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Journal: Sentient Registry 132-564 "Tan" Mission Time: +94 Kiloseconds

In the end, Julia decided to leave the herd be. I guess it was outside both of our reality tunnels... it was sort of wildlife documentary meets Urotsukidoji. I'm really not sure I'm OK with that juxtaposition right now. But, I left a couple of cameras to gather data and beam it into the cache. There are people around who could deal with it. Not me, not yet.

We didn't get lifted back up to the Kazemaru, much to my dismay. Julia said the tree cover made it too risky. I managed to find a clearing to get Wolfie out and back aboard, then noted aloud we could join it.

I'm really beginning to realize how stubborn Doctorate graduates from the Dark Ages of the world can be.

Long story short, we decided to, literally, take a hike. Well, as far as terrain permits, anyway. She dangled the carrot of possible airlift afterward over my head. Sometimes I wished I had veto power or was more stubborn myself. But, it's so needless. I really don't feel like alienating the rest of the group (Suit included, he is inside my head and my machinery, after all. Don't want to see how it pans out when he gets angry.)

If it weren't for the NDA; I would net-log on and on about this on MetaSpace, just to vent. But, no, all I've got is a dumb, un-linked mission log. How droll.

***

Tan dragged his right foot from the murk with a squish of encroaching mud. Thank god he had footgear. He'd snuck in some Waders when he picked up Wolfie. They were now at 50% Redneck, reaching his knees. Their crisscrossing fasteners running up his calves were poised to close automatically should he encounter potentially infectious muck past their current cutoff point.

That was without mentioning he had just cleaned his pants yesterday. Really, he would have liked to be practically oozing smart technology that could clean itself â€" along with other myriad quirky systems and tasks. But, he felt like entertaining Julia's wish for archaic survival. That, and Les Stroud remained his all-time favorite hero, in spite of only appearing on Flatmedia. Yes, Tan was going to be a survivor-man!

The sun was setting on another day, after casting the entire area of the descending mangroves in shadow. Pools of water of varying dirtiness now extended around them. The life had grown increasingly alien, as well. Tan saw all sorts of colors. But, he particularly saw vivid red concentrated in a few sparsely placed spots. They stuck out like pimples among the brown and green of the few remaining (but increasingly large) mangrove trees.

But, the tree cover wasn't the only thing growing increasingly dense. Rivulets had become gullies had become creeks had become rivers. They'd crossed at least five fallen trees across muddy canyons full of roaring water. But, both of them had treadspikes. Tan really didn't have any qualms making their crossing aids into swiss cheese seeing as the trees they crossed were no longer among the living.

That still didn't change the fact that, from the flat steppes to this bizarre swamp, the going had gotten solidly worse over time. Away from the sun, toward where they were going, things didn't look any better. The trees rose steadily in height toward the specters of huge towers. The Kazemaru, ever trekking along the jet streams toward their destination, had surveyed the area. Those towers weren't artificial; they were trees. Thunderclouds sheathed the trees in quicksilver fog, dropping a rainbow of water ceaselessly upon their boughs.

Yes, this was, indeed a very wet planet. Perhaps it was too much of a good thing.

***

Chapter Four: WATER HAZARD

***

Tan popped his spine, playing it like a tommy gun wielded by a man with a twitchy pointer finger. He'd slept on a tree root and was now wondering how many more times he'd have to put up with such scenarios. Nature was a lovely place to be, even though the air conditioning was broken and the roof leaked... a lot. But then you've got the ground. Humans were never really built to sleep on it. Tan could kill for a hammock.

Julia mumbled and turned over in her sleeping bag. Speaking of killing. "How many times am I going to wake up like this, Julia?"

"Until I can effectively be a naturalist from 300 feet in the air."

"Do the cameras count?"

"No." she proclaimed.

"I hope it gets easier when we get to the trees."

She rolled over to look at him and propped herself up on one elbow. "You mean the tall ones?"

"The really tall ones."

"Yes, the really, really tall ones," she said. "Well, we could work from cables, maybe."

That meant powered ascenders, ziplines and, most importantly, hammocks. Tan grinned.

"Why are you so happy?" she narrowed her pointed eyes at him.

"No reason," he said. "I'm going to greet the day." He reached back and threw the seam to their nanofiber tent open with an optimistically-powered smack of his hand. As the super-light fabric billowed open, he rushed through.

