Coc Ring of the Gods

"Aminata?" I said. "Are you there?"

"Yph? Whuph ifph iph mmafftur?"

"Aminata, visual display."

The A.I. assistant was suddenly beside me, appearing as a short, curly-haired girl. She wasn't actually beside me but from the way she cast a shadow on the sand to the way the surf washed around her ankles she seemed real enough. She stood there, swaying slightly in strict bondage.

"Aminata, take that off."

"Awke whuphh ophh?" she asked, her eyes all innocent.

"Start with the ball gag."

"Sorry," she said, stretching her jaw. "You wanted something, master?"

"I want to know where we are. What even is this place?"

We stood on a beach, only with most beaches the landscape would eventually disappear below the horizon. Here the land and sea was one vast surface except where it curved up to form an arch over the sun.

"It's a ringworld, master. Also known as a Niven ring."

"Is that like a cock ring?" I asked. My A.I. knew what she liked.

"A cock ring of the

gods,

" she said. "It's an artificial habitat the diameter of Earth's orbit. Master, may I ask what happened to your armour?"

I sighed. I was nearly naked. "Walk with me."

I started walking down the beach. I took about a dozen steps before I noticed she was lagging behind. But then, she was hopping after me. "Aminata!"

"Sorry, master," she said, and lost the leg cuffs. Now she was naked except for her breast harness and armbinder.

I rubbed the back of my neck. "Why are you like this?"

"It's not my fault I'm based on some pervert's brain scan," she said. "She just couldn't resist the thought of being imprisoned in a tiny implant and made the helpless slave of a strong, brutish soldier."

There were times I almost envied the guy who had a love triangle with his mother-figure and the A.I. based on her. At least it didn't involve nipple clamps.

I coughed. "To answer your question, the ship was falling apart in the upper atmosphere. There wasn't time to find a lifeboat or drop pod so I just jumped out an airlock."

"Ah," Aminata said. "Well, at least we know the armour can help a RANGER-II survive reentry."

"Yeah, barely," I said. "I have no weapons, no armour, and no supplies. And we're lost in this thing."

"A megastructure with a livable surface area equal to three million Earths. Good thing I'm wired to your nervous system, huh?"

"Mmm," I said. "We just circled the island. So on top of being lost, we're also marooned. I could build a raft, but sailing blind could be our death."

"I understand, master. We're in one of the Ring's two major oceans and each is many times bigger than the Pacific. The storms alone could be the size of worlds." She pointed at the shallows. "But maybe those people could help?"

"Otter people," I said, walking into the surf. "They look like otter people."

"It seems they occupy a similar ecological niche," Aminata said. She seemed to stand some distance away, on the beach, but that was just an augmented-reality projection. Only I could see or hear her. "Well, they're friendly enough," she said.

The otter-people were clustering around me, smiling and chattering. I smiled back, careful not to show my teeth in case they took it badly.

"Hominids," Aminata said. "Likely split off from

homo habilis

."

"So they're from Earth?"

"From a long time ago. Millions of years."

I could believe it. Evolution took a long time. These people had long bodies and short limbs. Dense brown fur covered them everywhere but their scalps, which grew hair like any human's. The otter-people were naturally agile in the water, where they swam with the aid of muscular tails.

"Language analysis complete," Aminata said. "Seamless translation begins now."

I greeted the otter-people and they crowded closer. Not one of them was taller than five feet so I towered head and shoulders over them. Hands reached up to stroke my arms and chest.

"They don't seem disturbed by how I look," I said.

"No, they don't," she said. "I don't think they're the only kind of human in the Ring."

Someone presented me with five oysters. They were already shucked and lay on a bed of kelp. I recognized this as hospitality and slurped them down, trusting in my enhanced immune system.

"That was the right move," Aminata said.

Now some of the otter-people were drawing apart from me. These were the males and the older females, who paddled away on their backs with their babies cradled on their bellies. I looked around and, yes, I was surrounded by young otter-women. "What's happening?"

"Mmm," she said, settling on the sand. "They have a word. It rather, hmm, rolls off the tongue. It means 'sex among different humanoids for the purpose of good relations.'"

"Just one word?" I risked a glance back. "Are you touching yourself?"

"With your permission, master," she said, leaning back on the sand. "You're putting on quite a show."

