippled through the Skunkette, making her cry out, she heard a muttered curse from behind her. Turning, she raised an eyebrow; “What’s wrong, Benson?”

The tech shrugged; “Not sure; we seem to have lost all FTL communications. And yet the level 1 diagnostic doesn’t show a problem.

Jenka nodded, and turned back to watch. Phase 2. Chris was approaching the Vixen with a feather; there was a look of dread and delight in the Vixen's eyes. Tanj was likewise approaching the skunkette, and the look on Jinx’s face was one approaching sheer terror.

Tanj paused to watch Chris start. He knew Zassa’s body well, knew just where to tickle. It wasn’t long before she was writhing under the gentle lash of the feather, shocks rippling through her body. Of course, being Zassa, she was having an almost unending string of climaxes as she rode the pole in her snatch, the shocks only adding to her pleasure….

Jinx shuddered at the first gentle touch of the feather, and squirmed, twisting from side to side, trying to escape, but there WAS no escape. Her first laugh turned to a yelp as her right heel hit one of the switches, and then as she bounced upwards, she yelped again as the weight hung from her nipples hit the switch beneath it.

Jenka sat straight up as the computer announced that Deck 7 had just suffered a pressure failure.

Tanj trailed the feather over the Skunkette’s clitty, bringing her to yet another climax, causing her to howl, and then to yelp as shocks raced through her body. If Jenka wanted proof, she’d give her proof.

Alarms howled as an electrical fire was reported on Deck 13. Jenka rose from her chair to stare at the monitor….

Tanj tickled the underside of the Skunk’s right breast, causing her to flinch; all three switches made contact at the same time, and the Skunkette just about hopped off the pole as another shock raced through her…

Zassa panted, wondering why the feather had stopped its dance over her body. She balanced on tiptoes, leaning back against the delicious tension on her nipples, and opened one eye. It wasn’t significantly different than having it closed. Opening the other eye, she decided she’d either gone blind, or the lights had gone out….. Experimentally she leaned forward a little, letting the weight hung from her nipples touch the switch beneath it. Nothing. With a sigh she eased forward, taking the tension off her sore nipples, and came down off of tip-toe, letting her calf muscles relax. It’d be a bitch when the power came back on, but in the meantime she’d rest…

Jenka looked over the Engineering board, trying to figure out what had happened on Deck 3. They were completely without power. There. A power relay seemed to have failed…. She was just about to call Maintenance when the screen showed that Deck 3 suddenly had power again…..

Jinx purrrred softly, and shivered with delight. Someone had unlocked the cuffs around her wrists, moved her paws around in front of her, and then a rope had hauled her wrists towards the ceiling. Now she hung from the well-padded cuffs; her heels well off the diabolical switches. The weight had been removed from the wires leading to her nipples, and the pole in her pussy had started t vibrate VERY nicely. It was much better than the shocks it had been delivering; so nice she could almost forgive it… The lights had come back on with her first climax, and that was when she noticed the Cheetah, kneeling in front of her, adding to the pleasures of the vibrating pole, her tongue licking at the front of her cleft…..

Zassa yelped with the sudden shock, as the power came back on; it took no effort at all to rise to tiptoes, and to lean back…. She’d been expecting it, but it was still a nasty shock…..

Jenka watched in amazement; when the Skunkette climaxed for the second time, the pressure failure warnings on Deck 7 vanished like a soap bubble, and on her third climax, the crews reported the electrical fire on deck 13 had gone out. With a sigh she turned to look at the Stallion. John’s face was as impassive as ever; he just stood there with his arms crossed, watching the monitor over Jenka’s shoulder. Settling back into her seat, the Jaguar grumbled; “I hate it when you’re right….”

Zassa grinned; “I won, right?” Tanj chuckled “Yes, you did.” The Vixen beamed; “Goodie! What did I win?” Tanj inclined her head towards the Skunkette, now sitting on the floor. “you win her. For three days.” The Vixen’s mouth opened and then closed. Obviously here was a slave you couldn’t punish too severely… She’d have to be handled very carefully. The phrase “Booby prize” flashed through her head, but then she grinned. There WERE possibilities….

Jenka leaned against the wall, as the Cheetah headed towards her quarters. “Nice save in there.” Tanj laughed; “Thanks. Convinced, now?” Jenka nodded; her face growing serious; “Convinced enough that I want her off this station and as far away from us as possible.” Tanj tilted her head to one side, one eyebrow rising “Are you sure, Mistress? There are some very interesting possibilities…” Jenka nodded decisively; “Yes. I’m sure. You might think you could control her, play her, to bring us good fortune, but I prefer to make my own luck. It could very easily backfire on you. No, I want her out of here, as soon as possible, but I also want her out of here in such a way that she’s not mad at us.” Tanj smiled; “I think I have an idea. As we’ve discussed, it would probably be prudent to return Kittiara to her mate, before there’s a war.” Jenka snorted; “Yeah, I’ll go along with that!” The Cheetah smiled; “Well, they’re friends; why don’t we just send her along with the Kurani.” Jenka frowned; “Kind of a nasty trick to play on the Kurani, isn’t it? No, don’t answer that. OK, if she’ll go, that’s fine by me. Just do it soon, OK?”

Kittiara’s Writing: Doodles’ Tale:

Kittiara entered the shop, and looked around. So many interesting things! A naked male Rabbit wearing a slave collar emerged from the back, stopped and just looked at her. Kittiara smiled; “Hello; I’m looking for Master Hinoki. Is he here?” The Bunny looked at the Kurani, and smiled; his eyes traveled up and down her frame, from her feet, to the tips of her funny ears, and back down; there was a look of hunger in his eyes, a predatory look that did not quite fit the situation. After a moment he cleared his throat; “Um, I’m sorry, what did you say?”

Kittiara smiled back; “I said that I’m gathering material for a book on sex slaves. Well, actually that’s in addition to the story I’m writing about the Nikkeldepain raid, but I don’t believe you were here at that time.” She watched the Bunny’s face for a moment and then purrred; “How about you, Doodles? What was your most memorable sexual experience?”

The Bunny stood there in thought for a moment and then shrugged; “Years ago, I had a mistress. Oh, not a formal thing such as my current, ah, “situation”, but just for grins, just as time and work and circumstance permitted. One night she shaved off all my fur and covered me in snails.”

Kittiara was aghast; “She… shaved off ALL your fur?”

Doodles nodded, and then shrugged; “Yeah. It made going to work in the morning kinda… difficult.”

The Kurani chuckled; “And why snails? Is there something there I ought to know about? It doesn’t sound particularly…. Erotic.”

Doodles shrugged; “I never said it was erotic; you asked for my most memorable experience, not my most erotic one. As for why snails, I don’t have a clue. Maybe she was out of slugs.”

Kittiara just smiled, and made her usual cryptic notes. “When do you expect Master Hinoki to return?” The Bunny shrugged; “I think he’ll be back in about a half an hour, to an hour. Care to wait?” The Kurani smiled, and turned to examine a device on the wall; “This looks interesting; perhaps you could show me what it does while we wait.” The Bunny just grinned; “I’d be DELIGHTED to….”

Kittiara’s Writing: Hinoki’s Tale

Hinoki rose and stretched; "And that was basically that.”

Kittiara smiled; “Bold. Quite bold. This Sashi sounds MOST interesting; did you ever find out just exactly how she came to be… like that?”

Hinoki nodded; “We did, but that’s another story.”

Kittiara’s eyes took on a calculating look and she smiled, showing just a hint of teeth; “Perhaps I could persuade you to tell me some day.”

The Cheetah grinned “Perhaps…”

“I’m also working on a book about sexual customs in the Empire, and on sex slaves in particular. If I were to ask you what your most memorable sexual experience was, which one would you pick?”

Hinoki chuckled; “That… would be very difficult. There are so many to choose from. And then, I’d have to qualify it as to whether I was playing the Top, or the Bottom…. And whether it was with a male, or a female…..” He smiled; “With a single partner, or an orgy.”

Kittiara chuckled; “I can see how that might be a problem. But certainly one stands out.” The Cheetah thought for a moment, and then nodded; “Yes…. The first time I topped someone, for real. Not just playing games. The very first time.”

---

The Zebra Mare was large; much larger than he was. And she’d developed a reputation for…. Unruliness. She kicked and bit, and in general fought back as hard as anyone in recent memory. She was locally famous. Her owner kept her, chained, in front of his establishment, where she snarled and spit at the crowd; of course the crowd usually did everything it could to tease her back. Furrs who thought they could tame her would come, pay the tavern keeper an insultingly small fee, and he’d give them the key to her lock. After a while, sometimes mere minutes, the brave soul, or perhaps one of their friends, would lead the Mare back, handing the key back to the Tavern keeper. There was usually damage; frequently the Mare sported whip marks, and bruises; not infrequently the would-be dom sported bite marks, bruises and the occasional broken bone, or concussion.

“Come on, you can do it! You KNOW you can do it!”

Hinoki looked at Chuckles and shook his head; “Maybe, but I’ve got more sense than that.”

The Hyena laughed; “Aw, come on. All the stories you’ve told us?” He elbowed the Cheetah in the ribs; “How about Cindy-Lou?”

Hinoki winced; “That…. Nevermind.”

The Hyena laughed; “Cheetah’s YELLOW!”

Hinoki frowned; “Am NOT!”

Chuckles leaned closer; “Come on, I’ll help you get her tied. I’ll even spot you five towards her price. Then, kitten, its ALL up to you!”

---

The Tavern Keeper looked at the Cheetah and scowled; “Kid, I don’t mean to be telling you your business, but aren’t you a little young?”

Hinoki frowned back; “I’m old enough. And I’ve got the money. You going to let me have her, or what?”

The Tavern keeper sighed; “All right. Your funeral. Here’s the release form. Sign your chop where its hilighted….”

---

It’d taken a while, but eventually they’d gotten her “restrained”. With both paws tied behind her back, and her ankles hobbled, they’d only suffered a couple of bruises, and Chuckles had a black eye, which, given his coloration, was essentially invisible anyways. Well, the swelling showed, but just a little.

“OK, Stud, you’re on your own. So, how ya gonna start?”

Hinoki grinned at the Hyena; “Oh, I think I know how to “Gentle” her….”

The Hyena barked a laugh; “Yeah, Riiiiight. Well, don’t forget to get a holo of the whole thing. Good luck, Kiddo!”

Hinoki watched Chuckles move around the corner, wondering exactly where in the scuffle he’d picked up a limp. Turning back to the Zebra, he found her glaring at him, her teeth working at the rope bridle they’d improvised. Tugging at the rope leash he growled; "Come on, you, I’ve got a point to prove.”

The garage was empty. Would be empty until the O’Quinn’s returned from their summer holiday, and that wouldn’t be for a month yet. The side door had never latched properly, and as he expected, it opened easy enough. From there, it was simplicity itself to pull down the folding stairs to the attic storage area, move through the attic to the hatch in the Master Bedroom closet ceiling, and then move through the house to open the kitchen door from the inside. The O’Quinn’s didn’t believe in sophisticated alarm systems, and besides, even if the antique system had been active, he knew the code from when he’d watered their plants the summer before, while they were away. Leading the Zebra into the house, he took her, not to the Master bedroom, but down into the cellar. They had exposed rafters down there….

He’d felt it too dangerous to untie her hands yet. They were still tied behind her back, but now her wrists were tied to the rafters above her, bending her at the waist. He’d tied ropes to her ankles, before cutting the hobble. Even so, there was a brief flurry of attempted kicks before he could pull her legs apart, and tie them off. When he had her pretty much as he wanted her, he stepped around behind her, and pulling up an overturned bucket, took a seat. She DID have a magnificent ass…. Smiling, he bent forward and gave her a tentative lick.

---

Hinoki wrung out the towel into the bucket and growled; “Very funny.” The Zebra Mare just laughed around her gag, as she looked over her shoulder at him. Hinoki just shrugged; “minor delay. Your bladder can only hold so much, and if you persist in doing that, well, it’ll be just that much less water you get to drink.” Settling back behind her, he bent, to lick at her quim, thinking it was a shame he wasn’t into water sports. If he had been, her peeing in his face would probably have been the high point of the day….

It took a while, but eventually his tongue brought her to a state of arousal. It was obvious she was fighting it, resisting the sensations, but eventually he won out. Her first climax was noisy, her body shuddering, her feet stamping. Hinoki never slowed. Moving at a steady pace, he continued to practice his cunnilingus, the tip of his tongue dancing over her sensitive flesh.

Her second climax came a little more rapidly, and her third in even less time. He could tell by the shadows through the tiny basement windows, that the sun was setting, but he kept up his steady, persistent licking…..

She was all but hanging by her hands, arms up sharply behind her back, knees quivering. Hinoki had lost count of the climaxes he’d licked her to, but he was sure she wasn’t where he wanted to take her. Not yet. Not by a long shot. On the other hand, she was near exhaustion. It was time to change her tie.

She was panting too hard, too exhausted to do more than fall to her knees when he undid the rope holding her wrists up. Moving around in front of her, he gave her a gentle shove, pushing her onto her back. He then lashed a piece of lumber he’d found between her legs and having secured her that way, undid the ankle ropes. The board was pulled up towards her head, bending her double; the rope was tied off to the work bench. It wasn’t really secure, but he figured she wasn’t in any shape to struggle too awfully much. Settling himself, he bent again, to lick at her sex.

It seemed to be the last thing she expected.

Patience was required. He had to have all the patience, all the endurance of a hunting cat crouched by the trail to the water hole. And he had what it took. He was licking her slowly, varying his technique just enough to keep from her getting too bored, just enough to keep him from getting too sore. She was having a climax about every ten to fifteen minutes, which was about right. Slowly he continued. It shouldn’t be long now…

The cellar windows were starting to show light, when her struggles started to increase. It seemed she was now shivering with every stroke of his tongue, and her cries into the rope gag were becoming more vocal. Hinoki smiled and continued to lick, making sure that she still had an occasional climax. He’d pushed her past the point where the licking was pleasure; past the point where it was pleasurable, and into that area where it was starting to become painful. She was WAY over-stimulated, exhausted, and undoubtedly thirsty and hungry. And still he licked.

She was crying softly to herself when he stopped. It seemed to be a few moments before she even realized that he’d stopped. When her sobs subsided, he moved around by her head, and undid the rope bridle. She looked at him with fearful eyes, but he just smiled, and put a squeeze bottle to her lips. “Just a little water. Don’t want you peeing in my face again.” When she’d had a bit to drink he replaced the rope bridle, and returned to his place between her legs. As his tongue touched her, she groaned most piteously.

The Bridle kept her from making understandable speech, but he didn’t really have to hear words to know what she was saying. She was begging for mercy. She was promising him anything. Everything. Just so he’d stop. But he didn’t stop. Not yet. Not quite yet…..

Her moans continued for several minutes after he stopped. Finally, her chest still heaving as she panted hard, she opened her eyes and looked at him. He smiled and waggled a finger at her; “Is that the proper way for a slave to behave?” She shuddered and instantly “lowered” her eyes. Not easy when you’re flat on your back. Hinoki smiled, and lightly stroked one finger up between her breasts, careful not to touch any erogenous zones; “You probably wonder what it is I want from you.” After a moment the Mare nodded her head, just a little. Hinoki smiled; “Its simple. I want obedience. And respect. I’m not particularly concerned with how you treat others, but you will treat ME with respect, and obey my every command.” He could see her face harden; it was what she’d been fighting, apparently, all her life. Hinoki hadn’t expected her to cave on the first try. He simply smiled and moved back between her legs. As he started licking again, she howled.

It was difficult to move her, but a lot safer to do so while she was unconscious. Hinoki rolled her over onto her knees, tied her tail to the back of her collar, and kneeling on the spreader bar, once again thrust his tongue into her sex. She stirred fitfully. He smiled and resumed his patient licking, adding an occasional nibble. Every time he did that she groaned and shuddered.

The sun was starting to set again, when she started making noises that sounded like they might be surrender. Hinoki ignored her, for at least an hour. Finally, he relented, and rose, to remove the bridle. He gave her a sip of water and let her calm down. Finally, she whimpered; “Master, I will obey you….” Hinoki smiled; “Perhaps.” He rose, stretched, and untied the board from the workbench. For a moment he thought she was going to lower her legs, but then she caught herself, holding her position. She was so tired, she was trembling, but she managed to keep from moving. Hinoki smiled and touched her lightly, pushing her legs down. He smiled and untied her ankles from the board, re-tying them, loosely, in about a half-meter hobble. “Roll over.” She obeyed as fast as was reasonable, given her exhaustion. Hinoki released her wrists and tied each one in turn, to her upper thighs. Relief showed on her face. Hinoki smiled, and moving a few feet away, pointed to the floor in front of him; “Come and kneel here. In the correct manner, and with the proper posture, for a slave.

He could see the hesitancy in her eyes, in the set of her ears and tail, in the way she moved, but she obeyed. She did obey.

The night was spent in instruction. How to stand. How to walk. When to address a Master, and how. When to stay silent. As the night wore on, she seemed to become a little more comfortable with her role. Not once did he have to do more than to lick his lips, to make her regain what measure of eagerness she’d had to obey him.

In the morning, she followed him back to the Tavern, two paces behind him, moving as a well trained, if somewhat tired slave.

---

Chuckles watched the Holo and shook his head; “Man, I CANNOT believe you never fucked her!”

Hinoki blinked; “Fuck her?” He waved a paw; “My dear Charles, that is not the point of being a Master; the point is obedience.” He grinned; “Once you have control, once you have her obedience, THEN you’ll find the sex is like nothing you ever imagined.”

The Hyena smiled; “So… when you going to rent her again?”

Hinoki smiled; “Soon. I want to give her some time, see if her training lapses. Then I’ll take her again, and perhaps we can move on to the next level….” As he watched the Hyena’s incredulous face, he thought to himself; “Besides, I’ve got to wait until I can move my tongue without it hurting….”

---

Kittiara smiled; “Fascinating. And what ever happened to her?”

Hinoki winced, and hung his head; “Three weeks later, one of her… patrons killed her in a drunken rage.” He looked up; “According to the witnesses, she was doing what he told her to do; it just wasn’t fast enough for him.” He shrugged, rose, turned, and padded into the back of the store.

Kittiara watched until the door closed behind him, saved the data on her PADD, rose, and quietly padded from the shop.

Kittiara’s Writing; Tanj’s Tale

The Cheetah sighed; “most memorable…. Urrrrrrr, yeah, something DOES come to mind…..” She stopped there. Gradually the silence grew…

The Kurani raised an eyebrow; “and….?”

Jinx looked from face to face; “Um…… I don’t think she wants to tell you…..”

The Kurani scowled at the Skunkette; “All her friends have given me stories; surely you don’t want her to be left out….”

The Skunkette just looked worried.

As both pairs of eyes turned back to her, The Cheetah turned, to stare out a viewport; “I was young. Still in College. I wasn’t a virgin, but I wasn’t that experienced either. I’d met someone; he was as wild a furr as I’d ever met…” The Cheetah smiled; “Or at least as wild a furr as I’d ever met THEN.” She waved a hand, as if to include all of the station; “Compared to most of the furrs here, he was staid, and boring. But back then I thought he was wild. Adventurous. Radical…. He taught me things about sex that I’d never known, never even suspected….. And in the end, it was his lesson in one aspect of sexuality that caused us to break up.”

Jinx nodded; “He did something you didn’t like?”

The Cheetah chuckled; “You could say that.” She smiled wistfully; “Of course, these days, something like that wouldn’t faze me at all, but… Things were simpler back then…..”

---

The Movie had been only fair. They’d spent most of their time making out, in the back row. Teasing each other. Giggling until the patrons around them turned to glare at them.

Afterwards, at the restaurant, they’d played “footsie” with each other, under the table, continuing the game they’d started before. Laughing at the expressions of those around them. Still, the place was full of students, and no one paid them THAT much attention…..

They’d gone back to his place, as all of his roommates were gone. Clothes had been shed almost as soon as they were through the door, and in the semi-dark, they’d been all over each other.

Suddenly his passion seemed to cool, his motions slowing, becoming more deliberate. She didn’t mind. In fact, she reveled in the attention, letting him please her, letting him do all the work. And then, he seemed to catch fire again. He rolled her over, onto paws and knees, and moving behind her, drove his hard shaft into the wetness between her legs. She was more than ready for it!

They’d been humping for several minutes, like crazed Minks, when the door suddenly burst open, and his roommates, and others, pressed in. Lights came on. In a moment of panic, she struggled to escape, to bolt from their sight, but he had leaned forward, grabbing her ears, digging in his claws. As she struggled in his grip, he howled, his hips pistoning, fucking her hard. And all the while his friends yelled; “Ride ‘em COWBOY!”, “YEEEHAW!”, and “Lookit her BUCK!” Finally she managed to escape, and grabbing her clothes, she pushed through the crowd, to escape into the hallway.

As she ran out, one of them clicked a stopwatch and chuckled; “Almost a full minute! Fifty-three seconds! A NEW WORLD RECORD!”

He didn’t even come after her.

The next time they met, she let him know just exactly what she thought of him and his immature pranks. He just grinned through the entire tirade. A week later, he was going out with Mary Sue…..

---

Tanj shrugged; “Most erotic? No. Most Memorable? I’ll remember that until the day I die.” Turning, the Cheetah moved slowly towards the door.

As it whooshed closed behind her, the Skunkette turned to the Kurani and muttered; “Told you she didn’t want to tell you.”

The Kurani just stared at her PADD and Hmmmmmmed.

Prelude; Exposure

Yes, she was definitely in trouble. Despite her resolve, despite her best judgement, she kept on going back, and now there were eight of them. She knew she’d missed at least one work shift, maybe two, and they just didn’t seem to be letting up. On the other hand, she’d never imagined sex could be so good. It seemed as if her existence was a constant string of firecracker climaxes so powerful her whole body spasmed, and her muscles ached afterwards. At least until another took her. If they didn’t quit soon, she was going to be in serious trouble.

---

She knew someone had been following her, and she didn’t care. It was getting so that she couldn’t handle them by herself. And yet it was SO addictive. Perhaps she could feed one of her tormentors to the little darlings. Yes, that might work. Walking the last dozen meters or so, she made a point of NOT looking around. Unclamping the access hatch, she slipped inside, leaving it slightly ajar….

She smiled from a corner so dark there was almost no chance of her being seen; as she’d thought, it was that bully Luke. She watched as he stood at the access hatch, obviously hesitant about following her into the ductwork. After a moment she saw him step in and look cautiously around. Then, with his paws out in front of him, he started to move through the duct.

Except he was going the wrong way; he was going towards the electrostatic precipitator. Yes, there was a guard; he couldn’t fry himself, although that wouldn’t really have bothered her. Well, at least not much. She was just contemplating making a noise, when something fell from the ceiling…..

She saw Luke stagger, saw his big meaty paws come up, to try and pry something from his head; but then he tripped over something, and fell face-first to the deck. They were on him in an instant, flowing over him, under him, ooozing under his clothes, and then bunching up until the fabric ripped. Somehow, they managed to hold his paws and feet to the deck, as their…. Brothers? Sisters? Twins? Whatever, as the others went to work on him. She watched, fascinated, as tendrils stroked Luke’s sex. He wasn’t as well hung as she would have thought, given all his bragging. Still, the creatures had him hard in no time. One, an inky black mound, covered his crotch, slowly humping up and down; another seemed to be fascinated by his balls, moving them, rolling them, fondling them. She was sure at least part of that creature, or possibly one of its twins, was in his ass; his hips seemed to be bouncing up and down on the deck just a little. And of course one of them was wrapped around his head, covering eyes, and ears, with a very large part of itself shoved down his throat. She watched grinning, one paw lightly stroking herself, as she murmured encouragement; “Yes, my darlings, that’s it; give the bully exactly what he deserves!”

Not all of the creatures, of course, were wrapped up with Luke; there were still two left over for her, and that was fine; she was able to make her work shift the next morning without any real problem. However Luke didn’t show up. She just smiled and shrugged when asked if she’d seen him; no, she didn’t know where he was….

The Opposition: Arrival

Drake looked at the Bunny; Whatever happened to her had obviously scarred her in more ways than just the physical, and that was a real shame; she was CUTE. No, she was more than Cute; she was gorgeous! “So, Ms… Kitchens, I see you’re applying for a position in maintenance.” He looked up from the printout and cocked an eyebrow upwards; “But can you fight?” She stared at him blankly for a moment and then surprised him with a long, loud laugh. He thought he heard just a touch of hysteria in it. After a moment she calmed herself; “Oh, yeah, buddy, I can fight. I could probably take out most of the toughs you have on this floating scrapheap. The problem is, I can’t fight. Don’t dare.” Drake blinked at her; “I beg your pardon?” She chuckled; “An operation went wrong. Screwed up both my nervous system and my immune system. If I get injured, the doctors won’t be able to help me. And combat’s a very risky profession.” She leaned closer; “But I know weapons. Especially small arms. I can fix anything you’ve got. And maintenance is a danged sight safer than combat.” Sitting back she sighed; “This way I get to play to my strengths, have a shot at staying alive, and still earn a living.” Drake swallowed and nodded. Pressing a few keys on his console, he directed the recording of the interview for Intelligence’s attention. And then he smiled. Looking up, he raised an eyebrow again; “Know anything about powered armor?”

---

“You’re doing that wrong.”

Cindy looked up in frustration, one paw pushing back a stray lock of hair that had escaped and fallen into her face; “Say WHAT?”

The Bunny shook her head; “if you’re going to work on the myoelastic actuators on that thing you have to get them to the right temperature first.”

Cindy just stared at the Bunny. She looked as if she’d been dropped into a blender; all the parts were there, but there were a helluva lot of scars. “Look, Lady, I’m sorry I don’t have an oven large enough for my ‘mech, and right now I’m just not able to set it out in the sun to warm. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve….”

The Bunny laughed; “What, no heat lamps around here? How about a hair dryer? If you warm them up, they’ll loosen enough that you can get them mounted correctly.”

Cindy blinked, staring at the artificial muscles that made the arm of her ‘mech move. “you know, I never thought of that” she muttered softly. Looking up, she growled, almost in wonder; “Who ARE you?”

---

Sara looked at the Mouse in wonder; “You’re selling WHAT?”

The Mouse almost blanched at the tone. Somehow this female Mouse, although smaller than he was, had a presence that reminded him of a very obnoxious housecat he once had the displeasure of knowing.

“Um… Powered Combat Armor. My district manager said that you folks had recently been using some, with, ah, “positive” results, when he told me to call on you.”

Sara frowned; “Well…. In general we don’t. But we do have a “special weapons” unit that might have some interest. Let me send you down to talk to the team leader…..”

---

Tanj looked at the Mouse’s image on the monitor; “He said WHAT?”

Sara shrugged; “He said that his district manager told him we’d been using powered armor. Told him to call on us; that we might want to buy more.”

Tanj sighed; “Dammit, it sounds as if someone’s putting it together, and figuring out we actually were behind the Nikkeldepain raid.” After a moment she growled; “So what did you do with him?”

Sara shrugged; “Sent him to see Roland. What else?”

The Cheetah grinned; “Good. Roland will find out just what he knows, and what he suspects.”

---

The mouse walked down the corridor, a print-out map in his paw. Why didn’t they mark the corridors in this place? He wasn’t even sure where he was! And why was he heading in this direction anyways? The pirates weren’t supposed to be interested in powered armor! It had almost no utility in boarding ships! It was too heavy and cumbersome to use in a planet-side raid, not that many pirate organizations were large enough to do something like that anyways! He was supposed to be sitting in the bar, by now, thoroughly rejected, not actually MAKING a sales call! Dammit, the plan was coming apart already!

Roland turned away from the Bunny lady at Cindy’s shout. “Hang on a sec, I’d better take this.”

Padding over to the comm console he looked down at Tanj’s face; “Heya, Skipper, what’s up?”

Tanj smiled, showing a few more teeth than was polite; “You’re going to be receiving a sales call in a moment. Webcorps. The sales rep seems to know we’ve been using powered armor. And that’s not good. I want you to find out what he knows, what he suspects, and what he’s guessing at. If you have to, take him to dinner, entertain him, and charge it to my account, although with luck he’ll pick up the tab. I don’t want him leaving until we know just how much trouble we’re in!”

Roland glanced up, over the console, at the Bunny. Kitchens. She seemed pretty knowledgeable; maybe he could get her to help with this. “Gotcha. I’ll let you know what we find out. Roland out.”

The Mouse looked from Badger to Badger to Bunny and back; “Um… why yes, Webcorps does have a new model out; the Intimidator. Its made for fast strike, and reconnaissance operations that require a little more “oomph” than the older Stalker model, and more stealth than the Harrier. Um…. I’ve got a video that probably describes it better than I could….”

As the video ran, Roland kept up a rapid-fire string of questions. He tripped the Mouse up three times, but one of the times the Mouse caught himself and dredged up the right answer. It MIGHT just be a civilian amongst a bunch of cutthroats, or it might be a newbie on the job, possibly sacrificed by his boss to either gain a lucrative new account, or make way for someone with a little more presence… On the other hand, the Mouse claimed to have been with the firm for years, so he really should be a little more used to this sort of thing. Something wasn’t quite right, but he couldn’t put his finger on it.

The Mouse shook his head; he HAD to do something here; the Badgers, both of them, were asking too many tough questions. The Bunny lady so far had been quiet, but if he had a face like that, he wouldn’t want to call attention to himself either. It was a shame; she had a great rack…. With even a half-way decent face, she could have been a holo star…. Forcing his attention back to the Badger, he muttered; “No, the jammer reaction time can be measured in milliseconds; they shouldn’t be able to get a lock on you, even with the new DCS 4450…. For a moment he stared at the Badger; this was his worst nightmare come true. Someone who was actually interested in the “product” he had for sale….

Kitchens watched the Mouse squirm. Something about this guy did NOT ring true; oh, he knew enough of the answers to at least possibly be legitimate, but… he just wasn’t the TYPE. Most ‘mech salesfurrs were retired military; furrs who’d used the suits on the sharp end of things. This guy reminded her more of a…. not even a tech service type; they too tended to be ex-military, but from a logistical, or service background instead of a combat one. No, this guy reminded her more of the scientists that actually developed things like this. And then it hit her. The Crown Prince was trying to blame the attack on the Techies of Gates’ World. What if the Tech Cartels of Gates’ world were trying to do the same to HIM? And here she was, without any support, and no means of communications. Crap!

“Dinner?” the Mouse blinked; “Well…. I suppose I could do with a bite.” He really wanted nothing more than to be shed of these pests, but…. He did have a cover to maintain. Forcing a smile he nodded; “Yes, I think that sounds great!”

---

“Oh, good Lord, no; I’ve never been in the military.” Roland nodded sagely; “Thought not. So how DID you get into this line of work?” Here was something the Mouse was more comfortable with; “Well, I spent my early years, just out of college, in the design department. Fiber optic communications gear. Then I took a team leader’s position in power plant design.” He smiled a little shyly; “I’ve got several patents in that area… Anyways, from there, I moved up in the organization, until I was managing a development team, mostly working on frame, propulsion and armor systems….” He sighed; “But I got too lost in my work. My wife left me. My kids won’t talk to me. Finally, I hit that point in my life where I questioned what it was all for. What it was worth.” The pain in his voice sounded genuine; if this wasn’t the truth, he was a very good actor. The Mouse looked the Badger straight in the eye; “I got out of that rat race, you’ll pardon the pun, and took a position in sales. It gets me out more. I get to meet new people, see new sights, and I can still talk about the things I know about.”

Roland nodded; “So what made you decide to come here? Why us?”

The Mouse shrugged; “It was something my boss came up with. Don’t ask me why. At the sales conference three weeks ago, he just took me aside and said that he had a hot tip, and that he wanted me to pay you guys a call.” The Mouse looked curiously at the Badger for a moment; “Why? Something wrong?”

Roland forced a smile; “No… its just that we’re… doing a little innovation. Working on something special, and we don’t want it to leak out. Wouldn’t want any of our, ah, “rivals” pulling the trick before we get a chance to.”

The Mouse nodded sagely; “I understand. I take it this is the kind of thing that might only work once?”

The Badger leaned back and smiled; “Well…. After the initial couple of, ah, “events” I suspect defenses might be formulated. No point in rushing that, at least not from OUR point of view.”

The Mouse swirled his drink around his glass and nodded; “Well, we have very strict confidentiality… with our customers.”

Cindy listened to the veiled threat, and for the first time thought the mouse might actually be what he claimed to be. THAT was the kind of line she expected from a weapons vendor…..

