by Reiter
“You’d better hold me to it! I don’t get to play damsel in distress often.”
“You weren’t in distress this time,” Tynaum pointed out
“Let it happen, baby,” she whispered before kissing him again.
Jocasta’s eyes opened, finding herself in a most unfamiliar yet incredibly comfortable position, lying on her right shoulder with her back against his chest; his arm wrapped around her body. “My toes are going to tingle for a week!” she thought, moving slowly and carefully to lift his arm. Her eyes fell shut, feeling his lips kiss gently between her shoulder blades. The warmth of his breath eased her body and she moaned.
“This isn’t a prison, Jo,” he whispered as he continued kissing slowly up to her neck. Like he had been when they first arrived in the room, Tynaum was not a man to be rushed with such things.
“He called me Jo,” she thought as he nuzzled her shoulders. “I hate being called Jo. Mmmm, don’t I?!”
Tynaum’s hand massaged her neck and shoulders as he started placing gentle kisses down her spine. “You can leave when you want to. You walked in here, you can walk out the same way.”
“Highly doubtful, baby!” she whispered. “Right now I couldn’t walk straight to save my – oh stars, that feels good!”
“That’s the intention,” Tynaum replied. “It’s not bad on this end either.” Tynaum laid his hand on her waist and gently pulled Jocasta over onto her back, kissing her skin as she rolled. His lips pressed lightly against her ribs and stomach. Her fingers ran through his hair before caressing the side of his face. Her body shuddered when he kissed right on the pelvic bone. “Sorry.”
“Don’t apologize when you don’t mean it,” she moaned. “And I think we’ve been here before,” she said softly. “… when you were undressing me.”
“I know,” he replied. “But I think I missed a spot.”
“Dammit, man! Now’s not the time to be missing spots!” she said before his head moved to stimulate her most sensitive region. Her body jumped again as she grabbed the pillow with one hand, a handful of linen in the other. “Baby, that’s the spot!” she declared, releasing the pillow and taking hold of the top of his head. She guided his advances and while he did not always go where she steered him, Jocasta only had praise for his navigation of her body. His hands continued to massage her back and hips as his lips pressed against her flesh. Jocasta lost count of how many times he had made her forget to breathe as the passion escalated between them. But it was more than the fire of their touch that moved her. Jocasta did not know, nor did she care, where her gun was… where any of her weapons were! For a very short moment in time, they did not matter. “Come here, baby,” she called to him. “I want you to hold me!”
“Not yet, Jo,” he whispered as he continued to delight her. Her body was no longer hers to control, and she surrendered herself to him.
“Ty,” she called and he finally lifted his head from his work.
“Jo,” he called to her as he moved on top of her and kissed down on her mouth.
“Jocasta!” she corrected him, guiding him as they kissed.
“Jocasta,” their lips separated as he received her guidance, and Jocasta felt him inside her. He kissed the side of her neck as they panted, their bodies pressing against one another in a perfect rhythm. Her hands clenched at his arms, shoulders and back, never staying in any one place too long before he took hold of her hands, their fingers interwoven as they kissed each other with fierce passion. Jocasta found herself giving more than she thought she could, but she never felt alone. Tynaum was with her, stride for stride, and when she bit into his shoulder, he released only one hand to cradle her head and kiss softly on her neck. Jocasta exploded from within, and through every incredible sensation, she could see Tynaum. She could hear him, feel him, and taste him, and she drank him in, feeling as if she could never be sated. She took hold of him and he refused her nothing. When she returned to her side, he was just as close as they were when they started, though this time they were face to face. Spent of their passion, they continued to comfort one another.
“What?” she thought as their last handhold loosened. “What the hell do I do now? He knows my name! What the hell was I thinking when I said that?!”
“Hey,” he spoke softly before kissing her on the lips. “Are you okay?”
