A Big Shiny Blue Marble Ch. 57

"Kay, this was only a first time," she whispered as she looked over into Troxi's eyes there beside her in the small bunk, "but was I good?"

Troxi nodded and snuggled a little tighter, "It's gonna sound like a lie because I'm sure that everybody says this, but I've never felt it that much as I did with you. I've never been able to get as far inside anybody like I did there. It felt like you were pulling me in somehow."

"Well I sure can't explain it," Cerrith grinned a little as she kissed Troxi's hand and laid it onto her breast, "But I do know that I've never felt something like that -- other than for about five seconds at a party once. I know that I loved it enough to want a lot more, though."

She reached over and ran her fingers over Troxi's long ear and to her, she was sure that she'd never seen a nicer one, "So since we have to work together like we're in each other's heads anyway, I think maybe we ought to ... well, if you like me enough to put up with a snarly bitch --"

"You're not snarly," Troxi grinned, "Doona is snarly. You're smoothing out a lot since we've been together today. What are you saying?"

"I dunno," Cerrith sighed as she stretched her arm over her head for a moment languidly.

During that time, Troxi was certain that she'd always remember the beauty that she saw there so close to her and she knew that she was already sliding down a long and very pleasant slope.

"I'm thinking that I'd like to see how far we can go, you know? I've really never felt the way that I do right now. It's kind of like having a bad day and then coming home to get into your bed where you know that everything will be fine.

If I'm good for you, then I guess I'm saying partners if you want that with me. It's very different for me, but I want that now and I'm prepared to work at it - which is a huge change for me, by the way."

"It's never been anything more to me than something to laugh over, since I don't give a shit what people think, but you ought to know that it'll change the way that a few people see you, just sayin'," Troxi said quietly.

"Do I look to you like the kind of person who cares, Troxi?" Cerrith grinned as she stretched to kiss her for a moment, "Uh-uh. I've found somebody and I'll want to keep her close. I guess that's what I need from my girl.

And I think that you've just had your girl for the first time. I swear that I'll kill myself if I ruin this."

The next several minutes were just more quiet kisses and a lot of caressing before Cerrith freed herself enough to begin to get up a little. She was smiling softly and Troxi swore that she could feel that smile.

"Ok," Cerrith grinned, "Let's call it settled for now, since we still have to find ways to always get along and everything. For right now though, I've got a little exploring to do," she said as the held Troxi down while trying for a better position in the cramped bed. "Try to put up with me while I figure out how to do this so it's good for you. I've never done this before and I want to see just what it is that you've got that makes me so happy."

Troxi nodded and waited a little, settling into something that she'd never felt before either, though she'd been with a lot of girls in her time. She felt a lot of tentative snuffling and a few kisses down there, but then as Cerrith figured things out for herself, Troxi threw her head back with a groan.

Cerrith opened her jaws a good distance and clamped down over something which to her resembled a half of a piece of dark fruit in the fur of Troxi's crotch, something which called to her all by itself; the little tip pointing upwards a little and the seam of the fruit glistening to call to her a lot more. As she licked and sucked, she felt that tip begin to protrude even more than it already was and she reached for the finest hips that she'd ever seen on a girl and hung on as her efforts began to drive her striped lover a little crazy.

As Troxi began to buck, Cerrith looked up along the finest body that she was certain that there could ever be, just like her own in its shape and firmness, but not as slim by about a hair and with slightly smaller nipples that she wanted to have in her mouth again already for at least a day or so.

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"Hey, where's the washroom on this deck?" Troxi asked as she lifted her lips from Cerrith's nipple, "And by the way, it's no good telling me sadly about your scars. I've felt them and they're just like parts of you, so no more, 'kay?"

Cerrith nodded, feeling some relief over some things which she had always thought were worse than unsightly -- even though they were all well-covered in fur. It was a girl thing.

They got up and walked together, thinking about a shower. In the overall scheme of things here, a shower at this time of day while on the ground and not deployed might be enjoyed for a few moments longer, since other than the security watch, there wasn't really anybody here at all.

