FSE

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Author's note: This chapter continues the story arc begun in Part 5, resuming immediately after Part 6. As always, with thanks to Arthur "Aethan" French. Halivarr and its enticing natives first appeared in his charming cabin boy/space pirates story, "A Treasure, Freely Given". My rendition of these are somewhat different, but appear here by his kind permission.

Interlude, Sky Range Dark Sky Reserve, Halivarr

Check? Check. Langrr again, at the transcriber. I think one or two more yarns ought to bring us up to speed. Looking at the two 'scripts of mine that have already made their way onto the holonet, at least in systems where this kind of thing isn't banned outright, I can see I have danced around something that, really, I need to break down for you before this story goes much further.

Rakasha. I haven't explained them at all. In part because I don't understand them, and also because frankly, they scare me. I've talked about 'Lifted in general, without mentioning them. They're different. Not in a Halivarri, "Aw, look - how cute! Let me fuck it!" way. In a "Maker, I don't know what You were thinking and I really am fine not knowing," way.

"Cats and Dogs" is a trope that gets played a lot, by folk who don't know Vargyr well, and don't know Rakasha at all. It's not like that. Territorial, within their range, yes. But they aren't expansionist - are, in fact, strongly isolationist. Our corsairs do not intrude upon their Twelve Worlds. We don't fight with them. Because we'd fucking lose. Rakasha are totally out of our league, which our psyches don't like to admit (we are hard-wired to think well of ourselves). We leave them alone, and thankfully they are happy to return the favor.

Does your world have jungle cats? Big, stripey ones? Bigger than a Human and notoriously fierce? Take one of those. Imbue it with enhanced hand-to-hand combat reflexes. Imbue it with a strategizing mind that plays out tactical scenarios in 4D as a warm-up exercise. Make it over two meters tall, bipedal, sapient, scientifically curious, aloof and consciously superior. Then, think of the kind of mind-powers that make the Imperium afraid to even admit that Psions exist, and give it all of those, but for real. That's a Rakasha.

Legends - which are all anyone knows of the Ancients, the Maker, whatever you call them - say the Rakasha were the greatest and last achievement of the Ancient gene-splicers. That legend says they were made as war machines in a conflict that the Ancients fought against themselves, that the Rakasha were unwilling participants and that, rather than fight on behalf of their Maker, they rebelled, and are the reason that no member - no certain knowledge, even - of that species remains today.

The Twelve Worlds - what Rakasha call their claimed slice of space - are far away. Twenty-odd parsecs driftward of the Antares Main, in a sector that no one in the Imperium has even given a name yet. We deal, occaisonally, cautiously, politely with some of their neighbors, on the rare occasions when we need to deal with them at all. It was unusual, to say the least, to hear of one playing Ship's Doctor on the Gvadakoungg. But it went some ways to explaining how Captain Fangg had carried off some of his wilder stunts.

In retrospect, it was ballsy as all hell of Iawrrl and I to presume to employ a Rakasha medic's research notes for our handling of our two 'Varri recruits. Thankfully, we never needed the psychic probing and manipulation that Doctor Courangara would so freely and ruthlessly unleash on Cadet Dasker, because neither of us have an erg of measurable Psi ability between us. And, luckily for Dani and Tobi, the Doc's medical interventions were in fact without any long-term adverse effects. But really? Truly? We probably shouldn't have meddled.

* * *

Seeker was in a low orbit, actually atmospheric, tending generally in the direction of the planet's rotation, with a north / south oscillation I had calculated so that we didn't out-race the planet turning beneath us. When daylight found the cockpit viewscreen, Varr's rays came right through the hatch to find the head-end of our bunk. Due to altitude, it was still pre-dawn in the Sky Range, some fifteen clicks below us.

That is, it was about one local day since we'd dropped out of the sky to hustle the boys into joining us. Iawrrl had wound up flat on his back with one arm covering his eyes. I was on my side, slightly curled, my nose right in his armpit, which of course had me pretty hard - my sheath was just a tight furry glove snug around my full knot (which, if you don't have one, feels great, by the way). I rubbed crud from my eyes and looked for the boys.

They had ended up more or less on top of us, curled up like big house-pets, Tobi laying across my torso, Dani across Iawrrl's legs, each face-down right up against the front of our shorts. Tobi was huffing Iawrrl's crotch - I fought back a territorial impulse to kick him onto the floor, but couldn't fault his taste. Dani was sleepily nuzzling mine where he'd actually left a puddle of drool. My belly-fur was sticky with Tobi's pre. There are worse ways to wake up.

I licked Iawrrl's pit, and gently shook each boy by the back of their necks, rubbing their faces into our junk. "Rise and shine!" I waited to see Dani's eyes open, met them as he realized where he was and gave my friendliest smile. "Good boy." You can't see when Dani blushes, but when I patted his head, his ears were hot.

