Galactic Whore

Chapter 2

Uncharted Stars

"Hello, I'm Susan Melnin, the new ship's courtesan," I introduced myself. Past experience had shown that there was no chance of casual discovery of my true nature by a voratex slave. Crystal and Jewel were quite adept at blocking even the most intense scans; to the point of manufacturing readings for the curious. What would give me away was treating the medtech like someone to be avoided.

"Oh," she started as she turned around. "It's good to meet you. I'm Cassie, medtech second class. I'm afraid I'm not quite ready for your initial check up."

"That's okay, I was just getting a feel for the layout of the ship. I have my most recent med scans that I can upload, if you'd like."

"Oh, that would be great. I've been run ragged by the extensive physicals needed on the science teams."

"Science teams?"

"Oh, you haven't been told the specifics. The ship has been contracted for a long range survey mission of several planets beyond the rim of explored space. I think some professor has dug up some record fragments on a dead world indicating that some worlds in the sector we're going to were colonized by a new, ancient species. I've had to run 27 new world certifications in the last three days."

"Sounds like you've been overworked. I'm afraid you may have to add me to your list. I wouldn't be surprised if the scientists want me available on planet."

Her face fell at the thought of another examination of such depth. I didn't know what was involved in a new world cert, but if it had taken her three days to do 27, it was far more involved than the usual five minutes on the scanning bed. My thoughts were interrupted by a voice behind me.

"Nurse, I'm ready for certification."

The two of us turned towards the voice. Its owner was a Thorin. His two and a half meter green skinned body was well muscled, especially his four arms. I could see the calluses, indicating he was used to hard work. The dual pupiled eyes circling his head, I knew, were scanning wavelengths of light humans never noticed. His next words made me put him in my mental to-be-avoided file.

"You aren't intending to put the whore before me, are you?"

"No, professor. She was just introducing herself." She turned to me. "Susan, this is Professor Thoraxter, professor of Xeno-archeology at the University of Thalia. He's the one who booked the Brimstone."

I've read that in the pre-space flight eras on earth, courtesans were looked on with disdain and treated as second class citizens. Some societies even tried to outlaw their trade. The look the

good

professor gave me made me feel like I imagine such primitive attitudes would make one feel. I hadn't seen many looks of utter contempt before, even in my days as a slave. I was sure of two things. I'd be seeing a lot of him, professionally, and I wouldn't enjoy it.

Putting on my best whore smile, I held my hand out. "It's a pleasure to meet you, professor."

"I'm sure," he replied. "If you'll excuse us, I'm in quite a hurry." It wasn't lost on me that he didn't move to take my hand in any way.

I left the sick bay, intending to continue my self directed tour of the ship. That was interrupted by a chirp from my pad. Looking, I saw that someone had already logged a request for my services. I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised, given that my pad was linked into the ship's comm system when I boarded. According to the ID tag, it was from one of the ship's engineering staff, a Felpur named Yesliy. I drew in a breath when I saw that she had added a note to her request. Apparently our female Felpur was on her sixth week without sex.

It's common knowledge, at least in the professional sex trade, that male Felpur must have sex on a regular basis. They experience increasing levels of constant arousal until low blood pressure kills them. With society pressure against masturbating very strong, the males were borderline rapists (in the opinion of non-Felpur). Less commonly known is that female Felpur face similar biological pressures to mate on a regular basis (one had to wonder what evolutionary pressure would force both the males and females of a sentient species into, what amounted to heat). On Fel, their home planet, the two needs blend well and there is rarely a problem. On other worlds, or in space, things could get dicey. The longer a female went without sex, the more violent the sex had to be to satisfy her. If it was just violent

towards

her, there'd be no problem. She, however, would be using her natural weaponry quite vigorously. Having her claws rip one to shreds and her fangs ripping one's throat out wasn't condusive to enjoyable sex. Other than another Felpur, very few species would survive mating with an unsatisfied Felpur woman.

I keyed in an acceptance and detoured to my quarters. To fulfill her bodily needs, I would have to have a penis. Most courtesans would use a prosthesis. I was already growing a natural one, courtesy of Crystal and Jewel. It's hard to describe the feeling of suddenly growing something solid between your legs. I could also feel the Felpur spines that she would need to properly stimulate her.