Their journey took them past a cabin door which opened right then and they saw Benrad freeze in an awkward moment with a towel over a rather conspicuous place.

While he stuttered and stammered in his embarrassment over being interrupted on his way for a shower at a time that he'd been sure that there would be no one in the corridor -- since he'd just looked, Cerrith saw something over his shoulder -- an actual printed magazine in full color and everything.

She slipped past him while Troxi smiled in pleasure at seeing the smaller male again. He wasn't a hulking beast by any means, she thought, but she liked his slim shape anyway and he was kind of cute and all.

"Sorry for prying," Cerrith smiled as she passed him on his way out. "I uh, I like your magazine there -- and I'm not trying to be nasty. For once, I'm being sincere, Benrad. Kind of a new uh, look for me, I guess. I'm trying it on, anyway."

The shy young Xer was trapped as they stood very close to him. "What's the magazine about anyway?" Troxi asked in a very quiet voice, "Anything nice and ... dirty at all? I hope there is."

Benrad tried to speak and shake his head, but Cerrith put her hand on his shoulder and told him to relax.

She looked at Troxi, "It's open to a layout where there's a girl and a guy and if you turn the page, there's another guy and ... well I think it's really nice."

They sort of pushed and guided the nearly apoplectic male back into his cabin and with the door closed, Troxi pulled the towel away and they both smiled at his erection -- still there and needing to be dealt with. "Which one is you?" Cerrith smiled as she held up the book and Troxi began to stroke Benrad a little.

He looked as though he was about to want to die where he stood.

"I need to change my assignment," Troxi said to them both, "I'm off Mud Six and I'm here now." She looked right into Benrad's eyes then and she smiled, "You didn't answer my new girlfriend," she said, "So which one is you, and honey," she cooed a little as she squeezed him gently while leaning in to lick his lips, "You say the right thing here and you've got yourself a paper bitch who likes you enough for a bit of fun now and then.

What do you think, Cerrith? Good enough?"

Cerrith smiled, "Oh yeah. I've always had a little thing for him these past months. I kind of like a male who's not all ... in charge and you'll let him on you when HE wants and you have no say. I can tell that this fine boy is not like that at all. But I still need to know and please, Benrad honey, be honest with us, alright? We really do like you."

She held up the magazine and he looked over at it and shook his head, "Not that p-page."

Cerrith turned the page over and he pointed to a shot where the girl was all over the guy in the center of the shot -- while the other, larger guy was all over him as well.

"Correct answer!" Cerrith cooed as they pressed him back against the wall next to the closed door. That's the one that I like very much too."

The male gasped as Cerrith's mouth took him in and she wasn't even on her knees yet. Troxi kissed him deeply enough to make him groan and pray that his knees held him up.

"Congratulations, sweetie," she cooed into his ear, "You've just won yourself a bitch on paper and two who like you enough for this." She began to slide down along his front on her way to meet Cerrith.

"The three of us are gonna need to be about this close -- even when we're working, baby. We want a male who's smart enough to do what he's told and when, if he wants his load hauled by us both."

When she sucked in one of his nipples on the way by, he slammed his head back against the wall and almost screamed.

"Troxi and I are together, though we're just starting this, "Cerrith whispered as she held his scrotum with her thumb over his shaft to point it to Troxi's mouth as she came to take it in, "We think we want you and we'll try to be like what that picture shows if we can, right, Troxi?"

The striped Xer leaned back as she released him for a moment as she nodded, "Don't worry, Benrad baby. Cerrith and me, we'll take good care of you. I've got a strap-on just for you."

As she began again, she found that the words seemed to spur him in a way and she reached back to stroke his buns for him. Benrad came in seconds and they switched places for each gush from him.

By the time that he'd given it his all, he stood there on trembling knees as he looked down in almost disbelief at them, "Did you really mean that?" he asked, "what you said?"

Cerrith leaned forward and nuzzled her face under his sack, "Mm-hmm. I know what I want and other than Troxi, you treat me right and I'll take one of your sweet loads in the same place where I just know that you like it yourself.