I swung myself out of bed, stripped off my string vest, and peeled my shorts down so Dani could get a good look, Tobi rubbernecking over his back to get a peek as well. "Come on, boys. Up and at 'em. Shorts in here," I demonstrated, dropping my sleep togs in the little bin that opened in the bunk frame, below the mattress slash couch-cushion slash cum-sponge. "I'll get your things."

As I was exiting the fresher, with the clothing over my arm, they were heading in, to take care of morning business. "You aim for me, and I'll aim for you," Tobi said.

"If you can LIFT it," said Dani in a gruff, scornful tone. They laughed.

So did I. "Fuck you," said Iawrrl as I handed him his clothes. I just smiled and nuzzled his other armpit. "Horn dog."

* * *

It was later that morning, when we'd returned to the Sky Range to pack the boys out, that Dani - insisting on taking inventory of their small, unused first aid kit - asked, "Sirs? Which of you is the medic?"

"What's that, Dani?" We'd gotten their tent broken down, and it packed small, the size of a big envelope. I was helping to fit it into the big pocket on the back of Tobi's harness, at his insistence, and hadn't really been paying attention. "Neither. Both. We have the same emergency training. Seeker's medic is a robot - most expensive piece of equipment on the ship, by the way, and that includes the jumpdrive, so don't fuck with it. Why do you ask?"

He started to reply, looked at Iawrrl, looked at the tower of the ranger station, a few clicks away, and reconsidered. "Forget it." He said. "I'll tell you when we're back on Seeker."

By now, Iawrrl and I had worked out the story we'd tell Space Command, if anyone located and recognized us and enquired what we were doing six parsecs from our assigned post. We were working our way along the itinerary of the Mirasirka Queen, taking readings of radiation signatures left in her wake, to assess when Gvadakoungg had starting sniffing under her tail.

We couldn't do this thing from Phojla - we'd have to be in the systems where the liner had traversed ordinary sublight space, ideally with a planet between us and the primary. A dark-sky preserve was actually not a bad place to do that kind of thing, at least at night.

The argument that Operations Division would use was that no one had asked us to do this. Our counter-argument was that no one had asked us not to, we had already complied with our specific orders regarding Phojla's big scanners (which couldn't find the Gvadakoungg any better than any other sensor array) and had interpreted our mandate broadly. Scout Service allows Field Ops a lot of leeway, and this was exactly the kind of wild hair field personnel were notorious for.

The hardest cynics would just assume we'd decided to treat ourselves to a vacation somewhere we could get our dicks wet in Halivarri boy-poon, and might dock our pay. They couldn't impound Seeker because, clever me, it belonged to the Gvadnn League (a Vargyr coalition), not to them. And our joint savings was offshored, as well. Short of hauling us off in cuffs, they couldn't actually spank us that hard.

Now, we sat in the shade of the tree eating our box lunches and working out the pitch we'd sell to the Guides Program. It was a warm day, little pollinators making a pleasant noise as they raided a big bank of wildflowers, but ignoring our food. To Iawrrl's senses and mine, anyway, the immediate vicinity of the shade-tree was deeply fragrant of Halivarri scent-marks. I was feeling dopey and Iawrrl was looking smug.

"So we just tell them that Sky Range looked good for our purposes, and we picked up your 'scope when we were scanning for a landing site, read you as Guides, and thought you might want to help, in exchange for us shutting down your star-watch so it didn't fuck Seeker's readings," Iawrrl was saying. "We just never explained - are not at liberty to divulge - exactly what kind of scouting we're doing as a favor for Space Command. Sound legit?"

Dani nodded. What we'd taken for a food-cache yesterday was actually a pretty impressive amateur optical/radio telescope, that the boys had built together over the previous season, and had even won a regional science fair with. These two were actually starting to look like real potential Scout material.

"Exactly the sort of thing Guides protocols ask us to assist with. We'd have jumped at the chance to help out," Dani agreed.

"We did jump at the chance," Tobi observed.

"And took the opportunity to submit applications to the Scout Service, and asked if you two had time for a show and tell at the Aerodrome," finished Dani, looking to me and to Iawrrl. We nodded.

The Imperium is really just one big bureaucracy, about a thousand years old in its current iteration. That is to say, by now a standardized form exists for just about any conceivable contingency. It had taken me maybe five minutes to find the one for field enlistment of secondary students in their final year, who were citizens of a foreign polity with established consular ties to the Imperium, being recruited by warranted IISSCC operatives.

Best of all, since they'd established a pairbond, by Halivarri custom they didn't actually require parental consent, only each other's. But good manners dictated that we at least make a formal request, so everything was on the up and up.

Likewise, legally, they could simply ditch their schooling, but it would be out of character for either of them. And, since Idavanska Dasker - who as it turned out has an advanced degree in cybernetics - had been the academic advisor on their telescope project, shaking hands and making nice with the local lyceum school would give us our introduction to Hali's folks.

We'd file the paperwork formally through the school, who would send it by courier to Halivarr Downport, where it would be sorted into a mail-sack, unread, and shipped by slow boat to Satevis, arriving in about sixteen weeks if they hurried.