Out in the sunlight, the area around them was much more clear than it had been in the pitch black in which they'd set camp. In this clarity, he noticed they'd set up almost comically close to one of the red conflagrations of bizzaro-trees.

Black, spongy rocks encased a circular beach of mucky, homogenous sand in a craggy circle. At the center, the beach bowed inward toward a darkened pool. A circular halo of sunlight blasted into its depths like a spotlight in the night, revealing vibrant colors and silhouetting mysterious, branching shapes.

"Well," he said. "Something tells me this is going to be a big deal."

"Will it?" Julia drawled as she exited the tent. Thankfully, she'd slowed down after a few hours into their trek. Somehow, Tan felt safer knowing she might actually look before leaping. "Hmm," she began again. "What is this, then?"

They both paused to look the space over again. Plants grew up from the depths. Of course, Tan was making an assumption. They were plants in that they had leaves and stems reaching up out of the pool. But, they were a vivid red, an alien color against the off-green backdrop of mangrove tree cover. They rose from unimaginably clear water, planting themselves with complex roots. Around them, a multicolored menagerie of creatures huddled on crevices and on ledges under the water.

Julia was beside him, clamoring to get past him. In the process, they were shoulder to shoulder. It made his skin tingle through his clothes. But, of course, his mouth went in the opposite direction; "Do I make a better door or a diving board?"

"Sorry," her voice was quiet and surprised â€" honestly apologetic.

"It's okay," was his kneejerk reaction. There was a protracted silence. Tan distracted himself by watching the sky's wavering reflection in the crystalline waters below him. "You're not seriously thinking of jumping in there, are you?"

"We're both late on bathing" she offered. What's this we stuff?

"That requires nudity." He noted aloud.

"Yes, yes it does," she raised herself up onto her feet and stood upright. As she dropped her arms, she said; "Never been a huge issue among my accqaintences." Suit slackened from her shoulders and slipped from her pelt. She stepped out from the pile of muscle fibers that sat latent below her and cracked a smile. "You're really funny looking when you're nervous." She flicked her hair and fixed him with a mischevious stare. "I forgot how fun harassing prudes in college was." Tan gulped. "Would you relax? How about I take one side of the pool and you take the other?"

"Or we could... eh, take turns?" Tan fought to keep his eyes on Julia's face as she spoke.

Her mouth settled into a w-shaped pout when he finished. "You know the adage ‘let's split up, gang!' never served anyone. And I don't feel like stewing in a tent while you wash your ballocks for an hour."

He sighed, defeated, and looked toward the pedestal-like ledge in the center of the deep pool. "Why don't you take the center and I take the side?" Tan was running out of compromises. Worse yet, he was a mediator. Compromises were the best he could do.

"If that floats your boat, then; sure thing, flyboy." She was in the pool with a graceful dive. The splash was noiseless and she surfaced soon after, shaking her head. "Wooh!" she sighed. "This is really nice."

"Yeah?" Tan hesitated, then cautiously stood. He turned away from her as he threw off his shirt and unzipped his jeans. A moment later he kicked off his boxers and hurriedly jumped feet-first into the water. He was thankful he didn't skin himself on the rocks and even more thankful he'd gotten in fast.

He also felt oddly thankful for the excited tingle on his skin. The water was pleasantly sun-warmed, so it wasn't coldness that did it. It was something else. All he knew is his issues felt quenched all of a sudden. He hovered backward to the sand and relaxed into the shallows. Julia was partially obscured by one of the red, leafy stalks. Perhaps that was for the better -- he felt a lot more at-ease with some mild measure of privacy.

"So," she asked, gaze fixed sidelong and away from his eyes. "Why are you so cagey?" Tan frowned. Of course she had come right out and said it. There was no way around it now.

Tan shivered. After a long pause, he managed to speak. "A few things. I was one of the Net abductees by the Better Christian Thinking and later Children of Mohammed fundamentalist user-groups before they got shut down. I was one of the ones who helped in the subsequent sting that wiped them out, as well." He said.

It was odd, he'd never really been able to bring that up. But, he felt so limp that he could just phase through those barriers. He was beginning to realize that he was in a tide pool with a woman with a beautiful mind and body. For what it was worth, seeing as he probably wasn't worth much himself â€" nor likely to get any further with her.

Julia hummed in response. "Oh, those guys who wanted to make a virtual Civitas Dei, huh?" she pressed. "I read a bulletin on them after my last defrost."

