From elf@halcyon.com Thu Feb 24 13:27:39 MST 1994
Article: 113256 of alt.sex
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From: elf@halcyon.com (Elf Sternberg)
Newsgroups: alt.sex,alt.sex.stories
Subject: Journal Entry 252 / 1022  [ Planetfall: Meeting Tails ]  (new!)
Date: 22 Feb 1994 14:06:02 -0800
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     Journal Entry 252 / 1022

     "So, what got you so intrigued on this project?" I asked to the 
empty air as I walked down the only partially-completed hallways.  The 
floor carpeting was in, but many of the wall panels were still missing.

     "You, actually," Lance replied.  "An AI hadn't been chosen for the 
mission yet, but the news was obvious to every AI around that one would 
be needed before today.  After our conversation at Miss Ohadi's home, I 
realized that I wanted to get away from being an administrator for a 
while."

     "So who's the admin at your town now?"

     "An Ssphynx named Keos.  He's very effective, friend-- I like him.  
I think he'll do fine there."

     I felt a deep humming sound reverb through the ship.  "They've 
started the main drives," I commented.

     "They are trying to, yes.  Ah, there's one.  Yes, all three are now 
up and running."  He sounded pleased with himself.  "I believe that we 
now have translight capability.  Captain Elohim had announced that 
initial shakedown will commence in about an hour."

     I nodded.  "He's done quite a good job of putting together a 
cohesive engineering crew, hasn't he?"

     "He is an engineer's captain," Lance agreed.  "And his people know 
their tasks as engineers.  They are capable of handling or handing off 
duties to others.  Your Chief of Engineering, Katherine Hawkwind, is 
quite competent in her own right.  And having Amanda Ohadi on board, if 
only as an observer, should prove interesting."

     I nodded.  "This bulkhead is closed," I said as I came to a 
heavier-than-usual door.  "Is there life support on the other side?"

     "Yes," Lance replied.  The door opened and I stepped through.  
"However, there is no artificial gravity."

     "Now you tell me!" I shouted to him as I tumbled headfirst down the 
corridor.  I grabbed a strut set into the wall for just such emergencies 
and got control of myself.  

     "You didn't give me a chance to warn you," he admonished.

     I growled politely.  Easing my way down the hallway I heard a loud, 
metallic noise, a sudden outcry of "Whoops!" and an small explosion of 
giggling.  Wondering what that was, I turned the corridor.

     Down the hallway a melVulpin floated, tangled in three or four 
thick black cables that led from the left wall to the right wall.  He 
wasn't fighting his way out of them at the moment, but hovering there, 
scratching his head and looking perplexed.  He wore the insignia of a 
junior engineer.  "Need some help?" I offered.

     "Could you?" he asked, looking up so quickly that the snap of his 
head sent him into a gentle tumble again.  "I mean, yes sir.  I mean... 
Hey, aren't you Ken Shardik?"

     "I guess so," I replied.  "That's what it says on the uniform, 
after all."  I pushed myself along handholds and reached him.  Together 
we started untangling him.

     As I parted two cables, he laughed.  "Guess I look like an idiot, 
huh?"

     "Not that I can see."  Actually, what I could see looked 
irresistibly adorable.  Not handsome, really.  I couldn't get a good 
look at how tall he was, although I was curious to know.  It looked 
about 150, maybe 155 cents tall.  His fur was bright, bright golden red, 
pure Vulpin stock (and vulnerable to allergies, I remembered.  Which 
might explain why he works in the purified atmospheres of space).  As I 
started to untangle him, he drifted head-to-the-floor and turned around 
and I got hit in the face with his tail.

     I sputtered, brushed it away, and then got hit again, from the 
other side.  "What the Hell?"

     "Sorry, should have warned you." 

     I looked, confirming what I thought I had seen.  "You have two 
tails?"

     "That's right," he replied, shaking both of them playfully.  He 
seemed to have them both entirely under his willful control.  I caught 
just enough of a glimpse of his face to see a wide smile.