I wasn't in my room for even five minutes when the chime sounded. I told the computer to let her in. The musky scent hit me first. She was in greater need than I had thought. I could see her eyes widely dilated and her fur standing on end, making her look quite a bit larger. Her claws were extended and she growled, barring fangs. Her pussy was dripping and an angry red from prolonged arousal. She stalked into the room, the door closing behind her.

With a loud scream, I leapt at her with hands outstretched. I knocked her against the door and then threw her towards the bed. She landed on her stomach. I followed, intending to spear her on my now erect cock, but she turned over before I landed. Her arms wrapped around my body as I thrust into her cunt. My spines tore at her soft flesh and she screamed in ecstatic pain, her claws leaving deep wounds in my back. As I thrust again and again, I sank my teeth into her shoulder, tasting blood and fur. With one hand, I pulled her head back and bit again, this time on her throat (a surprisingly unimportant part of Felpur physiology).

I could feel her pussy clench as she experienced her first orgasm. Her claws retracted as she howled in pleasure. I knew her body was transforming the painful feelings in her cunt and neck to pleasure. As she came down, she hissed in my ear, "More, I need more."

I pulled out and flipped her over. Now that she was semi-coherent, she cooperated with me. I pinned her arms above her head and bit at the nape of her neck as hard as I could. The nerve bundle located there sent spasms through her body and her back arched while her legs spread, inviting me back to her now blood soaked pussy. I thrust in again and could feel the spines on my cock scrape against her flesh. This time she purred and clenched herself, increasing the stimulation. I could smell blood and sexual fluids from both of us as I drove her to another two climaxes. I came in her (I've never asked just what I ejaculate, I'm not sure I want to know) and soaked in my own orgasm.

We spent some time lying there, regaining our breath. I rolled off when she stirred, and sat up. By now, my cock had vanished and the wounds on my back healed. Her own body would heal quickly as well, just not as fast as my partners could heal me.

"Thank you, I needed that."

"If I may ask, just how did you get in such dire straights?"

Her pupils contracted and dilated in rapid succession, the equivalent to a human looking down at their feet. "My usual lover was in the hospital when we reached port. The guild didn't have anyone that could satisfy my needs. When I saw your name and status on the manifest, I leapt at the chance."

"Not that I don't mind the occasional violent fuck, but let's avoid waiting six weeks next time."

"Agreed. Do you need help with the clean up?"

"No, thank you. The automated systems are quite good."

With that she left, and the systems I mentioned went about the task of making the room presentable again. Looking at the bed, there was an awful lot of blood. I shivered as the healing scars from her claws itched. As expected, I was feeling a bit hungry. While Crystal and Jewel could recharge from the energy seed in me, a potential offspring if we gave it long enough, I preferred to save that reserve for times when there were no other options. Time to gorge myself at the ship's mess.

There's no set meal time on a ship, so most ships that have an actual mess, use a buffet style approach. The Brimstone was no exception. Just inside the door was a seven day schedule of food themes. It looked like today's theme was Argentine. Argent was a planet in the core of the Federation, inhabited by a race of small humanoids. Their diet consisted of lots of plant matter (what humans would think of as vegetables, fruit and legumes). Several of the things they ate were high in plant-like proteins, making up for the lack of meat. It wasn't my favorite cuisine, but there were far worse possibilities.

Cassie was sitting at a table, alone, eating a colorful salad-like dish. I fixed something for myself and took it into sit next to her. It may seem strange that I'd purposely spend time with someone who was essentially a slave puppet of my enemies. What I learned in my own short time as a crystal slave was that the controllers simply can't be in control all the time. In my case, the controller took control far more often than happens with most (a result of what they were trying to accomplish). Crystal and Jewel were able to tell when a controller was active in a slave. So far, that had not happened.

"How go the physicals?"

"It's a pain in the ass. I've had to rush everything and my normal assistant failed to board the ship."

"Any idea why?"

"No, it's totally out of character. Normally, I'd be tracking him down, but I've been swamped with the physicals. Now it's too late."

"Are you going to be able to keep up without help?"

