Rachael Norfolk, the Ruby Seraph, was playing a piano. It was a grand thing, cherrywood-finished, intricately carved, so big as to seem to surround her. She was attempting a Rachmaninoff piece, much more difficult work than she could have managed before her recent enhancements. But even a Seraph's speed and control didn't let her play the concerto well. It didn't feel natural to play so quickly, so the subtle modulations that would have imbued her performance with passion mostly got lost between her head and the keys. Eventually, as she continued to semi-mechanically play, her attention wandered to the beautiful-but-overwrought décor of the room she was in.
Rachael wasn't quite sure what she had been thinking last night. Perhaps her giddy, excited post-drone-absorption mood had carried over to the redecoration. Having helped build the rooms underneath Leaf, the Ruby Seraph had claimed for herself a room with twice the height and four times the space. It was windowless, but she kind of liked that. She'd filled it with old-fashioned draperies and wall-hangings and scattered dozens of candles in holders all around. She'd also painted a mural on the wall behind her: a forest scene, with intricately detailed trees reflected against a pool where nymphs were playing. Two of the nymphs, she noticed, resembled herself and Jess, gently embracing.
It was all a little much, Rachael thought, closing her eyes for a moment. She couldn't bring herself to wipe it all away, but she should probably try to think of a compromise – to put in at least one boring patch of wall to stare at, for overstimulated moments like these.
Twenty feet over her left shoulder, her one and only claimed thrall, Kadie, waited patiently on the bed. The shy, plaintive-looking blonde was yet another distraction from her playing, if a more pleasant one. She was from Parsons, which was intended to be the freshman boys' dorm. Fortunately, even Onyx's auto-droning protocols knew better than the Southport administration. As soon as her Seraph chip had detected it was safe, Kadie's body had quickly transformed, looking and feeling much more like she'd always known it was supposed to. Kadie's exceptional joy had so leapt out at Rachael that the fire-haired empath had been desperate to share in it. That feeling hadn't faded.
Rachael finished her piece, closed the cover over the piano keys, and returned to her pink, lushly bepillowed. She smiled widely, and put her arm around Kadie, drinking in the girl's happiness. Rachael couldn't shake her worries, for Onyx and the fate of her Goddess's plan. But having her thrall's joy around helped – a lot. When Rachael felt happy, that helped her feel sexy, too. And Kadie was a lovely partner. Limber, energetic, tall enough to be a good hugger, but small enough to evoke Rachael's motherly instincts.
Once, on some impulse, wicked or innocent, she'd called Rachael Mommy. The Seraph had blushed, smiled, paused a moment, and told Kadie to call her that more often.
The demigoddess softly kissed her pretty thrall, whose face she had gently guided, at first unconsciously, to resemble Angel Fawn. Angel, the seeming innocent whom Onyx had now subsumed into Tally. Rachael felt guilty for doing that, as it came from a part of her that couldn't admire the Goddess's decision to submerge that face. But that wasn't the only reason why the resemblance remained vague. From the start, she'd insisted Kadie have some input on her new body. It really wouldn't have been right, otherwise. Rachael hadn't always loved her own body, but she knew Kadie'd had it so much worse.
That's why there was a small bulge visible in her play-daughter's panties. Rachael stuck her hand inside and teased the sensitive head of what Kadie called her clitty. It didn't get hard, didn't aggress. Kadie wasn't into that. It wasn't really there for its function, although the things Rachael could do with it were pretty fun. (Kadie moaned into Rachael's mouth as the Seraph gently squeezed her pet's shaft.) It was just . . . right for Kadie. A uniqueness about her, which was one more reason Rachael loved her.
"Oh g-gosh Mommy, you're so . . . ooh! . . . nice . . ."
Rachael smiled, and kissed her Kadie on the cheek, and kept playing under her panties.
Rachael knew she had a lot of love in her life. She loved Jess, who was on a mission at the moment involving the local police, and couldn't wait to see her assigned Seraph-lover again. She loved Onyx, her creator, of course; she loved Tally, the aggressive fae-Seraph, more as a matter of duty and propriety, although coupling with her could be fun, too. She also loved Angel, though she was gone, because Onyx had loved her.