“Is that what you ask after sex like that?!” she snapped, her temper flaring. She started to say more, but he kissed her again, and again, and again, until she no longer had the urge to say anything at all.
“I asked because you lost that look.”
“Wh-what look?”
“That, ‘okay life, gimme what you got’ look,” he explained. “You should know… you’re not the only one off-balance here.”
“What?”
“You’re not the only one who’s in new territory,” Tynaum admitted. “Or am I assuming?”
“Keep going,” Jocasta managed. “I’ll let you know when you’re wrong.”
“I’ve never been with anyone like– okay, this is not what I wanted to do,” Tynaum said, closing his eyes. His hand moved quickly enough to where his fingertips kept Jocasta’s lips from moving. “I didn’t want to sound cliché. Of course I’ve never been with anyone like you. Everyone is unique.
“What I wanted to say is that I’ve never felt this way after being with someone.” His hand slowly fell to caress her shoulder and Jocasta smiled at her lover. “And there are questions in my head that I don’t have answers to, feelings that are scaring me right now… but the thing I want most is for that clock to stop, just for a lifetime or two.”
“Yeah, you’re not too greedy,” she giggled. Tynaum smiled as he watched her fade into a very intent stare. “I’m feeling pretty damn greedy myself right now. But I was thinking it’d take us three lifetimes. You know, you’d win one, I’d win one…”
“And then there’d be the rubber match?” Tynaum asked, nuzzling her.
“Standing room only.”
“We didn’t do much standing up,” Tynaum replied. “I’m game if you are.”
“You’re not game,” Jocasta declared. “You’re a rank, and with ‘people looking after my guy’, you’d have to be a serious rank.”
“I am,” Tynaum freely admitted, looking into Jocasta’s eyes and seeing she was struggling to keep emotions from registering. “And believe me when I tell you that I’m not asking you to change up being you. I’m just admitting the truth. You can’t put everything in the shadows…”
“Pretty soon you lose the point of why you do it,” Jocasta finished, hearing the teachings of Alphexeous. “No freakin’ way!”
“Am I in bed with a Soul Fighter?!” Tynaum asked.
“No, but it would appear I’m in bed with one! That definitely explains a couple of things. But no, Ty, I’m not trained that way. Just another true believer of shadow tactics!” Jocasta smiled.
“Good,” Tynaum said, kissing her again. “Because you’re already faster than me!”
“And he kisses me after saying that?!” she thought, receiving his lips and caressing his chest and shoulders. “Because he knows that I am… and he’s totally fine with that!
“Oh baby,” she said as she rolled Tynaum over on his back. She started kissing his neck and chest and he sighed in delight.
“Uh, babe, are we doing what I think we’re doing?” he asked.
“Let me please you,” she pleaded.
“Jo, did I not demonstrate how you rang that bell already?” He panted as she continued to touch and kiss him. “Believe me, pleased was so two or three heart attacks ago!”
“Neither one of us can change what happened before this room, or what needs to happen after,” Jocasta said as she kissed his mouth. “But while we’re here, be mine, because I’m already yours.” Jocasta resumed her kissing and touching and Tynaum gasped.
“Oh God!” he panted.
“Goddess,” she corrected and he laughed until she took hold of his most sensitive part.
“Goddess, goddess, GODDESS!” It was not long before Jocasta and Tynaum took to another embrace, only this time she was on top and she received his guidance. Before passions started to rise once more, she looked down on him and smiled.
“I like my eggs scrambled,” she cooed.
“I hope you brought some,” he quickly replied, smiling up at her. “… because the breakfast kitchen closes at eleven and it’s damn unlikely I’m going to move before midblock!” Jocasta laughed before she surrendered herself to Tynaum, receiving the same devotion from him as they explored the depths of their passions and desires. The passions were exercised and escalated, while familiar desires were overwhelmed by nameless ones born anew. Jocasta had been amazed at how her training had taken her perspective beyond the mere physical world. She had never expected to find someone who would meet her on every plateau, take her by the hand and take her to heights her masters had only mentioned in passing.