The Mouse leaned closer; “You seem to be a person of, ah, “influence” in your organization, in the area of powered armor. Tell you what. Webcorps is putting on a little exposition, at the Ramstein Tournament, in about a week. There’ll be genuine Intimidators there. How’d you like to try one out for yourself. Put it through its paces?” The Mouse watched Roland’s eyes widen, and knew he had him hooked. He had no idea if Webcorps would foot the bill for this or not, not sure what they’d make of the Badger suddenly showing up, but it would at least get him out of the way, while he did what he had to….. And once the deed was done, it didn’t really matter what the Badger thought, did it?

Roland nodded slowly; “I’ll have to talk to my superiors about time off, but yes, I’d like that. I’d like it very much.” He turned and shot a glance at Cindy.

The Mouse read his look easily and sighed; “I’m afraid my budget isn’t unlimited; I can only sponsor one….”

Roland nodded, his eyes still on Cindy; with a sigh he muttered; :”I understand….”

---

Jenka looked at the Badger, and frowned. “You think this is the best way to figure out if he’s legit?”

Roland nodded; “I get to question his boss as to why he decided to send him here. If I show up and they have no clue what’s going on, we’ll KNOW he’s a fake. And besides, this Intimidator model seems custom-made for our needs. Small enough to let us board ships, powerful enough to slug it out if things go wrong.”

Jenka sighed; “All right, as long as he’s paying for it. Will this guy be sticking around while you’re gone?”

Roland shook his head; “Said he had other sales calls to make, but the transport going in his direction doesn’t leave for three days after I do.”

Jenka made an Uh-HUH!” sound, and growled; “Well, make sure he’s WELL watched in the interim. Don’t want him up to any mischief!”

Roland grinned; “I’ve got just the plan for that……”

---

Wanda looked at the Badger and shook her head; “I am NOT amused. The Medical Department is NOT a detention center!”

Roland sighed; “Look, Doc, I understand. But this is a special case. We don’t KNOW he’s someone’s agent…well, we think he’s Webcorps’ sales rep, but there’s a chance he might be something beyond that. I don’t want to piss him off, if he’s genuine. On the other hand, if he’s NOT, I want to make sure he’s somewhere where he can’t get into trouble. Now, if you just find some, ah, discrepancy in his immunizations, we can put him in isolation for the five days it’ll take me to get to Ramstein. If he’s clear, you release him. If he’s not, THEN he goes into “detention”. PLEEEEAAASSSSEEEEEE?”

The Wolverine sighed; “On ONE condition. Jenka has to OK this. By God, its not coming out of MY operating budget!”

---

Roland grinned at the Mouse and saluted him with his glass; “I managed to talk them into it. As luck would have it, there’s a transport headed in that direction late tomorrow.”

The Mouse nodded; “I’ve got an appointment at the Dutchy of Lippenschitz next week. My transport doesn’t leave for three days. But as soon as I’m done there, I’ll try and get back here, see what you thought, and then maybe we can get down to cases.”

Roland nodded; “Well, while I’ve got you here, since your background was in power systems, I wonder if you could take a look at my ‘mech… maybe you could make some suggestions….”

The Mouse suppressed a wince, forced a smile and nodded; “Sure; not much else to do…”

Kittiara’s Writing: John’s Tale

John smiled at the Kurani; “Yes, I remember one time that was most memorable.” He turned to gaze out the viewport; “we were on Preakness. Mistress Jenka had some business there. The meeting was being held at a rural location, for security purposes.….”

The farm actually was a working farm; livestock of various types were cared for there. And yet, it was the “side-line” of the owners that brought in the most money. They boarded slaves, while owners were elsewhere. A natural extension, considering some of the other facilities at the farm. Of course, Mistress Jenka was delighted with the facilities, and at the owner’s invitation, just HAD to place John in their care…..

John looked around the stall, and sighed. Just because he was an Equine didn’t mean he liked stalls. Still, the straw was clean, and there was enough room. With a sigh, he decided he might as well make the best of it. Somehow, he thought, Mistress would survive without him. Security, at least at this location, wasn’t a problem, and none of the other “corsairs” would dare break the moratorium by offering offense. Besides, none of the issues on the table had anything to do with the Black Fleet, at least not directly. No, she’d manage without him…..

Still, he would rather have been in the “big house”…

The sound by the bars made him turn his head. A female rabbit, wearing only a collar and a plug gag was leaning through the bars of the stall door, pouring water into his water trough. She looked up at him, and winked, and then was gone. A slightly overweight male panda, similarly attired, moved into view, and reaching through the bars, hung a feed bag from a peg on the stall wall. John watched aghast. How far were they going to take this “animal” thing? Clopping over to the feed bag, he sniffed carefully. Oats. Blech. Tasteless, and they gave him gas. Besides, they hadn’t removed his gag yet; how was he supposed to eat, or drink? Moving over towards the door, he watched the pair move on down the line, filling water troughs and handing out food. He wondered what he’d have to do to get a decent Spanish Omelet here…..

Night was descending. A “trainer” had come by, and removed his gag long enough for him to eat. Of course, they hadn’t unbound his hands. While he ate, he was cursorily informed of the rules of the place. Nothing really unexpected there. When he was done, the trainer had promptly re-installed the gag, and departed.

He was sitting, leaning against one wall of the stall, bored out of his mind, when two fems opened the door to his stall, and entered. One was the honey-colored bunny fem, and the other was a striking Zebra mare. They gestured for him to stand up, and then, equipped with curry combs they proceeded to give him one of the most delightful brushings of his life. Maybe this wasn’t going to be so bad, after all….

The Bunny put down the brush, and stepped to the door; she looked one way and then the other; turning she gave the Zebra a most conspiratorial wink. The Zebra chuckled into her gag and set down her brushes. John turned to watch, curious as to what was going on. The Zebra selected a pair of leather straps from a peg on the stall wall, and proceeded to clip one end of each strap to the rings on the side of his head harness. The other ends of the strap were clipped to ring-bolts in the walls of the stall. He found himself standing, facing the door; sitting, or laying down wasn’t going to be an option. In fact, as the Bunny busied herself around his ankles, he found that he couldn’t really even look down very well. Tied with his hooves a little more than shoulder-width apart, he found himself standing there, waiting for whatever came next.

He should have guessed. The Zebra moved around behind him, her arms encircling his waist, her hands stroking at his sex. The Bunny knelt before him, nuzzling his heavy balls. There was nothing he could do but close his eyes, and enjoy it. and that’s just what he did.

For the longest time, he thought they were just going to jerk him off. Expertly, the Zebra brought him to the very edge, not once, but several times, stroking both hands along the length of his cock. Somewhere along the line, the Bunny seemed to disappear. It wasn’t until what seemed like hours later that he saw her reappear, to again glance both ways along the corridor from the stall’s door. The Zebra’s arms vanished from around his waist, and she moved into view. John watched as she bent herself almost double, hands on knees, and then, with the Bunny’s assistance, she backed onto his hard cock, impaling herself. It was obvious from her wetness what the Bunny had been doing.

He didn’t need any more invitation. With an almost canine growl he started thrusting his hips forward. The bunny moved around in front of the mare, to sit between her hooves, to lean back and to lick at where his shaft disappeared into her. Tugging at his restraints John drove into her as hard and as fast as he could.

It was a good thing he was gagged; his whinny when he came would have woken the dead otherwise. The Zebra pulled away, all too soon, and the Bunny moved close with a double-pawfull of straw, to wipe him clean rather brusquely. And then they were gathering their brushes and heading for the door, as if they were behind schedule. At the last minute, the Bunny stopped and returned, to unclip the straps from the wall. She left them still attached; to his head harness, and to his ankle cuffs, and then she was gone. John clopped over to the door, to gaze after them, wondering if the next furr was in for their treatment, or if they were just servicing equines? Or maybe he was just “special.” There was no sound, no suggestion, no hint of where they’d gone or what they were up to. Finally, he gave up his vigil, and returned, to try and find a comfortable place in the straw.

The Bunny was back, in the morning. She refilled his water trough, and then unbuckled his gag, leaving the head harness in place. There was no point in trying to ask her questions, as her gag was now locked in place. She watched quietly while he drank his fill, and then rebuckled his gag in place. Then, with a furtive look over her shoulder, she moved close, paws moving over his crotch; he was hard in a moment, but before he could DO anything, footsteps approached, and the Bunny had fled.

The Trainer smirked as she regarded him. “Morning Wood, eh? Well, that’s fine. I’ve got a cock strap here that’ll maintain that rather nicely I think….” John stood stoically as the trainer added to his harness. Among other things there was one strap that encircled him, between body and balls, pulling the skin tight, making his balls bulge. This was accentuated by a strap that passed from back to front, separating his ballsack into two bulging sections. And the studded strap around the base of his shaft, where it emerged from his sheath kept him hard. As the trainer tugged on the reins, leading him from the stall, he was very aware of how his hard shaft bobbled up and down, in front of him.

Exercise seemed to be the order of the day. He was attached to a device that led him around in a circle, and forced him to keep walking. It was boring. Other male slaves, similarly harnessed, were added to the arms of the device. As he walked, the old adage; “if you’re not the lead dog, the view never changes” came to mind, and he decided there was a lot of truth to it.

After what seemed like several hours, with the sun bright and hot overhead, the Bunny arrived again, with more water. With the device stopped, she went from furr to furr, removing gags, and holding up a bucket to let them drink. As she presented the water for John’s consumption, she seemed to make a point of rubbing up against his hard shaft. He did his best to stand the teasing as best he could, but when she’d passed on to the next furr, he was all too aware of how his shaft was jumping in time with his heartbeat…..

After another stint of walking in place, trainers arrived, to unhitch the slaves. Apparently next on the agenda was some cross-country work. With the trainer trotting behind him, reins in her hand, he was directed to trot down a trail. For a while, it was pleasant, if you didn’t mind running with your hands tied behind you. They passed through a small wood, around the periphery of a small lake, and then into some rolling hills. After a while, though, it became just as much work as the “morning walk” had been.

Panting hard, John and his trainer trotted back to the farm compound. The trainer maneuvered him to a rail fence, and then, using the reins and some leather thongs, tied him to the fence in a standing position, next to several other slaves, tied in a similar fashion. As he stood there, panting, John watched as other slaves were brought in from their runs, and tied along the fence, until about a dozen males were there.

As they stood there, John looked around. Each of the males sported either a cock ring, or a strap similar to his own, and each had an erection. The Stallion smiled to himself, noting that he was the “best equipped” of the lot. Of course, he WAS hung like a horse, so that wasn’t really surprising….. Sensing some of his “companions” shifting, the Stallion looked around. A small party of female slaves were approaching with buckets and scrub brushes.

It was nice to be hosed down, and nicer still to be lathered up, and scrubbed clean. Suddenly the sun didn’t feel so warm, but it was still warm enough to be comfortable. Standing there in a gentle breeze, he found himself rather content, as he and his associates drip-dried.

The trainer was dragging someone by a leash, and as they got closer, John realized it was the golden bunny fem. Her arms were tightly encased behind her in a leather monoglove, and a short hobble made her take two steps for each of the trainer’s. A rather huge ring-gag forced her jaws open to an extent that looked quite uncomfortable. Squinting, the Stallion scowled; it LOOKED as if the Bunny’s buck teeth had been dipped in liquid rubber. They looked huge, but… soft. And the way the Bunny looked… From her body language, she’d done something wrong, and had been, or was being, punished. The Trainer uncoupled the Bunny’s leash and shoved her towards the fence; “you know what to do, Slut.” Turning, without looking back, the Trainer stalked off the way he’d come.

The Bunny turned and watched him go, for a moment; when he’d turned the corner, she turned back to the fence, her gaze travelling from one furr to the next. And the Stallion thought the look on her face was almost… predatory. If this was punishment, she was enjoying it. Perhaps enjoying it too much. He watched as she moved to one end of the line, dropped to her knees, and proceeded to slide the furr’s hard shaft through the ring gag and into her mouth…..

John had to smile; all eyes along the fence were on the Bunny. She seemed to be taking her time; she was only on the fourth furr when the Trainer came back around the corner. Harsh words were spoken, and several strokes of the riding crop applied, all to no apparent avail; the Bunny continued to take her time, teasing each of the males unabashedly, until she could hold them back no longer. Only then, reluctantly, would the Bunny move to the next fur. After a while, the Trainer threw up his hands and stalked off. The Bunny just smiled.

To his surprise, the Bunny skipped him, as she worked her way down the line. Keeping his cool, the Stallion just raised one eyebrow, and smiled softly as she proceeded to tackle the Hyena next to him. However, quite a while later, as it was getting dark, the Bunny finished the last furr in line, and returned to him.

It was worth the wait. His shaft barely fit through the ring in her mouth. The amount of his meat she could take was miniscule; and yet, it was the most sensitive of his flesh, and she certainly knew how to, ah, make the most of things. Unlike the others, she seemed quite willing to suck him off as rapidly as possible, and given all the “visual stimulus”, it didn’t take long before he was pumping his load down her throat, all over her face, and breasts. She sat back on her haunches for a moment, grinned up at him, and then after catching her breath, leaned forward to take the head of his cock in her mouth again.

Sensitive after having just cum, the Stallion whinnied into his gag, and stamped his feet, much to the Bunny’s apparent amusement; she didn’t relent. She was still working on him when the trainer returned. Scowling the trainer glanced at the sun, now vanishing below the horizon and growled; “Finish him quickly; the others will have to wait for tomorrow. I swear, you are the SLOWEST I’ve EVER seen!”

Having cum once, John found it not easy to cum as the trainer commanded. And the more the riding crop rained down on the Bunny’s ass, the more she seemed to tease him. It seemed like hours before he was able to produce a second orgasm, almost in spite of all the Bunny was trying to do to him. Fortunately for the Stallion at least, the delay seemed to be attributed squarely to the Bunny….

The Bunny was led off, and if what the Trainer was saying was true, to even harsher “punishments”. After a while the male slaves were collected by their own trainers and led back to their stalls for the evening. After having had nothing all day, the oats were almost satisfactory.

It was a minor omission, or so it seemed. After the meal, he’d been re-gagged, but his hands hadn’t quite been correctly secured behind his back. John spent most of the night wondering how he should use the opportunity. Aside from some judicious scratching, that was….. In the end, he decided he might as well take full advantage of the opportunity.

When the Bunny showed up with the water the following morning, she found the Stallion standing, feet held apart by straps, arms widespread, and likewise secured to each wall of the stall. She blinked t him, staring for a moment, and then shrugged; as if concluding there must be some reason to have left him restrained all night. And then, as expected, a grin spread across her face…..

John watched as she put down the water bucket and came, to kneel before him. Her gag was locked on, today, but her paws were free, and in moments she was teasing him, stroking and fondling him. Smiling around his own gag, the Stallion slipped the hooks from the straps, and brought his arms down, to softly caress her ears.

It took a moment for it to sink in; suddenly the Bunny’s body went rigid as she froze in surprise. The Stallion just laughed into his gag, his hands taking possession of her. The one thing the stall had plenty of, was leather straps, and it didn’t take long to bind her as he wished. With her wrists tied in front of her, and her ankles tied to either side of her bound wrists, she hunched up on the straw, her ass high in the air. The stallion chuckled and ran a paw appreciatively over her plump ass. The Bunny squirmed, if anything, with delight, as his fingers stroked over her cleft.

After a while she was howling into her own gag as his fingers slid in and out of her wetness. Slowly he stretched her; one finger, two fingers, then three. And then, to his amazement, four. Yes, she was ready. Chuckling, he used two fingers from one hand and two from the other, to spread her sex as wide as he could. Presenting the head of his cock to her sex, he pushed forward, not ungently.

He thought for a moment that the Bunny was having a fit, from the way her body bucked and spasmed; hesitating, he realized that as he’d slid the first couple of inches of his meat into her, she’d had a massive climax. Smiling, he placed his hands on her hips, and slid a few more inches into her.

Stretched tight around his shaft, he plumbed her depths carefully; he didn’t want to hurt her after all, just pay her back for all the teasing. However, despite his best efforts, she climaxed almost continuously. He would rather have taken his pleasure and left her wanting, but that obviously was not to be. Conscious of the time slipping away, of the impending arrival of his trainer, he brought himself to an orgasm, filling her to overflowing with his cum. Then, smiling, he left her there, crouched, and dripping, while he filled his own water trough from her bucket, released his own gag, and drank deeply. Only after he’d refastened his own gag, and cleaned himself off with a handful of straw, did he release her. She was through the stall’s door and around the corner only seconds before his trainer appeared.

He knew they knew. He didn’t know how they knew, but they knew. Whispered comments among the trainers. Sideways looks. He kept a slight smile on his face, but otherwise, did everything he could to maintain a proper reserve. He'd made his decision; now the chips would fall where they would.

But for some reason, nothing happened. The day was as boring as the previous one. Well….. almost. The morning was spent, walking in mind-numbing monotony, following the iron lead of the machine, trudging around in the dust with the others. They’d added poles about a foot off the ground, extending radially from the machine’s hub, and that forced him to lift his feet high with every step. It wasn’t so bad for him, but the Bandicoot three places ahead of him, was having a rough time. The afternoon run, however, THAT was different. The trainer led him to a place where a female Bat stood. There were cuffs of some shiny metal around her wrists, and a pole between the cuffs, forcing her to stand with her wings extended. She looked as if she were trying to take flight. She wore a body harness, and a similar one lay in a tangle on the ground in front of her. The Trainer smirked; “It seems that running is just too natural for you. We don’t think you’re getting enough cardiovascular exercise from it. So we’ve arranged a way to make it a little more, ah, “demanding”…..

He couldn’t believe his eyes. He’d seen professional athletes training, running, pulling what looked like a miniature parasail behind them, to increase the effort. It looked as if they’d found a living parasail for him! More in shock than in stoic patience, he stood there while the trainer buckled the harness around him, and connected the two together with about fifty feet of shock cord. Finally, with the trainer standing off to one side, the reins in his paws, John heard “Giddiap!”…

.

It was like pulling a plow. Or more properly pulling a plow at an almost-run. He had to lean hard into the harness. The bat, with her own restraints, didn’t seem to have as much control as he’d expected and she kept fluttering off to one side or another, changing the angle of resistance. A couple of times he almost fell. And then there were the wind gusts…. As he came over the rise of a hill, a gust caught the bat, and he felt as if he was about to be pulled off his feet. He could only imagine what the Bat must have felt like…..

The run was as long as the previous day, the trainer as tireless as he was demanding. Finally, however, they made it back to the compound. At the trainer’s “Whoa!” he slowed to a stop, only to have the bat lady collide against his back. Together they fell forward, in a tangle of straps. And then she started giggling…. Before he knew it they were all laughing as best able. It must have been a hilarious sight….

She was back again that night. Another fem had serviced the line of males at the fence, after their wash-down. This one had gone down the line in a desultory and uninspired fashion, as if it really were a true punishment. It left John wishing the Bunny had come back. But then, when she did, later that night, with a feed bag and a bucket of water, he realized his error.

With both of them gagged, they couldn’t communicate, but somehow he still knew that she was intent on paying him back for the morning’s little escapade. She was taking things to the next level, and apparently quite gleefully too. The oats were as bland as before, but the water tasted funny. He didn’t know if it was his imagination, but it seemed to have a funny blue tint to it as well. And yet, after the day’s exercise, he was too thirsty not to drink. She just grinned at him, around her gag, closed the door, and moved on to the next stall.

It wasn’t long, before he felt his shaft expanding out of his sheath. For a reason he couldn’t fathom, he was getting an erection. And no matter which direction he turned his thoughts, no matter how he tried to lay in his bed of straw, he couldn’t seem to escape his throbbing cock.

It was well after “lights out” when she reappeared. He’d fallen into a fitful sleep, and the first he knew of her presence was the sensation of something sitting on his legs. Half-sitting up, in the gloom he beheld her facing away from him, lashing his ankles together!

With his hands bound behind his back, all his struggles proved fruitless, and it just seemed to amuse her no end. Finally, when he’d determined that he couldn’t free either his wrists or his ankles, and abandoned his struggles she approached. She had a small vial concealed in her paw, which she proceeded to pour over his balls. Then, with a grin, she applied the last few remaining drops to the head of his shaft, and holding him in both hands, proceeded to impale herself on him.

John watched, wide-eyed, as the Bunny took an impressive amount of his cock into her sex. All the while, she watched him, as she moved, slowly, up and down, allowing herself to grow accustomed to his girth. And as she moved, the Stallion became aware of a growing warmth in his balls. And on the head of his cock. What had she put on him? This seemed worse than clove oil…. As the warmth increased so did her motions. It felt as if her tight pussy was about to ignite his cock through shear friction, but if his cock felt hot, his balls felt as if they were on fire. He found himself bucking, twisting, and squirming as the sensation grew more and more powerful. Of course, the Bunny just seemed to take ever-increasing delight in his motions….

Finally, somewhere between a red heat and a plasma, the sensations combined to overwhelm him, and with a massive shudder he came. The Bunny went wild, her own climax obviously triggered by the spurting cock deep within her. It seemed to last forever, but finally the Stallion lay on the straw, panting. It was then he became aware of the fact his cock was no longer burning. His own jism seemed to have extinguished that fire. The Bunny seemed to be aware of that as well, as she held him, within her, for as long as she could, knowing that when she rose, some of his cum might flow down, along his cock, to extinguish the blaze in his balls. Indeed, when she did finally pull free of him, she laid down on his chest first, and inched her way forward to nuzzle his nose. She paused there, letting his cum seep from her, and puddle on his stomach. Then she rose and was gone.

No matter how he tried, he could NOT get any of his own goo to flow down to his balls. And his water trough was empty. All through the night, the burning sensation kept him awake. That, his throbbing, still-hard cock, and his plans for revenge.

There isn’t much you can do with hands and feet tied. But a full-grown Stallion is still a force to be reckoned with. Sure enough, the Bunny returned, in the morning, bearing a bucket of water, for his trough. The door to the stall opened and she came through, grinning. John had managed to make his way to his feet, shoving himself up the wall, in the corner. With his hide full of splinters, he’d hopped to the opposite corner by the door. Waiting until she’d taken a step into the stall, he shoved off from the wall….

The impact of his body sent the stall door slamming shut with a bang. It was, at best, a controlled fall. Still, it knocked her, sprawling, into the far corner. Moving like the world’s fastest inchworm, the Stallion moved to trap her there…..

The Bunny found herself on paws and knees, stars swimming about her head, when something very large and very heavy landed on her. With an OOF! She was driven to the straw-covered floor. The Stallion was on top of her. Worse, he was still hard. Well, THAT wasn’t surprising, considering how much Vy’agra she’d put in his water. But now he was squirming up her body, as if he were determined to….. wait a minute… no, not THERE!….

John grinned around his gag. He’d managed to get to his knees, and leaning over the Bunny, his head against the walls in the corner, he had her pretty well trapped. But he couldn’t position himself right to drive into her pussy. With a shrug, he bent a little and presented the head of his cock against her ass. Maybe that was a more fitting “punishment” after all.

It was a good thing the Bunny was gagged; her howls would have brought furrs from miles around. No, he didn’t thrust too deep, or too hard; mostly he pressed in slowly and then took his pleasure on the out-stroke; still, with his cock in her ass, and her head in the corner, she couldn’t escape him. She was trapped, and after a while she was well fucked too. After he’d flooded her ass with his jism, he held his position, as she’d held him the night before, until he knew that SHE knew who was in control. Still in control. Only then, did he pull out, and release her.

Again, there were askance looks and whispered comments between the trainers. Never the less, the morning was again spent in high-stepping mindless walking, following the lead of the machine.

And again, the afternoon was something different.

---

“You’ve both been very bad. Each of you has sought to take control of a situation, when a slave has no right to do any such thing. And in doing so, each of you has pointed up the failure of your training and brought dishonor on your master or mistress. As a result, this afternoon, you will spend your time, not in domination, but in the exact opposite.”

John frowned; how was this the exact opposite of domination? It certainly wasn’t submission. He stood, in the compound, arms bound behind his back, ankles hobbled together, and once again, with a harness around his body. However, the harness held not a tether to a flying bat, but instead, the Bunny. She also wore a harness, clipped to his, so that she was held against his chest, facing outwards. Her arms were raised above her head, wrists cuffed behind his neck, and her ankles were bound to her thighs, a thong from knee to knee passing behind his back, to hold her legs wide apart. And of course, his once-again rampant cock was buried in her ass.

“Its very simple. You have to negotiate an obstacle course. Quickly. That means you’ll be trotting. Well, as best you can, given the hobble. Oh, and just to make sure you learn the lesson, neither of you will be gagged, but the Horse will be blindfolded. In that manner she depends on him to get them where they have to be, and he depends on her for direction. If they don’t cooperate, they fail the quest, and will both be punished.”

John felt the blindfold pulled over his eyes, and shook his head. Not necessarily to dislodge the blindfold, but at the logic. The opposite of dominance was cooperation? HUH? What point where they trying to make? And if they failed, what would be their punishment? Maybe the trainers had been provided by a low-bidder….

The crack of the riding crop on his ass made him jump forward, bringing his thoughts back to the task at hand. He heard the Bunny gasp at the initial sudden movement, his cock moving harshly in her ass; but then he heard a giggle, and her silky voice growl; “A little to the left. Ground’s level…..” He started forward at a quick walk, feeling her bounce up and down on his shaft with each step. Of course the trainers had used a cock ring for the occasion; he wouldn’t be getting soft. And they had used lubricant, so she slid up and down on his shaft quite nicely…. As the voices faded behind them, she started to bounce a little; “Come on, Stud, you’re not going to break me. Kick it up to a trot, and a little to the right. We got a long way to go, ya know.”

---

John was panting lightly as they started down a gentle slope, the chain between his ankles rattling loudly. It was unnerving to be trotting along unable to see where you were going. “How do you know we’ve got a long way to go?”

The Bunny laughed; “This isn’t the first time I’ve been punished in this way.”

John thought about that for a moment and then muttered; “I take it you wind up here often?”

She laughed; “Not as often as I like, but whenever I can arrange it.”

John wondered how a slave would go about arranging to be sent to a place like this, and why. “What happens if we don’t complete the course in the allotted time?”

The Bunny chuckled and bounced up and down on his shaft a little more than the Stallion thought necessary for his gait; “hang on…. Turn coming up. About sixty degrees to the left. A little more. Back just a hair. That’s good; straight ahead for about thirty paces. Now… if we don’t make it on time, why, we get to do it again tomorrow. We do it until we get it right.”

There was a laugh in her voice that bothered the Stallion; “You… sound as if you wouldn’t mind that.”

The bunny shrugged; “no, not really. Although the last time I went home so reamed out I had to wear a diaper for a week. Lord, that Minotaur was hung! Aggressive, too!” She chuckled, and he felt her anal ring contract around his shaft as she squeezed him; “Tell me, you got anything better to do? A little more to the left. Or maybe you prefer being a tractor for bat-gliders?”

John thought for a moment; the friction of her ass on his shaft was starting to get to him, and he didn’t think it’d be long until he had an orgasm; “Um…. No, don’t really have much better to do, until Mistress decides to leave. But surely you’re not getting much out of this?”

The Bunny laughed; “Oh, I’ve got a thing for anal sex. That’s why I let you knock me into just the right position in the stall this morning. That’s why I’m not bound facing you. And, if you hadn’t noticed, I’ve got a thing for really well hung guys. But I admit, a little direct stimulation would be nice…. One time I bribed a trainer to insert some ben-wa balls up my quim… unfortunately this group’s too straight-laced.”

John chuckled; “Don’t tell me you PLANNED that, this morning?” At her laugh, he shook his head; “OK, tell you what. You find something suitable, and I’ll see if I can’t rub you the right way….”

The Bunny’s idea of “something suitable” turned out to be a willow tree. It took some maneuvering, but eventually John managed to find a way to rub her crotch against the smooth-barked trunk. The spasms of her body as her climax claimed her drove him over the edge as well, and again, he flooded her ass with his cum.

---

A smooth-barked willow; a water-smoothed rock, and a fallen log later, they clopped back to the compound, hours late. The Trainers tsk-tsked, and promised they’d do it until they got it right. John thought it might be more like “until their Master or Mistress” came for them…..

And unfortunately, that was the following morning. John was scrubbed, and led to the “big house”, his leash handed to Jenka. Jenka smiled, had him collect her luggage, and follow her to the aircar that would take them back to the starport.

John had just placed the last case in the trunk, when he saw her. The bunny was wearing a cream-colored dress that set off her golden fur nicely. And she was walking towards him. “Just wanted to say goodbye, and thanks. I’d hoped things might go on a little longer, but such is life. And with you leaving, well, I don’t have time to draft another partner, so I guess the vacation’s over.”

John blinked; “Your Master or Mistress call for you?”

The Bunny smiled; “Actually, I’m my own Mistress. I guess that’s a good way to phrase it.” At the Stallion’s blank look, she smiled; “I like to indulge myself with my little fantasies, but my real kink is running my own corporation. Thus, when business permits, I sneak away to here, or a few places like it, where I can live out my fantasies. For a while at least. But now its time to get back.” She grinned up at him; “Maybe we’ll meet here again some day?”

John smiled; “I’d like that.” And then Jenka was calling from the aircar’s open door….

---

When they were airborne, Jenka turned to him; “Friend of yours?” The Stallion smiled; “Yes Mistress. Jogging Partner.”

---

The Kurani frowned, as she looked at her PADD; “Would you classify that as “Topping from the Bottom”, or “Topping by Proxy?”

The Stallion thought for a moment and then shrugged; “I really have no idea. Occasionally She was topping. Occasionally I was topping, or at least I THOUGHT I was. And there’s no doubt the trainers were in on it, catering to her desires…..” He shrugged; “Doesn’t really matter. When you get right down to it, we both had fun.”

The Kurani nodded thoughtfully.

Jinx grinned up at the Stallion; “Two questions?”

The Stallion nodded cautiously.

“Do you ever see her?” The Stallion smiled wryly; “Yes, as a matter of fact, we’ve… met occasionally. When our vacations overlapped. When we could get away.” He grinned; “The, ah, “Game” continues. Its interesting. We each come up with these wild ideas to get control over the other; sometimes they work, sometimes they backfire, and sometimes they just flop. But we DO always have fun.”

The Skunkette nodded and then gave him her most winning smile; “That…. Jogging thing sounded like fun; care to show me EXACTLY how it worked?”

The Alarm is Sounded

Doodles watched the Wolf stagger into the shop. The lupine was walking a little bow-legged, and seemed to be near exhaustion. He didn’t look well. The Bunny waited patiently behind the counter as the Wolf ignored the displays, and came towards him. That meant something was very wrong. Sashi was on display in the window, modeling a new line of restraints, and even those who preferred males would stop and look at HER.

Luke stopped, and leaned on the counter. The Rabbit behind the counter was wearing a heavy collar, a belt, and nothing else. Well, nothing else if you discounted the cock-and-ball harness he wore. Blinking he raised his gaze to look the Bunny in the eye; “I need to talk to your boss. I’ve got a question….”

Doodles nodded and smiled; “I’ll go get him, Master. Be right back!”

As the Bunny turned, to head into the back of the shop, Luke frowned; there was a strap attached to the back of the belt; it divided, passing on either side of the Bunny’s ridiculous fluffy tail, and then, rejoined, passed between his buttcheeks. It was obvious that the end of the strap was attached to the back of the cock and ball harness, and it was also obvious that it held a truly huge phallus in the Bunny's ass. It made him think of how sore his own ass was, and that made him wince.

Hinoki stepped out of the back room and looked at the Wolf. The Wolf was leaning heavily on the counter, as if he were about to collapse from exhaustion. Raising an eyebrow, the Cheetah inquired lightly; “Been running a marathon?”

The Wolf shot him a look; “Closer than you might know. You Hinoki?”

The Cheetah nodded, and the Wolf continued; “I…. Well, never mind what I was doing there, but I was in the ventilation ductwork down on Deck 12, over by Frame 17. I got ambushed by something. It jumped on me from above. It had all the consistency of a puddle of tar. Before I knew what was happening, it had my paws and feet stuck to the deck, it had ripped off my clothes, and it then proceeded to fuck the living daylights out of me.” The Wolf waved a paw; “I know, I know, everyone’s telling me that I’m crazy. Everyone that’s not asking me for directions to that particular duct.” He leaned closer, over the counter; “ I think there’s some sort of monster loose on the station, but no one will listen to me. Everyone says you know more about sex and, ah….” The Wolf shot the Bunny a look; “Um… “Variations”, than anyone else on the station. Have you EVER heard of anything like that?”

Doodles piped up; “Well, Master, there ARE the tentacle monsters on Hyram IV. They’ve been known to grab passers-by… but I’m afraid they only go after females.”

Hinoki stared at the Bunny as Doodles went on; “Then there are the fire moths of Angorun III; they’re attracted by the pheromones of the natives when they have sex.” The Bunny grinned; “Its quite a show; all these glowing bugs swarming around the loving couple.”

