FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Jake woke to the sound of quiet sobbing. He opened his eyes and was immediately disoriented while his brain struggled to become fully conscious. Nothing looked familiar, and somehow the way it looked didn't quite match the way it felt and it seemed almost like he was trapped inside a dream he couldn't drag himself out of. He felt the warmth of a ray of sunshine coming in through the window and splashing across his chest and arm as he lay on his side, but he couldn't see it. He couldn't even see his own body where it should be! He could hear the chirps of birds and the barking of a dog through an open window, but there weren't even any windows anywhere that he could see and the room looked fairly dim and almost suffocating.

It took a moment for him to wake up fully and remember he was on his bed at home in reality where he'd fallen asleep for a short nap after he and Hunter had played with the sensor socks, but to his eyes he was actually in the tiger's small room on Mars. The disjointed realities had made him feel almost disembodied for a moment, but it quickly cleared once his mind had figured out the puzzle. Then it simply felt to him like he was right there on the cat's bed with him, forty million miles away from where he really was.

He looked around and saw that his tiger was sitting at the end of the bed and he'd been crying softly. Jake became alarmed and asked, "Are you alright, Hunter? What's wrong?"

The big cat didn't look over at him and said, "I'm sorry. I didn't wish for you to see me this way. I'm not normally one to blubber. I will be alright in a moment."

"What happened?"

"I just finished watching the entirety of the video you made for me yesterday..."

"Did it make you sad? I'm so sorry! That wasn't my intention. Was it all of the people and the life going on over here that you can't be a part of that upset you? I was hoping to give you inspiration, not make you feel even worse!" Jake lamented.

"You haven't made me feel worse, my sweet man. Well, maybe a little, but not in the way you think. Your words had precisely the effect you intended. They were inspirational and they moved me deeply. They reminded me why I am doing what I'm doing here and why so many sacrifices were made, as well as why I must persevere and see it through. Your wonderful words also served to make me fall all the more in love with you. With who you are and with how you are. You are the sweetest male I've ever had the pleasure to know. My sadness comes from the fact that what I want more than anything else in the universe right now is to have you in my arms. I ache for it with every fiber of my being. I want to feel your lips on mine. I want to feel your hot breath on the fur at my neck. I want to feel the warmth of your body and the solid male strength you possess. I want to hold you close to my heart and feel it synchronize its beat to yours. The sensory sock is a wonderful tool to help us feel a physical connection and I thought it would suffice for a while, but after watching your video and having my feelings for you soar to even greater heights, I realize that it will never be enough. I want to have you right here with me where I can hold you, but unfortunately that cannot be. Not yet. It is difficult to come to terms with this feeling. We've gone to such lengths to finally be together in this way, but you are still not really here and my heart is lonely for you. It aches to have you closer. That is the reason for my tears."

Jake was deeply moved. "I feel exactly the same. My heart's been lonely too most of the time so I know how that feels. I've never really loved anyone my whole life, though I get along with people quite well and have been with a lot of men over the years. None of them really suited me for any sort of long term relationship. Until you came along, that is. It's so strange to think that in a way we've still never really, truly met, yet I feel like I will love you for the rest of my life. I feel as if a missing piece of the puzzle of my life has finally been found and put into place and I'm nearly complete at last. I wish I was right there, too, in body, not just electronically. It hurts that I can't hold you. My instinct is to reach out to you right now, but I know my arms would cross through empty air, so I won't even try because it would break the illusion that I'm right there with you, and I really need that illusion right now. You gave me the impression that someday we might be able to work on the problem of getting me over there to be with you if that was what I wanted. I just want to tell you, so there's no doubt in your mind, it's what I want more than anything else right now. It's the only thing I really want."

The big tiger turned to face Jake and said, "Are you certain of that? You would give up everything you have there to come to this forsaken place?"

Jake smiled and said, "How can it be forsaken if it has you in it? In my opinion that would make it the best place in the universe. Besides, I wouldn't be going to the place, I'd be going to you. That's all that would matter. You're more important to me now than anything back here. No, strike that, than everything back here. I would leave here in a heartbeat to be with you, even if it meant I could never come back," Jake said with conviction.

"That is so good to hear. It makes me very happy to have you say that. I wasn't certain if you would want to leave your home world just to be with me, and that uncertainty was also in part the reason for my tears. I was afraid what your response might be if I asked you to come. I was not sure if your feelings for me were quite as strong as mine are for you, and I didn't know if you would see it as worthwhile to come to this place just to join me. I cannot possibly leave it to go there and join you. Too much depends on me staying at my post. It quickens my heart though, to know you would come here to be with me."

"I'm not sure if I could ever really impress upon you just how strong my feelings for you have become, but I can safely say that you have nothing to worry about. I would love to be there with you if it can ever be arranged. So you think it might be possible? Could we really do it?" Jake asked.

The cat nodded, "It should be possible, though it will take some time before the opportunity presents itself. Bringing you here would not be easy, but it is in no way outside the realm of possibility if its what you want. Even if we could get you over here, it would not necessarily be permanent. The means of conveyance we would use to get you here could be used to get you back there as well again if you ever wished it, but again, it would take some time as the antimatter that would be needed for the trip back would take a very long time to produce. I haven't anywhere near enough in my dwindling reserves here."

"What was the means of conveyance that you mentioned? Do you have a ship over there? Something large enough to get me there?"

"No. I do not. The ship which carried me here has since been dismantled and reconfigured and made into this base of operations. It can no longer be changed back. None of the drones I have at my disposal could ever be used for a such a thing either as they are far too small and obviously would have no way of keeping you safe or alive inside them. We need a ship that has been designed to carry a living being without harming them. One that could keep you alive for the month and a half of your time that it would take to bring you over here at the maximum acceleration rate that your biology could handle. The only means I would have to bring you here would be with the use of one of the transporter ships that are currently inbound towards Mars from my home world. They carry the animals that my people need for food. Those ships will arrive here once the planet is ready and already populated with the lower parts of the food chain that those animals need to eat. Due to the timing of their arrival, they will be coming from the Sol side and passing the orbit of Earth before finally reaching Mars and that is what would make it possible to bring you here. I should be able to divert one of them to your location to be used like a lifeboat."

"Would the ship have enough fuel for an unscheduled stop on a planet? It must be a lot bigger than one of your drones if its carrying animals. It would take a massive amount of energy to slow it down enough to land, and then even more to launch it again, wouldn't it?" Jake asked.

"The ships are fueled with antimatter, and though the supply was carefully calculated to be just enough to get them here, as you appear to have guessed, we may be able to make the extra stop. To do so we would have to save a great deal of antimatter by shutting down the stasis fields of all of the animals aboard and removing them from the ship in order to conserve mass. Those stasis fields consume a massive quantity of energy, so with the combination of the lowered mass and lower antimatter consumption with all but one of the stasis pods shut down, the ship should have enough fuel to climb back out of the gravity well of your planet and carry you here to me."

"What about the animals, you said they'd have to be removed?"

The big cat nodded, "The animals would all have to either die and be removed manually, or be released alive into the wild there. I don't think you'd want those animals released into your world. They would be an invasive species that would likely find your environment quite suitable and may begin to proliferate. They are omnivores and are happy to eat just about anything that could be considered edible. It could create problems for your people. It would be best to kill them all, which I could do remotely by simply shutting down their pods while they sleep, but you would have to manually remove them from the ship in order to shed their mass, or the ship would not have the energy to climb out of your gravity well and cross the gap to this world. Removing those carcasses would be no easy task since there are thousands of those animals on a single ship and each animal weighs on average about one hundred and fifty of your pounds."

