The shuttle hummed to a stop, not that the passengers could perceive it, nestling into the station's dock a mere moment before the doors opened. Johnny stepped apprehensively out with the crowd, moving toward a map of the station. He downloaded it for twenty credits, leaving him with a balance of ninety-four. Wading through the packed corridors into the greater station, a lobby unfolded from behind a door: a huge city orbiting a gas giant. The transparent ceiling was half-covered by the planet Saratoa, eerily beautiful even if it seemed far too close for comfort, with the distant star a bright spot in the vast speckled black.
With the advent of the Jump Engine, exploration had begun in earnest and some two hundred Earth years on, several exciting planets had been found. Many had been settled, and others were being studied, millions of humans working together to spread across the galaxy. Johnny had dabbled in the colonial life, but for many reasons he found himself constantly moving on to the next place. Now he was here, at the office of a travelling stud service. He stopped at the door, considering the position he'd been offered and the one he now found himself in.
The door opened and a thin, smirking woman ushered him in. "How long were you going to stand out there? You must be Johnny, come in please, I'm Margo." She led the way into the office with a chipper, bouncy air and flip of her auburn hair. "Don't let any of these reprobates fool you, we're quite a reputable organization."
"You sound more suspicious than we ever could," another woman said, sitting on the desk nearest the door in the large room. A dozen in total made up the present staff, eight of them women and all looking at him appraisingly.
One desk was the focal point of the office, and the woman who was clearly in charge stood from behind the wide, oak-shaded thing. Annette Jenkins was businesslike, dignified in her mature beauty, but something about her smile seemed slyly playful. "Johnny? It's nice to finally meet you. I'm Annette Jenkins, I offered you this job."
Johnny nodded, taking her offered hand. "Nice to meet you, too."
"How was the trip?"
Johnny shook his head, "Not great," he admitted. "Sorry I'm late."
Annette Jenkins gave him a warm smile, not big but sweet and sincere. "We heard about the attack on that freighter at the waystation. We're just glad you're alright."
"Well, thanks," Johnny said bashfully. "Is this the interview now?"
"Something like that." She motioned to a chair before her desk as she sat in her own, and Johnny was examined from a dozen angles as he sat in it. "People often come into this office with a lot of misconceptions about what we do. What does the word stable mean to you?"
"Firmly set," Johnny said, shrugging. "And as I understand it, this organization makes available sperm to lady colonists who don't know many people they aren't related to. As far as I've been told, this is done through traditional methods."
"That's the most common way," Annette Jenkins said, tenting her fingers and arching her brow as she glanced at him. "We're in the business of pleasing our customers, and they appreciate a personal touch with our service. The difference between a stud service such as ours and a cum catalog is in our studs' ability to create that positive emotional experience."
Johnny nodded. "And legally, the baby is solely the responsibility of the mother?"
"Of course; it's why she's paying us. Do clients fall in love with studs, causing problems? Sometimes. Do studs ever develop feelings for a client or for some reason imagine they had paternal rights? It has happened, yes. It's my job to deal with things like that. Of course, I prefer not having to, so the script based on our interviews and research is designed to maximize pleasure and minimize any attachment, drama or conflict."
"Except when they're totally into getting whipped," said Margo. "Like, 'Give it to me, you stud, spank me like a naughty bitch and impregnate me.'"
"That doesn't really happen," said the nearest of the men, stepping forward. He was casually dressed while the office staff seemed to have a strict dress code and wore the cocky smile of a man who got paid to put his sperm in women as he sat on the edge of Annette Jenkins' desk. "It's usually the impotent husband who wants you to impregnate a bitch."
"This is Buck," said Annette Jenkins. "We're going to ask you some questions. This where we all learn whether you could do this job. Are you ready?"
"I'm always ready," said Johnny.
"Good start," she replied with a smile.
"What would you do in a situation like that?" asked Buck. "Where the dick husband wants his bitch punished for being in heat when he can't get it up?"
Johnny sat back, frowning as he considered. "I guess... I think... bitches in heat should be treated kindly? I wouldn't spank her just because her dick husband told me too."
"What if he insisted? Or slap her around to show you how?"
Johnny didn't need a lot of time to think about that one. "I'd be more likely to hit him," he said. "If a woman doesn't want a thing, I'm not gonna do it to her."
"Excellent," said Annette Jenkins, writing in her book. "He reminds me of you, Buck, when we were just starting out."
"Doesn't have my jawline," Buck assessed, running his thumb along it. "How many partners have you had, Johnny?"
Johnny frowned, shrugging in attempt at nonchalance. "Not a lot."
The stud smirked. "How many is that?"
"One," Johnny admitted. "I was with my girlfriend for six years. I'd like to think I got reasonably good at sex in that time, we were pretty adventurous, but in pure numbers..."
"That must be what kept him so clean," said a woman who wore a lab coat over her business suit so there would be no question that she was a doctor. She smiled at Johnny, tucking a stray lock behind her ear, and adjusted her glasses. "I'm Wendy, and I was impressed by all your results. Do you have any children with your girlfriend?"
"No, she's one of those 'let humans die out' people," Johnny said.
The employees of the stable, predictably, didn't vote for the Human Extinction Party. "Is that why you broke up?" asked Margo with interest.
Johnny shrugged. "I never really cared much, one way or the other."
"Why did you split?" asked Buck.
Johnny frowned as he considered, first whether the answer was within the purview of the company, but he guessed no personal information was too personal when you had a job impregnating women through sexual congress. Next, he thought about an answer, a succinct reason for the break-up that wouldn't come across as him being dumped, but it took some careful explaining to make it a mutual thing. "She had a lot of interests," he said slowly. "Causes. For most of our time together, they were 'our causes', but she started pushing to get involved with some stuff I didn't really want to do. I guess she felt stifled by our relationship, but what she wanted seemed too extreme for me."
