Chapter 37
Vytln
Carrying a tray of food, Vytln walked through the ship, back towards his workroom. They were actively swinging out of subspace now, but he couldn’t feel it anymore. Not like he could before their shield upgrades.
He passed Garnet on his way. She was cleaning the rec room, Spot chugging along behind her, scrubbing the floors. She waved at him as he passed. He inclined his head back at her but didn’t stop as he went along.
Closer to his workroom, he spotted Grace and Goldie chatting together. Not about work. It looked like they were just chatting and walking, laughing with each other. The two of them beamed and waved at him as he approached his door, and he gave them the same, respectful nod as Garnet.
They weren’t nagging him today. They weren’t nattering at him.
He kind of missed it.
Then, the door opened and he saw Haven there, sitting on the workbench right where he had left her. Since he had been gone, she had unsealed the front of her suit, letting it fall open. She wasn’t wearing anything underneath, her breasts fully exposed.
He quickly stepped inside, letting the door slide shut behind him. She smiled, one foot still kicking at the air.
“What did you bringing me? Bring me?” She asked, like this was totally normal, her gaze on the tray of food he was still holding.
He didn’t answer, not at all caring about the thick stew he’d had the synthesizer make. He was focused completely on the parts of her body bared to him.
She smiled as he set the tray down beside her before putting his hands on the workbench and leaning over her. He’d probably cooled down in his walk through the ship enough to touch her, though he knew he was still hot.
So, he was careful as he lowered his head to the offered peaks.
He flicked his tongue over the soft nub, careful not to let his lips touch her in case they were too hot.
He watched, but she didn’t flinch or grimace as though pained.
She let out a low sigh, back arching further, offering more of herself to him.
He licked and lapped first at one nipple, then the other. She couldn’t touch herself either, so her fingers could only clutch at the table as he licked and lapped at her bare skin.
Quickly, he pressed a single kiss to the top of one breast. She didn’t hiss or pull back.
Though he knew he was must still be too hot to touch.
She leaned further into him, even grabbing onto his head with one gloved hand, keeping him close so he could continue to flutter quick kisses up and down her chest, to her neck, up to her own lips.
She didn’t let that kiss be quick. She clutched onto his horns with both hands, holding him in place as she deepened the action, her tongue wrapping around his. She didn’t care about the heat. She was practically hanging off him.
Vytln didn’t let that continue for long. Concerned about her skin, he pulled back after only a moment. She was reluctant to let him go, but he was determined to get away. And he was glad he did. He could already see the darkening of her skin of her chest.
“Come back here,” she frowned, reaching for him.
“Not until I cool off.”
To underscore his point, he took hold of her still hot suit – which hadn’t been able to cool even as much as he had walking through the ship and pressed the seal. It joined the two parts together, safely tucking her back inside the suit that, itself, was still hot on the outside.
She was pouting at him, obviously disappointed, but he wasn’t changing his mind. He liked smacking her rump and he liked seeing her in chains. He did not like seeing her hurt or in pain. Those were two very different things.
“I don’t want you cooled off,” she pouted, reaching for the seal again.
But he stopped her, grabbing her wrists. He wasn’t concerned about her skin now, as she was covered everywhere but her face.
“You will wait,” he ordered, leaving no room for argument.
But still plenty of room for sass, because she stuck her tongue out at him in a petulant move that was just begging for some kind of punishment.
One he would be only too happy to dish out.
“You keep it up, and I’ll tie you to the ceiling until I’ve decided we’ve cooled down enough for me to play with you.”
She did not at all appear cowed or disappointed. There was a sparkle of excitement in her eyes hidden amongst the unabashed mischief.
But she acquiesced, hopping down off the workbench. She sashayed past him, deliberately exaggerating the rocking of her hips as she walked across the room.
“Fine,” she said. “I’m going to going to plotting… plot with Goldie. You can being cool down by yourself.”
