Chapter 18: Broken but Nice

The sleep learner cycle came to an emergency stop—and the cover opened. What a nightmare! I guess I was going to live, but I didn't feel like slumbering any more. I was tired, but sleep would have returned me to the nightmare.

I was in my quarters. I had privacy if nobody wandered in. Access was by transporter pad only—no doors. Call it a tomb rather than a crib.

"Now's a good time for a banana split," I said as I staggered away from the sleep learner in the office area. I had a "bed room" consisting of a wall-to-wall gym mat that I used for sleeping or wild monkey sex—it was roughly the size of a boxing ring and doubled as an exercise area. I had a bathroom and dressing room of about the same ten meter by ten meter size with a combination jacuzzi and shower bath big enough for three or four humans. My office had a sleep learner, a desk, and some seating—along with a food station. I drew a liter of water and programmed a standard fast-food soft-serve banana split: three "scoops" of vanilla ice cream, a banana split lengthwise, chocolate syrup, pineapple sauce with chunks of pineapple, strawberry topping, imitation whipped cream, crushed peanuts, and a candied cherry. Standard plastic food—but I was grounding myself, not pretending to be a food critic. By contemporary standards, my banana split was a miniature one—I was feeding for morale purposes, not trying to nourish my body. Didn't need a whole gallon of ice cream—or so I thought.

"Trouble, dear?" Lilith emerged through the portal appearing in the wall. Unlike standard Confederacy transporter pads (red, green and black depending upon status—entry point, exit or off) Lilith's transporter terminals were silver in operation but otherwise invisible. Lilith was followed by her two cheetahs, Dash and Flash. And her two Marines, Cor and Bo. All of us were naked—the cats weren't wearing their customary collars and we humans didn't have a stitch on. Why? Perfect climate control, not a public venue. "Oh, is that for me?"

I surrendered my banana split and programmed four more—and then I opened a stasis box filled with cat treats. It doesn't pay to let big cats go hungry. Dash nuzzled my thigh as her more-aggressive sister Flash picked out a dried salmon.

"Darlings, just one treat each," Lilith told the cheetahs. "Don't gorge."

Dash took a jerked chicken—well, a synthetic, boneless whole chicken minus feathers and internal organs. Dash would have told me that the chicken was missing 'the good parts' if she spoke English!

As the food station "dinged" to signal that my banana splits were ready, Georgia and Mary emerged.

My spirits fell as I distributed the new banana splits and programmed another six in—one more per person. Okay, I was still waiting for my first banana split.

"What's the emergency?" Georgia asked.

"Tom had a nightmare," Lilith explained. "Want to tell us about that nightmare, Tom?"

"I am reluctant," I said. "I don't want to relive it."

"Share," Lilith commanded.

"Okay, but I'm operating from inadequate data," I said. "The Confederacy is dying. Some of the civilizations have dropped off the grid. Only a token AI contact with the Confederacy exists for many older races. The vote to allow humans to join the Confederacy was 30% for, 15% against, and 65% not participating."

"Sounds like American politics," Bo quipped.

<The Confederacy is over a million years old, > AI Ramses informed us. <Member races are stable. Humans are the first new members in five thousand years. The Confederacy won't vanish overnight.>

"Thank you, Ramses," I acknowledged. I'm aware that we humans are not told everything. Parents keep things from children for their own good. "I may be worried over nothing, but I had a nightmare that the Confederacy collapsed in a mere three centuries. I don't have to worry about experiencing that, though."

"Sa'arm incursions will take more than three centuries," Mary said.

"I was thinking that the older races in the Confederacy would turn on, tune in, drop out," I explained.

"How Seventies," Georgia observed.

"Actually 1966," I corrected, "Timothy Leary. In reference to LSD and society."

"How'd we get on Mormons?" Cor asked around a mouthful of ice cream and toppings.

"That's LDS," I said, "Lysergic acid diethylamide is a drug."

"Religion is the opiate of the masses," Georgia sneered as the food station pinged again—and six more women crowded into my office.

One of the newcomers wore a Civil Service uniform—her name was Victoria Williams, the sister of newly-minted Confederacy Marine Corps Ensign Anthony Williams. The other five wore nothing. I felt dismay as I handed out the six banana splits. Was I going to keep up with the demand?

"We need to take this to the kennel exercise area," Lilith said. "Tom, it's time for an assembly line. You are going to reconnect with all of us sponsors and concubines."

"What's an assembly line?" Victoria asked. "I mean, I know what an assymbly line is, but what are you assembling?"

"Sex assembly line," Bo bragged. "There are a many concubines but only one Tom-cat. We line up and he fucks us one-by-one. It's a bonding ceremony."

"As Goddess and Senior Bitch I go first," Lilith announced. "Come with me, my dear boy toy."

While waiting for the rest of the females, both sponsor and concubine, to assemble, Tess explained to Victoria that most of my family was broken people. Svetlana the tiger had been shot by someone at the animal park—I had recovered four 5.7mm bullets probably from the FN P90 personal defense weapon from Svetlana. The tiger wasn't alone with her scars. Many of the concubines had lived hard lives and were psychologically scarred. Some of the new concubines had been orphans a short while before, but had their fourteenth birthdays and CAP tested at less than 6.5—and some of these orphans were pregnant. I never thought of anybody as defective—repairable, given time and love, but not defective.

We all have our blind spots.

If I had been a woman and all the sponsors and concubines had been males I'd have pulled a train! What's it called when the male pulls a train? Oh, that's right—IMPOSSIBLE. At least impossible without Confederacy medical technology. For one thing, my penis travelled from vagina to vagina—a sure way to spread infections in the normal human world. The only nod towards 'sanitation' was that the woman licked me 'clean' after the perfunctory intercourse. I did enjoy myself, but it was a bit impersonal. I didn't have time to cherish and treasure each of my partners. For me, the best sex is with two willing and friendly women—though when the goal is my pleasure only, a gang of five works just swell. Any more than five and I suffer sensory overload—what a way to go!

The non-human animals witnessed my antics. The K-9 exercise area had a large surface that was almost a moss-covered wrestling mat the size of a football field. In fact, we humans could and did set up soccer goals and have at it sometimes. The animals liked watching. I admit that I was fatigued at the end, when Lilith climbed aboard in a cowgirl position and hugged me while engulfing my cock with her cunt, but I managed to comply with her request to carry her to Conference Room Four.

I did stink—but no shower, not yet. I was too drained to complain.

"Let's introduce everybody," Lilith said when we reached the conference room. First, Lilith introduced herself as governor of our ship when it was stationary as a colony—and then Victoria was introduced as a new teacher and administrator. Georgia was introduced as the DECO liaison. Mary was the captain of the colony when it was underway as a ship. Confused yet? I was introduced as the troubleshooter and expedition team leader. Tess was the chief of Civil Service even though a "mere" Signifer. Somehow both Candice (dog handler) and Dawn (jaguar girl) were included. And there were the cheetahs Flash and Dash, German Shepard Nana, wolf Calgary, jaguar Spots, and tiger Svetlana. "The purpose of this conference, as announced in the assembly line, is to ensure that Tom doesn't sleep alone. Tom will only use the sleep learner when there is someone to watch over him. The reason is that Tom's dreams combined with the station machinery can become material."