Hinoki opened his mouth, but the Bunny ran on; “And then of course there are the Armadildoes of New Texarcania… But I don’t think they can climb, and they’re kinda hard, not the consistency of tar. Besides, unless they’re properly trained, they’re kinda shy. I doubt they’d attack you.”

Hinoki scowled; “Doodles…”

“Gee, I wonder if it could be a Night Phantom from Hervestia Prime? They’re supposed to be a dark formless shape… but they’re rather insubstantial, and I’ve never heard of one being interested in sex…” The Bunny grinned; “Not that sex would be uninteresting with you, Master…..”

“Doodles!” the Cheetah growled….

“I suppose it MIGHT be a mutant form of a Doradian ground-cloud, but they’re rare on their own home planet; I can’t imagine what one would be doing HERE!”…..

Hinoki sighed, and turned to walk over to a display rack; he grabbed a few straps, and a rather large prod-gag. The Bunny was just starting to expound on the creatures of Lagoth XII, when the Cheetah pounced. Several minutes later, a very well-bound and very effectively gagged Bunny joined Sashi in the window, and Hinoki was able to turn to the Wolf; “Sorry about that; he gets carried away some times. And he’s still being trained. Now, about your experience, I’m really not sure what to tell you. There are creatures that MIGHT fit your description, but I’ve never heard of one big enough to tackle someone your size.” The Cheetah grinned; “Tell you what, I’ll look into it, and if I find something, especially something marketable, I’ll get you a finder’s fee.”

The Wolf nodded; “I’m not worried about no “finder’s Fee”. I just want to prove that I’m NOT going crazy!”

Hinoki just grinned and shrugged. The Wolf looked at him for a moment, and then turned and limped through the door.

When the door had closed, Hinoki slumped, and sighed. He’d thought he’d gotten all of them. Turning to look at Sashi, he shook his head; “Where has it been all this time? And why should it show up NOW?”

The Hunt, Part 1

Helen listened to the Wolf as he told of his encounter with the Cheetah at the sex shop, and frowned. She was trying to look as if she were concentrating on her work, trying to look as if she was ignoring the Wolf, and yet suddenly she found her heart pounding. What if this Cheetah managed to capture the creatures? Capture her PETS? No, she couldn’t let that happen, but how to stop it?

That night, she lay awake, thinking about it. They were stuck, between the fan and the electrostatic precipitator. Especially since they’d gotten so large. Perhaps she could find a way to get them past the fan. Then there’d be plenty of ductwork for them to hide in. They might never be found! Sitting up and turning on the light, she fired up her terminal and called up the schematics for that part of the environmental system…..

Several hours and half a dozen cups of coffee later, she thought she had a plan. She’d have to bypass the run-status relays for the fan, and wouldn’t be able to leave it down for long, but if she moved fast, well, it should be possible. Leaning back, and hugging her pillow, she sighed; if she didn’t move fast enough, and they caught her, well, she could always say she’d gone looking for these strange creatures Luke had been talking about. Thinking there was no time like the present, she rose, dressed hurriedly, and went looking for the tools she’d need.

The run-status relay was easy to jumper out. The amp meter on the fan motor was a little harder to gimmick, but she finally just re-routed the signal from the fan in section 7 to cover that fan as well. Setting up the remote control, that was a little more difficult, and took a little longer than she’d expected, but finally, she was ready.

It was difficult to push her way through the duct against the hurricane winds. Finally she was at the screen over the discharge of the fan. Why anyone would put a screen there, she didn’t know; she certainly wasn’t going to fall INTO the fan from this direction, not while it was running. Pulling out the remote, she quickly slipped out of her overalls. She wasn’t wearing anything underneath. Trying to control the garment as it flapped in the wind, she thumbed the remote. Sure enough, she could hear the fan start to wind down. Kneeling in the duct, knees spread, she started to tease herself, stroking one finger along her quim, as she kneaded a breast with her other paw. She had to get the scent of her arousal down the duct, past the fan, and fast too….

She smiled as the first of the creatures slithered underneath the squirrel-cage fan blades, and then oozed through the screen. She waited until it was only a few feet away, and then backed up, her fingers working in and out of her dripping snatch, drops of her juices spattering the floor. Slowly she worked her way backwards, down the duct.

She was about to restart the fan, when yet another slithered through the screen. They must have divided again. How many more were still on the other side of the duct? As it was, she’d waited too long. By now someone would have to have noticed the fan wasn’t running, even if the computer showed it was. She inched her way back a little further and waited another minute. When no others showed, she reluctantly pressed the button.

The fan whirred to life. For a moment she thought she heard something go “clunk”, as if the fan blade had hit something soft and gelatinous, but then it was up to speed, the wind making her hair and tail stream out behind her.

The screen was a surprise; it hadn’t shown on the schematics. In a panic she searched for an opening, or a release. Why would someone put a screen across an otherwise open duct? And then she felt the touch at her ankle. Turning, she looked back down the corridor at the access hatch she’d come in; there was no way she’d make it, past all the creatures slowly slithering towards her. With a sigh, she surrendered to its touch, knowing, once again, she was going to be late for work. Very late.

The Hunt, Part 1b

Hinoki looked at the maintenance crew. They were just undogging the access hatch; the one that HE was going to try and sneak through. Setting down the pail of dry ice, he grinned at them; “What’s up, Guys?”

The Boar shrugged; “Got a complaint about the air quality in this section; we’re going to check out the fan.”

Hinoki looked from face to face and grinned; “I can feel a breeze on the back of my neck; I think the fan’s running. Besides, I wouldn’t go in there unless I absolutely had to; you heard about what happened to Luke, didn’t you?”

The female Marten chuckled; “You mean that Wolf? Yeah, I heard his story. Can’t say as I believe it, though. We’ve been in the ductwork a gazillion times and haven’t ever seen anything.”

Hinoki nodded; “Well, you know me; if there’s anything in there even remotely yiffy, I’d be interested in it. Let me know if you find anything!”

The Boar nodded and cracked the door. You could see his hair move as air was sucked in the crack. The Boar edged open the door a little further, and stuck his snout in; “Mabel, I think he’s right. The fan’s running just fine.” Pulling his head out and closing the door, he shrugged; “Maybe they’ve got a plugged duct or something.”

The Marten nodded; “I bet someone closed their damper and they couldn’t figure out what had happened. Lets go check out the furr that filed the complaint before we go crawling through the ducts.”

Hinoki waited until they were out of sight, and undogged the access hatch. It didn’t take but an instant to slip through. The handlight barely illuminated the stained, dark walls of the duct, but coupled with his night vision, he was able to navigate fairly well. He had no intention of trying to find the creature; instead he’d let it find him…..

Its attack was a surprise; it fell on him from above. Fortunately, it didn’t immobilize both of his arms, in its haste to swarm towards his crotch. He was able to grab a chunk of dry ice, and press it against the creature. It started to harden almost immediately. After about ten minutes of work, he had it confined securely in one of the airtight baggies he’d brought, although the thing was of such a size, that it barely fit.

He found another one, or rather it found him, about ten minutes after that. Again, he had little trouble subduing it as it tried to flow up his leg. It too was almost too big to fit in the baggie. As he sat there, in the corridor, Hinoki realized that both of these creatures were about to reproduce, and he wondered just what it was they’d found on to feed in here.

After an hour and a half, no other creatures had shown up, and he gave up. Gathering up his bucket and the two bagged creatures, he slipped back through the access hatch, and returned to his shop.

---

Luke looked at the Cheetah and growled; “I don’t care if you didn’t find anything. They’re in there, I tell you.” He looked around as if they might even now be sneaking up on him. “But that’s all right. I can wait. They’re bound to show up again, eventually, and when they do, well, lets just say “I told you so.”

Hinoki grinned and shrugged; “OK, that’s fine. Just remember, my offer still stands. If you can catch me one, if its something suitable, I’ll pay you for it.”

---

Sashi frowned; she’d gone into the freezer, to get that pan of leftover lasanga, but there were two large baggies of black stuff filling the shelf. Poking at one of them, she found it as rock-hard as everything else in the freezer. With a sigh, she pulled them out, extracted the pan of lasagna, and then stuffed them back in, making a note to ask Master about them later. They didn’t LOOK edible, but you never knew….

---

Jenka frowned, as she read the report. As any good pirate leader would, she had her spies among the members of the black fleet, and since the “hostile takover” incident, she’d been expanding her own private little network. At first glance this report, from down among the “ground crews” looked like nothing important, but…. Hitting the appropriate key, she sent the memo to the printer. Rising, she strode over to the printer, picked up the flimsy, and turned for her bedroom.

Tanj was in the master Bathroom. Specifically she was in the shower. She was tied, bent over backwards in a bow. Her widespread legs were shackled to the floor, her arms bound together, and pulled by a rope towards her knees. The back of her head rested on the floor. Jenka’s shower came with all the amenities, including room for about four, with stainless steel eyebolts. Jenka paused for a moment to watch the Cheetah undulate slowly. Rising from the floor of the shower in a smooth arc was a white plastic phallic shape; when the Cheetah relaxed, a significant length of the phallus was buried in her ass. After a while, though, she’d start to struggle, arching further, straining to lift herself off the phallus. It was then that the slow flow of water from the phallus could be observed. Then, after a few moments of straining, she’d tire and wind up impaling herself again. Jenka looked at the curve of the cheetah’s stomach, and thought that perhaps she could hold another half liter or so. No need to release her yet. Besides, if it ever got too much, she could void herself. Of course she’d have to clean the shower floor, but… Jenka smiled; she was confident the Cheetah wouldn’t break training like that. And she wanted her ass nice and clean for John later…. Stepping closer, she held the message flimsy upside down over the Cheetah’s head; “This make any sense to you?”

Tanj groaned and tried to read. The pressure of the warm water in her bowels was quite distracting. She felt as if she was going to burst like an overfilled water balloon. She hated enemas. But then that was probably why Jenka had chosen this particular punishment. She really was going to have to watch her tongue… Frowning she tried to concentrate…. “Um….. Sounds like one of the living dress creatures, Mistress.”

Jenka nodded; “Yes, that’s what I thought.”

Tanj shook her head; “But…. (groan) But they’re all accounted for. And they’ve never left my ship.”

Jenka frowned; “Are you SURE? What about Zassa?”

Tanj thought for a moment and then shook her head; “Don’t think so, M..Mistress, but if you’ll let me up, I’ll be glad to go check.”

Jenka chuckled; “nice try, but no. YOU have a date with John tonight. I’LL go check…..”

As the Jaguar padded out, Tanj groaned. John, was, of course, hung like a horse. A draft horse. And the fact that Jenka had tied her on this particular device probably meant that John was going to be plundering her ass tonight…..

---

Chris looked up as Jenka came through the door. He was nude, with a rampant hard-on, and a feather in one paw. Zassa was bound on his bed, in a most luxurious tie. She was on black silk sheets that only seemed to accentuate the color of her bright red fur. And she was held in place on the bed, with what seemed to be a hundred black silk ribbons. They encircled her ankles, above and below her knees, her upper thighs, her waist, above and below her breasts, upper arms, wrists, and of course her neck. A wide ribbon formed a blindfold, and another formed a gag, of sorts. Tiny ribbons had been threaded through nipple and clitty rings, and secured to the very tops of the bedposts. She was panting hard, and the aroma of aroused Vixen permeated the room. “Hate to disturb you two, but I need to talk to Zassa for a moment.”

Chris nodded, rose, and eloquently gestured to the Vixen; “Help yourself.”

Jenka tugged the Vixen’s blindfold up, and the gag down; Zassa looked at her questioningly.

Jenka, her face carefully neutral, held out the message flimsy.

Without being coaxed, Zassa read; she scowled and shook her head; “I know what you’re thinking, but I’m not missing any of the creatures, Mistress.” She looked up at the Jaguar, almost challengingly; “I take good care of my pets. VERY good care. I’d know if one was missing, or had reproduced.”

Jenka nodded; “I believe you; but if its not you, or Tanj, who makes similar protestations, then who? Or what?”

As much as she was able, Zassa shrugged; “Don’t know.”

Chris took the flimsy from Jenka’s paw, and read it. After a moment, he looked up; “you take this seriously?”

Jenka sighed and shrugged; “I don’t know. Maybe I’m getting a little paranoid, but…”

Chris looked at the Vixen, perhaps a bit impatiently; “Tomorrow, why don’t I arrange for a… a cleaning of the ductwork. If there’s anything in there, we should at least become aware of it.”

Jenka nodded; “All right.” Grinning at the Fox she purred; “I’ll let you two get back to work.” Shooting a wink at the bound Vixen, she departed.

Chris tugged the blindfold back down over the Vixen’s eyes, and paced around the bed, looking for the best place to resume. They’d lost the mood, but that was all right; it would be easy enough to recapture. He knew his Vixen well…..

Resurgent

Incredible space. The universe had expanded to an unbelievable size. And there were traces of prey everywhere. It headed away from its brethren, away from the competition, seeking prey, seeking sustenance….

The grille was no hindrance at all; it flowed through without even slowing. Below, a prey creature bent over an open inspection hatch, his head half-way into the opening. Tools were scattered about, and a holographic manual flickered in the air; the creature ignored all of those. As he’d bent over, his shirttail had ridden up, his pants down…. The crack of his ass was exposed, and it was to that, that the creature zeroed in on.

Zeke felt something go “Splat” on his back, and he jerked reflexively. Unfortunately his head was still inside the opening, and as he jerked upwards, the rather sharp edge hit the back of his neck. Reflectively he jerked away from that, his nose hitting the Tritium injector he’d been trying to replace. For a moment he saw stars, and was oblivious to the sensation of something sliding across his back…. Pulling his head out he looked around, sure that Rafe had returned and was pulling a practical joke on him. That Bear was always teasing him about how his drawers drooped…. But the Coyote saw no one in the compartment. He glanced up, but the ceiling was empty, and innocent… And then he felt something twitch in his pants…..

He’d never taken his pants off faster, not even when Emmy Lou offered to let him take her up the ass. For a moment the left leg hung on his foot, but he gave a mighty yank, there was a tearing sound, and it came loose; and then he was hopping around, trying to figure out what was going on. There was this big wad of black… something plastered to his crotch, entwined in his fur. He couldn’t get a clawtip under the edge to try and peel it off, couldn’t get a grip on it. What in the HELL was it? And then it hit him. Luke’s monster. For a moment his paws paused. Whatever it was hadn’t hurt Luke; in fact, it’d sounded kinda like fun, once you got over the initial shock…. So what should he do? What COULD he do?

The creature sensed the indecision, sensed that the prey was no longer actively trying to pry it off. Tentatively at first it flowed, stretching itself, one end pushing towards the Coyote’s tailhole, the other end flowing, widening, to cover its balls, and sheath….

Zeke watched in amazement as the thing spread itself thin as a coat of paint, stretching…. Until it almost looked as if he were wearing a black latex thong. And then it started moving, rippling over his sheath. He groaned and leaned back against the wall; Lord that felt good….. It’d been a Loooooong time… As the creature worked on him, he watched, seeing his shaft expand from his sheath, distending the creature. But the creature flowed around his member, rippling like ocean swells, moving up and down its length, faster and faster and faster until with a HOWL he came and came hard.

Zeke picked himself up off the floor; he hadn’t had an orgasm like that since Emmy Lou le him… well, maybe not even then. He looked down as the creature continued to work on him, softly squeezing his balls, stroking his cock… and then a tendril pushed its way into his asshole. The Coyote yelped, his paws flying down and back; no one had EVER done anything like that to him… and then he froze. It actually didn’t feel half-bad, not that he’d ever ADMIT it to anyone…. Leaning forward, he braced his paws on the inverter housing, spread his legs and let his head hang. The creature started working on him with gusto, and it wasn’t long before he was howling with pleasure again.

It caught the “scent”, and turned. One of his brethren was feeding, off to the right. Moving as fast as it could, the creature flowed through the duct, following the scent.

Zeke blinked as something landed on his back, with a plop. Twisting left and then right, he tried to get a look… Another of the black puddles had arrived; this one was flowing down his back, around the base of his tail, joining its friend….. and suddenly with more material to work with, he felt something much larger push into his rear, felt something much larger encase his cock and balls… and all the pleasures seemed to quadruple. He was working towards his third orgasm of the day, and now that reinforcements had arrived, it looked as if the fun was just beginning! Grinning, he muttered; “The more the merrier, guys. Come one, come all, for I am one HORNY Coyote!

Rafe balanced the box of bushings and the inconel setscrews on one paw, as he hit the door button with the other paw. As the door slid aside, he blinked, and almost dropped the parts. There was Zeke, naked as a jay bird from the waist down, with something black and gooey-looking running over his crotch. More goo covered his face, and each paw seemed to be stuck to the inverter housing with more of the stuff. And as he watched, the goo over his crotch moved. Involuntarily, he took a step closer, as he tried to figure out what was happening to his friend. It almost looked as if his buddy’s crotch was melting… He never saw the black ooze out of the ventilation duct overhead, scoot across the ceiling, position itself correctly, and then drop. It landed square on his head; the next thing he knew, he couldn’t see. He opened his mouth to yell, and something flowed, to fill his mouth, shutting off his shout before it even got started. And then something started to flow up his left leg…..

Zeke groaned. He was SO sore. He was SO thirsty; he felt as if he’d been milked of every drop of moisture in his entire being. Shoving himself into a sitting position, he looked around. The creatures were gone. Well, that wasn’t quite true. There was one still humping Rafe’s crotch, but it looked as if the Bear was unconscious, and it didn’t seem to be having much luck. It was a small one, anyways. Zeke grinned, and crawled stiffly over to his toolbox; he dumped the contents out, and then turned to his buddy… if he could find a way to coax that thing off of the Bear’s crotch, he might be able to keep it…. He felt as if he’d been run over by a truck, like he wouldn’t be able to walk right, and maybe not even sit down, for a month, but LORD, what a time!

“Well, I don’t think you should have kept it”

“Oh, come on, Rafe; tell me that wasn’t some of the best sex you’ve ever had!”

“The HELL it was! Cindy’s MUCH better than that!”

The Coyote raised an eyebrow; “She is? Can she go for two days straight?”

The Bear opened his mouth and then shut it; “No, of course not. But then, I’m not sure I can either.” The Bear paused and stretched, and then winced.

The Coyote just laughed; “Well, yeah, it was rather intense, wasn’t it? Tell you what, lets take it to the bar in Commons Eight; maybe we can rent it out or something…..”

Kittiara’s Writing: The Badger’s Tale

The Kurani watched as the Badger moved back and forth, between dresser, nightstand, bathroom, and the open backpack on the bed. As he moved, he talked, but it was obvious that his attention wasn’t on the tale of the raid on Nikkeldepain. On the other hand, she’d read all the after-action reports, and had a pretty good feel for what had happened. What she wanted from him was a sense of the personalities behind the dry words, and how he’d felt at the time. It wasn’t coming through very well; the Badger’s thoughts were obviously elsewhere. Smiling, she held her peace, and let him run down…. It was time for a change in tactics…

“That’s very interesting, Master Roland. Most useful…. Um… perhaps I could change the subject for a moment?”

The Badger paused, a stack of underwear in his left paw, a jar of something called “Badger Balm” in his right; “Change? Um…. I guess; what you got in mind?”

The Kurani smiled: “In addition to my work on the Nikkeldepain raid, I’m also working on a book on the sexual mores and practices in the Empire. I’m concentrating on the practice of sexual slavery, but I’m not really limiting myself to just that…. Could you tell me about your most memorable sexual exploit?”

The Badger blinked, and then grinned; “well….. Yeah, I guess. Its not exactly related to sex slaves, but it DOES stand out in my memory…..” The Badger paused and glanced aside at Cindy, as if embarrassed that his most memorable experience didn’t include her. For her part, she seemed not to notice, as she refolded the clothes the Badger had thrown in the general direction of the backpack.

---

The Ondeo Nacra was one of the Empire’s smaller assault craft. It specialized in those little hotspots that seemed to develop here and there through a wide-flung empire, sprinting here or there, to apply a judicial amount of force before things got out of hand. It carried a mixed company of Imperial Marines, four dropships, and a half-dozen exoatmospheric fighter-bombers. And as with most ships of that type, everyone had to know a little bit about everything, and pitch in as needed. And now, Roland was needed.

Their most recent engagement had been against a minor pirate stronghold in the N1973 system’s asteroid belt. The fighters had gone in and knocked out the stronghold’s defenses, and then the Marines had gone in, to clean them out. Of course it hadn’t been quite that simple; the fighters had missed some cleverly camouflaged missile launchers, and the Ondeo had taken a couple of hits, while launching the dropships, while the shields were down. As a result, they hadn’t taken any prisoners. But now, they had to patch up the ship, before they could go on to the next brushfire.

“Yeah, I can run the maintenance rig. AND I can weld in a vacuum, in zero gee.”

The harried Maintenance Tech nodded; “Okay; take 04, cycle out through the aft cargo lock, and link up with the work crew forward of frame 53.” Without waiting for a response, the Red Panda turned and headed to his next task.

Roland turned and headed for the aft cargo lock. Sure, he could run any suit of powered armor in the Imperial inventory, AND he could weld. But he’d never run a Maintenance rig before. Oh, he’d scooted around in one, once, as a lark, but never really DID anything with it. Still, how hard could it be?

---

“Heya, Stud! Oooooo, aren’t YOU a nice big piece of Male Meat! Wanna take a few minutes for a quick roll in the hay?”

It took a moment before Roland realized the high pitched, squeaky voice was coming from in front of him, and another moment to realize that it was coming from just above waist level. Looking down he beheld a “least Weasel”, smallest of the Mustelids. A very female Least Weasel, too. She stood there, dancing from foot to foot, with her paws behind her back, head tilted back, breasts thrust out, straining the fabric of her teeshirt. She SEEMED to be staring directly at his crotch, and as she moved restlessly, it almost seemed as if those globes were trying to caress his crotch.

Roland blinked; “Um…. Thanks, but I’d hate to hurt you… You’re a little small. Ah.. you haven’t seen the rating in charge of this section have you?”

She grinned; “I’m Camilla; I’m in charge of the Maintenance Rigs. Among other things. Tucker said that he was sending a vict.. uh, volunteer down to me. You’re Roland, right?”

Roland swallowed hard and nodded, as he stared at her. The Weasel couldn’t seem to stay still, and the way she was bouncing from foot to foot made her breasts bounce most enticingly…..

At the Badger’s nod she grinned and reached out a paw to grab… the front of his belt; turning she all but dragged him over towards the wall; “Here’s your rig. It’s the standard M-328 Proffet Industries zero gravity rig, identical to their IM-32 industrial model despite the military designation. But of course we’ve made a few modifications. Strip down, climb in, and I’ll show you what we’ve “improved on.”

Roland blinked and came to a halt; “Strip down? I thought these things were “shirtsleeve environment”?

The Weasel chuckled; “For the biomedical sensors. Can’t stick ‘em to you through cloth. And its best to be bare-assed just in case you have to use the “relief” facilities while on the job. Command doesn’t want you coming back aboard until the job’s done and that includes potty breaks.” She smirked; “And trust me, trying to drop your pants while in there requires contortions you’d probably be better off not trying to make; much better if you just do without ‘em to start.”

The Badger scowled, but pulled his teeshirt off over his head, and then, eyes fixed on a blank spot on the wall, undid his belt and dropped his pants.

Camilla chuckled; “ooooh, no undies! I LIKE it!” Before the Badger could say anything she’d turned and gestured to the suit; “OK, you open the hatch like this….” And then hydraulics were whining, the transparent aluminum hemisphere on the top of the cylindrical body rotating back. Roland found the hand and footholes in the rig’s shell, and climbed upwards; as he climbed he could have sworn he felt a light touch running over his crotch…. It only made him climb faster.

As he turned and settled into the padded cylindrical “cockpit” in the rig, the Weasel swarmed up the side to sit on the edge of the cockpit. Well, she never quite “sat”, but seemed to be in constant motion. “OK, main power is here; waldo controls here, here and here. Standard configuration, of course. We’ve made some modifications to the environmental controls, mostly to increase safety. The suit will alarm if CO2, or internal temperature get too high, or if your heart rate varies from certain norms. The waldos have to be returned to the neutral position to change tools, and that’s accomplished through this panel here, here, and over here. Gas flow to the heliarc is controlled through here, and your welder power settings are here. Movement is controlled by the joystick here, and magnetic grapples by this panel here. Watch your fuel readout here; if it gets too low, you’ll have to find a fuel point, and refill. There’s one by Frame 38, dorsal side, Frame 78, ventral side, and another one by the lock you’ll be going out. DON’T run out of fuel! If you have to be towed back, you’ll never live it down. Believe me! Communications are here for suit to suit, and here for suit to ship. Radar’s here, just in case you drop something. Got it?”

The cylindrical “cockpit” was deeper than he expected, and he found himself barely able to see some of the control panels; it was obvious the maintenance rig was built for the largest of furs. Roland blinked and then nodded; “Riiiiight. Waldos. Tools. Environmental. Welder. Maneuvering. Fuel. Radar.” He looked up and gave the Weasel a bright smile; “Good to go!”

The Weasel laughed and reached past him, to his right side; “Good, we’ll just engage the safety restraint system and you’re on your way!” She flipped a couple of toggles, and then was gone, swarming down the outside of the suit. Roland felt straps encircle and then tighten around his waist, shoulders, and feet, lifting him, and holding him in position as the canopy closed on its hydraulics. Now he had a good view of all the panels, as well as through the canopy. Crossing his fingers, he brought up main power, and nudged the joystick; the suit rose obediently, rotated a little sluggishly, and eased into the cargo airlock.

Camilla had been right about not being able to come back for potty breaks. The suit provided fruit juice and ration bars that tasted like mud, and the “relief” facilities were obviously made for a furr MUCH larger than he was. But then, the “cockpit” of the suit was designed to handle the largest of furrs, so it stood to reason that everything would be built to the largest common denominator. As he maneuvered a fresh sheet of hull plating into place with the waldos, he wondered just how many Elephants, or Water Buffalo wound up running these things. With practice the controls became second nature; he nudged his right knee against the magnetic grapple control, and then brought the No.2 waldo equipped with the heliarc around, to start welding a new seam. It was almost a relief when the low-fuel alarm went off.

There was actually a line at the refuel point, and he was able to nap for a few minutes. Then it was his turn. It wasn’t easy to back the suit into the refuel connection, and for a moment he flashed on some sort of obscene robot-sex image. Shaking his head, he forced that from his mind, and concentrated on making sure the connections were tight, and that nothing was leaking as the hydrogen and oxygen that powered his fuel cells started flowing into the tanks.

Twenty-six hours. That’s how long he was in the suit. Others, those from the regular maintenance crew, or at least those that had survived the attack, had been in their suits longer, but for him, it was still a marathon session. He waited for his turn to cycle through the cargo lock. Last out, last in. When he’d cleared the lock, he maneuvered his suit into its mooring clamps. The air in the ship had never smelled so sweet as when the canopy retracted. Twisting, he tried to hit the release for the safety straps. He felt his fingertips slide over the button, but nothing happened. With a grunt he twisted harder, jabbing. He was sure he’d hit the button, but again, nothing happened. Growling he ran his right paw down along his side, seeking the folding rigger’s knife in his left pocket, only to realize he wasn’t wearing his pants. Grrrrr.

“heya, Stud; what’s up? You like that suit so much you don’t want to leave?”

Roland twisted back, and growled; “Camilla, the damned safety harness won’t retract!”

The Weasel chuckled; “Really? Gee, let me see what I can do…..”

Before he could say a word, the Weasel dove into the suit, squirming between his body and the padded side of the cockpit. She seemed to flow bonelessly around his body. Roland let out a yipe as she squirmed between his legs, around the left side of his body, across his rump and then down towards the bottom of the cylindrical “cockpit”.

“Nope, don’t see anything wrong with the switch. Let me check the Relay”

Roland hung in his harness, and groaned. He wanted a shower. He wanted to get some sleep. He wanted some Real food. Instead, he heard the whine as the canopy started to close. “Camilla what are you DOING?”

The Weasel chuckled; “Sorry, bumped the wrong relay module. Try the canopy switch.”

Roland nudged the switch, with no response. As the environmental system came back up, he growled; “Camilla, something’s wrong here. What are you DOING down there?” What it FELT like she was doing was teasing his crotch with the tip of her tail. Was she doing that on purpose? Groaning, he squirmed in his harness, but he couldn’t escape. If she didn’t stop soon, he was going to embarrass himself; that tailtip against his balls was bound to produce an erection soon…. Or was that what she was after?

Roland found he couldn’t look down into the bottom of the cockpit very effectively; his body blocked his view. “Camilla? CAMILLA! What’s going on down there?” There was the sound of an electrical discharge, and the canopy went to a mirrored surface. This happened in bright light to protect the eyes of the operator, the same way the visor of a vacuum suit did; right now, it just left Roland with a dim view of the Maintenance bay… Then the Weasel was squirming up between him and the padded wall of the cockpit. Pressed against him, nose to nose, her feet distractingly pressed against his crotch, the Weasel grinned; “Got some serious problems down there. You just hang loose and I’ll go attend to ‘em.” And then she was squirming around, twisting, pressing between him and the padding. However, she stopped, with her feet tickling his nose. She giggled, and he could feel her warm breath on his sheath; “Ah….. I’m stuck!”

Roland growled; “Sure you are. Quit playing, and get me out of here!” Camilla giggled, and Roland felt her nose against his rapidly growing shaft; “No, I really am stuck; try exhaling!” Roland groaned and sucked in his stomach as far as he could, only to feel the Weasel’s tongue on his shaft. The sudden sensation made him yelp and jerk in his harness; with a laugh the Weasel settled a little, and the Badger felt the head of his shaft enveloped in the wet warmth of her mouth. His paws twitched towards her feet, but then he stopped. It DID feel good….. Groaning, he braced his paws against the sides of the cockpit, on places where he couldn’t inadvertently push a button or control knob… He didn’t know how she was able to engulf his shaft the way she was, given her size, but he wasn’t about to complain.

---

The sudden release of his shaft surprised him; he’d been soooo close to cumming. A voice drifted up from below; “Come on, Stud; no free rides. Lets see what you can do with that tongue of yours. Tit for tat, so to speak. And if you EVER want to get out of here, you’d best do a GOOD job! I’ve got you RIGHT where I want you! And then that warm, lovely sensation enveloped the head of his cock again.

It took forever to get her shorts off; there just wasn’t a lot of room in there, and the button and zipper were tiny. He kept bumping his elbows on the canopy, and came very close to triggering the welder controls inadvertently. Finally he managed to peel them off of her, glad the cockpit canopy was essentially opaque. As he ran his tongue across her sex, he felt her squirm all the harder….

She was insatiable. He’d licked her to at least four climaxes; she’d sucked him off once, but then held him on the edge for what had seemed like hours. As he panted, she’d released him, squirmed around and then, with her head against his chest, she’d managed to do the impossible; she was actually forcing his cock into her tiny pussy. The sensation was indescribable, and the way she just NEVER stopped moving was driving him mad. By now, his sweat was starting to condense on the inside of the canopy, and he was panting hard.

He was working on his third orgasm, when the alarm went off. Twisting, he stared at the environmental panel. The CO2 scrubber had failed, and CO2 levels were starting to get dangerously high. Blinking he turned to look at the power panel. They were about out of fuel as well. “Um…. Camilla? CAMILLA! We’ve got problems up here!”

The Weasel just laughed; “I know. But we’re not through yet.” She humped his shaft hard; “When things get to a dangerous level, it’ll open up, but not before. My own very special little trap. I built it just for T.J., but he bought it at Renardsville. Oscar was my prey for a while, until the ambush at L3. And then there was Remy, and Hal. And now….” She squeezed down hard with her vaginal muscles, “Tag, YOU’RE it!” After a while she purrred; “Want to get out? Then FUCK me, Stud; the only way we get out is by driving the CO2 levels into the red!”

Roland shook his head; his vision was starting to narrow, and he was panting as hard as he’d ever panted in his life. And yet, he still thrust his hips back and forth, driving into the Weasel, pinning her against the side of the cockpit. It almost seemed as if his vision was starting to fade out completely, when, with a final gasp, he came a third time. The Weasel was howling as well… and then the canopy smoothly retracted, and the straps released him.

He didn’t know how he found the energy, but he was out of that suit in a single bound. He didn’t even try and find his pants. As he ran down the corridor, he could hear the Weasel laughing behind him; “You’re not as big as I’d like, but you do know how to handle yourself. See ya next time, Stud!”

---

The Red Panda was fishing for something in a parts bin when Roland caught up with him. “Tucker! I’ve got a bone to pick with you!”

The Panda straightened, a 16” Stillson wrench in his right paw. “Yeah, I’ve been expecting you.”