"Sounds like a big job, and not remotely pleasant. I'm pretty sure I could ever manage to haul that many animal carcasses of that size on my own. At least they're not as big as one of our cows or something like that. Sounds more like a mid-sized sheep or goat, or a small pig maybe. I may be able to drag them out one by one, but it would be way too much to ask for me to move over a thousand of them."

The tiger nodded, "Yes, it would be a very big job indeed. That is why I said that bringing you over here would be no easy task. Unless we released them alive, which the ship is designed to do automatically when it arrives here, I don't see how we could manage it. I could initiate the release protocol after landing the ship there. You would simply need to wait until the already awakened animals emerge from the ship, then enter it yourself once they're all gone. Perhaps we could find some way for you to kill them all once they emerge so that you wouldn't have to remove them from the ship yourself, but they wouldn't be a danger to your planet because they would all be dead. We'll need to think on it."

"I'm not sure if I'd be able to do that either. Unlike you, I'm no hunter. I couldn't bring myself to kill so many helpless animals for no reason."

"That would be slaughter, not hunting. I would have a difficult time doing it as well. Even with our technological advances, my people prefer to kill our own food at the moment we consume it. It is our way. It is a visceral experience that is a part of who we are and we have never tried to change it or make it more convenient. We do not slaughter animals in quantity, or even in advance of when they will be needed, normally. It would go against our evolution and we wouldn't even enjoy eating that type of food. We have no interest in the kind of mass production that would reduce our quality of life. We kill and eat what we need, the moment we need it. Doing that may seem barbaric to you, but to us it is simply the way things have always been and it is an important part of being alive for us."

"That's oddly titillating for me in a strange way," Jake said, "Given your awesome shape I can easily imagine you eating that way. Somehow it excites me a bit to be honest. The idea of you using those teeth and sharp claws and all of that strength you have to simply take what you need and eat it on the spot is sort of thrilling to imagine. It's most definitely not the way we do things here, but I've certainly seen it happen a number of times on television. I don't quite know how you might take this, but we have an animal on my world that looks so much like you that its a bit uncanny. They actually spend their time on all fours, but if that animal had been the one to rise to intelligence first on my planet, I bet they would look almost exactly like you. They're exquisitely beautiful. I've seen them attack and kill live animals in the wild on nature programs and it's exciting to see. The ferocity and power of it is impressive. Those animals are nothing like you in terms of intelligence though, obviously."

The big tiger chuckled and said, "It's not terribly surprising to hear you have a primitive version of my people on your world. I could easily imagine how life would want to arrange itself in certain set ways no matter where it begins since organic molecules follow fairly strict rules about how they like to combine. Even if similar shapes evolved on completely different worlds in parallel, minor differences in events might cause one species to evolve to intelligence on one world, while the same one follows a different route on the other. My people were once on all fours in our prehistory. They might have looked almost exactly like the animals you described from your world. We lived in jungles and hunted our food and ate it raw, but we eventually advanced to the point of using tools to make other aspects of our lives easier, and that was the cause of us developing an upright stance. It freed our fore paws to work with the tools and to better communicate with each other. We've retained our way of killing and eating though. It is too much a part of us to change it and our diet absolutely requires that we do it in order to remain healthy. We are obligate carnivores. Our diet consists almost exclusively of meat, though we can eat certain types of plant matter in small quantities, but only as a supplement to meat. We like our meat to be fresh and alive when it comes time to consume it."

"You mustn't always eat that way though. I saw you eating something you took out of a refrigerator when you made your video. It looked as though you thawed it out, but didn't cook it. Are you forced to eat frozen meat while you're stuck there on Mars?"

"Sort of, but not exactly. I killed that animal with my own teeth and claws and feasted on it, as is our way. However, each animal can feed several of us in one meal. I must preserve my rations, as there are just enough animals to last me until the planet is ready and more food arrives. The animals are kept in stasis fields here, and I awaken one when I am ready to eat. I cannot let any go to waste, so I kill the animal, eat my fill, and put the rest in cold storage. I remove some of that meat for subsequent meals and use one of my appliances that heats it to precisely their normal body temperature to help it seem fresh to me. I eat the stored meat as needed until it runs out. Then I have the pleasure of eating a fresh one again."

Jake asked, "Is it the same type of animal that would be on the ship that I'd use to go over there? Are those animals dangerous?"

"The ones I eat here are not the same as the ones you would be dealing with, no. There are a few different animals my people eat regularly, some are very large indeed and are only ever really eaten during large gatherings. Most of the various animals are in a range of sizes that an average family would consume in one meal. The ones I eat here were actually selected because their size would be enough for four of us to consume in one meal. You might even like the way these animals taste so you could share in my meals with me. They are quite a bit larger than the ones you'll be dealing with. Perhaps they're like the cows you mentioned. Obviously their meat would need to be cooked for you if that is what your people do. There are a few people in my culture who insist on cooking all of their food. They are felt to be very odd people by the rest of us and are not considered normal members of society but fringe dwellers. It wouldn't surprise me to find that that's what your people need to do though. You lack the tools to take an animal down with your bare hands or to tear into its flesh. It's quite logical that you would cook it and consume it with the help of implements.

"The animals you'll be dealing with on the ship that would bring you over here are some of the smaller ones that my people eat, but they are not at all to my taste. I was forced to eat one once, but it was not an experience I enjoyed. I would most certainly never eat one again. The very idea is abhorrent to me. They are considered a delicacy, but I don't care for them at all. You would have no problem dealing with these smaller animals. They are easily intimidated and hate loud noises. That's essentially how the ship flushes them out. It shows them the exit and begins to make an obnoxious, frightening sound that they cannot tolerate and they will all run from it out of their stalls and down the ramp to the ground to scurry off into the forest. They are omnivores, but prefer a diet of fruit and berries. They are not aggressive, so they would be no danger to you. You would simply need to stand clear until they've moved on, then enter the ship."

"Would it be a risky trip over there for me?"

"The risk would be minimal, but you would have to sleep the whole way. The ship is not designed for a living passenger so it could not provide you with food, water, or even breathable air. The animals within it are in stasis pods as I said, to be awakened and released into the wild when they arrive here. You would fit inside one of those pods just fine, and it should work perfectly for you, though I will need to do further research about your biology to ensure that that would be the case before we even consider making the attempt."

"How would you do the research? You don't have any information about humans over there, do you? Did your people even know we existed before you came here?"

The tiger smiled at Jake and said, "No, in fact, we did not know. Your existence came as a happy surprise for me, and, to be honest, your shape when I saw you came as quite an unexpected shock."

Jake said, "Yes, I wondered about that. We seemed to be getting along so well at first and making progress. When we got to the point where I sent you an image, it all fell apart. I've been wanting to ask you why that happened. What caused you to appear to be so upset at that time, when you seem fine with the way I look now?"

"I adore the way you look, Jake. The shock of it brought back exceedingly painful memories for me though, and it took me a bit of time to come to terms with it. It's somewhat complicated. I'd like a bit of time to compose my thoughts before I tell you the story, but I'll do it shortly. In the mean time, before we change the subject too much, I'd like to perhaps try to get us just one step further towards bringing you here to me. You asked earlier how I was going to research your biology to see if it would be compatible with our stasis fields. I will need your help with that research."

"Anything I can do, just let me know and I'll do it."

