­Chapter 272

Xara and I were of one mind. We were in total agreement. There was no room between us that anyone could use to divide and conquer. We were going to project a united front. We were resolute. We were strong. And we were going to fight. If we went down, we would go down swinging.

We had an ace up our sleeve: The Arion bushnick Xara had found. To the ladies, it was like catnip. They couldn’t get enough of it. I wasn’t allowed to eat any, it apparently was poisonous to Terrans. Xara did put a small piece on my tongue so I could experience the taste. To me, it had no taste. But to the Supremis women it was better than chocolate.

We were at our dining room table, just the five of us and the bushnick. It was four against one, but the one …

“Mona and I are going to move in with our boyfriends,” said Gloria to Kara, “and we want to discuss with you how we are going to carry out our duties with respect to our new living arrangements. Have another piece of bushnick.”

“Are the four of you going to live together?” asked Kara between bites of the bushnick Gloria had put in front of her.

“Why does everyone ask us that?” asked Gloria. It was a rhetorical question. “No. I am going to live with Harvey and Mona is going to live with Harold.”

“I see,” said Kara. “What do Harvey and Harold think you two do for a living?”

“They think we work for you,” replied Mona.

“Yes, I know that,” said Kara. “But what do they think you do for me?”

Gloria and Mona just looked at each other.

“Oh oh,” said Xara in the connection. “Do we need to rescue them?”

“Let’s wait and see if they come up with anything,” was my reply.

“We haven’t told them what our duties are,” said Gloria. “They’ve never asked. We thought that part of our discussion with you would be developing our cover stories.”

“Good answer!” said Xara, in the connection.

“You should have come up with your cover stories before you talked to me,” said Kara.

“Mom,” said Xara, “Joe and I can help them with that.”

“Oh? You support these new living arrangements? You approve of two Arions living with Terrans?”

Before Xara or I could answer, Gloria exploded.

“We have NEVER harmed Terrans since we have worked for you! We would NEVER do that, and we LOVE our boyfriends, and we would KEEP THEM SAFE! It is an INSULT for you to suggest otherwise!”

And then she got up and left the room. Mona followed.

“Uh … I think she jumped to a conclusion,” I said.

“I don’t think she did,” said Xara. “Mother, that was uncalled for. They have been nothing but model citizens since they began working for you. You’re letting your bigotry cloud your judgement and you just hurt two very loyal and very good friends of yours.”

Bigotry. Xara accused Kara of bigotry. And she called her ‘Mother.’ I was ready to throw out everything I said before about being resolute, throw Xara under the bus and crawl under the table to hide and avoid the dueling heat vision. But Kara sighed and said, “Yes, you’re right. They have proven themselves trustworthy. Joseph, will you ask them to come back?”

They were downstairs in the lair. Gloria was fuming. Mona was trying to calm her down.

“Come back to the table,” I said. “Kara wants you back, to continue the discussion.”

“Is she going to insult us again?”

“No, Gloria, she isn’t going to insult you. You two want this. Xara and I told you it might not be easy. Try to control your temper and work with us.”

They came upstairs and sat down at the table. Kara reached across and took Gloria by the hand and said, “I shouldn’t have said that, Gloria. I apologize to both of you.”

Gloria looked at Mona and Mona nodded.

“We accept your apology.”

“Alright. Work with Joseph and Xara to come up with a cover story, then present it to me. If it is good enough, and you can show how you can work for me without letting them know who we are and what we do, you can move in with your boyfriends.”

“I have an idea,” I said.

All four of them looked at me.

“Tell them you do confidential research on the drugs Kara and her competitors manufacture. Looking for trends, new studies on drug interactions, sales and marketing data, anything you can imagine. Tell them it is corporate confidential, and you had to sign non-disclosure agreements stating you will never share your work product or processes with anyone outside of Kara’s C-Suite.”

“Yes,” said Gloria, “that should work. We can tell them the work we do is both confidential and technical.”

“Harold is a biologist,” Xara said, “the less you say the better.”

“Do they both live in houses or apartments with enough room for you two to work in a ‘confidential’ setting?” Kara asked. She put confidential in air quotes.

“Harvey does,” said Gloria. She put that in air quotes.

“We have to teach her how to use air quotes,” said Xara, in the connection.

“Harold is a student in a small apartment,” said Mona. “But you pay me enough to afford a home. I’ll find a rental and tell him we are moving into it because I need the room.”

“Will Harold agree to that?” asked Kara.

“I will make his next orgasm contingent upon it,” replied Mona.

Yeah. I know how that works. He’ll agree.

“We’re getting our house to ourselves!” said Xara in the connection.

“Let’s not break out the champaign until they move out,” I replied.

Two weeks later we uncorked the champaign.

 A week after that we received word from the Scalantrans that the Fesussians wanted to take delivery of the cats in a month. That gave us plenty of time to prepare. We already had 30 cat carriers. Xara just had to go looking for cats.

Chapter 273

Kara had asked Colonel Moore to give her regular updates, through me, on the progress the FBI was making running down the Arion Prime who was known as, “The Doctor” and who, according to the intelligence brought back from the Arion shuttle Xara intercepted, was an elected official somewhere, we assumed, in the USA.

Usually, the Colonel and I communicated over secure phone lines, or for video calls, secure internet connections. For the latter, I had to put up a green screen behind my desk so the Colonel wouldn’t glimpse anything in the lair Kara didn’t want her to see. Which was silly, the Colonel had been in the lair. But you don’t argue trivia with Kara, there is no advantage to be had. But for this meeting I had flown back to D.C. and was meeting with her in her office in the Pentagon.

“The FBI has finished compiling all the possible candidates in Tennessee. They are about to start digging into their histories,” said Colonel Moore.

They started with Tennessee because the fake passport and driver license, belonging to the Prime Xara had killed, had a Tennessee address. A fake address, but a fake Tennessee address.

I knew the answer to the question I was going to ask, but I also knew Kara would ask it, so I asked the Colonel, “Why only Tennessee?”

“Because of the passport and driver license. The FBI made Tennessee a priority and focused most of their resources there. If nothing comes up, they will expand the search. It is surprising how many doctors go into politics later in their careers.”

Later in their careers. Shit! The FBI probably thinks they are looking for an older woman.

“Colonel Moore, did we ever specify the probable age of the Arion?”

“No. Why would we? Couldn’t the Arion be any age? And wouldn’t a doctor who got into politics likely be in her 40’s or older?”

“Oh Geez. Colonel, you must swear never to tell anyone what I am about to tell you.”

“That sounds serious, Staff Sgt.”

“It is, Colonel. My wellbeing, and yours too, depends on Kara never finding out that I revealed this information. She isn’t aware that I know it.”

“Now you have me intrigued, Staff Sgt. Should I pinky swear?”

“Colonel, does Kara ever … frighten you?”

She squirmed in her seat, then said, “Yes, at times she does.”

I didn’t say anything.

“Yes, Staff Sgt., I swear, I will never reveal the information you are about to divulge.”

“Are you going to tell her what I think you’re going to tell her?”

“Yes.”

“Skietra help you if mom ever finds out.”

“Colonel, while I was on Xanadu, I met Kara’s superior. The head of all the Protector’s. I was asking her some questions about the organization of the Protector Corps, and in our back and forth I learned that Kara is over 100 years old.”

“No shit, Staff Sgt.?”

“No shit, Colonel. And Kara doesn’t know I know this, and she has always avoided any questions I had about her age.

“And Colonel, Arions, at least Arion Primes, age just as slowly as Velorian Protectors.”

“I’ll make sure the FBI knows we could be looking for a relatively young woman.

“How much over 100 is she?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t ask. It didn’t seem … appropriate at the time. Even Xara doesn’t know her mother’s true age.”

“It seems strange that a being as powerful as Kara would be sensitive about her age.”

“I agree, Colonel. I strongly advise you never to ask her about it.” It’s a woman thing, I thought. Vanity. But I didn’t say that. Colonel Moore is a woman too.

“I wonder how old Sharon is.”

“Approach the subject very carefully, Colonel.”

“Is Sharon sensitive about her age?”

“I don’t know. I don’t want to find out.”

“I’ll take that under advisement, Staff Sgt.”

Sharon had flown me to D.C. in one of Xara’s pods and checked into a hotel with me. I decided not to tell the Colonel that Sharon had spent the night in my bed. The Colonel and I were going to have dinner with Sharon that night, then I’d go back to my hotel alone while Sharon went home with the Colonel. The next morning Sharon would fly me back to Bellingham.

Janelle had a meeting on her calendar with an out of town businessman. She didn’t know what it was about, as the gentleman had been evasive when Miguel tried to pin him down on the reason for the meeting.

“Senorita,” the man began, “my organization has recognized a business opportunity in this city, and it is our understanding that it would be easier to establish ourselves here with your cooperation.”

“Go on,” said Janelle, “I’m intrigued.”

“It is very simple, Senorita. We believe that previous businesses here have failed because they didn’t respect your position or authority. We have heard that you do not look kindly on businesses that do not respect you.”

“I’m not sure I understand, what businesses are these?”

