Sylvan Seduction

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This is the fourth story in the universe of Project Lifeboat. It will probably make more sense if you read the other three, Midsummerfest 1, Midsummerfest 2 and Community Service.

VM

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"Hmm," Gorki Malenkov mused out loud, "the little stinker has reached the Gate satellite. Who'd have guessed?"

Sam Tanaka cut his connection to the Worldwide Mind and looked at his colleague. "Who? Some new wizard hacker? We're due to send a Library update to Nuwe Kaapstad."

Gorki shook his head. "No, he didn't so much hack in as just—sidled might be a better word. Hear, take a look."

Sam concentrated and connected to what his friend was talking about. "Micah McCauley-Tang. Well, he isn't really invisible but he's about as close to it as you can get. What an odd talent. He's small, androgynous looking, very shy and—kind of projects an aura of insignificance. No one notices him so he can go wherever he likes. But he must be really lonely."

Gorki nodded. The subject, according to the WWM, had been orphaned shortly after entering a boarding school outside of old Glasgow. Being without family he was permitted to stay through his teen years and after graduating had enrolled in the negative income tax and then he'd basically faded from view. "No job, no clubs, no memberships in any known organization—what's he doing near the Jump Gate?"

Micah was difficult to focus on. Sam had to close his eyes tightly and cover his ears to block out any distraction before making even the faintest connection with the young man. But once made Micah's goal was clear. "He wants to go to Sylvan? He's somehow found out that we've reopened contact with them? But that's classified Most Secret! How . . .?"

"I don't know, but this needs to go up the chain fast. There's no evidence that he's shared the knowledge but one way or another he can't be allowed to." Gorki sent the news to his supervisor and within minutes it reached the desk of the director.

Ebrahim Mozandarami raised an eyebrow. This was most disturbing. Years before a human colony had been placed on Sylvan in the belief that it was uninhabited. That had not turned out to be the case. Normally Project Lifeboat would have immediately withdrawn but the Sylvans welcomed the humans and so the colonists were left in place. By the time Earth figured out why the Sylvans were so happy about the new colony, hybrid human-Sylvans were already being born. The government was scandalized and all connections cut. Now, four generations later tentative efforts were being made to reopen them but very, very surreptitiously. In time a new species might arise on the planet but for now everything was being kept very hush-hush. Many on Earth were still uneasy about the idea of spreading across the galaxy and fearful of contacting other intelligences. The news that not only had another intelligence been contacted but interbred with would, it was felt, lead to chaos.

"Ulrika," he said to his deputy, "either we kill him at once or, since he wants to go to Sylvan, we send him. Much as I'd hate to have the blood of another human on my hands I remember only too well the Iceland riots. And they were just local! The thought of things like that breaking out planet wide is unacceptable."

Ulrika looked perplexed. Killing another human was horrible but they'd be sacrificing one to save many. Still, "It's hard for me to say this, Director, given the secrecy we've tried to maintain, but I think we ought to just send him. But not make it too easy. Let him think he's somehow outsmarted us. It seems to be good for the morale."

Mozandarami nodded. "Make it so."

*****

Micah stumbled out of the exit port in the geosynchronous satellite and looked around. Well, it seemed he'd reached Sylvan. Two women were watching him curiously from comfortable couches in the receiving station though he had to add 'for a given value of woman'. Micah knew he was smaller than average by quite a bit but these two were easily two meters tall with startling technicolor eyes, skin and hair. He hoisted his backpack higher on his shoulders and, since they'd obviously already seen him swallowed and hesitantly asked, "Hello, which way is it to the down car? And once I'm on the surface, where can I stay?"

The women looked at each other and then the mahogany red skinned one with forest green hair stood up and, smiling, walked over to him. "Hello. You must be Micah."

The youth was startled. "Y—yes, how did you know?"

She laughed merrily. "Project Lifeboat has been tracking you ever since you reached the Gate and sent us word that they were sending you along. You really weren't supposed to be able to even know that connection between Sylvan and old Earth exists so rather than kill you on the spot they sent you through. After all, it's not like you can get back so the secret is still safe. By the way, my name is Carmen Al-Iraqi and this is my partner Alison Blount."

