Voyage

by C. Paul Lockman

  Falik laughed. “Depends on what you mean. There are about thirty billion beings, but we have perhaps nine times the land area of Earth. Your planet can support thirteen billion, but it would struggle because of the way you use your land. We cracked that problem early, as well.”

  The Cruiser was manoeuvring gently to orient itself with the docking platform of the station. “We found”, Falik explained, “that when supported by a technological level suitable for such a populace, maintaining those beings and catering for their needs becomes a lot easier. For instance, on Earth, you produce food which requires almost a greater amount of resources to produce than calories gained by eating it. This is most inefficient. Replication keeps this balance while providing more than enough food. If you could do that, your population problems would be virtually solved. Resources would no longer be a barrier.”

  I dwelt on this while the pilot steered us in. The station appeared out of the left windows, hovering brilliantly above the lights and patterns of the planet. Various craft were performing the carefully-choreographed ballet of docking with the station, or departing for the surface. One entered lightspeed far beyond the station, the silent, massive boom of its engines accelerating the craft to dizzying speed. I watched, awed, as it roared away without a sound.

  Once docked, we filed from the Cruiser into a white reception area. The station was, effectively, a miniature of the massive transit hall I had first experienced on Takanli – thousands of creatures were making their way to and fro. We were collected, whisked through security, and directed to a waiting room with comfortable blue chairs and screens showing news and documentaries. Refreshments appeared and the group sat together.

  I lent half an ear to a news report from the Outer Rim, but there was little to add to what I already knew. Then, I remembered a question from earlier.

  “Falik? How is Earth doing?”

  She blinked for a second and seemed to think. “There’s an intercept station which broadcasts interesting findings from around the Universe. They might have picked something up.” She started pressing buttons on a handset which appeared from the sofa. “Here we are.”

  A menu appeared, with unfamiliar star names and positions. I dredged up the sun’s formal name and orbital statistics, and fed them into the screen. We zoomed into the local group of stars and searched for news stories about them.

  The local area, being largely devoid of planets, wasn’t of much interest. There had been a violent solar storm from an object we called Barnard’s Star, about 50 light-years from Earth. The section on my solar system was more complete, and featured a range of articles. I picked a recent one.

  It was all going to shit.

  Rising ocean surface temperatures had brought about extreme weather events which, even compared to the era of ‘Global Weirding’ I had left, were remarkable in their ferocity and strangeness. Temperature records had been broken, year on year, at both extremes; hurricane seasons were now cause for huge, state-wide evacuations in the American West; large areas of Africa were essentially uninhabitable and stretches of the main Chinese waterways could no longer support life.

  In the years I had been away, flooding had began in many coastal cities. A number of Pacific and Indian Ocean islands were now permanently submerged. People had been killed not by the floods, but in the panic to get away from the sea. Boats had been sunk. Governments had fallen.

  The fallout from the 2008-9 financial crisis proved markedly worse than expected; radically worsening poverty in developing nations let to mounting tensions between rich and poor, while a new wave of discontent, fed largely by internet documentaries and forums, was seen by the establishment as yet more significant a threat than that of Communism in the 1950s. Security services, many of them privately owned and operated, had reacted accordingly; accusations of police state tactics were increasingly common.

  There had been some kind of nuclear accident, which was irradiating large swathes of Europe. Many people had fled south, where they put even greater pressure on food resources in Africa and the Mediterranean. Several new wars had begun, with hardline leaderships on both sides promising victory or death.

  “What the fuck is wrong with them?!” I blurted loudly. The room quietened and a few heads turned. I was staring, open mouthed, at the screen. The empaths among them quickly understood, and several came over to read the news with me, commiserating over a spate of bombings, horrendous chemical warfare attacks, and some new, unexplained disease which was ravaging a whole continent. And in the middle, the corporations stood high among the chaos they were creating. Earth was fighting back, and we were in the battle for the long haul.

  I ordered a stiff drink and turned off the screen. Falik did her best, reminding me of mankind’s amazing ability to produce triumph from disaster, about our ingenuity and genuine charity, our resourcefulness… but even she couldn’t put a bright gloss on it. My home was dying, being torn apart. And this news was forty years old. And I was way out here.