The tiger said, "I know very little of your people and your technologies still, and it would take me an inordinate amount of time to try to learn it on my own. We need to give my computers a means to tap into your knowledge base so they can do the research for us. Is there any repository in your world where all of your information is kept? Somewhere where I could research your technologies along with the biology of your people and the details of your atmosphere and the makeup of your planet? There would be a long checklist of things that would need to be successfully matched if we are to hope to bring you over here. I need to know precisely what balance of gases you need to breathe in order to be sure you can survive here. I need to know a great deal about your biology to ensure that our stasis field will not harm you in any way and will be effective. I need to know about absolutely anything that might prove toxic to you that might occur naturally in my environment. I need to find out if you will be able to tolerate the same food as I eat. If you cannot eat it, we'll need to find some way of solving the issue of food for you. There are several types of edible plants in my hydroponic garden that might suit you, but again, we'd need to research that. If they prove to be unsuitable, we could certainly grow some from your world if you brought along the seeds. We simply need to find some way to verify all of those items, along with a few others. If everything checks out, then and only then can we actually consider making the attempt to bring you here. I'm anxious to learn if it will be possible, so I'd like to proceed to do the necessary research as quickly as possible."

"We have something called the Internet. It keeps most of the types of information you're talking about at our fingertips at all times, though it's very disjointed and disorganized because it's presented from many different sources. I could do the research for you if you like, but you'd need to give me a detailed list of everything you need to know and I could search it out. It might take some time by the sound of how much information you'd need. I'm certainly no expert on biology, chemistry, or botany so it would take some slogging through a lot of stuff I don't know much about."

"I'm no expert in those fields either, though I know enough to get by," the cat said, "It would be good if you could research the information, but I think it would be better still if we could use my computers to do the research for us as I mentioned before. They could do it in a fraction of the time it would take you. They are intelligent enough, in fact, that I wouldn't even need to compile any lists for them. I simply need to present them with the problem of bringing you here using our animal transport ship, and they will intuit absolutely everything that will need to fall into place for it to work and they'll determine if its possible. They will not only research all of the things I mentioned, but they might also present possible solutions to any potential problems they discover. We simply have to connect them to your information repository and they will do the work for us."

"OK, so how do we get your computers to access our Internet?" Jake asked.

"I assume you have a means of connecting to it electronically?"

"Yes, we use an electronic communication network based on information exchange protocols that we call TCP/IP."

"And you have access to that network from your home?"

"Yes. I have a router that connects to the Internet in my hobby room. We connect to it using something we call Ethernet. It boils down to just eight wires carrying the signals needed to communicate using the TCP/IP protocols."

"Perfect! I was hoping for something just like that. If you can provide me with any sort of schematic for this Ethernet and your TCP/IP protocols, we can easily interface your communication controller, that black box I sent you that also contains the translator, right into your router using those prototype connectors I provided you. Would you be willing to help me do that right now?"

"Of course. Just walk me through the process."

The tiger explained what Jake needed to do. He first went to his laptop and Hunter watched through the lenses in Jake's eyes while he went onto the Internet to find all of the specifications of the TCP/IP protocol that the big cat would need to feed to his computers so they could begin to communicate with the Internet.

He then went to his hobby room where his computer and router were located and the big cat followed via the small white drone that was floating along behind Jake.

He found an old Ethernet cable and cut it to expose the eight wires. He got the small black communicator box and plugged one of the prototyping sockets into it and the tiger walked him through the process of plugging the wires into various ports on the socket and then he plugged the RJ45 end of the cable into his router. The tiger then set to work programming the small black box with the correct voltage levels and signaling protocols, and in no time at all he was successfully able to begin to surf the Internet at his end using his tablet.

"This will do nicely," Hunter said, "Since the TAI in your translator box is already so well versed in your language it will not take long at all for it to learn how to get around on your Internet, and it will begin to translate and format the information into something that will be usable by me. More importantly, it will be able to feed that information back to my computers here, and they will begin to do the research we need using their knowledge of your language and their ability to easily do image recognition. For now, we simply need to let your translator learn the Internet. With the speed at which these machines operate, it will not take them more than a few hours to begin to get results and we'll know if it will be possible to bring you over."

Jake said, "Terrific! Your technology makes so many things easy. I'm impressed."

The tiger smiled and said, "As you well know, that is what technology is for, to make things easy. I'm excited that your people are advanced enough that the information is right there for us to examine. It will help us in many ways in the future. You may not have come as far as us yet, but you have come a long way. It really is a bit shocking to me still to see the level of your technological advances, given the way you look."

Jake chuckled and said, "I think I really need to hear that story. What is it about the way I look?"

The gorgeous cat smiled at Jake and said, "I'm not sure how you will take this, but it's only fair that I tell you this, since you sort of did it to me earlier. You told me that there's an animal on your world that looks almost exactly like me..."

"Yes, we call them tigers. They're one of the most beautiful animals on our world. I love the way they look, just as I love the way you look. That's why I might slip sometimes and call you 'tiger' or 'cat'. I hope you don't find it insulting or anything."

"I most certainly do not since you find them so beautiful. It's quite flattering really and it warms my heart. It might come as a surprise to you, but we have an animal on our planet that looks surprisingly like you do."

"Are you serious? They look like humans? Are they intelligent?"

"No, they most certainly are not. There are some slight differences in your appearance to each other. They are slightly more dense in their build than most of your people from what I could see in the video you made for me. You, however, are larger and more appealingly muscular than most of the humans I saw in your video. You are a closer match to the animals we have here. I happen to find those animals very attractive too, just as you find your tigers attractive."

"I can't believe the weirdness of that. You have a dumb animal on your planet that looks like us, and we have an animal that looks like you! The universe really is full of surprises!"

"Indeed. I've been curious about it myself and have been looking through your illustrated dictionary at the various animals it contains images of. I was surprised to find a great many animals on your world that look very similar to animals on mine. It seems the life on our planets evolved quite similarly."

"So, that doesn't really explain your reaction. Is it that you were interacting with someone you found intelligent, and then suddenly saw that they looked exactly like the dumb animal from your world? I would think that would elicit nothing more than a gasp and raised eyebrows, or maybe a 'holy crap!', and then we'd laugh about it and get on with things. I certainly was dumbfounded by the reaction I got from you. Why was it so traumatic when you first saw what I looked like?"

"It likely wouldn't be traumatic to most of my people and would garner the same reaction you said you would expect, but due to special circumstances, it was a very deep and almost paralyzing shock to me. You see, when I was a child, I used to enjoy hunting one of the smallest animals we like to eat for food. They closely resemble what your people call rabbits. I was so good at it that I had earned the nickname that you now call me by. Whenever I played with my friends they would ask me to find them some food and I never failed to do so. Anyhow, once, while I was hunting for them, I stumbled upon a small group of the animals that look like your people in the forest. I always found them quite attractive and they were fairly rare to come across, so I stayed hidden and observed them for a while. They are quite beautiful creatures and very entertaining to watch. I'd seen this particular group a few times before and had sort of become attached to them. I was quite happy to see them again. They tend to move around so they're never in the same place for very long.

"As I watched them they suddenly became alarmed and all looked in the same direction, then began to run in the opposite direction as a very large animal crashed out of the woods after them. The large creature somewhat resembles what your people call a bear, but is actually a fair bit larger than yours and they are strict meat eaters. The massive animal descended on them in a few steps and began to tear them all to pieces. I'm not sure what came over me, but I became enraged and I interceded. I had become so attached to that small group of animals that I felt I needed to try to defend them since they couldn't do it for themselves. It was a stupid thing to do because I was certainly no match for the large hunter. I was just a child if you recall, and I could not possibly have beaten the creature, but I was seeing red and out of control. I came at it from behind and leaped onto its back and began to rake it with my claws and tear at it with my teeth. The animal became enraged and threw me aside like I was nothing. I realized almost immediately that it had been a stupid mistake to take it on. I should have simply let it eat as all animals must do. It is the natural order of things.

