Note: This story was dynamically reformatted for online reading convenience. Zaxan's Paradise 4: Hold Me Closer, Tiny Dancer By Mannheim Knot - NOTE: Originally published under another of my pen names. Same author, different persona. - PREVIOUS CHAPTERS: BACKSTORY--Denubis Prime is a planet where the males still possess the ability to empathically feel the emotions of others but the females have lost touch with all emotions, even their own. Their females once ran the planet, their dominance tempered by their empathic bond to the males. But generations ago, the females attempted to increase their power by removing their empathic bonds to their males through viral genetic engineering. The failed experiment, now known as The Great Betrayal, left the females unable to feel anything at all. The once mild-mannered males became dominant, and have turned to seeking their sexual and emotional pleasures by abducting females from other worlds. The males' generational memories of The Great Betrayal have left them with a burning desire to dominate all females and to feed off whatever emotions the experience can generate. CHAPTER ONE: As a reward for his son's hard work at the Academy, Sarcon sends fourteen-year-old Zaxan to a new planet called Earth to seek his first sexual conquests. Sarcon is one of the wealthiest men on Denubis Prime and wants to indulge the boy by letting him be the first to take a human female. Zaxan lands outside Albuquerque, New Mexico, and his first conquest is a beautiful Latina teen named Tierra. He abducts her from a mall and the physically superior Zaxan rather casually rapes her. He finds the intense emotions of human females beyond belief, and he thrills to her terror and hatred. When Zaxan's vibratory ejaculation stimulates the girl to forced climax, he finds her arousal equally intoxicating. After his orgasm, Zaxan realizes that the chemicals in his semen, originally evolved to create bonding between Denubian parents, have a profound effect on humans. Tierra immediately becomes his love slave. Zaxan feels his first inklings of fondness for a female. CHAPTER TWO: Tierra joins Zaxan in his attempts to find creative ways to get human girls to have sex with him. They first plan to take college freshman Cassie by having Zaxan pretend to be a vulnerable alien Cassie can seduce into rescuing the girls from captivity. Along the way Cassie proves to be so brave and noble that they change the plan to one wherein Zaxan seems heroic so that they can provide Cassie the perfect romantic adventure, including a passionate tryst with the alien boy who tells her he must leave Earth after their one night together "for your protection." Zaxan is very moved by the experience of making love to the heroic girl, but resolves not to see her again as it would ruin her perfect moment. CHAPTER THREE: When Zaxan sets his sights on beautiful twelve-year-old ballerina, Molly, he and Tierra first need to pacify her older brother and divorced mother. Tierra sprays good-natured big brother Brett with a Denubian semen compound that makes him immediately bond to Zaxan. Loyal Brett will now follow Zaxan's lead in nearly all matters. After teasing Tierra by not letting her find any satisfaction for her growing sexual cravings, Zaxan finally lets Tierra and Brett act upon their mutual attraction. Zaxan turns his efforts to seducing Regina, Brett's and Molly's pretty but lonely mother. Zaxan takes the divorcee roughly, and it sets loose the woman's repressed desires. He enlists Tierra's help, and the girl happily dominates the smaller woman. Regina declares herself Zaxan's `bitch' even before he releases his semen into her. Reveling in her newfound sexual freedom, and now dosed with Denubian semen, Regina finds herself happier than she has ever been in her life. Regina gives her blessing to Zaxan bedding Molly. Regina reveals that due to constant pressure from the girl's father, the pubescent Molly is not the happy, perfect seventh grade girl she appears to be. Mistaking Zaxan for her brother Brett, Molly introduces herself to the alien by hurling her broken food scale at the back of his head. As she apologizes for her actions and accepts his apology for breaking her scale, the six-and-a-half foot Zaxan can sense both the tiny girl's terror and her attraction to him. IN THIS CHAPTER: Zaxan sets out to satisfy his craving for the beautiful little redhead while fulfilling his promise to Regina to help free her daughter from the immense pressure created by the girl's desire to please the father who is never satisfied with anything females do. Zaxan looked down at the beautiful face nearly a foot-and-a-half below his. He could sense the infatuation the wide-eyed innocent had building up inside her, but he also saw the quiver in her bottom lip and felt her fear. He gently reached up and put a finger below her lip. He focused on his emotional memories of his father's fondness for him. No male parent in the universe displayed more fondness and pride in his offspring than Sarcon. With a little work, Zaxan could channel his father's behaviors and attitudes and direct them toward Molly. When he spoke to the frightened girl, he even sounded like Sarcon. "Don't tremble like that, little beauty. I would never hurt you." "I-I just hit a total stranger in the head with a scale and cussed him out," she said in horror. "You must think I'm the biggest bitch in the universe." "I'd like it if you didn't throw any more things at me, but I don't hold being emotional against people. I actually like a girl who is extremely... passionate." He knew what an incendiary word that was. "I'm a redhead," she said, scarcely able to breathe as the handsome, and oh so very big, boy looked at her with kindness and a trace of desire in his eyes. She couldn't stand up to the gaze and turned away slightly. "You talk like you're a grown man or something, but you're what? Brett's age?" "Far closer to your age, Molly. I'm barely fourteen. I guess I have a fatherly manner, though." She turned to face him again and dared to look back into his eyes. If he was barely fourteen, then he was less than a year-and-a-half older than her. Zaxan could feel that for just a moment she dared to dream of being his lover. Then, she caught herself. Her mood changed suddenly. A wave of hatred struck Zaxan, but it wasn't directed at him. The girl hated herself with such a destructive passion that it spilled outward and washed over him. "I'm sorry I can't be what you think I am, Zak," she said and fled the room in tears. Zaxan was neither surprised nor overly concerned by her emotional outburst. Tierra and Regina had warned him that playing the `father card' in combination with barely concealed desire would push all kinds of buttons in the girl. With all that coming on top of her mortifying behavior when first meeting him, Molly was bound to become overwhelmed. Zaxan considered his possible actions. He could go force himself on the girl, and then attempt to help her after she had bonded to him. He had no squeamishness about raping her. It was what Denubians did with most of their female conquests, and he also knew the euphoric state she would be in after his semen was absorbed into her bloodstream. Plus, there was immediate sexual satisfaction for Zaxan there. But somehow that struck Zaxan as a bad idea. The chemical bonding didn't magically fix every problem in a human's life, and it certainly wouldn't do anything to make the girl's `daddy issues' clear up. She would still hate herself because the only father she had ever known constantly reminded her that she didn't measure up to his expectations, and she bought into his view of things. As far as Zaxan's sexual cravings went, both Tierra and Regina were right there in the house with him. Either female, or both together, could satisfy his needs if they became urgent. Zaxan would stick to the plan. He would get Molly to see him as both an approving father figure and the smitten fourteen-year-old boy he actually was. He could go to Regina or Brett for help, but he knew that their efforts had been ineffective to date. The mother tried to help Molly see how wonderful she