She knew Onyx Malheur had a big heart, but it made her sad to think about what the Goddess was doing about it. The Goddess was in love with Rachael, of course, but tried to pretend she wasn't, to push the fact away. She had been in love with Angel – maybe not the easiest choice for a soulmate, given Onyx's history and opinions, but love was a funny thing. Yet Onyx had edited Angel beyond recognition because the Goddess thought that affair was fuzzing up her mind and putting Earth at risk. She couldn't abide that. Not to be in love with Angel, but to be in love at all.
That seemed very wrong to Rachael, because if Onyx's goals weren't based in love, how could she explain what, specifically, the chip had done to Kadie, and about one in every twenty people on campus? What was that but love? Maybe it was just a Xind thing, not to admit love. But thinking about all this just made Rachael upset. Onyx wasn't that different from Rachael, or from Kadie, in most ways. She could use love, too. And trying to deny that could only cause the Goddess pain. So she cuddled close to Kadie, and thought about her blushing blonde beauty, and sighed against her, and fed off her boundless joy.
Suddenly Kadie was smiling, not so innocently.
"Mommy, gosh, you've got something stuck under your dress! Can little Kadie help get it out?"
She stuck her hand under the black silken fabric and gently drew Rachael's massive cock out with her cool hands, eliciting a huge shudder and a low moan from her Mommy.
"You're not that little, you're – ooh – eight feet tall, and your boobs are so huge . . . oh fuck –"
Kadie giggled. "I'm little at heart, silly. And, anyway, you're way bigger, in more ways than one. Ooh, I wonder if I can swallow it all . . ." She licked the massive head eagerly, as if it was a popsicle.
Now Rachael's look was wicked, too. "Fuck, choke on Mommy's fucking cock, you slut!" she growled. Kadie's eyes went happily wide as the Ruby Seraph grabbed her charge by the hair and began forcefully throatfucking her with her angelically huge shaft. Letting her bestial side take over was another thing Rachael was new to. She knew she could be as brutal as she wanted and her charge would only get more excited. That wasn't just the natural pliability of a common drone; Rachael had plumbed memories Kadie no longer had access to, and knew her pet got off on rough treatment even before her change. That made fucking her like this -- treating her like this -- feel safe, and totally compatible with the sweet, tender affection they shared. It didn't hurt that a Seraph's finely-honed body made any kind of carnal activity into a smorgasbord of amazing feelings.
Rachael's eyes were wild as she drove her cock harder and harder into her pet's tight sexy throat, really letting it all go, totally taking her pleasure, and feeling it returned to her threefold by Kadie's enjoyment. It wasn't long before their intertwined joy sent both girls over the edge. Rachael screamed and gasped for breath and her eyes welled up in triumphant stimulation as she erupted a foaming slimy sticky cherry-flavored mess into her play-daughter's throat and mouth. Kadie hungrily swallowed it, her own clitty bursting forth and cutely filling up her panties with sticky goodness.
Soon, panting, their clothes discarded, resting against each others' sweaty bodies, they were nuzzling and admiring each other, chatting in the afterglow.
"Mommy, I think you should wear glasses again," mused Kadie, with a purr. "Sometimes, at least. Embrace the whole sexy librarian thing. You'd look so foxy."
"Well, I kinda broke my old ones, but . . . hmm, I suppose I can make some more, if my special girl wants!" Kadie giggled, and that sent Rachael into a giggling fit of their own, and they were kissing again, with cute affection.
There was a knock on the door. A soft one, which wasn't normally Onyx's trademark – hell, Onyx often didn't knock at all, and Rachael sometimes wondered why she ever did. Any Seraph could sense her Goddess's presence, after all.