"Uh," Micah flushed and squirmed uncomfortably the way he always did whenever a conversation got past about two sentences, "how do you do?"

Iridescent hues of peacock and gold flickered across Alison's fair skin and glowed through the thin white coverall she wore. "The down car doesn't leave until tomorrow and all the rooms here in the hotel are full. You'll have to stay with Carmen and me. It's okay, we have a convertible couch in the living room of our suite. Being staff we get more room than the tourists from the surface. Come along, it's just down the hall."

Micah was about to protest but before he could each of the women had tucked one of his arms into the crooks of theirs and gently frog marched him down the hall.

Wow

, Carmen broadcast to Alison,

does he smell delicious or what?

Mmm,

came the answer,

he does! And the poor thing probably has no idea. Pure humans really have no sense of smell compared to us. I see some 'interesting times' coming up with him but we're going to have to be careful.

Right,

Carmen agreed,

according to Project Lifeboat he's almost pathologically shy. We're going to have to be

very

careful.

*****

As Micah got ready for bed that night he had to admit that alarmed as he'd been when Carmen and Alison vacuumed him up, it had turned out well. As they stated, there was a convertible bed in the living room and dinner had been more than passible. In fact, it was probably the best meal he'd had in some time. Still it was a bit disturbing to not be able to disappear the way he always had back on Earth.

It wasn't deliberate, really, so much as a defense mechanism against the middle-school-age bullying he'd suffered as the smallest and shyest boy in his class. That he never managed to grow a beard and that his voice had only changed to counter tenor instead of baritone just made things worse. Staying in the background, even after his implant to the Worldwide Mind had kept his aggressive classmates bored and so they ignored him. It even, he thought, had prevented him getting raped, something that for a while had seemed possible to the point of probable. But once everyone had implants and was conversing through them, Micah's ability to suppress his own connection had made him an unperson. It was lonely but safe.

Now he was no longer able to hide. He seemed to be the focus of the women's attention, though why completely escaped him. If everyone else on Sylvan was as blended as these two seemed to be it was possible that he was just a curiosity. Micah wasn't sure whether that idea was reassuring or disappointing.

*****

Showered and in clean clothes the following morning, Micah pushed his chair back and shook his head when Alison tried to offer him more pancakes. Unable to feed him beyond repletion, she changed tacks.

"Now be honest, Micah, why Sylvan?"

"Uh—well, I've spent my whole life as a—an outsider and since Sylvan was kind of banned or pushed out of Earth's company I thought I might maybe fit in?"

"Micah," Carmen said sternly, "

all

the colonies are outsiders. I realize you'd stick out like a sore thumb among the Sufis or the New Middle Kingdom-ites but why not the Tomissonians? We've been told they're very welcoming."

"I thought about it but they're pretty religious. I was afraid of the Afrikaaners and the Lebansraumers. And I think the Neo-Marxists and the True Path Maoists are just nuts. See, I've never felt fully human? I mean—look at me. Most people can't tell whether I'm male or female and half the time neither can I. The other half I wonder if it matters. I figured that a planet full of 'people' who were part something else might be easier to fit into. Was I wrong?"

Alison sat down across the table from him, put her chin in her palm and looked deeply into his eyes. After a few minutes she mused, "No, I don't think you are. Maybe not for the reasons you imagine, Micah, but I really believe you'll do well here. So, not that I want to probe or impose, but what makes you unsure whether you're male or female? And I have perfectly good reasons for wanting to know. I'll tell you what they are later but both Carmen and I are curious."

Micah blushed beet red. He tried to answer but stammered and hiccupped until Carmen put a hand on his arm and gently asked, "Micah, are you still a virgin?"

The youth bit his lower lip and nodded.

"Micah, everyone is to start with. Don't be embarrassed or upset. Your time will come, maybe sooner than you think given the society on the surface. And speaking of the surface, we need to get moving. The down car leaves in an hour."

*****

The human settled part of Sylvan turned out to be an archipelago. This meant that they had to take a boat from the space elevator station to Sylvan City. This turned out to be a 'city' only for a given value thereof. Though there were roads with vehicles there seemed to be no constructed buildings. Instead there were trees—and such trees! Carmen explained that the cellular structure of the 'wood' contained vast amounts of silicon and lime and so the trees were able to grow to the size of apartment buildings. And that's what they became.