"I was too late anyhow. Even as I jumped on his back I saw that the beast had already killed the last of the smaller animals that look like humans. At least, I thought it had done so. I turned to try to get away from it but it was too enraged and it attacked. It barrelled towards me and came at me with its claws and nearly killed me with one swipe, but I managed to escape further damage by darting underneath it and running for my life. I could not outrun the much larger animal so I had to go up a tree. It was unable to follow due to its size, so I was safe, but bleeding profusely. I was stuck in that tree for hours while I called out for help. Some time later my father had noticed my long absence and came out looking for me along with my older brothers and an uncle. They finally heard my cries for help and located me. The large animal was still there but they dispatched it easily and brought me down from the tree."

"Wow, that was a scary adventure for a little boy, but how does it explain your reaction to the way I look?"

The cat smiled and said, "Patience, my love, let me finish telling the story. From that day forward my brothers teased me for putting my life on the line by trying to rescue some dumb animals from their natural fate. They are food for the large hunter and I should have simply allowed nature to take its course. My father loved me very much and doted on me most of the time, he tried to make me feel better by telling me how proud he was that his youngest son felt he was enough of a hunter to take on the massive beast alone. It was another part of what ultimately led to me being called by the nickname Hunter and it made me feel warm and proud that my father thought of me that way. I loved him too and I loved that he always seemed to be so proud of me. I wanted to make him even more proud and in my boyish foolishness I went back to that spot to see if there were any more of those beasts that I could dispatch myself. In my mind I felt I really was that powerful hunter that my father claimed I was, and I would be able to handle one of those beasts if I was more careful and properly prepared for the fight before I approached it.

"Luckily, I did not encounter another one or it likely would have been the death of me. While I was out there, though, I heard a plaintive mewling sound. I searched it out and found a wounded survivor from the large beast's attack. It was the young of one of those smaller animals that look just like humans that the large beast had killed. I knew it could not survive on its own and I briefly considered simply killing it on the spot. It is what my father likely would have done as a mercy to the animal, but I had always found them to be beautiful animals as I said before, and this one was almost my size and appeared to be feeling lost and helpless and frightened and confused. My heart went out to it and I could not bring myself to kill it, nor to allow it to slowly starve to death or become food for smaller animals that might tear it apart and fight over it."

"Oh my God," Jake laughed, "I see where this is going. You had me as a pet when you were just a boy!"

The tiger chuckled and said, "Just so. He was a male with dark hair, just like you have. I couldn't bring myself to harm the poor creature. Instead, I took him to a small cave I knew of nearby and installed him there. I helped him with his injuries and brought him food and water. I began to visit him in the cave more and more often and started to become attached to him. I had to keep him hidden because among my people, these animals were not to be kept as pets. No animals were, really. My father would have likely killed him without a thought if he'd known I was keeping him. It simply wasn't done. I was quickly becoming even more attached to him, though. I trained him to respond to some simple commands, though it wasn't easy. He liked a sort of chase game we played sometimes and he reacted when I tickled him.

"I began to bring him along on my hunting trips and he became a sort of companion, similar I think to what your dictionaries refer to as a 'dog'. He was faithful and learned to come when I called, and stay in his cave when I told him to. Years went by and I managed to keep him a secret while I began to grow up and he began to grow up too. Something odd happened though. I was just growing into my sexuality and for reasons I can't explain, I started to become curious about his. I touched him in ways I truly should not have done, but his body was advancing too, and it responded to my touch. I feel embarrassed to even be telling you this. He really was an animal and what I was doing was bestiality, plain and simple. It felt wrong, but at the same time I simply couldn't resist."

"You don't need to be embarrassed with me, Hunter. I've had some of those thoughts myself through my life, though I've never been in a position like that where I might have acted on them. I see nothing wrong with what you did. You were young and curious and responding to what your body wanted you to try."

The cat smiled at him sadly and said, "Would that my father saw things the way you do. The intimate play with my pet grew more and more frequent as both of our bodies developed and I began to feel powerful feelings of love for him, even though he had no real intelligence to properly love me back. It didn't matter to me. I realized at that time that I was attracted only to males, and since he was a male I experimented with him in ways that I should not have done. I would get him aroused and then go to my hands and knees and try to coax him to penetrate me from behind. He didn't understand any of it at first, but eventually I managed to get him to do it, and I loved the sensation and the dirtiness of the act. I came to that cave more and more often and trained him to do that to me as often as he could. I came to love his body, the way it looked and the way it smelled in his private areas and even the way his sweat tasted as I ran my tongue over him to clean him. I became attached to him in a way that my people would find completely disgusting and immoral."

Jake could see the cat becoming distressed as he relived the experience. He was talking about something that to his people was taboo, just as it would be to humans if it were a human male having sex with an animal. Really, it would be the same as if Jake had begun to be intimate that way with a pet dog or maybe even a tiger. He could imagine how hard this was for Hunter to talk about, but really he didn't see anything terribly wrong with it. He was simply a horny boy that happened to find himself in a situation where he couldn't resist exploring what his body wanted.

"I'm not sure how long I would have continued playing with my pet in that way. I loved to have him mount me and feel his lustful humping as he rammed his organ inside me, and I grew to love taking him in my mouth to taste his wonderful seed, too. I eventually managed to train him to play with my penis enough to bring me to my orgasm, but it was difficult to get him to do it regularly. He just wasn't interested and wasn't intelligent enough to understand the concept of reciprocation. I was somewhat content to simply enjoy pleasuring him, though, at least for a while. I had never forced myself on him by trying to put my larger penis inside him. I couldn't bring myself to hurt him that way, but I think my addiction would have grown to the point where I might eventually not be able to stop myself from doing it.

"I didn't have him long enough to find out if it would come to that, though. It all came to an end one day when my father caught me in the act. I was just outside the cave where I'd been keeping my pet and was on my hands and knees, naked. My pet had dutifully mounted me as I'd trained him to do and was nearing the completion of the act when my father stumbled upon the scene. I don't think I need to tell you how ashamed I was at that moment. He flew into a rage and began to call me the most horrible things. Homosexuality is quite rare among my people and he did not like the idea that I was that way. Bestiality is unheard of, and among my people it would be seen as a crime. We do not have prisons or fines or any sort of correctional system among my people. All crimes, no matter how minor, are punishable by death. My father raced in and pulled us apart and he tore my pet to shreds with his teeth and claws right before my eyes. He then proceeded to beat me nearly to death, but the love he'd felt for me all for all of my life stayed his hand before he could finish it."

"Oh my God! I'm so sorry!"

"You needn't be, Jake. It was so long ago, and I really had committed an atrocious crime. In hindsight, I know that my father reacted in the only way that made any sense to him. Any of my people would have reacted the same, except that they would have finished the job and ensured I would not stay alive to pollute the gene pool. I was terrified what would happen when my brothers and uncles and everyone else discovered what I'd done and I felt my life had come to an end, but my father was too ashamed of me to tell anyone else, or perhaps some small part of him still thought of me as his little boy and he couldn't bring himself to condemn me, so he kept my secret.

