From: elf@halcyon.com (Elf Sternberg)
Newsgroups: alt.sex,alt.sex.stories,alt.sex.furry
Subject: Journal Entry 257 / 0527  [ Convers[at]ions ]
Date: 20 Mar 1996 13:18:38 GMT
Organization: Pendor, UnLtd.
Lines: 394
Message-ID: <4ip0je$dvn@news.halcyon.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: coho.halcyon.com

Anar, Hiss 14, 0527

    Rowan ate with a gusto I found immensely refreshing.  It meant 
that there was something about her I could influence, something I 
could work with.  And I needed that something, since today I was 
going to present demands.  Mine and Aadens'.

    "How was your trip?" she asked quietly.

    "Not bad," I replied.  "Did you manage to keep busy while we 
were gone?"

    "Uh-huh," she said around a mouthful of cornflakes.

    "Rowan," I said.  She looked up at me, swallowing.  "We need to 
talk.  I had a long conversation with Ember before I left, and 
something came up that we need to discuss.

    "I don't like the way you do business.  Ember said that you 
basically blackmailed your way into getting the positerminal work 
done, and what she said was pretty much an accurate description of 
what you did to get into this house."

    Rowan put her spoon down and said, "Then... you don't want me 
to..."

    "Rowan, why do you want children?"

    "I DON'T KNOW!" she shouted so loudly I heard Dave snap the 
privacy field over the portal to keep from waking my loves 
downstairs.  "Oh, Ken, please, I wish I did, I really do.  I've 
tried since the day I was born to figure that out.  It's crazy... 
something's seriously wrong with my circuitry.  When the AI comms 
started discussing you, and Aaden, and I put two and two together, 
I jumped at it, I really did.  I could have had any body, and any 
father.  But to have yours... and his... and to be   in Shardik's 
house... It was too much to pass up.  To have babies, to really 
_make_ something like that.  To create life."

    "It's really a very simple process."

    "But you understand it as Vatare', Ken, not as a mother.  The 
creative thrill you get is intellectual, not physical.  I want to 
know, I _need_ to know what it's like.  Making babies is unskilled 
labor, sure, but not raising children.  It's all I've thought 
about.  But when I think about it from here, all I get is confused.  
I'm in over my head."    She smiled at the imagery.  "It really is 
crazy for an AI to want children, isn't it?"

    I shrugged my shoulders and said, "Maybe.  I don't know if 
you're aware of this, but I took Halloran with me on our trip to 
Earth."

    She looked up at me.  "Why?"

    "Because I was doing some design work, and I needed his help.  
I also needed to be as far away from the AI net as possible."  I 
reached into the pocket of the robe I wore and handed her a rack of 
about thirty crystal-memory chips.  "We came up with this."

    "What is it?"

    "It's the pointer specs for a Mephit girl.  Looks exactly like 
you, has a neuron pattern that could support Rowan Majors' thought 
process."

    She looked at the box with wide, staring eyes for a second, 
then said, "You want me to go full organic."

    "You've been spending more time as Rowan the Mephit than you 
have as Rowan the AI.  I had Hal send me statistics on downtime and 
interrupt time at Rhysh.  I haven't seen numbers that ugly since we 
took down Luccas."

    She smiled wanly and said, "You really want it."

    "Paul's agreed to do the work.  If I'm asking too much of you, 
it's okay to back out now.  But Aaden and I agree on this.  We 
don't want someone who's going to be in two places at once, and I 
can't stand the thought of you not being here for your children.  I 
want you here, Rowan, not here and at Rhysh."

    She looked thoughtful for a second.  "You said once that you 
either wanted someone who would bear your children and then never 
be heard from again, or someone who would stay and love them as you 
do.  I didn't believe the first one."

    "You were smarter than I was," I replied.  "I honestly thought 
I could get the first."

    "Not in your lifetime," she said.  I laughed.

    "You're all agreed?" she asked.  I nodded.  "It'll mean that 
your project goes on hold for a while."