I'm the same as you. I just don't want to be pounded there - just like you don't." She licked his scrotum and he groaned, but his breath caught in his throat when he felt her long tongue glide a lot farther back.

"Right here, is what I'm talking about."

There wasn't that much room, but when Troxi knew what Cerrith was doing, she moaned and sought for the last drops of him a little frantically for a moment.

Troxi was just letting him out of her mouth to add her assurances when the cabin door opened and Xhan looked at them all.

"Oh," he said.

"Good evening, Section Officer," Troxi smiled, not missing a beat.

Xhan had to smile then over the way that he seemed to keep running into the cute striped Xer in the most surprising places.

"Hi Troxi, Cerrith. Hello uh, Benrad.

There's an informal briefing in my cabin for a very few individuals in three units. You're three of the individuals, so be there.

Uh, carry on, I guess, since that's what you seem to be doing anyway," he said as he rolled his eyes and closed the door to Troxi's soft giggles.

They waited a few moments and then Troxi finally got to use the washroom after they'd spent a little time kissing Benrad goodnight and assuring him that they were serious.

"You've got a strap-on?" Cerrith smiled once they'd gotten to the washroom.

"Yeah," Troxi replied, "I found it in the box and everything in my room when I went to Countermeasures school on a training base back home. It was even still taped shut. It's a little too thin for the front of a girl, but for a sweetheart like that one?" she asked, tilting her head in the direction that they'd come, "It'll be perfect, now that we know his little kink.

One thing though, Cerrith, You can't ever even kid him about it, not even a little or he'll shut down. You were talking tenderness, right? It's written all over him. You just can't cause him to regret what he likes. He's kind of a special male. I've never had one like that, but I've always known that I'd want one and he's really good-looking, too

I need to talk to Ter'l. Benrad will never say a word, so it's up to me. I want to change my assignment and on paper at least, he'll have me for his bitch. I'd take that one anywhere in me just like you. I want that boy to see that I'm not all back-slapping and aircrew bullshit.

If it comes down to mating for us to survive somewhere, he's the one for me. I already know it and if you're not tied to Xhan very happily, I'd share, since I'm sure that the three of us are gonna get along juuuust fine."

"Of course," she winked, "you and I are gonna need to buy another strap-on for those times when he's not around and I just don't have what you want."

"You've got what I want," Cerrit smiled, "but I'll give you the point."

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Jerrthi had reviewed a lot of her footage and had gotten at least a little preliminary editing accomplished as she sat alone in the barracks. Afterwards, she looked around and was at a bit of a loss as to what to do with herself for the evening. She'd heard from Ronkahh that there was another party that night but she had no wish to go, since Xhan would likely be there somewhere and she didn't even want to look at him now.

Eventually, she remembered what she'd been given by Ter'l and her gaze wandered over to the canvas bag leaning against the bunk where she'd placed it when she'd come in here. Jerrthi got to her feet and walked to where the bank of lighting switches were situated.

It took her a few seconds, but she turned off every bank until the found one light on its own circuit. That one was close to one end and so, leaving that one on by itself, she walked to pick up the bag and bring it to the front of the large room not far from where the light shone down. She set it down and opened it, needing only a moment.

In that moment, she saw a very few articles, most of the contents under a covering layer of cloth. But as the musty smell of old and slightly mildewed fabric rose up to fill her nostrils, Jerrthi saw the symbols which only one with eyes to see would know.

She hung her head and wept.

What was in this bag had indeed belonged to her aunt.

It took Jerrthi a while spent with her tears washing over her cheeks, but at last, she closed the bag and slid it under the nearest bed. Standing on her feet, she walked to the spotlessly clean and gleaming showers and turned one of them on as hot as only a Grotto could stand and washed herself in the ritualistic method of the old ones. When she was done, she took the top towel from the neat stack which had been provided for her use and she dried herself, feeling her pulse in her temples as it brought her blood nearest to the surface of her skin.

She walked out and laid a second towel down on the floor and reaching for the bag again, she removed a candle and set it on the small ceramic plate which was there for that purpose in the bag. She knelt on the towel and looked at the single lamp which was illuminated in the room and after a few moments of concentration, a small flame sprang into existence on the candle.