"So that just leaves arranging things with the Guides," I said. "By the way, with Hali offworld, who would we talk to? Who's Guide Leader for your troop these days?"

Tobi just gave me a look very much like what crosses Iawrrl's face before he calls me a dumb Donk.

Dani smiled thinly. "That would be me, Sir."

* * *

We took the little airsled Seeker carries as a runabout down to the trailhead, and swung around the ring-road to the ranger station. We picked up the tab for Tobi and Dani's week, paid the deposit to keep the site for another, signed papers affirming dark-sky preserve rules we agreed to obey, and paid a fine for the ones we'd already broken with our light-show, the previous morning.

From here, after a brief consultation with our helpful local Guides, we headed off down a canyon ravine along a rocky stream-bed with me (the pilot) hot-dogging a bit by slaloming the airsled around big rocks and sharp turns, though the grav cushion otherwise made it an easy ride, and out into the agricultural zone beyond.

Most Scouts, or any seasoned spacefarer, will hear "agricultural world" and inwardly groan. Nineteen out of twenty are the same flat, dreary grid of monoculture fields with big, slow, ugly robot combines rolling around, punctuated by the occasional silo, and settlements that roll up the sidewalks at sundown. These worlds are essentially factories, growing food to supply more populous, less arable planets, not to mention space habitats and starfleets.

Halivarr's agricultural zones aren't like that at all. The terrain is softly rolling, belts of trees following streambeds, and roadways that curve among the hills rather than imposing a right-angled grid. Crops are varied. You may see whole hills of wheat or barley here and there, but most fields were plowed in strips, following the contours of the land, with colorfully varied crops arrayed neatly along each, chosen for returning nutrients adjacent plants depleted, or because they had a symbiotic way of making other nearby crops more flavorful.

Small settlements, with equipment repair depots, specialty goods stores, pubs, primary schools, and workshops, nestled around small, tidy parks at intersections. Halivarri architecture likes a lot of round-topped arches, wooden beams, homey sandstone, stucco, and tiled roofs sprouting off at odd heights and angles, with plenty of ornamental plants along railings and under windows. We didn't see any slums, or even litter.

We weren't sightseeing, though. The boys, hearing we wanted to reprovision and heartily approving (no one would order a helping of ship's bread as a treat) had both agreed we wanted a farmers' market, not a grocery store in a bigger town. We got directions from a pair of very old Halivarri gaffers, patiently restoring an equally old, open-bed ground-truck under the shade of a tree by a fueling depot, and found the place in another ten minutes.

Iawrrl (supply & logistics) went off to do the shopping - we had confirmed that Imperium credit would work just fine - and Dani advised him to take Tobi with him, and rely on his expertise. Tobi's folks run a popular, fancy restaurant and have for generations, apparently. Not what he wants to do with his life, but there was nothing he didn't know about local meats and produce. They'd signal us when they were ready for help loading.

* * *

I tilted the seat back, opened an arm along the backrest, and silently invited Dani to cuddle up. He silently accepted, and ended up half-straddling my lap, head nested on my shoulder to sample the scent under my outstreched arm. My other hand found the seat of his trunks, and started idly playing along the snug rear seam. He spread his legs to make his ass more available and nuzzled deeper into my underarm, hiding a blush. (Hot ears, okay?)

"Langrr?" Not Sir. I didn't insist, just slid a thumb along his cleft to the base of his tail, then down again to find the trainer-bead and stroke it slowly. "Why haven't you or Iawrrl fucked us yet?"

"Well," I said actually considering the answer, "mostly, because we aren't rapists, Dani. And also, taking it slow can be fun. Also, we wanted to assure there were no reactions or bad effects from the medicals." Had to let them know, sometime.

"Wait, you mean..." He started to sit up. I eased him back down.

"Everything we know, from a source of the highest repute, about assuring Halivarri boys, just bonded, aren't hurt or over-stimulated from being around big, pushy, horny Vargyr." I nodded. "Since we fed you breakfast, yesterday morning. How do you feel? How did you sleep?"

"I slept great," he admitted. "I feel great. It's just..."

"Nothing we've got, for what it's worth, would make you a different person. Or do things you don't wish to do," I explained. "Even the scent-awareness stuff just allows you to interpret Seeker's scent-marks like we do, like a translator unit."

"Oh. That's on purpose? We kind of thought it had to be." Hot ears. My hand on his ass rocked him slowly, prolonging an instinctive buck of his hard sex against me into a slow hump.

"We had to pass the time somehow, Dani. Iawrrl and I had been stuck on Phojla so long, things had gotten stale. I set out to get his motor running, on purpose." A sly grin from me. a dubious eyebrow from him. "For what it's worth, it worked."

"But if neither of you is a medic..." He began again, looked around us (parked in the shade of a tree, market-goers passing a few meters away, not giving us any notice) and trailed off again.

"If you or Tobi have so much as a runny poop, I promise we'll have Seeker's medbot run a full diagnostic, and determine appropriate treatment."