"Once we're underway, I'll be okay. I was able to look over your scans. That's some extensive modification you've undergone. Is there anything I need to be aware of, medically, that isn't in the scan?"

"No, it's all there." I was being honest, in a left handed kind of way. There was much more I could tell her, but nothing she needed to know. In reality, I would be seeing very little of the medtech in her professional role.

The scan she looked at was a total fabrication, of course. It showed extensive biomechanical enhancements that enabled me to meet the sexual needs of nearly every race in the Federation (and quite a few outside it). It certainly didn't show anything close to my body's true capabilities.

"Can you come in tomorrow for your check up?"

As she asked, Crystal added [CONTROLLER ACTIVE. SUSPECT IT WANTS TO KNOW WHO YOU ARE]

[I'm not surprised] I thought back as I answered her. "Sure, I can swing by. Will 9:00 be okay?"

"Yes, that will work. Thanks for joining me. I've got to get back; a ton of reports to write up."

"I'll see you tomorrow."

[So, what do you think, guys?]

[CONTROLLER STILL ACTIVE]

[

I would guess that it's going to go over the scans of the science team.

]

[That's what I thought as well.]

My pad chirped at me again. "This is Susan."

"Miss Melnin, this is professor Thoraxer. I require your services immediately."

I was right. I was going to see a lot of the dear professor. I had no doubt the other half of my prediction would be true as well.

"I'll be there in 30 minutes." I cut him off before he could complain and programmed the pad to ignore his calls for the next hour. I'd be damned if I was going to skip lunch for an asshole. Twenty minutes later I was leaving the mess hall. I had looked up the professor's location and navigated there. I chirped his door and it opened.

"Get in here, whore."

"Yes, sir," I replied as I entered. The hardest part of prostitution is being pleasant and alluring towards those you despise. It helped that I really liked sex, a lot. But that's simply not enough, by itself, to put up with men like the professor. My training with the guild included an entire month of submitting to the most unpleasant aspects of our profession while seeming to enjoy it. You can't pass that stage unless you orgasm from one of those activities. I was fully capable of putting on any show he desired; or so I thought.

I recognized the armor immediately. Designed to protect the body while transmitting, and in some cases, amplifying the pain, Kroklin armor was a testament to the notion that some people should ask if they should instead if they could.

"Oh, not just no, but fuck no! Guild rules don't require the unwilling to submit to Kroklin."

"Then, I'll let you tell the Captain that he won't be paid for this little sojourn."

Cautiously I asked, "What the hell do you mean?"

"This is an important scientific mission. If successful, there could be dozens of new colony worlds available. My contract specifies that

every

member of the crew will meet

any and all

requirements I have that fall within their job description. Failure will result in the forfeiture of the entire payment for the cruise."

"That can't possibly include submitting to this...barbaric travesty."

"It's not excluded, so it's included. Of course, the previous whore was only class C; unable to endure Kroklin. We're just lucky."

"Yeah, lucky."

He had me over a barrel. My mission depended on the good graces of the ship and its crew. Preventing them from being paid wouldn't put me there. With a resigned sigh, I moved towards the armor. It was the newest modern design; capable of increasing pain feedback ten fold and restraining the victim by means of gravo-magnetic tension. It was as flexible as the clothing I normally wore, but would stop anything solid hitting with less than 2000 kelstrans.

As I started replacing my clothing with the armor, the sadistic fucker added, "I don't want you using any of your modifications to reduce or adapt to the pain. I want to hear you screaming in agony."

"Yes, sir," I mouthed robotically.

Like all Kroklin armor, the head piece was fully covering. Once I slipped it on, I couldn't see a thing. The only warning I got was when my limbs were pulled into a spread position by the built in restraint field. Then my world exploded. It felt as if I had been dropped in molten lava. I was burning alive without being consumed. From there it got progressively worse. Yeah, I screamed. I screamed loud enough that, later, I would need to heal my vocal cords. Every nerve ending in my body was afire with agony that kept building, yet I was denied the ability to pass out. Then it happened.

A moment out of time, suspended between one pain impulse and the next.