“That is not important, senorita. Those businesses no longer operate here, or anywhere. We are prepared to make it worth your while to allow us to operate here, to turn a blind eye towards our … transactions. Starting with this.”

The gentleman had come in carrying a briefcase. He put it on Janelle’s desk and opened it up. Inside were stacks of U.S. bills, in $100 denominations.

“Senorita, this is the first of many payments. May we assume we will have your cooperation?”

“Gangs,” thought Janelle. “This insect wants to reintroduce the drug gangs.”

Janelle stood up and walked around to the other side of her desk. The frail stood up as she proffered her hand. Janelle took its hand and began to squeeze, not so hard as to break any bones, at least at first, but hard enough to cause discomfort.

“Senor,” said Janelle, “I thank you for your kind offer. However, your business is not welcome here, and if you try to establish yourself here,” she began gradually increasing the pressure on his hand, “I will eliminate you and your fellow businessmen as easily as I am breaking your bones now.”

With that said, she increased the pressure until she felt two of its bones break. It cried out in pain, and Janelle released its hand.

“Those are very minor breaks, senor, any physician should be able to treat you and you’ll regain full use of your hand in a few weeks. Let me assure you, however, that if you try to bring your business into this city, the pain you felt today will be miniscule compared to the pain I will inflict on you as you beg for your life.”

She could see that it was angry, but its pain overrode its anger and instead of lashing out, it closed the briefcase with its good hand and attempted to picked it up.

“No, senor,” said Janelle as she took the briefcase away. “You will leave the money with me. Consider it a ransom for your life.”

It was having second thoughts. Janelle could almost read its mind. Its good hand started moving towards a pistol concealed in a holster under its suit jacket. Janelle quickly beat it to it and removed the pistol. She raised it in front of the frail’s eyes and crushed the front of the barrel closed between her thumb and forefinger.

“You are testing my patience, senor,” said Janelle. “I suggest you leave, now, or I will kill you where you stand.”

The frightened frail nodded and turned to leave but was stopped by Janelle’s hand around its arm.

“Don’t forget this,” she said as she put the now useless pistol back in its holster.

After the frail left, Janelle reopened the briefcase and called Miguel into her office. Miguel looked at the stack of bills and raised an eyebrow.

“That man tried to bribe me to let his drug gang into the city. I refused him and kept the money. Find out everything you can about him. I wasn’t very friendly and I’m sure his organization will want to dispute my ownership of this money.

“Miguel, is there a way we can donate some of this money anonymously to the church, while making sure the bishop knows it came from me?”

“I’m sure of it,” Miguel replied.

“Good. Count it, keep half of it for us and give half to the church. Make sure the money is used to support their charities. The Soup Kitchen would be a good choice, and the orphanage too.”

There were rumors that the church was corrupt, but Janelle had seen no evidence of it. The money given to the church’s charities seemed to be spent appropriately.

This was the first time Janelle could remember that she revealed her power to a frail that she let live. As she was thinking about it, she realized that she didn’t think of Miguel or his family as frails anymore.

Chapter 274

There was a knock on the glass door of my hotel room’s balcony at 3:30am. I pulled the curtains aside to see Sharon standing there. I unlocked the door and let her in.

“I thought you were staying with Sarah,” I said.

“We had a fight,” she replied.

Just then my cell rang. It was Colonel Moore. I contemplated letting it go to voicemail but answered it instead.

“Sharon and I had a fight, Joe.” She called me Joe.

“And you’re telling me because?”

“If you see her, tell her I’m sorry and I’ll drop it.”

“Drop what?”

“That’s between me and Sharon. I apologize for waking you, Staff Sgt. Goodbye.” And she hung up. I started out as Joe and ended up as Staff Sgt.

Sharon, of course, had heard both sides of the conversation. I turned to her, and she said, “We were fighting over Deb.”

“Just Deb?”

“She didn’t bring you up. Neither did I.”

“Well, you heard what she said.”

“I did, but I need some time. And some angry sex.”

From seemingly out of nowhere a gold choker appeared in her hand and she put it on, then threw me onto the bed and screwed me. Hard. I was grateful that she used the gold.

In the morning I woke up to see Sharon sitting up over me. “I’m so sorry about last night, Joe. I’m going to make it up to you.”

Then she released her pheromones and mounted me, gently. The choker was gone, and she took her time bringing us both to climax.

We showered together and had breakfast in the hotel restaurant, then I returned my rental car and met Sharon on a city bus that stopped near where she had hidden the pod. I got in the pod, and she flew us back to Bellingham.

When Sharon opened the pod and let me out, I decided to ask her about something that I thought of on the ride back to Bellingham.

“Sharon, I know Deb fights with you about Colonel Moore and me, but the Colonel only fights with you over Deb?”

“She’s tried to fight with me over you. I recognize your position relative to her, I understand she is your superior and can affect your career. So, the last time she brought you up I told her my relationship with you was not up for discussion and if I ever thought she retaliated against you in any way I’d break things off with her for good.”

“Okay, well, thank you. Why can’t you make the same threat to her and Deb about each other?”

“Because I want them both in my life and I’m not willing to go there with them. If I make a threat, and don’t follow through I lose credibility. Joe, whenever I make a threat, I always follow through.”

“So, you’re saying that you’d break things off with Colonel Moore over me, but not over Deb?”

“You’re Kiraling, Joe. That puts you above both Sarah and Deb in my heart. And Deb knows better than to interfere with the Kiraling relationship. She doesn’t like it, and she isn’t shy about telling me so, but she wouldn’t dare make me choose between her and you.”

“That’s … I’m honored.”

She smiled and put her arms around me and kissed me and said, “My Kiraling will always come first, Joe. And I haven’t mentioned this before, but you helped my relationship with Deb at Christmas. Maybe I should come to you for romantic advice!”

I didn’t say anything. I didn’t know what to say. Somehow, saying, “God please no, don’t ask me to get in the middle of your relationships,” didn’t seem the smart thing to say.

Sharon left and Xara contacted me through the connection.

“You’re home! I’ll be home in a few hours. I have a roast in the slow cooker. Will you check on it please?”

“Will do.”

The roast was doing fine. I let Xara know.

“The roast is doing fine.”

No answer, which was fine. I was about to go down to the lair when the front door opened and in walked Gloria and Mona.

“Gloria and Mona just walked in. We need to reprogram the security system.”

Our security system had advanced Kelsorian biometrics built in, and we had programmed it to let in all the Supremis.

“Say hi to them for me. We can reprogram it after dinner.”

Gloria, as usual, immediately got to the purpose of their visit.

“We have a problem.”

“Who is we?” I asked.

“Gloria and I have a problem,” replied Mona.

“If you two have a problem, why are you talking to me?”

“Because you are a Terran,” said Gloria, “and this is a problem you can help us with.”

“Okay,” I said. “What’s the problem?”

“Harvey and Harold have been talking to each other,” said Gloria.

“Why is that a problem?” I asked.

“Because they have noticed that we are different,” said Mona.

“Well, yeah,” I said. “Gloria is the taller of you. Mona is the more slender of you, why is this a problem?”

“No, not that kind of problem,” said Gloria, with exasperation in her voice.

“Well then why don’t you tell me EXACTLY what the problem is?” I asked. With exasperation in my voice. I mean really, for Gloria, this was taking a really long time to get to the point.

“We don’t have razors,” said Mona.

“Or Tampons,” said Gloria.

“Or menstrual pads,” said Mona.

I didn’t say anything. They took that as an invitation to continue.

“They were talking to each other. They didn’t know we could hear. They were talking about how smooth our arm pits, legs and ‘lady parts’ are, and Harvey said I don’t have a razor and Harold said Mona doesn’t either.”

“And then Harold said that I don’t have any feminine hygiene products and Harvey said Gloria doesn’t either.”

“Just a second, give me a second,” I said.

“Xara, have you or Sharon or your mother ever lived with Terran men who didn’t know you were Supremis?”

“No, why?”

“We forgot something when we were working on cover stories for Gloria and Mona.”

“What did we forget?”

“Shaving legs and menstrual cycles. Harold and Harvey have noticed Gloria and Mona don’t have feminine hygiene and grooming products.”

“Oh.”

“Oh! That’s it? Oh! That’s all you’ve got for me?”

“It never occurred to us that this might be an issue.”

Gloria and Mona were staring at me, wondering about my facial expressions.

“Good news, ladies. You aren’t stupid. Xara, Kara and Sharon never had to face this situation. It never occurred to them to worry about it.”

“Then what do we do?” asked Mona.

“Go shopping,” I said.

“For what?” asked Gloria.

“Tampons and menstrual pads,” I said.

“What do we do with them?” asked Mona.

“Sit down at the table,” I said.

They sat down. I got my laptop and set it up and did some searches. It turns out that there are instructional videos online on how to use menstrual products. They watched them several times.

“What about our hair?” asked Gloria.

I did some more searches and had them watch videos and read about electrolysis and laser hair removal. And turmeric. We had to go with techniques for permanent hair removal to explain why the ladies never had stubble and didn’t own razors. Don’t ask me about turmeric.