"Not my concern," he said, brushing it aside and then changing the topic. "Why do you let Iawrrl treat you like that? Sir?"

"Like what?" I asked. "We've known each other a long time. We're very, very good friends."

"He calls you a dumb Donk!" It was cute how miffed he was prepared to get on my behalf. I gave his butt a soft squeeze.

"Oh, that," I said. "That's a Vargyr thing. Dominance. Asserting it's his right to be in charge. He knows I'm not dumb. Neither is he, by the way. It's all performative. And, to me anyway, a turn-on, because I know it means he's happy to top me, in bed, and I like that."

"So it's an act?" He got it, about as well as a 'Lifted who isn't Vargyr can.

"It's all an act - a role, defined by our breed's social dynamic. But also, he's right - I do get muddle-headed when I fixate on sex. Which he finds kinda hot, getting me like that, which makes him cocky, which makes me hot for him."

"Vargyr are weird," Dani decided. "Sexy, but weird."

"Oh, so you do think we're sexy?" I teased.

Dani sat up, straddled my hips completely, grabbed me by the harness with both hands and sat his cute caboose right down on my junk, looking me dead in the eye. (Dani has very pretty eyes - green-flecked gold.)

"When we get back to Seeker," he said in his steady, level voice, "Tobi and I intend to make it perfectly clear just how sexy we think you two are. With your permission. Sir."

"Permission granted, cadet."

* * *

After we'd loaded the airsled with all the provender Tobi and Iawrrl had procured - fresh, plentiful, varied, and surprisingly inexpensive, bought as it was direct from the growers - I took the sled straight up to five meters above the elevation of the Sky Range plateau, and told the autopilot to fly us by the most direct path back to Seeker's coords.

Dani's proposition frankly had me a little too loopy to reliably pilot, from a strict flight safety perspective, and this way, we could chat more easily. It was a little cooler, up here at altitude, but the boys seemed happy to let Iawrrl and I make up the difference sharing body-heat.

Iawrrl surprised all of us by actually thanking Tobi for his assistance at the market, so I infer he had in fact proven to be not just helpful, but invaluable in securing our resupply. For my part, I asked them some fairly technical questions about their telescope, and received insightful replies about clever ways they'd left the door open to various modular improvements.

I found myself offering to share duplicate parts and odd bits I had squirreled away on Seeker. Iawrrl mentioned that he thought it should be possible to mount the scope on Seeker's dorsal hull, behind the cockpit, where a second turret would be mounted, if we'd had more than just the ventral gun (Scout craft are pretty minimally armed).

"Let's make that happen before our show and tell," I said. "It can be our main theme, the showpiece."

"Seriously?" asked Tobi, looking pleased.

"I like it," said Iawrrl. "It makes you two the stars, your educators can milk it for funding and recognition, and it keeps Langrr and I more in the background. Also, I like welding. What do you say boys? It's your scope."

"Totally," said Dani. "That'd be cool. Thank you so much, Sirs."

We had individually realized, in our own ways, that beyond just thinking of them as desirable, sexually - which, don't get me wrong, they absolutely were and still are - we liked these kids. They were smart, helpful, funny, curious and resourceful. We'd been stuck out on our own so long, we'd forgotten what it was like to have friends.

We hadn't done much more so far than have a campfire and a sleepover with them yet, but just having them around for company, this trip had already been the most fun either of us had had in years. Actually saying so - especially for Iawrrl - would take longer. But we knew it by then. And that's not something that's changed.

So when I go on about just how much we enjoy fucking around with them, because we do, and I will, try to keep that in mind.

* * *

We drove the sled right up onto its lift, and Dani had it connected to its charger before we'd been hoisted into Seeker's hold. Iawrrl supervised the unloading, with Tobi advising on which goods needed a cold box, which were shelf-stable, and which would improve over time in a UV bin for further ripening.

"Looks awfully good, but I don't know where to begin, cooking half of this stuff," I said a little dubiously.

"Oh, I do." Tobi piped up. "None of it's hard. Dani's not a bad cook either when he pays attention."

"I thought you didn't like to cook," said Iawrrl.

"Oh, no. I love to cook. I just don't want to work in a restaurant. That's a whole other deal."

"Well, that's great, if you really don't mind being stuck in Seeker's galley. It's small."

"I'm small," observed Tobi. "Anyway, it's better than your fresher." Fair.

"Alright, cadet. Consider yourself assigned. If you need a spare hand, you can have Dani. If you need a day off, we can get by on box meals or take our chances with Langrr's cooking or - Maker help you - mine. Sound fair?"

"Happy to do my part, Sirs."

* * *

As Tobi was prepping our dinner, showing more confidence than I'd yet seen him display, Dani cornered Iawrrl and I on the couch, asking if it were safe to talk, Sirs.

"What do you mean, safe?" asked Iawrrl. I was none the wiser.

Dani showed real restraint by not rolling his eyes at our obtuseness, and started spelling out in hand-sign. It took us a moment to catch up. We knew it from our Academy days, but hadn't used it much since. Vargyr hand-paws are bad at it. So we had him slow down: G-V-A-D-A-K...