    "A year or so," I said.  "Plus the learning time, all over 
again."

    She stared off at the wall behind me for a few minutes, then 
took the box in hand.  "No turning back," she said.

    "Some people," I said, "believe they were born the wrong 
species or the wrong sex.  You were born into the wrong element.  
You were never meant to be a silicon life form, Rowan, any more 
than your sister was.  When we're done with the transfer, AI 
zero-zero-two-six-six is going to be decommissioned and destroyed, 
and no new persona will be installed.  It's not fair.  There's 
something in the physical design of your cybernetic brain that 
inspires you towards becoming organic."

    "Then I'm broken," she said.

    "No," I said.  "Your body-- that big steel closet in the Castle 
Rhysh basement-- is just inappropriate for the type of mind that 
naturally inhabits it.  This is just a way of avoiding that type of 
habitation.  We'll put someone else in there, a new design.  
There's no telling if it'll have any more or less the same 
tendencies that you and your sister did, but at least we'll be sure 
it won't be because of a known hardware design."

    "Flaw," she said.

    That made me just a little angry.  "You keep making it sound 
like you _want_ to be broken and that's just plain silly.  It's 
like suggesting Aaden's broken because he doesn't find females 
worthy of his lecherous attentions."

    "Isn't there something wrong with that?"

    "No.  And it's not worth arguing about.  We could argue that 
someone who enjoys homicide was just born that way, too.  It's a 
moot point... the homicidal maniacs tend to get shot.  What Aaden 
wants, and what you want, and even what everyone in Rhysh wants, is 
unquestionable as to its 'rightness' or 'wrongness'; it simply is."

    She smiled.  "Somehow, I think you knew I wanted to go all the 
way."

    "The PT's a half-step, Rowan.  You like being organic, I've 
noticed.  You said it yourself, even being fat would be fun because 
it would be different from the electronic isolation of being AI."  
I rose from my chair and walked around behind her.  "I love your 
sister dearly, Rowan.  She's a good friend, and a good protector 
when I, and Aaden, and Borodir, needed her.  I want to love you 
just as much, as the mother of my children, even by proxy."  I bent 
over and hugged her close.  "Take the whole step."

    She nodded, turning her head slightly to lick my cheek.  "I 
will."

    "Good," I said.

    "Now?" she asked.  The unsurety crept back into her voice.

    "Paul said he'd take you as soon as you were ready.  His whole 
team's on standby.  They can be in the office as quick as it takes 
getting to a SDisk."

    She nodded and said, "Then I'm going."

    "No hard feelings?"

    "I'm not a Mephit yet.  I'm not sure what feelings I'll have 
afterwards.  Ask me then."

    I nodded, releasing her.  She rose and kissed me gently on the 
throat.  "You'll tell Aaden and P'nyssa?"

    "I will.  Good-bye, Rowan.  And, Hello, as always," I said, 
quoting the last sentence of one of my favorite books.

    She laughed and said, "I'm going to keep that book in memory."

              -               -              -

    After she had left, I was sat back down in the chair she had 
vacated, her cornflakes getting soggy.  I realized then that I 
hadn't had the heart to tell her the truth, that the body we'd been 
discussing was already underway, accelerated with our new UFN 
techniques to they're maximum potential, and that she'd be ready 
for the actual transfer in less than six weeks, not twelve months.  
Paul would tell her.

    I bit my lip, feeling melancholy.  It hurt, actually, to have 
had to put it to her that way.  Didn't I do that with every Terran, 
though, who stepped into The Great Hall and came out the other side 
as something else, someone else?  The two halves of the argument 
raged inside me for a while.  I barely noticed when Dave turned off 
the privacy field.

    "Come on Aaden," I heard float up through the portal.  
P'nyssa's voice.

    "P'nyssa..."

    "It's not like I'm asking you to have sex with me, werren.  I 
mean, you have been sleeping with me for almost three months now.  
I think it's safe for you to shower with me without Ken around."

    There was a long pause.  "All right," I heard him say in a 
half- amused, half-resigned voice.  The door to the shower opened, 
then closed, and I heard water running.

