Archive-name: JourEntr/j671-210.txt
Archive-author: Elf Matheiu Sternberg
Archive-title: Kathy's Tattoo


Journal Entry 210 / 0671

     I was bent over my workbench, diligently trying to get the macro-
engineered parts of the food processor working.  Not that I felt we
needed it, mind you; Pan and P'nyssa were doing more than their fair
share of work keeping us fed, but it would be nice to have an additional
source of food, especially something programmable.  Okay, there is
something viceral in eating food you've killed yourself, but I wanted
other things as well.  Like caffeine.

     I heard the door to the repair and maintenance center open, and I
judged from the pattern and weight of footfalls that it was probably
Kathy.  As she walked closer her scent rolled over me, and my judgement
was confirmed.  She walked up behind me and put her hand on my shoulder.

     I whirled, grabbing her hand and in one sweeping motion picking up
the other as well, hoisted them up over head and leaned her against the
back wall of the room.  She whimpered slightly and I smiled, leaning
down and over to kiss her neck, when she said something.  Something I'd
never heard her say before, something shocking, and it stopped me in my
tracks.

     Our safeword.

     I released her hands.  "What's wrong, sweetheart?" I asked.

     "I... I can't, Ken.  Not now."  She smiled a weak smile.  "You
know, when we... play at our little games, well.. you remember how I was
in the beginning.  We started this because it made me feel attached to
something, it gave me a sense that somebody understood me.  But now I
can't.  I'm sorry.  You and Pan, you both mean well, and you mean so
much to me, but right now I feel very lost, and tying me down isn't
going to help."

     I nodded.  She continued, "Right now, I just need a hug."  I looked
at her face, and tears welled in her eyes.  I pulled her close to me and
wrapped my arms around her, holding her close.  As she cried.

     I felt very awkward; I never know what to do when somebody,
anybody, is crying in my arms.  I want to say something and I know that
anything I say will be wrong, so I wait and hope that holding is enough.

     After a while the sobs eased a little, and she wiped the tears from
her eyes.  She'd gotten my tunic a little wet as well, but I didn't
care.  She sniffled.  "We're not getting out of here, are we?"

     "I wouldn't say that.  Pan's got the linear signal going, and we've
got food, water, shelter, clothes."

     "They think we're dead, Ken.  According to Pan's calculations,
those two weeks in statis put us sixty years in the future from when we
were attacked.  We're shipwrecked, and even Pendor gives up after a
while."  Her tears were still flowing.

     Yeah, and we cracked the ship up pretty bad.  Mark 454 Starcruisers
take a lot of damage, and the landing 'pressors had held up just long
enough; we'd been only four meters above the surface when pressor seven
died, tipping the ship over and smacking us into the ground.  Here we
were, seven stranded castaways... when I think of it that way, I feel
like singing "Gilligan's Island," but Chroff has promised to slug me if
I do.

     She wiped away the tears.  "I never... never did get a chance to
show you my tattoo, did I?"

     "You've a tattoo?  Kathy, I've seen you without your clothes at
least a dozen times since we boarded the 'Elen.  Where are you hiding a
tattoo?"

     "Watch.  Pedro, turn the lights down to ten percent, would you?"

     The lights dimmed slowly as she backed away from me and unzipped
her grey jumpsuit.  She smiled as she slid it over her hips, and I
winked back, getting a laugh from her.  Although she'd let her pubic
hair grow back, it was only a light blond fuzz and the feather-and-stone
charm I'd given her hung clearly from it's stainless steel hook in her
labia.  I couldn't see the lock, but I assumed it was there.

     She turned her back on me as the light reached their most dim, and
she swept her hair over one shoulder, exposing her entire back.  I
watched her closely, and I noticed a slight, dim glow emanating from the
small of her back.  It was a handsome coppery color, and it began to
grow in intensity and spread up towards her shoulderblades and downwards
towards her butt.

     The glow at the center seemed to stop growing in intensity, a
little less than a candle in strength, and I could see that the image
itself was resolving.

     The glow came from thousands of small spots a few millimeteres
across on a side, and I realized I was looking at a dragon.  The head
was at her right shoulderblade looking left, it's wings across her back.
The tail trailed her left leg and stopped right above her knee, and the
talons were visible on her right buttock and hip.  The coppery color
flowed and shimmered, and the spaces between the spots became more
obvious, resolving into scales.  I was impressed with the technology,
but more than that I was impressed with artwork.  It was beautiful.

     "Kathy?"

     "Yeah?"

     "Can I have a photograph of this for my wall?"

     "You like it?"

     "Like it?" I said.  "It's incredible.  Who did this?"

     "The artwork is Pan's."  She turned around and walked back over to
me, sitting naked in my lap.  "He did it for me a few months ago, as a
painting, and I had Dr. Temgif transfer the image onto me."

     I tentatively put my hand against her back, and stroked her skin.
She cooed at my touched, and it felt like normal skin.  "What is it?" I
asked.