was, but her reassurances couldn't alleviate the girl's desperate need for her father's approval. Brett, as far as Regina could tell, was both a joy and a torture to Molly. She adored her big brother, and he gave her nothing but affection and adoration in return. But Molly also resented the manner in which Brett seemed oblivious to what she really felt. He was a blithe soul, the apple of his father's eye, and had never had to work for the paternal fondness Molly hopelessly desired. Molly alternated between wanting to be just like her big brother and wanting to belt him in the back of his head with the nearest blunt instrument. Zaxan had one other ally in the house, and she was by far the best option. Tierra had identified the self-loathing and the relentless pressure the girl was under before they had ever met. When investigating the house, Tierra had spotted the food scale and a report card with a lone B+ amid a sea of A's. Molly had defaced the report card by circling the B+ and repeatedly scrawling the words "Stupid Bitch" in red marker. Tierra confessed that she had been much the same at Molly's age, desperate for her disinterested mother's attention. If anyone here understood Molly, it was probably Tierra. Zaxan found Brett and Tierra kissing in Brett's room. The aroma of sex still hung in the air, the couple having just finished a long-delayed fuck before Molly arrived. Tierra had a happy gleam in her eyes, and Brett wore a somewhat stunned grin on his handsome face. "You told me I would still be able to enjoy fucking human boys," she said to the alien. "But I never quite believed it since I hadn't ever enjoyed it all that much before. But I really did like it with Brett." She turned to Brett. "I never liked a human boy nearly as much as I like you," she said sincerely. "But you understand that I'm still under Zaxan's thrall." "I totally get it," Brett said with a nod. "Zaxer's the man!" Zaxan couldn't help but like the good-natured boy, and despite coming from very different backgrounds the couple in front of him fit together very nicely. "You two may seek a romantic relationship or passionate encounters as you wish, but I still reserve the right to have Tierra as my concubine when I desire her." "Sounds cool, Z," Brett said with another quick nod. "Aliens with benefits, man!" Zaxan looked at his co-conspirator, his first lover, and a passionate beauty worthy of songs and praise. "Friends with benefits as well," he said. "Tierra is my invaluable friend." Tierra launched herself from the bed and wrapped Zaxan in an embrace. "I love you, too, Zaxy!" she squealed. "I'm happy to be your friend." Then she paused and looked up at him. "So, why are you talking like a middle-aged English professor?" "I'm using emotional recall of my father's feelings for me but focusing them on Molly." "You're trying to become her daddy?" Tierra asked, not quite sure where that would go. "Not quite. I'm also going to screw her brains out," he said in his normal voice. "Brett, your little sister is really fucking hot." "Dude, I know. I hardly bring the guys over to the house anymore because I'm afraid one of them will try and fuck her. She likes older guys, too. But none of my buddies can pump her full of purple happy juice when they cum. They'd just make her cry in the end." Brett's normally smiling face took on a serious expression. "I'm trusting you, Zax. Don't hurt my baby sister." "I won't," he replied in the same earnest tone. "I need your help. Here's what you have to do..." A few minutes later, Zaxan sat outside Molly's bedroom door. He could hear her softly weeping within. He genuinely meant well with this girl, but his alien mind also found it fascinating to be near so much raw emotion. Denubian males had all the same emotions as humans, just never to the same degree. The terror of a girl who was being raped, the aching loneliness of a sexually repressed divorcee, the self-loathing of an adolescent girl whose father told her she wasn't good enough, each of these fed Zaxan's need for powerful emotion and thrilled him nearly as much as the romantic ecstasy of a college girl finding love at the end of what she believed was a death-defying escape from alien captivity or the frenzied lust of a thirty-something mother who had just unleashed her repressed sexual desires for the first time in her life. Zaxan wanted Molly to find peace within herself, but he would happily taste every moment of either joy or sorrow along the way. For the first time in his life, Zaxan was experiencing all the drama that belonged to a family of beings who were part of a truly passionate species. Brett and Tierra looked down at him and waited for him to give them the go-ahead. He gave it, and they knocked on the door. "Molls, it's Brett. My new girlfriend really wants to meet you." "It's not a good time, Brett. I'd love to meet her tomorrow." "Oh, come one, Molls," Brett said, opening the door. "It'll just take a minute." Zaxan felt Molly's apprehension and suppressed anger, and his keen hearing allowed him to hear her quickly shifting her position as the door opened. "Hi, Molly, I'm Tierra." "I'll just leave you two to get acquainted," Brett said and quickly retreated, pulling the door shut behind him. He gave a hopeful thumbs-up to Zaxan and went downstairs to start the family supper. Zaxan listened in as Tierra went to work. "Hey, sweetie, I'm sorry to intrude on your privacy, but I think we're going to be seeing a lot of each other, so I thought I should get to know you." "You're Brett's girlfriend?" "Yes, we just decided that a little bit ago." "My brother's a great guy, and you're really pretty. I hope you're happy together." Zaxan could sense that Molly was trying very hard to make a good impression. She had already had one disastrous moment with one of Brett's new friends. "So I heard you met Zak," Tierra said brightly. It was too much for Molly. She couldn't even deflect the question with a simple yes. As Zaxan had hoped, Molly broke down. It was more than just a delicious taste of her emotions. It was helpful in executing the plan. He could hear the bedsprings creak as Tierra sat down next to the younger girl and took her in her arms. "Oh, Molly, what's wrong?" "I hit him with something. I thought he was Brett, and I was mad at Brett and wanted to hit him with it. Then Zak gets up, and he's so big and so handsome and really, really sweet about the whole thing, but he has to think I'm the brattiest little bitch in the whole world!" "All that happened just now?" Tierra asked. Zaxan had withheld it from Tierra so that she would have a more honestly surprised reaction, and because he thought it would be kind of funny. Tierra would probably be mad about it. Humans didn't usually get Denubian humor. "And that's why you're upset?" Zaxan guessed the younger girl must have been nodding in reply to Tierra. The older girl continued. "The funny thing is that when Zak told Brett he'd just met you, all he said was that you were... I don't know if I should say it." "Please, Tierra! Please tell me!" "He said you were, and I quote, `fucking hot.'" Zaxan could feel a wellspring of hope in Molly, and a touch of the same fear she had had at the idea of actually getting together with him. Then came the self-doubt. It followed nearly every other emotion the girl felt. "He was just joking or something, Tierra. Maybe he was too embarrassed to tell Brett what an awful person his little sister is." "No, Molly. I know Zak better than anyone in the world. He meant it." "Well, even if Zak thinks I'm hot, he still probably thinks I'm crazy." "Either that or he thinks you're passionate," Tierra explained. "He loves girls who let their feelings out." "He said almost the exact same thing, Tierra! I thought he was just being nice." "Molly, is it hard for you to admit that he might actually like you? I mean, he acts like he's a grown-up sometimes, but he's really only a little older than you." "But he's so big!" "Size shouldn't really matter. I mean, I'm two inches taller than Brett, but he doesn't care, at least I hope not. I'd hate to get dumped for being too tall." "He's not going to dump you for