"I know in my heart he stopped loving me then, but as a matter of pride he made up a false story to explain my condition. He told everyone I'd gone back there to take on another of those beasts, and that I'd actually won, though it nearly cost me my life. From that point on my brothers looked at me with much more respect than they ever did before, but I knew it hadn't been earned, as did my father. He never looked at me the same way again for the rest of my life. We both knew my dark secret, but he never told a soul, nor did I, until now. I don't want to hide anything from you, Jake. I have never felt the way I do about you for anyone else. I want you to know who I am. All the parts of me, even the ugly ones. I want to know that when you love me back, you are loving who I really am, not some false image. Ever since that day when my father spun that false tale of what had happened in that forest and I made no move to correct it and tell the truth, a false image was all I was to everyone who had previously known me. I was not that proud and powerful hunter my father claimed I was and he and I both knew it, though no one else did."

Jake was transported back through his own memories to the time his father had caught him masturbating while watching an older man also masturbating through the Internet using CU-SeeMe. It wasn't nearly as horrible a situation as what had happened to Hunter, but it gave him an idea of the kind of shame the cat must have felt at being caught by his father. It had certainly forever changed Jake's relationship with his father, and not in a good way. It had shown his father for the first time that Jake was gay, and it also showed him that he'd been using his body to pleasure older men. Everything had changed between him and his father from that day on and he carried a deep shame for having disappointed him that way. He felt bad for the poor tiger. "What a traumatic experience that must have been. I can't even imagine. It changes nothing about the way I feel for you. It took incredible courage even for you to tell me about it. It's the big things that happen in your life that sort of define who you become. I absolutely love who you are, and there's no way you would be exactly who you are if that had never happened to you. You would be different, and I wouldn't like that. I had a similar experience in my youth, though nowhere near as incredibly difficult as that must have been. Your whole world changed in that moment I would think."

The cat nodded, "Indeed. Prior to that, my father was almost my whole world. I lost him in that moment and was never able to regain his love. Perhaps, in a way, that too was what led to me becoming a homosexual. I yearned to feel the love of a male to fill the void left by my father when his love for me turned to disgust in me. In spite of how horrible that event was, I still occasionally yearned for the touch of my pet, too. It was difficult growing up with those conflicting feelings inside me. My life was emotionally painful for me for quite some time after, but eventually I grew into a man and my life became full of other things and those horrible memories finally began to fade. I trained hard to become an engineer to be one of the ones who would help to save my race in order to try to gain back my father's pride, but he did not live long enough to see me selected as one of the few who would be in the vanguard to ensure my people would have a new world to settle on, which is what Mars will be for us.

"When I first started to interact with you through your robot, I had no idea what you looked like. You can imagine the shock it was for me when the image you took of yourself resolved on my tablet for the first time and I saw that the male I'd been growing intellectually and emotionally attached to actually looked almost exactly like I might imagine my sweet pet would have looked had he lived to grow up to full maturity."

"Wow! No wonder you reacted the way you did!"

"Yes, I couldn't handle it at first, so I simply walked away and disconnected your robot. My thoughts were in turmoil for days following that. I was irrationally angry at you for looking the way you did. I hated having to suddenly face those horrible memories that I had finally forgotten. It took quite some time, but I finally began to come to terms with it again. The more I thought about it, the more I realized it was simply bad luck. You couldn't help the way you looked. You weren't an animal, you were an intelligent being with thoughts and feelings and an incredibly sweet nature. I thought back to how I'd started to feel about you before I saw what you looked like, and I soon found myself wanting to get back to getting to know you and communicating with you again.

"Perhaps it was in part my terrible loneliness here, but I even began to fantasize a bit about you sexually. No matter how painful those memories from that day when my father caught me were, there were many warm and wonderful memories from the days with my pet before that that still can make me feel good to this day. I loved him in a way, and I was extremely attracted to his body. The more I though about it the more I realized there was nothing wrong with the situation between you and me. You're an intelligent, wonderful man, not some dumb animal. It would in no way be bestiality for me to lie with you and my body ached to do it. You are so beautiful to me, Jake, that I feel more of an attraction to you than I would likely ever be able to feel with one of my own people."

"I feel the same way about you. You really are the most beautiful male I've ever laid eyes on. I've never remotely thought of my attraction to you as bestiality."

"Nor should you. We are both intelligent people who are fully aware of our own desires, as well as each other's. There is no shame in our attraction to each other. It is a beautiful thing. Truly, what I'd been doing with my pet was wrong, but I was young and did not really understand that. He was simply reacting to his body's response to the stimulation I was causing it. He didn't care for me in that way. He was incapable of it. He was simply a loyal pet. I loved him, but he couldn't love me back in the same way. In your case it was almost the opposite. I began to have feelings for you before I even knew what you looked like, so I know my deep attraction to you is because of your intelligence and your personality above all."

"You told me you used a word for me that translated loosely to "my sweet pet", now I know where that came from."

The cat looked sort of ashamed as he said, "Yes. I hope you don't take offense to that. I really did love him and I found myself loving you even more. I began to call you by the same name I gave him because it evoked such wonderful feelings in me, not because I see you as any sort of pet. You are a man. A very intelligent, very strong, very appealing, very sweet and wonderful man."

"It doesn't cause me any offense at all. Don't feel guilty about it. It's fine. I wish I didn't evoke those painful memories for you as well as the good ones, but I can only be glad that you find me as attractive as you do."

"The painful memories have passed already. You needn't be concerned about those. I love you deeply, Jake, but it's not only because of the way you look, it's more because of the way you are."

"I love you too."

Jake heard a beep coming from the tiger's tablet and Hunter lifted it up and took a look, then he grinned and said, "My computer has made much progress already. It appears your biology is completely compatible with our stasis fields. It will be quite effective for you so you will be able to sleep for the entire trip over. It looks as though the air we breathe is a perfect match as well so you will be quite comfortable here. It hasn't yet completed the research on your digestive system, but it looks promising. It will continue to delve into the food situation and any other important aspects of having you live here, but I think we might be able to make it work. You might be able to come here, Jake!"

"That's fantastic! How long until those ships pass Earth?"

"It will be nearly two of your months. They are slowly shedding their velocity by decelerating. They will still have nearly two months of flight before they reach Mars at that point. It will take that long for you to come over on one of those ships, but it looks like we should be able to proceed if it's still something you want when the time comes. I need you to think hard on it and be sure."

"I'm sure now, but I'll keep thinking about it if it makes you feel better."

The cat smiled and nodded.

Jake saw the tiger relax after getting that story off his chest and finding that they were one step closer to being able to bring Jake over there, and he saw the cat begin looking around the room. It looked odd from his perspective because he was seeing the tiger in his room on Mars, which was quite empty and plain, yet he was stopping here and there to look more closely at things when there appeared to be nothing there to see. He heard the light hissing of the drone on this side as it turned this way and that and it reminded him of the fact that the big cat was currently looking through the drone into Jake's hobby room and what he was seeing was all of the things in it, some of which he would likely be curious about.

Hunter then pointed at an empty corner of his room on Mars and said, "What is that strange contraption over there, my love?"

Jake switched to the small picture box mode so that he was back in his hobby room. This was where he kept his main desktop computer, along with some other hobby stuff he had like his 3D printers and a small bench he used for his robotics and electronics work. He had a couple of guitars hanging on the wall, too. The other end of the room was dedicated to one of his passions. He loved to play the drums, and he had a complete Roland electronic drum kit with mesh heads and full sized cymbals with a realistic hi hat, all driven by a TD-12 controller. He also loved to play video games and he'd interfaced the Roland kit to his Xbox One so that he could use it to play the drums in Rock Band 4 on a large TV he kept in the room for that purpose. Jake saw by the way the white drone in the room was angled that the cat was looking straight at the drum kit.

