Carbon Life

by HR Ringer

  She placed her hands together in front of her chest and took three deep, cleansing breaths, breathing in through her nose and exhaling through her mouth. Concentrating on her stance as she assumed the various positions, she found clarity as her mind relaxed from its constant state of anxiety regarding her surroundings. She felt safe enough here in Shanghai, yet hadn’t truly relaxed until today; the intense training she had endured during her first year, along with subsequent missions against batarian controlled facilities, had her in a near constant state of readiness, a condition necessary in the Traverse; not so necessary here on Earth.

  Xiùlán joined her when she was about halfway through her second set of repetitions. “I wondered where you were… everything alright?”

  Traynor looked at her for a moment, then huffed, “I’m fine, Darling. Just trying to relax a bit. Care to join me?”

  “You even have to ask?” Xiùlán waited until Sammy was done with her second set, then moved to stand facing her in order to mirror her lover’s movements. Sammy smiled at this… she generally ended up taking a shower with Xiùlán, followed by what Xiùlán referred to as ‘quality time’ wrapped around Sammy’s muscular body. The pair invariably needed a second shower afterwards.

  * * *

  * JIANG MINGLI’s FINE ARTS TATTOO *

  Traynor went into a changing room, there to remove her blouse and undershirt. Holding a modesty towel across her chest with a forearm, she came out and sat down on a special bench, configured for her to lean her chest against what was normally the padded and upholstered backrest in order to allow Jiang Mingli unfettered access to the skin of her back.

  After carefully washing the area with gloved hands, Ming shaved the skin he was going to tattoo, then used rubbing alcohol to recleanse the area. As Jiang Mingli was an ‘old school’ artist, he had transferred Sam’s design in reverse onto stencil paper, which he applied to her moistened skin. After carefully pulling the stencil away, he turned to a modern method of allowing Traynor to see the design actually on her skin – he used his omnitool to project an image of her back onto a monitor set in front of her. “Oh gosh! That’s so perfect, Ming,” she said. “Where will you begin?”

  “With the head, of course,” came the reply. “Outline and shading first, then I’ll apply colors to fill in the shapes. Are you ready?”

  “Ready as I’ll ever be.”

  “Okay then.” His reply was partially drowned out by the sudden buzzing of the tattoo gun; the hot sensation of something scratching her skin instantly set her teeth on edge. The buzzing alternated every 15 to 25 seconds or so with a soft, absorbent cloth wiping the just abused area of excess ink and the tiny amount of blood drawn to the surface by the ink-tipped needles. This went on for some 45 minutes as Ming worked his way down the skin on her back; Traynor was nearly ready to call a halt when Jiang Mingli put down his gun, stood from the bench he had been straddling and said, “We need a break, you and I… give you a few minutes to recover, me a few minutes to rest my hand. I’ll show you how much I have done.”

  Ming activated his omnitool as he had done previously, allowing Traynor to see how much of the design was now permanently a part of her; Sam expressed her admiration for Ming’s expertise. A bit surprised at the amount of ink Ming had been able to apply in such a short time, she said, “Looks like the application of the wings are all that’s left.”

  Ming smiled as he nodded and closed his omnitool. “Yes, and then the real fun can begin – I’ll apply the several shades of red that will make this dragon fly off your back.”

  Traynor grinned. The application, while somewhat painful, seemed to be progressing well; Sam couldn’t wait to see the design completed on her back. More importantly, she wanted Xiùlán to be with her, to share her joy and possibly to see how beautiful the results would be. Activating her omnitool, she sent a quick message to her inamorata, asking her to come to Ming’s shop.

  Ming straddled his bench and picked up his gun, asking, “Are you ready to continue?”

  With a quick nod of her head, she said, “Let’s go.”

  Traynor had decided that simply enduring the hot scratching of Ming’s tattoo gun was foolish; closing her eyes, she began to silently recite her personal mantra, thus inducing a meditative state of mind. The sound of the tattoo gun faded to nearly nothing; the hot scratching on her skin gradually ceased to be anything but a slightly annoying itch.

  A hand, cool on her bare shoulder, massaged the muscles in tiny circles, breaking her concentration. Blinking her eyes, she was aware of someone standing beside her, softly saying her name. “Sà mǐ… Sà mǐ… Wake up, my love.”