Pretty soon Kara showed up. Then Sharon. Then Xara. Then Bri-an and Juliet. Xara had called her mother to tell her about this and Kara decided this was something they should all look into in case any of them ever decide to live with Terrans who don’t know about the Supremis.

There wasn’t enough roast to feed everyone. I ended up ordering pizzas.

They all watched the videos we found and looked at the other online resources. Then they all went to Target to buy tampons and menstrual pads. Kara decided they should all have a supply they could put out just in case.

Yeah. Put out. That’s what she said. I tried to explain that most women keep these things in drawers or cupboards, and out of guest bathrooms, but that didn’t make any difference to them.

And then Bri-an wanted to try the new products out. Gloria, Mona and Juliet thought that was a great idea and soon I had two nude Arions and two nude Velorians trying to figure out how to insert tampons and use panty shields without panties. And they were all asking me for advice. Sharon thought this was hilarious.

Bri-an walked right up to me and shoved her crotch in my face and asked, “Do Terran men find these strings hanging out attractive?”

“No. They aren’t there to make you look attractive.”

“Do we really have to buy panties to use these?” Juliet asked while waving a panty shield around. All the instructional videos indicated they would, so the four of them, Bri-an, Juliet, Gloria and Mona piled into Gloria’s car to go back to Target to shop for panties.

Then we got a call from Gloria. Juliet had remembered seeing a commercial for Victoria’s Secret, so they were going there instead, and they wanted to know if I thought that was a good idea. I told them to go for it. Sharon was laughing and giggling.

When they got back from Victoria’s Secret the four of them decided to model their purchases for the rest of us. And they came home with more than just panties. Looking over the bags of negligees and push up bras, as if a Supremis would ever need such a thing, I wondered if they bought the place out. I mean, I’d never seen so much intimate lace in one place that wasn’t a retail store.

And then I thought of something else. And like an idiot I opened my mouth.

“Do Harold and Harvey use condoms?”

“No,” answered Gloria. “Why would they? Terrans can’t get us pregnant.”

I let her answer soak in, waiting to see if any of the ladies recognized the problem. It took about 20 seconds, and then, it was like you could see the light go on above Mona’s head.

“They think we use birth control!”

“Have they asked about it?” I asked.

“Harvey hasn’t,” answered Gloria.

“Harold hasn’t either,” said Mona.

“Okay, that’s a separate problem. They should be curious about that.”

Gloria, through whatever connections and machinations Kara uses for her purposes, is a licensed physician.

“I’ll write prescriptions for birth control,” she said.

“Gloria,” said Xara, “I don’t think you can write prescriptions for yourself.”

“No one needs a prescription,” I said.

Everyone looked at me.

“Tell them you have IUDs,” I said.

Juliet and Bri-an didn’t know what IUDs were. Kara, Xara and Sharon couldn’t stop giggling while I explained that they wouldn’t get “washed out” during a woman’s period. Gloria didn’t understand what was so funny. Mona just looked confused.

“You two are going to have to make up something to cover your special time of month,” I said.

“What is the ‘special time’?” asked Juliet. “And why is it special?”

I wasn’t going to let this descend into another round of giggles. I took the laptop and did a search and told them to watch the videos.

“Why do you tell us to watch videos?” asked Bri-an. “You’re a Terran. Why can’t you just explain it to us in simple terms?”

“I’m a Terran man,” I replied, “I know Terran man things, not all the Terran woman things. Do Velorian men know all the ins and outs of Velorian women body parts?”

“There’s nothing for them to know,” replied Xara. “For us, it’s just tab a in slot b and suck on these.” For that last part she pushed her boobs up with her hands. Show off. I can’t make them budge without a lot of effort. But she just lifted them like any Terran woman would.

“I don’t need to watch the videos,” said Gloria. “I am a physician. I know how menstrual cycles work.”

“Yes, you do,” I replied. “But you need to learn how to act like you have one.”

That was too much for Sharon. She started laughing so hard she began to fall out of her chair, then started floating up towards the ceiling in hysterics. When she calmed down and regained her seat she said, “Gloria doesn’t need to fake acting like a bitch once a month, she acts like one all the …” She stopped talking when she saw Gloria glaring at her.

“We have to act like bitches to our boyfriends?” asked Mona.

“No,” I said. “Just … no.”

“Xara, you go to school with a lot of Terran women. Please explain it to them,” I said.

Then I got up and went down to the lair.

For the next hour I heard giggles and laughing. Then the giggling and laughing stopped. About 20 minutes later Xara came downstairs, stood behind my chair and put her arms around me and rested her chin on my shoulder.

“Bri-an and Juliet have a favor to ask you. And it’s okay for you to say no.”

“Why are you down here telling me about it instead of them?”

“We thought it would go over better coming from me.”

I turned my chair around and faced her.

“You’re starting to scare me now, Xara.”

“Yes. Well… Sharon and mom were telling Bri-an and Juliet about how they had sex with you with me bridging between them and you in the connection so they could feel what you felt during sex and …”

“They want you to connect them to me while you and I are having sex.”

“Umm, no … they want to have sex with you while I connect them to you.”

“No.”

“Joe, they like you and they want to have this experience.”

“No.”

“Don’t you think they’re beautiful?”

“You’re more beautiful.”

“Aren’t they sexy?”

“You’re sexier.”

“Don’t you find them desirable?”

“I find you more desirable.”

“Is this about your Terran ideas about cheating?”

“This is about you saying I can say no. I’m saying no.”

“Why are you saying no?”

“Xara, I understand the Kiraling relationship, and the expectation that I am open to having sex with my Kiraling mates, but ...,” And then a thought hit me.

“Would you expect me to have sex with Skar-El if he wanted to?”

“No, of course not. Without gold he’d gut you like a fish. With gold he’d badly damage you. Why are you bringing him up?”

“It’s something that just popped into my mind.”

“Back to Juliet and Bri-an. Why won’t you have sex with them?”

“Xara, sometimes you guys make me feel like a sex toy. Like a dildo with a bunch of attachments.”

“You’re Terran, we’re Velorian. But we don’t abuse you.”

“You think of me as a sex toy?!”

“No, Joe, of course not. But the power differential puts us on a higher level.”

“Xara, I could be happy having sex with you, and only you, for the rest of my life. You’re more than enough for me.”

“Of course I’m more than enough for you. Any Velorian would be more than enough for you. Mona would be more than enough for you.

“This is something new, an experience only you and I can give them, and they’d love to have that experience.”

“You can connect with anyone just by touching them, right?”

“Yes.”

“Why don’t you have them find Terran men and do the bridge with them?”

“It wouldn’t be the same. I’m not sure I can go that deep and intimate with just anyone, and Bri-an and Juliet aren’t interested in just any Terran man. They’re interested in you. And besides, that would be a breach of security. Mom wouldn’t allow it.”

All this time Dixon and Johnson were hooting and hollering and jumping up and down and saying I should do it. They were being as annoying as hell. Then, in my head, I heard Xara say, “You guys aren’t helping. Give us some privacy.” And just like that, they were gone.

“How did you do that, Xara? Can you teach me to do that?”

“You know they’re a big part of the reason we decided not to enhance you, don’t you?”

“I suspected as much.”

“Joe, when I tell them to go away, it isn’t me who’s making them do it.

“Let’s not worry about that. I’m going to tell Juliet and Bri-an that you’re not willing, but I’m also going to tell them you’ll think about it. Okay?”

“I’m not going to change my mind about this, Xara.”

“Okay darling.”

And she floated away from me and went upstairs. Five minutes later Bri-an and Juliet came down.

“Joe,” said Bri-an, “Xara told us how you feel. We want you to know that we respect you.”

“Yes,” said Juliet, “while this experience would be novel, we don’t see you as a novelty.”

“Thank you, ladies, I appreciate that.”

They looked at each other, then at me, and Juliet said, “We have never met a Terran man who would turn down the opportunity to have sex with us.”

“Have you ever met a Terran man who has sex with a Velorian, often several times a day, and has sex often with two other Velorians?”

They looked at each other again, and then Bri-an said, “No.” Then they went back upstairs.

Then Gloria came down and pulled up a chair.

“Joe, you should say yes. You have hurt their feelings.”

“Feelings must be the only part of a Supremis that I can hurt.”

“That is true,” she said, “but it hurts nonetheless.”

I sighed and said, “Send Xara down here.”

Gloria left and Xara came down.

“Gloria says I’ve hurt their feelings.”

“A little,” said Xara.

I sighed and said, “I’ll think about it.”

“Oh, thank you, Joe!” And she kissed me.

The next thing I knew Bri-an and Juliet were downstairs and Bri-an said, “Thank you for considering our request.”

Juliet said, “If you consent to this, you will not regret it.”

Well, yeah. No one would regret having sex with a Velorian.

They went back upstairs, and Xara came back downstairs.

“You’ve had quite a night. You’ve answered enough questions about Terran female reproductive cycles to convince everyone upstairs you’re an expert.”

“Yeah. I almost feel like I’m growing a uterus.”

She laughed and said, “Well, don’t. Two of those ladies want to try out your male reproductive organ.”