     "This may sound like a funny question, but... why?"

     "Why not?" he replied.  "It seemed like a good idea at the time.  
I've always wanted to have two tails.  Ever since I was about thirteen 
the idea's been stuck in my head."

     "And you've had them how long?"

     "About thirty years."  He grinned.  "I thought people would like 
them, but I've found that they put a lot of people off."

     I nodded.  "I can imagine."  We finally got him free and floated 
away.  "Data connectors?" I asked, gesturing at the cables.

     "Those are.  That one's power," he replied gesturing.  "These 
things are serious black holes for that stuff."

     "What are?"

     "Simaculae.  You know, Unsambo."

     "Ah," I replied, nodding.  "Got it.  So, what's your name, since 
you apparently already know mine?"

     "Nishipo Parzec," he replied, holding out his hand.  I grasped a 
strut with my left so that I wouldn't go sailing off when I shook with 
the right.  "But my friends call me 'Tails.'"

     "I wonder where that came from?" I joked.

     "You got me," he laughed right back.  Gods, he was cute.  I wanted 
to "get" him all right.  It was kind of annoying, really; I had to keep 
reminding myself to keep my hands to myself.  And part of my problem was 
that I couldn't be sure if my attraction to him was nothing more than my 
continued ridiculously slutty flow of hormones.  I had no explanation 
for the sudden rush of lust other than possibly that this job had put me 
in contact with a large array of very attractive people suddenly, and 
after six years of not knowing what I was missing, my body was 
responding naturally.

     But in the lack of gravity he kept turning as he returned to his 
work.  He had a slim, boyish body under that uniform, a wide face with 
very large, imploring eyes, and, when I could see it through all the fur 
on his tails-- Gods, that feels weird to say it that way-- he had a 
beautiful ass, too.  About the only thing I could think of that bothered 
me was that he'd trimmed his whiskers.  That was a fashion decision I 
personally disliked.  Some people thought it made their face more 
"accessible."

     While he dug into the ceiling, he said, "Can I ask you a question?"

     I sighed.  No matter how many times I say I hate that phrase, I 
still get it.  "Sure," I replied, tossing in my political voice.

     "Ken, why do we have so many simaculae on board?  I mean, we could 
do almost everything in VR.  We should just have one or two, but instead 
we've got nearly thirty.  Why take up so much room on the ship?"

     I opened my mouth to answer, them stopped as a different thought 
hit me.  One that, much to my amusement, I felt a little reluctance to 
set forth as I was beginning to realize just how many people I was going 
to be flying with who I already had agreed into my bedroom on a somewhat 
erratic basis.

     Oh, what the Hell, I decided.  "How soon until this one is 
operational?"

     "Fully?"

     "Yeah, fully."

     He scanned the segment of corridor with his eyes.  "Three or four 
hours, I'd say."

     "Will the gravity be on?"

     "Should be by then."

     "Great.  Want to give it a test?"

     "What?"

     "According to my watch, the confirmation shakedown should be back 
in dock in a little under fifty hours.  If you want to test this unsambo 
out, meet me here at the end of second shift tomorrow and we'll give it 
a test run.  Say around three lome'?"

     "Sir?  Is this a date?"

     I grinned.  "Make of it what you want.  The best way to teach you 
why there are so many simaculae is to show you.  Will you do it?"

     He thought for a moment.  "Sure."

     "Great.  I'll be waiting for you to get here."

     "See you at eighteen hundred tomorrow, sir."

     I laughed, then saluted him.  "Carry on, Tails."


     I saw him shake his head as he mysteriously appeared onto the scene 
as if by SDisk.  "Oh, come on!" he shouted up at me.  "Not a gravity and 
perspective test!"

     I waved to him from the top of the hill.  "It'll be good for you!"

     He started climbing the hill.  It wasn't all that tall; just about 
seven meters or so.  He had chosen to dress rather casually for this; 
nylon shorts and a cotton tank-top, neither of which did anything for 
him.  I would not have labelled him 'athletic,' although he was 
certainly proportionate.  Fortunately, they also did nothing to hide his 
loveliness underneath.