As they walked along Micah got his first look at the aboriginal Sylvans, the Xenobranchs. Appearing for all the world like 100 kilo sea slugs they seemed to come in all possible and some impossible color combinations with backs full of tentacles that waved gently when they moved. One of them, a striking specimen in penguin black and white rose up to put its eyestalks at the women's level.

Carmen, beloved,

Micah heard through his implant,

so good to see you home. Have you any plans for the rest of the day? I believe I may have something you'd like.

Carmen stuck out the tip of her tongue and swayed her hips.

Indeed, you do, Zebra. Tell you what, you lecherous old mollusk, let me get unpacked and I'll meet you for lunch and we'll spend the rest of the day having dessert. And let me introduce our new friend. This is Micah McCauley-Tang. Micah, we call this handsome specimen Zebra because you can't translate his real name into words. The 'Brancs communicate by color pattern and radio waves that don't always make sense in Common.

The Sylvan moved closer to Micah and its facial tentacles trembled.

Pleased to make your acquaintance, Mr. McCauley-Tang. Perhaps we can all get together in the near future?

Oh, you can be sure we will,

Alison replied before Micah could figure out what to say,

but right now we have to get him moved in. Farewell, dear friend.

*****

Carmen and Alison's apartment was high in the canopy with a breathtaking view of the sound. It seemed to consist of one very large room that took up the entire inside of the trunk and was furnished, if that's what one could call it, in a number of multi-purpose large cushion/couches and some tables. After Micah had been assigned a portion of closet space and been kissed good-bye with surprising affection by Carmen, he sat in one with a puzzled expression on his face as Alison made coffee—or whatever it was.

"I can understand that the 'Brancs and the humans might give off chemicals that intoxicate each other," he began, "but it baffles me that somehow we can hybridize with them. I mean, they're kind of mollusks, aren't they?"

Alison handed him a steaming cup. "Technically we aren't hybrids, Micah, we're chimeras, organisms that share genetic characteristics with the other species. What happened is easy to describe but thus far impossible to explain. Humans landed here unaware that the 'Brancs were not only highly intelligent but had quite a sophisticated culture and civilization. It was just so different from ours that we missed it completely. Project Lifeboat was ready to withdraw everyone at once but the 'Brancs insisted we stay because they figured out very quickly that they were addicted to us and vice versa. The idea of Carmen having prolonged, passionate sex with Zebra probably seems a bit perverted to you the same way it did to the first colonists. But 'Branc pheromones overcame that right quick and now it's perfectly normal—to us. Earth might have been able to deal with that but then the DNA leakage started showing up."

"That's what I don't understand," Micah protested, "Human sperm and eggs shouldn't work with 'Branc."

"They don't. This is the part that no one understands. When a male of one species has sex with a female of the other he doesn't get her pregnant as such. Instead he somehow induces her to get pregnant through pathogenesis. But she doesn't give birth to a clone of herself because some of his genetic material, through a process we can't explain, transfers to her child. The result is that about half the children of either species around the colony have no father. And because the children that do are born in the normal ratio, that results in the female/male ratio being 3-1. And it's stable. That gives us families, like Carmen's, where there have been no sons born for four generations. But Carmen isn't her great-grandmother because she is so much Sylvan. That, however, is about to come to a stop."

"Really? Why?"

Alison leered over the rim of the cup. "Because, dear Micah, she has the absolute hots for you!" The iridescent woman put her cup down, slid onto Micah's lap and wrapped her arms around his neck. "And. So. Do. I!" Covering his lips with hers she drove her tongue between them.

Micah was suddenly aware of a flowery, spicy odor and a growing heat and pressure in his genitals. One hand reflexively dropped to Alison's buttocks and the other squeezed a breast making her hum in response.

"Strip me, studmuffin," she whispered, "I want you inside me."

Fortunately for the fumbling, virginal Micah, Alison's clothing came away with ease and once she was naked she pushed him down onto his back, whisked off his trousers and took his manhood in her mouth. Bobbing and sucking she soon had him ramrod stiff and then, leering more broadly, straddled his hips and took him within.