Roland growled; “That was a SHITTY thing to do to me!”

The Panda shrugged; “Hey, we needed someone who could weld in vacuum, and zero gee, and you’d been bragging about how you could do it. Who else was I going to get?”

The Badger pointed a finger at him: “You could at least have warned me!”

The Panda shrugged; “Look, Camilla may have her quirks, but she’s the best Maintenance Tech I’ve got, especially on the small stuff.” He grinned; “Besides, it kept her off MY ass for a couple of hours; a couple of hours we needed to get the ship running again. Now quit complaining and soldier on, or else!”

Roland scowled; “Or else what?”

The Panda’s grin widened; “Or I’ll NOT tell the Captain how shitty a job you did you did out there and how you shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near a Maintenance Suit again. In fact, you pipe down, or I’ll show him photomicrographs of the welds you did, and tell him just how good you really are! Why, I bet you’d be transferred from the Marines so fast it’d make your head spin!” He chuckled; “I bet Camilla’d LOVE that!”

---

Roland hefted the pack; “And now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a shuttle to catch.” He wrapped one arm around Cindy, kissed her hard, and then was out the door.

The Kurani watched him go; “And here he said it didn’t have anything to do with master/slave relationships. Sounds to me as if…. Well, nevermind.” Turning she looked at Cindy; “I don’t suppose you have anything you’d like to relate?”

The Badger lady just laughed and shook her head “NO THANK YOU!” She smiled and then shook her head; “But I do thank you for getting him to tell that story; it was MOST interesting…..”

The Kurani looked at the glint in her eye and wondered just what kind of trouble might be forthcoming from THAT…..

An Education

Chris led the naked and bound Vixen through the airlock. Zassa did her best to keep up; not easy when her ankles were connected by a 30 centimeter chain. Her arms were fastened behind her in a rectangular leather pouch that held each paw by the opposite elbow. The pouch was held up by a strap that went over her right shoulder, then down, under her right armpit, across her back, up under her left armpit and then across her left shoulder to the opposite corner of the bag. It wasn’t going to fall off, but the straps weren’t too uncomfortable, either. A padded blindfold covered her eyes, and a head-harness held a very large and hard prod gag in her mouth. There was a ring in the end of the gag, and that was where Chris had attached her leash. When he pulled on it, it tugged her head around, the head of the gag pressing against the sensitive flesh at the back of her throat.

Chris found his way down the corridor, to Zassa’s cabin on the Lost Cause. Once they were in the cabin, he dropped the end of the leash, and put one foot on it. He then reached out to undo the Vixen’s blindfold. Zassa blinked, as she realized where she was. Chris looked at her, waiting for her eyes to meet his; when he had her attention he growled; “you’ve been holding out on me, Slave. Why didn’t you tell me about these creatures? He reached up to start unbuckling the head harness; “You’re going to tell me absolutely everything you know about them. Now.”

Zassa looked at the Fox from the corner of her eye. Such a marvelous opportunity. Surely she’d be whipped within an inch of her life…. And yet it was SUCH a temptation. Maybe she’d chance it…..

“If Master will look in the closet, on the left, behind the hat boxes, he’ll find several small plastic containers…..”

Chris looked at her, and then nodded. Turning he slid open the closet door. The closet was jammed to overflowing with clothes. After trying to push the hangers to the right, he gave up and started pulling things out, laying them on the bed, so he could get to the shelves on the left. Sure enough, there were several brightly colored hat boxes there, on the top shelf. Those too were lifted down, placed in the corner; “What do you have in there? Lead weights?”

Zassa laughed; “oh, just a few toys, Master.”

Chris stopped, turned back, and lifted the lid of one of the boxes. It was full of leather straps and bright chrome. “Uh-huh. We’ll talk about THAT later.” Turning back he found the flat plastic containers. Each seemed to be about half full of black goo, and as he moved a couple of the boxes out, the goo surged against the motion, as if trying to touch his paw.

Zassa smiled; “oooooh, are my little darlings hungry? Momma’s been away too long!”

Chris frowned; “How often do you, ah, “feed” these things?”

Zassa smiled; “Oh, about once every seven to ten days. More than that, they get too big; less than that, they get too hungry and aren’t as manageable.”

Chris nodded, and then turned to do a count in the closet; “But… you’ve got about two dozen boxes in here…”

Zassa smiled; “There are more under the bed, Master. And yes, that’s about the rate at which I feed them.”

Chris frowned, numbers running through his head; “About how many climaxes does it take to, ah, “feed” one?

Zassa shrugged; “Depends on the individual. On average, I’d have to say it takes about four before they become obedient. Depends on my level of “excitement”, the strength and duration of the climax, and, I suspect, a few other factors…”

Chris nodded; “Well, I think you’ve been mistreating your pets. You’ve been on the end of my leash for days now and never told me you had… “responsibilities”….” As he talked, the Fox opened the lid of the box and spilled the contents down the front of the Vixen. Zassa literally purred as the creature slithered down between her breasts, over her tummy, and between her legs; she gasped as the creature extended a tendril into her pussy, and then groaned as it started to move; “ooooooh, baby IS hungry…..”

Chris watched in fascination. The creature was acting as a living dildo, pulsing and rippling, visibly shoving a portion of itself into the Vixen’s snatch. And Zassa was loving it, cooing and rocking her hips in encouragement. It didn’t take long at all before the Vixen was shuddering through her first climax…. Stepping backwards, Chris sat down hard on the edge of the bed and just watched.

It took about five climaxes, before the creature released her; slowly it flowed up her body, spreading out, until it was wrapped around her waist like a small corset; Chris could see it tighten itself, drawing in the Vixen’s waist. Zassa just chuckled; “They do have their uses, Master.”

Chris nodded, and picked up another of the boxes; “one down and twenty three to go….” Zassa watched, eyes bright, as he dumped the next creature onto her.

Zassa had said that she could handle more than one creature at a time. At the moment there was one working on her pussy, one in her ass, another squeezing and fondling her breasts and a fourth in her mouth. It was like watching a marching band, or an erotic drill team, as the creatures worked in concert to bring her to climax after climax. The Vixen was wobbling back and forth, knees weak, no longer steady on her legs, and yet she had a look of exquisite delight on her face. Chis watched, and then shrugged to himself. Why should SHE have all the fun? Feeling like he was about to walk a tightrope over the falls, or maybe juggle live hand grenades, he pulled off his pants. Picking up one of the containers, he sat back down on the bed, popped the top on one of the containers, and gritting his teeth, poured the contents over his lap.

The creature felt warm as it flowed over him, spreading out; he could feel tendrils slide beneath him, feel a light touch over his balls, and then the most amazing sensations started. It felt as if the creature was somehow licking his sheath. He locked his eyes on the erotic vision that was Zassa, and with more rapidity than he would have thought possible, got hard. VERY hard.

He could almost imagine it was someone’s mouth over his cock. But it was a very nice mouth. No teeth, all tongue. Very nice. He grunted as it moved over him, watching the creatures fuck his slave….. His orgasm came upon him with surprising speed, and before he knew it his head was thrown back, and he was howling, his hips bucking hard, from instinct.

As he tried to uncross his eyes, panting, he looked down. The creature’s actions had changed a bit, but they hadn’t stopped. It was still working on his shaft, and amazingly, he was still hard. Now he could feel a tendril wrap around him, between body and balls, to squeeze lightly, to pull, to tug downwards on his balls. It felt strange, but it also felt good, when taken in concert with its motions on his shaft. Rising, he stepped around behind the Vixen. Positioning himself just so, he brought his right paw down on her left asscheek; “Naughty Vixen, for not telling me about this!”

Zassa just grunted into her living gag… She’d read him correctly, and knew, instinctively, that he’d sampled one of the creatures…. Oooooo, this was gonna be good!

Chris shuddered as he approached a second climax, and gave her another swat. Zassa took a half-step forward, and then one back, as if trying to hold her balance… And then it happened.

His black-encased cock came in contact with the creature driving in and out of her ass; somehow the two creatures twined together, and he felt himself pulled towards her. Suddenly the grip on his balls wasn’t just erotic, it was demanding! It felt as if he were pulled around behind her, felt as if his throbbing cock were pulled into her ass. Zassa squealed into her living gag, and the Fox groaned. Reaching around her he fondled her breasts; for an instant he was surprised at their size and firmness, and then he realized he was fondling the creature covering her breasts. Chuckling, he squeezed HARD! Zassa mewled and he felt her squeeze down hard on his cock… or was it the creatures doing that? Didn’t matter; it felt too good! Grunting, he started to thrust into her ass, holding her breasts tight. It didn’t take long for him to have a third orgasm.

At his mental command, the creature around his cock let him pull out of her “ass”. It came smoothly. He looked down at the creature covering his crotch; it was barely moving. Nodding to himself, following what the Vixen had described to him, he ordered it to spread out, to cover his waist, the image of a pair of briefs in his mind. Sluggishly, but obediently, the creature moved. It felt strange to feel something flowing through the crack of his ass. After a moment, it stopped moving and he realized that indeed it looked as if he were wearing a pair of glossy black briefs. Nodding, he reached out, and unbuckled the Vixen’s armbinder; holding both of her wrists behind her back in one paw, he issued a mental command for the creature to flow up his body, down his arm, and around her wrists. Sure enough, the creature obeyed. Just before he let go, he thought ‘Now STAY there, no matter what she says or how she moves, until I tell you otherwise.” To his amazement, when he let go, the creature did just that.

Zassa groaned as Chis pried the last of the creatures off her body. She’d fed at least eight of them. It’d been fun, and she didn’t really want to stop now. Chris moved around in front of her and shook her head; “Why didn’t you tell me these things could be used in bondage?”

Zassa tugged at her paws, and thought “You can let go of me now!” The creature didn’t move; her paws were still stuck. She raised her gaze and looked at the Fox; “I didn’t know!”

Chris nodded; “Apparently the creatures will only obey the one that has most recently fed them. The question is, though, for how long will they obey?”

Zassa shot him a grin, tugging at her paws; “I guess there’s only one way to find out….”

---

Jenka listened to what the Fox was saying. When he’d finished, she shook her head; “Leave it to you to figure out how to turn it to an advantage. OK, so individually they’re not all that threatening, and in small groups they’re still handle-able. But what if there are more?”

The Fox just shrugged; “Don’t know. I agree we need to round ‘em up, but…. I’m not sure we’re in crisis mode yet.”

Jenka winced; “Yeah. The key word there is “yet”….

The Opposition; setting up

Kitchens watched the Mouse and the lady Badger tinker with Roland’s mech. In her estimation the Mouse was full of book-learning, but very VERY little practical experience. Still, he was just barely knowledgeable enough to keep from being an outright fraud. So what did that make him? She tightened the bolt, and smiled to herself. At least she was competent on these systems. Of course, she was only doing enough work to keep from getting yelled at; she really didn’t much care what her bosses thought of her performance. It wouldn’t matter in a few days. She’d already found a spot, down in Engineering, that looked promising. And as soon as the Badger left, she’d have more time to pursue her mission. In that respect, the Mouse had done her a real favor…

Cindy watched the Rabbit work, surreptitiously, and wondered about her. She seemed competent enough, but she had the strangest attitude. No interest at all in making friends, or striking up acquaintances. Her whole attitude screamed “I’m not going to be here long enough for any of that to matter, so I’m not even going to go through the motions”. She wondered who she really was, and what she was up to….

---

“Can I help you, Miss?”

The disfigured Bunny lady smiled; “I had some luggage shipped in; I figured it was time to claim it.”

The Panda nodded; “Name?”

She smiled, the scar twisting up one side of her mouth; “Kitchens.”

The Panda nodded and shuffled off into the back of the storage area. It took him a while but he finally returned, pushing a float pallet. “Hate to say it but you’re considerably over your weight limit. I’m going to have to charge you for that.”

The Bunny didn’t even blink; “not a problem. Put the charges against my next paycheck?”

The Panda nodded; “Yeah, I can do that. But I’m afraid its not going to leave you much.”

The Bunny just shrugged, and moved around behind the float pallet. “By the way, what do you have in there anyways?”

Kitchens shrugged; “Solid ironwood furniture. Belonged to my great grandmother. Family Heirloom.”

The Panda “ooohed” and nodded; “Yeah, well I can understand that, I guess….”

When she’d made it out into the hall, Kitchens paused to check the anti-tamper seals. The shipping containers had anti-scan devices that were supposed to make it look as if they were full of furniture, but that didn’t mean someone wouldn’t open them up for a look. Or to see if there was something to steal. However, everything looked fine. Shoving the pallet towards the nearest elevator, she grinned. She’d stolen everything else she’d need. It was time to get Phase 1 underway.

The equipment was in place, the packing cases hidden. She had a forged work order on a clipboard tacked to one wall, a site safety inspection form taped to another wall, and the whole area roped off with warning tape. Everything was according to procedure. And yet, in the hours she’d been laboring down there, not a single soul had ventured by. And from the dust on the floor, not even the cleaning robots came down here. Just exactly the kind of place she was looking for. Picking up the “owner’s manual” she stuffed it in a pocket of her overalls, and headed back for her quarters. She could still get a little sleep before her work shift started.

---

The Mouse smiled as the transport undocked. The Badger was gone. GOOD. Now he could get down to his REAL job. He had already noticed that Jenka spent the occasional evening in one of the public lounges, usually with a naked slave at her feet. That would be a delightful place. All he had to do was to spray his weapon around the room. Everyone would be quickly and totally incapacitated. And then he could kill the Jaguar, slowly, messily, graphically, with EVERYONE watching, unable to do anything about it. Then all he had to do was to escape. Again, given his weapon, that should be a cinch. A quick stop by traffic control, and the defense grid control room, and he could take whatever ship was available and leave. Nothing simpler.

Lost in his thoughts, he bumped into the Mink. Not that he minded; she was padded in all the right places… Blinking, he took a step back… Yeah, she was a looker all right.

Kath smiled at the look on the Mouse’s face; “Pardon me, Sir, but… well, I’m glad I ran into you, if you’ll pardon the pun.” The Mouse’s eyes seemed to be locked on her chest. Kath’s smile widened a little; most males and a good number of females had that reaction, and she was indeed coming to enjoy it. It was nice to be appreciated. Of course the semi-transparent nurse’s outfit Wanda had her wearing DID show off her body to rather good advantage….

The Mouse blinked and muttered “Um… howzat?”

Kath tried to look solemn and concerned; “Oh, we were checking your immunization records and found out your immunization against Dengii fever has expired. We’ve, ah, had a small outbreak and wanted to suggest you come down to medical, to get a booster.”

The Mouse nodded, his eyes still on her chest; “Ah, yes, yes, of course. I’ll see if I can’t get down there tomorrow, or so.”

Kath smiled; “Thanks.” As she walked off, she put a little extra sway in her hips.

The Mouse sighed, and shook his head; if his wife knew he was leering at strange females like that, she’d probably… ah, but she wasn’t here, was she. He smiled and paused, until the Mink was out of sight, enjoying the view of her ass, and the way her tail moved. Delicious. Maybe he really would try and find time to go down to medical, if a creature like that was waiting there. Dengii fever? Had that been on the list of immunizations he’d gotten? He couldn’t rembmer. Then he dismissed the idea; he had WORK to do….

---

Wanda, wearing a surgical mask, waved the Mink into the shower; “Did you get him?”

The Mink laughed and nodded; “Yes Mistress. And no, I didn’t bump into anyone else.”

Wanda nodded; “And with luck, the reference text will be correct, and the virus will indeed die after twenty minutes exposure to air.”

Kath nodded; “Just enough time for him to get sick, and not anyone else in the area.”

Wanda nodded; “And if they do, its easily treated. NOW, strip out of that outfit and let me spray you down, just in case……”

---

The Mouse rubbed the bridge of his nose. His head was pounding, his vision blurry, and his stomach was aching. Something was wrong. “Dammit, I cannot be getting sick now; there’s too much left to do, too much left to PLAN!” Trying to force his discomfort from his mind, he studied the roster of docked ships, trying to figure out which ones he could fly, how he might get aboard, and how hard it might be to immobilize the crew. What if there were launch and drive keys, or passwords to the main computer? He’d have to find a ship prepped to launch. And if someone got into a spacesuit, his weapon wouldn’t work…..

It finally hit him that his nose was running. Groaning, he got up to find a tissue. As he rose, his joints ached. Catching a look at himself in the mirror, he groaned again; his eyes were red-rimmed, and his whiskers were drooping. Shaking his head, he consulted the map on the back of his door, and then headed for medical. His plan would have to wait; he wasn’t going to be able to commit a gory homicide with a runny nose….

Wanda looked in the Mouse’s ear, and muttered; “uh-huh.” Then she looked down his throat and nodded; “Um….” She took his pulse and made a non-committal noise. She waved a medical scanner over his stomach, and growled; “UmmmHMMMM!”

He couldn’t take it any longer; “Doctor will you PLEASE tell me what you’ve found? YOU’RE DRIVING ME CRAZY!”

Wanda blinked at him; “Ibegyourpardon?”

The Mouse shook his head; “all the “um-hums and uh-huhs. What? WHAT? WHAT HAVE YOU FOUND?”

Wanda stared coldly at the Mouse; “Don’t make me give you a sedative. You WILL mind your tone with me, Mister.” After a moment she continued; “Dengii Fever. Classic case.” Looking up, she growled; “Nurse! Take this patient to Isolation. And start him on some Profesterol. Twenty milligrams, Oral, every four hours.” And then she was gone, the curtains to his cubicle fluttering from her passage.

The Mouse sat there for a moment, hoping that the Mink would be the one to come and get him. When the curtains parted again, he groaned; she was definitely female, but Gorillas were just NOT what he found sexy….

---

Wanda grinned at Kath; “I just LOVE doing that to a patient.”

The Mink chuckled; “Mistress can be SO mean sometimes….”

The Wolverine just laughed her best evil laugh “Yeah….”

The Hunt, Part 2

Hinoki sighed as he looked at the Coyote, and the Bear. The creature had been moved to a rather large brandy snifter, with a dinnerplate set on top, with a full bottle of brandy on top of that to hold it down. The creature surged around the inside of the snifter, as if it was trying to find a way to get to all the furrs that surrounded it. Around and around as if an invisible paw were swirling the contents of the snifter. Obviously he hadn’t gotten them all. Now it was public, and there would be Hell to pay. His mind raced; what could he do to sweep this under the rug?

“You know, they’re valuable.” The Bear paused, glass half way to his muzzle. Hinoki grinnned; “And they’re illegal. Banned throughout the Empire. If you got caught with one….”

The Coyote smirked; “Who’s gonna catch us HERE? This is a PIRATE base, for cryin’ out loud!”

Hinoki nodded; “Jenka for one. Do you think your little absence from work went unnoticed?”

The Coyote and the Bear exchanged looks; they weren’t on the best of terms with their section boss…..

Hinoki grinned; “Tell you what. I heard that Ops was going to assign a crew to clean out the ductwork. Let me work a little magic with the computer system. I’ll get that work order bounced to the head of the list, dated two days ago, and have you two assigned. That way you’ll be covered. And then…..”

The Coyote’s eyes shifted from the creature to the bear to the Cheetah and back; “And then… what?”

Hinoki’s grin widened; “We’ll go in and clean the ductwork. Both of you, and me. But we won’t be after dust bunnies. No, we’ll be hunting these things. And then, I’ll arrange a very private, rather risky, off-station sale, to, ah, “collectors”. You guys will make a small fortune, and no one will be the wiser.”

Adam poked the Cheetah in the back; “What about me?”

Hinoki turned to look at the squirrel; “I’ve been listening to everything you been sayin’. I’m in on the secret, but you’re tryin’ to cut me outta the profits….”

Hinoki looked around the bar; there were all too many heads nodding in agreement; he forced a smile; “There’s plenty of ductwork that’ll have to be scoured, and plenty of money to go around. Opportunities for all of you. Now, I want you guys to put our little friend here under wraps, and meet me back here in the morning. And DO NOT tell anyone else about this!” Hinoki handed a stack of cocktail napkins and a stylus to the Squirrel; “Write down your names and I’ll see to it you’re all assigned to the duct-cleaning detail.”

As he watched the Squirrel circulate, Hinoki groaned; he was going to go broke funding this little expedition. And yet, well, he’d started it. It was up to him to clean up his own mess, before Jenka took it out on Tanj, or Zassa…

---

Chris paged down on the Ops page of his display, and frowned. He thought the duct-cleaning project hadn’t been started yet, and here his screen now showed that it’d been running for two days. His eyes widened slightly as he saw all the furrs assigned. Pushing a comm button, he got the shift supervisor for Maintenance; “I thought you guys were having trouble rounding up “volunteers” to clean out the ducts.”

The Aardvark on the other end of the line just shrugged; “We were. Couldn’t get anyone to agree to go in there. And who could blame them? Dark, dirty, and with rumored monsters lurking about. But now I can’t seem to beat ‘em off with a stick. Sorry, Boss, can’t explain it.”

Chris nodded slowly and broke the connection. Something was going on…..

---

Hinoki held the bucket of dry ice in one paw, the collection bucket in the other paw and held the flashlight with his teeth. Most of the Maintenance crew had headed towards the area where Zeke and Rafe had their “experience”, but something drew him down a different duct. Maybe he was on a wild goose-chase, but….

---

The Squirrel had a powerful, million candlepower spotlight, that he kept waving around. The inside of the duct was almost uniformly black, and a little slippery, and if there were any monsters about, he hadn’t seen any. Yet. Unfortunately neither had his comrades, probably because he kept flashing his light in their eyes. Grumbling about wild goose chases he stalked off, moving into the wind, and further away from the air movers. Maybe if he could lose the thundering herd following him, he could catch one of these things by surprise, and catch it….

---

Zeke tugged on Rafe’s sleeve; “This isn’t the way to do this.”

The Bear blinked “it isn’t?”

The Coyote shook his head; “no… we need bait. Let them come to us.”

The Bear blinked; “If you’re thinking of me, forget it!”

The Coyote made a swiping motion with his paws; “no, I’ll be the bait. Hell, I’m almost back to normal. I just need you to stay nearby with that dry ice, to get ‘em off me.”

The Bear nodded; “That I can handle. Now… where do you want to set the trap?”

Zeke looked around. “Lets go that way.”

The Bear raised an eyebrow; “Why that way?”

The Coyote grinned; “I’ve got an infallible sense of direction. The Marine Barracks are over that way, and they’ve got a ladies’ shower room. If any of the stories I’ve heard are true, these little darlings will probably be flocking in that direction.”

Rafe frowned, trying to figure out what stories the Coyote was talking about, as he followed him down a narrow duct.

---

The duct opened up into some sort of chamber. Hinoki looked around curiously. It looked as if someone had added this section on; the welds were crude, and the ducts attached to the chamber at odd angles. A huge shaft went straight up, and at least three smaller ones went down. He was trying to figure out which of the shafts on the opposite side he should go down, when something touched his left foot. He immediately tried to side-step away from it, but something hit his right foot and suddenly he was falling. The flashlight went down one of the vertical ducts, clattering loudly, the light growing dimmer and dimmer, until it had vanished. He wasn’t sure, but he thought his bucket of dry ice, likewise, went down another of the vertical shafts. He was trying to rise, to paws and knees when something grabbed is right foot. And pulled.

---

Rafe watched in amazement as his friend calmly stripped off his overalls, and spread them on the dusty floor. Then the coyote knelt on the overalls, and pulled a bottle of baby oil from a pocket. He winked at the Bear, and started to stroke his sheath with one paw….

Hinoki forced himself not to struggle. The trap had been neatly set. Perhaps with an unsuspected intelligence. His resources were gone, knocked down the vertical shafts. He’d heard his sample collection bucket follow the dry ice a minute or two after he’d dropped it. There had been sufficient creatures there to glue his paws and feet to the floor, immobilizing him. Sufficient creatures to hold him so that he couldn’t escape. “Not a problem” he told himself for the tenth time. “Zassa can control these things. So can Tanj. All I have to let them do is feed themselves a bit, and then exert a little willpower.” Something oozed under his middle, raising him a bit. It pooled under his stomach, and then thickened, lifting him a little more. It was like laying on a pillow. Then, tendrils started exploring his sheath, and his balls. “Stay calm. Might even be fun. Zeke and his friend survived. And they didn’t have nearly the training or experience I have. This should be a piece of cake….” He felt his body respond to the creature’s stroking, felt himself growing hard, his cock expanding from his sheath… and right into what felt like a very warm, very wet pussy.… With a groan, he bucked his hips, driving his shaft further into the wetness. The creature responded, rippling around his shaft in a most delightful way… “Yeah, this shouldn’t be so bad….”

---

Zeke groaned as he came a third time. His paws were soaked in baby oil, the floor by his overalls was a sticky mess, his friend was looking at him strangely, and not a single creature had shown up yet. Panting hard, he looked over at the Bear; “I dunno, Rafe, this ought to be working.”

The Bear nodded; “Maybe we’re just not in the right spot.”

The Coyote shook his head; “No, this is the place. I’m sure of it.” With a wince he took his cock in his paw again. Maybe one more time…..

---

Hinoki purrred as he felt something start to pump in and out of his ass; now THAT felt good. It’d been a while since something had forced its way into his mouth, and he’d been sucking instinctively. Somehow, he knew other creatures were gathering…. Whether he’d stumbled upon a nest, or the others were calling them, he didn’t know, but it was like he could feel their hunger…

---

Rafe shook his head; “No, I am NOT going to “spell you”. If one hasn’t shown up by now, it ain’t workin’. Come on, get dressed, and lets head back. I’m getting hungry.”

Zeke sighed and moving a bit stiffly, climbed to his feet. He was just bending over to pick up his coveralls when something dropped onto his back.

---

Hinoki panted hard. After “feeding” at least four creatures underneath him, they’d somehow rolled him over onto his back. It was better that way; he didn’t have to move. They seemed content to do all the work. One was on his shaft, rippling up and down in a most delightful way; another plumbed the depths of his ass, while another gently fondled and manipulated his balls. His arms were straight out to his sides, apparently stuck tight to the floor; his legs were widespread, likewise glued down. Another covered his face, largely sticking his head also to the floor. He was trapped. And there was no sign of the creatures becoming sated……

---

Rafe held the light on the Coyote’s rump and sighed; “No, I am NOT going to pry it off of you. If you can’t take the cold, we’ll just have to think of something else.”

The Coyote sighed; “Yeah. It’d figure it’d grab me by the balls. Hey, maybe I can… I dunno, walk back to the gym. You know the pool’s ice cold. Maybe that’d work!”

The Bear crossed his arms and just looked at the Coyote; “Even if that IS a small one, its buried in your ass! How you gonna walk like that?”

The Coyote held out his coveralls, as if trying to figure out how to put them on; “Dunno. Um… I don’t suppose you could carry me….”

The Bear just shook his head no….

---

Hinoki found he couldn’t even arch his back. The creatures seemed to be covering him completely. So completely he wasn’t even sure how he was still breathing. He was mummified in sex parasites, and it felt like they were going to drain him of every drop of his essence! For the first time he felt a real panic building…. How in the world was he EVER going to get out of this?

---

“You two giving up already?” Rafe looked at the Squirrel and shrugged; “Can’t find any of ‘em. Not a one. Time to take a break and get something to eat. Maybe our luck will be better tomorrow.”

The Squirrel nodded; “Yeah, I’ll be back on the night shift. Roscoe caught one, about a two-pounder. He said its great.” The Squirrel sighed; “I have GOT to get me one of these things. Hell, I’ve already promised Rebecca she could borrow it for a bit.” He grinned; “Hell, she’s already made a “downpayment” if you know what I mean. Man, I have GOT to find one!’

The Bear nodded encouragingly, and then turned to hurry after Zeke, who had awkwardly maneuvered out of the duct and was waddling down the corridor.

---

Chris frowned; “And they found…”

The Aardvark shrugged; “Two small ones. Man, if these are the monsters everyone’s been talking about, they’re pretty lousy Monsters. I understand Audrey has the one she caught doing tricks!”

Chris nodded; “Well, keep the crews at it until we’re SURE we’ve got ‘em all.

The Aardvark shrugged and nodded; “you’re the boss.”

Endurance

Sashi locked the front door to the shop and headed back to the tiny office. Usually Master Hinoki was here for closing; she wondered where he was, and what he was up to. As she came through the door, Doodles looked up; he had the accounting spreadsheet open and was running the day’s numbers. “Business is off. I guess everyone’s off on that great “monster” hunt.”

Sashi nodded and shrugged; “I guess so. That’s not going to keep us from having to clean up the place. I’ll get the mop.”

The Rabbit nodded; “So…. If Master doesn’t come back… what do we do?”

Sashi shrugged; “In the absence of specific instructions, we’re to do what we think he’d want us to do.”

Doodles shot the Chocolate Pantheress a grin; “Does that mean….”

Sashi grinned back; “Well, he certainly didn’t say NOT to….. And he DID say that if I’d been good, I could have a few climaxes this evening…..”

---

Hinoki seemed to be very far away from his body. The creatures knew just how to make him respond, just how to bring him to orgasm after orgasm after orgasm. They knew just how to handle him so that he didn’t get too sore, too tired, and even, to a degree, too frightened. If there were just a dozen of them, it would have been great, but there were many times that number. When he could go no further, when he needed something to drink, or something to eat, would they release him? Or would they keep after him until he died? For a moment he chuckled into the living gag filling his mouth; it would be fitting if he died in this manner, given his life…..

---

Doodles thought that the Chocolate Pantheress had learned her lessons well. The sex slave could be a really deliciously nasty top when she wanted to. The Bunny was bound, wrists to ankles, in a kneeling position, and if he strained really hard, he could just get his tongue on Sashi’s pussy; she sprawled before him, in the chair from the store’s tiny office, legs spread wide, her sex just barely in reach. Sometimes she’d roll the chair forwards, just a little, sometimes back, teasing him. She’d told him that if he gave her three climaxes in twenty minutes she’d re-tie him, and ride his cock until HE’D cum three times. The Bunny was trying hard to earn the promised reward.

Sashi blinked as something black fell from the ceiling and landed on the bunny. For all the world it looked like one of those cartoon “portable holes”. It seemed to drink light, it was so black. And then it moved, slithering down the bunny’s back, and over his rump.

Doodles’ eyes were wide when he raised his head; he gazed at the Chocolate Pantheress for a moment and then he grinned; “Don’t know how you’re doing that, Sashi, but DON’T STOP!” He then lowered his head to drive his tongue deep into her dripping pussy. Sashi groaned, and put both paws on his head, to hold him there, all thoughts of teasing abandoned; suddenly the Bunny seemed to have become energized, and she liked the way he was attacking her sex!

Doodles groaned into the Pantheress’ snatch; something had his cock in a most delicious grip; somewhere between a warm and willing mouth, and a delightfully tight pussy. It was rippling first one way and then the other, not quite as if he were thrusting his shaft in and out, but remarkably close… He tried to concentrate on what he was doing, but the sensations from between his legs were just too distracting.

Sashi was about to reprimand the Bunny for his decreasing efforts when something caught her eye. Another spot of blackness had flowed out of the vent, and was moving across the ceiling. Her head tilted further and further back as she watched. And then it seemed to pull itself together, forming a giant teardrop shape… and then it fell. It landed square on her mons! Before she could utter a word, it flowed down, to cover the Bunny’s muzzle, and her snatch. Then, something bigger than a tongue was pushing into her…. In a most delightful way!

Doodles opened his mouth in surprise, and something very much like a cock pushed its way in, stretching his jaws, filling his mouth. For a moment he thought the Pantheress had suddenly become a herm….. But then, the motions and sensations surrounding his cock made him loose his train of thought, along with his load of cum….

---

Hinoki seemed to be floating in and out of consciousness. The out-of-body experience seemed to be deepening, and he almost felt as if he was looking down at his creature-encased body from a dozen different angles. The chamber was no longer pitch dark, although there didn’t seem to be any color, just shades of gray. Nor did there seem to be any source of light. And there were innumerable creatures surging about, an inky wave of black…

---

Sashi giggled, and hugged the Bunny tight. He was standing in the middle of the office, and she was balanced, one foot on the desk, the other foot on the desk chair, doing the splits, his shaft deep in her pussy. And the two puddles of blackness were surrounding their crotches, welding them together, holding them tight. She wasn’t sure about what was happening to Doodles, but the thing around her middle had extruded something into her ass that felt VERY good, surging back and forth in counterpoint to the Bunny’s wild thrusts. She’d thought she’d heard Hinoki mention that Zassa had something like this, but she’d never seen it. And, rather occupied with other things, she never even wondered how Zassa’s pet had gotten loose, and what it was doing here….