  Chapter XX: Departure

  The very ordinary way in which the boarding was effortlessly carried out made the whole experience easier. It was like waiting in line for a plane at the gate of a major airport, with a few interesting twists. Various beings occupied themselves with the business of getting underway, some hovering on board as if levitating, others floating gas-like through the halls. Humanoids like me were restricted to walking onto the interstellar ship, trying to pay attention through the orientation lectures, and finally locating our quarters. I worried briefly that, in her professional capacity, Falik might be given her own room, but we were both relieved to find we were sharing. Cabin space was at a premium anyway, and few beings on the planet were unaware of our relationship. In fact, a quick search at one of the terminals brought up a host of websites about me, my relationships and the various tests I had undergone. There was even a site dedicated to the idea that I was an interplanetary secret agent, tasked with destabilising the social system of Takanli. Others praised my sexual exploits, which were fast becoming legend, with endless video footage to prove it. The highest-rated clip was from the concert orgy right after I arrived. There I was, grinning manically at the hovering camera, up to my balls in a delicious blonde. Falik was in the back of the shot, being pounded by an eight-foot musician with bright blue testicles. Ah, the Internet.

  We settled in and started to meet people. Although we could barely feel it, Daedalus was already accelerating, and would achieve a comparatively modest 18% of lightspeed on our outward journey. We had already passed the orbit of Takanli’s outermost moons, and were quickly gaining speed towards the more distant planets.

  The communal spaces were vast. All along the long, thin core structure of the ship, bulbous modules were attached to afford simply cavernous living and storage spaces. We were carrying thousands of tonnes of supplies, water, hydrogen and other consumables, both for ourselves and the places we were to visit. Ten thousand people were crammed into the living spaces which, although huge, were constantly buzzing with activity. Falik and I took a walk around our deck, which rotated constantly around the hub, creating a comfortable 1G environment. There were lounges for reading, surfing the Net or watching movies. There were games areas, with various strange balls, nets and hoops, through which a variety of luminous, hovering beings played a variant of football. Gawping at these strange beings, it took a sudden squeeze of my ass for Falik to gain my attention, as she explained more about the beings we could see, the ship and her payload, the mission we had undertaken.

  “This is a remarkable place”, I felt the need to whisper. Falik kissed me and we wandered off together into the miles of unexplored spaces.

  *****

  Dinner that night was a modest party thrown by the Captain, a gruff, old humanoid who seemed to have been travelling the system since he was a boy. Falik and I sat at his table, a shining, metal disc supported by red, fibrous strands which emanated from the floor like plants. I asked him about the shakedown cruises before we left.r />
  “Usual procedure”, he offered, swigging from a silver goblet. “We want to make sure the engines will run well, that the crew know their jobs.” He even spoke with a slight ‘Ancient Mariner’ accent. All he was missing was the white beard and pipe.

  “Is this your first voyage to the Outer Rim?” Falik asked across the table. Her feet had been massaging mine for much of the dinner, and I was distracted from my space calamari (“reared in zero g for more taste and less toxins”, read the menu) by the need to will my raging erection back to silence. It didn’t listen particularly well.

  “I was born on a moon of Bephra, the tenth planet, and my father had a space haulage company moving people and minerals around the moons. I just fell into the profession, if you want to know. Easy money, a bit of sight-seeing, and girls in every port!” He congratulated himself on this witticism with a hearty thigh-slap and more gulps from his goblet. The silver was tarnishing. I wondered for a second whether he had traded it for an Earth goblet, some piece of treasure from a Medieval wreck. Thoughts of home could only be distracting now.

  “What kind of other teams are on the flight?” I asked, mainly to switch my focus away from Earth and her problems.

  The Captain finished chewing a large mouthful of grey meat. “Scientists”, he muttered, “some diplomatic types like you two”, more chewing, “and some artist troupe who want to write a play about the situation in the Outer Rim.” He washed down the meat with his goblet which, I noticed, seemed not to require re-filling. “Hey, you should get them to tag along with you. They’ll make you famous!”

  Falik and I exchanged a glance. “Well, Captain, thanks for the advice, but I think we’ve both achieved enough notoriety already.”

