Archive-name: Fantasy/mindstar.05
Archive-author: Jeff Buser - (C) 1990
Archive-title: Those Of A Mindstar Born - 5


At the meeting, it was decided to allow the ejaculoid to stay at Carli's and 
recover.  Kate had already removed the prophylactan to her own quarters where 
it had died within twenty four hours of removal from the 'jac.  The 
post-mortem had shown nothing which was not already known.  Maria mentioned 
that a source at the starport had told her people that a free trader which 
was now rummaging about the moons of the planet for valuable minerals had 
contacted the government about the Prophylactan ship but had been rebuffed 
for unknown reasons.  Carli offered to try to get a message through if the 
ship sent down any cargo shuttles for groundside goods.  Wendy suggested it 
might help the 'jac if everybody sat with it for a while; everyone in the 
room keyed several different available times into the local net and it 
generated a schedule.  Sarah asked if Wendy would perform a security check on 
the local net they were using since a lot of sensitive data was being entered 
and she agreed.

There were several guests who had not been there at the previous meeting and 
one suggested using 'jac juice as a lure to entice the Prophylactans away 
from their victims where they could be killed with weapons.  Volunteers were 
selected and an evening chosen for a trip to the natural sectors.  Sarah 
seemed more intense than ever and by the end of the evening, everyone was 
filled with excitement and hope for accomplishment.

After the meeting, Wendy and Carli made love.  They looked in on the 'jac and 
returned to bed.  As they lay there, Wendy felt her melancholy slowly seep 
back into her.

"How will you get a message to the ship?  You don't even know if anyone there 
really knows anything, much less who to contact or why they're interested".

"This ship's been here before, so they know that we'll pay for any 
information that might help us.  So I figure, now that they know the 
government isn't going to deal with them officially they'll have feelers out 
among their groundside crews for unofficial channels".

"But even if they do know something, what can we offer?  We're not the 
government, you know.  I mean, if the council won't talk to them maybe they 
know something we don't".

"There's only one way to find out.  Besides, every time a ship comes in 
somebody has something they want to smuggle in or out.  Maybe turning my head 
is all it'll take to get their cooperation".

"I don't want you to get in any trouble.  It's too early to . . ."

"I'm not going to get into any trouble.  Don't worry about me.  We all have 
to take risks sometimes, and this isn't a very big one".

But Carli's enthusiasm was not contagious, and Wendy pressed her body close 
to her lover until morning, even through sleep.  Wendy awoke and looked at 
the clock.  It was still more than an hour before she needed to be up, but 
she could not fall back asleep.  She kept thinking of the time before the 
invasion, the time before she had felt this awful burden of responsibility 
for another race.

She was in control systems training in another compound, halfway around the 
planet.  She was used to the Capitol; the towering seedship monument and all 
the sealed domes and passages at the center of the sprawling outskirts made 
this gathering of a few dozen major structures seem tiny by comparison.  
There were probably no more than a thousand inhabitants, and not much in the 
way of culture.  Wendy spent most of her spare time on the roof of her 
residential unit, entertained by the flyjacs that nested there.  This day she 
was studying, and had just returned to the roof with another crystal for her 
reader when she stepped in a puddle of cream which had run down from the 
corner where the flyjacs nested.  She flopped heavily onto the old-style 
mechanical lounger and lifed her foot onto her knee to wipe off the discharge 
when two of the flyjacs fluttered down onto her leg.  Wendy was amazed; she 
had never seen a flyjac get this close to a human before.  As she watched, 
motionless, the 'jacs crawled over her ankle and clung to her foot with a 
funny-feeling suction.  Their wings still beating for balance, they sucked 
her foot clean and flew off.

Wendy had an idea.  She walked to the puddle in which she had just stepped 
and scooped up an overflowing amount with both her hands.  She walked back to 
the lounger and reclined in it, opening her hands over her body and smearing 
her shoulders and chest with the fluid.  The flyjacs once again came to rest 
on her legs, shuffling up toward her body with what Wendy assumed was their 
suction orifice.  The 'jacs covered every inch of Wendy's body that had the 
cream on it with gentle suction and amazingly dexterous mouths.  Upon closer 
observation, Wendy noticed that the 'jacs had long, liplike organs which 
folded into the bottoms of their bodies during flight but which they used to 
eat and crawl when on the ground.

The lips seemed to stretch and pull Wendy's skin in a thousand directions at 
once to expose the fluid to the suction cavity.  The effect was tantalizing. 
By now Wendy had experienced several human lovers but none of them had been 
like this.  As the 'jacs covered her breasts, Wendy moved her hand to her 
crotch, slowly pressing and rubbing her rapidly moistening mound.  As her 
nipples hardened, their contours made it more difficult for the 'jacs to suck 
the jism off and they redoubled their efforts in that area; they sucked first 
at one impossibly tiny point and then instantly expanded their openings to 
engulf the whole erection.  After a few moments of this, Wendy was breathing 
hard and her fingers were rubbing her clit directly, stopping periodically to 
plunge into her vagina and rotate for a short time before returning to her 
clit.

Suddenly the roof door opened, and before the startled flyjacs took to flight 
she heard a human voice.

"Wendy, are you up . . .  Oh, shit, that's really sick".

It was Treece, who Wendy had forgotten she had invited over to study.  
Wendy's roommate must have told her to look on the roof.  Wendy rolled onto 
her side to face the door, smiling, face as red as sunset.

"Sorry, Treece, I didn't realize what time . . ."

But Treece had apparently only stayed this long to look Wendy in the face 
with the look of revulsion frozen onto her features since she had opened the 
door.

"Forget it.  Just forget it.  You need help".

And then she was gone.  Wendy lay back and started to cry.  Eventually the 
flyjacs returned, but she batted them away with her hand and they left her 
alone on the roof.  No one said anything to her about it, which made it worse 
since Wendy really saw nothing wrong with what she had done, but there were 
rumors, and little snickers behind her back that she ignored.

When overall evaluation results were announced and she had top honors
everyone applauded, but behind their eyes there was still that look that said 
'Well, genius has it's price'.  Knowing she was no genius didn't help; she 
had been more surprised than anyone else at her status.  There were others 
(not many, but enough) with superior technical ability, others with more 
sheer intellegence, but Wendy always seemed to be the one who knew what the 
evaluation staff thought was important.

Laying there, the thoughts of her past washing over her, Wendy smiled. 
Empathy has it's price.

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