Takar

by Elin Wyn

  “Yeah, but then if you think about his obvious intelligence, his ability to generate his own body heat, and the fact that he doesn’t need the sun for photosynthesis, it all point to some sort of non-plant organism,” she said, her voice low but filled with glee.

  We continued speaking for a bit longer about everything we thought, but it was essentially the two of us merely repeating ourselves with all the same points from the tunnels, except now I was less suspicious and concerned with the danger.

  Eventually, we stopped talking and just looked out at the cavern. The sight still took my breath away. Besides the lack of natural light…the cavern was lit by the same bioluminescence that had been present in the other cavern, as well as some glowing crystals…the other thing that caught my attention was that there were no animals down here. It was strictly the vegetation and the water.

  Okay, there were the fish swimming in the water, but I didn’t see anything else. Either the animals were all experts at remaining unseen, or there simply weren’t any outside the water. I began to imagine what it would feel like having a house down by the water, then my imagination placed that same home next to an above-ground lake or sea. The prospect of living underground certainly didn’t seem to work for me.

  “Can I tell you something?” Daphne asked, breaking me from my daydreams.

  “Of course,” I answered back, looking down at her and seeing a bit of worried hesitation in her eyes. “You can tell me anything,” I added.

  She smiled shyly as she looked back out at the cavern, her legs swinging out over the ledge. “I…well, I, uh…I had a dream about us.”

  I stiffened a little as she said that. Did she have the same dream as I’d had?

  “I dreamt that we were together, like…together together. We had two kids, a house, and a life together,” she explained.

  I nodded, wanting to know what else she was going to tell me about the dream. “Tell me about the dream,” I whispered.

  “Well, we were in bed, trying to sleep in, but couldn’t because the kids were awake, trying to be quiet.” She smiled a bit sheepishly as she gave me a sidelong glance. “We snuck in a bit of lovemaking under the covers and just barely finished before the kids attacked us and we all started tickling one another.”

  “How did this dream make you feel?” My heart was pounding. I had a lump in my throat and my stomach was currently doing its best to do as many somersaults as possible. If she liked the dream, I would admit to her that I’d had the same. If she didn’t, I wasn’t sure what I was going to do.

  “It,” she started, then hesitated as she looked up at me. Her eyes shone. “It felt real…and really, really good.”

  “It did?” I asked.

  She nodded. “Mm-hmm.”

  “Then I must confess to you,” I said as I grabbed her hand. “I had the same dream. A little boy and a little girl with skin the same as yours and hair the same as mine.”

  Her eyes went wide as I spoke.

  “I really liked the dream, as well,” I said.

  We stared at one another for several moments, her hands caressing my own hand. Her hands were so small compared to mine. I liked that.

  “Do you think that the Puppet Master had something to do with it?” she suddenly asked. “I mean, the fact that we both had the same dream?”

  “I don’t know,” I said. “I hadn’t thought of that.” I truly hadn’t. It was slightly unnerving to think that somehow, he had either influenced our shared dream, or had found a way for us to share the dream, meaning he was in our heads.

  “Did you maybe want to…” she started, her cheeks turning red as she lowered one hand to my leg and ran it up and down my thigh.

  In answer, I put my hand on her cheek and pulled her in for a deep kiss. As we kissed, her hand made its way up between my legs, grabbing my fully engorged member through my pants.

  I ran my hand down from her cheek to her neck, to the curve of her shoulder, and then began massaging her breasts. I felt her hand unfastening my pants, releasing the building pressure of the fabric holding me in.

  While her lips never left mine, I could feel her gasp as she grabbed my freed cock and realized that she was barely able to get a full grasp of it.

  She pulled away from me, looked down, then looked back up at me, her eyes wider than I could believe possible.

  “Maybe we should move away from the edge of the ledge,” she breathed as she was stroking me.

  I nodded, struggling to maintain my concentration. We stood up, Daphne never releasing me, and walked away down the tunnel. I finally stopped and went to reach for her, but she had already dropped to her knees.

  I watched her lick her gorgeous lips and my breath hitched in my throat.

  She pressed her mouth to the head of my cock first, teasing me with the warmth of her mouth, the firmness of her lips.

  The sensation of that moment forced my eyes closed as I began to gently thrust against her. If this was how life with her was going to feel, I was gladly willing to spend it with her.

  Her fingers trailed my abs, the points of her delicate nails and their light sensation making me less in control than I would normally admit.

  That was okay with Daphne.

  She traced around my navel and then slowly stuck that finger into her mouth, her eyes never leaving mine.

  I panted. I wasn’t going to beg, because I knew she would give me what I wanted. I could wait.

  Probably.

  Her wet finger replaced her lips, but not before she pressed another light kiss to the twitching head of my cock.

  She stroked it, wrapping her soft hands over my length. She alternated soft to hard strokes, then brought her mouth back.

  Lips closing over the tip, her hands stroked vigorously as her mouth closed over and stroked my shaft perfectly.

  The light noises of her mouth as she bobbed up and down the head of my cock, the feel of her fingers wrapping around my balls, her darkening eyes fixed on mine.

  It was too much.