He said, "That's an electronic version of a sort of musical instrument we use here called drums. It's what provides the percussion sounds in our music."

"I've found that I absolutely love your peoples' music! I've spent many hours listening to your entertainment transmissions. Do you actually play music, Jake?"

"Yes, some. I can play the drums and also acoustic guitar."

"Wonderful! Make some music for me! Play some of the songs I've been hearing on your radio stations!"

Jake chuckled and said, "I suppose I could play the guitar for a bit, but it takes several people to make the sort of music you've been listening to. I'd need a band for that. There's a game I like to play called Rock Band that allows me to drop in and feel as though I'm actually playing the drums in a full band. That game is sort of an addiction for me and I spend a lot of time at it."

"Could you show me this game? I haven't played a game for so many years. I have been under so much pressure here with all of my responsibilities. I would love the distraction of an amusement like that. It would be interesting for me to see how humans entertain themselves."

"Sure, I can show you."

Jake powered up the Xbox One and the TV and sat at the drums. He used the controller to navigate the Xbox interface in order to launch the game, but just before he could do that the tiger interrupted and said, "Wait, what's that?"

"What?"

"Do you see that strange looking fellow on your screen? Why is he dressed that way?"

Jake chuckled as he saw what the cat was looking at and said, "His name is Spider Man. He's a make believe character. That's an advertisement for another game that's coming soon. It's not available yet, so you can't try that one."

The tiger said, "It's such an unusual costume he's wearing. It covers every inch of his entire body and conforms to it so well. It gives me an idea that I would like to try later on. It will take me some time to work it out, though. I'm sorry for the interruption. Go ahead and proceed with your game."

Jake launched the Rock Band game and began to play the drums on it. Hunter was completely entranced as he listened to the music and watched the colorful display for a while. "This is absolutely wonderful! Can more than one person play this game at once?"

"Yes, that's why it's called Rock Band. Various people can play the different instruments and form a complete band."

"Would I need to know how to play one of your instruments if I wished to join in?"

"No, not really. It's only a game. When I play the drums I use expert pro mode, so I do more or less have to play exactly like the original drummer did, but whoever plays the guitar parts doesn't have to know how to play a guitar. To play the other instruments we use plastic guitar-shaped toys that have only five buttons that correspond to those colored shapes you see coming down the screen. You only need to press the appropriate buttons while hitting another button called the strum bar at the right time along with the beat as the music plays. It's quite a bit of fun once you've practiced up."

"I wish to try that! Have you got one of those toys with the buttons that I could look at?"

"Yes, of course. I have a few. Are you saying you could use one? Could it be interfaced to the translator box's prototype socket?"

"Yes, precisely. I can easily fabricate something at this end that would have the same shape and whatever buttons are needed. The computer could give me the specifications of those controllers if the information can be found on your Internet. I could press the buttons on my replica here and the translator box could send the appropriate signals to that game device you've been using. What do you call that thing?"

"It's called an Xbox One."

"One moment," the tiger said as he started tapping at his laptop. The cat then smiled and said, "This connection to your Internet is proving itself quite useful already. I've done a quick query to see if I can determine the specifications of that Xbox One and its controllers. I'm happy to say everything I need is right here. I'm inside the computer systems of an organization called Microsoft, and I'm accessing all of the data they have on their proprietary communications system for their game controllers. It looks quite simple."

"Wait, what? You're inside Microsoft's computer systems? Behind their firewall?"

The cat looked puzzled and said, "Is that what the network's perimeter control system is called? The computer had no difficulty getting past that. Is that sort of thing difficult normally? Is it not allowed? Should I not be doing that?"

Jake chuckled and said, "You probably shouldn't, no. If they trace that activity back to here, I could get in trouble. The firewall sort of marks the boundary into a private system and going beyond it is a type of trespassing that's illegal. The firewall's purpose is actually to block that sort of thing, but I guess it's no match for your computer."

"I see. I didn't know, I'm sorry. I'll refrain from doing that in future. In my world no one really owns information about anything at all. It all belongs to everyone." The tiger proceeded to tap away at his laptop some more and then he said, "If it's any help, the method the computer used required it to do several iterations of something that appears to translate to 'spoofing' in your language. It has informed me that it's activity would be completely untraceable. I've asked it to sever the link. We have what we need for this purpose anyhow. It turns out that they use radio in their controllers."

"They're wireless, yes. Can your translator box handle wireless radio?"

"It's your translator box, Jake, not mine. I gave it to you."

Jake chuckled again and said, "I just meant, can its technology do radio? You said your people had left that technology behind long ago."

"Yes, we did. But since I already knew your people used it, I added it to the device in case it might become useful. It has a very small short range radio transceiver that can be dynamically reconfigured in any way we might need," the tiger was typing away at his tablet while he spoke and then he smiled and said, "There, I've connected into your game already."

Jake looked over and saw that a second controller had joined the game. He was amazed!

"Holy crap! How did you do that so easily?"

"I'm not sure what you mean. It's all quite straightforward. The computer did most of the work in figuring out the interface and the communication protocols. The only problem we have now is that I actually have no means of pressing the buttons at the moment. Come with me to the workshop and let's print one up."

Jake switched from the small picture mode he'd been using to the full view so he could watch as the drone followed the tiger as he walked through the Martian base. The big cat stopped on his way through the familiar hydroponics garden and loaded up his pipe and smoked it.

"I wish I was there to share that with you. Since your computer says my biology is compatible I would likely get the same effects off that as you do."

"You would indeed. It's wonderfully mellowing. I doubt I could have endured the past year in this depressing place without this to help me out once in a while. It sort of enhances my enjoyment of certain types of activities."

They continued on through to the workshop and the cat got busy with his fabricator. In no time at all the tiger was holding what looked an awful lot like the Jaguar guitar controller from Rock Band 4. It had no color whatsoever and was just a dull beige all over, it had no buttons either, but it had sort of depressions along the neck up where the buttons should be, and another where the strum bar should be.

"There aren't any buttons yet," the tiger explained, "It would require a fair bit more work to make those, but the areas where the buttons will go is currently setup to be touch sensitive and I can simply tap at them as though they were buttons. It should suffice for now. Let's go play."

Jake switched back to picture box mode so he could see his hobby room again. He was still sitting at the drums. The tiger hurried back to his room so he could sit on his bed with his new guitar controller and play along. Jake explained the ins and outs of the game to Hunter. He suggested the cat start by playing bass, since that was much easier than guitar in this game. The big tiger proved to be incredibly well coordinated and he quickly began to improve. They played more and more and the tiger became more enthusiastic and entertained as they went along, and he kept cranking up the difficulty of his part until he finally had it on expert mode.

Jake was absolutely thrilled. There were no children in his life and none of his adult friends actually like to play video games, so he normally either played Rock Band alone, or online in a crew he'd joined. This was the first time anyone he cared about had taken an interest and joined him in the game. The two of them were having an absolute blast. Jake let Hunter build the playlists and he found that over time the big cat gravitated mostly towards grunge and light punk styles. He grinned as he watched the tiger sample various songs and reject several while adding all the ones he could find from groups like Stone Temple Pilots, Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, Audioslave, Blink-182, Fall Out Boy, Jimmy Eat World, Rise Against and the Ramones. Jake liked all music so it made no difference to him what the cat picked, he was just having a great time. He certainly found it interesting to see the tiger's tastes already zeroing in on certain genres though. He wondered if maybe these were the closest to whatever the cats had for popular music.