that, Tierra. You're gorgeous!" "And so are you, Molly... and... he'd give me a hard time if he ever heard me say it, but so is Zak." "Oh god, is he ever!" Molly squealed. "So, you're attracted to Zak, and he thinks you're fucking hot. Let's not let the size thing get in the way." Tierra said it as if the matter was resolved. Zaxan sensed a bit of suspicion building up in Molly. "You and Brett are setting us up, aren't you?" Zaxan hadn't realized that Molly would catch on so quickly, but he sensed that the question hadn't thrown Tierra at all. "Of course we are," she said. "Brett adores you, and Zak is my best friend. We'd love to do the whole double date thing, or even just hang around together with you guys." "You'd hang around with a twelve-year-old?" Molly asked in disbelief. "If it was you." The warm feeling of being accepted by a new friend came from both girls in the room, and Zaxan closed his eyes and savored it. "Do you know how Zak likes girls to dress?" Molly asked quietly. "Well, what you have on is going to give any guy a hard-on, but I suppose you're not going to wear your dance gear to supper. Let's see what you've got in the closet. Zak's kind of the fatherly type. Do you have anything that kind of says you're really innocent but still want his attention?" "I AM really innocent but still want his attention!" Molly said and giggled right after. It had been nearly two minutes since her last bout of self-loathing. Zaxan considered it progress. He left the girls alone and went down the hall to visit Regina. There was nearly an hour until supper, and Zaxan wanted to take the edge off of his desire for Molly. His plan didn't call for him to fuck his little ballerina yet tonight. Besides, Regina had seemed so eager to please him again. She said it made her feel twenty years younger. Who was he to deny her that thrill? She'd certainly provided him with plenty of them. Supper was an interesting experience for Zaxan. First of all, there was Molly in her simple white dress with tiny pink flowers. It did all the things Tierra and the little redhead had hoped it would do. It spoke of her innocence, yet it demanded his attention. But the rest of the meal was also fascinating. Zaxan only took the necessary time to consume his daily meal in the solitude of the shuttle. Denubians didn't consider eating to be a social act. So, while he had carefully studied the etiquette surrounding human dining, this was his first time at a human table, consuming human food. Regina complimented him on his table manners while giving Brett a sidelong look. Brett promptly removed his elbows from the table. While his hosts were more emotional than Denubians, their food was considerably less spicy. Zaxan ate a small portion of Brett's pasta with Alfredo sauce. Since the scouts that had explored the planet for Zaxan's father had warned him that he needed to avoid alcohol at all costs, he refused Regina's offer of wine. The drink must not have had the same potent effect on humans, since Regina allowed even tiny Molly to have a small portion. Regina seemed surprised that the lusty boy turned down alcohol. "I noticed before, Zak, that you preferred water to soda. Are you a bit of a health food nut?" Regina had thrown him for a second. `Health food nut' were three words that hadn't appeared together in the linguistics database, and Tierra had never introduced him to the phrase. "Zak obviously takes good care of his body," Tierra said, covering for him. "But I've known him to pound pizza like a madman." Zaxan made a note of that, too. Someone pounding on pizza would seem like a madman, but why would Tierra tell them that Zaxan did it? His education was sorely lacking in some respects. "He sure does take good care of his body, Tierra," Regina said and didn't bother to hide the innuendo. "Mother!" Molly cried in shock. "No more wine for you," she scolded and then laughed gently. Zaxan caught the girl dart her eyes toward him for a few seconds, but she turned back to her salad without commenting. "I noticed, Molly, that you haven't had any bread or Pasta ala Brett," Zaxan observed. "Wheat allergies?" "No," she said. "I just have to watch what I eat." "Why?" the alien asked. "So I don't get fat." "Oh, is your father rather heavy?" he asked. "No, he's built kind of like Brett," she said, not seeing where this was leading. "Well, then it seems illogical for you to think you're likely to get fat from small portions of tastier foods. Your father and brother are fit. Your mother's figure is quite fetching, and your build is essentially perfect." Molly reacted in mild shock. She couldn't believe Zak had just dropped that in front of her mother. Hell, he'd dropped part of it right on her mother. The little redhead was lost as to what to do or say. "You're very sweet, Zak, thank you," Regina said and smiled warmly. Molly decided to follow her example. "Thanks, Zak, that was really nice." She looked with longing at the steaming bowl of pasta and the rich Alfredo. "But I'm a dancer." "Didn't realize that could make you fat," Zaxan said. "Seems almost like the exercise would have the opposite effect. It certainly has so far." "Could we please talk about something other than my body?" Molly asked, turning bright red. "Yes, of course," Zaxan replied. "Your eyes sparkle like sunlight reflected through an angel's halo." Molly turned to him in disbelief. He chuckled. "Sorry. That one was just to get you wound up. I'm not even sure it made sense." Molly chucked him on the shoulder and smiled. Zaxan decided that punching her back wouldn't be part of the bonding process like it had been with her brother. "Your eyes are pretty, though," he added softly. He felt that one warm her all the way down to her toes. "Tierra's eyes are really pretty, too," Brett said, "and her body's killer." Everyone else was silent for a moment. "Just figured it ought to get mentioned," he said with a shrug. Tierra kissed him on the cheek. She then looked at Molly and winked in a manner that seemed to say, "THAT'S how you take a compliment!" Molly nodded. "Brett," Regina asked, beginning one of the conversations Zaxan had wanted them to have, "history mid-term?" "B-minus. I screwed up the matching, but I nailed the essay on the Hoot-Smalley Tariff." "Well, you did okay. History is hard for you, honey. We can't all be as academically gifted as our little Molly." Molly snorted at Regina's compliment, and it prompted an immediate response from Brett. "Come off it, Molls. You've gotten straight A's your whole life. You're a genius or something." "I haven't gotten straight A's my whole life," Molly snapped. Catching herself, she added, "Thanks for saying I'm smart, you guys." "I get good grades, but they're not as important as learning from your studies," Zaxan said in his fatherly tone. "I've sometimes learned the most from classes in which I got lower grades." "How could you learn more and get lower grades?" Tierra asked, setting him up and giving Zaxan further evidence that they were becoming more and more of an inseparable team with each passing day. "Well, for example... Molly, think of a class you didn't get an A in." "She's only had the one," Regina said, "And that was only first quarter last year. She got an A for the semester and the final." "Okay," Zaxan said in his oh, so logical tone. "Let's look at the first quarter of that class so we can help Tierra understand. What class was it?" "I don't really like to talk about it," she said, and Zaxan could feel her guard come up. "For Tierra, please," he coaxed gently. Molly sighed. "Okay, it was the sixth grade advanced math class." "Did you know a lot about the subject coming in?" he asked. "Well, I was actually pretty good at math, but I had learned different things in grade school. It was really embarrassing. We went to public grade school, but Mom put us in private school once we hit middle school age. Every kid in the advanced class, except me, had gone to Saint Mary's, the feeder for my school. Their program prepped them for what the middle school teacher did. I had never done any algebra, and they had already been doing it for a semester of fifth grade." She