  “Your turn,” I said roughly as I pulled from her, kneeling down until we were almost face to face.

  “But I thought….” she murmured, voice drowsy with need as I slowly, carefully undressed her.

  “I have to taste you,” I insisted, voice still unsteady. “Right now.”

  Lifting her up, I pulled her on top of me, lining her pussy up over my mouth. I hovered her there for a moment, positioned my thumb to stroke her sensitive bud, and then my tongue feasted on her wet folds.

  Daphne thrashed, the pleasure now erupting from her body. Her control was no match for my relentless pursuit of her pleasure. Unbelievably, my cock grew even harder as I listened to the sounds of her moaning.

  Untethered to reality. Unbound by reason.

  Her body was mine to have, to hold, and to exact every drop of desire from. Her honey tasted perfect, every drop of her arousal painting my lips and tasting like everything I’d ever wanted in the world.

  For every sound of orgasm building within her, I increased my intensity, until she exploded around me, coming undone in my arms. I heard a sexy giggle from her lips as I knew she was orgasming, hard, and that wonderfully lightheaded sensation she’d just given me overtook her.

  I wanted to please her forever.

  It was the most important mission I could ever have.

  Daphne

  “Well, now,” I whispered as I tried to catch my breath as I lay on top of him. I looked him in the eye as I smiled. “That was fun.”

  “That it was,” he whispered back, running his hand through my hair. “I don’t think I’ve ever enjoyed anything so much.” He pulled me down and kissed me, the taste of my own arousal on his lips an intoxicating blend. There wasn’t a single cell in my body that wanted to resist that kiss. As a matter of fact, every cell in my body wanted to do what we’d just done again. He made me feel more like a woman than I ever had in my life.

  “You younger races focus too much of your time upon procreation. It’s
a wonder you get anything accomplished at all,” Puppet Master said, a hint of humor playing through our minds as he spoke.

  “Yeah, well,” I snapped back playfully, “when you have someone as gorgeous as this man here, it’s hard to concentrate on much.” I followed up my little statement with a playful nibble of Takar’s nipples. Ooh, speaking of hard.

  “You may wish to restrain yourselves. Your friends shall be here soon.”

  With a frown and a groan of disappointment, I pulled away from Takar…sort of. “What do you mean?” In answer, Takar’s comm unit started beeping. We looked at one another, eyes wide.

  “Guess we know what he meant,” Takar said, reaching for his comm. “Takar here.”

  “Takar, this is General Rouhr. We will be arriving momentarily,” the voice on the other side came back.

  “Very well, sir,” he responded, flashing me a smile. “Let me know when you land, and the Puppet Master will show you where to go.”

  “About that,” came the gruff voice. “We’re using the rift as soon as your brother returns with Tella.”

  Takar’s face went pale, if someone with red skin could suddenly go pale. “We need to get dressed, now!” he whispered urgently. As we untangled ourselves and started getting dressed, he clicked the button on his comm to answer his boss.

  “Sir, we were unable to use the rift to leave the vine dome.” Takar looked around at the cavern, the walls writhing with extensions of our new friend. “The situation here is a bit more extreme.”

  “Try not to underestimate me, soldier,” the voice answered. “Fen was able to pinpoint your location based on a combination of data on your previous comm and the sonic mapping done by your team. We will be arriving in the tunnels right above you.”

  Takar gulped. “That may be a bit of a problem, sir. There’s not a lot of room right where we are currently standing. How many people are coming?”

  There were a few seconds of pause, then the gruff voice I presumed belonged to General Rouhr came back on. “Nine.”

  Takar’s eyes, somehow, unbelievably, got wider. “Um,” he mumbled as he started looking around, spinning around a few times to try to figure out the spacing. “With us, that makes eleven. There’s not enough room for eleven people, sir.”

  “I shall create a platform large enough and stable enough for all of you to stand or sit, as you please,” the Puppet Master’s voice echoed.

  “Check that…according to the Puppet Master, there will be enough room for us all,” Takar amended.

  “Good,” Rouhr said firmly through the comm. “Because we’re coming through now.” Takar and I quickly straightened up our clothes and ran our fingers through our hair.

  I had no idea what the rift was, but from Takar’s reaction, I figured that it was something I was going to witness in just a few seconds.

  Bigger than shit, a few feet away from me, a colorful hole in the middle of the air opened, forcing Takar to scramble a few steps back, taking him farther away from me. The hole—maybe it was a tear—was rich and vibrant in its colors of yellow, orange, red, black, and white.

  Stepping through the hole first was a large man that looked so much like Takar, I knew instantly that they were brothers. Behind him came a guy whose dark gray skin was covered in green circuitry-looking lines and another guy with green skin and purple…stripes everywhere. The Valorni and K’ver were both smaller than Takar and his brother, and each gave me the same nod that the brother had given me as they stepped through.

  Number four through the rift was Annie, a look of consternation mixed with disappointment and anger on her face.

  Heck.

  “Hi, Annie,” I said with a big wave and even bigger smile. She didn’t buy it and continued to scowl at me as three more women walked through. I recognized Vidia, and had seen the other two in the same labs as Annie, but didn’t know their names.