     "It's just a light-emitting tattoo."

     "Does it hurt?"

     "What now?  Or getting it?"

     "Both."

     "Well, now it doesn't hurt at all.  It feels like my normal skin,
and really that's all it is.  I don't notice it at all, and there's no
change in my perception of touch.

     "Getting it didn't hurt, not really.  It's a lot more boring than
you think.  It's not like getting a normal tattoo, it's more of a
nanotech thing.  I got to sit in a zero-g chamber for about sixteen
hours with needles in both arms and a rotating scanner running along my
body while my back itched like crazy as they installed the entire
matrix."

     "Oh, so it's basically a subcutaneous installation."

     "Yeah."

     "It's neat," I said, scratching her back casually, now reassured
that I couldn't damage the artwork and that she could appreciate my
stroking.  It was fascinating watching the glow ripple under my
fingertips.  I kissed her neck.

     "Hey, you've got work to do," she said, rising and grabbing for her
coveralls.

     I seized her wrist.  "Wait."

     "What?"

     "Sit down, please?"  She sat back down on my lap.  "Kathy, have we
ever... made love?"

     She smiled, dimly illustrated by the light of her tattoo.  "Lot's
of times... but not just... together.  Why?  Do you want to?"

     "It would be nice," I said, my fingers softly caressing the her
nipples.

     She looked down at me and kissed my forehead, working her way over
my nose and down to my lips.  In the soft light of her tattoo the whole
world became a gentle, coppery glow, and I said, "Pedro, lower the
lights all the way."

     She smiled.  "You really like my tattoo, don't you?"

     "I love it.  In fact, would you mind if we made love..."

     "So you could see it?"

     "Yeah."

     She smiled, stood up and walked over to one of the larger chairs,
kneeling, bending over and sticking her ass up in the air.  "I remember
the first session we ever had," giving me an evil grin, "when you
ordered me into this position."

     I smiled and unbuckled my pants, dropping them to the floor.  "Not
much into foreplay, are you?"

     She smiled and said "Not right now... fuck me, Ken..."

     "Should I take off my shirt?" I asked.

     "No!  Just get into me... now!"  I raised on eyebrow; Kathy's was
getting impertinent.  I knelt behind her, my cock surged to full length
by her talk.  

     It suddenly occurred to me that she still had her lock in place.
In my haste I nearly ripped the chain from around my throat and inserted
it into the lock, slipping it out from her labia.  I dropped it to the
floor, placed one hand on her back and with the other aimed my cock into
her pussy and slid forward.

     Her cunt, warm and familiar, sucked me in.  Her tattoo glowed
brighter, and the eyes of the dragon glowed brighter still.  It was
fascinating, as I began to fuck her; it was like fire, and I imagined
small sparks arcing from her back.  She buried her head into the chair
as I pummeled her.  "Harder!" she hissed.

     I slowed down instead.  The feather tickled my balls.  "Please,"
she moaned, imploring me, "harder, please."

     Her magnificent ass arced upward as she begged.  It made me smile.
I pulled back and slid my hand around her hips.  I stopped moving
entirely; a small moan escaped her, and she ground her hips back towards
me, but I pulled back, then pulled her hard towards me, slamming into
her, and began relentlessly pounding her.  "Yes... that's it," she said.
"Harder, yeah, I like it harder."

     "You do, huh?" I said.  I looked down, and the tail of the dragon
glowed below, the tiny pixels of it's claws shimmering over her buttock,
and the talons appeared to be flexing as I pounded against her ass, as
her full and beautiful flesh rippled as I fucked her.  The light was
becoming brighter, or else I was just hallucinating.  I didn't think it
could get any brighter, or any better.  As I pounded her, small growls
escaped from my throat.  I was going to come, ravishing her, and I
suddenly lost control, exploding into her, screaming and bending over
her, filling her cunt.

     I slid out of her again, and I knelt down onto the floor.  I kissed
her ass softly, panting, "Thank you, thank you."  She knelt down on the
floor with me and said, "You're welcome."

     I looked up at her, her hair a little sweatier and falling down in
front of her eyes.  "Feel better?" I asked.

     "Mm-hmm," she said, smiling, a little glint shining in her eyes.
Her tattoo faded away.  "Pedro," she said, "lights up, just a little."

     The lights came up and she sagged.  "You have no idea how tiring
that is."

     "What do you mean?" I said.

     "That's... That's glucose-driven.  I need to go get something to
eat."

     "Then let's go.  Let's see if that new fruit Sara found is any
good.  Sure wish Aaden were here... he could tell us."

--
"Kathy's Tattoo"
The Journal Entries of Kennet R'yal Shardik, et. al., And Related Tales
are (c) 1989, 1990 Elf Matheiu Sternberg.  May be freely distributed by
cybernetic media; hardcopies are limited to single printings for
personal use.