With a toss of her locs, she walked from the room. Still making sure her hips were rocking, tempting him to grab them with both hands to jerk her back against him, bouncing her hips off his as he rutted that attitude out of her.
Later he promised himself, turning to the alternator she’d pulled out and spread across the workbench. It wasn’t vital that they repair it quickly, so there was nothing wrong with leaving it there for the time being, but he was curious about what might be broken.
As he was doing his own investigation, Alred appeared beside him, giving him a curious look as he worked.
However, he didn’t speak immediately. There was a look of consternation on his face though as he was thinking.
Vytln didn’t say anything immediately, letting him gather whatever thoughts were rolling around in his mind.
Finally, some time later, he started slowly, “What it is like? With a female?”
Vytln gave him a look. “Are you asking me what sex feels like?”
Alred didn’t answer immediately, but the look on his face got tighter. “Not just sex…”
“No female undroitts in your life?” Vytln went back to working on the alternator.
“I’d say about fully half of my species has stopped defining themselves by their biological gender.
Some don’t even remember what it was originally.
There’s no point maintaining it, really.
And even those who still present themselves as their gender, as I do, we are aware that it is just a show.
We don’t actually feel a difference. There is no difference.
After so many recalls, I can’t even say that I’m the same person I was when I first transferred.
The person I was then, the one who remembered what it was like being male, who knew what females were like – that person doesn’t exist. And the memories I do have recorded are so old and degraded, there’s not much usable in them any longer.
I am asking because I genuinely don’t know how to be biological anymore. ”
Vytln hummed noncommittally. “And you’re asking me because?”
“I think I’ll ask everyone what it means to be biological,” he said. “If I succeed in my task, if I can build myself a body and put myself into it, I will have to learn how to live again. Learn sensory input again. Learn how to be a male again. A good one. She deserves a good male.”
Vytln gave him another, quick look. “Does she?”
Alred glitched. Like he hadn’t meant to say that. He didn’t take it back, but he didn’t clarify further either. Not that he really had to. There was only one female in their lives that Alred clung to, constantly followed, always watched.
“It’s not that hard,” Vytln finally said, breaking the silence. “You’re thinking too much about it.”
“Easy for you to say,” Alred grumbled, fluffy tail flicking at the air.
“You’ve only ever been biological. I’ve been technological in the time its taken empires to rise and fall.
I feel as different from you as you feel from a microscopic amoeba.
The difference in our world views, in how we experience existence, is so vast it almost cannot be compared. ”
Vytln gave him a look. “Did you just call me an amoeba?”
“See? You can only focus on one thing. Do you know how many things I’m doing right now even as I’m talking to you? The number of functions I’m running? The things I’m tracking?”
“I think you also just called me stupid.”
“I don’t know how to be biological anymore. I feel like, maybe, if I start learning now… If I begin trying to re-orient myself back into being a contained entity, the transition might be easier.”
“Was it bad the first time you transferred?”
“I barely remember. I do know that we were very limited. We had locks on what we could or couldn’t do or access in the beginning.
At least until we were able to learn our new bodies and forms and abilities.
I won’t have those safeguards going back.
I’ll be dropped right back into a fully grown body.
I’ll be missing the stages of development that biological people go through as infants and toddlers, slowly growing and learning themselves. ”
“That would indeed be awkward for you trying to claim a female. Maybe you should try looking up your own instincts first.”
Alred cocked his head. “My instincts?”
“Your biological ones. Surely, there’s information on the biological undroitt somewhere, right?
Look up what that is. What you’re going to want to do.
How you’re going to feel. Like me and my trap.
” He gestured with his head at the metal contraption that he’d spent so long making, fully intending on it never being used.
“I built that because I had to. The need to keep Haven in it is an instinct that controls me. Being biological means being beholden to the instincts that helped create your species. So, if you don’t know what those are, maybe you should find out so you’ll be ready and won’t be surprised if you start denning or stalking your female or whatever. ”