smiled a little bit. "Second quarter I kicked their ass at geometry. I'd had more of that at my old school." "Okay," Zaxan said, looking at Tierra and then back to Molly. "So, you went from knowing zero algebra to getting a B+ in an advanced class. The second quarter you got higher grades in the geometry section. Which quarter did you learn more?" "First quarter, I guess," Molly said, her brow furrowed in thought. "So, you see, Tierra. Molly was a true success that quarter. Anybody who tells her any differently doesn't understand much about learning. Their opinion wouldn't be worth worrying about too much." "I never thought about it that way," Tierra said. "What do you think, Molly?" Molly answered slowly. It was clear that she was turning her whole opinion of the matter upside-down. "I think... I think maybe Zak is right. Huh." Zaxan could feel the burden lifting off her psyche. They were a long way from turning Molly's whole self-image around, but again there was progress. The next moment provided even more evidence of progress. "I think I'll try a little Pasta ala Brett," Molly said. "Just a little." Zaxan's evening ended with a kiss... on the cheek. It wasn't sexually satisfying, but there was so much more to the joys of human females than that. Boldly kissing Zak on the cheek was an exciting moment for Molly. In their hour together before dinner Molly had confessed to Tierra that she'd kissed a couple boys in the past year. But Zaxan could sense that kissing the handsome `older boy' that had swept into her life with an exhilarating suddenness moved her more deeply than anything she had done in her limited experience with other boys. Absorbing what Molly felt in the moment was quite fulfilling for Zaxan. The rest could wait. The following day, Zaxan returned to the more well-equipped cruiser he had parked in lunar orbit and turned the raw gold his mineral-collecting robots had been harvesting at night and turned into unmarked gold bars. The spray bottle came in very useful as Zaxan used it to both convince a shady underworld boss to give him 1.2 million dollars cash for the gold and to get an initially reluctant bank vice-president to handle the paperwork that made fourteen-year-old Tierra Lopez the only one with access to the account in which he deposited the tidy little fortune. His beautiful friend would indeed have the elegant Quinceanera she had dreamt of since she was a little girl. When Zaxan visited Molly's house that evening, he again established himself as the wise older male that approved of Molly's efforts. He helped her with her homework and praised her thoughtful writing style as he perused her essay for English. He convinced her to begin using one his hypno instructors that night, and promised it would help her with her math. He had housed the tiny device within the earphones of an i-pod he gave her as a gift. Since the device only kicked in when the user was asleep, she never caught on to the fact that it gave her visual instruction as well as verbal. On a non-Denubian brain, the device wouldn't give her the same conscious control over the material that Zaxan would have gained. But by the end of the month she would have all the intricacies of trigonometry and differential calculus deep within her brain. The knowledge just wouldn't come out until she was exposed to the subject matter. Zaxan ended the night with a proper goodnight kiss and set a double date for the two of them with Brett and Tierra for the following afternoon. The quartet went golfing, a sport Brett and Molly seemed to have little trouble with, but Zaxan and Tierra found comically frustrating. Well, Tierra found it comical; Zaxan did not. Despite his great strength and agility, he could not make the little ball do what he wanted it do. He ended up using all of his ever-growing collection of profane Earther metaphors and a few he had learned from visiting other worlds. He made note of the possibilities golf presented for him. All Denubians wanted to feel passionate emotions from within, and this cruel sport certainly prompted him to have some. Sarcorp could make a mint off opening golf courses on Denubis Prime! As they were leaving the course, they had to cross a bridge over a ravine. It was not horribly deep for Zaxan, fifty feet or so, but that was a lethal drop for a human. Molly pressed the handle of her pull cart into Brett's hand. "Molls, I hate when you do that," Brett said before she had even begun to do the thing that Zaxan could sense gave Brett chills. Molly simply smiled and then climbed up onto the rail of the bridge. Gleefully, she walked across on the rail, pausing twice to mimic a fall. Tierra and Brett reached out each time, as if they were going to have to dive and catch her. Zaxan stood simply stunned. He had never seen behavior like this, and he had never felt anything quite like he felt from Molly in the moment. The danger made her come alive in a brand new way. He had seen a word in his study of their language, `daredevil.' He hadn't understood it until that moment. "Is she trying to kill herself?" Brett whispered, near tears. "No," Zaxan replied. "She's not courting death. She's embracing life." Molly reached the far side and dismounted the rail with an aerial spin and then a deep bow. She grinned at the others. Brett and Tierra stared at her with relief on their faces. But Zaxan, her Zak, smiled. Molly knew that he understood. "You've proven you're alive," he said as he crossed to her. He held her in his gaze and continued to look at her with nothing but approval in his eyes. "Magnificent girl, you don't need to prove it anymore, you know?" "But I like it," she said, still smiling. "Let me teach you something, Molly." He took her by the hand and led her back to the rail. He let her stand there on her own. "Close your eyes. Feel the creak in the board beneath your feet. Feel the air around you, beneath you. Don't concentrate on the physical sensations, but find what it does to your heart." She was silent for a moment, standing unaided on the bridge rail with nothing but air and danger around her. She felt omnipotent death held at bay by the strength of her will and the agility of her body. "I feel it, in my heart," she whispered. "Grab hold of it, and lock it into your heart." He could sense that she did so. "My father taught me that any moment, any sensation, can be captured if you lock it into your heart. You don't need to flirt with death again in order to feel alive. You will always have it now. You own it, little beauty." She stepped lightly from the rail and landed on the bridge beside him. "Sometimes you're the only one who gets me, Zak," she said and looked at him with adoration in her eyes. "And now I do own the moment. Thank you." She threw her arms around his neck and kissed him on the lips. On the way home Molly imitated him cursing and ranting during their round of golf and eventually teased him into something called a `tickle fight.' The strange human ritual kept them occupied until they wound up making out in the backseat. As she let him take her tiny body into his arms, Zaxan could sense her lust for him. She had made a decision already. His actions on the bridge had cemented it. He was going to be `the one.' Zaxan could sense that her trust in him was even deeper than her desire. Still, Zaxan wanted to do just a little more to make sure that she was going to be free from her desperate desire to please her never-satisfied father. Zaxan had found her emotional struggles very intoxicating. No human girl he'd ever encountered was such an amazing cocktail of conflicting passions, but it was time for her to shake herself free of her self-doubt. Tierra recommended a very human and rather mundane method of pushing the girl toward her `breakthrough.' They watched a movie. Of the four of them, only Tierra had ever even heard of "The Dead Poet's Society," but its effect on Molly was profound. As the juvenile lead committed suicide after his never-satisfied father squashed his dreams, Molly had the exact reaction Tierra had predicted. The movie had affected Tierra the same way when she was Molly's age. Just like Molly had seen