“Can’t you just tell them about it?”

“Should I just tell you what sex with me is like?”

I can’t win. Even when she tells me I can say no, I can’t win.

The Chief of Police came to Janelle’s City Council office at her request. She told him about the man who came to see her. She didn’t mention the money, or breaking his bones, or crushing the barrel of his pistol.

“These people want to bring their drugs back into the city. I won’t have it.”

By now everyone, including the Chief of Police, knew there was something about Janelle, that she had some kind of power, perhaps a secret organization, that was very effective against the gangs and cartels.

“We are much better off without the drug lords and their organizations, senorita. What would you have me do?”

“Right to the point, Chief. I like that. I would have you do nothing. That is, take no action, but if you or your officers see or hear of any gang activity, relay it to me. And if bodies start turning up, look the other way.”

“Councilwoman Janelle, how do you do it? How do you eliminate these men?”

“Chief, you are much better off not knowing. Just remember, the good people of this city, the good officers of your department, have nothing to fear from me.”

“And the bad people? The bad officers?”

“They should avoid coming to my attention.”

“Councilwoman Janelle, if you come across any ‘bad’ officers, please bring it to my attention and allow me to address the situation.”

“If that is possible, Chief, I will.”

She signaled the meeting was over by standing up and leading the Chief to her door, which she opened for him. As soon as the Chief left, Miguel came into her office.

“Does he suspect who you really are?”

“No. He doesn’t even have a working theory. He will not be a problem, Miguel.”

Two days later Janelle was walking through her neighborhood. It was late and the shops were closed. She had just finished dinner with a family of her constituents when she smelled someone behind her. She didn’t turn around to look, but modified her pace, not enough to be obvious, but enough to cause someone following her to do the same to maintain the distance between them.

She was being followed. As she walked, she pulled out her phone and called Miguel and instructed him to bring the van to a particular alley and park it there.

As she approached the alley, she quickened her pace. To anyone watching it would have looked like she was walking, but the person following her had to break into a jog to keep up. When she got to the alley, she turned into it and flattened herself against a wall.

Her pursuer rounded the corner and passed her without seeing her. It saw a van at the other end of the alley but no sign of Janelle. It was about to turn around to look for her when she came up from behind and struck it at the base of its neck, where it met its right shoulder. She didn’t break any bones, but it was stunned and went to the ground.

Janelle quickly disarmed it, it was carrying a hunting knife and a pistol, and dragged it to the van. Miguel, knowing from experience what to expect, had remembered to put zip ties and blindfolds in the van. He opened the back and Janelle threw her prisoner in. She followed and instructed Miguel to drive them to her playroom outside of town.

While Miguel drove, she bound her prisoner’s hands and feet with zip ties and waited for it to recover.

“Who sent you?” she asked.

There was no reply.

“When you don’t return to wherever you came from, will someone else be sent?”

Again, it didn’t reply.

“Well, that’s alright. I have as much time as I need to get the answers I want.”

When they arrived at the playroom, Janelle carried it inside and instructed Miguel to procure food and water, enough for several days.

She dumped it into the playroom’s holding cell and removed the zip ties. It attacked her, or tried to, and she simply struck it in the solar plexus. It collapsed to its knees until it got its breath back, then stood and tried to attack her again. This time she kicked its testicles. Again, it fell to the floor, and stayed there. Finally, it looked at her and asked, “What are you going to do with me?”

“I’m going to interrogate you.”

“I will tell you nothing!”

“I’m sure that is your plan, but I think your plan will change.”

“I’m not afraid of you!”

“You will be.”

They sat in silence until Miguel returned with the food and water. Janelle opened the door to let Miguel in and her prisoner tried to run past her to get out. She simply grabbed it by an arm and threw it to the opposite wall. It hit its head and was slightly stunned. Not badly, but the fight had been taken out of it.

“This food and water is for you,” she said. “I’ll be back with more every three days.”

“Miguel, please get the buckets.”

Miguel retrieved four buckets, with lids, that were stored in the playroom.

“Use these to relive yourself, and to put your trash in when you are finished eating. The lids seal tightly, so the stink should not be overpowering. See you in a few days.”

Janelle and Miguel left, and Janelle placed the heavy bolt over the door. She signaled to Miguel to be quiet and listen. In a few minutes they heard the frail trying to break out of the holding cell. It spent a good five minutes trying to break down the door, then gave up. Miguel and Janelle left.

“There will be more,” said Janelle, “and we will bring them here. I will make a list of equipment I want you to procure and bring here.”

Chapter 275

Well, Xara didn’t put any pressure on me at all to let Juliet and Bri-an experience sex with me in the connection. None at all. Juliet and Bri-an though …

They started bringing me food. Food they prepared. Cookies, cakes, turkeys, steaks. When asked why, they smiled and said they found TV shows that demonstrated a common Terran technique used by women all over the planet that could be summed up in a simple phrase: The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.

I didn’t laugh at them. Xara didn’t laugh at them. She did note, through the connection, that it wasn’t my heart they were trying to get to. When questioned, we learned that they had been watching old sitcoms from the 50’s and 60’s. Father Knows Best. Ozzie and Harriet. Donna Reed. They said they got Terran child rearing advice by watching Leave it to Beaver.

Anyway, they were bringing me food. You know, these Supremis women look absolutely stunning. They can fly through the air at unimaginable speeds, and even faster through the vacuum of space. They can lift a battleship out of the water. I know because Kara told me she did it once.

Bullets bounce off them. They can emit huge amounts of energy through their eyes.

But for the sake of all that is right and just, they cannot cook. At least these two couldn’t. How can you screw up Tollhouse cookies? They managed it. Xara agreed with me, but we didn’t say anything to them, because we didn’t want to hurt their feelings.

Our house’s digester got a good workout though. When the Kelsorians delivered our house, it came with a digester. The toilets flush into it and the garbage disposal is connected to it. It uses some kind of technology to do what a septic tank does, only much more completely and efficiently.

Bri-an and Juliet would deliver food, watch me and Xara force it down, and after they left, we’d run the leftovers through the garbage disposal. No evidence.

“Xara, they must eat good food. Can’t they tell that this stuff tastes horrible?”

“Joe, when you are a goddess, you think everything you touch turns to diamonds.”

“Don’t you mean turns to gold?”

“Gold? Yuck!”

Well, finally, after eating a slice of an awful cake that was supposed to be chocolate but tasted like … I don’t know what it tasted like. Crap comes to mind, but that would be unfair to crap. I threw in the towel.

“Ladies, you can have sex with me, in Xara’s connection, under one condition.”

“Tell us the condition,” said Juliet, “and we will fulfill it.”

“You have to let me teach you to cook.”

Bri-an turned to Juliet and said, “I told you our food tasted like snaglefuf droppings.”

“I didn’t think he’d be able to tell,” said Juliet.

“What’s a snaglefuf?” I asked.

“A stinky animal on one of the planets I was assigned to before I came here,” said Bri-an.

Juliet said, “Let’s have sex, then we can start cooking lessons.”

“No,” I said. “Cooking lessons first. That’s the condition. What do you want to learn first?”

“Tollhouse cookies!”

They said this in unison. So we jumped into my car and drove to Fred Meyer and looked for the chocolate chips with the recipe on the back and bought everything we needed to make the cookies.

We returned to the house and started making the cookies. I discovered that they had deviated from the recipe by adding more chocolate chips than called for. So I corrected that. Then I discovered that they dispensed with baking completely and used their heat vision.

“No heat vision. We’re going to use the oven.”

“But that takes longer,” said Bri-an.

I told them to be patient. The cookies came out of the oven, and I put them on a rack to cool. They wanted to dig right in. I made them wait. Then we sampled the cookies. By sampled, I mean I ate one and the three Velorians, Xara was here, ate the rest.

“These are delicious,” said Juliet.

“Did you cook everything with your heat vision?” I asked.

“Yes,” replied Juliet.

“There’s your problem,” said Xara. “Cooking requires even heating over time. You’re heating too much and too quickly.”

“Thank you for the cooking lesson, Joe,” said Bri-an.

“Yes, thank you,” said Juliet. “Let’s have sex now.”

“Umm, no. Next time I’ll teach you how to properly brown meat.”

Their faces fell and they turned to Xara. Before they could speak, she said, “Don’t look at me. You have to meet his condition, and he’ll decide when you’ve done that.”

Miguel and Janelle worked in the playroom, installing the new features she wanted. There were chains and pulleys and brackets, and she had pieces of iron that she shaped, with her heat vision and bare hands, into spikes and poles After she completed them, she thought for a moment and decided the spikes needed to have barbed ends. So she reworked them to add the barbs.

They also installed platforms on the floor that could be raised and lowered via a hand crank.

The window from the holding cell to the playroom was reinforced with bars to make sure the frails could see out, when the shutter was open, but not escape through it. In the past she hadn’t cared if a frail got out through the window, there was no place for it to go. But for what she had in mind she wanted the frails to be watching but unable to … interfere. Or attempt to interfere.

She smiled at Miguel’s obvious amazement. He’d seen her do fantastic things, but never something like this, molding iron with her hands and heat vision.