To witness two lovers is a spectacle for the gods.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
(Rims Time: XII-4202.22)
It was bittersweet, coming to this place again. The sight of it never failed to bring elation to the Traveler, but the scene would never again seem as full as the first time he had come.
“What are we doing here, Alpha?” Dungias asked, looking around the gardens that Saru had created in her dream haven. A garden that Alpha had decided to maintain, if not improve.
“We are here to help you, Master,” Alpha replied. Dungias immediately noticed a softness to its voice here. “This place holds more than a fond memory for you. It is where you were able to touch upon your strongest and surest senses.” Dungias walked among the various plants, remembering what it was like to fly over them.
“Your sense of poetic symbolism is well-developed, Alpha,” Dungias remarked, noticing that while many of the plants were thriving, there were many more weeds than when he was last in this place. “I am the gardener of the Rims, eh?”
“It is time you came to the truth of it, Master,” Alpha replied.
“The truth?” Dungias question. “Are you to remind me of an error I have already declared?”
“I am the symbol of your ascension, Master. It is my place to show you the errors you have yet to discover!”
Coming to a clearing, Dungias expected to see the Crystal Lily, but instead it was a tranquil pool at the base of a waterfall. The cool mists kissed his skin and massaged his demeanor. Z’Gunok Tel Dungias opted to venture further… to hear more… to peer into the insights of his own creation… his universal extension.
“Continue,” he commanded, taking a seat at the banks of the pool.
“It is a simple concept and I have found those are the ones most often overlooked,” Alpha started as ripples formed in the water. “Let me open then, with a question. Which are you, Master? Are you the pebble? Are you the pond? Or are you the ripples?”
Dungias smiled, looking into the waters, but it did not remain on his face for long. His brow tightened over his eyes as he stared intently into the water. Lifting up his hand and opening it palm-side up, he could see a small black pebble in the center of his hand. Rolling his hand over, Dungias moved the pebble to his fingertips and held it up in front of his gold eyes, staring at it, taking in every nuance.
“Interesting that in my mind, or the mind of Alpha, which is also partly mine, the pebble is black… dark… without light… often mistaken for something of little worth. The last argument has at least been settled.
“You have given me three options, Alpha,” Dungias said as he slowly rose to his feet. It was time to leave this place, but not because had grown tired of it. No, Alpha had been right to keep it, and together they would sustain Saru’s memory. “The answer is of course simple: I am one as I am all three.
“But you have forgotten two major places of the cycle,” Dungias said, ascending from the garden toward his perspective of the Void.
“Oh?” Alpha replied.
“You failed to conceive of two cycles. For am I not also the child that must hurl the stone into the pond as much as I must be the force or forces that will place the pebble at the shores so that it can be tossed? You are right, Alpha, this is something I missed. For the Founders were the force that placed me, as a pebble, at the shores of the pond of what it was to be Malgovi. The incidence of being born shay-spawn and the measures of Danatra’s mind was the throw, and I fell into the pool, creating many ripples. While I have seen to the ripples, I failed to identify the pool; for though I am still a pebble, I am part of the pool until I am removed from it… and that will take a measure of force I have not yet known.
“How can a man hope to save humanity without becoming part of it?” Dungias asked. “While I believe I can make the journey, humanity on the whole is not so accepting of such a gesture. So it is good that I have a face to my own humanity… twin faces!”
Dungias emerged from his meditations only to be advised by Satithe of what had happened while he was reaching the gardens. The Star Chaser found himself quite confused. He did not know how to react to Alpha’s interference because, as he had already declared, Alpha was indeed Dungias but from a different perspective. How could be angry at himself?
“Just tell me why,” Dungias requested of is Osamu.