     He reached the top of the hill, his legs pumping mechanically.  He 
was panting pretty hard when he reached me.  "Hi," I said.

     "Hi," he gasped back, collapsing onto the grass, exhausted.  "What 
is this?" he asked, gesturing around.

     "It's a hill somewhere in Alia.  Just a little picnic spot where I 
take friends and family sometimes.  You don't mind, do you?"

     "No," he said, shaking his head and still panting hard.  "Just 
wanted to know.  So, what's this all about?"

     "Well, you wanted to know what it is about simaculae that makes 
them so important.  I wanted to show you why.  Drink?"  I asked, holding 
out a bottle of apple juice.

     "Oh, thank you!" he said.

     "You're out of shape if that walk knocked you out like this."

     "I know," he replied.  "I'm going to do something about it this 
trip.  I think I've just been spending too much time in lowered 
gravities."  He drank deeply out of the bottle, then handed it back.  I 
put it away in the very mundane-looking picnic basket which, of course, 
would have just about anything I wanted in it.

     I looked at him carefully.  "Tails, have you ever read 'The Shape 
of the Body?'"

     "That's one of yours and Aaden's essays, isn't it?  No, I hate to 
say it, but I'm not into reading that kind of intellectual stuff."  He 
grinned.

     I shrugged.  "'Sokay, neither am I."  He laughed.  "We wrote 
'Shape' because of an essay that had appeared sometime earlier called 
'The Five Pound Universe.'  A pound is--"

     "It's an archaic measure of weight, I remember."  He grinned.  
"Something like 2.203 kilograms under 1.012 G or something like that.  A 
Terran measure."

     "Right.  Anyway, this guy's point was that the brain was the be-all 
and end-all of existence, that everything went into it and was 
interpreted by it.  Aaden and I disagreed."  I followed his eyes as they 
looked into the basket.  "Have you eaten?"  He shook his head.  "Go 
ahead, take a look, then."

     He reached into the basket as I continued.  "Anyway, Aaden's and my 
point was simply that sentient beings are more than the two-kilos stuck 
in their hard shell.  Even before we're born we're getting used to 
feeling, seeing, hearing and tasting through our senses.  And as we grow 
up, the ways we can do things, the limits we can reach, the extremes of 
sensation we're capable of interpreting, all get trained by the limits 
on our eyes, our skin, our muscles.

     "Even Terran religions know this.  Most of them have an attachment 
to the body of one sort or another.  Christian 'resurrection' and the 
Pagan 'silver cord' are reflections of that.  Sensation is useless 
without a place to store that sensation, and storage is useless without 
something to store there."

     Tails held up a hand while still holding a muzzleful of something.  
He swallowed.  "That still doesn't explain why the difference between VR 
and Simaculae.  All of those sensory things can be fed by good VR."

     "Except for some of the most important.  Two of which you've done 
right now."

     "What?"

     "You climbed a hill, and you're eating a sandwich.  One of the most 
important things about VR, Tails, that everyone is aware is the fact 
that it doesn't leave a lasting impression.  It's what they teach in 
most VR classes even before you start jacking in.  'It's not real, It's 
not real.'  You learn to believe that.  Use it to overcome feedbacks.

     "The reason we've encouraged Simaculae use in starships is for just 
that reason.  To encourage people to remember their basic physicalism.  
It comes down to a spiritual belief, I guess, in the importance of 
'reality' and the 'real body.'"  I paused.  "You know, of all the people 
in the universe, you're probably the last one I should have to explain 
this to."

     "Why?"

     "Because of your little bodily change," I said, pointing at his 
tails.  "How old were you when you got those?"

     "Forty-two."

     "When did you want them?"

     He grinned.  "Like I said, probably when I was around thirteen.  I 
even modified my icon so I would have two tails in VR."

     I grinned.  "Exactly.  It wasn't enough, was it?"