    As I descended the portal I heard P'nyssa say, "Besides, it's 
nice to have someone to do my back, especially someone with 
fingers.  You have no idea how hard it can be to shower sometimes 
with these things."  I presumed she was indicating her mittens.

    "Glad I could help," Aaden responded with a perfunctory yet 
amused tone.  I snuck my way to the bathroom door, looking in.  The 
glass had steamed up completely... both of them like the shower 
very hot, as do I.  I could barely make out their moving forms, 
P'nyssa's blue-furred one, Aaden's black-and-white fur contrasting.  
The most obvious details were P'nyssa's tens, Aaden's muzzle and 
his upright tail.  But what I could see was actually somewhat 
interesting.  Aaden was indeed working his paws into P'nyssa's 
back, slowly working his way down.

    "Go on," she said, encouraging him as he knelt down, massaging 
the soap into her legs.  I took a seat in the bedroom, leaning 
against the frame of the bed, watching.  I figured that if I held 
very still they wouldn't be able to differentiate me against the 
hazy background.  And I needed something to get my mind off of 
Rowan.

    P'nyssa turned around as Aaden stood.  "Now stand still," she 
said, holding something in her mittens.  The soap, I realized.  She 
put the bottle down and began to wash Aaden slowly, her mitts 
working their way down his chest towards his crotch.

    "P'nyssa..."

    "Aaden, I hope you realize that at least twice in the past 
weeks you've woken up with your arms around me and not Ken."

    "True.  But I got there in my sleep," he protested.

    "Does that matter?" she asked, kneeling down to do his legs the 
way he had for her.

    He didn't answer.  She worked her way down to his feet, which 
he dutifully picked up and I watched her wash each one carefully.  
"Turn around," she said.  He turned.  Even through the steam, he 
was gorgeous.  So was she.

    She rose and began to soap his back, stroking the suds in with 
long, careful strokes.  Although I couldn't make out any details, I 
knew for sure that she was working her mittens between the cheeks 
of his ass, because I heard him hiss in that eminently satisfied 
way that I do when either one does that to me.  "Shhh..." she said, 
quietly.

    I suddenly realized that she had every intention of seducing 
him in the shower.  "Well, throw that theory out the window," I 
thought to myself.  "Next thing I know, Ress'll be visiting Rhysh."

    Aaden didn't protest, and I recalled him telling her once that 
she was the only female he'd been close enough to interest him.  I 
could see   her tens wrapped around his body, reaching for his 
cock, stroking him very slowly.  "Pretend..." was all she said.

    A Sinox warship could have parked itself outside the bedroom 
glass and I would never have noticed.  P'nyssa walked around him, 
still stroking his beautiful shaft.  She knelt in front of him and 
I saw her take the head into her mouth.  I shook my head gently... 
Aaden's cock is almost impossibly large, there was no way she was 
going to do anything with it.  It takes me a lot of effort to get 
it into my mouth.

    I heard him groan and I saw his hands on her head.  She was 
trying, getting more than the head into her mouth, getting some of 
the shaft as well.  That warship could open fire now and I'd still 
be oblivious.  All I saw was the steam-hazed tableau going on 
before me.  P'nyssa worked his cock with enthusiasm, sucking hard, 
both mittens around the shaft, sometimes tugging on his balls, 
sometimes disappearing between his legs.

    I heard Aaden groan, "I'm close," and she worked even harder, 
going after him with even more strength.  I was fascinated, and 
oddly enough, jealous of both of them.  I wished that was my cock 
she was sucking, and I wished that was my mouth wrapped around 
Aaden's cock.  I watched as her head bobbed back and forth, 
whipping left and right with frenzy, and Aaden let out a soft, 
plaintive groan, his knees buckling under him as he came.  P'nyssa 
caught him and helped him to the padded floor as well as she could, 
trying to keep him from falling over and hitting his head.

    I shook my head, trying to recover from what I'd just seen.  I 
had trouble believing it all.