“My faith in Jocasta is greater than yours, Master” Alpha responded. “I took into account the level of skill of those who had set their trap, as well as the possibility that she would receive some measure of assistance being surrounded by pilots who embody the sentiment behind the lack of laws at Black Gate. Even if the matter had ended in a manner unlike what she or you would have desired, I did not believe it would have ended to her detriment.
“Also, Master… you seek to protect her because of the things she must do. You have yet to consider that one of those things she might be called upon to do in order to save her own kind is indeed to die!”
“If she dies before she can begin her true quest–”
“You might be called upon to clone a clone!” Alpha inserted. “Or trust Persephone to finish what her sister started. In any case, none of this was worth interrupting you, given what you have resolved and what we have both gained.”
“I cannot say that I fully agree,” Dungias said, making his way to the hangar. “But I understand you, Alpha. In the future, you will acknowledge that only I have the right to speak for myself and my extensions. Only when I am not able to speak for myself should any of you assume that station.”
“It will be as you command, Master,” Alpha stated. “If I have erred–”
Dungias interrupted, taking a tighter hold of his Osamu. “You have grown, Alpha, nothing more… nothing less. We are all looking for our place in this existence. You are as entitled to your searches as anyone or anything else. Come. The artificial sunlight will be dawning soon and we have a lecture to attend.”
“What is the subject of the lecture?” Alpha asked.
“That is not important,” Dungias replied, taking a series of deep breaths before stepping into the airlock. The shuttle he had taken to the Xara-Mansura was fully automated and had already returned to its facility. When the outer door opened, Dungias’ skin turned jet black and he pushed off toward Black Gate. He would be attending the college lecture, but he would not use traditional means to reach the campus. It was time to add to the memory of Gavis Station.
“There are many treks we can take to further our aims, Alpha,” he thought, sharing the Star-Stride vision with Alpha as his body flew toward Black Gate. “But one trek of particular note flows through the lecture hall. It is composed of three streams, actually, two very bright and one of a most peculiar nature. I would like to know what that trek-mark means.”
Alpha made no response, but transmitted the recorded conversation to Satithe and CK with an added note: The Traveler walks with the Stride once more!
** b *** t *** o *** r **
(Rims Time: XII-4202.23)
He had shared in th
e kind of night where morning came too soon, but he did not mind the reflex of his body as it slowly ran through the steps of awakening. The sweet aroma of the hybridized flowers gave the room a soft feel, and the heavy curtains kept most of the artificial sunlight at bay, painting the wall with a burnt yellow hue.
Tynaum rolled over and reached out for his sleeping-in cohort. His hand fell only to empty space and he sighed. “Damn!”
“Miss me already?” Jocasta said softly and Tynaum lifted his head to see the very shapely woman dressed only in his shirt and holding a tray of breakfast foods. He did not smile, but his eyes could not hide his delight.
“Well, yeah,” he admitted. “Like most women, you don’t know your place!” he complained as he pulled back the sheets on his side of the bed.
“Is that what it is?” Jocasta smiled as she walked around to his side. “Well, maybe I just haven’t found the man who could put me in my place.” She put the tray down and sat down on the side of the bed. Tynaum did not hesitate in his approach.
“Why am I not surprised?” he said softly before kissing her on the lips. Jocasta kissed back, and the slight touch soon increased to something much more endearing. Their lips parted and Jocasta decided to keep her eyes closed.
“Yeah! That’s my place!” she almost sang.
“So glad there’s room for two,” Tynaum added as he ran his hand down her back.
“Just make sure you put up your share of the rent!” Jocasta warned before she was pulled into another kiss and embrace. She moaned with an overwhelmingly good feeling and for once, she did not question it. She was not fearful because he had heard her; she simply wrapped her arms around Tynaum’s neck to pull him closer, and he reciprocated measure for measure – again! He kissed her neck and she kept her arms around him. “Baby?”
“Yes,” he said in-between kisses.
“You know how they say that the afterglow is often better than the actual act of passion?”
“I’ve heard that a time or two.”