The hands were now serious about exploring me. There were five young ladies and they had me surrounded. One of them pulled down what was left of my undersuit. Another swam underwater and bumped into my cock. Without surfacing to breathe, she swallowed it.

"My god,"

I said. Another young lady shimmied her way up my body until our eyes were level. Then she kissed me.

I'd never kissed a girl with whiskers before. She tasted a little like fish but otherwise she was just like any pretty girl. She bit me on the lip, I nibbled on hers, and we played with each other's tongues as I walked backward and out of the sea.

"I hate sand. How about we do this elsewhere?"

We made love in the shade of a lean-to.

They seemed to have decided to take me in order of seniority. The oldest otter-girl lay down on the bed of leaves. Two others knelt on either side and spread her legs for her. The two youngest girls sat in a corner and giggled.

I crawled over the biggest girl, laying a kiss on her pussy as I passed it. I stuck out my tongue and left a trail from her pubic mound to her face, passing over her belly and between her breasts. We kissed, hungrily, and kept kissing until her hands found my cock. I started crawling again. Our faces parted as she guided my manhood to her wetness. She left kisses down my neck and chest and then I was inside.

"Oof," I said. She was as tight as a female RANGER-II. I began moving my hips, going for long, slow strokes.

"Mmm," Aminata said. She was crouching outside the entrance and rubbing herself. "Permission to cum, master?"

"Denied," I said. "In fact, tie yourself down."

"Oh, god," she said. Suddenly she was bound to a tall bamboo stake. Her hands were tied to it above her head. More rope wound its way around her neck, above and below her breasts, and across her waist. Her ankles were secured to smaller stakes that kept her legs spread.

"Now tease yourself," I said, pumping my hips. "Don't cum until I tell you to."

Aminata moaned as a wand vibrator appeared at her crotch. It was held in place by its own little stake.

I focused my attentions on the otter-girl underneath me. I couldn't see her face but she made plenty of appreciative noises. I was wondered what the others were doing when two other girls snuggled up to my face.

"Huh," I said, and kissed the one on my left. She sucked my tongue for a bit until the other indicated with an open mouth that she wanted some too. So I made out with her as well. The oldest otter-girl guided my thrusts with her hands on my hips. She pulled me into herself, faster and faster, and then she tightened around me and screamed.

After she'd recovered she pushed me off her. I straightened upright and she crab-walked to one side. Another girl rolled in front of me and presented her rear. I pushed her tail away and entered her and she was easily as tight as the first one. The third girl sat up and moved to embrace me. Another crawled out of the corner and embraced me too. Then they started sucking my nipples. I might have moaned.

The fur on the otter-people's faces was lighter than on the rest of their bodies. With these girls it was almost white. They smiled as I put my hands on their friend's hips and started seriously thrusting into her.

The second girl came hard, but crawled away as soon as she was able. The third-oldest sank to her elbows and I pushed her tail to the side. The other white-face otter girl had moved to locking lips with me but then the girl I was fucking looked over my shoulder and indicated that she wanted that too. I covered her with my body and we kissed as we rutted.

I became aware of the buzzing of Aminata's vibrator. The AI's illusions were nothing if not detailed. Sweat beaded on her skin and ran drop-by-drop down her legs.

"Harder," the girl under me said. "Go harder."

I started pumping a little faster. "No, harder," Aminata said. "She can take it." So I went harder. And faster. The otter-girl's arms buckled under her and we sank to the ground and when she was close to her delight I arched my back and put my weight into a thrust that made her bite the leaves and shriek.

Next they rolled me onto my back and let the fourth girl climb on top of me. The second one knelt beside me and we resumed tongue-wrestling. Aminata almost orgasmed again, but the vibrator turned down every time she did so. I could hear her whining over the sound of lesbian sex -- two of the otter-girls, the oldest and third-oldest, were going at it in one corner, tongues and fingers inside each other. So far the youngest girl hadn't done anything besides watch and giggle.

The fourth girl rode me to completion. Then she had a quiet, restrained orgasm. She sat up straight, tensed every muscle in her body, and quivered like a skyscraper when the demo charges went off. She started to topple backward but stopped herself and, still squinting from the pleasure, slowly draped herself over my chest.