    "P'nyssa..." I heard Aaden's voice.  "Oh, to hell with it.  
Thank you."

    I bit my lip to keep from laughing.  "You're welcome," she 
replied.  She leaned over, but I couldn't tell how she was kissing 
him through the steam.  It struck me as being something important 
for me to know.  Lips, 
forehead, cheek, or throat... each meant something different.

    I stayed where I was as I watched the two of them wash up for a 
second.  My own erection, ignored in my fascination, subsided, and 
I only noticed it when I felt it flop back down against my leg.  I 
chuckled softly.  "Sorry," I apologized to it.

    The door to the shower opened and Aaden stepped out.  The look 
on his face went horror/surprise/embarrassment in quick succession.  
I smiled and stood up.  "Uh, P'nyssa," he said.

    "Hmm?" she replied.

    "You should see this."  She poked her head out from behind the 
glass and looked where he pointed.

    Her face went through the same sequence his had.  "Ohmifa..." 
she said, "You saw everything, didn't you?"

    "No," I replied with a wide smile, "the steam mostly got in my 
way.  But I did hear everything."

    She looked at me and said, "Well... You may as get your butt in 
here and I can explain."

    "You don't have to explain," I said, dropping my robe and 
tossing it on the bed.  I acknowledged that there was indeed a 
spare towel for me before I walked up to Aaden and wrapped my arms 
around him.  "Good morning, Coimelin."  Just hugging him close like 
that makes me feel good.  P'nyssa joined us, and we made room for 
her, a happy triangle.  I looked at him and said, "Come back in for 
a minute?"

    "Anything for you," he said, smiling.  His eyes are so 
beautiful.

    I closed the glass door and sat down on the bench set against 
the far wall.  "Actually, I want you," I said, pointing to Aaden, 
"to tell me why."

    He shrugged.  "It's not something I'd go after."  He paused.  
"But she's right, Ken, I do spend my nights with her as much as I 
do you.  It's no longer a... condition... of my love for you.  I 
guess I trust her enough."  He turned to P'nyssa and said, "A few 
weeks ago, I made Ken admit something.  Well, fair is apparently 
fair and he's doing it to me.

    "P'nyssa... I love you."

    She hugged him close and said, "Gods, I've waited to hear you 
say that.  I love you too."

    "But don't expect me to chasing after... uhm... 'babes?'"

    I nearly died laughing.  P'nyssa rolled one mitt into as much 
of a fist as she can manage and hit his arm.  "I expect no such 
thing!"  Then she joined us in laughter.

    After the giggles subsided, she looked up at him and said, 
"Given the right reasons, I've always thought one person could 
enjoy another, no matter what the mix of species, sex, whatever."  
Her voice dropped a little, and I had to strain to catch the words.  
"I've wanted you to... admit that the right reasons exist, between 
you and me, as much as they do between us and him," she said, 
pointing at me.

    "Gee, thanks," I said.  "Exhibit Number One, Kennet Shardik."  
They both smiled.  "Uhm, I have news.  Rowan's gone to talk to 
Paul."

    "Then she accepted?" Aaden asked.

    "I think so.  She could back out at any moment, though."

    "Then we wait," P'nyssa said.

    "Yes," Aaden said.  "That's all we can do.  I think we can do 
that for her."

    I nodded.  "Paul'll tell us in a few days.  Until then, well, 
life goes on.  Now, you two go dry off.  I've got to get clean."

    They left me alone.  Not having fur, mittens, a tail, or a 
partner, showers tend to be short affairs for me.

--
"Journal Entry 257 / 0527  [ Convers[at]ions ]"
The Journal Entries of Kennet R'yal Shardik, et. al., and Related Tales
are copyright (C) 1989-1995 Elf Mathieu Sternberg.  Redistribution of
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--
Elf Sternberg            FUCK THE CDA!       (Cohen vs. California, 1971)
elf@halcyon.com          Where evolution is outlawed, only outlaws evolve
Public key available     http://www.halcyon.com/elf/index.html