Even if he'd been an experienced lover, Micah would have found this encounter unforgettable. As Alison writhed and bucked on top of him her 'normal' iridescence changed from a subtle all-over effect to bands of spectral brilliance flashing up and down her body. As she squeezed and panted herself toward climax the bands flickered faster and faster until she gasped in orgasm and turned coal black. Only her cerulean hair and mauve eyes stayed the same.

Growling, she climbed off, lay face down and raised her hips. "Stick it in me. Cum inside me! I'm gonna get so pregnant by you just as soon as I get this implant taken out."

Alison's pheromones driving him into a rutting frenzy, Micah grabbed the taller woman by the hips and thrust into her. Panting with lust and exertion, sweat dripping off his nose, his face in a grimace Micah thrust like a jackhammer until finally he gave a high pitched roar and shot a copious load into her. Then, spent and exhausted, he fell to one side and lay there panting.

In a few minutes, slowly returning to her usual coloration, Alison rolled over next to him. Propping her head up on one arm she gazed down at him with a smirk. "This is going to be great, lover. We're going to have so much fun together and you are going to father so many children!" She ran her hand affectionately up and down his smooth torso. "And now we need to talk."

"Hmm?"

"You said that half the time you can't tell whether you're male or female. Now right now I suspect you're feeling all testosterone drunk and hairy but do you think the unsureness might return?"

"Oh, probably. Why?"

Alison winked at him. "It all has to do with me and Carmen being chimeras and what that entails. You saw all those tentacles on Zebra's back? Well, several of them are erectile. Tentacle sex is big on Sylvan, let me tell you. And that goes for men as well as women. Did you see the way his facial tendrils quivered when he got up close to you? He wants you, Micah."

"What? Me? But why?"

"For the same reason I wanted you and Carmen wants you. You have an intoxicating smell, Micah. That's one advantage you pure humans have over the rest of us. Your chemical footprint is pure and sharp."

"You say he wants me—does that mean he might want to . . .?"

"No, it means he

does

. 'Might' has nothing to do with it. And the fun part is that the genetics of that erectile tissue have transferred to about one woman in six, Carmen among them. One of the reasons I find her so hot is that when she's aroused her clitoris swells up into a pretty respectable phallus while leaving her a fully functional female. Zebra can get into her, she can get into me and both of them can get into you and definitely want to. Of course, Carmen will want you inside her, too. Like I said, you're going to father lots of children. Zebra, though, is just a horny male Sylvan 'Branc who finds you as attractive as he does Carmen—and me, of course. So when he wanted to know if we could all get together in the near future he has every expectation of enjoying your body to the hilt. Does that sound like it might appeal to your feminine side?"

Micah's eyes popped open in alarm. "But—but that's why I figured out how to stay invisible, because I didn't want to be raped!"

Alison rolled over on top of the slight man and nuzzled his face. "Honey, it's only rape if you don't want it and on this planet, 'no' means 'No!' If you don't want to play with Zebra just say so. I'm letting you know this so that when his pheromones have you flushed and panting and he's got you all wrapped up in his tentacles you won't be completely surprised when one of them starts sliding up your backside. But before that happens, maybe we should have a three-way with Carmen so you can get used to the idea. It will be fun. Trust Alison on this."

*****

Carmen didn't come home that evening or even the next morning. It was high noon before she came back, flushed and smiling, and flopped down on a couch. "Wow! I'm surprised I can even walk straight. He really was glad to see me! So did you two put your time to good use?"

Micah blushed furiously and stammered but Alison just giggled. "We did. He needs more practice but seems to be a quick learner. Of course, my pheromones helped."

Carmen's response was gentle. "Well, good for him. Micah, you are such a sexy little darling. I'll bet you made our Alison a very happy woman. Did you get into her again this morning?"

His mouth open but unable to speak, Micah nodded. Alison had waked him up and pulled him over on top of her even before he was fully awake. She was right. Her pheromones helped—a lot!

Getting up on her hands and knees Carmen prowled, panther-like, over to where Micah sat. "Then after dinner it will be my turn, lover. I know what you look like and what you smell like. I want to know what you feel like. And how much fun will you be in an orgy? We love those. Tentacles, phalluses, pheromones and orifaces galore. We'll have to introduce you around. Now let me taste you!"