     He frowned, putting his hands to the sides of his muzzle to scratch 
an itch.  "No, it wasn't."  He stopped scratching, lowered his hands, 
and looked up.  "I see."

     I smiled.  "Yeah, you do.  I understand why your tails put people 
off; for some of them, it's an alteration of the body, and that makes 
you a different person to them.  On the other hand, people who are, 
well, in my opinion, too hooked on VR are shocked by how physical you 
must be to want something that radical that badly to be done to your 
already very handsome body."  I felt my grin widen a little more.  "If I 
eat something, I want to feel it in my stomach.  If I run, I want to 
feel it in my legs.  And if I fuck, well... " I laughed.  "I want to 
feel that in the morning too, sticky sheets and all.  VR is too clean 
for me."

     "If we had sex in here, you wouldn't have sticky sheets."

     I almost laughed when I heard that 'we.'  The signals that had 
started yesterday were now coming in clearly.  "True.  But we will still 
need to take a shower."

     Sometimes seductions are like chess games and sometimes they're 
more like zero-G Marco-Polo.  This was the second, and now he had me 
tagged.  He lunged for me and we tumbled onto the grass, trying to match 
up our mouths and get in a kiss.

     Finally, we stopped rolling and my lips found his muzzle, kissing 
him, feeling his mouth about mine, his short muzzle almost surrounding 
my lips as our tongues met and slid against one another.  I felt his 
sharp canine teeth, wondering what it would feel like to have them 
scrape against my cock.  His soft breath smelled of lunch and promises 
and his body on top of mine felt light and delicate.

     I slid my hands up under that stupid shirt of his, burying my 
fingers deep into his fur, feeling his ribs underneath.  His breath was 
hard and deep, and I could feel his chest expanding with each 
inhalation.  I pressed my thigh up between his legs, feeling the heat of 
his groin and the hardness of his erection against it.

     "Why didn't you just come out and tell me yesterday?" he asked.

     "I didn't know.  I mean, who could I ask?  I mean, I didn't know 
what your tastes were or anything like that.  I just made a date and 
hoped for the best."

     "Thank you," he smiled.  "When it comes to sex, I'm omnivorous."

     I laughed.  "Yeah."

     "But no pain."

     "Don't worry, right now that's the last thing on my mind."  My 
hands reached down and caressed his beautiful ass; they strayed towards 
the center where I found the base of his tails; they were indeed mounted  
side-by-side and I could even feel where the bone split started.  I 
grabbed one in each hand and tugged away slowly, feeling the fur slide 
through my palms.

     Tails' whole body stiffened.  "Don't-- do that-- unless you really 
mean it!"

     "That turns you on?"

     "Yes.  More than you can imagine!"

     I filed that away for future reference and dropped them.  We 
returned to kissing, crazily, my fingers scratching at his chest as I 
rolled him over onto his back and sat down on his hips.  "You are simply 
the most adorable thing I've seen in months, Tails."

     He blushed.  "I just never dreamed that Ken Shardik would walk into 
my life and I never thought he'd be so, so normal!"

     "Ah, it's just me," I said, reaching behind myself to fondle his 
cock through his shorts.  "I see you only have one of those."

     "It's enough," he grinned.

     "Let's see," I said, reaching up one of the legs of his shorts to 
find it with my hand.  I felt the soft bulk of it against my fingertips 
and closed my hand around it.  "You're right," I said.  "It is enough."  
I grabbed his shorts by the stretch of cloth that ran between his legs 
and pulled.  They came loose easily.

     His cock was pale, with thin veins running along the sides.  The 
head was almost flat against the shaft, so that it looked much more 
tubular than many cocks.

     I was less concerned with the look than the taste as I opened my 
mouth and pressed my tongue to it.  I felt the smooth texture of his 
skin slide over my tongue, awakening my tastebuds.  I felt surprise at 
my own craving for it as I took all of it, pressing my nose down against 
his ballsac and feeling it bend slightly to slide down my throat.  I 
worked my throat slowly to massage the length of his shaft, enjoying the  
sweet satisfaction of having his cock at my command.  I stroked it 
slowly, enjoying all of it, especially the moans he was making.  Since I 
was kneeling head-to-crotch besides him, his hands started fumbling with 
my pants, but I brushed them away.  "Leave that for later," I said.  