with her mother, Molly saw that the failure in her relationship with her father wasn't her own. She curled up in Zaxan's lap and wept, but he sensed that not all of her tears were bitter or angry. More of her tears actually seemed to spring from hope and relief. Despite his empathic abilities, Zaxan had long ago given up on trying to understand all the reasons why Earther girls wept. He was just glad that they did it so often. Molly was the most emotionally confused girl he had ever met, and somehow that made her his favorite. Molly would cry many more tears over her father, Zaxan knew that. He also knew that it was in most ways a good thing. Completely shutting out part of your personality could lead to your entire psyche collapsing. The Great Betrayal's devastating effects on Denubian females had proven that. But Zaxan was certain that Molly was ready to no longer let that one relationship control her entire life. He could reinforce that attitude once she had bonded to him. He smiled and fondly shook his head as he glanced at Tierra. While all his empathic ability and all his clever games had helped Molly reach her breakthrough, it was simple human female intuition and shared girlhood experiences that had led Tierra to finding just the right button to push to finally set the girl free. Zaxan turned again to Tierra, staring at Molly with tears of her own in her eyes, and mouthed, "I adore you." As Tierra fought off the urge to completely break down, Brett took her by the chin and turned her face to his so that she could see him. "Me too," he mouthed. While Tierra smothered the human boy in kisses, she freed a hand and pointed to Molly, then Zaxan, then upstairs. The timing seemed odd to Zaxan, but he trusted Tierra. Zaxan held his tiny dancer a little closer and then lifted her from the couch and carried her upstairs. She clung to him, and he could sense her anticipation. She knew the implications of her new boyfriend carrying her to the bedroom, and she gladly accepted them. Zaxan began to understand. One phase of her life, the one mired in her torturous attempts to please her father, had ended. She wanted a new phase to begin. She was going to willingly throw her heart into the relationships with the people who already adored her for what she was. Regina, Brett, Tierra and especially Zak were those people. "I love you, Zak," she whispered as they reached the top of the steps. Those three little words, when spoken sincerely, meant everything to humans. He responded with three little words of his own. "Tana, initiate transport." It had become important to him that this complicated little girl accepted him for what he was as well. If she didn't, he would probably just wipe her memory and let her go. Probably. She was still incredibly desirable, and he was still Denubian. Molly gripped tightly to Zaxan's neck. "What just happened, Zak?" she asked and gazed desperately into his eyes. He looked down at her and took a second to recover from the powerful jolt her shock had sent through his system. "Well," he said, gesturing to their surroundings. "I'm an alien." Molly slumped back against him for support and looked at was undoubtedly a space ship. She took a long time to process it, but she didn't slip into a panic. "All my girlfriends fell in love with vampires and werewolves in books. I fell in love with a real life alien. I think I win." "I feel like I've won, too." "There was always something about you that was different, really different, Zak. This was more than I expected." "And you're okay with it?" he asked. "I have no idea if I'm even awake. It's way too soon to move all the way to okay." "You're still leaning on me," he said hopefully. "At least you're not terrified and cowering in a corner." She turned to look at him. "Am I a prisoner or anything?" "No." "Am I some kind of experiment for you? Are other aliens watching us?" "No, and no." "Why did you bring me here?" "Because I didn't want to make love to you without you knowing." She liked that answer; he could feel that quite clearly. But she wasn't satisfied with just that. "Do you fuck a lot of human girls?" "Only three so far," he said, and felt very uncomfortable about the follow-up questions he knew would come. "Tierra?" "My first." Molly nodded. She had thought as much already. Slowly, the question that frightened Zaxan the most formed in Molly's brain. The clues had been scattered all around her, and she was too bright not to assemble them. "My mom?" "Yes, Molly." He could have dodged what came next, and maybe he would have if he had known such a little girl could hit so hard. He'd been anticipating a slap. She punched him on the jaw. It hurt almost as much as the feelings of indignity and rage she gave him felt good. Then, he felt something else come from her. He shook his head and smiled slightly and then grabbed a mild analgesic patch from the med kit. Molly was still glaring at him when he turned back to her. "Give me your hand," he said in the most soothing voice he could muster. "Fuck you!" "Molly, there's no reason to stand there in pain. Give me your hand." She slowly held her reddened hand out toward him. "Thankfully you didn't dislocate anything," he said calmly. "That was quite a wallop." He pressed the patch to her knuckles. She sighed as she felt immediate relief from the pain. "It felt like I punched a fucking brick wall," she muttered, restraining her rage but not letting go of it. "We're a little more physically rugged than humans." The notion of her boyfriend being some sort of an alien superman appealed to Molly. But then, her mind came back to the subject at hand. "You fucked my mom!" "And how has she behaved since then?" He was acting calm, but being in a conversation this intense rather aroused him. Molly looked down and fidgeted. "Happiest she's ever been," she muttered quietly. Then her emotions fired right back up. "But now you're going after her daughter. It's going to break her heart!" "She actually thought it would be a good idea. Sex with my kind makes girls very, very happy. Reggie wants that for you." "Is that what all this is about? Take pity on the sad little girl and make her happy? You guys can all fuck off!" Zaxan was having some trouble thinking straight. The longer she stayed agitated, the more aroused he became. His addled brain figured that talking wasn't getting the job done anyway. He kissed her. "What the fuck are you doing?" she snapped when she broke away. "I want you, Molly. More than I have wanted any girl I have ever known." He kissed her again. Molly kissed back for a second, but then she shoved him away. Actually she shoved and accidentally pushed herself back against the work station. She hadn't moved him at all. "I hate you!" she screamed and tried to claw at him. He caught her arms and held them in place. "No, Molly, you don't," he said as calmly as he could manage, but the hunger inside him was becoming overwhelming. "I would know if you really hated me." She had to have been able to sense his arousal now. He was so close to her, holding her struggling arms in place. "What? You know what I'm feeling better than I do?" She looked up at him as he tilted his head slightly sideways. She took the meaning of the glance. It stunned her, and she dropped her hands down to her sides. "Oh, fuck. You do." "Yes, sometimes, Molly." "And what am I feeling right now?" "Angry, betrayed, slightly disgusted..." "Slightly?" she snapped. "Yes. Slightly. You are also intrigued and very aroused." "I am not!" she said, knowing it was a lie, but needing to say it anyway. "Even more so now, than a second ago, because now you're aware of it, and fighting it is becoming even harder. You're really fighting against your own instincts now. Would it be easier for you if I just took you?" "NO!" she shouted. "You're saying it firmly, but your heart is very conflicted on that point." "I fell in love with you, and you were fucking my mom!" she said and started to cry. Zaxan wished she wouldn't do that. He was having a hard enough time controlling himself as it was. He took her in his arms and kissed her again, sliding his hands down to her bottom. He could feel