A collage of images assaulted me, as if watching multiple images on a holovid. There was a solitary crystal, in the dark, buried I think. There was a field of crystals on a vast plane under an pink sky and a red sun. In the distance, very close, I could hear voices; millions of voices speaking with one and many tongues. There was a human, sitting in a comfortable chair with a blank look on his face. He was giving orders to someone with a voice that didn't speak; orders to examine all the records in detail. Under the surface of his voice was a great loneliness; what a cell feels when separated from the body, yet forced to go on living. There was a human and a Gravelian encased in a crystal matrix; preserved, alive, waiting for I don't know what. Brusjin!

Time resumed its normal flow.

The fire in my body had stopped, but my throat was raw and burning. I tried to talk, but that only made things worse. Someone was manhandling me and I remembered that I was with a client only seconds before I lashed out. The armor around my hips had been pulled off and my dry pussy was impaled by a massive cock. I forced myself to lubricate before any damage was done and lay there as the professor took his pleasure on me.

Fortunately he came quickly, no doubt excited by the pain he inflicted on me. He pulled out and left me there. "You can dress and go." He left the room.

As I was dressing, we entered fast than light drive. Shaking off the effects of the Dolman field initiating, I thought of the strange occurrence and feeling I had during that torture. Something very similar had happened when I had been made a crystal slave. Intense pain from Kroklin had enabled Crystal to contact my mind between pain impulses. It happened again, after I was freed, which allowed the base collective to tell me of Jewel's impending death. But this was very different.

[Crystal, Jewel, what just happened?]

[CONTACT MADE WITH BASES. IMPOSSIBILITY.]

[

Not impossible, merely unlikely. Your human mind was in contact with multiple bases

]

I thought for a moment before answering. [I suppose that makes sense. The one that was buried must be your Crystal; still in the dead body of the Felpur that was controlling me.]

[ANALYSIS LOGICAL. SUCH CONTACT UNPRECIDENTED.]

[I'll bet. The others don't make sense, though. If I was contacting your bases, why were there more than two images? And which one was Jewel's.]

[

My base was never planted to make slaves. It is still on our home.

]

[Okay, that would be the field of crystals. Of course! The voices I heard would be the buds and bases sharing among themselves. But the human in the chair. What was that all about?]

[UNKNOWN. THERE WERE NO BASES OR BUDS VISIBLE]

[I saw Brusjin; both him and Grankt.] I didn't want to let myself hope for the impossible. His death was still like an open wound in my heart. Revenge against his killers was still burning brightly in my soul. To know that he might still be alive would tear me apart.

[

Implanted bases are not visible.

]

[But that would mean that I was picking up on a crystal slave's contact with its controller.] That's when it hit me. [The medtech! The human is controlling the medtech. That explains the loneliness. You told me once that joined bases can't communicate with the base collective. Those bases are in hell. I'll bet she's going through the data files on the scientists right now.]

[CONFIRMED. FILES BEING STUDIED.]

No one can hack a computer better than a Crystal. This was interesting. We had a way to eavesdrop on slave controllers. If only it didn't take such high levels of pain. Still, we could make this work. I purposely avoided dwelling on the last scene. I headed for my quarters, hoping that I wouldn't be needed for a while.

If fact, it turned out I wasn't needed for the rest of the day. The science team was apparently still settling in and getting their equipment ready for field work. I guess they didn't want to waste any time when we arrived at the first planet. With the first leg of our journey taking just over 30 hours, the crew didn't have time either.

The first system we were to explore was called the Zimbar system. It was a typical yellow star of the type that made up most of the habitable systems in the galaxy. There were 13 planets, two of which supported some kind of life (the fourth and fifth). The initial exploration reported that Zimbar-4 had nothing on it more complex than molds and that the spores from them caused any number of irritating, yet non-lethal infections.

The expedition was focused on Zimbar-5. The initial survey, done 50 years ago, reported that there was abundant life on the land and seas of the planet, with two separate pre-sentient species competing for dominance. Nothing in the report indicated that there was any evidence of the colonies the professor claims to suspect. I thought maybe a lost colony, or perhaps a withdrawn one to respect the development of the pre-sentients. Because the life forms were only pre-sentient (comparable to apes and dolphins in pre-FTL days on Earth), first contact laws didn't apply; there was no society to disrupt.