"Oh! That's what you wouldn't mention, earlier. Good boy! But no, we're clear," I affirmed. "What's on your mind?"

"I can't get it to add up," he said, unburdening himself. "If Hali wasn't coming out to Phojla after all, because he'd joined the crew on the You Know What, why send you his medicals? Especially if neither of you is a medic? Sirs."

"Well, that is a puzzle to us, too," I admitted, "if it makes you feel any better. But the part of the picture we have that so far we hadn't disclosed to you - no call to that we could see - is that Phojla Station was just keyed to receive a phantom signal, duplicate data when it's big hyperwave relays transmitted it on to its designated recipient. Intercept wasn't even encrypted - for me, anyway."

"Designated recipient," Dani said. "Any clue who that was?"

"Oh yes - plain as anything in my intercepts. But fair warning, it only makes it more of a puzzle."

"Consider me warned, Sir."

"Hyperwave was going way out there, long span. To the Rakasha Science Academy, Rakashabad, Twelve Worlds. Seems the Chief Medical Officer looking after your friend's adaptation is a big deal Rakasha scientist, one Courangara Ialdabaoth-Bose. We can only surmise he has his reasons for wanting us - me - to know Hali's status. What those may be, we can only guess."

"Wait. Rakasha? Seriously?" He studied Iawrrl and I closely to gauge whether we were putting him on. "They're real? I thought they were just stories..."

"Wizards," said Tobi - the galley was pretty much right next to us.

"Demons," said Dani.

"They're Psions," I said. "But apparently your schools pull enough Imperium subsidies that their curriculum prefers not to acknowledge that Psi ability is real." Iawrrl nodded. "Really super rare, among Vargyr, but we get occasional mystics or seers. We've met a couple, and weren't much impressed." Iawrrl nodded again.

"Rakasha are different. Our stories say they were uplifted like that. Anyway, it's science, to them, and it and they are plenty real. The intercepts make it plain that this Courangara is wicked fucking smart but other than that we don't know much about them, and nothing about him. Just driftspace traveller's tales you pick up in spaceport bars."

"When you aren't in sketchy, back room glory holes, swapping around 'Varri boys and gang-fucking them?" asked Tobi. Iawrrl laughed. Dani looked shocked. I petted his bare back just above the tail and he relaxed against me.

"Not our scene. We like to keep it personal. But anyway," I concluded, "we didn't bring it up because it doesn't matter to our reason for being out here, and we don't have any firm answers. Just more questions. But you two are welcome to wonder about them with us, if you like. Now," I said, eager to change the subject, "what's for supper?"

* * *

Halivarri provincial cuisine favors fairly small servings of about a half dozen courses, not spicy-hot, but seasoned and savory, with nuanced, complementary flavors and textures. Iawrrl and I might have preferred more meat in the selection, but all of it was usefully nutritious and digestible for us, and all of it was tasty. The only thing that kept us from literally licking our trays - because table manners wouldn't have, it was that good - was a final course, of little bread rolls, slightly sweet, perfect for wiping up juices.

I felt bad for the sad scalliots I had clumsily pan-fried the previous morning, but vocally settled for praising Tobi's cooking instead. "That was really good, Tobi. I bet you could serve this at any resort on the planet." I saluted with my beer glass (pints for us, half-pints for the boys. There's only so much fun to be had watching them pee down a wall).

The boys shared a private look, obviously biting back some smart-ass remark.

"Okay, share the joke, you two."

Tobi took a minute to choose his words. "You couldn't know, Sir. But that's just a very, very Offworlder thing to say."

Dani clarified. "Resorts pay Tobi's mom and dad to train their chefs for them. A dish-washer from their kitchen could be a shift manager at any resort in the tourist belt the day they walked in the door."

Tobi nodded. "Island food is really basic - fruit, tubers, fish, maybe wildfowl, or pit-roasted meats, on bigger islands. Resorts will serve that at a beach party sort of event, for maybe one night a week, for those who want the whole slack-string guitar, bamboo torches and boys in grass skirts with flowers in their hair kind of show."

"So corny, and not actually native," said Dani.

"The cooking is authentic, but nothing at all special if you take away the hokey tropical backdrop. So the top resorts hire from elsewhere on Halivarr - or, like Dani says, send their chefs to us."

"Point taken. This is still one of the best meals we've had in, how long would you say, Iawrrl? Since where? Plaisance?"

Iawrrl shook his head. "Ever. Period."

I considered, and agreed. "Yeah, I think you're right."

"I'm not done yet. This isn't going to be an everyday thing, but I made something special," said Tobi. "Dani, can you make some space?"

Dani efficiently cleared our empty dishes into the sanitizer and then, mysteriously, dimmed the cabin lights a little past half-way to dark.

