Chapter 14: Professional Entanglements

When Jules awoke again, he found himself alone. The door to the apartment was open, and it seemed as if Zuki was already up. Perhaps she had snuck out of bed early to get a shower? The events of the previous night came flooding back to him all at once, and he realized that he could still taste her on his breath. He threw off the sheets and made his way to the bathroom, noting that there was no sign of his ward. After brushing his teeth and washing up, he wandered into the living area to search for her. Zuki was still nowhere to be seen, she wasn’t sitting on the couch playing with the remote, and she wasn’t making food in the kitchen. Had she gone out onto the torus on her own? He hoped not. She was learning fast, but she was still naive.

“Zuki?” he called out, but there was no reply. Perhaps she was playing one of her games again? That must be it. He crouched low to check under the kitchen table, but she wasn’t there. Where else could such a large creature hide in such a finite space? He wandered around the apartment for a few minutes, then decided that she must have gone out.

As he stood in the middle of the apartment and scratched his head, wondering how he was going to track her down on such a large station, the hairs on the back of his neck suddenly began to stand on end. Something was giving him the distinct feeling that he was being watched. A he turned to look behind him, he was startled by the sudden movement of a giant shadow.

Zuki pounced on him from behind in a mock attack, wrapping her arms around him, Jules nearly jumping out of his skin.

“Zuki!” he gasped, the surprise making him laugh despite himself. “What the hell are you doing? I was about to go out and scour the station for you.”

She was wearing her turtleneck and sweatpants again, but this time, the bandages were conspicuously absent. Her breasts were straining against the fabric, spilling over his shoulders and cradling his head like a giant travel pillow as she pushed her nose into his hair and nuzzled. She had no bra, of course. Without the support of the bandages, her bust was hanging free and full, Jules sinking deep into her flesh as she hugged him tighter against her sweater.

“Got you,” she chuckled, squeezing him affectionately.

“You’re not wearing your bandages?” he asked.

“No,” she replied with a shrug of her shoulders that made the assets in question bounce. “Since you know my secret now, I don’t really have a reason to, unless we’re going out somewhere.”

That wasn’t the only reason. She seemed to have gotten over her insecurity, too, judging by the way that she was throwing her bosom at him. His plan had worked, at least in the sense that she now felt confident enough to remove her bandages around him and let it all hang out...

“I actually wanted to talk to you about what happened last night,” he said, pulling away from her and turning to face her.

“Is ... something wrong?” she asked, her smile faltering. Oh no, was she assuming that he regretted sleeping with her?

“Of course not,” he said, quick to reassure her. “Last night was ... incredible.” She smiled again, her tail waving back and forth behind her. “But nobody can know,” he insisted, emphasizing his words with a frantic hand gesture.

“Why not?” Zuki asked, cocking her head as she looked down at him. Good lord, her breasts were just hanging there, their perfect teardrop shape easily visible through the woolen material of her sweater. He tried to stay focused, driving the impulse to push his face into them out of his mind for a moment.

“I’m a diplomat,” he continued, “I was assigned to evaluate the Araxie and to determine whether their application to the Coalition should be considered or not. My job is to be objective, to remain detached. I’m supposed to look at things from a purely empirical perspective, and after what we did last night, that objectivity could be brought into question. From the perspective of the council, there’s a ... substantial conflict of interest, seen as we have become so ... heavily ... involved.” He tore his eyes away from her bosom again, shaking his head as if it might somehow dislodge the distracting thoughts. “If one of the council members were to find out about our ... closeness, or any associated personnel for that matter, it might impact their decision and hurt Araxie’s chances of being admitted.”

“Oh dear,” Zuki replied, “was what we did bad?”

“No, no,” he insisted. “It was just a little unprofessional maybe, not forbidden, but ... not something that they generally encourage either. It will lead people to assume that I’m making the recommendation because of you, not because I genuinely believe that your territory is a suitable candidate. That isn’t true, of course, but they won’t see it that way.”

“So, what must we do?”

“I don’t suppose the concept of maintaining professional distance means anything to you? Workplace boundaries, maybe?” She shook her head, and he ran his fingers through his hair in exasperation. An idea occurred to him, he just had to phrase it differently, in a way that she would understand. “Alright, Zuki, let me put this another way. Our relationship has to be a secret. Nobody can know that you and I have ... been close, or that we’re a pack, understand? As far as anyone else can know, we’re platonic friends, we’re coworkers.”

“What’s platonic?” she asked innocently.