"Come in," she called, sweetly, and Onyx did, and although Rachael had seen Onyx Malheur in a wide variety of moods, from happy to angry to panicked to loving to lustful, she'd never seen her Goddess quite as she looked now. Nervous, hands clasped, eyes darting from Rachael to the ground. The hulking beauty, dressed in a simple black robe that didn't do much to cover her achingly hot figure, was slow to open the door and walk inside; once she was in, she just sighed, and bit back words, and it all made Rachael uneasy.
"Please come sit with us, Goddess," Rachael thought she ought to say. Onyx finally got a smile on her face as she saw Rachael's perky-amazon body, which shifted to a complicated expression for a moment when she saw Kadie's face. But when she had a look at the blonde pet's mind, she was smiling again, and when Kadie thought to wrap her arms around Onyx and nuzzle her shoulder from behind, the Xind inventor didn't resist.
"Rachael, I . . . I need to ask you something."
"You know I will do anything you say. If I should be permitted to ask . . . why are you nervous?"
"Well, I'm not so sure I want this myself. Though I'm convinced I need it." She sighed.
Rachael had a few ideas of what this might be about, but nothing clear. The nervousness, she was sure, had something to do with Onyx's feelings for her. But she wasn't going to press anything; she cared about her Goddess too much. The Ruby Seraph just gave what she hoped was a kind smile, and ran her fingers through Onyx's hair, and said, "Whatever it is, you can tell me. I'm here for you, and I'm yours, and I won't judge you ill for anything."
"You judge me because of Angel," Onyx snapped; after that sudden burst of anger, she seemed to chastise herself, and looked down at the floor again, unresponsive.
"I, I . . . " What could Rachael say? She was an open book to the Goddess. She could hardly deny her feelings. Onyx could obliterate them in a moment. There was a reason she didn't. Did Onyx feel guilty, or just indecisive?
Onyx suddenly grabbed Rachael's naked breast and fondled it, drawing a small moan, which the Goddess, eyes closed, absorbed with a soft kiss. Rachael shivered, feelings of love and ownedness washing over her, which all seemed to steady Onyx a bit. When her eyes opened again, her expression was even, if still a bit empty.
"I guess I can go ahead and spit it out now, dear. I've gotten, well, overwhelmed by the complexity of what I've gotten myself into, here and on Xind. You're bright and perceptive and, well, it's that -- I think I need to take a part of your mind into me, to help me sort through it."
Rachael nodded, slowly, but her expression was a little solemn. After a while, in a small voice, she said: "I will give up anything of mine to you, Goddess."
Onyx kissed her forehead. "Sorry, I was unclear. It's not that kind of taking, dear. I'll only need a copy. You will, however, see all of my mind, for a moment. That's what makes me nervous. The loss of privacy, and the fact that I'm four hundred years old, and I've never altered my mind before. I've always thought that gave me an edge, being, well, single-minded."
"I get that, yes. I'm sure it did, and does. Maybe if you just let me see your memories, and only that, I could help?"
"Maybe, honey." Another pet name. A tacit admission, maybe, of what Onyx wouldn't say out loud. "But I think we might need two minds for this. So . . . you can tell me where I'm fucking up, and I'll get it, and not be a stubborn ass, like usual." The dark-haired Queen of Earth allowed herself a laugh, which Rachael wisely chose only to smile at.
"I think you should do it, then. If it'll help you keep Earth, I think that's good for me, and you, and all of us here. I really do believe that."
That's when Onyx did something that Rachael truly wasn't expecting. She blushed.
Blushed, and grinned, and kissed Rachael again, tenderly but forcefully, and the two superhumans looked into each others' eyes and smiled, and then Onyx's hand was over Rachael's and they both left the bed and the world behind and journeyed into each other's minds.
***
Sumei rubbed her forehead and stared off into the middle distance. Only a gray wall met her gaze. There was no one else at the conference table, and wouldn't be for some time. The Frontier-Advisor liked to get there ahead of time, to collect her thoughts. Or, in this case, just to calm down. May you be flung into empty space, Surin. What could she do when the son of the Prime Mover behaved like a boor? When the government forbid her even to speak out against the brat? It wasn't that she thought Lilya was right. The Ladder-Builder seemingly had no reason to act as she did, if indeed she weren't betraying Earth to some other group. But Lilya's technical brilliance seemed to overshadow those concerns, or, perhaps, to explain them. Mad geniuses like her couldn't act like normal people, she suspected. If made to, they might lose their magic touch.