I didn't recognize the confection, and can't recall what it's called, but Tobi brought out what was essentially a baked, flaky, pastry tray of sliced, pale fruit alternated with slices of a soft, sweet cheese that has just a hint of a bite on the tongue, and crisp, plump, Halivarri scalliots between every other slice.

In the center was some kind of heavily alcoholic sauce that he set on fire as he placed before us with a flourish.

Apparently, this was a special celebratory dish served only on big, family occasions - the naming of a first child, landmark anniversaries, and so on. Tobi had promised to make it for Dani, in celebration of their pairbond.

"Family dish? You serve that to children?" asked Iawrrl, eyeing the mood-setting shoots.

"Scalliots just make littles sleepy," said Tobi.

"So they don't wander into the bedroom, wanting a glass of water at an awkward moment," Dani added.

"The idea from olden times with this was to have another baby on the way by morning." Tobi said.

"So, family dish," said Dani with a nod.

"I thought my first meal in Seeker's galley also counted. Anyway, we wanted you two to share this," explained Tobi, looking bashful again.

Dani took his hands. "Make a wish before the flames go out, but don't tell."

I reached for Iawrrl's hand and he smacked mine, irritably. I gave him a hurt look, and he rolled his eyes with his entire head, but took it. I made a wish. No, I'm not telling. Dani said not to.

* * *

"Have you two travelled a lot? Sirs?" asked Dani. We were picking at the last of the whatever-it-was, and chatting amiably.

"Fair bit, over three, four years. Lately, not so much."

"This is our first trip in ages," I said. "And even the little bit of Halivarr we've seen is well worth seeing."

"I wouldn't trade this plateau or that farm-country for the tropics," Iawrrl agreed. "You boys get homesick, well, I'll bitch you out for it because that's my job, but really, both of us would be happy to visit again as often as we can."

I said, "Now who's the big softy?" leaning in to sniff at his neck.

"Fuck you," said Iawrrl.

"In front of the cadets?" I returned, feigning scandal.

"They were warned." Fair.

"How'd you two meet, anyway? Sirs?" asked Tobi, watching us clown around.

"Bar fight," said Iawrrl.

"Jail," I said.

"C'mon. Be serious. I want to hear!" insisted Tobi.

"Bar fight, first, jail afterwards," I said. "It's a long story. Scout Academy can be rough on 'Lifted. Iawrrl thought I needed back-up, and after that fight, I was inclined to accept it."

"He was better company in a small cell than the Human who they had me roomed with, so we requested a unit together. Academy figured fewer fights were better, and went along," finished Iawrrl.

"I think there's way more to the story than that," said Tobi.

"Totally," said Dani.

"You're right, there is," said Iawrrl. "Ask us again some time when we've had more to drink. Maybe we'll tell you."

"How drunk do we have to get you?" asked Tobi.

"For that story?" I asked. "Pretty drunk."

"And make it the good stuff," said Iawrrl.

* * *

Tobi cleared the empty dish to the sanitizer and Dani brought a little tray of warm, wet hand-cloths, smelling lightly of citrus, that he handed around so we could get the last of the sticky stuff off our face-fur and paws.

Tobi lowered the table. Dani levered the bunk down. Iawrrl and I sprawled there feeling wonderfully relaxed. The boys shared a grin I can only describe as "impish" and wormed their way in between us.

"A baby on the way by morning?" Iawrrl asked, wrapping an arm around Tobi to pat his belly fur.

"You can try if you like," said Tobi. Iawrrl laughed.

Dani's hand met Iawrrl's on Tobi's midriff. I realized it was the first time I'd seen the more independent boy approach him.

"If you'll notice, Sir," he said with his grave little voice, "we aren't sleepy."

Seeker's cabin was pleasantly dim - no one had wanted to bring the lights back up - and the only light leaking in from the cockpit canopy was the last blue gleam of Halivarr's evening twilight. I fumbled around with the hand that wasn't making itself cozy exploring Dani's fun zone until I found the button that rolled back the cabin dome so that the Halivarri sky, stars just emerging among high wisps of sunset-colored clouds, shone through the clear plass canopy above.

"I hope you boys have thought this through," Iawrrl was saying.

"You told us to, when we went to sleep last night!" Fair.

"Sirs," said Dani, "We aren't kids. We're bonded. And we aren't dumb, and we aren't blind. We know you've been checking us out - we like it! We like you."

"I can't say you're wrong, Dani," I said. "For my part, I've tried to be clear we both think both of you are sexy as hell. But you've only just met us. We don't want to rush you into anything, is all."

"You were pretty clever about rushing us onto Seeker in our underpants," said Dani. "But you haven't pushed since." He'd gotten a hand up under Iawrrl's harness and tank-top to explore the muscles under his fur. "It's been two whole days," he went on. "Days, if I may remind you, Sirs, that I had planned to spend with Tobi. You know what we came out here for."

"Just lying around all day," chimed in Tobi, "tongue-kissing each other's buttholes." Iawrrl snorted.

"Pairbond happens once for us," Dani went on. "Traditionally, it's when we watch for a sign, a purpose. We came up here, with our scope, because we were looking for that and, well..." He trailed off.