"Nasty people, weren't they?" he said. "Never give a true-believer fundamentalists controls to a lotus-eater machine."

Tan thought he heard her hum in agreement. But, it was oddly shortened. He leaned forward and opened his eyes, only to discover a frilly, red vine with finger-like nubbins was raised to her mouth. A vivid blue tongue emerged from the sphinctered tip of the feeler and hastily slipped between her open lips. Her eyebrows were racing skyward in surprise, but she didn't seem frightened. It was as if the act was unexpected, but not truly unwelcome.

The look dissolved quickly into one of pure serenity. Her eyes glazed over and she gently relaxed back into her reclined position. Other red feelers reached up and cushioned her fall.

Tan's immediate reaction was to raise himself from the water. But, similar feelers burst forth from the fine sand around him. They reached up from the clouds of opaque dust they'd thrown up and gently brushed his arms. They weren't binding him at all. In fact; he almost felt they were urging rather than commanding him to stay.

Just then, a worm-like feeler, similar to the one that had engaged Julia, rose from the water. A blue tongue flung itself from its tip and cautiously advanced toward him. It was about then that he realized he was likely making the same snap decision Julia had. Should he flee? The creatures weren't actually restraining him.

A part of him untouched by his indoctrination toward conservative decisions finally spoke up and told him to take his chances.

He let the blue tongue slip between his lips. It oozed a sweetly flavored substance over his tongue. As it writhed about, the flow intensified, forcing him to swallow the nectar. It tingled down into his throat. Almost immediately, he stopped caring about much else than the liquid. It warmed him and he suddenly felt soft and at ease... almost palpable.

He immediately relaxed back into the water, where the other feelers gently embraced him and swept over his skin. He was, more or less, glad he'd consented. All the toil of the past few days seemed to melt from his tensed muscles as he jousted with the tongue.

Then, when he was almost relaxed to the point of immobilization, the tongue slithered from his lips and withdrew into the water with a plop, as did Julia's.

He took a moment to weigh whether he wanted to expend energy talking or not. The verdict eventually went to the former. "Hey," he mumbled. "You OK?"

"Yeah," she said. "Did you get the plate number on that truck?"

Tan giggled madly. "You make no sense when you talk. What the hell's a truck? You're funny!"

"And you're still a twogee," she sighed, smiling. "Now, where were we?"

"We're the semi-compulsory guests of some alien..." he searched his suddenly sluggish mind for a suitable word and found none. "some alien plant-thingy, and you want to shoot the breeze?"

"Sure," she declared. Tan had to admit he didn't really care either. Not to mention he liked her cavalier style.

He shook his head to loosen the water in his hair. "You know," he said, coming upon a sudden epiphany. "You know something about me, now. Why don't you spill the beans? What was Earth like back when you were on it?"

"Where I was?" she paused in thought. "Green, very green. I mean, you can hardly comprehend the percentage of green-ness."

"Heh," he said. "Green-ness. That's a fun word." A feeler even fatter than the others rose from the water between Tan's legs. It arced upward, nearly cresting the surface of the water before it quested downward toward his loins.

It sucked and prodded at his stomach before finding his maleness. It captured his length with a quick sucking force. The shock of the feeler's airy interior flesh bearing down on him was enough to make him go rigid inside it. It pressed and teased his flesh, testing its surface with stroking prods.

Though, really, he didn't care too much any more. Maybe whatever he'd been pumped full of had taken hold. That was another fact that he allowed to escape him. "What did you do?"

"I was a theoretical biologist," she said, casual. The feeler on his loins had begun to force an emulsion against him. It lubricated their contact and seeped from where they met. "There wasn't a whole load of demand for people theorizing about ecosystems that-could-be."

"There weren't any planets?" Other sphinctered feelers emerged below him. They searched below his length, finding his testicles. They toyed with them before engulfing them outright. They groped and squeezed the pendulous organs in gentle yet insistent contact.

"Not back when I was... mortal, no." The feeler that had swallowed his length puckered outward, then squeezed down with a hissing exhalation of water. It gurgled as it drew out around him again, then squeezed down. Tan lost himself in the rhythmic, alternating and steady contact. Though, somehow, he was still able to think straight.

That was in spite of the fact that he felt himself burst fourth into the feeler. The sensation was like water breaking a distant dam. It was most definitely pleasant and he felt the agonizing pleasure of it, but it was dulled. The feeler picked up the speed of its contractions.