  The dinner broke up and various couples vanished into the cavernous modules, or sat around with drinks. I noticed the Raptor sipping a long-glassed cocktail by one of the windows, staring out at space. Falik was in a discussion about our first planetary fly-by, trying to persuade the Captain to let us off there, for only a few hours. It didn’t seem to be going well.

  “Hi stranger”, the Raptor purred, turning away from the window to give me a steamy gaze. “I was hoping to catch you alone.” She smiled sexily. “I’ve missed you…” She reached forward to run her hand down my crotch. I angled away so that no-one could see. “Hmmm… I think he wants some company tonight.”

  I began, “I can’t… Falik doesn’t know that we… “ She brought a finger to her lips to quieten me. And then licked it seductively.

  “Don’t worry about her… I’m sure you keep an open relationship. After all, we’ve all seen your exploits on the Net. Let her spend time with whoever she wants tonight. Then, come to Storage 14 and you can fuck my brains out.”

  She stroked my cock again and leaned forward quickly to run her tongue up its length, through the fabric. I nearly came there and then. “Go now, and we’ll finish this later.” She turned back to the window and sipped her cocktail.

  Falik was bidding the Captain goodnight. “He says he’ll think about it, and maybe send a recommendation message to the Council. Friends of his on the surface want to meet us, to talk about assisting in the negotiations by offering free transport for every delegate and press team. They have a shuttle business on Betanuria and we could link up with them there. Are you OK?”

  Falik had noticed my distraction. “Yeah, honey. Free rides for everyone?” She nodded, slightly uncertain. “What do they want in return?”

  She sighed. “You’re not going to believe this. They want us to host a debate show on live TV, to air some opinions before the negotiations start. You know, with a chairman and two panels…” She was thinking. “Question Time?”

  The old BBC politics show slowly emerged to the forefront of my mind and suggested itself as an answer. The journey was lengthy, on crowded avenues of thought and information, but it made it. “Gotcha. Yeah, why not? I’m pretty much the solar system’s leading man on the dispute. What do they want us to do?”

  Falik grinned slightly, shyly. “Well, you would chair the debate, responsible for grilling the teams and generally keeping order. An audience of undecideds will watch the debate, then vote at the end. It will be live on Extra-Planetary Television.”

  I stared at her. “Wow.”

  “They’ve just installed booster stations for the signal, so it can reach over seventy systems. They’ve started to measure their target markets in hundreds of trillions.” I stared at her all over again.

  “And every penny of profit is invested in charitable projects, infrastructure and education. They are the main source of all funding in this part of the Galaxy.” I realised fairly early on that I knew this already, but the welcome reminder of this outstanding and novel idea was always one I enjoyed.

  “What’s the big deal with this transport?” The delegates would all have their own vehicles, and inter-planetary travel was getting cheaper all the time.

  “It's symbolic. An olive-branch. It also means that our transport teams get to pick up the delegates, so that they don’t turn up in massive Battle Cruisers and get nasty if the debate doesn’t go their way. Just ratchets down the tensions a bit, levels the playing field.”

  “Sure, fuck it. If the Captain lets us, we should do it.”

  Falik frowned slightly. “Well, there is one other thing…. The Captain says we can go, and he’ll fly us down there himself, if you sleep with his wife.”

  My jaw dropped slightly. Falik did not seem happy with the idea, but her enthusiasm for the mission was enormous. “What do you think about that?” I asked. She shrugged.

  “Why not? He says she’s terrible in bed, and could use some of … well, he watches the Net as much as anyone. Besides, she would be another notch on the bedpost. She might be a blonde beauty.” I raised a finger at her, just slightly.

  “Now you’re doing it! This sounds a lot like jealousy to me!” I grinned at her to hide my slight distaste at this hypocrisy. She was soon smiling back.

  “I’m sorry...” She collected herself. “You are free to fuck, finger, ball, bugger, shaft and shag whom you may wish. And I may do the same, but I don’t choose to do so very often. And this is simply because you’re the best fuck in the Solar System.”

  *****

  Emerging from the shower and heading to dinner, Falik and I agreed to split up for the evening and meet some of the other passengers. This was partially to learn more about the system and the dispute, but also just for the fun of being out among people. We were both pretty famous, and the other travellers were curious about us.