“Platonic means we didn’t do what we did last night, that we never do things like that. Araxie like being stealthy, right? You like hiding? Well, now we have to be discreet, we have to hide our relationship so that nobody finds out about it. At least until all of this is over and done with.”

“Alright,” she replied enthusiastically, “I can keep a secret.”

“Good, good. So let’s establish some guidelines, some ground rules. No overt displays of affection in public, no hugging or kissing. We shouldn’t even hold hands, come to think of it, that could be misconstrued as a romantic gesture. We can only do those things inside the apartment where nobody can see us. Humans don’t talk about their sexual exploits openly, at least, most don’t. So don’t be telling people about what we’ve been doing in private.”

“Relax,” she chuckled, wrapping her arms around him again and pulling him into her. She hooked a hand around the back of his head, delving her fingers into his hair and forcing his face between her heaving breasts, her warmth and her scent sapping his will as he sank deep into her malleable sweater meat. “If that’s what you want, then it will be as you say.”

Maybe he was overreacting a little, it wasn’t as if they were under surveillance. But then again, his career might be on the line here. It was hard to focus on anything besides the feeling of being close to her, and he let the steady rise and fall of her soft chest calm him.

“Will you cook breakfast for me?” she asked as she ran her fingers through his hair.

“Sure,” he mumbled.

“Oh, and one more thing,” she added. “You should bathe thoroughly before you go outside. Human noses don’t seem to be able to detect it, but other Borealans will smell me on you. That might give us away if there are any Borealans on the council.”

“That’s a good idea,” he said, starting to pull away from her. She tightened her hold on him to prevent him from escaping her clutches, pushing him deeper into the boundless depths of her cleavage.

“Not just yet,” she cooed, Jules feeling her warm breath in his hair. “I like that you smell like me...”

“What are we doing today?” Zuki asked, finishing off her bacon as she sat across the kitchen table from Jules.

“You can suggest things that you want to do, you know,” he replied.

“You’re my Alpha, I want you to decide,” she insisted.

“Alright. Well, today, I thought we’d spend some time going over how the Security Council operates and what to expect during our meeting. It’s in a couple of days, after all, we don’t have a lot of time left to prepare. I want to coach you a little on what to say and how to act so that we can get the best possible results. After that, I think we should go back to the clothing store that we found the other day, you need some new clothes.”

“Are these clothes not suitable?” she asked, tugging at the fabric of her sweater.

“They’re fine, but, uh ... if you’re not going to wear your bandages, then we need to get you a bra or something. Trust me, it will be a lot more comfortable for you.”

Her bust was currently spilling across the table within the confines of her turtleneck, it looked like she was smuggling a couple of those sandbags that they use to prevent floods under there.

“What is a bra?”

“It supports your chest, takes some off the weight off, and it’s considered polite to wear one.”

“It makes them lighter?”

“Yep. It should be a good alternative to your bandages. You shouldn’t have to wear those, not here, and not back in your territory. You don’t have anything to be ashamed of.”

Now that he had finally coaxed her out of them, he didn’t like the idea of her just reverting to her old habits the moment that she set foot in her home territory. If he could replace the bandages with something that had made her feel both more comfortable and more confident, then maybe they would stay off for good.

“Let’s go over the Security Council again,” Jules said as he paced in front of the monitor, Zuki looking to the notes that she had taken on her tablet. “List off all of the seats.”

“The United Nations,” she began, “those are made up of Earth and the human colonies. Then there’s the planet Krell, the Brokers, the Elysian and Rask territories.”

“And what about the Polars?” Jules asked.

“The Polars don’t have their own seat, because they’re members of the Russian Federation, which is a member of the United Nations.”

“Excellent. Now, tell me who is currently sitting for each member, and what we know about them. If we’re going to sway them, then we need to know as much about them as possible. What are their past histories, do they have civilian or military backgrounds? What might be their likes or dislikes? Can we use regional rivalries to play the members against one another in order to achieve the desired outcome?”

“Sitting for the UN will be one of the Admirals,” Zuki continued, “but we don’t know which one.”

“That’s correct, the Admirals are frequently cycled in and out of the station based on where they’re most needed, but there is always at least one present. One of their duties is to serve on the Security Council. We don’t know exactly who it will be.”

“The Krell representative is named Rasheth, he was chosen by the Krell elders to serve on the council.”

“And what do we know about him?” Jules asked.

“Very little. He is a Krell elder himself, he could possibly be hundreds of years old. According to the records, very little of the planet Krell has been mapped, and only one expedition was able to bring back any significant information about their language and culture.”