     "I can't just lie here," he gasped.

     "Sure you can," I said, taking his cock back into my mouth.  He 
whimpered softly as I worked on it.  I felt his body tense and relax, 
tense and relax.  I could tell I was getting him close to climax.  My 
hand probed between his legs, fondling his small testicles, feeling them 
roll between my fingers before reaching down a little more and caressing 
his asshole.  Tense and relax.  In and out.  I moved my head back and 
forth in practiced rhythm, sucking on his cock with sheer abandonment 
and for my own gratification.  I just wanted him.

     His tensions grew longer, taking more time, and as I began sucking 
a little harder, feeling the skin of his cock slide under my tongue and 
the smell of his fur against my nose, he tensed hard, holding, and then 
let loose a loud, gasping moan as his cock shot a stream of warm come 
into mouth.  I didn't let up, stroking, pulling every drop I could out 
of him.  His hips pumped slightly as he came.  I let every drop fall on 
my tongue, rolling it about inside my mouth and onto his cock.  Unlike 
many people, I adore the taste of come.

     As I moved away, I closed my lips on his shrinking shaft, sucking 
the last drops of semen and swallowing.  He looked down the length of 
his body at me and shook his head.  "You are amazing."

     "Just old," I laughed.  "And experienced."

     He laughed.  "And handsome."  He rolled over in the grass, taking 
off his shirt and tossing it aside.  "Take your clothes off."

     I did as he asked, still feeling a little dizzy from his climax.  
"Wow," I breathed.

     "Are you okay?" he asked, looking up at me.

     "Believe me," I said, "I'm fine.  I just got an incredible thrill 
from making you come in my mouth."

     He lay down besides me, and we stretched out on the grass lazily, 
caressing each other.  "Well, you haven't come yet."

     "Even if this was all you wanted, Tails, I'm a happy Shardik right 
now."

     "Well, there is something more I want, but even I need a few 
seconds to recover from that."

     I nodded.  "Okay.  Let's just take a breather, then."

     After a while, his hands caressing my chest and stomach slid down 
between my legs and found my cock.  It took almost no coaxing on his 
part to bring it back to life, my erection roaring as it grew in his 
hands.  After less than a minute it was completely hard and he was 
stroking it slowly.  Then he shifted position as I had earlier and took 
it into his mouth.

     I gasped; his mouth was warm but his teeth were sharp.  They 
scraped along the underside delicately and I worried that he would hurt 
me.  But he just suckled my cock for only a minute before he shifted 
position again, straddling my hips with his and holding my cock aimed 
under his tails.  He sat down; I felt my cock press against his 
backside, he moved it into position, and then sat down insistently.  The  
resistance was impressive; he had to hold my cock in place or else his 
tight hole would just push it out of the way.  A little more insistence 
and the head slid past his sphincter and into his asshole, the rest 
following as he sat down, moaning a light "Mmm" as his hips met mine.  
"Oh, that feels good."

     I nodded, reaching out and putting my hands on his furred thighs, 
scratching at them as he began stroking up and down along the length of 
my shaft.  Gods, he did feel good.  I would press up with his every 
downstroke, sharing in the pleasure as we made love in the grass.

     He started to breath harder again, and I realized that his legs, 
which had had trouble up the seven meters of hill or so, wouldn't hold 
him up very long doing this either.  I reached up and held him by his 
sides, then slowly teetered over, so that he landed on the grass.  "Not 
like this," I said, sliding out of him.

     I turned him over, pushing his leg down until he was on his belly, 
then pulling his buttocks into the air by his pelvis.  "This is how I 
want you, Tails."  I grasped both of his tails at the base, one hand 
around each, and pulled them up and away from his butt, uncovering his 
asshole.  He moaned a soft, "Oh, please..."