She knew the drug lords would send more assassins after her, so she made it easy for them to find her. She developed a routine where Miguel would drop her off in the evening after work, in a section of the city with poor lighting and very little traffic of any kind after sunset. It was her hope that her opponents would make their move against her there, where she was in control. Her hopes were fulfilled.

Five more assassins were sent for her, one at a time. And she captured each of them in the same alley using the same techniques, with Miguel parked at the end with the van doors opened.

The police chief let Janelle know that inquiries were being made about missing men, men from out of town that no one ever remembered seeing.

When Janelle brought the sixth frail to the holding cell, she threw it in, then went in, closed the door behind her, and stripped all the frails naked. They didn’t like that, but there was nothing they could do to stop her. They did try, and in fact one of them made her angry when it pulled the lid off of one of the latrine buckets and poured the contents over her head.

Her immediate thought was to burn the frail to death, right there. But instead, she got a hose and cleaned up the mess, making sure to shoot an uncomfortably cold stream of water at the offending frail.

After they were all clean, she picked it up by its throat and smiled and said, “I have something very special in mind for you, helpless frail. You aren’t going to like it.”

The frails had, of course, tried during their captivity to escape, and even though they only hurt themselves, they often attacked her when she brought food and water and changed the latrine buckets. This left them with various scrapes and bruises and even a few broken knuckles. She wanted them in good health for what she had in store, so after they tired of attacking her, she would treat their injuries. The attacks always began anew each visit, and it made her giggle. The frails didn’t like that.

Chapter 276

The cooking lessons went well. So well, in fact, that for just a moment I thought the ladies were forgetting about the sex end of the bargain.

We were eating a dinner of the lasagna I taught them to cook when Juliet asked, “How much longer before we have sex?”

In the connection, Xara said, “They’ve been very good about waiting. I don’t think it’s fair to drag this on too long.”

“Next week,” I said, “we’ll learn how to make chocolate mousse and cheesecake. Then we’ll be done.”

“Why would we want a chocolate moose?” asked Bri-an. “Wouldn’t it object?”

I didn’t laugh. “You’re thinking of a m-o-o-s-e as in the animal. The mousse we’re going to make is spelled m-o-u-s-s-e.” Then I got a cookbook and showed them.

Velorians like food. All food. But they are especially fond of desserts. We bought 10” cheesecake pans. We tripled the recipe for chocolate mousse. Then I sent them home with instructions to come back the following Monday.

Word got out. They all showed up. All the Velorians, all the Arions. Gloria and Mona brought Harvey and Harold. I had a house full of beautiful women who couldn’t wait to dig into the cheesecake and chocolate mousse. Gloria, of course, wanted to help. Xara shooed her out of the kitchen for me.

Harvey and Harold were confused.

“Xara, do Mona and Gloria know why I’m teaching Juliet and Bri-an to cook?”

“I don’t think they do.”

“Better make sure Juliet and Bri-an don’t spill the beans in front of Harold and Harvey.”

“I’m on it!”

“Harold,” asked Xara, “We didn’t expect this many guests. Can you go to the store and get the ingredients for making more chocolate mousse?”

“Sure,” he replied. “What do I need to get?”

“I’ll make a list for you,” I said.

“I’ll go with you,” said Harvey.

Harvey and Harold are like Gloria and Mona. They had become friends, so it wasn’t a surprise to anyone that Harvey would offer to go with Harold.

Once they were out the door Xara made sure everyone understood what was going on and warned them not to let Harvey and Harold know. They all promised to be discreet. Even Sharon, though Kara offered that she would keep an eye on her.

“You know, Kara,” I said, “if things keep going this well between the Arions and their boyfriends, we may have a couple of weddings.”

Everyone stopped what they were doing and turned to see Kara’s reaction.

“You might be right, Joseph. Mona, Gloria, if you remain serious with your boyfriends, if you wish to make your arrangements permanent, we’ll have to deal with how to tell them what you, what we are.”

“We understand,” said Gloria. “At this time, I am not planning to marry Harvey. But it is a possibility.”

“I think Harold may ask me to marry him,” said Mona. “I’m not sure yet how I will answer him.”

Kara nodded. Juliet and Bri-an got back to work making cheesecake.

The guys came back, we all had chocolate mousse and cheesecake, and everyone agreed the desserts were delicious. Though we had prepared enough to feed a platoon, the ladies, especially the Velorians, managed to eat it all. They guys and I each had one serving of each dessert.

Juliet and Bri-an were all smiles and grins and were eyeing me like a side of beef. But I had one more task for them.

“Over the past month I have been teaching Juliet and Bri-an to cook. There is only one thing left for them to do.”

“Fuck you into oblivion,” said Xara in the connection. She was laughing, in the connection, when she said it. It is a unique experience.

“Juliet, Bri-an, everyone, let’s coordinate our calendars. In the next two to three weeks, I would like us all to meet back here for a complete dinner prepared and served by Juliet and Bri-an, with no assistance from any of us, other than the use of our kitchen.”

“I’ll provide the wine,” said Sharon.

“No,” I replied, “Juliet and Bri-an are in charge of everything, including libations.”

“You haven’t taught us anything about picking appropriate wine for an occasion,” said Juliet.

“No,” I said, “but I have taught you how to use cookbooks and references. You can do this.”

“You can’t put them off forever,” said Xara in the connection.

“I’m not trying to,” I replied.

“Liar,” said Dixon.

“Big liar,” said Johnson.

“Your loyalty to me and your insistence on keeping your Terran vows are endearing, my darling. But you said yes to Bri-an and Juliet.”

“Under duress,” I retorted.

“What duress?”

“You and Gloria did a good job putting a guilt trip on me. You’re hurting their feelings, you said.”

“It’s not our fault you’re an old softy,” she said, in the connection, with a laugh. It’s a unique experience.

Three weeks later we sat down to a dinner prepared by Juliet and Bri-an. They surprised me, they got creative and fixed a dish I hadn’t taught them: Beef Wellington. Made with a tenderloin cut. And savory duxelles. With Duchess Potatoes. They preceded the main dish with an Arugula Salad. For wine they served Pinot noir, and for dessert they served raspberry trifle.

And of course, because they were Velorians, they went overboard with the amount of food they made. Not overboard for the Supremis at the table, but Harold and Harvey couldn’t believe how much food was on the table. And even though they had seen it before, they couldn’t believe how much food the ladies could eat.

After the meal, while we were all relaxing with glasses of Moscato d’Asti, Juliet asked me how they had done.

“You surpassed my expectations,” I said. “You did very well. Gloria, I think you’ll have some real competition on your hands now.”

“I agree with you, Joe,” replied Gloria. “Juliet, Bri-an, I look forward to cooking with you.”

Juliet and Bri-an were all grins. And then, like they had some kind of silent signal between them, Gloria and Mona took their boyfriends by their hands, stood them up, and walked them out of the house.

And then, like they had some kind of silent signal between them, the blondes all stood up from the table. Xara took me by the hand and started leading me to the bedroom. Halfway there, I turned and looked, and asked, “Sharon, Kara, why are you two coming?”

“We’re going to piggyback,” said Sharon. “Feeling how sex feels to you is very …”

“Rewarding,” finished Kara.

I looked at Xara and opened my mouth to object when I heard her in my head, “Just go with it Joe. You won’t win.”

“She means you can’t win,” said Johnson.

“And we don’t want you to,” said Dixon.

By the time I got to our bed all the blondes were naked. Which didn’t make sense, I was only going to have sex with Bri-an and Juliet. Just as I finished that thought, Xara giggled. Aloud.

“We’re getting all of them!” Hollered Dixon.

I undressed while being assaulted with pheromones. And, of course, I got hard. I laid down on my back on the bed. Bri-an went first. Xara and I were already in the connection. Xara put one hand on my arm and the blondes all put their hands on her.

Bri-an looked at me, puzzled, and asked, “How many men are here? And what’s a ‘rack pack’.

“We talked about how many before,” said Xara. “And the rack pack are us and the Arions. We’ll discuss that later.”

Sharon giggled.

Then Bri-an mounted me, and she sighed. Then I sighed, and as I did so all the women sighed.

“This is an all way connection,” said Xara. “We’ll all feel what Joe feels, and he’ll feel what Bri-an feels. I have to cut him off when Bri-an orgasms because our pleasure is too intense for Joe to bear.”

I heard her say this, I didn’t comment, because I was absorbed by what Bri-an was doing to my erection. It was something neither Xara nor Sharon or Kara had ever done before. That’s one of the Velorian characteristics that I really love. They all have their own individual techniques for sex, and while some techniques are better than others, none of them are bad. I was in heaven.

And then I felt Bri-an approaching her orgasm and I started riding the wave. It got higher and higher and crashed, then started all over again. Each time she orgasmed the wave was higher, until suddenly it got to be too much, and then Xara stopped feeding me what Bri-an felt, and then I had my orgasm.

Afterwards, all the blondes were looking at each other, and at me.

“That was amazing,” said Bri-an. “I had no idea this is what sex feels like for a man.”