  A familiar face swam into view… Xiùlán. Lifting her head, Sam said, “Hey… how long have you been standing there?”

  “A few minutes… I got here in time to see Jiang Mingli finish the outlines and shading of the dragon’s wings across your back. He’s done for now… you’ll have to return in ten or twelve days for the colors.”

  Traynor tried to look over her shoulder without success, prompting Xiùlán to chuckle as she observed, “It’s all bandaged, Love. Go put your shirt on so we can go home.”

  Sam slowly got to her feet and, followed by Xiùlán, walked back to the changing room, where she submitted to her lover’s assistance in pulling on her undershirt and blouse, prompting Xiùlán to smirk, “What, no bra?”

  “Didn’t think I’d want a strap and back band digging into my skin… my undershirt is bothersome enough.” Sam looked at the woman for a moment before asking, “Have you come to a decision regarding the matching design?”

  “Let me think about it for another evening, Luv,” came the reply. “We still have time.”

  “Okay, and just so you know, I have a surprise for you, but I don’t want to tell or show you until it’s a permanent part of my body.”

  Yuán looked at Samantha, surprise plain on her face. “More tattoos, Sà mǐ? Why are you suddenly so interested in permanently marking your body, Wǒ de Ài? [我的愛 - My Love] I love every square centimeter of your skin, as it is… it’s absolutely beautiful!”

  Sammy smiled as she replied, “I’m adding to that beauty.” Pointing her thumb over her shoulder, she added, “This dragon? It’ll look as if it’s alive, ready to leap into the air. I just…” She paused for a moment before continuing. “I want to have something that’s ours alone… something no one else has, something that cannot ever be taken from us.”

  Xiùlán instantly regretted expressing doubt about Sammy’s desires. “I’m sorry, Sà mǐ… please, forgive me. You know I love you, and the designs you helped Jiang Mingli create are really beautiful. I absolutely did not mean to imply disapproval of your choices or a dislike of the symbolism you wish to create, my love.” Xiùlán placed her hands on Sammy’s waist to draw her close for a kiss. “Come on… lets go for a walk before going home. There are several craft shops just down the street from here. Might find a present for my parents.”

  * * *

  * SHANGHAI, CHINA • AT LARGE *

  Samantha and Xiùlán became frequent visitors to Jiang Mingli’s shop; Samantha’s dragon, having been started first, was rapidly completed, with jewel-toned shades of red and orange making for a truly striking image. The expertly applied dimensional shading gave the creature an appearance of simply resting before flying off to places unknowable by mere mortals.

  After talking with Sammy and thinking about it for another evening, Xiùlán decided to have the mirror image dragon applied to her own back. As it was begun several days after Sammy’s, Ming completed it several days after the design on Traynor’s back was done; the jewel-toned shades of greens and golds gave Xiùlán’s dragon the appearance of finely carved jade, as if it had been unearthed from a mountain fully formed and alive.

  Jiang Mingli took several pictures of the pair after the application of the colors had healed, with Traynor on the left, right arm around Xiùlán’s shoulders; Xiùlán held her left arm out in front of herself, forearm across her
abs, so they could get as close together as possible. With her waist-length ebony hair cascading down the center of her bare back and one of Traynor’s butterfly swords in her left hand – the hilt and blade visible beside her waist and right arm – the impression seen when viewing the photo was of restrained power.

  Traynor’s surprise for Xiùlán was also a tattoo, made up of traditional – as opposed to the more modern simplified – hànzì characters for the words You make my life complete, with her given name in old fashioned script at the end, thus: 你讓我的生活完成, Xiùlán. “It’ll be right across my lower back, just above my tailbone,” she said with a big grin. “You’re probably the only person who will ever see it.”

  Xiùlán felt the need to point out that Traynor was still in the Systems Alliance Navy, and would most likely wind up showering with other women. Undeterred, Sammy simply explained that no one would understand the meaning of the characters. “I have one for you as well, my love,” she admitted in a shy tone of voice.

  “Of course you do,” Xiùlán groaned. “So, let’s hear it… what do you want me to add to my skin?”