her panties beneath the thin pajama pants she had worn to hang out and watch a movie. She squirmed and turned her face away from him. He could taste her tears on her cheeks. "Molly," he said in a voice that bordered on desperation. "Say no and really mean it or I might not be able to stop." "Please," she sobbed. "Please what?" "I DON'T KNOW!" she cried and kissed him. "I don't know," she whispered softly. "Yes, you do know," he said with certainty. She took a deep breath as if she was about to say something, but she didn't say it. She kissed him again; her lips still carried the taste of tears. He picked her up and held her in his arms. This was another chance for her to say it was going too far, but she clung to his neck instead. He could sense how torn she was. She must have wanted so badly to be able to stop him, to stop herself. There was so much about this that confused her, worried her. But there was a more powerful urge in her, Zaxan could feel it. She had so much desire for the boy she loved. "I can feel what you want, Molly." He carried her to the room he had fixed to resemble a human bedroom and placed her down on the bed. He crawled on top of her and pinned her wrists down in one hand. "So, you're just taking me then?" she asked. It was clear that she felt a certain relief as she pondered the idea. "I think you could still stop me with one word, but you'd have to mean it, and you won't. Unless the next word out of your mouth is a sincere `no,' I am going to ravish your beautiful little body and then I am going to do it again tomorrow and the day after that." "Don't break my fucking heart," she whispered. "I would die." "I'll make you happy," he said. Maybe he should have said, `I love you.' It would have made things easier, but their love was still alien to him, and he wasn't going to lie to her. He knew he wanted her, that she made him feel good, that he wanted her to be happy forever, and that he felt like making her happy was somehow supposed to be his job. Maybe that was love, but he wasn't sure, so he wasn't going to use those words to placate her. He kissed her passionately and whispered, "You'll be happy, Molly. I promise." He supposed plenty of human boys had made that promise to girls. But the Denubian boy knew he could make it happen. That was the truth he could give her. He kept her wrists pinned with one hand and pulled her thin pajama bottoms down off her hips with the other. He took her panties with them and cast them to the floor. He couldn't get the top off over her head with one hand, so he ripped the buttons off the front of the top and spread the sides apart. He kissed her lips, and she hesitantly opened her mouth to his tongue. He could feel it all in her now. Her fear, terror almost, but also her desire and her acceptance. She had been a complicated girl in every moment leading up to this. Of course she would be complicated now. When he moved his kisses down to her barely-there breasts, she reacted with ecstasy. She had wanted him before, and she wanted him now. But there were also so many reasons to want him to stop. Slowly, they were falling away. So, too was the weight of her decision. He was making the decisions now. She could react in whatever way she felt in the moment; the boulder had started down the mountainside. The outcome of this night was inevitable. When he brought his mouth to her sex, he released her hands. She responded with more contradictions. She tried to push him away and then clutched at him. She struck the back of his head and then stroked his hair. She closed her legs and then reached her hips toward his mouth. When he took her knees and forced them slowly apart with impossible strength, she fought back with all her might. When his hungry mouth began to feverishly kiss her moistened labia, she mouthed the word `no' and then pushed his head down tighter. Zaxan felt her relief when he began to kiss and suck at her sex despite her confused efforts. He felt her desire mount as he tasted her and pleasured her with his tongue. While her knees again tried to close as his finger penetrated her, he heard her hiss, "Yes." When he snuck a finger from his other hand up to the hole in her tiny backside, he sensed confusion and then acceptance. He wondered if she even realized that she had rotated her hips to give him easier access to the opening. He might not have even tried it if she hadn't. He locked his mouth on her thin clit, burying his face in her downy ginger pubic hair and worked the finger into her backside. "Even my ass," she groaned softly. "I'm so far gone." He did not penetrate her unlubricated bottom very far. The little bit of pain he was causing her didn't upset her, but he wasn't going to use her for the thrills that pain provided. Not on her virgin night. There would be some pain, he knew, but she wasn't his plaything. She was his darling girl. He left the finger there, but concentrated on the pleasure he was giving her. "Oh god," she moaned. "I'm gonna cum!" He didn't say anything. He was too occupied with what he was doing. He alternated between licks and suction, kisses and nips, fingers and tongue. He could sense what gave her the most pleasure, and in the end it was the flat of his tongue sliding back and forth across the top of her clit that sent her over. It was her first climax shared with a lover, and it was quiet and deep. She took a few sharp breaths, trembled slightly and then sighed in ecstatic relief. Within a few seconds, she was grabbing his hair and pulling him up toward her mouth. She kissed him over and over. Then she pulled his head up slightly and held it in both hands. "I never knew my pussy could feel like that," she said in a way that made even the word `pussy' sound pure and innocent. "I loved it. Thank you." He smiled and kissed her gently. Then he rose and towered over her. "Undress me, little lover," he said. She slid out of her top and sat up on the edge of the bed. She pulled at the bottom of his shirt, and he leaned down and forward so that she could slide it over his head. She opened his slacks as he stepped out of his loafers. She slid them down and then placed her trembling hands at the waistband of his boxers. Molly drew a deep breath and pushed them down. She flushed red with embarrassment when they momentarily got caught on his shaft, but she got them down. "Holy shit," she said, and he could feel her fear of it. But she nodded and began to tilt back toward the bed. His hand caught her and sat her back upright. He brought her face right up to the thing she feared. "I've never tried to..." "Until now," he said. She nodded and took it in both hands. She licked and kissed the head. She was getting aroused by his reaction. He drew in a few sharp breaths. She teased it some more. She giggled slightly when he groaned. With one of her little hands, she began to explore and fondle his sack and even tickle the soft spot behind it. He squirmed slightly. She giggled again. Growing bolder, she ran the tip of her tongue up the length of his shaft, starting at the very base. Her tongue curled up on her before she got all the way to tip. She had to straighten it out and start in the middle. He groaned again, and she looked up at him with amusement in her blue eyes. "Having fun, little tease?" he asked her. "You are, too, admit it," she said and swished her red hair back over her bare shoulder. "I am, but if you keep torturing me I'm going to start driving it into your mouth. Your choice." She thought about it for a moment. He expected her to start trying in earnest. Instead, she gave him a quick kiss on the tip and then grinned up at him. She'd come so far so quickly. She was willing to make choices now. And not only was she freely giving herself to him, she was even setting the playful tone she desired. He palmed the back of her head and pushed his shaft to her lips. She closed her mouth and smiled. It nearly gave him the opening he needed, and it did give him an idea. He remembered the tickle fight. He gently took a finger from the opposite hand and began to tickle her under the armpit. She couldn't help her response. She opened her mouth to laugh. He got