---

Hinoki’s mouth felt dry. His muscles trembled from fatigue, and he desperately wanted to sleep. Despite all that, there was a need, a pressing need, a desperate need to try for another orgasm. He’d long since lost count, but he was sure that he’d gone further than he ever had in his life. More than anything he’d ever done at the Academy. More than anything he’d ever done since. The creatures were insatiable, and he could feel their hunger, their desperate, all-encompassing hunger. And something within him wanted to help them, to ease their suffering…..

Conversion

Hunger. Weakness. Thirst. Pain. Lust. They were all starting to run together. He didn’t know if he felt his hunger, having not eaten for what seemed like days, or the hunger of the creatures, for… for whatever he was providing them with. Thirst. His mouth was parched, his lips cracked and yet he felt the creature’s thirst for… something. He felt weak, from hours of exertion, and yet, he could feel so many of the creatures were weak from their form of starvation…. Something was happening, but he couldn’t figure out what. How could he know these things? Was he getting delirious? Was he that close to the end?

---

Tanj peered in through the window of Hinoki’s shop. It was funny that the place should still be closed, mid-morning. Hinoki wasn’t in his quarters, wasn’t on the ship, wasn’t at his shop. The station’s computer couldn’t locate him and he wasn’t answering his pages. She wanted to talk to him about the “creature round-up” he seemed to have sponsored, wanted to ask him how he’d gotten involved. But she couldn’t find him. Could he be ducking the efforts to find him? Could he somehow be responsible for the current problem? Or had something more sinister happened? With a sigh she turned and headed back to Ops. Maybe someone there had found him. She was starting to worry.

---

Hinoki’s stomach rumbled. For some reason he wasn’t feeling as thirsty, or as tired. Not even as sore. But now he was ravenous. Rolling over, he managed to get to his knees. Curious, the creatures let him. He wasn’t stuck to the floor anymore. Of course there was one still pounding away at his ass, and he was sure three… no, only two hung onto his cock and balls, rhythmically stroking him, inexorably driving him towards his next orgasm… And one was in his head, filling his mouth, like a living gag. He could feel others clinging to his body, but they didn’t seem to be hindering him. And curiously, despite the fact that the one on his head was covering his eyes, he could still see. “OK, Gang, time to let me up. Gotta get something to eat.” And with that thought, everything shifted. He felt himself rising to his feet, as if the creatures were lifting him, forming a living exoskeleton. “Cool!” he thought to himself. Looking down, he grinned at the creatures covering his crotch. Unbidden, they seemed to reshape themselves, giving him a much larger cock than he’d ever had before. Reaching down, he stroked it, feeling its girth in his paw, but also feeling his paw stroke along its length. “ummmmm, bet Sashi would like this!” And with that thought, a fresh wave of lust filled him. “Food, then sex” he growled to himself, and from somewhere deep within, a little voice laughed back; “Silly, sex IS food!” Hinoki laughed, and just shrugged; turning, he started down one of the ducts, trying to remember how he’d gotten here… and how to get back to…. Back to Sashi.

---

Sashi groaned, and shuddered through yet another climax. Somewhere along the line, she and Doodles had come unstuck from each other. The Bunny was still standing there, a wash of rippling black still covering his crotch. His eyes were closed, his head tilted so he gazed unseeing at the ceiling, his ears hanging limply down his back. Every once in a while he’d shudder, and groan, as another orgasm wracked his body. For her part, Sashi was lying on the floor, legs spread, as the creature plumbed both pussy and ass. It was delightful, and it was…. Enough. Her eyes widened as the thought struck her; she’d had enough. She was satisfied. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d been completely satisfied. Frowning, she glanced down her body, between her breasts at the humping puddle of black between her legs. How many climaxed had she had? How long had it been? WHAT DAY WAS IT? Staggering to her feet she waddled to the computer on the desk and stared at the screen. “Good GOD, Doodles, its almost Seven!”

The Bunny groaned; “no problem; we’re up….”

Sashi shook her head; “No, Silly, almost 1900 Hours! Seven PM! Master is going to be FURIOUS!

Sashi poked around in the freezer for a moment, and then found them. Two bags of something that resembled frozen tar. Nodding to herself she started pulling ice cubes out of the freezer; “Little buddy, this is going to be uncomfortable for me; I suspect it’ll be the same for you, but its got to be done.” Closing the bag, with a sigh, she pressed the bag of ice to her crotch. She could tell the creature didn’t like it. It tried to flow further into her pussy, further into her ass, and for a moment she had a horrible thought; what if it flowed completely into her? How’d she EVER get it out? Maybe she needed to find a way to freeze it quicker. Casting about she found the insulated container… Master Hinoki had said that periodically he had choice cuts of meat imported, and they came with packs of dry ice to keep them cold…. If he did, he never fed HER any of the good stuff, but sure enough, there were a couple blocks of dry ice in the bottom of the container. Wrapping one in a dishtowel, she pressed it against her crotch. As she held the bag of dry ice there, the creature’s motion slowed, and then stopped. “Great” she thought to herself; “Now all I have to do is to find a way to pry it outta me….”

Doodles whimpered; “Mistress, do we have to?”

Sashi nodded determinedly; “Yes. We don’t know when Master will be back and I do NOT want to get him mad at us. Now come on, it doesn’t have THAT tight a grip around your balls. I’ll hold the creature and you pull!

Advantages

Harvey stopped and then turned. And stared. The figure LOOKED vaguely feline, but it looked as if it had been dipped in tar. Or maybe black latex; tar wasn’t that shiny. All the features were rounded, softened. And it sported the biggest hard-on he’d ever seen….

Hinoki idly noted the Brown Bear’s reaction; a corner of his mind spit out facts; “Harvey. Works in Dispatch. Has a thing for Blond Minks. Lousy at Poker, but lucky at dice. Doesn’t seem to recognize me.” As he rounded the corner, turning into another corridor, Hinoki looked down at himself, and giggled again; “not really surprising. Don’t look much like me. Ought to do something about that….” And then, to his amazement, as he watched, the surface of his body rippled, changing. Suddenly he looked more like himself…. Except he was more orange, with shiny, glistening black spots. As he watched the spots lost their sheen, fading to a more flat black, and the orange softened to his usual golden color. And then the very surface of the… of him? Altered, and changed, softening further until it resembled his fur. He ran a paw across his tummy; the texture wasn’t quite right, but after moving his paw back and forth a few times, that too softened, and changed until it DID feel right. Glancing down again, he laughed once more; his cock now looked like the rest of him; furred, and golden with black spots. That too changed, almost at the speed of thought, turning bright pink. He grinned; “Cool. I wonder if…..” And as he watched, his cock seemed to rise, to adhere to his belly, the texture of his crotch changing until it looked as if he were wearing a very tight pair of bike shorts. His erection was still quite evident, and the Cheetah just grinned; at least he was nominally decent. Man, he was going to save a bundle on clothes…. And he’d always be in fashion! Frowning, concentrating hard, he tried for a pair of cut-off jeans, of just the right faded blue….

Lost in thought, Hinoki stopped and looked around. Somehow he’d wandered into the section of the station occupied by the “marines”. Grinning wickedly he thought to himself; “Why not? It would be an interesting test, and I do owe him one….”

The suit of powered armor stood like a statue. Hinoki even found the access hatch open. Grinning, he closed his eyes and slowly turned in a circle. Yes, there was one, about three compartments away. It was a small one, obviously hunting in territory where it had little competition. Well, he’d give it some interesting prey. Reaching out with his mind, he touched it; “Little one; come here, and wait in there, and you’ll be rewarded.” Sensing the creature starting to move, Hinoki turned and headed towards his shop.

---

“Well, at least we don’t need to clean up again.” Sashi sighed and nodded to the bunny; “nothing to clean up if we were never open. Tell you what, I’ll adjust the books, making it look as if yesterday and today were just really slow days, but showing some sales on both days.” Doodles nodded; “Fine by me. Now… how do we explain all those creatures in the freezer, instead of just two?” Sashi opened her mouth, but the bell over the shop’s door rang, and she turned to look….

The Pantheress frowned… it was Master, but… not Master. The Cheetah looked larger, more muscular… more like a Panther, with a Cheetah’s coloration. And yet it LOOKED like Hinoki… And then, as she watched, he started to flow, his body changing…

Doodles heard Sashi let out a sound somewhere between a strangled gasp and a squeak, and turned to look; that was when the tentacle caught him. There stood Hinoki, his new master, but his body was sporting at least a half a dozen tentacles; he had a tight grip on Sashi, holding her around her waist, around each ankle and around her crossed wrists. The Bunny watched, mouth agape, as the Cheetah dragged the Pantheress off the ground and towards his huge cock…..

Sashi moaned; something had her wrists, holding them over her head; it was lifting and lowering her onto Hinoki’s shaft. For a moment she wondered if he’d been indulging in the shop’s line of penis “growth” products; whatever he’d been doing, he was now hung like that Stallion, John….. Blinking she looked around trying to figure out what had caught her; there were yellow-gold tentacles with black spots… and they all seemed to be connected to her Master! What was going on?

Doodles found that he couldn’t really do anything to help Sashi; the Hinoki-monster had him too. One tentacle had developed a mouth that was around his shaft; another, or maybe an appendage of the first had driven deep into his ass, making him rise to tiptoes, and a third had wrapped around his neck and then shoved its way into his mouth. He waved his arms for balance, but couldn’t seem to REACH anything; and those tentacles were STRONG!

Sashi howled as she climaxed again; she’d never heard of a prehensile cock before, but she was sure this thing was stroking her, deep within, as if it were the world’s longest tongue. And it felt SOOOOO good. In fact, it reminded her of the creature that was now slowly hardening in the freezer…. And then her eyes went wide, as the realization hit her. One of the creatures must have grown so large, it had been able to impersonate her Master! Twisting her head about she tried to figure out how to get to the insulated container, and its remaining dry ice!

Hinoki howled, his cock spurting… or at least it felt as if he were having an orgasm, although somehow he doubted he was actually discharging any semen… and as he howled, he felt Sashi tremble, her pussy spasming around his cock as she climaxed. Doodles too was howling, although whether it was from terror or an orgasm, was hard to tell. Panting, Hinoki realized he’d had enough… for the moment his lusts were slaked… but… not his hunger. Lifting Sashi free, and setting her down, he released her from the tentacles, and drew them back into his body. Handy things, those; he was glad he’d thought of them. Bending over, he kissed Sashi softly and then turned towards the door; “Come on, you two; I’m HUNGRY, and I’m buyin’!”

Sashi wobbled on her feet a little, and looked from the retreating back of her… Master? Shifting her gaze, she looked at Doodles.

The Bunny just shrugged; “When have I EVER been known to turn down a free meal?”

Sashi nodded; I guess we’d better go after him, just to make sure… nothing happens.”

As they hurried out the door, following Hinoki, Doodles wondered; “Gee, do you think we can get him to take us to Dante’s? That’s supposed to be the best restaurant on the station, and I’ve never been able to afford it….”

Damage Control

Tanj listened to the comm call, and frowned; “He did WHAT? Well, Where is he now? OK, Thanks, Sashi, I’ll be right there!” The Cheetah rose from her chair, paused, and then settled back down. Punching in a comm number, she waited impatiently. To her distress, Chris answered.

“Chris, Hinoki’s re-surfaced, but Sashi’s telling a pretty unbelievable story. Um… do you think I could borrow Zassa for a bit? She might have more experience in this area than I do, and I could really use her.”

The Fox smiled wryly; “She’s a little tied up at the moment….”

Tanj sighed; “Yeah, well, that seems to be her natural condition, but perhaps…”

Chris waved his paws; “No, no, believe it or not, not like that. She’s having her hair done, down at Madam Tasseau’s.”

Tanj stared at him blankly, and then nodded; “Right. I’ll catch her there.”

---

As the image vanished on the monitor, the Fox chuckled; “Gotcha!”

---

“Tanj I do NOT appreciate being dragged away like this! It took me MONTHS to get that appointment! Now what is the Emergency?”

Tanj dragged the Vixen by the paw; “Sorry, but Hinoki’s shown up again; Sashi says he fucked her, and apparently Doodles as well, without a word of explanation as to where he’d been.”

The Vixen came to a dead stop: “And you made me cancel my hair appointment for that? Since when is that unusual behavior for Hinoki?”

Tanj growled; “Using at least a half a dozen tentacles that sprung from his body?”

Zassa blinked; “Oh. Yeah. OK….”

---

Dante’s, as usual, had a line. As she moved to the Maitre ‘d’s stand, she drew a number of scowls and sour looks; Words were spoken, threats were made, and finally Tanj had to invoke station security and threaten to call Jenka herself. As she listened, Zassa reflected on how the Maidre ‘D of a high class restaurant on a pirate station seemed to find it prudent to keep a blaster close at hand. Finally, the Otter relented, and they were shown to Hinoki’s table. The table was literally covered in plates of food. Sashi and Doodles knelt to one side, each mostly ignored as the Cheetah stuffed himself.

Tanj sat down, and stared at Hinoki; of all the questions that she wanted to ask, the first one to escape her was “Where in the hell did you get a gold and crimson Tuxedo?”

Hinoki looked, up, grinned, and with his mouth full mumbled; “Like it? I thought it matched the curtains rather well. But if the colors aren’t to your liking, I can change them.”

Tanj watched, aghast, as the Tuxedo rippled and reshaped itself. Now he was wearing what seemed to be a forest green frock coat, with chromed lapels, and a sky-blue cravat. His trousers were cream colored, with a matching green stripe down the outside. “How’s that? Oh, by the way, try the stuffed mushrooms; they’re marvelous!”

Zassa shook her head; “where did you find the living dress creatures? All of mine are accounted for. Nice control by the way. I could never get any of mine to do chrome.”

Hinoki smiled and put down the turkey leg. “There are hundreds of them in the ducts. I… had a small run-in with them.”

Tanj scowled; “Hundreds? In the ferral condition, I doubt even you would survive…”

Hinoki grinned widely; “Oh, I didn’t. But don’t worry, its really not that bad.”

Both Zassa and Tanj just went “HUH?”

Hinoki buttered a roll, and then stuffed it whole into his mouth. “Ith really rathur thimple…..”

Zassa shook her head; “Don’t talk with your mouth full, or I’ll abscond with your anchovies! I want to hear what you have to say CLEARLY.”

Hinoki nodded, swallowed hard, and then grinned; “Yes, Mother. Anyways, they did get ahold of me. Don’t know how long I was in there, covered in them. I KNOW I’ve never had that many orgasms in any one stretch in my entire life. Somewhere along the line, they must have realized that I was starting to have physical problems. Thirst, mainly. I felt like I was dying of thirst. Of course, that particular duct is probably ankle deep in jism right now.…” The Cheetah chuckled and reached for one of the coconut shrimp. Zassa swatted his paw with a serving spoon and then waggled it at him; “Talk now; eat later.”

Hinoki held the offended paw in his other and stared at Zassa with a hurt look; after a minute he said rather flatly; “OK, but I’m not sure you understand the full implications of what you just said.” He grinned wickedly; “But you will, Oh, you WILL!”

Tanj sighed; “Get on with it. You were dying of thirst, and, ah, exertion….”

Hinoki nodded; “Yeah. Well, I think they sensed that, and did the only thing they could to keep me alive.”

Zassa nodded; “And that was?”

Hinoki shrugged; “Well, we, ah… um… We merged.”

Tanj blinked; “You WHAT?”

Hinoki shrugged; “The creatures reproduce by fission, when they’re fed enough; but did you know when the small ones are well fed, and in sufficient number they recombine, and when they do, the new ones are not only bigger, but more intelligent?” The Cheetah watched her face for a moment and then nodded; “Yeah; I’ve seen ‘em as big as I am.” He grinned; “But I don’t think they’re as smart. Not quite. At least I don’t think so…. Anyways, I think they felt the distress I was in, understood that there were limits to my… endurance. They didn’t want to let me go; I was a feast for them, so they…. Worked up a compromise. Somehow we merged, and as they continued to pleasure me, part of that sexual energy got reflected, back to me, keeping me alive.”

Zassa shook her head; “Do you mean to say, that if you masturbated, you’d be feeding yourself?” Hinoki blinked; “Hmmm. Interesting thought. I’ll have to try that.”

Tanj gestured at the table; “And yet you apparently have other needs as well.”

Hinoki nodded; “True…..”

The Cheetah shook her head; “If you eat enough, will you reproduce by fission, like the smaller creatures?”

Hinoki’s face adopted a startled look and he actually pushed himself back from the table; “Uh…. Don’t know. This body didn’t exactly come with an owner’s manual, you know.”

Tanj stared at the Cheetah for a while; was it still Hinoki? After a moment she forced herself to remain calm; “OK, so we have a bunch of questions to answer, but we also have an immediate problem. You say there are hundreds of the smaller creatures loose in the station, as well as some bigger ones?”

Hinoki chuckled and waved a paw dismissively; “Oh, don’t worry about them. I set out to round them all up, and if anything, I’m in even better shape now to do so.”

Tanj exchanged glances with Zassa, and then looked back at Hinoki; “Just what do you have in mind?”

The Hunt, Part 3

Betty pulled the airlock closed behind her. Then, she closely examined the entire interior of the airlock. Only when she was sure she was alone, did she open the inner door. She’d been hearing the strangest rumors, rumors of monsters loose in the station, rumors of monsters that would suck the life out of you, until you were a dried husk. Rumors of monsters that slipped inside your body to drive you mad. Rumors of monsters that took control of your mind, and made you do things you’d never dream of doing. She didn’t know which stories to believe, but she wasn’t about to take any chances. Nope, not her.

There’s a saying that there are Bold Pirates and there are Old Pirates, but there are no Old, Bold pirates. Betty had survived in the Pirate business for almost twenty years, and it wasn’t by taking chances. She crewed her raider all by herself, never took part in boarding parties, never took any risk she didn’t have to take. Of course she never got some of the shares that others did, but on the other hand, the smaller amounts had added up nicely over the years, and SHE was still alive and in one piece. Moving down to the raider’s small galley, she stripped off her overalls, tossing in them through the open door to the laundry. Opening the ‘fridge, she started poking around for something to eat.

It moved across the floor towards her. Then something VERY cold appeared in front of it, and it halted. Retreated. The prey was there, right in front of it, but so was the cold. Moving back, into the shadows, it climbed a bit, finding a place sheltered from that life-drinking cold, a place where it could still watch the prey. Surely it would move away in a minute.

The Enchilada had already been reheated once, but she thought it was probably still good. Pouring herself a beer, she took the plate and glass to the galley’s single, small table. Kicking her chair out from under the table, she shoved back the copy of last week’s assignments, and yesterday’s newsfax, and with a sigh, sat down.

The Creature shivered in delight; the prey had come to it! RIGHT to it! WHOOPEE!

Betty frowned; the seat was remarkably soft today, and yet she didn’t remember… she was SURE it didn’t have a cushion!… Rising, she turned and looked. No, there was no cushion there…. and then she felt something move. Something adhering to her bottom…..

Alone in her ship, there was no one to hear her scream.

Panting hard, Betty tried to pry the thing off her posterior. It was moving, flowing, shifting, flowing into the crack of her ass, the crack of her sex…. Howling, she tried to get a grip on it….

It wasn’t working. She couldn’t get a hold on it. Some of the creature had pushed into her; she could feel it in her bowels, feel it in her vagina! It was trying to enter her body! In a panic, she turned, heading for the airlock. Perhaps she could get to medical before it killed her.

She could feel it moving as she ran; it was pulsing in her ass, and in her pussy, surging back and forth. It felt as if she was being fucked. Maybe the creature mated with its prey, depositing eggs that would hatch in the host’s body. She’d seen movies like that…. Groaning she tried to move even faster.

The sight of the flight deck brought her up short. What? She had been headed for the airlock! With a groan, she realized she’d been running in circles! Perhaps the creature was taking over her mind already. Forcing herself to be calm, she turned and walked resolutely towards the airlock. She could beat this thing. It wasn’t going to take over HER mind!

Betty stood before the airlock controls, and tried to concentrate. The feelings from her sex were close to overwhelming her. She’d tried to deny it, tried to ignore it, but dang, but it felt good. Hearing something that sounded like a drop of water hitting the deck, she looked down. There, on the floor between her feet was a wet spot. Dropping one hand, she ran it between her legs; nothing but the slick feeling of the creature plastered to her crotch… except… her hand came away covered in her juices. She was so wet she was dripping. With a groan, she leaned against the airlock controls, as a truly massive climax rippled through her.

It took her three tries before the airlock would open. It took her several more tries to get the inner door closed and the outer door open. Several tries and at least two more climaxes. She was having trouble seeing straight, when the outer door finally opened and she was able to exit her ship for the docking ring….

Harvey blinked as the figure jogged past. Nudging the Raccoon next to him he growled; “Hey Manuel; what was that?”

The Raccoon looked up, blinked and then looked back at his work; “Just some naked Mare jogging. Why?”

The Bear shrugged; “We have the strangest furrs on this station….”

The climax was so powerful Betty stumbled, and crashed into a wall. She leaned against it, panting hard, and then, shaking her head, straightened. Medical was only a few corridors away; she could make it. She could make it before the creature ate her. She just hoped they could help her! Shoving off from the wall, she put all her strength into the dash.

Sated, well-fed, the creature dropped free from its prey. There was an air-return duct a few feet away, it managed to ooze to it, and through the grill, before anyone noticed. It was time to rest. Then, it’d have to find its way back to where it’d been before. The hunting was GREAT there!

---

Kath shook her head; “Ma’am, I guarantee you; there is NOTHING adhered to your crotch. And the scans show nothing inside you that isn’t supposed to be there. Well, that’s not completely true…”

Betty grunted; “I KNEW it! It laid eggs inside me, didn’t it?”

Kath frowned; “Eggs? Um, no. You’ve got a cyst forming in your uterus, but its nothing to be concerned about. I’ll schedule a routine check in about six months, and if its grown, we can deal with it then.”

The Mare shook her head; “No, you’ve got to be wrong! I tell you, there was a monster plastered to me! It was FUCKING me! HONEST!”

Kath gave the mare her best dry smile; “Why don’t I let you talk to the Doctor….”

---

Wanda nodded; “Good work, Kath. I don’t know what’s going on here, but I suppose there’s no need to fan the flames. I just hope that Tanj and Hinoki can take care of this problem. Now, I guess I’d better go talk to her. You say she’s in C5?”

Kath watched the Wolverine lass pull the curtain aside and stepped in to talk to the distraught mare. “It ain’t fair” she thought to herself. “How come, in a station filled with sex monsters, I wind up untouched?” Mournfully she looked up at the ceiling, at one of the ventilation ducts. “Come ON, guys! I’m RIGHT HERE! What are you WAITING for?”

The Hunt, Part 5

Sashi looked around, doubtfully. The plenum chamber was dark, and dirty. “Are you sure the fan driver is locked out?”

Hinoki nodded; “Yup. Pulled the fusible links, myself, just to be sure. Its not going to start on us.”

Doodles scratched himself idly and shrugged; “And all you want us to do is to have sex. With each other until the monst… er, the creatures show up, and then with them.”

Hinoki nodded; “I’ll be moving through the station telling them that a feast is waiting here. When they catch your “scent” they’ll all converge on this point. Once I’ve got ‘em moving, I’ll come back and start corralling them.”

Zassa nodded slowly; “Are you sure you can get them into the containers, even if they’re still hungry? With all due respect, I don’t really want to wind up like you…”

Hinoki laughed; “Yeah, I’m sure. And you really don’t know what you’re missing…..”

Tanj grinned, grabbed the Vixen’s paw and pulled her close; she gave the surprised Zassa a long hot kiss, and then, breaking the kiss, looked up at Hinoki; “Lets get this show on the road. The sooner we get ‘em all in containers, the sooner we can get Jenka off our backs.”

---

Brilliant. It had to have been smarter than all its siblings. After all, none of the others had thought of this. The water didn’t bother it; it was immiscable. It could move through the station easily, unseen. Occasionally the medium through which it moved would flow fast, but it could adhere to the walls of the pipe, and not be carried away. And if it worked its way against the flow, it would come out into a porcelain receptacle. It was never long until one of the Prey would sit down, directly above it; and then it could attack, and feed…..

---

Dynotaku closed the door, undid his belt, and dropped his trousers. The financial section in his hands, he sat down, to take a well-deserved dump. From the stall to his right, he heard someone grunt; a “what the….?” Escaping their lips. Then the wall of the stall thudded as if someone had staggered into it. It thudded again, and the furr in the next stall howled, and then the wall thudded again. Dynotaku sighed; “Having problems? Don’t worry, I’m sure it’ll all work out in the end.” Smiling at his own witticism, he listened as the furr in the next stall let out a long, strangled moan. Looking under the partition, he noticed the furr’s feet were off the floor and jerking back and forth. Frowning, the Unicorn wondered just exactly what he’d eaten? He certainly seemed to be having a rough time. Trying to tune out the noises, he concentrated on the Dendarii markets, and how they were being affected by the rumors of Xuung incursions along the frontier.

The toilet paper holder hitting the floor caused Dynotaku to raise his head. A roll of toilet paper rolled under the partition, to come to rest against his right hoof. Reaching down, he flicked it back under the partition; “Here, you might need this….” A strangled grunt was the only response.

Folding the paper, tucking it under one arm, he “competed the paperwork”, rose, and unlatched the door. As he clopped out, he muttered; “Hope you feel better over there. Maybe you ought to consider getting some medical attention…” A yowl was the only reply. Shrugging the Unicorn headed out to wash his hands, wondering where, or perhaps where not, he should go for lunch…..

---

They’d formed a daisy chain. Tanj’s tongue was buried in Zassa’s sweet sex; the Vixen was licking Sashi avidly; Sashi had Doodle’s cock in her mouth, and the bunny was tonguing the Cheetah most delightfully. The chamber was filled with slurping sounds, soft moans and occasional cries of pleasure. Hinoki grinned and turned, heading for the access hatch. He could move faster through the normal corridors of the station, and still sense the creatures behind the walls, and within the ceiling. He had a feast to call them to…

---

The trap was carefully laid. It had found the compartment, and then the drawer, by following the scent of sex. The phallic shape had not been well-cleaned, and in the creature’s senses it reeked of prey. It wasn’t hard to nudge it under other items in the drawer, and adopt its shape. Then, all it had to do was wait. It was good at waiting…

---

Olivia smiled and tugged June through the door. The day in Purchasing had been long and hard, with her boss riding her unmercifully. But now her time was her own, and she had a boatload of tensions and frustrations to burn off. Luckily she’d run into June at her favorite watering hole, and even more remarkably, the Tigress was in the mood to play. “I’ve got just the thing” Olivia purrred, shedding clothes as she padded over to her nightstand. Pulling open the drawer, she grabbed the big, black, double-headed dong, and holding it up, waved it in front of the Tigress’ eyes.

June smiled; “Yes, that IS a nice one. I’m surprised someone as petite as you can take something like that!”

The Mink chuckled; “Years of practice, my dear, YEARS of practice! Now, come here and gimme a kiss….. The Tigress obliged, bending to kiss the Mink. As their tongues danced, Olivia took the big dong and started to stroke its head between the Tigress’ thighs, rubbing it back and forth. The Tigress moaned softly, and reached out to kneed the Mink’s breasts, squeezing them harder and harder as her passions built.

They lay entwined on the couch, crotch to crotch, right leg over the other’s left. They both had a paw on the big double-dong, both working it back and forth; into one, out of the other. Occasionally one would twist it suddenly, eliciting a gasp from both of them.

June arched her back and roared as her climax overtook her. Releasing the dong, she lifted her paws to pinch her own nipples as the pleasures washed through her. The sensation of the big dong still moving within her let the pleasure roll on and on and on….

Olivia heard her friend cry out and smiled; she knew how vocal the Tigress could be when she came…. Giving the dong another twist she found her own release, and shuddering, she added her voice to that of the Tigress…..

June purrrred. The dong was still working back and forth, slowly, teasingly. It felt good….. Lifting her head, she grinned at the Mink; “Insatiable tonight, are we?”

Olivia lifted her head and grinned at the Tigress between her breasts; “Apparently you are. But don’t stop; it feels too good.”

June let her head back down, but then brought it up… Me? I’m not doing anything….”

The Mink frowned; “Um…. I thought that was you moving the dong…..” Pushing herself up with her elbows she looked down her body; sure enough, there were no paws on the dong, but it was still surging back and forth, if anything a little faster now….

June swallowed hard; “ah…. It seems to have come to life!”

Olivia shook her head; “Funny, its never done THAT before….”

The Tigress looked at her; “It wasn’t one of those highly automated things that Cheetah sells, is it? Robotic, or something?”

The Mink shook her head; “No… anyways its not supposed to be. It was just a big latex dong. Thought it was, anyways.”

The Tigress flopped back, with a groan; her right paw was lightly stroking her mons; “Maybe it was mis-labeled. You might have gotten a bargain. Who knows, maybe you hit the on switch by accident, a moment ago…..”

The Mink’s response was mumbled, as she started to pant heavily again, but it sounded like “maybe so…”

The second climax was every bit as good as the first, and the Tigress wound up howling at the top of her lungs. When she’d calmed down, she shifted her feet, and tried to pull away from the still-moving dong. “Love, enough’s enough. I need a shower.” The Mink nodded, and tried to pull in the opposite direction; it didn’t work very well. It seemed as if the dong shrank a little, thinning out, but as it did so, something pushed into her ass; something that swelled just behind the anal ring. “Um…. June? Something’s wrong…. OH! Ooooooo… um…. I can’t get my end out…”

The Tigress grunted; “Yeah; something just pushed into my ass and blew up like an inflatable butt-plug. Ooooooooh, man, can you feel that? Oh, its still moving… moving in both holes! I think… I think I’m gonna cum agaaaaaaiiiiiiinnnnnnn!

---

The Mink panted; “June, this is ridiculous. This isn’t any toy! No robot could act like this! And even if it could, the batteries should be wearing down by now!”

The Tigress swallowed and nodded; “Yeah…. Lord, I don’t think I’ve ever cum so much in one night. What time IS it anyways?

---

Olivia groaned and rolled over. She was still on the couch. Looking at the clock she realized it was 0400. Geez, she had to be to work in a couple of hours. Sitting up, she got two steps towards the bathroom before she stopped, and looked back. The Tigress was on her side, snoring softly. Her pussy was a matted mass of sticky furr… and the double-dong was nowhere to be seen. Tiptoeing back to the nightstand, she peeked in; yup, there it was, laying there innocently, as if waiting to entrap them again… But… didn’t it look a little bigger? Closing the drawer, she frowned. What HAD happened? Walking a little bow-legged, she made her way to the bathroom. She’d figure it out tomorrow, when she could think more clearly….. Grinning back at the sleeping Tigress, she wondered if June would be interested in trying her toy again, perhaps on Friday night, when they could both sleep in the next morning….

---

Hinoki paused, and stared at the wall. He was at the docking ring, and the wall was the ouside wall of the station. He could feel three of his brethren on the other side of the wall; the cold of space had frozen them almost solid. Frowning he wondered how they’d gotten there? What could possibly have lead them outside the station? Well, it didn’t matter; they’d stay put there until he had time to collect them. Resuming his original course he headed for the plenum chamber over the No.3 cargo airlock motor control center; there were at least a half a dozen creatures there, and he needed to tell them about the feast…..

---

Sabina shrugged and placed her tray on the small table. For once the caffeteria was comparatively empty and they had their choice of seats. “Cindy, I’ve heard the rumors, but every one I hear is different. Vampire monsters that can suck the life out of you, hiding in the ductwork? Come ON….” The Badger shrugged; “I know it sounds strange, but you know as well as I do, space is full of strange things. How can you say its not real?” The Kitten chuckled; “Because I haven’t seen any drained, dead bodies. Have you?” The Badger frowned; “Um… no. But I’ve heard furrs talk of the attacks. They SAY something happened to Hinoki…. And generally, where there’s smoke, there’s fire.” The Kitten shrugged; “Well, when I see the bodies, I’ll believe it.”

Cindy’s head came up, as something behind the Kitten went “Splat”. Half-rising, she looked over Sabina’s head and shoulders; “Did you hear that?”

Sabina turned and looked over one shoulder and then twisted to look over the other. For a moment she paused and then her head turned back. Then she was squirming out of her seat, moving without pushing the chair back; “There’s something here…..”

Cindy rose and came around the table. There was a black puddle on the floor. It looked as if someone had spilled oil. Except the oil was flowing towards the Kitten’s feet. Sabina was backing up a step at a time, watching it warily. “I dunno… doesn’t look like a vapiritic monster to me…”

Cindy shook her head; “No.. but then I don’t have the vaguest idea what it IS, so you’d better be careful….

Sabina chuckled; “Ah! The mold that’s been gathering in the kitchen has finally come aliiiiivvvveeeeee!” But as she giggled, she was climbing up on a table, having found her back against a wall….