She raised her hands and began the first of the ritual motions and was only vaguely aware of the locks on every door snapping shut. Jerrthi smiled then, because she hadn't heard a single one of them click into the locked position.

She'd felt it.

She opened the bag fully and drew out what was there. Looking at it all, she knew something more about Ter'l and though she didn't know if it would help him in any regard, she blessed him anyway for the way that it had all been so well cared for in his possession. She hadn't doubted him before, but now she absolutely knew how much that battle-hardened creature had loved her aunt.

She began to say the things which had been said by her kind for so long as she knelt with her head bowed and her fingers making the complex and intricate motions which went along with her thoughts.

The single light was switched off, though no hand had moved the switch from one position to the other.

As she went on, she didn't have to look up. She knew that the smoke and fire detectors in the hall were now inactive, just as she didn't need to look up to see the gray, smoky mist which rose up out of the very ground from underneath the foundations of the building under the simulated and patterned cellulose flooring which had been made many cycles before and laid here to evoke the feeling of the look and feel of a species of tree which was now extinct on Merren.

Jerrthi reached out for the articles in the bag and her hand moved to set the throwing stars aside. She grasped a piece of the ancient cloth of her ancestors and she lifted the bundle of throwing spikes and set it down beside her, unrolling it as she did. The roll kept on going until it was unwound completely and nineteen silvery and very sharp objects lay in her sight from where each one was held in a little loop of cloth.

Her hand closed over the knife and its connected blade, lifting the silent length of deadly sharp chain which still tied one to the other. That was laid with reverence on her other side, as she went on, still chanting softly to the gods of the Grotto Dwellers; the ones which Jerrthi knew without doubt still existed and looked down on perhaps the very last daughter which they could possess; the one who now began to offer herself to them for whatever purpose they might have for her in exchange for the gifts and protection which they could provide.

Finally, Jerrthi reached out for the blades -- the two swords which were the teeth of those gods while in her hands. She set the pieces down before her and looked at them.

She had to make a decision now.

She'd been to this very point in her religious observations to her gods many times in her life, but she'd never completed her offering. To go on from here was a one-way trip.

Jerrthi reflected a moment. What did she really have anymore?

Bronn was gone, and she didn't want anything to do with Xhan. She was likely the very best Watcher that there had ever been on Merren, but ... what had that bought her but throbbing headaches behind her eyes? What could she do from this juncture in her life?

She wanted to finish the job that she'd been given by the network. That wasn't in question, but what about behind the scenes and more importantly -- what about afterward?

She had no answer, but she had a feeling and in opening her mind to that feeling, she heard the voices of her gods and knew their wishes for their servant and instrument.

This was a moment which she could remember her beautiful aunt describing to her once and she remembered it clearly and could even recall her aunt's voice in her ear as they knelt together naked in the steaming stone garden of her family's cavern.

"You will know it when it comes to you, "the female said quietly, "You will feel their will and their want. Embrace the way, and it will be yours. Fall into their arms and if I am no more by then, you will fall into my arms as well, Jerrthi."

At the time, they'd been only two females in a dark, but softly glowing cave, kneeling nude with their tears streaming from their eyes at the emotion of it and the comforting nearness of their gods. That had been the night when Jerrthi - only an adolescent at the time, had heard and felt the acceptance of her gods as they knew that here was another who could be called upon one day at some distant point in time.

Jerrthi opened her eyes and nodded to herself -- to her dead aunt - and to all of her dead relatives, since she could see them here with her. Her tears ran once more as she closed her eyes again to feel their gentle touch and hear their welcome to her.

Tonight was that point in time.

She made no sound outwardly, but her mind screamed out that she was theirs to use as they saw fit.

Her eyes opened, but there were no irises to be seen there. Her eyeballs had rolled back into her head and her body shook in the grasp of her murderous gods just as she fell forward in a heap with a sigh.

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When she awoke, not long afterwards, she held her arm in front of her and saw that her offer had been accepted. Her skin had gone from a light tan color to an almost coal black.