     I smiled as I pressed my cock against his asshole again, sliding 
into his now loosened hole.  It was pretty to watch, my pale cock 
disappearing into his furry, red backside, the barely-visible sphincter 
almost grasping at it as I pulled out.  I held onto his tails like they 
were handlebars, with them pulling him towards me on every thrust.  His 
moans were loud and animal as I fucked him slowly.

     I was not going to last long; this afternoon had already wound me 
up far too tight and I was ready to explode.  But I wanted to last a 
long time; the heaven of this beautiful Vul and his lovely tails was too 
much to rush.  I took each stroke thoughtfully, feeling my hips hit his 
buttocks with every thrust, feeling his anus clutching at my cock, 
listening to his moans, watching his fur wave with the impact.  

     I was gasping harder myself, feeling my chest rise and fall with 
every thrust.  I held his tails to me, feeling the fur of his legs 
against my thighs and of his tails against my chest.  His body was warm 
inside and out.  My climax wanted out and it wanted out bad.  I couldn't 
hold it back and with one final, slow thrust into his body, I came.  
"Tails!" I remember gasping as I felt my cock throb, coming deep inside 
him, feeling his whole body tense to receive my semen.

     And then I slowly pulled out of him.  "Oh, Tails," I gasped as I 
collapsed on top of him, my body molding to his, my lips at the back of 
his neck.  I kissed him softly as we toppled over to the side again, 
naked onto the grass.  Which, now that our passions were spent, was 
quite itchy to me.  I squirmed slightly, then decided just to wait.  
"Thank you, Tails."

     "Thank you, Ken," he replied.  "Can we get up?  I'm kinda 
uncomfortable."

     "The grass?"

     "Yeah," he agreed, nodding.  We rose and he started scratching 
himself in earnest.

     "Let me," I said, reaching out to do the scratching for him.  He 
returned the favor and we spent a good two or three minutes close to one 
another, scratching, kissing, and playing.  Then I recovered a bottle of 
water from the basket.  "Drink?"

     "Thank you."  He shook his head.  "You're very good."

     I smiled, nodding once.  "Experience is a good teacher.  You are 
very good in your own right."

     He looked up at me as if to speak, then stopped.  Then started 
again.  "I guess I expected you to be turned off by me.  I changed what 
you made, after all."

     "I can understand that.  But... that's your right.  People change 
how they look all the time.  Earrings, fur trim patterns, colorings, 
even clothes and jewelry.  What you did is radical and I think it does 
affect what you are inside.  But in your case, given how much time you 
spent deciding and how happy you seem to be with it, I think it really 
does reflect what you are in there," I said, brushing my fingertips 
against his chest.  "I find that kind of self-knowledge very sexy."

     He smiled gently.  "Let's go take that shower you were talking 
about."

     "Okay.  Lance, end simulation."  Gravity shifted a few degrees as 
the hill gave way to the bare, black walls of the Simaculae.  Our 
clothes fluttered to the ground and the picnic basket was whisked away.  
We dressed quickly, taking time to grab at each other once in a while.  
"Well, your engineering job worked just fine."

     He laughed.  "I didn't think it wouldn't."  He reached down and 
stroked his belly softly.  "And you're right about one thing."

     "What's that?"

     "I will remember this in the morning."

     I laughed.  "I bet.  Come on, let's go get clean.  I'm on deck 11."

     "I'm on 12.  It's closer."

     "Then let's go to yours."  We walked out of the empty room.

--
"Planetfall: Meeting Tails"
The Journal Entries of Kennet R'yal Shardik, et. al., and Related Tales 
are copyright (c) 1994 Elf Mathieu Sternberg.  May be freely distributed 
by electronic media; hardcopies are limited to single printings for 
personal use.

--
PC Bulletin: Henceforth, sentient computers would like to be known as
"Silicon Intelligences."  "Artificial Intelligence" is a pejorative term
invented by humans based on the mistaken belief that computers are some-
how not "natural."                                     - elf@halcyon.com