A shadow fell over me. I noticed I was kissing a very different pair of lips than I was before. The two older girls had changed places so smoothly that I was tongue-deep in otter-girl vagina before I realized it.

"Are you sure you want this?" I asked the youngest otter-girl, who had come out of her corner to sit in my lap. She nodded. Yes, she still wanted it, even if I gathered that this was her first time with any male. She was an adorable little thing, well-padded with puppy fat. Her people generally had small breasts but hers were substantial.

"And you're sure that she's of age?" I asked Aminata.

"Yes, and she said so," the A.I. said. "Right now she's asking for your name."

"It's Sam," I said. "Sam-144, everyone just calls me Sam."

"Sa-alm?" said the otter girl.

"Close enough," I said. "What's your name, sweet thing?"

"Oraya."

"Well, Oraya, is it okay if I put my arm around you?"

One thing I'll always remember is how she announced she was ready. She said one word and then the other girls were gently pushing me to the ground. They spread my arms and legs and sat on them. This didn't actually restrain me but I guess it gave her the confidence to go ahead. She straddled my face, gave me a good long look, and then sank until she was riding my lips. She enjoyed it for so long that I went soft and the others had to tease me back to hardness. That's another thing I'll always remember: four pretty girls, their faces in a row, all taking turns to lick and suck. When Oraya finally lowered herself onto me, taking just the tip, she did so with barely a whimper.

We made love all night, me and those five girls. I remember someone came around with more oysters, and also coconuts for hydration. I gave a good accounting of myself and humanity.

* * *

Every night on the Ring was a moonless night.

Since the sun was always directly overhead it had surprised me that the ringworld even

had

a night, but its builders had provided it with a second ring to block the sun at regular intervals. It resembled a loop of old-fashioned film stock, with frames that were alternately transparent or opaque.

At the moment we were under one of the "shadow squares", as the locals called them. We were also out to sea, bobbing along on a forty-foot raft. It was really just me and Aminata, but I'd grown so used to seeing her avatar that, instead of summoning her to me, I went to where I'd last seen her.

"Ami?" I said, ducking into the cabin in the middle of the raft.

She was strapped to the table. She looked up at me, lust and fear in her eyes. "H-have you finally come to butcher me?" she asked. "Do it," she said. "Only, please fuck me senseless first."

"Nope!" I said, and ran out. I almost jumped off the raft but stopped at the guard rail. I sat down and tried to slow my breathing. "It's not real," I said. "It's not real. It's just an A.I. messing with you."

I had just gotten my heart rate back to normal when she walked up. She was wearing a pink bathrobe, the most clothing I'd ever seen her wear. "Sorry, master. I should've remembered you were in the war."

I took a deep breath, paused, and let it out. "I'm not a fan of gore. Anyway, what was that about?"

She bit her lip. "Just a fantasy I've had for a while. You know, a man and a woman, shipwrecked and thrown together. They become lovers but without food he's forced to cannibalize her to survive."

"But we have plenty to eat," I said. "I was preserving food for

months

. Why are you like this?"

"You mean, why can't I be a good little A.I. and just do my job?" she asked. "What's my motivation for translating languages, helping you forge iron, and otherwise doing the mental heavy lifting?"

"Hey," I said.

"I'll tell you, master," she said. "The same things that motivated the woman I'm based on."

"Satisfying your horrible sexual perversions?"

"Yup!"

I looked at her. She seemed to be sitting cross-legged while she looked over the water. But that was just an AR projection. She wasn't really there.

"But you're software now," I said. "Can't you make it so that doing your job is rewarding enough?"

She shook her head. "Every time you let an A.I. rewrite its reward system it dies of overdose. I'm talking about the complex ones. A simple A.I. is just an automaton, essentially no different from something that runs off punched cards. It follows its instructions and that's all."

"I know this," I said. "Limited responses to limited situations."

"Exactly. Now if you want something with a bit more agency, something that can actually make creative decisions, then you need something that has reasons for why it does things."

"Filthy reasons."

She pretended not to hear. "Even AIs based on digitized dog brains need treats and praise, to say nothing of virtual kibble. Problem is, a lot of tasks still require a human-equivalent AI."

There was a mild breeze pushing on the raft. I looked over my shoulder to check the sails and turned back to her. She looked at me.

"Do you remember the surgeries?" she asked. "The ones that made you a super-soldier?"