scraped a little on the way in, but not much. Soon, he had half of his shaft buried in her warm, wet mouth. He stopped when he hit the back. She would have no idea how to take him further. Even Regina had barely managed to get him into her throat, and she had spent a great deal of time trying. Zaxan slowly moved her head up and back. She took every bit of it she could, and she started to use her tongue to pleasure him. Molly pushed his hand away, and convinced that she would now try in earnest, he let her set her own pace. She went a great deal faster than he had made her go, and she found that she could fit her whole fist on the base of shaft and still not be in her own way. She pumped furiously as she continued. Zaxan was very happy with the results. He was getting close to his release, but he wanted her to take him inside of her before she was under his thrall. He pulled her off and brought her to her feet so that he could kiss her. She kept her hand on him for a moment, not really wanting to let go of his shaft. But then she threw both her arms around his neck. They kissed for a long while, and he could sense her teasing side starting to come back. "If you want to put that big cock in my pussy," she purred, "you'll have to force me." "Do you really want to make me force you?" he said, trying to contain his desire to do just that. She responded by smiling sweetly and then suddenly breaking from his arms and running to the other side of the room, intentionally cornering herself. He instinctively closed on her, pinning her in place with his arms against the walls. She looked up at him, and there was a touch of fear in her eyes. She had thought this would be the easy way out, making him take her. She now realized that she was playing a dangerous game. He could get wild, and he was very, very powerful. She reached a hand up and ran it over the muscles of his chest and arms. Zaxan felt something in her he had sensed when he very first mentioned forcing her. He hadn't been able to identify everything that had made her want him in the moments where everything stood on the edge of a knife, seemingly ready to tip either way. There was her love for him, and certainly some sheer physical desire. But she couldn't have completely trusted him anymore at that point. Something else had taken the place of that trust, and it had helped make her want him just the same. Now, he knew what it was. She was aroused by the danger, by her own fear of his impossibly big and powerful body and alien heart. He could sense the same feelings she had given off when she stood on the railing of the bridge. She looked up at him with desire and love in her eyes and then closed them as she repeated his instructions on how to lock a moment deep in her heart and not forget a single detail. It was a very deep moment for both of them. Then, after the same sweet smile as before, she raked her nails across his muscular chest. "You'll never get it," she said and tried to duck under his arm. He caught her around the waist and held her up off the floor with one arm. She kicked and squirmed and twisted about trying to slap him. When she managed a slap to the arm holding her, he responded with a sharp spank to her little bottom. "Brute!" she shouted. "You have no idea, little one," he said, feeling a surge of power welling up from inside him. He had spent so much time pushing her buttons that he had never contemplated how well she had learned to push his. He was just a fourteen-year-old boy, after all. Adolescent girls had been driving them crazy since the beginning of her species. He tossed her onto the bed. He could have followed her right there, but he let her get up and out the door. She was heading down the main corridor. "Tana, Wall Eight," he said without moving. "Lock all doors, keyed by my touch." The wall at the end of the corridor quickly rose up and sealed the corridor. The doors all clicked fast. "Cheater!" she cried, slightly amused but still maintaining her willingness to fight. Zaxan smirked and then spoke in Denubian. "Tana, Molly chak zon wex." The transporter locked onto her and she disappeared. Brett saw a shimmer of light, and then his little sister appeared before him. Tierra, Brett's member in her mouth, hadn't notice the naked girl for a moment. Molly had materialized in the living room of her own house. "You okay, Molls?" Brett asked. "I either just got permanently kicked out of a flying saucer, or this is alien foreplay," she said, her breath heavy with excitement. "Probably just--" Tierra started to say, but never got to finish. Molly had disappeared with a shimmer. She found herself in almost total darkness. She could feel cold metal beneath her feet. The room was completely quiet. She thought she was probably back aboard Zak's ship, but she was uncertain. Her fear began to mount. What if he had really been angry about her scratching him? He could have sent her anywhere. And she had the growing feeling that someone was in the room with her. "Zak?" she asked timidly. Strong hands seized her. She was lifted into the air and then launched. She landed several feet away, but her fear of a long fall or crashing into a hard metal deck proved unneeded. She landed on a soft surface, but then powerful arms gripped her again, pushing her to her back. She couldn't move her arms, so she brought her knee up with all the force she could muster. She hit something that felt like flesh, but not the soft spot she was hoping for. Her assailant had blocked her kick with his leg. He used the leg to lever hers open, and his weight descended on her. She was about to panic, but just before her unseen enemy penetrated her she caught a scent. It was musky, masculine and familiar. "You are the craziest, sexiest girl on this whole planet," a voice spoke in the darkness and then Molly felt an unbelievable pressure at her loins. Her beloved was taking her, and Molly was helpless to stop him. She was helpless because she was trapped, helpless because she couldn't see, helpless because he was so strong, helpless because she wanted it to happen so badly. "Oh god, it hurts!" she cried. Zaxan knew that it hurt. He could feel that. It was amazing how clearly he felt it. Still, he pushed forward into her; no force on any planet could stop him from doing that now, least of all himself. He didn't drive mercilessly into her. He worked ever so slowly into her, giving her body time to adjust. She had been well-lubricated before, and she had become aroused at his scent, and his words of desire. Still, it was difficult for the virgin to take him in. When he struck her hymen, he could see her nod, even though this level of light gave humans no ability to see at all. He savored the last bit of true fear she would ever have of this act with him, and then he pushed through her barrier and buried himself deep within her. Molly cried out into the air of the nearly empty aft cargo bay where Zaxan had made love to Cassandra. He had never moved the mattress back to the bed in the mock human bedroom from which he had taken it. The Denubian could feel the warmth from the trickle of blood he had drawn taking his first virgin. It filled him with both lust and respect for the gravity of the moment. He kissed her repeatedly. "I need to see you, Zak," she said softly. "Tana, lights up by twenty percent, slowly." He watched the little redhead's features fill with emotion as she was able to take in her lover's face. "You're so beautiful, Zak" she whispered. "I'm okay, go ahead." He began to move slowly in and out of her. Her sex, like everything else about her, was complicated. It felt like it fought him fiercely, but welcomed him eagerly. It was soft and smooth, yet he could feel tiny bumps within her. It knew pain as he stretched her, but the same force brought her pleasure. Everything that was unfathomably human--unfathomably female--came together in the form of this beautiful little girl. She was very wet now, able to draw pleasure from the act, and he began to work his way up inside of her. It took some doing to find the right angle, but he found a place where he could go deep and not cause her any more