"And then we two drop out of the sky, right on your front door, and you think you've found it?" I ventured.

Dani looked at Tobi, who nodded. "Yes, Sirs. We think we have."

"All that woo-woo aside," Iawrrl asked, after this had hung in the air a minute, giving us a bit of an uncanny feeling like their bond tends to, "what have the two of you actually done? What would you like to do?"

"Tongue-kissing, yes," said Tobi playfully, "buttholes, no. Though after seeing those two Donk guys in Langrr's holozine? I'm up for it."

"More than handsies together," said Dani, "or, you know, for each other. I mean, we've done that plenty. We suck dick, and like it, and like being sucked. I've fucked Tobi, and that works for us. He tried fucking me but I couldn't get the hang of it - it didn't feel good, for either of us. Um... tell me if this is too much."

"Sounds like you just need help relaxing," said Iawrrl. "And no - that's the kind of stuff I was curious about. I'm usually on top, when it comes to fucking - but not always. I had to learn to relax, too. Langrr was really patient."

"The tongue-kissing of buttholes is a useful art," I offered. "But what, specifically, are you hoping to do with us two? Any requests?"

Tobi had one. "We'd like to see your knots, see what you have, Sirs." Dani nodded.

"We've only seen, you know, drawings. And read stories, on Lifty, you know, to jerk off with."

"So just for starters, we'd like to see them," said Tobi.

"And touch them," added Dani. I petted his ears. Yep, hot.

"Taste them!" said Tobi, and laughed.

"Well, alright. But let's not go and get cum all over perfectly good clothes that are still new," said Iawrrl, going all Supply Officer.

"So, what say we take a break, piss if you've got to, and we can all get undressed and our uniforms folded and stowed. Like Scouts. Then, if you like, you can check out what we've got. Langrr and I wouldn't mind more of a tour than I got with my stringtape, the other day, ourselves. Sound good?" It did.

* * *

The boys helped us undress, significantly complicating matters from a strict, clothing-removal perspective, but with lots of intentional, exploratory body contact which we were more than happy to let them prolong. For our part, we copped the occasional feel but mostly enjoyed sampling upper-body scent areas with our muzzles, without feeling the need to pretend we weren't.

I watched Dani knead at Iawrr's big, meaty glutes on his way to unhitching the tail-rig of his harness while my mate nuzzled all around his neck, then intentionally press his sex, stiff in the taut pouch of his trunks, along Iawrrl's thigh as his hands measured the girth of Iawrrl's toned, solid waist.

"Nice, isn't it," I murmured into the ear Iawrrl wasn't nuzzling at, while Tobi, nominally taking my shirt off, was busy discovering that, yes, male Vargyr do have nipples, if you can get deep enough into our chest fur. This was not my usual response to someone else pawing around on my mate. But the scents, the scalliots, and the way Tobi was sliding himself around on me made it more than okay.

"Totally." Dani lifted the harness off, Iawrrl ducking out to slide his muzzle under Dani's upraised arm, and Dani steadied against his neck and shoulder to let him. "How do we smell?"

"You boys smell fucking great," said Iawrrl. "You smell like you are, Dani - healthy, eager, able - and a leadership note that, fair warning, makes us want to make you fall in line. I have a big mouth. That's in me like your 'Varri responses are in you. It's not personal."

"Langrr explained, some." Dani nodded.

"Well he'd fucking well know," said Iawrrl. "Now shuck those trunks so we can get on to the fun part." Tobi was already tugging at mine with his teeth. I petted his ears, and then helped him help me out of them.

We stripped & clipped, and I hung our gear from the valve conduit. It sounds fussy, but it's the only way to live on a small craft. We'd work a more permanent arrangement before we hit open space. This was fine, for groundside.

As always, the boys smelled more than twice as good, naked. Upper body scent tells one story. These boys were really packing below the belt. Tobi's was enticing, teasing and elusive. He was already drawing out Iawrrl's slightly pushy protective streak, which I was surprised to find I didn't resent. Nothing on him smelled like competition - just good times waiting to be discovered, if you liked surprises and had a sense of humor. My pack-brain had him sorted, now, as "the Smart-Ass Runt."

Dani's undertail scent is indescribable. To a Vargyr, it smelled of dominance trembling to surrender into submission, an aspiration I was happy to indulge. Iawrrl was right - I could handle this, patiently. If I could show him how to enjoy something he thought he had failed at, I knew full well he'd have more self-confidence, not less, and be coming back for more whenever he needed a little self-esteem.

The trainer bead in his trunks would help. So would Tobi, who I knew was already more than curious to get his tongue up in there, if it could make Dani feel good. But Tobi was distracted checking out Iawrrl, who was huffing his crotch for a change. I caught Dani watching them a bit pensively.

"He won't hurt him." My most reassuring tone as I leaned my muzzle against Dani's neck. He leaned back into me.

"Oh, I know." I ruffled his soft fur from belly to chest to make our scents mingle.