In time, eight other officers filed into the room. None said anything, or revealed much about their emotional state. Neither did Sumei, so far as she knew. Intelligence-Leader Keorin, the third highest ranking officer in the army, called the meeting to attention and said the opening prayer to Arma. Although the prayer was in Xind so archaic that no one could understand more than a handful of words, hearing its melodic cadences never failed to warm her heart.
Aggregator Surin, technically, was entitled to attend this meeting. In reality, he rarely showed up, or came very late. Most days, this would merely add another small annoyance to Sumei's growing stack of them. But today, Sumei was thankful. If this meeting were to have any chance of saving the potential crisis situation Sumei saw ahead, they would have to speak frankly of Surin.
Keorin looked at her first. "Frontier-Advisor, you called this meeting. Give us your assessment."
Sumei nodded sharply. "As I said, the Ladder-Builder's advocate has opened a case against the military, and Surin, specifically. Over Lilya's gender . . . matter. The High Court has never previously ruled on the topic with respect to the military. Our legal team is virtually certain the ruling will go in our favor, given the Military Powers Decree. Yet our assessment may be biased, and there remains an undesirable uncertainty."
Justice-Assistant Byrrin broke in. "Apprehend her advocate. Accuse her of treason, sabotage -- anything that will get her in military custody. How will she get a new one, stuck on Earth?"
Sumei looked surprised, the nodded. "It might buy us time. But, eventually, there will be a trial. And so I must speculate about the effects this may have. As most of you know -- and the rest of you are now cleared to know it -- Lilya is responsible for the Orma-ka, which she has referred to in Earth context as the Seraph chip. She is responsible for all further refinements as well. Since her invention sixty years ago, we have gone from eight to nine hundred colonies. The only xindoid opposition that we have failed to defeat is that which we cannot find. The people believe we are great military heroes, but before the invention of the Orma-ka we were, frankly speaking, incompetent."
Reconnaissance-Assistant Amarin -- yet another of seven men at the table -- loudly objected. "How can you say that? Over the bodies of the valorous men who served and died at the battle of Nidar? Arma has required sacrifices, to be sure, but he has never failed us."
Byrrin added, "It's easier to fight with eight colonies than with none, and much easier with hundreds. We now have more resources and more firepower than our opponents."
"All true. However," the deep-voiced Keorin intoned, "only the unlearned or stubborn could deny that Xind was scarcely able to provide enough soldiers -- never just men -- to succeed in those early battles. The Orma-ka has greatly reduced our casualties, and eliminated rebellion in the colonies, which was formerly widespread. Now, there are already protests against military privileges; if this should come to light, with Lilya protesting against unfair treatment, this unrest could become a graver problem."
Amarin shrugged. "He may be a techie, but has he the force of will needed to conquer a planet? Maybe he will die there, and end this."
Sumei answered. "Lilya has fought before, and the Orma-ka has never been stopped." She rubbed her temples. "I must judge that the possibility that Lilya will fail in such a simple task is remote."
Irrya, a quiet woman who sat at the far end of the table from Keorin, interjected. "It seems small-minded to me, not to call Lilya 'she,' or to dance around it. What harm would it do?" The others made a point of not acknowledging the Simulation-Technician, who, alone among this group, had only ever seen Lilya as a woman.
There was a pause, as everyone considered their notes and attempted to think of a further suggestion. Then Keorin intoned, "We will manufacture a reason to arrest Lilya's counsel. It is unfortunate that we are bound by law not to use the Orma-ka against Xind citizens. Should this issue get out of hand, it would be useful."
Amarin looked intense; Irrya looked horrified. The rest of the table maintained what was either a studied neutrality, or just boredom. As was typical, not every officer was paying attention.
"Don't pretend you care about the law," growled Amarin. "Laws can always be changed."