"I think you've pretty much got this game nailed," Jake said as he watched the tiger now acing some songs on the bass part. "Would you like to move on to guitar instead of bass? It's a fair bit more difficult to keep up."

"Bring it on, Jake. I haven't been this entertained since..." the cat paused and thought, then is eyebrows went up as he said, "I've never been this entertained! Not in my entire life! You humans really know how to have fun. I feel right now like I have been hard at work for my entire life, and I'm finally taking a break from all of that. I'm not ready to stop yet. Let's play some more! I love this!"

"I've got a band in the game already, but we should form a new one for you so we can track our scores as we try to improve."

"Excellent! I would love to be in a band with you!"

Jake went through the motions and the game asked what he'd like to call the new band. He was never really good at coming up with these things so he asked the cat, "What would you like your band to be called?"

"Please select one yourself. I've never been good at such things."

Jake chuckled and said, "I was just thinking the same thing about myself. It must be in the engineering genes to lack that sort of creativity. Let's just use something easy."

He decided to call the band 'The Lonely Hearts Club' after the Beatles song, and he pressed the button to continue on.

"What a wonderfully fitting name for a band with the two of us in it!" Hunter said, "You are better at this sort of thing than you said."

Jake said, "No, that's actually stolen from some popular music from our past."

"It's asking me what I would like to name my character," the cat said, "Should I just enter 'Hunter'?"

"We don't normally use our real names in these things. The band is yours, so I think you should name your character Sgt. Pepper. I'm on drums, so I'll just call myself Ringo."

The cat just shrugged and nodded. Once they had their band formed they went back to playing and enjoyed themselves for hours. At one point a member of Jake's crew came online and asked to join. He played bass. Eventually another joined to do vocals. After they'd played a while the others remarked how good Sgt. Pepper was on guitar and asked if he would be joining the crew. They'd all been chatting about the game through Xbox Live as they played, even Hunter was making comments about how great this song was or how hard that part was, or how well someone else had done, and the other crew members also remarked how great his voice sounded when he spoke and asked if he could do vocals sometimes if nobody else was available. The tiger puffed up with pride at the comments and Jake smiled as he thought to himself how surprised his friends might be to find out they'd been playing Rock Band with a huge, muscular, gay tiger who was currently sitting in his bedroom on Mars.

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club band continued to rock on for hours before they finally decided it was time to take a break and grab a late lunch. Jake ate soup and a sandwich while the tiger once again dug into some raw meat he'd had in his fridge.

The cat was still feeling like he was in vacation mode so he asked Jake afterward if he could go out for a bike ride with Hunter following through the drone. They went out and Jake hit the same trails he'd done for the GoPro video, but this time Hunter was experiencing it first hand, as if he were actually right there under the blue sky in the bright sunshine surrounded by green nature. He was absolutely thrilled with the experience. Jake kept having to stop at the tiger's request when he wanted to flit off to the side and examine some flowers or insects more closely through the drone. He chased a squirrel up a tree once while Jake laughed. As they passed some creeks the tiger even dove under the water with the drone to look at whatever he might find there. A falcon became overly interested in the small white flying thing at one point and the tiger roared and got into a brief air battle with it before it finally realized the thing was not a dove or anything edible at all and took off.

The cat wanted to keep going for hours, but eventually Jake was getting tired out and suggested they go home and do this again another time if the tiger still wanted to.

At long last they found themselves back on each other's beds again, each seeing the other's room through the eyes of the drones.

"What a wonderful day you've given me, Jake! You have no idea what it means to me to be able to forget my responsibilities and just play for a while. Your Rock Band game is absolutely addictive and such a wonderful way to enjoy your peoples' music. I am so happy to be part of the Lonely Hearts Club band, though the more time I spend with you, the more distant becomes the memory of just how lonely my heart has been. This has all been a much needed break from my reality. I am so glad you've come into my life, you wonderful man! I can't do it right now, obviously, but I want you to know in my head I'm hugging you tightly right now and planting kisses all over your sweet face."

Jake said, "I would certainly love to be doing just that to that beautiful furry face of yours right now, too. I've had just as much fun as you have. I've never had anyone I loved take such an interest in my video game addiction before. We're definitely gonna be playing a lot more Rock Band together. I can't even imagine how stiflingly lonely it must have been for you out there all by yourself on Mars! I really need to get the story from you about what exactly is happening with your people and why you're alone. I've been dying of curiosity about it."

The cat looked sad for a moment and said, "That is a story for another day. We've already had one sad story and this one is in many ways even sadder. I've been enjoying myself so much today I would prefer not to speak of it just now. Perhaps tomorrow I'll tell you all about it. It's a tale of woe and not a suitable way to end what has become such a wonderfully entertaining day for me."

"Alright, we'll talk about it another time. What would you like to do now?"

"I think right now it is time for some reciprocation. You got to feel what it was like for me to ride your cock this morning when we played with the sensor socks. If you would be so kind, I would love to have you impale yourself on my cock so I can truly feel that I'm up inside you."

Jake grinned, "Of course! That would be awesome!"

"Have you got the other sock nearby?"

Jake switched to picture box mode and grabbed it off the nightstand. "I have it right here."

"When you pleasured yourself using my likeness in your video, you had it attached to the floor. Perhaps it would be easiest if we simply did that again this time. I've been giving some thought to a much better solution for us, but it wouldn't be ready for days yet, we'll work on it together. For now, just place the dildo on the floor like you did before, and put the sock over it. It will have to stretch quite a bit, but it will fit. I'll lie on the floor here on my back so that everything looks more or less lined up for both of us to give the best immersion."

Jake did as he was asked and got the big reproduction of the tiger's awesome cock and stuck it to the floor, and then he slipped the sensor sock over it. It was snug, but it stretched easily to conform all along the dildo's length. The cat took a look around through the drone, then lined his body up as closely as possible while he lied down on the floor on Mars with his already rapidly stiffening cock pointing up.

Jake said, "You're so big for me, I need to loosen myself up a bit before I can take you comfortably. I'll be right back."

"Wait, one moment. Do you have the other sock as well? The one filled with your sweet cum?"

"Yeah, it's on the floor."

"Please bring it with you and rinse it out. You'll find the fabric does not really get wet when you wash it. It will clean up easily. Simply turn it inside out and wash it off, then shake it and it will be dry and ready to go. I would like you to put that one on your cock and I'll put one on my cock here, and on the likeness of your sweet cock that I have as well. We can both pleasure each other that way."

Jake grinned and said, "Cool. I'll be right back!"

He picked up the dirty sensor sock and went off to the bathroom. He proceeded to wash the other sock as the tiger had instructed and found to his surprise that a quick shake was really all it took to shed every bit of water. It was completely dry and ready to go when he was done. He then inserted one of his bigger butt plugs with some lube into his backside and kept it in as he went back to the room.

He slipped the sock onto his stiff cock and got down on the floor.

"Situate yourself beside me my love. Do you see where I've placed the dildo of your cock with the frame at this end? It's aimed at me from the side so that you can be on your knees in the same position for best immersion. I will begin stroking your cock while you stroke mine to get us both fully aroused."

Jake moved around to the side so that his real cock was more or less lined up with the fake one in the tiger's room. "OK, ready."

The cat had already placed the sock over his own cock as well, so he reached over and picked up his tablet that he had on the floor next to him and tapped at it. Jake immediately felt that interesting sensation once more where every cell of the skin all over his cock tingled briefly, then his cock suddenly felt cooler like it was exposed to the air again and not covered with a sock. He reached out in his own room and grabbed hold of the tiger's likeness and began to stroke it. The cat immediately moaned and said, "It feels so wonderful to have your hands on me at last. I cannot wait to feel myself inside you."