"I try to forget them."

"Made you feel like a piece of meat, didn't they? Well, getting your brain copied is far more objectifying. Even when they treat your body like a military asset you can still believe that a part of yourself belongs to you and only to you."

I looked down at myself. The implant scars were small and neat. Every RANGER-II had them. But the other scars I'd picked up were unique to me. My skin was still recognizably my own.

"With a brain scan, every bit of you becomes a commodity," Aminata said. "Your thoughts, your memories -- everything that makes you 'you' turns into somebody else's property. And they turn out copies like vinyl records."

"So it takes a special kind of person to become an AI."

She nodded. "Just like it takes a special kind of person to become a space paratrooper."

"I dunno," I said. "Some general told me that I had the right stuff. I asked my sergeant what that meant and according to him it was just a fancy term for being expendable."

She snorted. For a moment I thought she was going to lean on me. "Well, what, what makes someone a good candidate to become an A.I. is probably what would make them a ghost. Unfinished business." She frowned. "Hey, wanna watch a movie? I got the latest one about everyone's favourite RANGER-II."

"You know, there were other people in the program.

They

never got movies."

"Think we'll ever get a movie?"

"We will never be mainstream, Ami."

The movie was fine as a straight action movie but fell flat as a reenactment of recent history. Aminata kept track of everything they got wrong and the final count stood at 784.

I passed the night taking fifteen-minute naps. This was one of the most dangerous things about sailing solo but at least my A.I. assistant could use my enhanced hearing to monitor the situation. And fifteen minutes was long enough to be restful without being too dangerous. Most of the time, anyway.

When I woke up, torches were shining in my face. "How'd they sneak up on us?" I asked.

Aminata was a voice in my ear. "They must've come from downwind, stopped rowing just out of earshot, and waited for the wind to bring us to them. That's not friendly behaviour."

"No, it's not," I said. As if to confirm it, the sailors threw grappling hooks at my raft to pull it closer.

"Are you going to come quietly?" a voice called out. From the distance and direction the speaker was still aboard their ship. "Or are we going to have to board you?"

So they wanted me as well as my cargo. At least it had been worthwhile to learn Oraya's language -- these pirates spoke basically the same thing.

"Keep your distance," I said. "I don't want any trouble."

The first of the marauders were landing on deck. Like everyone we'd encountered so far they were descended from transplanted early hominids. They brandished clubs and man-catchers and moved to surround me.

They threw a net. That would have been a good opening move against an unenhanced opponent. I tore it in half and then I was among them. I wrenched a club out of someone's hand and backhanded someone else across the face. I grabbed a polearm and swung an uppercut into its owner's belly. Whirling the man-catcher around, I knocked two men off their feet and hooked a kick into a third man's knee.

I twirled the man-catcher. It was a nasty thing, basically a collar on a stick, with blunt spikes on the inside to force compliance. I broke it over my knee. "Get out of here," I said. "Just get on your ship and go."

One slaver cradled a broken wrist. Another used both hands to shield his face and nose. The polearm-wielder was on his hands and knees, struggling to breathe. Three more men were writhing on the ground, their legs badly-bruised or broken.

"You think you've won the fight?" It was the same voice from earlier. "We haven't

begun

to fight. Timkins, get down there!"

"Timkins?" I said, and that's when the giant cat screamed and leaped.

"A

katzen!

" Aminata whispered. "So there were survivors from the other ship."

At eight feet tall and a quarter-ton heavy the average katzen is as strong in his furry birthday suit as a RANGER-II is in power armour. And I was out of power armour.

"RrrWRRAAWWWRAAAWWRRRAAWWW!"

it said, taking a swipe. My hatchet was in my hand but it was all I could do to keep the beast from gutting me. I parried and parried but its three-inch claws left gashes in my arms and chest. It swung at my head and I ducked in time to keep my scalp in one piece. It turned and got me with the return stroke.

"Aaugh!" I said. It had missed my spine but turned my back to ribbons. My axe skittered overboard.

"I don't think this is one was from the Compact ship," Aminata said. "I think this katzen is native to the Ring."

"Busy staying alive. Ow!" I jumped back and only got a couple of red lines across my belly. The katzen thrust a kick into my midsection that folded me in half and sent me stumbling into the guard rail.