pain. "There!" she cried. "Hard and fast right there!" Zaxan let himself cut loose. Molly writhed in ecstasy as his mass filled her over and over. Her face was against his chest, and she covered it with kisses. There was nothing left between them now but pleasure and passion. Zaxan found he didn't miss the complicated emotions in the moment. The two emotions he got from her were so strong, and so well matched to his own, that he was completely satisfied. He was surprised that he was able to go as long as he did, but he had been teased to the brink of climax before, and he had found that sometimes it actually made him last longer. But finally, her warmth, tightness and passions were too much for him to hold out against. He felt the pressure inside him begin to build. He knew he was about to begin his process of release. "Are you happy?" he urgently asked in the final moment. "Happier than ever!" she squealed in delight. It felt good for him to know that his love and passion alone could do that for her, but he had known all along that she would end up happy. His vibratory phase began with its normal slow twitch. "What's that?" she gasped. Soon enough, the pace of the twitches increased until they became the rapid vibration his species had evolved to ensure female orgasm. "Oh Zak! Oh, my love!" she cried and began to clutch and squeal beneath him. Her second orgasm was frantic. Her little body trembled and shook in ecstasy. She tried to cling to him, but her arms fell to her sides and she clutched at the mattress. Her hips bucked so hard that she lifted her big lover into the air. Zaxan had no more self-control than she did. Human females had always brought forth dramatic climaxes from him, but none matched this one for length or intensity. He arched his back and held himself deep inside of her as his lavender semen finally burst forth. She had been caught in the moment for as long as he. Her ecstasy had nearly pushed her into unconsciousness, but she held onto the moment somehow. Her lover finished his release and rolled off of her as he scooped her up and brought her on top of him. Neither could recall how long it was that they remained there, silently clinging to one another. "Never leave me," she said at last. "I won't," he replied. "I am never leaving this world." Zaxan had no idea how he could achieve that, but he damned sure knew he would. He wasn't quite sure if what he felt for her was the same as human love, but it was the most powerful emotion he had ever generated from inside of himself. "Oh, tiny dancer," he said softly, "I am never leaving you." . . . Sarcon found himself in a rather unusual position. He was genuinely annoyed. Mild annoyance was certainly an emotion Denubian males were capable of experiencing, but Sarcon was feeling it far more profoundly than he had felt it in a very long time. Making the strong negative emotion an even more unusual experience for the Denubian was its source. Sarcon was feeling it toward his nearly perfect son, Zaxan. By Denubian standards, there was no finer specimen of their specie than Sarcon's boy. He had never received anything but high marks at the academy. He was considered a whiz at linguistics. He had, upon reaching an appropriate age, expressed the urge to dominate alien females in just the right amount. While the Denubians didn't experience envy to the degree that many other species felt it, Sarcon knew that other fathers were jealous of him not just for his business acumen, but for the way his boy seemed poised to surpass even Sarcon's achievements. Now, that perfect son had genuinely irritated him. A hallmark of Denubian humor was watching others sputter ineffectually. Sarcon's competitors would have certainly been amused had they been able to see his reaction to the message he just received from Earth. Sarcon had decided to treat his boy to the opportunity to be the first Denubian male to copulate with an Earth female. Everything had been fine at first, but the last message left no doubt. The boy was refusing to return home. He had fallen for an Earth female and `gone native.' Sarcon was so upset that he tipped over his drink, on purpose! It was quite a display for the normally controlled Denubian. Emotional outbursts were highly sought after as recreation, but entirely inappropriate for any business setting. Zaxan had his father, one of the richest entrepreneurs on Denubis Prime, so worked up that he didn't even clean the spill for nearly thirty seconds. Then, managing to regain his sense of propriety, he wiped his desk clean and viewed the files attached to the message. File One was a carefully constructed argument involving all the business opportunities available to the Denubian corporation that filed a full rights claim to Earth. Sarcon had to admit that his boy made a good pitch. Zaxan claimed he was not leaving the planet Earth until Sarcon himself came to inspect it. The rich man was impressed, but still believed his son was being wholly unreasonable. File two was a visual message. Sarcon clicked on the file and saw a young, but sexually mature Earth woman. She was tiny, and clothed in only a short silk robe, and spoke in an Earth language to which Zaxan had provided translation. She revealed that her name was Regina, but she liked her lovers to call her `Reggie.' Her eyes sparkled as she told Sarcon that she found Denubian males irresistible, and she had to have him. She pointed out that she liked to beg, but had only learned that under the tutelage of Denubian boy. She was desperate to have an experienced Denubian male show her what true dominance and potency was. She feared such a display of masculine prowess, but her terror was overpowered by her desire for the experience. She lowered her eyes in deference. Off camera, Sarcon heard Zaxan's voice. "Strip for the great man, bitch!" Regina removed her robe, displayed her lithe form to the camera and then knelt. "Please, great one," she said in a soft voice. "Come show me what pleasures I have yet to know." She was so filled with a mix of passions that her tiny body trembled. Sarcon did four things in response. First, he watched the visual file again. Second, he cleared his schedule for the rest of the month. Third, he filed a claim for all rights to the planet known as Earth. Fourth, he called to his transport division and had them send around his fastest long-range cruiser. How had he ever doubted his boy? Sarcon had a definite business model in mind. Limit the number of visitors and make secrecy a requirement. Earth would be an exclusive preserve. Only the richest men on Denubis would be able to pay the high prices he would charge for visitor's permits. Maybe a dozen would visit the planet in a year. The culture, and that incredibly beautiful female Regina, would remain unchanged. His boy would want to remain there, and of course, Sarcon could see why. Well, Sarcon couldn't remain on Earth permanently, and the planet would need an ambitious young man to act as onsite management. The boy was ready. That left only the brand-naming of the planet to take care of for now. "Earth" was dreadfully hard for a Denubian without Zaxan's gift for languages to pronounce. Sarcon had tried many times but it always came out "Ear-uth" or "Airtha." The entrepreneur wracked his brain for a long time. Finally, he sat down in the studio aboard his ship. He asked the computer to project an image from Earth behind him. He looked into the camera and began his pitch. "Come to Zaxan's Paradise, the prettiest little planet in the universe and home to the greatest treasure any man has ever encountered... the human female! "Zaxan's Paradise is the exclusive property of Sarcorps, contact our travel division for arrangements now. Not sold yet? Of course not! You're an intelligent man with discerning tastes. Let a human female tell you why a visit to Zaxan's Paradise is one you'll never forget!" Sarcon turned off the camera. "Insert video of Regina, edit out Zaxan's voice." "Please, great one," the naked human woman said. "Come show me what pleasures I have yet to know." "That should do it," Sarcon said happily. "Oh, I have the brightest son in the universe!"