"I do care, but that is not the only thing," Sumei calmly answered. "Even if we must, someday, move against our own families and communities, it would not sit right with me to take their will. And that is all assuming that it is actually possible to use the Orma-ka against our own people." She paused briefly. "It is my opinion that we must convince Lilya to remain with us, through threat or blandishment. Like most of you, I am disgusted with the Ladder-Builder, but her absence creates too many problems for us. We should be calm and even-minded, even if she is not."
An annoyed Keorin responded. "No one in the great Xind Army can be indispensible. Simulation-Technician, you have used the Orma-ka, have you not?" Irrya made the gesture for yes, but looked doubtful: Lilya had changed things before she left, and it wasn't clear that her previous experience would do much good.
Sumei sighed. "Keorin, with respect, my hesitance is not on account of indispensibility. It is because of the great gamble we are taking. We do not know if arresting an advocate will prevent this problem, or only heighten suspicion. If I have the authority to offer certain modest incentives, I believe Lilya will come back into the fold. There is danger in all potential courses, but it should be clear to you that this is the best one."
Keorin grunted noncommittally. "Very well; I will discuss the issue with you later. But we will move against the law-girl anyhow. Lilya must discover that we are serious."
Beautiful. More needless antagonism. Sumei pretended to be pleased with the pretense of a compromise, and thanked Keorin. He said a brief ending chant, and the meeting begun to disperse. Keorin, Sumei and Irrya were the only ones still seated when a low-level technical officer, unfamiliar to Sumei, ran screaming into the room.
"Irrya! Irrya! The Orma-ka network is down! All contact with the colonies is down."
Keorin was out of his seat. "Traitor!"
Sumei's face was ice cold. "Who, Intelligence-Leader?"
"Fucking Lilya, obviously."
"What, from Earth?"
Irrya was standing now, and her voice was louder than any of the others had ever heard it. Her eyes were focused and she barely saw the other offices. "Integration-Assistant Katsa! Do you recall the error message?"
Katsa shouted back at her mentor, ignoring their arguing bosses. "Error five four four service displacement in sector six six kvarka three, fatal service displacement. Do you know how to fix the O-net?"
"Fuck no. But I know who broke it. And it wasn't Lilya."
Sumei could hardly fail to notice -- both Irrya and Katsa had turned, to stare directly at Aggregator Surin in the doorway.
Surin was doing his best to look nonchalant, despite his odd choice of winter gloves inside the briefing room. The Aggregator's previous tardiness might have set him up to get away with it, if Katsa hadn't beaten him to the room. At length, Surin spotted Katsa where she stood, near the back entrance. His face fell, but he gamely opened his mouth to speak.
His hesitation had given Sumei the opportunity to notice the faint smell coming from Surin. He'd clearly stopped to try to wash the anti-tampering paint that the Orma-ka network splattered on anyone who tried to access its innards without authorization. The gloves, and the smell, were evidence that he hadn't succeeded.
Sumei admitted that if she'd have suspected anyone to tamper, it would have been Katsa, rumored to be Lilya's lover. Now she realized that all the rumors she'd heard had been slipped nonchalantly into Surin's intelligence briefings.
She'd been made a fool of. That would not continue.
"Aggregator Surin!" she broke in. Surin's mouth slammed shut. "It's…a pleasure, as always, that you grace us with your presence.. But I'm afraid those gloves are not regulation. Would you please remove them?"
Surin froze. Then he turned and bolted.
Sumei doubted he'd get far. But she tapped the police-alert sequence on her desk-screen, just in case.
***
"No cameras, no audio, no photographs? With respect, ma'am, are you serious?"
"I'm afraid you're just going to have to deal with it like everyone else. It's university policy when a student is present."
"They didn't even tell us she was--"
"That's enough from you, Mr. Douglas. You're holding up the line." The cop was taller and thicker than he was, and the reporter didn't want to push it.
With a small frown, the Channel 7 junior reporter surrendered his cameraman.
"Cell phone too. You'll get it back."