Next it was Juliet’s turn, and I checked out. Not literally. While the women’s pheromones are not cumulative, that is, one’s doesn’t add to the others, I was getting lost because all of the ladies were emitting high levels of pheromones. At one point I think I heard Xara acknowledge that, and I heard her in my head telling me to just enjoy the feelings. But I was lost in a cloud of pheromones, and the resulting lust.

I think I was trying to thrust up into Juliet, but wasn’t having much success, because she was controlling our movement. But I don’t remember being frustrated by this. I do remember her orgasms hitting me at the same time I climaxed, and I did feel Xara cut off the feed. But other than that, I wasn’t aware of much. Until the dream started.

It was that day I went hiking, the day I met the blondes. It was like I was reliving the entire day in my dream. Seeing them being carried into the cave, going to the cave, puking before I entered the cave. I even dreamt about the conversation with Dixon and Johnson. I saw the blondes, all tied up with rebar. I heard Kara’s voice. I saw the Beta and felt him crack my rib. The whole thing until I passed out.

I woke up later in Xara’s arms. The other ladies were gone, in another part of the house, and the windows were open.

“Are you okay, darling?” she asked me.

“I feel really wiped out.”

“I’m not surprised. After Juliet was done with you mom and Sharon took turns. Do you remember that?”

“No, not at all.”

“Feeling what you were feeling, it excited them so much that they went completely out of control with their pheromones. It put you into a bad state.”

“That never happens with you,” I said.

“That’s because I’m more experienced, I know how to handle feeling both what I feel and what you feel simultaneously. They don’t.”

I tried to sit up, but when I did that feeling of tiredness got worse, stronger. Xara pushed me down and said, “You need to rest, darling. Stay here, I’ll bring you something to eat and drink a little later.”

“Okay,” I said. And I closed my eyes and fell asleep.

Sometime later I woke up. Xara came into the room almost immediately with a glass of orange juice for me, then left and said she’d be back in a few minutes with a steak.

I sat up in bed to drink the juice. I was still feeling tired. I looked outside, and it was dark. Sharon came in and sat down on the bed and asked how I felt.

“Tired,” I said. “How long have I been out?”

“You slept for fourteen hours,” she replied.

“Really?”

“Yes. I’m afraid we got carried away, Joe. Xara had us all in the connection with you and each other and it was very … stimulating. We would probably still be going if Xara hadn’t made us stop.”

Xara came in with a tray with a steak on it. Medium rare, exactly the way I like it. With mushrooms and a baked potato. And bearnaise sauce.

“Did Juliet and Bri-an make this?”

“Yes,” answered Xara.

I took a bite of steak with the sauce and a mushroom.

“Good Lord! This is delicious!”

Juliet and Bri-an floated into the room.

“You like it?” asked Juliet.

“I love it!” I replied.

Five minutes later I was surrounded by five beautiful blondes stroking my face, rubbing my shoulders, even giving me a foot rub while I ate. When I had finished eating four of them kissed me goodbye and left. Xara pushed me back onto my pillow and told me to go to sleep.

I woke up in the morning feeling refreshed and ready to start my day with a run. Xara wasn’t in bed, so I put on socks, shoes, shorts and a shirt and left the house for a run. Before I got to the end of the driveway Xara was there with me and we completed our run together. Then went back into the house because it was getting cold. When I came out of the shower it was snowing.

The police chief came to see Janelle.

“How may I be of service, chief,” she asked. She liked the chief; she was always polite to him and treated him with respect.

“Senorita, an organization, one of the drug cartels, has been approaching my officers and offering them money to work for them.”

“I see,” said Janelle. “Have any of them taken the offer?”

“No, senorita. They are afraid of the cartels, but they also fear you. They fear for their lives and of their families.”

Janelle nodded. It wouldn’t do. This wouldn’t do to have the police choosing sides, based on who they were more afraid of. And the police, the rank and file, understand that she is more than a doctor and a politician. Interesting.

“Chief, let your officers know that they should be more afraid of me than of the drug lords. But also tell them that I will not abandon them if they support me. I want to know everything the gangs tell them, offer them. I want to know everything the gangs are trying to do here. And I want to hear, immediately, of any threats made against a police officer or his or her family. Immediately. Do you understand?”

“Yes, senorita, I understand. I will tell them.”

After the chief left, Janelle called Miguel into her office.

“Take me to my playroom, Miguel. Then park in the usual spot and stay with the car.”

The “usual spot” was a location far enough from the playroom where Miguel would not hear any screams, provided he had the radio turned up loud enough.

Miguel was a good man, but he had no stomach for the kind of entertainment that Janelle enjoyed so much, and she loved and respected him enough to want to spare him from unnecessary upset.

They drove to the playroom and Janelle got out of the car. Miguel drove off to his parking place. Janelle entered the playroom, undressed, then entered the holding pen. At this point, she had six frails in it. All of them naked.

This time, none of them attacked. Janelle released just enough of her pheromones to cause them to become erect, then smiled at their discomfort as they tried to cover themselves with their hands. One of them was much too large to be covered by its hands.

“I have held you here long enough. It is now time for you to answer my questions. You are all going to die by my hand. Or my eyes. One of you will die in my vagina. The one who is the most forthcoming with answers, and is the most informative, will get a quick painless death. The rest of you will suffer and scream for me. You will beg me for mercy. You will call out for your mothers. They will not hear you.”

The one who had covered her with excrement spat back, “We will tell you nothing, bitch!”

“We’ll start with you, then,” she replied.

This suited her purposes well. She had been planning this one’s death since it threw shit all over her. She grabbed it by an arm and started dragging it out of the holding pen. The others tried to rescue it, which just made her laugh. She easily pushed them away and pulled their doomed comrade into the playroom proper. The window to the holding cell was open, so they could see what she was doing.

She bound it with zip ties, then set up the barbed spike in its stand and lowered a set of chains from the ceiling. She attached the chain to the zip tie holding the frail’s wrists together and hoisted it up, above the spike.

Then she turned her heat vision onto the spike. She heated it until it glowed red, then until the upper six inches were white hot. She then began lowering the frail down towards it.

The frail figured out what was happening and began to struggle. It begged her for mercy. It promised to answer all her questions. It promised to give her all its money and possessions. When it was low enough for its feet to come into contact with the spike, she broke the zip tie holding them together, then began positioning its anus over the spike.

The frail struggled and kicked, but it made no difference. When the frail was a few inches from the tip of the spike, she paused while she reheated it with her heat vision, then lowered the frail down onto it, positioning it so that the spike penetrated its rectum.

The screams were so loud that Janelle wondered if Miguel could hear them. And, as predicted, it called out for its mother, which made Janelle laugh.

Despite the heat of the spike, which was high enough to cauterize wounds. Blood flowed down and turned to a red steam or mist as she lowered the frail further.

The platform around the spike was set high enough that after being penetrated five inches, the frail’s toes could touch it. She lowered the frail down until she saw that it was supporting its weight on the balls of its feet. Then she let the chains slacken a bit. Then she went to the holding pen window and watched with her prisoners.

The frail was weakening. He’d lower his weight a bit, scream as the pain went up, then try to lift himself up higher, which caused the barbs on the spike to rip into his soft tissues and cause more pain.

“I’ve studied impalement,” said Janelle. The spike it is on is pointed and barbed, so as it lowers its weight, its internal organs will be pierced. It shouldn’t last long.”

And it didn’t. Its legs gave out, it screamed as its weight pulled it down on the spike, and blood began gushing out of its rectum down the spike, and finally it stopped screaming and struggling and breathed its last.

Janelle got her other spike and showed it to the frails.

“As you can see, this one is rounded, so it won’t penetrate the vital organs, it will just push them aside. Whichever of you is on this one will last a while longer, and the immediate pain won’t be quite as bad, but it will still be more than you can withstand.

“Who wants to talk to me?”

They all wanted to talk to her. She laughed and said, “We have plenty of time to get to my questions. Let’s take a break. You,” she said, pointing to the frail with the big dick, “go to the door and wait for me.”

It didn’t move. That made Janelle giggle.

“Perhaps, after what you have just seen, you don’t have the courage to come out here with me. I promise you, I will not do to you what I did to your friend. What you and I are going to do now will be much easier for you. Now, go to the door, or I will replace your friend on the spike with you.”

It went to the door, trembling and almost crying.

Janelle went to the door, took it by the hand, and gently led it into the playroom.

“Wait here,” she said.

She fetched a blanket and put it down on the floor.

“Lie down on the blanket, on your back.”

It did as it was told.

Janelle released her pheromones again and when the frail was erect, she mounted it.

As she lowered herself down on its erection, it sighed with pleasure and started to thrust. Janelle squeezed its erection, it stopped thrusting and said, “You are hurting me.”

“Lie there. Don’t move your hips. Let me do all the work. We’ll both enjoy it more.”

It nodded, and Janelle relaxed her grip, then began moving up and down. Slowly at first, then increasing her speed. As she did so, she used her internal muscles to massage the frails penis in ways it had never felt before, and soon it shuddered and ejaculated into her.