“It’s hard to guess how the Krell will vote,” Jules mused as he paced up and down the living area. “They’re generally sympathetic to the plight of others, but their thought processes are very strange, unpredictable.”

“The Broker representative’s name is not listed,” Zuki said as she looked over her notes, “and there is even less information on them than the Krell. There are no pictures of them, you don’t even know the name or the location of their home planet? How can you be allied with a race who will not trust you with even that?”

“Technically speaking, this is their alliance,” Jules replied. “They’re the ones who invited us to join. The UN is the third member after the Brokers and the Krell. They don’t provide troops, and they’re very reluctant to share their technology with us, but they provide substantial funding. That seems to be enough to satisfy the Admiralty. Anyway, the Brokers are another unknown, so let’s continue.”

“Sitting for the Elysians is Torza Elysiedde, nephew of Patriarch Elysiedde.”

“Tell me what you think about him after reviewing his records,” Jules said as he waited expectantly in front of the holographic fireplace.

“He is an accomplished soldier. The records show that he served first in the Elysian army, and then as a Royal Guard to his uncle. The Patriarch must trust him a great deal to have both entrusted him with his personal safety and to have made him a member of the council. If my understanding of Elysian culture is accurate, he will be intensely proud and assertive.”

“It’s also likely that he has a very close relationship with his uncle,” Jules added, “they’re keeping all of the power in the family. Torza probably has very specific instructions from the Patriarch, and we should assume that he will report everything that he hears without failure. Who’s next?”

“Next is Rugza Korbaz, representing the Rask. Her rank is Vice Admiral, though I do not know what that means.”

“That’s some kind of naval rank,” Jules explained. “They don’t have any spaceships yet, but they’re said to sail the dune seas. I’m not sure how you can sail on a desert. I’ve never dealt with the Rask myself, but the other territories always describe them as pirates and raiders. I suppose that pirates must have some kind of vessel.”

“Were they not evaluated in the same way as the Araxie before they were allowed to join?” Zuki asked, cocking her head at him in the way that she always did when she was confused.

“That’s a good question,” Jules replied. “Like I said, I haven’t dealt with the Rask before, and I wasn’t the diplomat assigned to handle their case. But if I’ve learned anything about them in recent weeks, it’s that they’re potentially very deceptive. They may have concealed their true capabilities during the inspection, I wouldn’t put it past them. Then again, maybe it’s merely a traditional title, and it doesn’t mean anything.”

“I know the Rask to be cruel and greedy,” Zuki said, her brow furrowing as she remembered the raids that they had conducted against her territory.

“Remember what we talked about,” he chided, “you can’t paint all of the Rask with the same brush. Especially not in the meeting. They’re a proud people,” he added, “and we may be able to use that against them. By now, the news that they’re going to be under investigation has no doubt reached the Rask Matriarchy, and likely their council member too. Regardless of whether they’ve actually broken their agreements or not, the mere fact that they’ve been accused of doing so is going to piss them off royally. We can definitely depend on a ‘no’ vote from Korbaz. Logically, the Rask are going to try to lock the Araxie out of the Coalition, either as simple retribution or in an attempt to conceal their wrongdoing.”

“Why is that to our advantage?” Zuki asked, “don’t we need the most votes possible?”

“We’re going to lose the Rask vote regardless of what we do, but what if we play the Rask and the Elysians against one another? If we stoke the regional rivalries a little, I bet we can sway Torza to vote in our favor just to spite the Rask.”

“How will we do that?”

“You tell me. Think about what we know about both territories, and the people representing them. How would you convince them?”

She considered for a moment, nibbling on the end of one of her curved claws.

“Appeal to the pride of the Elysian council member. I can beg for his protection from the Rask on behalf of my people. As a warrior, it should please him to know that tales of their martial prowess have carried so far, and it should annoy the Rask council member at the same time.”

“Now you’re thinking like a diplomat,” Jules said with a wide grin. “One thing we can certainly count on is a pissed off Rask acting impulsively and making a fool of themselves. If we can get Korbaz to lash out, then the other council members may be more hesitant to side with her.”

Zuki’s tail began to bat against the backrest of the couch, she was always so happy when he praised her for doing a good job.

“Let’s take a break,” he said, “that’s enough work for the time being.”

He took a seat on the edge of the glass coffee table, which was at a fairly convenient height due to it being scaled up for Borealans, taking a moment to admire the combat helmet that was still resting on its transparent surface. It looked so out of place in the apartment, a little fragment of military hardware in a sea of upscale furnishings and tasteful décor.