Julia's voice was like an omniscient litany, echoing through the blackness of his eyelids as he blinked. "Everyone was bound to the planet. The best we'd done was some automated, out system missions. I guess we had bigger buildings, though." Julia calmly watched as a myriad collection of feelers crept over the pedestal rock on which she now sat.

She craned her neck to see where they went. They seemed to terminate in the roots of the red plants. There they ended at a cluster of muscular sacks. They contracted eagerly as the feelers stroked over her fur. They sought through it to bare skin, covering her front with contact. Her chest heaved as one of the feelers slowly dove into her folds.

"I do miss the open sky and the buildings, though," she admitted, her voice largely unaffected by the contact. The length slithered deep into her before suddenly unleashing a spray of liquids.

Tan finally tore his gaze away from the feeler fastened to his maleness and the ones groping the two organs below. He lazily looked leftward and realized he'd moved substantially when he'd tried to get away. He now had a clear view of Julia as she was sexed by the bright red feeler at her loins.

It quivered and pulsed against her as shimmering fluids dribbled from her petals into the water. The only sign of her response to the contact was the slow but weighted heaving of her breasts. Her nipples grew upward as he watched, engorging with arousal, even in spite of the dulling effects of the odd cocktail of depressants that was likely in the both of them.

She let her head loll backward, as if she were lazily sunning. Feelers marched up her hands and along her arms, massaging her pelt as they twisted around her. Others climbed forward, past the feeler in the throes of coitus with her petals. Their bottoms flared with tiny, filmy suckers that marched along her in waves.

A number spiraled over her thighs and around. Still others climbed further. Their ends sphinctered open as they quested for bare flesh. Tiny fingers groped the air ahead of them â€"six this time, Tan noted.

They didn't look long. Two found her excited, pointing nipples almost immediately. Their giving flesh descended upon her and took her in. They began to spasm earnestly against her, as the first did. They gurgled and squealed against her flesh, sending jets of fluid away from where they met her. It was enough to send her over the edge. The sight of her body in such massive throes of pleasure was enough to send Tan similarly thundering into the feeler at his own loins.

His skin tingled under the contact, almost spongy after so long in the wet maelstrom of the feeler's attention. Julia herself didn't betray her pleasure with the serene smile she wore. Instead, her back arched into contact with the two feelers at her breasts. They pulled back and squeezed against her in an alternating rhythm, seeming to coax the flesh into their bidding.

Tan twitched with half-hearted surprise as new contact assailed his maleness. Tiny points of sucking contact forced themselves down upon his length. They massaged his skin as the feelers latched onto him began to shudder. They drew inward, then pulsed outward in alternation, growing fat in their fits of movement.

Julia gasped as the feeler within her loins extruded a cone of soft flesh into her. It gently latched onto her sensitive interior. It coaxed itself further in, marching on its tiny suckers. Amidst the storm of discordant thoughts, Julia realized it could go no further within her, she was absolutely hilted.

Tan watched as the feelers latched onto him opened wide and extruded a pink sheath of flesh. It was constricted over his sensitive skin, massaging and groping every inch. But that seem to be all it planned.

Tan was distracted by a primal mewl of pleasure form Julia. As he looked over, he saw knotting mats of transparent tentacles flinging themselves from the open ends of the feelers anchoring themselves on her. They extended outward in waves of movement that coincided with the squeezing fits of the feelers from which they originated. They sought over her with a purpose, slithering through fur to move across her bare skin.

In the next moment, Tan was assailed by a wave of feathery contact. Transparent feelers climbed his testicles and encompassed his loins. They reached over the scant hair below his stomach, rippling over the bare skin above. They fattened against him and anchored themselves with an inexplicable force. Gobs of material quested outward in branching patters and grew taught against his skin until no flesh remained bare around the points he was contacted.

Just as suddenly as the movement had started, the movement slackened. As the feelers continued their rhythmic contractions he felt another climax rake his nerves.

As he recovered, he spoke again; "What the hell was that?" he asked to no-one in particular.

"I-I'm not sure." Julia sounded smitten by the sudden turn of events, almost physically drained. "It seems to be seeking close skin contact, but it's not interested in anything underneath." Tan suppressed a shiver. "Don't you feel it teasing over you?" Her voice saying those words was enough to make him loose into the feeler encompassing him once more. "It must be getting something from us there."