“Did you enjoy that?” she asked it.

“Yes,” it said. “Were you satisfied?” it asked.

“No,” she replied, “but I will be.”

She had been slowly releasing her pheromones, so the frail stayed erect. She continued her motion but started moving up and down faster. And because the frail was as hard as it could be, but nowhere near as hard as a Primal mail would have been, she reached between her legs and found her clitoris and started pleasuring herself with her fingers.

She moved faster and faster, and soon the frail ejaculated again, and Janelle had an orgasm. As she came down, she noted, proudly, that the frail was uninjured.

“My record,” she told it, “is three orgasms before I kill my sex toy. It’s been so long since I’ve used one of you, I don’t think you’ll last that long.”

And she was right. During her second orgasm she was aware that the frail beneath her was screaming, as were the frails in the holding pen. And then, as her orgasm faded, the frail beneath her stopped screaming.

She closed her eyes and luxuriated in the afterglow of her orgasm, then looked down and saw the frail, eyes looking up to the ceiling, mouth opened in a silent scream, rib cage and pelvis crushed and bloody.

She looked at the frails in the holding pen and said, “Sex, for me isn’t all pleasure. I always have a mess to clean when I’m done.”

She threw the frail into a corner of the playroom, then pulled the other one off the spike and threw it on top of the first frail. As she incinerated and vaporized their bodies with her heat vision the fans came on and vented the smoke and ash outside.

There was still some blood on the floor around the spike, but she thought she’d take care of that later. She hadn’t finished making a mess.

She went into the holding cell and ordered the frails to sit down. She sat down with them.

“Now, tell me, who do you work for.”

They told her. They were part of one of the most powerful and feared cartels in Central America. This raised a question in her mind, so she asked, “How many cartels are there?”

More than she thought. But this cartel, the one these frails belonged to, was headquartered in the country that bordered hers to the north. The head of the cartel had an opulent palace, or estate, in the mountains.

“The mountains,” thought Janelle, “these frails seem to really love their mountains.”

They gave her names, phone numbers, addresses, at one point she had to stop them. She ran out of the playroom, naked, to Miguel and told him to go into town and come back with food and other items.

She went back into the playroom and sat down with her prisoners.

“I’ve sent my assistant to bring food and pens, notebooks and maps. I want everything you are telling me written down.”

One of her prisoners, feeling a little brave, asked, “Senorita, who are you? What are you?”

“Ah,” she replied, “that is an astute question. I am what you would call an E.T. I come from another planet, populated by beings much superior to you in strength, toughness and intellect.”

After what they’d seen her do, they didn’t doubt her.

“Why are you here?” it asked.

“My planet is involved in a war to conquer other inhabited planets. I am here as an experiment, to see if a planet can be taken over with means other than brute force.”

The frail was feeling braver. “Senorita, all I have seen from you is brute force.”

She nodded and said, “True, but it is force with an objective. The gangs here oppress the people. Many in leadership here cooperate in that oppression. I am here to see if there is a way to conquer this planet by winning the cooperation of the inhabitants. Quite accidentally, I discovered that by eliminating the perpetrators of crime and corruption, I can gain the support of the citizenry. I am attempting to show the people of this planet that my planet can rule them better, give them better lives, than their own native leadership.

“But I am not so naïve to believe that everyone will recognize me as a benevolent force and refrain from crime and corruption. So those who oppose me will die. Those who cooperate with me will be protected.”

“We’re cooperating with you,” said the brave one.

Janelle smiled and said, “One of you came to my office with a bribe. He wanted me to allow your cartel to operate in my city while I looked the other way. I kept its money and told it no, you may not come here, and if you try, I will kill you and any others who come here. You came here with the intention of killing me. You will die.

“I will show mercy to one of you, by killing you quickly and painlessly. Think of yourselves as contestants in one of your televised game shows. You are competing for the merciful death. This competition should be fun for you. It is for me.”

Janelle knew, of course, that nothing that was happening to these frails was fun for them. She just wanted to further establish that she was in total control.

Janelle told them more about the Arion Empire, and about how she became familiar with their species when her family was stationed on a mining planet.

When Miguel arrived, she distributed the food he brought among her prisoners, and then resumed her interrogation, going over everything the frails had told her and having them write it down and mark locations on maps. She also took her own notes.

After six hours she told the frails they would continue in the morning. She knew Miguel was getting tired and Jaunita might be worrying about him. She dressed and had Miguel drive her home, with instructions to pick her up mid-morning.

In the morning, on the drive back to the playroom, Janelle went over the notes and maps and decided that she had enough information to act on. She no longer needed her prisoners.

When she got to the playroom she undressed and entered the holding cell with food she had brought. She watched the frails eat then took one by the hand, stood up, and headed for the door. This frightened the frail, and it began to beg for its life. Jannelle smiled at it and pulled it through the door and knocked it down, on its stomach, and zip tied its hands behind its back.

She then retrieved one of the stakes with a rounded end, greased it, got down on the floor next to the frail, who was trembling and crying and pleading, and began to work the spike up its rectum. She was pleased that the grease allowed her to push the spike into it without doing too much damage. She wanted this one to last awhile.

When she had the stake a few feet into the frails body, she picked it up and took it to the platform, and raised the stake and the frail into a vertical position and placed the bottom of the stake into a holder, so it would stay upright.

The frail screamed and cried, and it tried to squirm and fight the stake, but that just made it slide down the stake further, which hurt even more, so it stopped struggling.

Three down, three to go. She dressed and went out to the car and told Miguel to drive her back into town. When she got a cell signal, she called the chief of police and asked him to meet her at her clinic.

When they had both arrived at the clinic Janelle invited him into her office, with Miguel. She laid out the notes and the maps and asked the chief if he had anyway to find out when the head of the cartel would be at his estate.

By this time the chief had given up trying to get Janelle to tell him where she got her information, he didn’t even try. He said he might be able to get the information for her and would let her know. Janelle thanked him and dismissed him.

“Miguel, we’re going to do a little bit of reconnaissance. We’re going to see how close we can get to this estate. Tell Jaunita you will be gone for a few days, and tell her not to worry, you will be safe. Pack what you will need. We’ll take the van.”

Chapter 277

It was snowing. And there was a Messenger in town. And we only had a week until the Scalantrans would show up to collect the cats, and we hadn’t captured any yet. And when I say we, I mean Xara. Because it’s ridiculously easy for her and nearly impossible for me to go out into the woods and catch feral cats.

So for three days Xara went to school during the day and spent her nights on the moon with the other blondes taking turns with the Messenger. It wasn’t Skar-El, who was the only Messenger I was on a first name basis with. Xara said it was someone I had never met.

At the end of the three days, she went out into the woods and found the cats we needed. 15 male and 15 female, per the order the Fesussians had put in. A couple of them were pretty skinny, and they went at the food I gave them, canned tuna, with great gusto. For a cat, anyway.

I never talk to Xara, or any of the Supremis, about her trysts with Messengers. Talking about it would only make it worse. But I did talk about it with Dixon and Johnson. They always pointed out, always, that when Xara came back from her time with a Messenger, she glowed. She just glowed. And she smiled a lot. And was in a very good mood.

I wanted to talk to her about it. Or to Sharon or Kara. But I didn’t think it would do me any good. In fact, it would probably make me feel worse. So I kept it between me, Dixon and Johnson. I was surprised when Xara brought it up. I shouldn’t have been, because of how much time she spends in my head.

We had fed the cats and covered the cages and had settled into bed. She pulled me close to her and asked, “Joe, do you remember dreaming about the day we met, when Bri-an and Juliet were here, in bed, with you?”

“I do. Was that you?”

“Yes. Bri-an and Juliet wanted to see what it was like for a Terran to go up against Arions, to take the fight to them, and live. That never happens, Joe. What we saw on Xanadu, that’s what happens.

“Now they see in you what I see in you. What mom and Sharon sees in you. What Skar-El sees in you. You know he tried to run when the Arions captured us. He wasn’t going to try and fight the Arions with us. He was going to abandon us.

“I don’t think any Messenger would have fought for us, Joe. That’s not what they do. But you did, and I love you for it. Messengers can do one thing for me. Only one. It’s an important thing, but I don’t love them for it. I love you. Do you understand?”

“I do.”

“Good. Now, let me do for you something no Terran woman can.”

We made love for an hour. Velorians, with their pheromones, can make a man last for as long as they want. When we were finished, and by that, I mean when she was finished, she kissed me and said, “Oh, I forgot, Velor is sending a psychologist to interview us.”

“What? Why?”

“She’s studying the Kiraling relationship. Terran Kiralings are rare. A quadruple Kiraling is unheard of. She wants to talk to you and me and mom and Sharon.”

“Skar-El too?”

“I don’t know. Maybe she’s already talked to him. She didn’t ask him to be available when the rest of us are.”

“When is she coming?”

“I don’t know. Soon, I think.”

Janelle had Miguel park the van off the road. Then she uprooted a few small trees and used them to camouflage its position. When she was satisfied that no one would see it from the road she put on her pack, had Miguel put on his, and then started making her way up the mountain.