  “Something that will take people’s minds off the scars on your thigh,” Sammy said brightly. “Your saying for me – My love for you will never end, Samantha – [我對你的愛永遠不會結束，薩曼莎].

  As Xiùlán looked at the words and the hànzì characters, she commented, “This is a rather long string of words, Sà mǐ… just where do you envision me having this applied?”

  When it came to her love for Xiùlán, Traynor was nothing if not bold. “Right between your nipples,” she said with a leering grin.

  Yuán murmured, “Uh-huh,” as she shook her head. “A good portion of these characters would be on my boobs… both of them! Is that really what you’d like to see?”

  “I’d like to see it stenciled on your chest, just to see how they’d fit.”

  “You’re talking about me having needles applied to my boobs, Sà mǐ! My ancestors will rise up from their graves to haunt me if I do this! Why shouldn’t we reverse this? Your saying on your boobs, mine across my butt?”

  “Because we don’t sleep that way, darling,” she remarked. “If we’re not facing each other in bed, then you’re almost always spooning me from behind. Makes sense for the words to be together when we’re sleeping.”

  “Only in your galaxy, Sà mǐ! I mean… dammit, the dragon’s one thing, but tattooing my boobs is something I’ve never even contemplated!”

  Samantha could see that arguing the point with Xiùlán was getting her nowhere; despite really wanting to see the characters across her chest, she’d let the matter rest while she had her own words done.

  * * *

  * SHANGHAI, CHINA • IN XIÙLÁN’S HOME *

  Xiùlán was dreaming. There was a hand… cool, soft… gently caressing her forehead and cheek. Another hand, also cool, was using fingers to gently trace imaginary patterns on the back of her left hand. The sensations invoked by the contact started in her chest – a feeling of deep contentment, of being cared for, of… being loved… She had felt this contentment… this love… many times, and had reciprocated just as often.

  Xiùlán allowed her eyelids to part just enough to reconnoiter her immediate surroundings. The hand on her face was attached to a forearm, its rippling musculature and veins visible beneath skin the color of caramel. There was only one person Xiùlán knew with an arm so colored and developed. Turning her head slightly and lifting her eyes a bit more brought a familiar face, mere centimeters from her own, into focus. “Sà mǐ…” she whispered. “How long…” Traynor interrupted the question by placing her lips on those of her lover, using them to caress Xiùlán’s mouth as softly as she had caressed her cheek with her hand.

  “Just woke up, my love. Been watching you sleep. You are beautiful when you sleep, you know that?” Before Xiùlán could reply, her lips were once again enveloped by Sammy’s, causing sensations of an entirely different sort to make themselves known.

  When Sam lifted her mouth to take a breath, Xiùlán couldn’t stop the words that rushed out. “My God, Sammy. I want you… I need you to do more than kiss me… please?”

  Traynor grinned, the expression giving her face an especially feral look. She relocated the hand that had been caressing the back of Yuán’s hand to her taut stomach, enjoying the feel of the rippling abs responding to the light contact. Re-exploring territory she knew by heart, Sammy gradually slid her hand under Xiùlán’s gown, angling up towards her right side, until the tips of two fingers bumped into a slight obstruction after sliding up to the peak of a softly firm mound of flesh; this caused a sharp intake of breath from the owner of the obstacle, which Sammy interpreted as a wordless invitation to massage the nipple and areola she’d encountered during her exploration.

  Xiùlán’s heart rate increased in lockstep with Traynor’s slow exploration of her breasts; she was also feeling an increasing amount of heat in her core, enough so that she shifted her hips as she bent her right leg until her foot was beside the knee of her left.

  This did not go unnoticed by Sammy, who responded by sliding her hand down to a warm armpit and pulling her Inamorata tightly against her own body. Sammy used her lips and the tip of her tongue to explore Xiùlán’s brow, eyelids, bridge of her nose, cheeks, chin and neck. While so occupied, the exploratory hand left the vicinity of a warm armpit and slipped lightly down her ribcage, pausing for a moment at the juncture of torso to right thigh, still raised at an angle. The hand shifted direction again, moving sensuously up across a hipbone before descending through her thatch to gently grasp her mons with a palm while sliding the tip of her middle finger between her labia. With an ease borne of practice, Sam touched the moist hood covering a thoroughly aroused and needy rose bud, leading to additional dampness and an immediate shudder throughout Xiùlán’s body.