Cindy took a fork from her tray and bending over, poked at the puddle. For a moment the puddle paused, and then before she could blink, it had flowed around the fork, climbing up it, to encase her hand. “Um…. Sabina, I think I’ve got a problem here!”

Sabina leapt off the table and wrapped both paws around her friend’s arm, in an attempt to prevent the thing from flowing up from Cindy’s paw. The creature flowed over her paws, and then paused, as if unsure which way to go. Sabina tried to remove her paws but found them stuck tight to the Badger’s arm. “Now what do we do?”

The cook was an immense Polar Bear, his fur as dirty and stained as the white apron he wore. “I dunno, ladies. I can’t pry it off with the spatula, and it don’t cut with a knife. Where’d you say you found it?”

Sabina struggled to extract her paws; “Right out there. I think it fell off the ceiling or something.”

The Polar bear shrugged, his fingers failing to get a purchase on the creature. “Dunno….. Hey, maybe it doesn’t like heat. Want to hold your arm over the stove?”

Sabina and Cindy exchanged looks; “Um… nothanks… we’ll think of something else…” Still glued together, they beat a hasty retreat, their meal forgotten.

---

“You know, he might have had an idea there. Maybe we ought to try a sauna or a hot tub.”

Cindy grinned; “Yeah, I can take a nice hot sauna…..”

Sabina nodded; “Deck 17, Frame 12.”

Cindy frowned; “The sports arena?”

Sabina nodded; “Yeah; there aren’t any games scheduled and the locker room facilities should be empty. I bet we can slip in there, extract our monster, and find something to bottle it up with. Hey, maybe there’s a reward!”

Tugging on Cindy’s arm, the Kitten dragged her off down a corridor.

---

The Sauna was almost too hot. Both females were bottomless, but they’d found it impossible to get their tops off, given the way the monster had stuck them together. Every time the monster had tried to flow up either Cindy’s or Sabina’s arm, they’d tugged at it, trying to separate themselves, and that had served to make it stick tight, in place. At least where it was, no one was being threatened by it….

They sat on the wood bench, and just looked at each other; “How long do you think this’ll take?”

Sabina shrugged; “Don’t know. Might have to wait for it to melt. Of course at this temperature, I might melt first.”

Cindy giggled and shook her head; “Oh, its not that bad. Be nice if I could pour some water on the rocks to get some steam; it IS awfully dry.”

Turning a little, Cindy used her free paw to try and pick at the monster again. This time, however, she found her fingers stuck tight. “Uh-oh…. That’s not a good sign.”

Sabina nodded; “Um… I think its doing something….” Sure enough, the monster, without relaxing its grip on either of the females, was shifting; Cindy’s other paw was pulled into the mass of its body, even as it moved down her other arm. It took about ten minutes, but eventually, Cindy and Sabina found themselves sitting, facing each other as if they were lovers holding hands.

“OK, now what?”

Sabina giggled; “I think its got us trapped”

“Yeah, its got us right where it wants us. So? I can’t imagine a monster that terrorizes furrs by making them hold hands!”

Sabina chuckled; “Oh, yeah, I’m terrified!” She bent closer to the black mass enclosing her paws; “Hey, YOU! You sorry excuse for a Monster! What do you think you’re DOING? Can’t you think of anything better than to hold us by the HAND? HUH, some Monster YOU are!”

Lifting her chin she grinned at the Badger, just in time to see Cindy’s eyes go wide. Then the Kitten felt two light touches under her blouse…. Looking down quickly she noted two tendrils had extruded themselves from the mass around their paws, and had flowed up under her blouse. It FELT as if the creature had just encircled both her nipples with miniature tentacles! Cindy clucked and shook her head; “Shouldn’t have done that…..” Sabina swallowed hard and nodded in agreement. Both girls sat there, waiting to see what it would do next.

It didn’t matter how much she squirmed; she couldn’t avoid them. Eventually, the monster got a grip on her nipples too. And that was when she HAD to stop struggling; the little monster had the damndest tendency to squeeze hard and jerk when she did something it didn’t like.

Sabina grunted as the creature tweaked her nipples. Looking up at Cindy she sighed; “Well, it could be worse. There ARE more sensitive places it could have grabbed us…..” It seemed she’d no sooner got the words out, when the creature was flowing, extruding two more tendrils. Cindy tried to jump to her feet, but the creature tugged hard on her nipples, pulling her back. Sabina had also started to rise, and together they fell to the floor in a heap. As they squirmed about, the creature’s tendrils forced their way between their legs…..

Sabina gasped and shuddered; she was laying on top of the Badger, nose to nose, or more correctly, nipple to nipple; between them the creature was flowing, spreading out. Her paws had been released, but she seemed to be stuck to Cindy all down her front. And it felt as if another of the tendrils had captured her clitty, and then forced its way into her sex. In a way, it was rather exciting… Placing her paws on the floor on either side of Cindy she pushed; the Badger yelped; “Stop! Don’t do that!”

Sabina instantly let herself back down; “what happened?”

Cindy swallowed hard; “its got me… when you did that, it tugged hard at my, ah… my …..”

Sabina chuckled; “Got you by the clitty too?”

Cindy shuddered and nodded; “Yeah, that and… well, it seems to have flowed inside me too.”

Sabina nodded; “Yeah, here too. Hey, do you think we could stand up?”

Cindy raised an eyebrow; “Why? You planning on going somewhere?”

The motions as they tried to stand up, only brought them to a higher level of passion. Sabina thought it felt as if Cindy was wearing a strap-on dildo, and their motions were only serving to fuck themselves silly. Determined to free themselves, they’d only managed to bring each other to a couple of climaxes. “its no use. We’ll never get up at this rate.”

Cindy nodded; “Yeah. I think its extruded a part of itself all around my waist. I don’t think its planning on letting me go anytime soon.”

Sabina chuckled and rocked her hips a little; “No….. But it does seem this situation has its, ah, “rewards”….

Cindy scowled; “How can you think of something like that at a time like this?”

Sabina laughed and rocked her hips a little harder, thrusting down at the Badger; “that’s just me. Besides, what else we gonna do?”

---

Cindy groaned as the thing in her sex brought her to another climax. Or was that Sabina’s doing. She wasn’t sure anymore. Panting from the heat, and from the exertions, she wondered… did she really hear that, or was she imagining it? “Sabina…?”

The Kitten cocked her head to one side; “Shush! I think I heard something….”

Max pushed open the door to the Sauna and came to a dead stop. “Well! What DO we have here?”

Sabina turned to look over her shoulder, while Cindy raised her head; “Hey, its not what it looks like. We’re, ah, we’ve been assaulted by this monster; we can’t get free!”

The Minotaur gave them a leer; “Suuuure. You two stay right there.” He turned his head and called out; “Hey, guys! Look what I found!”

---

“looks like some sort of bondage harness. Someone locked ‘em together?”

“Yeah, well, they’re both wearing collars; gotta be somebody’s slaves….”

“Hey, you don’t think the Coach left ‘em for us, as a reward for winning that last game, do you?”

“Dummy, we LOST the last game, and the Coach is much too much a tightwadd. But maybe some fan left ‘em.”

“Well, it doesn’t matter to me. They may be joined at the cunt, but their assholes are available! Here, help me stand ‘em up. Tibbet, you take the Kitten; you’re smaller; we’ll prop ‘em up between us!”

Sabina groaned as the Wolf sunk his cock into her ass. Her arms were over her head, held there by the powerful paws of the Lupine; Cindy was likewise held, as the Minotaur took her from behind. Sabina winced at the look on the Badger’s face; “Don’t let it get to you, Love. Besides, I’ve got a plan……”

---

“Thanks, guys, we’d been wondering how we were going to get free of that thing!” Sabina grinned and closed the sauna door behind her. After being in there so long, the normal temperature of the station felt downright chilly.

“Serves ‘em right! Who told them they could have me, let alone in the ass?”

Sabina chuckled; “Oh, come on! He was kinda cute. And they DID rescue us.”

Cindy hmphed, and turned to look at the Kitten; “How’d you know it’d leave us, for them?”

Sabina chuckled; “Oh, at that point I think they were the hornier furrs in the room, and whatever that thing was, it seemed to be most interested in sex. Face it, Love, I’m for once, just about as satisfied as I get.”

Cindy chuckled and nodded; “Yeah…. Yeah, I’m good for the moment. In fact I’ll probably last until Roland gets back.” At the look on the Kitten’s face, the Badger had to laugh.

---

“Dammit, Tibbet, stop pulling!”

“Can’t help it, Max; its got me by the short hairs and it seems to be trying to maneuver me around behind you. You WANT me to fuck you in the ass? No, DON’T answer that.”

“Hey, Josh! Don’t get too close! This thing gets its hooks into you, you’ll be stuck tight like Tibbet and Max!”

“Dammit, how we going to get loose from this thing? Why’d it let the girls go?”

“Don’t know, but the way its stroking my cock, can’t say as I mind at all….”

“Aw, hell, here comes the Coach; bet we’re going to be in trouble now!”

---

Hinoki shook his head in amazement. He had found his way into the ventral weapons station. There, he’d sensed one of the creatures, trapped. However as he got closer he realized that it was INSIDE one of the torpedo tubes. “They get into the damndest places” he muttered to himself. Turning, he retraced his steps. THAT one he’d get later. Preferably with an armorer to help. In his travels, he’d encountered quite a number of the creatures, but overall, the numbers hadn’t been as great as he’d feared. And as he’d wandered through the residential sections, he’d been surprised how many were being kept as pets. He’d have to start selling “care and feeding” guides….

---

Helen grinned to herself. Luke was a nervous wreck. He never seemed to go anywhere alone anymore and his friends were getting irritated at his insistence that he NOT be left alone. He stayed to well-lit areas and was constantly looking around. If he’d just stopped bothering her, everything would have been fine, but he still had that sharp tongue of his. Somehow he’d blamed her for his problems. Well, OK, she had been at the root of his problems, but if he hadn’t been following her… No matter. No one else believed him. Still, he remained a thorn in her side. But what to do about him?

She’d been breeding the creatures, in her spare time. In ones and twos they were quite controllable. The problem was, when they’d had enough of her, as much as they wanted, they tended to get large, and then divide. She had too many of them now. She was going to have to do something.

At first she’d thought about giving some away to her friends. The problem was, she didn’t have that many friends. And those she had, probably wouldn’t understand. And she couldn’t just let the poor things loose. They might starve! She’d heard there was a bounty out on them now, but if she turned them in, they’d just be killed and she didn’t want that either! What to do?

---

Hinoki finished his circuit of the station. He’d been just about everywhere he thought he might find one of his brethren. He’d have to repeat his search, probably several more times, but now it was time to get back and see how Tanj & Co. were getting on. He grinned at the thought…

---

It had taken hours of poking around in the ductwork, dragging the bucket of dry ice, but it had finally paid off. This was going to be the world’s best practical joke.

The creature was a small one, but feisty. It’d almost gotten him. But he’d been faster. OK, he’d burned himself with the dry ice, in a couple of tender places, but he’d still won. Now, the creature was inside the plastic baggie, and the baggie was inside Harry’s space suit. When Harry went outside for his quarterly zero gravity vacuum welding proficiency trials, the weight of his foot on the baggie, stashed in the left boot, would rupture the baggie and the creature would escape. “And then we’ll see who gets the higher proficiency rating” Bo chuckled to himself. Oh, this was gonna be great!

Harry, as usual, was running late. That ‘Roo was going to be late for his own funeral. Bo watched him hop in, at the bounce, tearing open his locker, throwing pieces of equipment left and right. “Here, let me give you a paw with that.” Bo congenially held the ‘Roo’s suit open. “Thanks, Mate!” Harry growled as he literally hopped into the suit. Together they worked at closing all the seals, and latching all the equipment in place. Once or twice, Bo thought he caught the Roo wiggling his left foot as if something wasn’t quite right…. And then the inner lock was swinging open and the exterior maintenance crew was trooping in.

“Gotta be that mangy Koala” Harry thought to himself. “This is exactly the kind of trick he’d pull.” He’d been on a few of the Monster hunts himself, although on a different shift than his “friend”, and had heard all the stories. He’d also talked to Luke and a few of the others that had been “attacked”. So far, he didn’t know of anyone who’d died, and some of them had even admitted it wasn’t that bad. So when something had gone “squish” under his left foot, and then that something had flowed around his ankle, and calf, he hadn’t panicked. Not quite. So far the seal just above his left knee was holding the thing, but he knew that as he walked it’d most likely get past. Oh, he could signal the instructor, call a halt to the exercise. But then he’d have to surrender the creature. And if he did that, how could he possibly get Bo back? Doing his best to keep a straight face, the ‘roo marched through the outer airlock door with all the others. Sure enough, as he moved, he could feel it slip under the seal. Things were about to get very interesting.

Hannibal watched the ‘Roo. Normally Harry was one of his best furrs, but today, well, he’d almost cut Percy in half with the cutter, and his welding was incredibly sloppy. Well, at least for him. And every once in a while the ‘Roo would twitch as if he were on the verge of a convulsion. Something was definitely wrong here. But what?

---

“Harry, you OK?”

“Yeah, sure boss, just, ah, a little on edge.”

“Why? You normally ace these checks.”

“Dunno. Guess I haven’t been sleeping very well. But don’t worry about me; I’ve got it under controllllLLLLLLlllllllllooooooh. Wow. Um, sorry. What was I saying?”

---

Bo watched, amazed. He thought the ‘roo would be screaming by now. Instead he was just a little twitchy. Huh. As he wondered what had gone wrong, it occurred to him that maybe the baggie hadn’t broken. Or maybe the monster had been sick. Maybe that was why it had been so easy to catch. Maybe he should have tried it out on himself first… Yeah, maybe it was defective or something…..

---

“Well, Harry, I guess you passed, but you got the lowest score on the team.”

“Sorry, Boss. Tell you what. How about I come out here on my off-shift and practice?”

“You know I can’t have you out here alone…”

“Oh, that’s OK, boss, I think I can get Bo to come with me. He owes me a favor.”

Hannibal caught the glint in the ‘Roo’s eye and decided he REALLY didn’t want to know; “OK, if he’s willing, its OK with me….”

---

As they headed back to the lock, Harry wondered how hard it would be to clean out his suit. It felt like he was up to his ankles in his own cum. The creature was quiescent now, just clinging to him. It ought to be tired; Lord knows he was. Still, it’d been a REAL interesting day… Now… all he had to do was to let the creature recharge or whatever, and find a way to get it into that Koala’s suit… Harry grinned at the thought; this was going to be fun….

---

Tanj purrrred. The creatures had been coming from all over. Dozens of them. Gradually, they’d been pulled apart, the creatures more demanding than their furry lovers. And then they’d been covered. Tanj found that her experience with them gave her a modicum of control; she could influence how they pleasured her, but certainly couldn’t do anything about the pace. Nor could she get the one on her head off; it covered her eyes, filled her ears, and her mouth, and barely left her enough room to breath through her nose. She wondered how the others were doing, and hoped Sashi and Doodles weren’t panicking…

---

Zassa grunted; “no, TIGHTER you little devils!” She’d gotten them to bend her into a particularly tight hog-tie, her wrists almost touching her knees, as the creatures fucked her in pussy, ass and mouth. Other creatures squeezed her breasts hard, and tugged at her nipples. The overall effect had her climaxing almost continuously; it was GREAT!

---

Sashi had been briefed by Tanj, but was having a little bit of trouble getting her point across to the creatures. They seemed intent on banging her just as hard and as fast as they could, moving at almost machine-like speeds; and she kept telling them to slow down, to move gently, easily, a slow touch. They, however, were ravenous and wanted her to cum as fast as possible, which, in all honesty, she had been. Sighing into her living gag, the Chocolate Pantheress tried again; “Look, Guys, I’m getting tired. Slow down a bit, will you?”

---

Doodles laughed and squirmed; somehow, the creatures had decided he liked to be tickled; it felt as if a thousand feathers were working over his body, stroking his most sensitive places, even as the creatures engulfed his cock, plumbed his ass and filled his mouth. It was great, but boy could he use a break!

---

Hinoki watched the Zebra Mare clop towards him. Her dress was skimpy and skin-tight, and glossy black. It set off her stripes well. As she went past, he winked at her. He KNEW it was one of the living dress creatures, well fed, and fully into its “obedient” phase. He grinned and made a mental note; he’d have to look her up, and tell her about the creatures. There were probably a couple of dozen tips he could give her, and who knows, she might just be thankful enough to let him feed on her….. He grinned at the thought.

---

The dry ice was just inside the access port, where he’d left it. He could sense them, maybe a little more than a hundred of them, a short distance away. Wincing at the nearness of the cold, Lugging two containers in each paw, he staggered towards them. Time to tone down the party a little…..

---

Chris looked from face to face to face; “And you say the creature was with two fems, a Kitten and a Badger?” They all nodded. He sighed; “OK, I’ll check into it. If they had one, they may have more, or know where to find them.” As they turned to leave, the Fox growled; “And what happened to the one that so viciously assaulted you?”

Sheepish looks were exchanged; “Well…. Last time we saw it, It was stuck to Freddie.”

Chris sighed; “And where’s Freddie?”

The Minotaur chuckled; “Oh, he’s in a safe place. We put him in his locker.”

Chris winced; “Ah… does this locker have vent louvers?”

The Coach nodded; “Top and bottom. If its not ventilated, well you wouldn’t believe the stench that can build up.”

Chris thought of old gym socks and winced; “And do you think the creature, once sated, might get OUT through those louvers?”

Again, looks were exchanged. “Nevermind. Tell me what locker number it is, and I’ll take care of it. You know, of course, that these things have been declared dangerous and you’re not allowed to keep them, don’t you?”

Half a dozen furrs groaned, looking disappointed.

---

Hinoki tried to take the ones that had already had at least something to eat, but in the end he found he had to capture the ones on the outside of the pack just so he could get to his friends. It started to fall into a routine; hold some dry ice against one of the creatures until it turned hard enough to pull off. Put it in a container and seal the lid. Put the container in the bag. Pull off the insulated gloves and let his own paws warm up. Pull the gloves back on, get a fresh piece of dry ice and repeat the procedure….

---

Tanj moaned and worked her jaw as the creature that had been over her face dropped off. There was still one working on her crotch, sliding in and out of her pussy, but it seemed to be the last one on her. Looking around in the dim light, she saw Hinoki, clad only in a pair of heavy duty insulated gloves, holding a piece of dry ice on Sashi. Zassa was over by the wall, covered in what looked like black plastic straps, bound in a tight ball; she still had several creatures working frantically at her. Doodles was standing by one of the ducts. A creature had wrapped itself around his cock, its other end stuck to the wall; it was almost as if it were restraining the Bunny. Doodles looked at her, grinned sheepishly and just shrugged. “Must be Hinoki’s doing, she thought to herself. Waddling a bit, she moved over to Zassa, to check the Vixen’s breathing and circulation….

---

Jenka strode into Ops, and looked around. Wherever Chris Foxx was, he wasn’t here. Grumbling to herself she moved to the center seat and sat down. As she sat, she frowned; her seat cushion felt a little funny. Gel-filled. In fact, it felt much better than the usual too-flat cushion the chair normally had, and that made her instantly suspicious. She was about to rise, to examine it when Buckland came over, with a PADD, and the latest oxygen consumption figures. She was going over the data with him, when she felt her seat cushion move. Flow. And then something moved along her thigh, moving up towards her crotch.

Dammit, she knew she shouldn’t have worn the leather miniskirt today!

Standing she thrust the PADD back at the Elk; “Got a problem. Figures look OK.” Turning she walked over to the comm officer, trying to stay calm. “Find me Tanj.”

He bent to his console, and after a moment straightened; “I can’t seem to locate her, Boss. Could she be off the station?”

Jenka growled; “She’d better not be. How about Zassa?” The result was the same. Hinoki also couldn’t be found. Finally she growled; “Find me Chris Foxx. Have him meet me in my quarters. SOONEST!” Struggling to control herself, she stalked out of ops.

The door had no sooner closed behind her, than someone was snickering. Buckland looked around, trying to figure out who it was, wondering what in the WORLD was going on?

As soon as the door had closed behind her, Jenka pulled up the hem of her skirt, tugging it over her hips. As she’d feared, one of the creatures was plastered over her crotch. It already had a tentril in her ass, and a rather thick plug in her pussy. “Dammit, I do NOT have time for this! Now… How do I get rid of you? What was it they said?”

---

Tanj smiled as the creature obediently flowed down her arm, and into the plastic container. “OK, now lets clean Zassa off, and go get a shower. Hope you brought a float pallet for all those boxes!”

Doodles looked down at the Vixen; “Um… I can’t quite understand what she’s saying, but I don’t think she WANTS to be free of those things..”

Tanj chuckled; “I’m sure she doesn’t but we don’t want them multiplying either. Sorry, party’s over. Grab some dry ice and lets get to work.”

---

Jenka knelt by the refrigerator; the creature was fucking her for all it was worth, and so far she’d had at least four climaxes. Holding ice against it seemed to slow it down, but apparently it just wasn’t cold enough to stop it. What had they been using then? She wasn’t about to send out for some liquid nitrogen; that would be too dangerous…… Dammit, where WAS that Fox? Oooooo, someone was going to PAY for this!

The Opposition; Misfortune

“Housekeeping.” Tabitha knocked on the door again; “Housekeeping”…. With a shrug she used her passcard to open the door. Most everyone had to keep their own quarters clean, but the furrs in the Transient Quarters didn’t really qualify as “permanent party” and as such, certain services were provided, such as laundry and housekeeping. Normally, the Raccoon was a gunner on one of the Raiders, but she moonlighted…. It was amazing how hard it was to find someone who’d clean up after others, and accordingly amazing how much the black fleet would pay someone to do it. And of course she was a neat freak, and it all came rather naturally to her. The Mouse wasn’t in, and his room looked scarcely lived in. Good, less work for her. She appreciated furrs that made their own beds. She emptied the trash can into the bin on her cart, checking to see if anything of value, either monetarily or perhaps useful to intelligence was there. Nope. Next she checked his brief case. Locked. Not surprising. She was also a natural snoop, which also came in handy in this job. As she poked through his toiletries, she noticed a stain developing at the bottom of the sink. Rust. When they’d built the station, they’d used a plastic for all-in-one countertops and sinks, and after a few years, the plastic discolored at the bottom of the sink. Something about hot water dissolving some of the fire retardant filler in the plastic, leaving it porous, and able to absorb rust from the water. No real problem from a sanitation or structural point of view, but esthetically, it sucked. And that was when she noticed the bottle of cleaner on the sink. Picking it up she examined it; it wasn’t a brand she recognized. Smiling, wondering if it was something that might clean the sink better than the stuff the storeroom stocked, she grabbed a rag and popped the cap…..

---

“Hey, Bob, have you seen Tabitha?”

No, George, haven’t. Why?”

“We were going to play some cribbage after work. She didn’t show.”

“Don’t know; she was cleaning some of the transient rooms; maybe something happened….”

“I wonder if one of those monsters we’ve been hearing about got her. I’ll go look. If she checks in, page me.”

“Gotcha.”

---

“Tabitha! Hey, Tabitha, what’s wrong? Why are you just standing there like tha……”

---

“Estelle, have you seen George? He went to look for Tabitha, but that was hours ago.”

“No, haven’t seen him. Did you check with Tabitha’s boss? Maybe she got delayed, and he stayed to help her.”

“Good idea, let me check with him.”

---

“Yeah, he came by a while ago. Big Kodiak, wasn’t he? Yeah, he went down to the transient quarters to see if she was still there.”

“Well, he never came back.”

“Come on, lets go see if they’re still there.”

“Just hope we don’t catch the two of them makin’ out. I’d hate to see George angry….”

“I’d hate to see him naked!”

---

“Hey, here they are…. Hey, what are the two of you doing just standing th….”

The Opposition; Discovery 1

“Tanj, I want you to come look at something.”

Tanj looked at the Stallion, and frowned; he had a very strange look on his face; “Um… sure. What’s up?”

John Shrugged massively; “I don’t have a clue. A number of furrs have turned up missing; we’ve found them; they’re in a room down in the transient quarters, but… they’re all just standing there. Not moving. They appear to be alive. And anyone who gets too close winds up acting just like they do.”

Tanj looked in the doorway, and frowned; there must have been a dozen furrs standing in the small room. Some had surprised looks on their faces; others looked as if they were concentrating on something. She shook her head; “I don’t have a clue what’s wrong.” Looking up at the Stallion she growled; “Did you call anyone from Medical?”

The Stallion nodded and pointed; “That’s Hoskins right there. And Whitherspoon.”

Tanj sighed; “Well, I guess there’s only one way to find out what’s going on…..”

---

The space suit was bulky, but it was the best armor she could think of. A sealed environment. No chance of biological or chemical contamination. Or so she’d thought. If it was some sort of energy weapon, or electrical field, she was probably screwed….. She’d pulled it on in the corridor, sealed it, checked it, had John doublecheck her, and then she’d started towards the room, when something inside the suite moved against her left calf. For a moment she’d almost jumped out of her skin. Growling, she shoved the sensation aside, wondering if it was just her skin crawling, and stepped into the room.

The furrs were indeed all breathing. She could see that. Moving between them, she found they were not locked in place; if she bumped one of them, the furr would stagger, and regain their balance, but return to immobility. As she looked over the room, she realized that the furrs towards the middle of the room were newcomers. There was a racoon lady in the back, by the bathroom. She must have been the first one in the room; perhaps it had all started with her? Pushing her way through the crowd, she drew closer. Nondescript coveralls. Decent enough looking middle-aged Raccoon Fem. She stood there holding a rag in one hand, and an open bottle of some sort of cleaner in the other. Looking around, Tanj realized that no one else was holding anything. It was a long shot, but she took a couple of trash baggies from the cart and pulling the rag out of the Raccoon’s paw, she put it in one baggie, and tied a knot in the open end of the bag. The can of cleaner was a little harder to pull out of her paw, and some of it slopped on the outside of her gauntlets, but she finally had it free. The cap was on the counter; she tightened it, and then put it in another trash baggie. And then, as the contents had slopped a little, she put that baggie in a second, and tied that one tight too. She then washed off her gauntlets in the sink, noting the oily, rainbow effect in the water as it went down the drain. Putting everything in yet a third baggie, she pushed her way back through the crowd, to the door.

---

“John, I might have found something. I think we need to get the contents of these baggies analyzed.”

John nodded, and reached out to take them from the Cheetah; “OK, I’ll…..”

Tanj looked at him curiously; “You’ll what?”

A look of panic came over John’s face, and he stuttered “I’ll ….. Ah…. I’m…..”

Tanj looked at him in concern; “Are you all right?”

The Horse shook his head no, but didn’t seem to be able to force a word out.

Tanj looked at her gauntlets, at the baggies in John’s hands, and groaned. He must have become contaminated by something on her suit, or on the baggies.

---

It took a while to tongue the suit’s frequency controls over to the emergency channel; “This is Tanj. We’re under attack. I want a full internal security lock-down, ESPECIALLY in the air handling systems. All personnel are to take immediate chemical and biological agent precautions. This is NOT a drill. I need a Hazmat team at… Frame 52, section 37 immediately!”

---

The Mouse snuffled, and paused, the tissue half way to his nose, as the intercom came on. He listened to the voice in growing terror. That was where his room was! They were on to him! He had to escape! Fortunately, he’d been thinking along those lines. There was a closet just across from his room. Waiting until the nursing staff had all started climbing into their biohazard suits, he slipped out of his room and into the closet. There he found a set of scrubs that would fit. The surgical mask and cap partially disguised him. However, in the pandemonium, it turned out he really didn’t need a disguise. He probably could have walked out of there naked carrying a sign, and no one would have noticed him. No, that wasn’t true; they would have noticed anyone not in a biohazard suit…..

The Coyote threw a suit at him, as he trotted down the hallway; of course he was throwing suits at anyone that didn’t have one. It was an even better disguise than the scrubs. Not nearly as comfortable, though….

---

Tanj waited for the hazmat team to arrive, trying hard to suppress the sensations. She knew what was in the suit with her; it was alarming, but scarcely frightening. She just couldn’t figure out how it’d gotten in there. Even as a practical joke, putting one of the living dress creatures in a space suit would be a difficult thing to accomplish. After all, after the “roundup”, all the known ones were locked up on her ship, weren’t they? Maybe not. This one was a little one, but it was still driving her crazy, plastered across her crotch, stroking her in a most distracting way. And right now she did NOT need to be distracted….

---

He knew just what he was going to do. With everyone wearing biohazard suits, his weapon was useless. And without his weapon, there was essentially no chance he was going to escape. Still, he had a job to do, and at this point they weren’t likely to let him live anyways. Not the pirates, and not the cartel, for botching the job. No, he was going to finish his mission, and he knew just how to do it. Maybe that way they’d leave his family alone. Play to your strengths….

---

The ‘mech bay was unguarded. He didn’t know where everyone was, but that didn’t matter. He had done enough work on the Badger’s mech to know the passcodes, or so he thought. After crawling inside, he found that he couldn’t bring up main power. With a groan he realized the Badger was more paranoid than he’d thought. There was a password, or key code he didn’t know after all. With a sigh he climbed out again. There were ways to bypass things like that. It’d just take him a little while, and a few feet of wire. Oh, and some duct tape….

---

Jenka watched as the last of the furrs was carried out of the transient quarters. They couldn’t even be successfully led. At least they weren’t resisting their rescuers….Turning she looked at the Cheetah; Tanj had a funny look on her face. After a moment she caught her eye and leaning forward to touch helmets, muttered; “What?”

Tanj shook her head; “Mistress, I don’t know how to tell you this, but I can tell you that its not the only problem we’ve got.”

The Jaguar blinked; “There’s more?”

Tanj nodded, and sighed; “Mistress, I grabbed this suit from a locker down the hall. Purely at random. It wasn’t until after I had it on, and was into the room, that I realized I wasn’t alone in the suit.”

Jenka’s eyes narrowed; “Not ANOTHER one…..?”

Tanj nodded her head and bit her lip until the small climax had passed; “Yup. There’s one of the living dress creatures in here with me. I don’t know where it came from, or how it got here, but if I could stumble across one randomly, it suggests there are still a whole lot more of them loose.”

Jenka sighed and rolled her eyes; “Great. Just great.”

---

Wanda found trying to use the Microscope while wearing a bubble helmet almost impossible. Still, her view was good enough to let her know there weren’t any microbes, bacteria, or viruses present in the cleaning solution. That left biological warfare out of the picture. Probably. It was a purely chemical attack. Turning to look at the analyzer she sighed. The chemical compound resembled neurotoxins. But it wasn’t like anything in any of her references. What in the hell was this stuff?

---

Kath looked at the big Horse, and sighed. It was as if John was trying to say something, but just couldn’t force it out. “Can’t make up your mind what to say, Master? Can’t pick which word to start with, or how to phrase it?” The horse’s head jerked spasmodically up and down, and then up and down again; it almost looked as if he were going to hurt himself, so violent were his motions. Kath patted him; “That’s OK. I think I know what’s happening. Just relax; I’ll go tell Wanda.”

---

“I thought it was only a myth. One of those things that float around the intelligence and black ops circles, rumors of rumors. I guess not.”

Wanda nodded, her eyes still glued to the analyzer. She was running a simulation, trying to find an antidote. “Uh huh….”

Kath shrugged; “From what I’ve heard, the effects are temporary. I’m not sure if there’s any defense against it, though.”

Wanda looked up from the analyzer, punched in the code for a slightly different compound, and bent back over the display; “I think there is. I just have to find the optimal neurostimulator. Of course, you have to KNOW you’re going to be attacked with the stuff, in order for the neurostimulator to be administered… But maybe I can rig up some sort of field analyzer to watch for the stuff…. And maybe autoinjectors for key personnel…. Yes, that looks promising.” The Wolverine sat up from the analyzer, turned, and filled a spray hypodermic; she handed it to the Mink; “Try this on John. If it works, let me know and we’ll set up a treatment for the others.”

---

John Howled. Head thrown back, muscles trembling, he yelled at the top of his lungs. Tanj stepped back, Jenka stared eyes wide, and Kath prepared another hypo, just in case he had to be tranquilized. After a few tense minutes he calmed, if the look of fury in his eyes could be called that; “Oh, whoever did that is SO dead! I’m gonna tear him limb from limb! I’m going to shred him into little pieces, flush him down the toilet and then filter him out, glue him back together and do it all again!”

Jenka chuckled; “That bad, eh?”

The Stallion wheeled to face the Jaguar; “you have NO idea; it was literally Hell.”

Tanj looked out from behind the Jaguar; “Kath said it was some sort of indecision drug….”

The Stallion growled; “Too true. I knew what I wanted to say; knew what I wanted to do; I just couldn’t figure out how to start. Left foot, or right? Which word?”