It was an easy climb for her, but not for Miguel. She anticipated this and helped him along, even putting him on her back in places where the climb was nearly vertical. When they reached the top, she had him lean back against a tree to catch his breath while she went about building a hide for them. When it was complete, she brought Miguel into it.

From the hide they could see the estate of the cartel kingpin. With Miguel using binoculars, and she using her amazing eyes, they mapped out the estate, paying special attention to the guard posts.

They watched the estate for two days, noting the comings and goings of various people. When Janelle was satisfied they had gathered all the information they could, she and Miguel went back down the mountain, to the van, and drove home.

Miguel was exhausted, so she gave him the next day off and drove to the playroom by herself, bringing food for her prisoners. When she arrived, she was surprised, and happy, to see the frail on the stake was still alive. It had slid down the stake to where its feet contacted the platform, and though in very bad shape, it managed to keep its weight from pulling it down lower.

She undressed, took the food into the holding cell and told the three remaining frails to watch what she was going to do to their friend.

She went back into the playroom, to the frail on the stake, and reaching down, put a hand around each of its shins and squeezed until she broke its legs. Now it couldn’t hold its weight up. It screamed in agony and sank lower onto the stake. She gave it a little push on its left shoulder and the stake broke through the skin of its right shoulder. It gasped for air a few times and then died.

She pulled it off the stake and tossed it aside. Then went back into the playroom, grabbed another frail, dragged it out and, without bothering to tie its arms or legs, picked it up, positioned it over the stake and slammed it down.

It screamed. The two frails in the holding cell screamed. They all screamed again when she broke its legs, then left it there, arms flailing, trying to find a way to grip the stake and stop its agonizing slide down it. It failed. Janelle left it there to die then dragged one of the remaining two frails from the holding cell into the playroom.

It cried and begged for mercy. Janelle smiled at it and said, “Yes, I will give you mercy. You won the contest, you get the quick, painless death. Kneel and face your friend in the holding cell.”

Sobbing, the frail did as it was told. Janelle leaned down and said in its ear, “No pain. I promised you that, and I keep my promises.” Then with a move so fast the frail in the holding cell couldn’t follow it, she broke its neck and let it fall to the floor.

She looked at the last frail in the holding cell and said, “You lost the contest; I have something special in mind for you.”

Chapter 278

Usually when the Scalantrans and Fesussians arrive it is in a cloaked shuttle surrounded by a storm. Lots of wind and rain. This time it was lots of wind and snow. It snowed like hell. Partly because a low pressure system came in from the coast and collided with a cold front from the Fraiser Valley, and partly because the Scalantrans did whatever it was they did to make a storm. There was already snow on the ground. It was already snowing. The Scalantrans storm added to it.

The Fesussians were fascinated by it. They came on to the deck, then walked back onto the lawn and stared up at the snow. Then looked down and wriggled their three toes in it. They bent both heads down to examine it closely. One put out a tongue to taste it, then the other two did the same. With both heads.

The Scalantran said something in Fesussian that got their attention and they trudged into the house. Each of them used one head to examine the snow on the fur of the other two and watch it melt.

We had cats, food and litter. The Fesussians were pleased. They especially appreciated the cat carriers. We’d always made cages before. The Scalantrans gave Xara a tablet (Kara wasn’t here for this transaction) and Xara did whatever it was she did to sign it, then the Fesussians signed it, then the Scalantrans tapped on it and showed it to Xara and she, in Velorian, confirmed that the payment was indeed what had been contracted.

The Fesussians carried the cats, food and litter into the shuttle then came back out to gawk at the snow. I winked at Xara and said, “Let’s show them a snowball fight.”

We each made snowballs and threw them at each other, and the Fesussians got really excited. Their fur was changing color rapidly in all the colors of the rainbow. They leaned down and collected snow in their mouths, compressed it, reared their neck stalks back, and threw snowballs. Then Xara threw a snowball at one of them and they all stopped and looked at her, then each other, and then, almost in unison, scooped up snow into their mouths, compressed it into snowballs, and threw it at the Scalantran.

He, or she, or it, I don’t know, was not amused. He/she/it raised his/her/its voice and shouted at them in Fesussian (I suppose) and pointed at the shuttle. They all got on.  The Scalantran bowed to Xara, boarded the shuttle, which was cloaked, so Im watching these things just disappear from view when they enter it, and left. I couldn’t see it leave, but Xara could, and no sooner had it left than the snow let up. It didn’t stop completely, but it was coming down slower.

Xara and I went back inside and sat down, and she looked at me and said, “We’re rich, Joe.”

“I thought we were already rich,” I said.

“We were Terran rich. Now we’re Enlightenment rich. The Scalantrans raised the price of cats to the Fesussians and raised our commission. I think we can afford a space habitat now. When I was with the Messenger, I told him I wanted to talk to the Kelsorians about it. He’s going to get the message to them.

The police chief contacted Janelle, and he had good news for her, great news, in fact. He didn’t know it was great new, but He could see he made Janelle very happy.

The head of the cartel was planning a party in a few days time. He would have many guests there from the local underworld and some politicians from both his country and the country Janelle was in. No one from the city council, which was a shame, but still, an opportunity.

Janelle had Miguel buy some chains. Heavy enough to hold a frail who would be subjected to a bit of acceleration.

Three days before the party Janelle took the last remaining frail from the holding cell and, using chains that were already in the playroom, secured it to the wall in such a way that it couldn’t move.

It was naked, Janelle had destroyed its clothing. Once it was secured, she came very close, kissed it, and said, “I’m going to use you to send a message.”

“What message,” it asked.

“This one,” she said.

Then, using her heat vision, she burned, onto its forehead, “I told you to say out.”

The frail screamed. She laughed, then held up a mirror so it could appreciate her artwork.

Next, she burned the same message onto its chest, then onto its abdomen. Then she turned it around and burned the message onto its back, then each of its butt cheeks.

“I’m going to return you to your employer,” she said. “I can’t predict the shape you will be in when you arrive, so I’ve made six copies of my message. At least one of them should survive.”

“What are you going to do to me?” it asked.

“Return you to your employer, I told you,” she answered.

“Are you going to kill me?” it asked.

“You’re going to die, but not here,” she replied.

“Can I send a message to my family? I have a wife and children.”

“No, I’m afraid not,” she replied.

Janelle took it down off the wall, pushed it to the floor and tied its hands and ankles. She went out to the van and told Miguel to drive it up to the door. When he arrived, she invited him to come see her handiwork. She knew it distressed him, but for Skietra’s sake, she had carved her message six times, in cursive, and every letter was perfect, and she had to show off.

He didn’t seem to appreciate it. That was okay. They loaded the frail into the back of the van and made the long drive to the other country, to the mountain above the cartel leader’s estate, and up to the hide Janelle had made on their previous trip.

Then it was just a matter of observing the estate, seeing how tables and chairs, and a bar, and stoves were being set up for the party.

When the guests had arrived, the sun had set, and the party was well under way, with a band and dancing and a dance floor, and alcohol flowing like water from a river, Janelle took the new chains Miguel had bought and wrapped the frail in them.

Miguel watched her work and didn’t understand the purpose.

“Senorita, that looks like a very complicated procedure.”

“It is, Miguel,” she answered. “I’m going to spin him like a top and release him. I have this length of chain to hold while I build up momentum, then when I release it, the rest of the chain will unwrap, and he’ll spin.”

“Why are you doing this?”

She smiled and said, “You’ll see.”

They had brought lanterns with them, wrapped in red film. Janelle didn’t need them, but she wanted Miguel to be able to see what she was doing. The lanterns were not visible from the estate below.

When Janelle was ready, she stood the frail up and took him to a small clearing she had made. She held on to two lengths of chain, one in each hand, and began turning around in a circle, increasing her speed. At first the frail was dragged along the ground, but as Janelle’s speed increased, it lifted off the ground. She spun around faster and faster and when she judged she had built up enough momentum, she released the length of chain in her left hand and the frail began spinning, like a top, out and away from her. It screamed at first, but then stopped. The angular momentum was causing the chain to compress his chest and diaphragm and it had to use all his energy to continue breathing.

Her timing was perfect. The frail came to the last winding of the chain at the perfect position and sailed up and away in a high arc and came down on the dance floor. The band was on a break and there was no one on the dance floor, so he didn’t hit anyone. He just hit the floor with a splat.

People began running around waving their hands. After a couple of seconds of this, the sound of screams reached Janelle and Miguel. Suddenly, there were armed men everywhere, taking up positions around the dance floor trying to figure out if there was a threat, obviously, and where it came from. A few lifted the estate owner off his feet and rushed him into the house.

Miguel couldn’t tell, but Janelle could see well enough to know that at least one of the frails buttocks was undamaged enough to read the message.

Janelle and Miguel took down the hide and packed up all evidence that they had been there. And then Janelle put Miguel on her back and headed back down the mountain to the van. When they got there and Janelle put Miguel down, he winced a bit. She examined him quickly and saw that he sustained some bruising on the way down.

“I am sorry, Miguel, but it was important that we move quickly. I’ll drive.”

And they left.