Jake saw Hunter reach out towards his cock and then he immediately felt the cat's big paw take hold if it and begin to stroke. He already felt he wasn't going to last long at all. After all of the fun they'd had today and the big cat's frequent words of love he had fallen so deeply for the tiger that the slightest touch from him felt like magic to Jake. It electrified him.

He reached out himself and found the big dildo right about where he could see the cat's amazing penis and he began to stroke it. The tiger was holding his own penis at its base with his other paw so it stood straight up to match the dildo in Jake's room and Jake began to squeeze it harder and twist it with both hands. He could feel the big cat's heat and the incredible solidity of his throbbing cock and the tiger moaned as Jake worked it.

The cat began to work Jake's penis harder too. He twisted and pulled and stroked along its length while he said, "I love your sweet cock. I wish it were right here with me so I could taste you. I dream of having you shoot your seed right along my tongue. I've never wanted anything so badly in my life."

Jake moaned as he already began to feel the buildup of his orgasm. He couldn't believe how turned on he was by the beautiful tiger. He glanced downward to watch the large paw going faster and faster along his cock as it worked him hard and to him he really was there in the room. His brain completely accepted the fact that the socked penis he was seeing in the cat's room was his own. He felt his balls beginning to tighten up already and he moaned as the orgasm began to build. The tiger sensed what was coming and said, "Shoot for me, my sweet man. Show me how much you love me," while he increased the pace until it was almost unbearable.

Jake groaned loud and long as the powerful explosion shot out from the base of his nuts to every corner of his body and he grunted and tensed as the cum rushed up his shaft and squirted from his cock head. The cat squeezed even harder but slowed down just a bit as he milked everything Jake had out of him. Again and again his body jerked as another powerful spasm hit him and he shot another blast of cum into the sock.

At last he felt himself beginning to regain control as the spasms slowed down and turned to softer pulses as his cum continued to ooze from his penis for a while. The cat finally slowed down his strokes and switched to simply squeezing at Jake's cock to coax the last few drops out.

Jake had his eyes closed while he'd ridden out his orgasm and he opened them up and saw the tiger smiling at him. "Look how much you've made for me!" the cat exclaimed as he pointed down at the sock.

Jake chuckled as he looked down and saw how inflated the end of the sensor sock was on the replica of his penis over on Mars. The cat reached over and tapped some controls on his tablet and Jake suddenly saw the sock on Mars deflate while he suddenly felt the presence of the sock on his own cock again. It no longer felt like an extension of his skin. He pulled it off and tossed it aside, then he reached back and eased the large butt plug from his backside and tossed that aside as well.

He took the lube from his nightstand and put a dollop on his hand and tossed the bottle aside too. Then he maneuvered himself so it would appear that he was between Hunter's legs while the big cat smiled and watched.

Jake leaned in and kissed the large dildo that was in his room and the tiger felt Jake's lips right there on the end of his big cock. Jake moved his head to the side of it and rubbed his face up and down on one side, then the other. "I wish I was there with you and this was really your awesome cock in front of me, but I have to admit this is pretty cool."

The tiger grinned and nodded as Jake brought up his hand with the lube on it and smeared it onto the big head of the dildo. He stood up and straddled it and began to lower himself down. The big cat's mouth was hanging open and his eyes became glazed as he watched his lover get closer and closer. At last Jake felt the tip hit the target and he moaned as he forced himself down. He had to wiggle a bit and push hard to finally get his hole to spread out and accept the massive tool and he felt the familiar fire that came with pushing himself to the absolute limit.

The tiger groaned and moaned as he watched Jake lower himself further. Jake forced himself all the way to the root of the big cock and moaned again as it slid along the sensitive nerve endings of his anus, and the big head bumped past his prostate to dive even deeper. At last he bottomed out and the cat said, "I have never felt more aroused in my life. The heat of you is wonderful. You're so tight and so achingly beautiful to me Jake. This the happiest and most fulfilled I've ever been. I will not last long. I wish to feel you more, please don't stop."

After taking a deep breath, Jake began to lift himself up and Hunter moaned again at the sensation. When he felt the tiger's big, rough edged head reach his anus and almost come out, Jake stopped, then lowered himself slowly again. The fire had faded as he grew more accustomed to the tiger's girth and he began to move a little faster. He began squeezing at his anus and wiggling a bit while he rode the massive rod faster and faster. He could see the beautiful tiger getting more and more excited and his breathing became more like panting as he got closer. The cat reached down with both big paws as if he planned to grab Jake by the waist to push him up and down even harder, but then he grunted lightly in frustration when his hands met empty air. The cat's brain had him completely fooled into thinking Jake was in the room with him.

Jake did the only thing he could and he began to bounce even harder and faster and finally the cat tensed up and roared as his orgasm crashed into him hard. Jake felt a pulse blast through the large penis that was inside him and he actually felt the tip of the sock inflating as it began to rapidly fill with the muscular cat's big load.

Again and again the cat grunted and tensed as he shot more and more cum until it began to slow to streaming pulses and then simply oozing out.

Jake slowed down, but kept going. The tiger's head was still moving slowly from side to side with his eyes closed like he was riding out every last soft wave of his dying orgasm. When he finally opened his eyes, Jake pushed himself back down and stayed there. He felt the tiger's big cock pulsing just a bit near the base, but it was fading fast.

He slowly pulled himself all the way back up and off of the big dildo and moved off to the side. He couldn't resist and quickly switched his lens displays to the picture box mode so he could take a look at the sock on this end. It was messy from the lube but Jake was amazed at just how much it had inflated at the end.

"Look at all that cum! I wish to God I was over there right now so I could take every drop of that into my mouth! I can't believe how much you can shoot!"

The big cat chuckled and said, "I'm not sure that I've ever shot quite that much. It felt so real being up inside you. I could not believe just how badly I wanted it to be real. My hands even reached out for you at one point. I truly wish we were together now instead of having to rely on these devices, but I must admit, as you said, it's pretty cool."

Jake laughed. The tiger was already starting to pick up human turns of phrase.

The cat reached over for his tablet again and tapped it and Jake watched in wonder as the sock released and the massively inflated portion at the top immediately settled back down and it was once more just a black silk sock stretched over a dildo.

"This technology is amazing. I bet if we marketed it here we could sell millions of them, no matter what price we asked."

The tiger laughed and said, "I've had some ideas on improvements. I think we'll both enjoy them, but I'm most happy to think that this is only to tide us over until you can truly be here, with me."

Jake said, "You and me both. I can't wait to be one of only two Martians on the planet. We'll be sort of like Adam and Eve."

"Who are they, my love?"

"Never mind, it's not really all that fitting anyhow given our genders. It's an interesting thought though. You really are the first Martian. I would be the second if I went out there to stay with you. The two founding members of the Lonely Hearts Club together at last. We'll have to change the name of the band at that point. In any case, we would be remembered by future history as the first Martian couple. Unless of course your people change the name of the place."

"I doubt they would bother to change the name. It would seem a bit rude since it was already named by an intelligent race. I'm not sure how well we'd be received by my people as the first couple, though. Homosexuality is not exactly taboo among my people, but it is not talked about at all, and not openly accepted. It is considered somewhat of a deviant lifestyle."

"Well, it sounds like humans might have a thing or two to teach you guys after all. We'll have you all prancing around in no time," Jake said.

The cat chuckled and said, "Good luck with that."