Kath nodded; “I’d heard rumors. Vague, frightening rumors. I was told they tested it on a bunch of convicts; sprayed the mess hall. Here were all these hungry furrs, staring at the plates in front of them, unable to decide whether to start with the meat or a roll, or the veggies, or the potato, unable to decide whether to pick up the fork or the knife, and as such, locked up tight, unable to move.”

John shuddered; “That, and worse. Ohhhhh,. When I find out who did this….”

Jenka looked at Tanj; “Just who DID this?”

Tanj shrugged; “Won’t know for sure until we give the housekeeping lady a shot of the neurostimulator, but the quarters were assigned to that ‘mech salesfurr.”

Jenka nodded; “I want him found, and I want him drained of every shred of useful information. I don’t care if there isn’t anything left when you’re done. Get EVERYTHING out of him.”

Tanj looked at John and nodded; “Yes, Mistress.”

The Opposition; One down…

The Mouse had the ‘mech powered up; the weapons had been armed, the ion guns cooled down to cryogenic temperatures, the plasma weapons on preheat, and all the missile seekers spun up. Now was the time to go kick some tail and show them they couldn’t stop HIM! That was when he felt the touch in the small of his back. Something was slithering through his fur, moving downward, towards the base of his tail….

---

“Hey, what’s that mech doing in here….”

Never mind that, whats it doing?”

“Don’t know; looks like the samba.”

“No…. Lambada?”

“Calisthenics?”

“Look out, its coming this way!”

---

The Mouse howled; something had grabbed his privates; worse, it seemed to be trying to push into his ass! And of course, inside the suit, there was no way he could actually reach himself, a fact that was not immediately apparent as he struggled to find a way to pry the thing off.

---

Cindy blinked; “Its what?”

“I tell you, Roland’s suit has gone berserk! Its running around the ‘Mech bay, like a creature possessed!”

Cindy scowled; “if you’re hauling me down there on some practical joke, Mister, I’m gonna….”

“No, really! You’ve got to come see this!”

---

Cindy watched the ‘Mech stagger past; the suit’s hands were pressed against its crotch, as if it were trying to scratch itself. It slammed into a wall, leaving a dent in the hullmetal, twirled, fell onto its back, rolled towards them, and then found its way to its knees, and then back to its feet, only to stagger off in another direction. Cindy looked at the crowd around her; “Its OK, I know what’s wrong. Someone call security. I’ll get whoever tried to steal Roland’s suit out of there. And THEN I’m going back to bed!

---

Her own ‘mech came on line just as it was supposed to, and she smiled at its response. She’d really gotten it well-tuned. Turning, she lumbered out of her revetment and towards Roland’s suit, once again rolling around on the floor. Turning on the comm link she heard someone howling in a rather high-pitched voice; “its in my ass! ITS IN MY ASS! SOMEONE HELP ME!”

She chuckled; “Welcome to the club, buddy.”

The deck jumped as she hopped over it, Roland’s ‘Mech rolling on past. Turning she picked her moment and leapt.

The Mouse felt something heavy land on top of his ‘Mech; at about the same time a feminine voice growled; “Calm DOWN! I can’t help you until I can get you OUT of there! Quit thrashing; you’re scaring off the emergency crew! Now HOLD STILL; I’m going to pop your hatch.”

---

John lifted the Mouse by the back of his collar; they’d cut the Mouse’s trousers away, and sure enough, one of the little monsters was plastered over his crotch, diddling his bottom and working over his cock. The Stallion grunted, and turning, carried the bottomless Mouse off towards detention. The Mouse just howled, and squirmed, apparently oblivious to the Stallion, or to how he was being carried……

---

Cindy looked at the scraped paint and dented metal and sighed. Roland was going to be SO pissed……

The Opposition; Round II

Kitchens took a sip of the cold coffee and winced. Looking over at the machine she growled; “The only GOOD thing about this is that with that Badger off the station, I’ve got the time to devote to YOU. No one else seems to be missing me.” She scowled down at the hard-copy “owners manual” and then up at the holographic display. They seemed to contradict each other. She tried rotating the view in the holographic display, but that only seemed to make things look even less like they were supposed to. “Dammit, who wrote this thing?”

She’d been working on the gizmo in spurts, for the past several days. And in all that time she hadn’t seen a single furr come down this corridor. From the dust she should have known it was infrequently visited. And that was a good thing. She was having problems. The first problem had been finding a power source that had the right frequency and could carry the proper load. Then the power couplings on two of the sections had been of the wrong type. They wouldn’t go together. She’d had to go down to stores, get the proper mating couplings, borrow a splicing tool, and then change out all the couplings on “part b”. Once that was together, she found that it failed its first self-test. That was traced to a bad capacitor in the power management section. The second self-test failure was traced to a connector that had vibrated loose, and the third self-test failure had been traced to an improperly set dip-switch. Now, for the fourth time, it had flunked the test. She was sure it was a fault in the control logic, but she’d never seen ladder logic diagrams like this before, and the hard-copy manual didn’t mach the holographic “assembly guide”, and neither of them seemed to match the physical device. Talk about frustrating….. Still, given what this thing was supposed to do, she wasn’t really surprised it hadn’t been assembled and checked at the “Factory”….

Something banged in the ceiling above her head. Kitchens looked up curiously, as something seemed to shuffle past in the ventilation duct. For a moment she thought she heard muffled swearing, and then the noise moved off. Shrugging she went back to work.

She’d been at it for almost fourteen hours straight. She was WAY behind schedule. She’d found one red warning light with a burned out bulb; it SHOULD have been on, but wasn’t She’d determined that half the sequences in the ladder logic had been transposed, certain functions referring to the line above instead of to the correct line. Going through the code line by line was taking forever, but she felt as if she was making progress. That or screwing the thing up beyond belief….. well, if it didn’t work, she could reload the program and try again…. At first the noise behind her didn’t register. Gradually, however, it sunk in. Something behind her had gone “ker-ploop.” Frowning, she twisted around to look. There, under the device, was a large, dark puddle. “Oh, GREAT; now something’s leaking….” With a sigh, she picked up a flashlight and bent closer to try and figure out where it had come from, and how she could fix THAT.

Her reaction time was superb, her instincts were good, but just weren’t “Tuned” to this situation. When the oily black puddle moved, she froze. In most circumstances, it would have been a prudent thing to do, but in this case it merely allowed the thing to come in contact with her right knee. When THAT happened, she moved, but not quite fast enough to counteract her initial mistake.

The thing had adhered to the fabric of her overalls like tar. Frowning at it, she tried to peel the goo off. That only got it stuck to her paws. Struggling, she half-turned, trying to move into the light, the better to see by. Her left foot struck the torque wrench and she stumbled. The next thing she knew, she was flat on her face on the floor, seeing stars. That was when she realized the thing was no longer on her paws; crossing her eyes, she watched it flow, upwards between her arms. And straight down her cleavage!

It didn’t take long to loose the coveralls; however, as she danced, one foot stuck in the trouser leg, the creature managed to flow down, between her breasts, across her stomach, to her crotch. And that was when things really got strange…..

Panting hard, Kitchens tried to fight the feelings as the creature, or whatever it was, stroked her sex. Naked, she couldn’t very well go for help. What would she say? And she’d ripped the zipper in her coveralls as she’d tried desperately to get out of them. Growling she tried to find SOME way to get a handle on the thing, to pry it off without killing herself. Staggering she wound up moving directly under the duct in the ventilation grill.

It landed on her head with a soft “gloop!” For a moment she stood stock-still and then she howled, trying to bring her paws up, from her crotch to her head. It was then she found out her paws were now stuck to the thing on her crotch. Twisting this way and that, she was helpless to prevent the thing on her head from flowing down, cutting off sight and hearing….

Kitchens knelt on the hard floor, panting hard. Another of the things had shown up, and now her ankles were glued together. Her paws were stuck to her crotch. The thing on her head had extruded a portion of itself into her mouth and she couldn’t even call for help. And the really strange thing about it was that the one on her crotch was fucking her sooooooooo delightfully. If she wasn’t their prisoner, it might be nice, but she HATED being helpless. And NO ONE did that without at least asking first! Taking a deep breath, she resumed her struggles, futile though they might be.

Hinoki paused outside the access door. Some of his brethren were feeding a short distance away. Turning, he cracked the door and peered in. A female bunny, rather nicely built was struggling weakly against about six of the creatures. She looked like a maintenance tech; there were tools scattered about, and some sort of machine was standing against the wall. For a reason he couldn’t explain, he tiptoed up the corridor, to examine the device. An instruction manual caught his eye and he picked it up carefully, flipping over to the cover, to see what it was for. What he read there raised the hackles on the back of his neck. Looking down at the creature-covered Rabbit, he growled; “You keep her here. Don’t let her up. Don’t let her escape and most definitely don’t let her go back to work!” Taking the manual, he left the corridor as fast as he could. Considering he was still part Cheetah, that was pretty fast.

---

Tanj blinked as the Cheetah pushed his way into the interrogation room. The Mouse was strapped to a chair, the creature still on him, humping away, albeit perhaps a little more slowly. It must be getting close to “satiated”. Tanj looked up, a look of annoyance on his face; “Dang it, Hinoki, I’m BUSY! This guy’s been trying to kill Jenka, and most likely the rest of us!”

Hinoki blinked, looked at the Mouse and then shrugged; “He ain’t alone.” Without saying another word, he handed the manual to the Cheetah. Tanj read for a moment, her eyes growing wide as she scanned the “introduction” section. Looking back up, she growled a single word; “WHERE?”

Chris reached into the machine, and pulled. A moment later he handed a memory module to the Cheetah, and turned, to pull another. “There, that should keep it from functioning.”

Tanj smiled, stepped around the Fox, reached up, and pulled the main power disconnect. She then grabbed the heavy duty power coupling, gave it a quarter turn, and pulled it apart. Dropping the coupling on the floor she grinned; “Yeah, now it REALLY won’t work.”

Jenka nodded; “I want that thing taken down to Engineering. I want it thoroughly analyzed. I want to know where it came from, and who built it. I want them to figure out if it really would work, but if they’re going to power it up, I want it OFF the station. Oh, and add the Rabbit to your list of interrogation subjects. Wring her dry. I want to know if this is a coordinated attack, or if we actually have two disparate groups after us!

---

The Mouse shivered. The interrogation drugs were wearing off slowly, and he was miserable. Not that they’d worked; he’d been immunized against them. But then they’d threatened him with a dozen of those monsters and he’d found himself babbling…. It had all gone SO wrong! How could he have let it go so badly? Looking through the bars of his cell, past the flicker of the forcefield, he looked over the Bunny lady in the cell opposite him. She looked just as miserable. Clearing his throat, he whispered; “What YOU in for?”

---

Tanj chuckled and crumpled the message flimsy. It missed the disposal slot and she had to get up, fetch it from the floor and shove it in. Ralph shoved his chair back from his terminal and blinked at her; “What?”

Tanj smiled at him and shrugged; “Got a message from Roland. Seems he got a little rough on the Mouse’s “sales manager” and the guy spilled the beans. It was just a cover. The Mouse doesn’t really work for them at all. Roland says we need to watch him; he’s up to something.”

The Tiger sighed; “Yeah. Great timing.”

The Cheetah shrugged; “Hey, he did what he could; not his fault things here moved faster than he expected.”

---

Jenka heard the knock on the door, and knew it had to be John. Only he knocked; everyone else pushed the doorbell. Of course not many other furrs could make themselves heard through a hullmetal door. Growling she called out “Come!” The door whooshed open, and she heard the Stallion clop across the floor. Then there was a rustle, and she looked up to find him kneeling in front of her. Raising an eyebrow, she regarded him for a moment; “What?”

The Stallion took a moment and then almost whispered; “Mistress, I may be mistaken, but I….. I think our good fortune in the recent events, perhaps our very survival can be attributed to only one thing.”

Jenka closed the file folder and set it aside; “Luck more than anything, I would think.”

The Stallion gave her a crooked smile; “That…. Might be one way to put it. But I was thinking of something a little… stranger.”

Jenka frowned; “Go on.”

The Stallion shrugged; “Both of the assassination attempts were foiled by bad luck. But in both cases, the creatures… the “living dress” creatures seemed to play an important part.”

Jenka nodded slowly; “They’re all over the station. We’re still finding them. Hannagin down in Laundry found one in his orange-juice container. Its lucky for him he decided to use a glass instead of just drink from the carton like he says he usually does!”

The Stallion nodded; “Indeed. But… why now? If what I’ve been able to deduce is correct, they’ve been loose for some time. Why should it come to a head NOW?”

Jenka shrugged; “I don’t know. Cut to the chase; I’ve got tons of work to do.”

The Stallion nodded; “Mistress, I think it was Jinx. I think the plots were all foiled because she was here. The… you’ll pardon the expression “Left handed luck” seems to be her style. And we have been very lucky. Very lucky that the living dress monsters attacked at the very time we needed them to attack.”

Jenka stared at the Stallion for a moment and then sighed; “John, I think you’ve been working too hard. I think you’re drawing conclusions that aren’t valid. Occam’s razor; the simplest explanation is most often the correct one. It was just luck. Don’t go attaching more to it than you have to.”

The Stallion nodded, and rose. Turning he headed for the door. He was just about to pass through it when the Jaguar called out; “John. Just in case you’re right, tell Tanj to accelerate her plans to get her off the station as soon as possible. Get her far away. VERY far away. And do it in a manner that doesn’t upset her.” She put the folder down again and looked at him; “Just in case. You understand.” The Stallion just nodded.

Turnabout is fair play

“You know, we’ve all been telling YOU about our experiences. We’ve yet to hear anything from YOU.”

The Kurani blinked at the Vixen; “Love, I’m the storyteller. It doesn’t mean I have a story myself.”

Zassa chuckled; “You’re being evasive. Give. Tell us one of YOUR stories, or we clam up!”

The Kurani looked across the room at the Cheetah; Tanj met her gaze evenly; “Yes. In fact, you’ve mentioned you have a mate. Tell us a story about the two of you……”

Kittiara stared back at the Cheetah. She knew what she was getting at. Always the Intelligence type. Professional gossip. Well…. Telling stories was also a professional gossip; she just didn’t use her stories for anything other than amusement…. Still… Maybe there was a use. It was obvious that her mate’s position, and reputation with the Oligarchy unnerved some furrs. Perhaps if she put a more reasonable persona on him, furrs would calm down some…..

---

She stood in the middle of her chamber and stared at the items she’d laid out.

A small silver sphere hovered by her right shoulder; it spoke to her, with a distinctive feline voice; “Are you sure this is what you want to do?”

Kittiara smiled; “Yes, Dear. I’ve examined it from every angle, and I’ve searched my heart. I’ve fasted and meditated on it, and its what I want to do. Its only….”

The voice from the sphere purred; “Only what?”

Kittiara smiled; “Only the execution lacks. I do want to get it right. JUST right.”

The sphere chuckled; “Ah, that’s the hard part. But you’ve heard my council on that…”

Kittiara smiled; “Time and time again, both from you and from the others. I understand what you advise, and the logic behind it, but you know me; I’ve still got to do it MY way.”

The sphere bobbled as if nodding agreement; “We know, Dear. We look forward to hearing how it all plays out. When do you start?”

“Tonight, actually. I have a long weekend and I figured “no time like the present”.

“Then I’d best let you get on with it. Our hopes and our Prayers will be with you.”

The sphere changed, from a bright silver, to a dull gray, and flew back to its receptacle in the Comm panel. Kittiara sighed, and put the stunner back where she kept it, under her pillow; if things got that far out of control, all would be lost anyways. Stuffing the other items into her backpack, she took a look around the room, and smiled. If everything went correctly, she wouldn’t be coming back here, again….

She kept careful watch, as she made her way out of the city. The reflection from ground level storefront windows. The reflections from the surface of passing vehicles. The occasional glimpse behind her. Her path was seemingly random, constantly changing. Several times she cut through crowded stores. Once she passed through a hotel lobby. Once she passed through a crowded tavern. Twice she took robocabs, only to change her destination suddenly and depart. Finally she was at the monorail station. Her timing was perfect; the car departed just after she’d stepped through the doors. Turning, she caught a glimpse of him, a look of frustration on his face as the car accelerated from the station.

She got off two stations later, catching a car in a different direction. Her research had suggested that there were eighty-one probable routes she could have taken, since entering the first monorail car. He could figure it out, find her trail, but not rapidly. Even with his resources, he couldn’t find her rapidly, and that would give her the time she needed.

The park was always open. In addition to its other functions, it served as a “hunting park”. Kurani loved to hunt; loved the taste of a fresh kill. But of course the park was used for other purposes too. Sometimes you just wanted to get away from civilization; to go feral for a while, even if it was only a day or two. Inside the gate, Kittiara stripped off her tunic and leggings, and stuffed them into her backpack. Then, turning, she trotted off towards the hills and canyons. She had a well-thought-out plan, but first she had to get to her chosen ground…..

Panting hard, she paused to drink from the stream. She really needed to get out and just RUN more. Too much sitting. Too much processed food. She was lapping softly at the water when she saw the shadow pass in the reflection of the sky in the water. “Now that’s cheating” she growled to herself, rising to her feet, and sprinting for the trees. She hadn’t thought he’d come after her in an aircar…….

The traps were set; she’d almost emptied her backpack. Grinning, she retreated into the rocks, knowing that the hard surface left no visible trace of her passing. She’d found a pile of Velolope dung, and had rolled in it; with luck, he wouldn’t be able to track her by scent either. Higher into the rocky foothills she moved, keeping one eye over her shoulder.

The flare rose into the night sky, and she grinned. It was blue-white; that was the third of the tripwires. He was good. Very good. Now, lets see how many others he missed…...

It was the last object in her backpack; she liberally smeared the goo on the rock, stepped back, and wiped her paws on the backpack. Then, she stuffed the pack carefully in the crevice she’d selected. Good; it was essentially invisible. Grinning, she resumed her trek towards her destination, trotting lightly over the rock.

The green flare rose into the air, behind her, just as the dawn was breaking. He was a careful stalker; that was the last of the tripwires she’d set. He’d only hit two of them, but it had taken him most of the night to get that far. Wondering HOW he’d managed to track her that far, she headed for the pool she knew of. She wanted to wash the Velolope dung from her fur, as it obviously wasn’t misleading him. And it would be a while before he could catch up, even if he could get past the goo.

The mountain stream was cold; almost too cold. And she knew how he hated water. What Kurani didn’t? Ah, but she wasn’t a full blooded Kurani… Grinning, she swam across the pool, clambered up the opposite rocky shore, and climbed the cliff beside the waterfall. She hoped the spray would help wash away her scent, leaving him confused. She’d just made the top of the small cliff when she heard the roar. His voice was loaded with frustration and anger. Good, he’d found the goo. It wouldn’t be impossible to win free of the sticky stuff, now that it had set in the sun. He was sure to loose a lot of fur, and maybe even some skin in the process, but he’d win free eventually. Chuckling quietly to herself she trotted off towards her last line of defense.

The hill dwelling was ancient. Some time, thousands, if not tens of thousands of years ago, primitive Kurani had lived here. Built into the side of a limestone cliff, the place was a fortress. Hand and pawholes cut in the rock provided the only access, unless one chose to rappel down from above. Either way, it was a good place to make a stand. She’d spent many hours exploring the place, and felt confident that she could negotiate its maze of tunnels blindfolded. Smiling she made her way to the place she’d picked; a place she could watch all the approaches from….

The sun was setting, and still no sign of him. She’d had the forethought to stash some water, and some food, from her previous visits here, but soon she’d have to find a place to use as a latrine. And she knew, as soon as she moved; as soon as she broke her vigil, he’d show up. It had been a long time, longer than it should have taken, and yet she was convinced that he hadn’t given up the chase. For his kind, the difficulty of the hunt would only make him that much more determined. No, he was still out there; but what was he up to?

She caught the flicker of motion from the corner of her eye. A Pterodon! Why that whelp of a Sthondaht! That was…. CHEATING! Or was it? Pterodons were available to the Ancients… had any of them ever domesticated one? Perhaps so; the hill dwelling seemed to have taken them into account in its defenses…. Holding as still as the rock around her, she waited until the flicker of motion had passed, and then ducked down, into the waiting tunnel. The ancients had planned well; their lookouts had ways of reporting in, while staying under cover. As she squirmed through the tunnel she grinned; let him try and get his winged mount down HERE!

Things were going satisfactorily; twice she’d crossed his trail, and once she’d even followed it until his scent grew strong. Air currents moved strangely in the tunnels and she knew he’d have a hard time tracking her by scent alone. Still, she hadn’t gotten close enough to use the rotten egg she held in one paw….. On the other hand, he hadn’t gotten close enough to pounce either.

She must have been getting tired; the charge caught her by surprise. She heard the whisper of feet on rock, and then nothing, as he launched himself through the air; she ducked and twisted, but he seemed to have planned for that. A quarter ton of full-grown Kilrani slammed into her right side, driving her to the ground. Instinctively she rolled onto her back, trying to get her legs under him, to push him off, but he was too skilled for that. With his paws on her upper arms, his growling muzzle inches from hers, his body pressing her against the rock, she stared up into his eyes. There was only one thing to do. With a laugh, she brought her right arm around and hit him on the nose with the rotten egg.

For a moment his body went rigid in shock; the advantage was momentary, and completely insufficient for her to escape. Within a heartbeat he’d recovered, and with a growl, lunged forward to take her throat in his fangs. As he held her, pinned against the rock, she became aware of the phallus pressing against her between her legs.

He took her, then and there, fucking her fiercely, his fangs pressing into her throat, holding her against any struggling. Rough, and violent; just the way she liked it. When he was spent, when he was done with her, he roughly rolled her over, to tie her paws behind her back. The rope was coarse, and prickly; obviously, the lowest grade available, and yet she knew she’d have no chance of breaking it. The knots were pulled tight, doubled and pulled tight again; there would be no escape.

She’d planned for him to have trouble extracting her from the hill dwelling. She’d thought he’d have to leave, to fetch more rope, but the Pterodon was big for its species, and although it complained most vociferously, it managed to handle both their weights. She lay across the beast’s neck, bound hand and foot, the male’s delectable prize. Their descent was more a controlled fall, than a flight, and the male directed his steed to land at the mountain stream, at the base of the waterfall. It was there that he washed the remnants of the egg from his face, ignoring the cold, ignoring the water. She watched as best she was able, still strapped to the beast, smiling at his self control as he bathed in the frigid water. When he returned, she thought it would be her turn to clean up; while he untied her from the beast, it was only to have his way with her again, roughly. With her widespread ankles lashed to a sapling he’d cut, her arms still bound behind her back, he took her from behind, in the style of the ancients, his jaws around the back of her neck, his paws clutching her hips, fangs and claws drawing blood as he pounded his shaft into her. Better and better, she couldn’t help but think. And when he was done, she was again bound over the neck of the beast, and again, they took wing.

At the entrance to the park, she discovered several things she didn’t know. For one, there was now a firm, that rented riding Pterodons, in the vicinity of the Park, and serving its patrons. The big male handed over the beast to its handler, and she watched as they settled accounts. Huh. It annoyed her that she hadn’t adequately “done her homework”. For another, his status did not let him leave the park without satisfying the authorities that his “hunt” had been legitimate, and according to custom. Of course they took his word, and did not question his documentation. Not exactly unusual, although she’d expected, because of his position, they would be more thorough, to avoid any hint of a scandal, should something not be correct. Throughout it all, she remained bound and gagged. Still, it was something she hadn't expected. With the authorities satisfied, she was unceremoniously loaded into the back of his aircar, for the trip to his lair.

She hit the carpet hard, tossed to the ground at his feet. A number of other Kurani looked on, some curious, some inscrutable. “I claim this female for my Harem. Do any object? One of the males padded over to sniff at her curiously; after a moment, he smiled; “Nope. Pretty one. Good work, Hrral.” The big male looked at one of his females, and cocked an eyebrow upwards; “Senior wife, do you object?” She just smiled and made a sign of obedience. To any who knew her, the sarcasm was more than apparent. And yet, custom was followed. The big Male smirked; “Good. Clean her up, see that she knows her duties in the household and her place in our family.” With that he turned and headed down a hallway.

Eager paws worked at untying the ropes. As soon as the gag was out of her mouth, the senior female cradled her head in her paws and lifted it, to smile at her; “Are you all right?”

Kittiara worked her jaw for a moment and then laughed; “Yes, Leoine, I’m fine.”

“Did it go as planned?”

“Pretty much. I think I might have been a little rougher on him than I’d planned, but, well, all’s well that ends well….”

“And he treated you right?”

Kittiara’s smile widened; “OHYEAH!”

“Good. Now come on, lets get you cleaned up. If he’s used up all the hot water, I’ll have his hide….”

---

The Vixen shook her head; “Kurani mating rituals seem a bit… rough”.

Kittiara laughed; “Only as rough as you choose to make them. If I’d preferred he could have grabbed me on a street corner, lifted me off my feet, and yowled; “I claim this female!” It could have been that simple.”

The Cheetah shook her head; “And what if you didn’t WANT to be claimed?”

Kittiara smiled; “That fact would have been made known long before things got to that point, and he would have backed off. Custom is strict in that regard. Or at least it has been for the last several centuries….”

Zassa grinned “So it’s a… group marriage?”

Kittiara nodded; “Strictly speaking, it’s what’s known as a “line marriage”. But its actually pretty informal. If any of us want to take a lover, that’s no problem, as long as we don’t hide it from the others.” She grinned; “Believe me, when I get home, I’m going to have a LOT of stories to tell, just to satisfy that obligation….”

Tanj nodded; “You mentioned his name was Hrral….. You know, there’s a Kurani Ambassador by that name….”

Kittiara chuckled and nodded; “more of a troubleshooter for the Oligarchy, a “minister without portfolio”, but yeah, that’s him.”

The Cheetah just muttered “Uh-huh….”

---

Jenka listened to the Cheetah relate the story, and then shook her head. “It just figures, doesn’t it? When the “enlightenment” faction tried to settle that planet on the Kurani border, this “Ambassador” led the expedition that removed them. And I don’t mean “invited them to go home” either. They were REMOVED. ELIMINATED. No, I’m NOT happy to learn he’s her mate.”

The Cheetah shrugged; “SHE doesn’t seem to feel her situation here is any sort of a problem. She said he might not even be aware she’s “missing” yet. Apparently everyone in this marriage of hers is rather independent and does as they please.”

Jenka shrugged; “we take risks every day. Our business is NOT what you might consider a safe one, and yet only a fool goes looking for trouble they don’t need.” She fixed the Cheetah with a stare; “I’ve heard rumors that there has been a lot of probing along the Kurani frontier. Something is stirring them up, and if its her mate looking for her, trying to pick up her trail again, it does NOT bode well. Not for the Empire and certainly not for us. I think we need to get her out of here. Preferably get her home. Settle things down. I want you to see to it personally.”

Tanj nodded and smiled; “In fact, I’ve got some thoughts along that line. Something that might work in with our “disappearing act”. As she turned to go, she paused at the doorway; looking back at the Jaguar she purrred; “And Mistress is acting VERY much like a head of state, all of a sudden….”

The lamp crashed against the door as it closed, the Cheetah ducking out into the corridor. Her laughter as she escaped did nothing to ease the Jaguar’s mood…..

Conclusion

Kittiara scanned the last page, and nodded. It most certainly wasn’t her best work, but it also wasn’t her worst. Thumbing the screen, she downloaded the file to a data crystal and rose to go in search of the Cheetah.

Jinx watched the Kurani head for the door; “Done?”

The Kurani paused and smiled; “Yes, with the commissioned work, at any rate. My own stories still need quite a bit of work.”

The Skunkette rose to her knees, and then cocked her head to one side; “Having a hard time coming up with an ending?”

The Kurani smiled, and collected her thoughts as she hung the data crystal from the ring at the front of her collar, as if it were a jewel. “Yes. The Cheetah’s tale is a most interesting story; it works well with my collected works on sexual mores and sexual slavery, in the Empire. In fact, it could be used as an illustration for the whole theme.”

The Skunkette chuckled and smoothly rose to her feet; “But there’s more to it than that, isn’t there?”

The Kurani smiled; “you know me too well. There’s a story well beyond just the sex.”

The Skunkette nodded; “But it doesn’t have an ending.”

The Kurani nodded; “most true-life stories never do have an ending.”

The Skunkette stepped closer; “But you’re a writer; if you were to write a story, how would you end it?”

The Kurani thought for a moment; “Why, she’d have to find her long lost love, and triumph over all those arrayed against her.”

The Skunkette nodded; “Yes, that’s what I thought.” Cocking her head to one side, she smiled; “And you’re off to deliver your work, and set things in motion for the next phase, aren’t you?”

“What are you talking about?”

The Skunkette grinned; “I DO know you too well. You’re working towards writing your own end to her story, aren’t you?”

Kittiara stepped back, and the door to Tanj’s quarters whooshed open; “Oh, I think you give me much more credit than is due. I’m not that…. Manipulative. Nor am I that…. “effective.”

As they headed out into the corridor, the Skunkette linked arms with the Kurani and chuckled; “Maybe. Maybe not. But then, you DO have me……”

---

The Cheetah hung in the area known as “Commons 3”. It was a circular area, lined with establishments that served food, and beverage, the open floorspace filled with an odd assortment of chairs and tables. There was a circular dias in the center of the floor, and there, in the spotlight, the Cheetah, and the Vixen hung by their ankles. Well, that wasn’t quite true. They weren’t completely off the floor. Their hair had been braided, with a chromed ring worked into the end of the braid. The ring was tied to an eyebolt near where their feet were suspended from, forcing their heads back. The floor had been covered by coarse gravel, small rocks, thumb to fist size, all sharp angles and points. And the ropes holding their bodies almost vertical were just short enough so that part of their weight rested on their breasts, the only portion of them in contact with the rough floor. Ring gags filled their mouths, and the way their heads were bent back, any male that chose to sit on the floor could make use of their mouths. However, given the rough nature of the floor, few had chosen to do so.

The Kurani stood at the entrance to “Commons 3” and just watched for a while. Jinx looked from the tableau, to the Kurani, and back, obviously wondering why the exotic was waiting, but after a few minutes she settled down, sure there was a reason.

Jenka padded up to the Cheetah, and in one fluid motion, delivered a sharp strike to her ass with the riding crop she carried. “Either of you think of how the station wound up infested with those creatures yet? Or do I have to do something else to further stimulate your thought processes?”

The answer, surprisingly, came from behind her. “Actually, neither of them are to blame. In fact, if anyone is, you are.”

Jenka’s eyes went wide, and she turned to find herself facing Hinoki. The Cheetah grinned at her. For a moment she wondered if it WAS Hinoki; the male seemed larger, bulkier, and much more “buff”… but after a moment she concluded it WAS Hinoki…. “What makes you say that?”

Hinoki shrugged; “Well, you were the one that assigned me to get Sashi’s, ah, “problem” under control. If I remember correctly, dire threats were made, concerning any failure. I borrowed a few of the living dress creatures to aid in the work, and, well, in the confusion some of them escaped. Its my fault they escaped, but if you hadn’t assigned me the work, it probably wouldn’t have happened.”

Jenka snarled as she stalked around the Cheetah; “YOU let them escape?”

Hinoki nodded, a smile still on his face; “I did. Of course, I THOUGHT I’d caught all of them, but I guess events have proven me wrong. And for that, I’m willing to suffer any punishment you think is appropriate….”

Jinx looked at the Cheetah male, and then nudged the Kurani; “Something’s wrong; he doesn’t seem at all worried about what the Jaguar might do….” Kittiara just nodded, a thoughtful look on her face….

Jenka growled; “I OUGHT to throw you out the air lock! The station’s still in an uproar over them! Half the duty personnel are scouring the station searching for those critters!”

Hinoki smiled; “You can call them off. I’ve rounded up the last of them.”

Jenka scowled; “How can you be so sure?”

Hinoki laughed; “Oh, I know, believe me, I know. Let me tell you a little story……”

---

The Jaguar shook her head; “And you expect me to believe that?”

The Cheetah shrugged; “I can prove it, if you like….”

Jenka crossed her arms over her chest and nodded; “Yes. Do so. Here and now.”

Hinoki raised an eyebrow; “Any way I like?”

The look on Jenka’s face showed that she wasn’t happy at all with his question, but gritting her teeth, she growled; “Get ON with it!”

Hinoki chuckled; “Of course.” He turned and padded over to the Vixen, to kneel by her head; “The other day, you said that you wanted the story now, and I could eat later. At that time I told you that you had no concept of what you were saying, but that you would. Now’s the time you learned what I meant.”

Zassa’s eyes, rolled towards him, widening slightly, and she made a rather inarticulate noise through her ring gag.

Hinoki just chuckled.