As she spoke, Tan saw the feelers slowly marching to reclaim the territory they'd ceded. Their tips expanded as they captured the yielding flesh of her breasts. The one at her loins now cupped her mons, hiding the space between her spread legs completely from view.

Tan noticed his own feelers had completely abducted his flesh. They encompassed his pendulous organs and squeezed down where his length met his body. "I guess that may explain the fluids." Then he realized he really didn't recall ever secreting things that color. "What if it's going in the other direction?"

"Like... INTO us?"

Suddenly, the feeler embedded in Julia stirred against its mat of translucent anchorages brushing through her fur. It dimpled inward and visibly shifted deeper into her. A moment later it bulged outward in a movement that traced back to its origin deep in the water.

Julia's mouth flung open as her agile tongue twitched helplessly. The length dimpled and fattened again, beginning a persistent and surprisingly intense rhythm that made her arch her back into the contact.

Another feeler suddenly rushed for her mouth. A blue tongue slipped out of its tip, fattening in the air as it dove over her waiting tongue. It hilted into her and muffled the passionate yowl that followed its entry.

Tan was similarly taken by a hasty feeler. The tongue jousted against his, making any worry or intensity dissolve almost instantly. Meanwhile, the feelers at Julia's breasts began to stir. The one at her right dimpled inward. As it engorged again, it squeezed firmly around her breast, constricting and coaxing the flesh upward, deeper into itself.

There was a loud squelching sound as she ground passionately against the contact. As the left side followed suit with another loud squelching, like a wet kiss drawing from her flesh. The feelers pulsed and fattened as the process repeated. Tan watched in a daze as the tongue traced his teeth, then toyed with the back of his mouth.

That was, until the feeler at his length drew from him. It sucked down upon him, coaxing the passage of something from his inner reaches. It slackened, then was accompanied by his own fluids as his nerves sparked with pleasure.

Suddenly, the feelers at Julia's breasts withdrew their projections in a wave of slithering motion and popped from their purchases. The skin they left shined with clouds of gossamer liquids; engorged beyond all normal levels. The tongues withdrew from their mouths as Julia's eyes met his.

They were too drunk on pleasure to spare any sort of initiation. Tan simply pushed away from the side of the pond and landed his spread knees between Julia's legs and smiled at her. She dazedly smiled back, glancing at the feelers still anchoring their loins. She giggled and brushed over her chest as Tan leaned in.

Their mouths met in hurried contact as he closed his eyes. Tan let Julia's tongue pass over his lips. She explored him with swirling, rough contact as the feelers teasing their loins tended them both.

She allowed him to draw back and smiled as he tongued the nape of her neck. He felt a vibration wash over the area as she suddenly purred into his ear. He hadn't really been expecting that particular level of detail in her bodily choices, but the surprise wasn't unpleasant.

His attention moved downward, climbing the rise of her chest until he found naked flesh. He captured her left nipple and was surprised to taste sugars on his tongue. He tongued over the surface and sucked her flesh, testing the new flavor. She mewled as he thoughtlessly tended her with his feasting tongue. As he descended on the opposite point of flesh, his hips bucked.

The feelers at his loins drew away from him. Their anchoring tentacles withdrew, popping from his skin as he was suddenly unsheathed. Julia gasped into the air as the feeler stirred within her loins. It marched outward below Tan's maleness, swinging awkwardly in the water. It removed itself from her in phase with the steady rhythm of Tan's own motions, then slipped back into the depths.

Tan immediately, thoughtlessly descended upon her. It was clear to both of them this was the eventual end of it, and neither were bothered by the idea. He pressed into her with the squish of highly lubricated contact. Fluids swirled through the water around where they met as he pulled back. He pistoned inward and let his head arch back upward. Their shared passion was so much that Julia spared no moment ramming her muzzle down over his lips. They locked in a sidelong kiss that felt as deep as their other point of contact.

As Tan moved against her, Julia ground her hips toward him. Their relative weightlessness made both equal participants as the dance continued mindlessly for a time that seemed infinite to both. Then, amidst a maddened blur of pleasure, both eventually succumbed to exhaustion.

As Tan's eyes closed, he remained hilted within her, even though his movements had ceased. Through his waning eyelids, he thought he saw the hurried approach of red feelers. They embraced the pair, and he felt coaxed toward the awaiting sand of the shallows -- toward safety.