“You’re making a lot of progress, Zuki,” he said as he reached over and drummed his fingers on the cold armor plating. “Pretty soon, you’re not going to need me to tell you what to do.”

“But I like having you tell me what to do,” she said, extending her arms to him in invitation. “Come sit with me?”

He hesitated for a moment, still somewhat stuck in the mindset that he should be keeping his distance, as if his brain still hadn’t caught up to what his body had been doing the prior night. But they were alone now, it was safe. He made his way over to her, and as soon as he came into range, Zuki lunged at him. As quick as a flash, she wrapped her massive arms around him and swept him off his feet, lifting her sweater with her prehensile tail and giving him just enough time to see her ample breasts fall free of their support before he was plunged between them.

She lowered the turtleneck behind him, trapping him inside her clothing and pressing him up tightly against her body, her mischievous chuckling making her generous bust shake as it cushioned him from either side. Her flesh spilled around him like molten plastic filling a mold, conforming to his shape as it flooded over his shoulders and filled out her sweater, Zuki crossing her arms behind him to bury him even deeper. There was almost no resistance, the tighter she hugged him, the further he sank. His face was pushed into the fragrant fur of her bosom, her sweat making his cheeks slide against her velvety coat, a comfortable pressure surrounding him on all sides. She was so incredibly warm, her enticing scent and the sensation of her slick fur against his skin quickly soothing him after his brief moment of surprise.

“I caught you,” she laughed, rolling onto her side on the cushions and bringing him with her.

“Is this how Araxie courtship usually goes?” he asked, his voice barely audible as he mumbled into her quivering bust. The breast below his head was as soft as a waterbed, acting as a kind of pillow as the other sandwiched him from above.

“I can’t help it,” she giggled, giving him a squeeze. “I know that you’re my pack leader, and that humans aren’t prey, but something about how small and strange you look just makes me want to pounce on you.”

“I thought you said that you didn’t make a very good hunter?”

“It seems that I’m good enough to hunt down a human,” she replied, her tone sly.

“Oh, I see how it is,” Jules replied. He reached around her torso, struggling to lift the weight of her breasts out of his way so that he could access her ribs, running his fingers through her silky fur.

“W-what are you doing?” she laughed, squirming on the couch. “Stop it, t-that tickles!”

“We humans are not so easily defeated,” he growled, Zuki’s boobs bouncing around his head as she wriggled. Her excited laughter gradually tapered into a low and sultry chuckle as the movements of his fingers become slower and more sensual, tracing the curves of her figure as he played his hands down the dimple of her spine and the contours of her abs.

She rolled onto her back, Jules sliding down her body and kneeling between her legs as she parted them, her sweater still keeping him pressed tight against her furry torso. His growing erection brushed against the thin fabric of her sweatpants, and he already knew that she wasn’t wearing anything beneath them. He could feel the plushness of her thighs as they closed like the jaws of a trap to keep him close.

From Zuki’s perspective, she wouldn’t have been able to see much more than a human-shaped lump moving beneath her turtleneck, but she could certainly feel him. The Araxie gasped in a blend of surprise and delight as he sank both of his hands into her boobs. It felt like he was pushing his fingers into wet cement, they were so doughy, yet so heavy as they filled his palms. Her breasts should have been spilling over the sides of her chest, but the sweater was just tight enough and provided just enough support to contain them, the globes of flesh moving with the fabric as he stretched it upwards and mashed them together.

He could just about make them out beneath her tented sweater, the light from the dim lamp in the ceiling spilling through the fabric just enough that it made them glisten, in a state of perpetual motion as every subtle movement made them wobble. Jules held nothing back, kneading and clawing, taking handfuls of her tender flesh and shaping it like clay.

Zuki squirmed in his grasp, he couldn’t see the expression on her face, but he could feel the way that her body was moving beneath him. Her thighs flexed around his waist, her abdominal muscles tensing as she arched her spine, digging her heels into the cushions. It was like she was being electrocuted in slow motion, her gasps and sighs goading him on. He had to dig so deep to find the sensitive tissue that lay beneath her copious fat, feeling its firmness resist the tips of his fingers, Zuki growling like a tiger as he massaged her.

She lurched as he located one of her puffy nipples, a swollen, pink protrusion about the size and shape of his pinky finger from the joint down. They were firm and erect, poking up from her satin fur as if begging for his attention. He trapped one between his fingers, her areola nearly the size of his palm. As he gently squeezed it, she shuddered almost violently enough to throw him off her.