"Stock footage of hospitals, here we come," he muttered as he filed in with the rest of the Southport media. Hardly anyone had actually turned back, even the press photographers and cameramen who no longer had any function. Their interest had only been heightened by the security theater. A few people were apparently rushing in with sketchpads, called in at the last minute.
Mike Douglas took his seat just before Dr. Brian Andrews emerged, trailed by a slight blonde. He wondered if this girl was his assistant, but she walked over to the side and began throwing ASL signs – for whose benefit, he wasn't sure, given the lack of cameras and all. Maybe it was just standard, or maybe there was a deaf reporter. Either way, the distraction caused him to miss the first couple of sentences of the virology professor's speech.
He swore under his breath and began transcribing.
". . . brought samples to me, which one of my lab assistants, Miss zur Hausen, was unfortunately exposed to. This led me to employ more robust anti-contamination measures, which will be explained in the rush paper to be released later this morning. At any rate, the virus, though contagious on skin contact, does not appear to travel through the air. More interestingly, it does not appear to cause what would normally be considered disease. Nevertheless, the effects are marked."
A rumble went through the crowd as Andrews shuffled his papers, perhaps a tad longer than he needed to, before continuing. "There has been twenty confirmed and ninety-three as yet unconfirmed cases of 48-HMV treated at the SU medical center. In each, notable shifts in muscle mass, bone density, hemoglobin structure, blood composition, skin and hair pigmentation, and body-fat distribution have been observed. The female patients saw the most dramatic shifts, with their height on average increasing over a foot; but our male patients grew stronger and healthier, as well. Despite some initial dissatisfaction among the men, who sometimes shrunk, our patients eventually come to believe that this is a beneficial virus, cosmetically and in terms of health. We have no contrary evidence."
The rumbles were getting louder, and grumpier. Some were turning toward the exits. Was this all some highly elaborate student prank? But Mike remembered that Clarissa zur Hausen was still going to show up. Although he entirely missed her introduction, he'd soon decide he was lucky to have kept his seat and its excellent view.
There was a gasp from the reporters when Clarissa zur Hausen stepped onto the stage. And for a long moment, that was all. No one could speak, compelled at the vision in front of them, to be sure, but more than anything, by her powerful, musky scent. It arrested their attention and compelled them to abandon all thought, to focus on Clarissa's intense eyes, her thick lips, her high cheekbones, the perfect strands of hair framing her aggressively sexual face. When their eyes were permitted, they strayed lower, to the huge swells of her breasts, huge nipples lewdly visible through her thin white blouse; to her huge hips in abbreviated khaki shorts, and the solid cords of muscle on her exposed arms and legs. Orientation and gender didn't matter. Everyone was compelled, everyone sweating, everyone breathing hard.
"As you can see, I am perfectly healthy." She spoke powerfully, slowly, lustily. Every eye was trained on the movements of her tongue.
"It amuses me how badly you all want to take a picture of me. I can see it in your eyes." Hers sparkled in the floodlights, capturing the gaze of the channel 7 reporter, who scarcely noticed the brief numbness behind his neck when one of the cops walked past him.
She laughed, musically, and leaned forward, undoing another button on her blouse, letting more of her soft melons slip free. "Well, I am busy, and have science to do. Fortunately for you all. this has been a rapidly-spreading virus. I am sure you will all get the chance to take pictures and film women like me today. I shall be looking forward to that."
"Yes, Mistress," said every last one of the assembled media members, the channel 7 reporter included.
"Then I will leave with my girlfriend. Good day."
Tally Fawn walked out on the stage, then, her ten-foot frame and cute elf ears drawing even more gasps, although somehow all the onlookers knew they would not report her existence. Tally, her blonde hair piled high on her head and studded with flowers and diamonds, wrapped Clarissa in a hug, and kissed her warmly, right there on stage. The kiss was eagerly, lustily, mmph!-ingly returned, and no eyes strayed from them even when they turned and disappeared backstage, the two girls' enormous jiggling asses and hulking calves trailing behind them.
The reporter, like all the others around him, helplessly creamed his pants.