  I mingled at the bar for a couple of hours. Various people came to say hello, introducing themselves as delegates of this, representatives of that, or members of the federation of the other. A lot of pretty girls showed up, reminding me not only of my celebrity but of my upcoming fuckfest with the Raptor. The thought brought a jolt to my balls. Falik hoved into view, flanked by three members of what looked like the Inter-Planetary Wrestling Federation team. They were huge. She looked to be having a great time. I looked at my watch and, making as little fuss as possible about it, sidled off to Storage 14 and wait for the Raptor. I floated through the zero-G section towards the massive module, each one packed with strapped-down equipment and boxes. She was waiting behind a glider with gleaming silver wings. She wore only a skimpy bra and a black thong. Her skin gleamed in the starlight from the windows.

  “Hi there”, she purred, smiling at me seductively. “I hope it wasn’t a lot of trouble to get away.” I shook my head. “Good, And besides, you’ll probably be able to see video of Falik with those three huge guys on the Net tomorrow… everyone has their price, and you know already about your notoriety”.

  I smiled, still slightly shy of my celebrity. “What about you? No cameras around here?” She crossed the last few paces and stood before me.

  “No, no cameras. Just you and me. No-one else has to know and nobody will ever see us together. Our secret.” Her voice became smokier, sexier as she spoke. The
lust in her eyes, and from her whole being, seemed to fill the air between us with electricity, expectancy. Arousal. She stood a full foot taller than me, which would have been intimidating had she not been almost naked, and her whole body pulsing with desire. “I remember the feel of you from before… it has been too long,” she whispered, reaching over to embrace me and cradle me amidst her vast, firm breasts. “I want it all again… and I know you do”.

  Reaching behind her back she unsnapped her bra and let her breasts fall free, level with my mouth. I lost no time. Hands around her back, as though to keep her from escaping, my mouth found her nipples and sucked hungrily. She moaned quietly in response, her engorged buds growing in my mouth, one by one, as I alternated between them. “Hmmmm…”, she murmured, “I’m getting wet for you… let me show you”. As I sucked, her hand disappeared between her legs and returned, gently coating her nipples with cunt juice for me to lick off. The taste pushed me over the edge and in moments I was naked, with my newly engorged penis pointing skyward, aimed at her pussy.

  We let the lack of gravity take us where it would. Tugging at my clothes had pushed us off and we were floating together above the glider. She took gentle hold of my cock and began slow strokes, pulling back my foreskin to let the cool air of the hangar caress my glans. “It is beautiful”, she murmured, “and I want it inside me”. She pulled down her thong, let it escape in the weightlessness, floated before me with her legs apart, her pussy open, seeping juice. I grabbed her thighs, positioned her pussy at my mouth and devoured her, tongue slipping inside, then over her clit, then taking her bud into my mouth and sucking deeply. A flood of juices coated my chin, and one droplet escaped, floating through the air, forming a perfect sphere and disappearing into the huge hangar.

  She pulled me up by the hair, not too roughly, so that we could fuck. Lodging my cock at her entrance, we mutually pushed together and I slid up inside her. The sensations were just perfection. Her cunt had the soft silkiness of any young girl’s pussy, combined with the intense muscularity of this special creature. There wasn’t a moment in which her pussy muscles weren’t working on my cock in some way, massaging it, squeezing the base, sending wonderful ripples down my length. All of this compounded the expected pleasures of sliding in and out of a juicy slit with deep, even strokes. Our movements sent us away into the hangar, into the massive roof spaces where the starlight could not reach and darkness enveloped us. I held her beautiful, firm ass with both hands and slid ever deeper into her. As I found one of the many nerve-centre zones inside her, and pounded on it repeatedly with the head of my cock, the sacred eye in her chest began to appear once more. I glanced up at her (normally I was level with her breasts, which I licked constantly) and saw her face contorted as it in pain, teeth clenched. In fact, as I soon found, she was coming. The powerful muscles in her cunt spasmed around my cock, pulling me closer to my own orgasm, and a torrent of juice cascaded down her tunnel, all over my cock, out and onto my balls, and then dissipated across the hangar in a cloud of spherical droplets.