Jinx flinched and stepped behind the Kurani as the Cheetah… changed. He seemed to shrink, and as he did so, his clothes vanished, seemingly absorbed into him. Tentacles sprouted from his shoulders and back, reaching upwards, not so much untying the ropes that bound the pair on the dias, as snapping them where they were tied to the ring bolts. Still with a smile on his face, Hinoki used the remnants of the ropes to tie Tanj in a different position, in a flurry of hands and tentacles. Each of the Cheetah’s wrists were tied to its respective ankle, forcing her into a very bent-over kneeling position. Then he tied Zassa on top of the cheetah, in a similar position. Purrring, he stroked their sexes, one above the other. Lifting his head, he looked around the room; “Here’s a little trick I picked up in New Shanghi….”

Jenka watched in amazement as the Cheetah absorbed the tentacles, and sprouted a second cock. He now had two tools, one above the other protruding from his crotch; each was truly notable in size, although perhaps not as huge as the Stallion’s. Moving to his knees, behind the bound pair, he put his paws on their hips, and thrust his hips forward.

Tanj groaned as she felt his shaft spear into her sex. Above her, she heard a similar response from the Vixen. Hinoki started driving back and forth, his shaft sliding in and out of her sex… And then his cock seemed to grow bumps all over its surface. The sensation was such that she had to howl out her pleasure, the increased stimulus driving her to an immediate climax.

His shaft seemed to be in constant motion; not only the in-and-out that would be expected, but also in length, girth, texture, and shape. One moment it felt like a string of balls linked together, and the next, the Vixen could have sworn it was rotating within her, spiral grooves along its length making it feel as if she was truly being screwed. It was fantastic, and, oblivious to the crowd, oblivious to everything else she howled and bucked as a string of firecracker climaxes ripped through her.

Kittiara bent, to whisper to the Skunkette; “Looks like fun, to me. Think we could get him to do that to us?”

Jenka scowled as she watched. If the Cheetah merely had a few of the living dress creatures stuck to him, he was exhibiting a control far in excess of anything Tanj or Zassa had ever mentioned. If he really had melded with them…. Suddenly her eyes went wide, and she looked about; “John! JOHN! Get him off them! STOP HIM!”

Hinoki was lost in yet another orgasm as strong arms encircled him; suddenly he was jerked backwards. Not wanting to stop, he let his cocks grow in length, but eventually he found that he couldn’t maintain contact, and withdrew them into his body. Blinking he looked around; “Hey, I wasn’t done yet!”

Jenka shoved her face at his; “Maybe not, but I will NOT have you reproducing like those little monsters! You’ve had enough! In fact… You said that you were willing to accept any punishment I might hand out, right?”

Hinoki swallowed and nodded.

Jenka straightened, folding her arms over her chest again, and smiled; “Good. As of now, No sex for you. None.”

Hinoki’s eyes widened; “But…. I’ll starve!”

Jenka shook her head; “No, I don’t think you will. I think there’s enough sex on this station you can pick up whatever vibes you need, remotely. But you will NOT engage in any yourself. AND you’ll report to Medical every day, to be weighed and measured. If you show significant weight loss, I’ll reconsider, but heaven help you, Mister, if you get any bigger!

Kittiara shook her head; “You know, I’m not sure it works like that….”

Jenka’s head snapped around; “Are you Questioning me, SLAVE?”

Kittiara smiled and gave the Jaguar a half-bow; “Mistress, in my experience, when Brou get above a certain size, they no longer reproduce by fission, but by fusion. He would need another brou, of equal size, to “reproduce”. He may be a nuscience, given his, ah, “diet”, but I think you’re safe from the station being overrun with sex monsters.” She grinned and glanced at the Skunkette; “At least of HIS type…” Jinx stuck out her tongue at the Kurani, but then giggled.

Hinoki blinked; “Hey, wait a minute…. What did you call me?”

Kittiara shrugged; “Brou.” She gestured to the surrounding walls and ceiling; “All the little darlings you’ve been collecting from the station; they’re all immature Brou. Pollywogs, if you will. When they’ve fed enough, they form into an intermediate stage, about sixty to a hundred kilos. Then, when those have matured enough, they combine to form adult Brou….” She grinned at Jenka; “And THOSE are the dangerous ones.” Looking back at Hinoki she raised an eyebrow; “What, you didn’t know? Why did you think the Empire outlawed them?”

Jenka looked down at the bound pair; both Zassa and Tanj did their best to shrug. Looking up, the Jaguar growled; “Well, I’m not taking any chances; besides he STILL needs to be punished! My judgement stands.” Turning she stalked from the commons area. John waited a moment, looked from Kittiara to Jinx to Hinoki to the bound pair on the floor, shrugged, and turned to follow his Mistress.

Tanj worked her jaw; the ring gag had been in a while, and her mouth was as dry as the great Kolfax desert. And her jaw muscles hurt. So did her breasts, but she wasn’t about to rub those, at least not in public…. Might give the Hinoki Monster ideas…. “Was that true, what you said about the Brou?”

Kittiara nodded to the Cheetah, as he untied the Vixen; “It was. My mate has dealt with them, from time to time. I’ve been along on a few trips.”

Zassa spat out the ring gag, and growled; “So what’s so dangerous about the Adult ones?”

Kittiara chuckled; “They can drain you dry, in an instant; they don’t feed just on sexual energy, but on life energy as well. Oh, when they’re being generous they can give you sex like nothing you’ll ever have. But if their control isn’t perfect you wind up dead. And if they get mad at you, they can drop you from across the room. Throw in the fact that they’re very VERY alien, that communications with them are confusing at best, and the fact that they’ve generally got lightning quick tempers, and you can see the problems. They’re VERY difficult to deal with….

Tanj nodded; “Be that as it may, that’s were we’re headed.”

Kittiara, Jinx, Hinoki and Zassa all blinked; “Say what?”

Tanj nodded; “Corey’s work isn’t progressing well. The Lion got that gizmo from the Brou; the gizmo took them, and the entire planet of Elysium somewhere. Therefor, we have to go talk to the Brou, and see what help they might give us. That’s the overt reason. The covert reason is to see if they can help Hinoki. I’m not sure its safe for him to stay like he is. What if his, ah, “passions” get out of control? What if he goes into a feeding frenzy?” Tanj looked at the Cheetah Male; “I do NOT want Jenka throwing you out an airlock, or stuffing you in some cryostat!”

Hinoki smiled weakly; “Hey…. I kinda like being like this… and I’ve got Sashi, and Doodles….”

Tanj was resolute; “I don’t care; we’re taking you there anyways, along with all the little creatures we’ve collected.” She fixed Zassa with a firm look; “All of them. ALL of them!” Turning she looked at Kittiara; “And then we’re taking you home.” Shifting her gaze, she looked at the Skunkette. “As for you, we think you ought to go with Kittiara, but we won’t try and force you. But I will tell you that you make Jenka nervous and she would prefer you elsewhere.” The Skunkette laughed; “I understand. You’re not the first to tell me something like that.” She turned to look at the Kurani; “I’ll tag along with her.” Kittiara just smiled.

---

Kittiara stared out the port, not seeing the distant stars. So many variables. So many possibilities. Tanj wanted to go talk to the Brou. She had no idea how difficult “Talking” to the Brou was. They just didn’t think the same way. They had something she wanted. The Brou? The Brou imported almost all of their technology. Odds are whatever she was after, the Brou wouldn’t be much of a help, even if they DID understand what it was she wanted. As for returning the immature Brou… that was something the Brou were not likely to understand either. It would be like someone returning claw trimmings….. And yet, it would be a much better story if she let it play out naturally. Well, with maybe a nudge here or there, to keep it moving towards the right ending…..

Meanwhile, back on Elysium:

Mold

The Minister of Agriculture looked at the Chief of the First Intelligence Directorate and shrugged; “Yes, it should do the job. It seems to be quite resistant to any fungicide we’ve yet found. The problem is twofold. First off, its not only deadly to the coffee crop, but its quite dangerous as well to almost any botanical life forms. And it does rather nasty things to warm-blooded life as well. Our agents will have a hard time spreading it, without becoming contaminated themselves.”

The Muskrat nodded; “And the second problem?”

The Minister of Agriculture shrugged; “How do we spread it?”

The Muskrat smiled; “Oh, that’s the easy part.” At the look on his friend’s face he waved a paw; “yes, we’ve had zero luck infiltrating their borders of late. There doesn’t seem to be any way to sneak past them. The most carefully forged documents seem to be instantly detected as forgeries, the most clever plans seem to fail. And yet, there is one group that seems to be able to pass through their borders easily.”

The Minister of Agriculture shook his head; “And who might that be?”

The Muskrat laughed; “Deserters. Our loyal troops, who either give up the fight before its begun, or surrender at the first sign of an enemy soldier. These are herded across the border immediately. THEY can pass through enemy lines…..”

The Minister of Agriculture shrugged; “And how many deserters are going to be able to smuggle packets of mold spores with them?”

The Muskrat shrugged again; “not many. But that’s not how they’ll get them through.” The Minister of Agriculture just stared. After a moment the Muskrat sighed; “They’ll have to be infected before they go. They’ll have to be carriers in the truest sense of the word.”

The Minister of Agriculture shuddered; “But…. Untreated, its sure to be fatal. And a rather gruesome death as well.”

The Muskrat nodded; “To be sure. Fortunately for us, there are still some fanatics… er, I should say loyal servants of the party that we can call upon to make the ultimate sacrifice….”

The Minister of Agriculture just frowned; “you have something up your sleeve, don’t you, Alexi?”

Rot

Quentin shivered slightly. The Corporal’s uniform was threadbare, and woefully insufficient for the cold north wind that was blowing. He tried to ignore the physical discomfort. Tried to maintain his focus. The 247^th Guards Tank Army didn’t have any tanks left. They barely had any weapons left. Between harrassing fire from the Blues, and intermittent raids ordered by Command, there wasn’t much of anything left. The unit was thoroughly demoralized; the slackers! Still, it should be perfect for the cause. The troopers were muttering openly about surrendering the next time the Blues forces launched a probing attack. Their officers, instead of disciplining them, seemed to be more inclined to offer helpful suggestions. It was all he could do to keep his mouth shut. Still, he wished the wind wasn’t quite so cold. No matter what he did, he couldn’t seem to get warm……

---

“Hey, Doc; got a few more for ya!”

The Stallion looked up and then grinned at his orderly; “at this rate, we’ll have the entire Red Army on this side of the front!”

The Squirrel nodded enthusiastically; “Yeah, and that’s fine by me; just so long as they don’t have any weapons!” He turned to look at the line of prisoners as they shuffled in; “of course, this group could be fully armed, and still not a problem. I don’t think they’ve eaten for a week!”

---

The Stallion ran his brand new medical scanner over the Coyote, and frowned. As his orderly had said, the troops from this particular unit looked as if they hadn’t been fed in a week. Ribs were showing, bellies were starting to protrude in the first visible signs of starvation… but this one… this one was as filthy as the rest; he was as poorly dressed as the rest, and like the rest he seemed to be running a permanent “cold”, coughing, and his nose running annoyingly. Handing the Coyote a tissue, he passed his scanner over him another time, stepping up the resolution. This one didn’t quite fit the pattern; he wasn’t as emaciated as the others. And something else was wrong as well…. There’d been a lot of talk about what the Reds might try next, and the Doctor feared it might be some form of biological warfare…..

Quentin rubbed his arm; the Doctor had been pretty good with the needle, but still, he hated needles. He wondered why the Horse had wanted a blood sample. Did he take one from every prisoner? He’d have to ask. Following the others, he passed between the posts of the “gate”, and into the prisoner compound. The guards looked lax, the wire strung only hap-hazardly. And why should they put a whole lot of effort into it? All his “Comrades” apparently wanted to be here. And then he caught the scent of hot food, his head turning almost of its own volition. Could that really be Ragnath soup? Well, maybe he could put up with it for a bit; but they’d better “parole” him soon, or he’d have to find a way to slip through the wire.

Ruin

Doctor Bartell looked at the blood sample, and frowned. Another front line Medico afraid of biological warfare. So far he hadn’t seen anything unusual, but…. Working with the skill of long practice, he popped the top from the tube of blood and dropped it into the analyzer, the rubber gloves of the glove box not hampering him at all. Since the Blues had started trading with the aliens, they’d gotten some really good toys; his analyzer was one of them. It could check for almost any form of life, although admittedly the database held more alien life forms than anything else. Still, the machine was remarkably intelligent… for a machine. Pulling his paws out of the gloves, he washed carefully, and then headed out to get a cup of coffee.

He almost made it to the door before the analyzer chimed. With a sigh, he turned and strode back. His glare was wasted on the read-out hologram, floating in the air; and like something made only of coherent light, as the power was switched off, his scowl disappeared as he examined the results. MOST unusual!

---

The Stallion put down the comm and rose. The Squirrel watched him go, wondering where the Doctor was headed in such a hurry….

---

“They want us to WHAT?”

The Stallion looked at the printout in his hand and then up at the Colonel; “They want us to parole the current crop of prisoners immediately. But before they go we’re to give them a very special delousing.”

The Bear shook his head; “But… Why?”

The Stallion smiled crookedly; “They didn’t say, but I think we can read between the lines.”

The Bear raised an eyebrow; “Enlighten me. Dammit, Doc, quit beating around the bush!”

The Stallion grinned; “Well, First, I’ve been instructed to get another blood sample from a certain Corporal that came in three days ago. Second, I’m to make sure the delousing contains 200 PPM of Trietacyclopene. And then I’m to dose them again. And then I’m to get a blood sample from every single furr in that unit.”

The Bear spread his paws “and that means….?”

The Stallion grinned; “The Corporal is carrying something unusual. The TECP is a very strong fungicide. 200 PPM is going to make those Reds VERY sick. I can only conclude that they ARE trying some sort of biological warfare, and that once released, they’re going to watch our Corporal very closely, to see where he goes, and what he does.”

The Bear shook his head; “A FUNGICIDE? What are they planning on doing? Giving us terminal athlete’s foot?”

The Stallion grimaced; “Its hard to say; its possible that when someone with some other disease is exposed to the fungus, that their disease will mutate into something more lethal. Call it a binary biological weapon.”

The Bear stared at the Stallion for a minute and then sat down hard. Fortunately his desk chair was under him. “Good LORD! Can they DO something like that?”

The Stallion just shrugged.

---

Quentin sneezed hard, and steadied himself against a lamp post. Whatever the hell the Blues were using for delousing had damn near killed him. The only thing he was certain of, was that any parasites in his fur were long since dead. On the other hand, he himself didn’t feel all that hot.

He’d signed the papers, taking the small cash stipend they’d given him, and walked through the gate, a “Free Furr.” Stupid. Incredibly stupid. As if a mere promise “not to raise arms against the Government” would deter HIM! And if he had anything to do with it, he’d bring this stupidity down, and see it replaced with the glorious party. Leaning against the lamp post he waited for the bus. He knew the route he was to take, knew those he was supposed to contact, to get aid, to get money and transportation, and ultimately to get a “job” in the coffee plantation. From there, things should start to move quickly….

He never saw the furr, in the shabby sweater and work pants that watched him sooooo carefully. Never saw the recon drone far overhead. And of course he had no knowledge of the microscopic tracer the new Med Tech had implanted when he’d withdrawn the final blood sample…..

Ruin 2

Xyloff felt his blood pounding in his temples, and forced himself to calm down. He pulled the small bottle of blood pressure medication from his pocket and looked at it. This stuff was supposed to be easing his problems, but ever since he’d started taking it, he’d only felt worse. Sometimes his heart pounded so hard, his vision pulsed. And yet the Doctor swore it was all that was keeping him from having a stroke, or worse, an aneurism. Could he be going downhill that fast? He grinned to himself; maybe he needed to find some willing fem to share his bed. Just to prove to himself that he wasn’t over the hill yet. Just to prove that he wasn’t dead. Yeah, that wasn’t such a bad idea. Might ease the tension a little. Might give the idiots in the party something to talk about other than how bad things were. Just the right kind of juicy scandal that would enhance his reputation. At least in certain quarters. After all, wasn’t every great furr permitted an occasional “indiscretion”? Popping the top on the bottle he took another pill. Sliding it back into his pocket he grinned to himself; now, where could he find someone exciting, willing, and of course, as with everything else these days, safe?

The Lion:

Working too hard

Ben came through the door and paused for a moment. The boss was sitting, cross-legged, his head bowed, eyes closed, his back against that damned alien gizmo. He ALMOST looked as if he were asleep. He should be asleep. He’d been working much too hard, lately. The word “obsessive” was starting to be heard in conjunction with him…

As he stepped closer, the Lion opened one eye, and regarded him.

“Am I disturbing you?”

The Lion shook his head; “No. Just going over the next phase of the search strategy. Old territory.”

The Wolf nodded; “Still nothing?”

Without rising, the Lion started twisting, stretching, as if trying to get loose enough to attempt standing; “No. Couple of cultures that might be worth trading with. Nothing as advanced as us, though. No one that might have a decent map of the universe, let alone multiple parallel universes or dimensions.” He tilted his head up and fixed the Wolf with a gaze; “and no, no sign of home.”

Ben just nodded; “Well, I thought you ought to come look at the latest figures.”

The Lion grinned and awkwardly made his way to his feet; “Which is your polite way of saying its time the Brethren saw that I was still alive and still in charge, before they forget who I am.”

The Wolf just grinned and nodded.

But not hard enough…

Parks shook his head, chewed a couple of times and then swallowed; “No can do, Boss. There’s no way we can turn out any more robot probes. Not without breaking the bank.” The Lynx grinned; “Now, if you ask politely, we MIGHT be able to modify the design parameters, so that each probe can leave a limited number of “beacons” along their route. If we have enough beacons, we can improve the resolution of our scanning systems, and maybe, just maybe pick up on the emanations of others using similar dimensional portals. Or whatever the thing we’re using is. Call it a “highly dispersed array” ”

Ben looked at the Lynx; “The science types still can’t tell if we’re opening doors into distant parts of our own universe, or into parallel dimensions?”

The Linx swallowed another bite of food and shook his head; “They say there’s no way to tell until a signal from something truly far away reaches us, and even with FTL transmission capabilities, if its sufficiently far away, well, it could still take a while. And we’ve only been working on this for a short while now… They just don’t seem to have the math to handle, well, whatever it is we’re doing.”

The Lion chuckled; “At least our friends the aliens have calmed down.”

Parks chuckled and nodded; “Helluva way to solve the antimatter shortage crisis.”

Ben nodded; “I still think they think we were trying to pull the old “Bait and switch”; get them to pay for warp technology and then make ‘em pay for the portal technology.”

The Lion shrugged; “That bunch of pirates; if anything, thinking we were trying to do that only made them more respectful of us. After all, isn’t that exactly what they would do, given the opportunity?”

Ben and the Lynx just nodded and laughed.

After a moment, Parks sighed; “So what happens when we DO find our way home?”

The Lion opened his mouth to reply but the Wolf beat him to it; “Heck, the Imperium will probably throw us all in jail for stealing a planet.”

The Lion closed his mouth, and just stared at the Wolf. After a moment Ben looked at him and shrugged; “hey, I was just kidding.”

The Lion shook his head; “I know. And yet… I can’t imagine them being comfortable with the planet disappearing. Surely they couldn’t be so stupid as to think it was mysteriously destroyed. And as paranoid a group as they are, well, the only thing I can think of that would make them more nervous, than making a planet disappear, would be someone who could make it return.”

Ben put down his fork, and stared at the Lion; “Ah…. Yeah.”

Parks shrugged; “So what do we do? Hey, when we use the portal to go somewhere, its not exactly, ah, “subtle”….. someone’s bound to notice us returning, no matter how much care we take.” Both the Lion and the Wolf turned to stare at the Lynx. After a moment Parks growled; “No. NO! I CANNOT design a stealth portal! Hell, I don’t even know how the one we’ve got NOW works! Not even the aliens understand it!” Looking down at his plate, the Lynx growled quietly; “or at least they won’t admit to understanding it….”

The Lion looked at Ben; “As far as I’m concerned, NOT going home, if we have the opportunity, is NOT an option.”

The Wolf nodded slowly; “Yeah… if a route home ever becomes available…. I don’t think we could hold this bunch back.”

The Lion sat up a little straighter in his chair; “Then that leaves only one thing.” He turned back to Ben and then to Parks; “Very well, when we go back, we’re going to have to be able to take on the Imperium. If necessary, ALL of the Imperium. What will we need?”

Parks opened and then closed his mouth. He sagged back in his chair and just stared off into space for a few minutes. Finally he muttered; “you know, maybe not as much as you’d think…..” After another long moment he turned back to look at Ben; “with the matter conversion reactor we’ve got plenty of power. Power to drive the portal device, and everything else.” He turned to look at the Lion; “The shield technology we bought from the Aliens can probably defend us against the combined might of the Imperial fleet, given that much power. At least until we could escape the way we arrived…. All we have to do….”

Ben winced; “here it comes….”

The Lynx nodded; “Yeah. All we have to do is to find a way to power weapons without overloading them…”

The Lion nodded; “Get on it. As we don’t know when a route home might come available, I can’t tell you when its needed by. But if we go, we’d do a whole lot better dealing from a position of strength. Popping in, and then getting chased back out probably will be counterproductive in the long run.”

Parks nodded, and rose from the table; “Right.” Turning he headed for the Mess room’s door.

The Lion let him get about half way and then grinned; “And don’t forget about modifying the robot probes to leave sensor bouys.”

The Lynx just rolled his eyes, and threw up his paws, as the door closed behind him.

And maybe not in the right areas….

Reggie sighed and shook his head; “Dammit, Slasher, this is just NOT a proper activity for a Pirate! It just doesn’t FEEL right….

Slasher looked up at the overhead fan, down at the mint julep in Reggie’s paw, and then shrugged; he held up the week’s production report and just grinned. Reggie scowled; “Dammit, I KNOW what the numbers say.” He turned to look out at the green hills surrounding their “Villa”. Orderly rows of genetically enhanced coffee bushes stretching as far as the eye could see. Occasionally there would be a glint of reflected sunlight as one of the automated cultivators moved through the rows, checking the soil to make sure it was at the proper moisture, had the proper micronutrients, and for the absence of insects or disease. At least they were making money like an honest Pirate….

The hardest part had been finding the right planet. They must have spent months in their raider, mapping jump points, looking for a system with a planet with just the right conditions. But it had paid off. Reggie didn’t know why Slasher had wanted to name the place “Valdez”, but that was scarcely important. A couple of other worlds had been found, been settled with coffee plantations, but so far theirs had been the one most perfectly adapted to their need. The highlands on the Southern continent were perfect for coffee. And none of the local fauna or flora seemed to care in the least. The insects didn’t bother the plants, the animals didn’t try and eat them. It was paradise. If you were a farmer. Personally, Reggie was getting bored to death.

But they couldn’t leave. The risk of someone muscling in on THEIR planet was too great. No, they had to stay and defend what was theirs. THAT was something they were fully competent to do. It was just dull as hell, even if they were getting fabulously wealthy in the process…..

With a sigh, Reggie took another slug of his Julip. Maybe later he’d try and put the moves on that cute maintenance tech they’d hired. She was bound to be getting as bored as he was. The machines the aliens had made for them didn’t require much maintenance…. Dang it, the next time he hired someone for their plantation, he was going to make sure she didn’t have a boyfriend back home!

---

Forbes looked at the financial figures and smiled. By galactic standards, they weren’t really cleaning up, but everything they’d done with the Aliens had turned a profit. And as the Aliens’ market share grew, and grew, their income had grown. Grown to almost unbelievable proportions, at least for anyone from the Empire. Closing the spreadsheet window, he sat back, and just stared at the holographic “window”. It showed the lush green vegetation of one of the coffee plantations they’d founded. Ceilon wasn’t the most hospitable of worlds; the local fauna was vicious, with the local flora being only slightly less so. It was a constant battle to keep the planted areas free of animals that wanted to ravage everything in sight, to keep out weeds that sweated acid when you tried to pull them, but still, it was profitable. He chuckled for a moment; the Aliens might not know anything of combat or warfare, but they’d had no trouble coming up with automated sentries that could take out a rampaging 40’ lizard, high on caffeine. Still, such sentinels had cut into the profit margin…..

As he gazed over the orderly rows of plants, the irrigation system spreading a white mist over the green, he wondered why anyone would want to go “home”? What did the Empire have, that they didn’t have here? They had wealth. They had “power”. They now had several star systems under their control. They could afford almost any luxury the Aliens could sell them. They were respected partners of the largest, most powerful consortium in known space. No, as far as he was concerned, finding a way back to the Empire might only screw things up…. And he was sure he wasn’t the only one that felt that way. Still, he didn’t think any overt action was required. The odds of that bunch of malcontents actually solving the problem, of them actually FINDING a way back to the Empire, were vanishingly small. No need to worry….

Then Again….

Hitchcock almost jumped out of her chair when the Lion charged into Astrogation. “Tell me what you’ve got.”

She stared into his wide-eyed face and swallowed hard; “Um…. Ah… well….. Not much, really.”

The Lion frowned; “I thought our highly dispersed array had picked up something.”

The Squirrel nodded; “Well, yessir, it has. The bouy at NG.15.87.03 detected the event first, and later, the bouys at NG.01.03.04 and at NG.74.12.93 picked up the same events. Triangulation let us guesstimate that the event occurred at, or near NG.73.90.98. One of the robot probes was dispatched there, but it never reported in. A second probe was dispatched, and it also never reported in.” After looking at the Lion for a heart beat she shrugged; “I’m really not sure what to make of it. It MIGHT be a natural occurrence, a phenomenon that is so violent it bleeds over into other dimensions. Something like that might also destroy any probes that appeared there.”

The Lion reached past her to push a button on the comm panel; “Command staff to Astrogation”. Leaning back, he crossed his arms; “Or it might be a trap for anyone with portal technology. We may have just identified ourselves to someone who feels anyone with this level of technology is a threat.”

Hitchcock winced; “ohshit….”

---

Parks shook his head; “It won’t be easy. Of course it could be done, but it won’t be easy. Let me offer an alternative. Instead of rigging a probe with a warp drive, to let it approach from a safe distance, why not simply equip one with shields? Oh, not the navigational shields the probes have, but Military grade shields. Let it jump in, take a quick look, and I mean QUICK look around, and then jump back out. Unless whatever’s happening there is truly cataclysmic, the probe ought to survive long enough to report back.”

Ben nodded; “Sounds reasonable. Now, what can we do to make sure it can’t trace the probe back here?”

The Lion shrugged; “So far I haven’t had any luck tracking any of our probes, or ships, in, or out. That doesn’t mean that it can’t be done; it just means that we can’t do it, and the Brou device doesn’t seem to be able to do it either.” After a quick pause, he grinned; “But we can have the probe make a few diversionary jumps, just in case someone CAN track it back, on its last few jumps. I think six widely spaced jumps ought to throw anyone off.”

Ben nodded slowly; “All right. But best not have it jump straight back, either.”

The Lion nodded; “We can have it make a few more hops and then jump to a distant location for retrieval. And we can set our own ambush, if anything’s following.” Turning to look at Parks, the Lion growled; “How long until we can field something like that?”

---

Reggie was glad to be back in space. Glad to be almost anywhere other than the unrelieved GREEN of Valdez. Even if some of the Brethren considered the mission suicide. If there was something that could follow a probe through a half dozen portal jumps, it could probably also take out anything the Brethren had arrayed against it. Others thought the probe would show something along the lines of a supernova; a natural event that meant nothing in their quest; others were betting on a neutron star; something that the probe’s shields couldn’t protect it against. And there were a few pessimistic few that were sure the probe had found “home”…. And that the Empire was blasting them as soon as they emerged. Reggie couldn’t think of any worse outcome than finally finding home, and not being able to return there….

The Lion paced the deck, his tail lashing behind him. The problem was, the flight deck of the raider was too small to pace, and yet he couldn’t help himself. Glancing at the chrono for the twentieth time in as many minutes, he growled softly, wondering where the danged probe was?

A hundred thousand kilometers distant, a bright point appeared; it expanded into a ring, and something small emerged. The ring shrank behind it, until it vanished. The probe coasted along on inertia, completely silent.

The Lion watched from the gunner’s station. The whole of the small flotilla was at the ready, weapons armed, just waiting. One ship had been detailed to recover the probe while the remaining ships stood guard, but their vigilance seemed to be for naught; nothing else jumped in after the probe. Sensitive instruments probed the cosmos, searching for cloaked ships, searching for anything out of the ordinary, with no result. Finally, the ships each took flight, heading in different directions, using the on-board portal devices to jump to widely disparate (and previously searched) points, before jumping again, and yet again, before returning home.

---

Parks shrugged; “well, SOMETHING fried most of the electronics. Still, if we’re lucky, I can recover something from the flight recorder. After all, it DID hang together long enough to make it to the rendezvous point.”

The Lion watched as the engineer disassembled the guts of the probe. Finally, after what seemed like hours he came up with a small orange box. When the probe had been recovered, it had been chilled to almost absolute zero; within a few hundredths of a degree. no one could imagine what kind of natural process, or what kind of a weapon could do that. Deep space by itself wasn’t that cold. Materials that were normally strong became fragile as glass. Materials normally not superconductive became so, currents raging wildly through its electronics. And physical contraction, from the cold had broken many of the now brittle parts. The probe was a mess.

And yet it had still made its way home, a tribute to the Alien technology.

The Lynx handled the orange box as if it were horribly fragile, which it might well be. The data recording systems within were the most robust that the Alien technology could provide. After checking his connections, and running a few low-power diagnostics, he tripped the system, and sat back to watch.

The Lion watched the hologram, watched the probe maneuver through its preprogrammed path, making jump after jump flawlessly; however, about twelve seconds after the jump to NG.73.90.98 the probe seemed to be wreathed in blue fire, and then the recording went blank.

Ben shook his head; “It looked…. Like a completely normal star field. L type star a little ways off, but no…”

Parks sighed; “No unusual gravitational readings. There goes my bet. No neutron stars in the vicinity.”

The Lion frowned; “Play it again.”

Parks obliged, cutting the sequence down to the period from just before the jump to NG.73.90.98 to the instant after everything failed, cutting the projection speed to one tenth normal.

The Lion nodded; “What about magnification capabilities?”

Parks shrugged; “Yeah, I think I can do that; the probe had pretty good sensors, and the data doesn’t seem to be too degraded…”

The Lion nodded; “Look in the area of 135 mark 74; see if you can blow that up some.”

Parks fingers flew over the keyboard and then he hit the “play” button again. The starfield didn’t look particularly different, but this time, just before the probe’s datalogger failed, there was a flash in the distance.

The Lion nodded, but Parks didn’t have to be told; again he programmed the computer to enlarge that area. This time, when the recording was run, there was definitely an object within the field of view.

Further attempts at enlargement, at ‘cleaning up’ the image produced a fuzzy blob that most definitely was a starship. Unfortunately, the resolution wasn’t very good at such distances. Finally, Parks shrugged; “That’s about the best I can do.”

The Lion nodded; “pretty much as I’d feared.”

The Wolf chuckled; “Well, at least we know one thing; whatever that ship is, its not an Imperial design.”

The Lion nodded; “Yes, its nice to know that its not the Empire that’s blowing away anything that jumps in suddenly. And therefore, this probably isn’t in the Empire.” After a moment the Lion shook his head; “It’s a shame they’re so… xenophobic; if they have portal technology, I bet they’ve accumulated a huge database….” He turned and stared out a viewport; “I wonder if THEY know where home is….?”

Ben shook his head; “well, until we can develop a counter to that weapon of theirs, I’m NOT about to go ask them.”

The Lion nodded and shrugged; “Another contract research project for our alien buddies. I wonder how much they’ll charge for this work request?”

---

Parks tweaked the settings one more time and hit the “play” button. He still hadn’t managed to pull anything additional out of the sensor log. Nothing on the strange ship’s power systems, on their sensor systems, or on the weapon they’d used. He’d cleaned up the image a little, but it didn’t match anything in their warbook. Funny, though, in a way, it almost looked like a Kurani design…..

This story is a work of fiction, and any resemblance to any characters, living, dead or imaginary is purely a coincidence. Tanj is copyright Kittiara's player. Kittiara can be found on Furrymuck; telnet 24.164.231.38 8888. Jenka, Hinoki, Chris Fox, Roland, Sashi, Sabina, Dynotaku, Doodles, and Zassa are copyright their players (Jenka, Chris Foxx, Dynotaku, Doodles, Sabina and Zassa can be found on FurryMuck, and Hinoki on Tapestries or on FurryMuck. Sashi is copyright her player. Chris Foxx is copyright Bondofox. Roland is copyright IronBadger. Hopefully I didn’t miss anyone…. Copyright 2003. Comments, suggestions, or flames can be directed to ha_seng@hotmail.com.