  The second to last through the rift was a very grumpy-looking Valorni whose expression darkened when he looked at me, but filled with love when he looked at Annie. That had to be Karzin.

  That meant that the last one through was the general. He had red skin, a bit faded, but red. He was covered with scars and looked to be older than everyone. He gave me a perfunctory look, then turned around as the rift vanished.

  Takar stood there, at attention, already giving the general a salute. “Sir,” he said.

  “Easy, Takar,” the general responded. “So, where is the Puppet Master?”

  Takar pointed. As everyone turned to look, the collective gasp was mixed with a few ‘oohs,’ ‘aahs,’ and ‘skrells.’

  I tried my best not to smile.

  When no one spoke for a few moments, I stepped forward. “Puppet Master, I think the easiest way to begin this whole proceeding is to show them what you showed us.”

  “Wait, what do you mean sh…” Karzin started to ask. Then he jumped and started looking around, but his eyes looked distant. Takar grabbed him to hold him still.

  Within minutes, everyone started to either shake their heads or rub their eyes. “Holy hell,” one of the women said.

  Vidia looked over at her and gave her a motherly smile. “Yes, that was certainly different, Tella.”

  Everyone began to speak at the same time, four different conversations between ten different people as I stood and watched. This was pure insanity.

  “I understand your confusion,” Puppet Master said, causing every single one of the newcomers to virtually jump out of their skins. When the silence lasted longer than four seconds, I spoke up.

  “That would be him,” I explained.

  “I apologize for startling you,” Puppet Master said. “And as I was saying, I understand your confusion. What I have shown you is something that is natural for my kind. Throughout the course of time, my kind has numbered in the thousands and have travelled to corners of the universe that none of your races have even conceived of existing.

  “I am, to use your parlance, the heart and life of this planet. I am what makes this planet live, and what returns this planet to normalcy when life tries to make a change.”

  “When you say ‘change’,” General Rouhr cut in, “am I to assume to mean us?”

  “You assume correctly, Rouhr, General of the Vengeance and leader of non-human forces,” came the answer. “The battle that you brought to this planet, whether you meant to or not, has upset the delicate balance of what I have created.”

  “How do we fix that balance?” Vidia asked.

  “Before you answer that,” the woman I didn’t know interrupted. “What caused the imbalance? If we knew what it was, maybe we could help fix it.”

  “The enemy that you brought with you, the Xathi,” Puppet Master started to answer. “They are the imbalance. When their vessel crashed down upon the surface, there were several foreign pollutants that leaked into the ground, and therefore into me. Before my system was able to develop a counter to these pollutants to purge them from my body, they transferred to many portions of life above.”

  “The plants that are dying, they’re dying because of Xathi chemicals?” Annie asked.

  “Correct,” was the answer. “The ‘chemicals’ that leaked have become a plague upon my creations. A plague that I am attempting to rectify.”

  “I can understand your desire to repair yourself and your creation,” Rouhr said. “But why attack the human settlements? They weren’t the ones that caused the chemicals to seep into the ground.”

  “That is true. However, the materials that were being used by not only the humans, but by your kind, are needed to restore the balance of life. I can only create so much, and by you reaping the materials for your own use, I am unable to restore the life above.”

  With a heavy nod, Rouhr looked around at all of us. He turned back to the Puppet Master. “So, in our attempts to repair the damage that we inadvertently caused in our war with the Xathi, we were causing more damage.”

  “I regretfully say that you were. I did not intend to harm anyone. When
I awoke, I was confused, angered. I merely intended to stop you on the surface from taking what was needed to restore the balance. In time, as the balance is restored, you are welcome to my bounty. But not before.”

  “What happens if you can’t restore the balance?” the one Vidia had called Tella asked. Rouhr looked at her, a bit irritated I thought, then looked back at the Puppet Master.

  “If I am unable to restore the balance of the planet that has grown around me, it will die and I will be forced to move on, as I have done countless times.”

  “Whoa, wait,” Tella stepped forward, ignoring Rouhr’s attempts to hold her back. “What the hell do you mean ‘die’? If the planet dies, we all die with it.”

  “That is correct.”

  “Shit.”

  Takar

  I watched and listened as Rouhr and the Puppet Master spoke. I began to wonder if the Puppet Master’s voice truly was resonating in my mind or if it just sounded that way. I thought about the possibilities of what it would be like to be able to speak directly into a person’s mind.

  Let’s see, I thought as they continued on with their conversation. If I had the ability to speak into someone’s mind, it would cut down on conversation time, as well as allow us to keep the conversation entirely private, unless one of us spoke about it openly later. That’s not bad. But…if I was able to connect to someone’s mind in order to speak to them directly, would that mean I could read their mind? If I could, would I want to? Would I be able to control what I heard from their mind or would I hear everything?

  You would hear everything in their mind, the Puppet Master’s voice said, louder and clearer than before. The more unusual thing was that I still heard him speaking with Rouhr. That’s right, I can carry on several conversations at the same time. In answer to your inquiry, you would hear the thoughts of the person you were connected to. However, if there was too much emotion mixed in with those thoughts, they would be blocked.