  Sammy slid herself down as she pushed Xiùlán’s gown up to expose her breasts; a moan of desire escaped her as Sammy began teasing her left nipple with lips, tongue and teeth while the hand on Xiùlán’s hair covered mound moved in little circles, providing a gentle massage as her middle finger dipped into an increasing pool of moisture. Sammy raised her head from the breast she’d been kissing to look at her lover’s face for a moment.

  Seeing a woman in the throes of sexual ecstasy, Sammy decided to kick things up a notch. Letting go of Xiùlán’s crotch, Sammy quickly rose from the bed, moved around to the other side and tugged on her right leg; understanding what Sammy intended to do, Xiùlán pulled her right leg up further while moving her left to the side. Sammy pulled herself up from the foot of the bed until her head was level with Xiùlán’s navel, which she promptly kissed. Following the same path her hand had traveled earlier, Samantha planted little kisses downwards until she could taste Xiùlán’s essence.

  She quickly discovered a still unsatisfied pink pearl, which she proceeded to kiss in between licking the folds of flesh and the copious amounts of fluid being secreted from the mouth of her lover’s arousal; Xiùlán was now rhythmically rocking her hips as she pleaded with Sammy to hurry.

  Sam used two fingers to enter her core as she continued to rapidly flick the tip of her tongue against an engorged clitoris; in a matter of seconds, Xiùlán’s entire body went rigid as climactic waves of pleasure washed over her in a series of contractions, accompanied by a rush of liquid which Sammy did her best to lap up. Xiùlán was panting as if she’d just run a 5 Km race; Sam was back on her feet and at the head of the bed, where she used both hands to cup her lover’s breasts after pulling her gown off over her head. Xiùlán reached up to Sammy’s shoulder and pulled her down for a brief, passionate kiss. “Damn! That’s the best one yet, Sà mǐ!

  Traynor grinned as she climbed back into bed beside the love of her life; placing her right arm across the woman’s chest, breast in hand, she laid her head on Xiùlán’s bare left shoulder and closed her eyes in contentment as she listened to Xiùlán’s heartrate gradually slow to its nor
mal resting level. “You’ve been cleared for your normal exercise routine, haven’t you?”

  Xiùlán tipped her head slightly so she could plant a kiss on Traynor’s head. “By Doctor Shakia, yes, but I still need to have an Alliance doctor evaluate my physical readiness. Why do you ask?”

  “I think you’re a bit out of shape, Luv. We need to be working out together a bit harder than we’ve been doing.”

  Xiùlán chuckled. “Ah, my darling Sà mǐ. Neither of us are likely to be going dirtside again. I’ll be training for a second officer’s position on a warship, and you… you will be designing and installing super high-tech communications gear at Arcturus, at least for the foreseeable future.”

  Sammy raised her head slightly so she could look at Xiùlán’s face. “No reason for us to let our bodies go to ‘ell, Luv. I’m certainly not going to allow what I’ve developed to go away just because I’m not likely to be fighting batarians again… I worked too damned hard to put all this muscle on my frame, darling.”

  Xiùlán smiled as she kissed a brown cheek. “Not saying we let our bodies go, Sà mǐ. Just pointing out we’re not likely to be put to any real test anytime soon, at least not physically.”

  Sam laid her head back on Xiùlán’s bare shoulder as she idly caressed the exquisite breast under her hand.

  “Keep doing that, and I’ll be forced to demand an encore,” came the snarky whisper.

  Traynor giggled at that, deftly planting a kiss on the breast just below her head, eliciting a groan of pleasure from its owner.

  * * *

  * JIANG MINGLI’s FINE ARTS TATTOO *

  Xiùlán, sitting topless with her fingertips on her nipples, gritted her teeth at the itchy feeling of the tattoo gun’s fine-line needle as it drew the hànzì characters envisioned by Sammy on her chest. The only modifications she’d requested was a slightly different placement of the characters – slightly above the centerline between her breasts in order to keep the characters visible in her cleavage – and a comma after the last character – the‘束’at the end of the words ‘never end’ (永遠不會結束) – she had a much more intimate place in mind for Sammy’s name.