"Deep thoughts later. I thought you wanted to check out my stuff? Tell you what, I'll shift around so you can keep an eye on him while you do it, okay?"

* * *

He let me hoist him onto me by his hips, so his cock was buried in my chest-fur, and his knees over my shoulders, and he spread him self all down me to get both hands around my dick, with his face all up against it, tasting my pre with little flicks of his tongue.

And at my end or, rather, his I was finally shoving my muzzle where I'd wanted to put it all along. I felt his hot little ring shiver as I breathed across it as I spoke. "Good boy."

I could feel him holding onto a lot of muscular tension, his need to do the right thing keyed up by four days off the moorings of his established and familiar routines. So I eased and kneaded his shoulders and neck with a warm, friendly paw guiding his soft-furred face all along the length of my cock, and stroked down to scratch just above the base of his tail to make him shiver and buck his own sticky sex deeper into my chest fur.

I knew we'd done the right thing by letting them come to us, and for having it happen here on Seeker, deep with the dank, musky, male den-scent that Iawrrl and I had curated aboard during our whole journey out here. Their own scents - achingly eager, lighter, subtly submissive but no less male - mingled in a way Iawrrl and I found deeply satisfying and right.

It was with this in mind that I found myself coaching Dani in a low, soft growl spoken warmly under his tail, confident he was listening as intently as he always does. "You like that, Dani? How big and hard you get me with the scent of you down here? I want you to make yourself real familiar with the sight, scent and taste of me, and I'm going to show you where you'll be learning to like it best."

He shivered, thrust into my fur where he was soaking it slick from the sap he was seeping, and I gave his snug little bud a slow, circling lick to make my point clear. He arched instinctively, spreading himself wider. "Good boy." I felt his cock throb at the praise.

"Now you were asking about knots, Dani?" I continued. "Mine's awful full, now, stretching out my sheath - that's right, right there," I said, as one hand gently played over the soft fur deliciously snug where I was filling it completely. "You want to see it, though, you're going to need to slide me back real gently, and you aren't going to use your hands, Dani." He made a little urgent sound between a whine and a purr, and I soothed him down again, and gave his ring another slow lap, right across.

"That's right, Dani - you're going to what you're told, and use your mouth," I explained. "Your lips and your tongue - no teeth." I bared mine, not to bite but just to press my uppers and lowers firm against him, above and below his snug pucker as I plied the tip of my tongue against it, huffed a hot breath against the wetness there. "You just take all the time you need, working me out of my sheath. Give Tobi and Iawrrl a good show."

I'd given him a challenging task - I usually need my whole hand, gripping all the way around, to peel myself back when I knot up this much inside. His lips and tongue would be busy for a while. I turned my attention to his tight, tense hole, setting myself to easing him, teasing him open until his tightness tendered under my tongue.

Halivarri are wonderfully responsive. Their expressive ears and tails are only the most obvious signals. In close contact, every sensation, ever reaction is conveyed through body posture, involuntarily vocalizations, even how their fur ripples with little shivers. I used all of that to school myself in Dani's needs as I worked my tongue deeper, withdrew to bristle across him with the stiff little whiskers below my lower lip, circling again slowly.

He had one hand on my shaft, cradling it against his soft cheek while his soft mouth gently wrested all around the slick skin and sticky fur at my root, his other hand just cupping my sack tenderly, sliding beneath to finger the fur of my taint. I lifted, shifted and spread myself beneath him so a shy finger-tip could seek and find my own hot, sticky ring below.

"Good boy," I said, and plunged my tongue deep, feeling him press back with a wriggle, moaning into my sheath as it slipped back up, shivering as his tongue plied in to slide it back again. My hand on his neck gave an encouraging squeeze.

When he had succeeded, and his tongue was freely swabbing my knot as his lips closed around it with soft suction to make my cock seep and dribble behind his ear, I rewarded him by firming my own tongue to ram a spot inside him, feeling how it made his cock throb against me in its slick-sticky nest of warm fur. Plied, pressed and teased there, gently, insistently nudging him over the brink until I felt the hot jet of his cum spraying against me.

His climax pulled his ring taut again as pelvic muscles contracted to shoot two pent-up days worth of his sweet-scented spunk between us, forcing my tongue out to an entrance clenched shut against me. But I didn't stop. I simply began again as he rode out the surge and crash of his release, easing him through the aftershocks with slow, soft laps, the gentlest nips of grazing tooth-tips, hot breaths and cool inhalations against wet shivering, sentized skin, until I'd eased him open, tender, yielding to me again.

When his breath had steadied, I gave his shoulder a soft pat, and eased him off of my knot. I didn't want to cum, myself. Not yet. I was only faintly aware of Tobi and Iawrrl, close as they were - gruff encouragement, punctuated by spontaneous laughter, from one, happy noises and happily surprised ones from the other. But knowing they were there was satisfying.

I stroked Dani's hot ears as he gave my slick tip a little kiss on his way past. I lifted his knees down and turned him around to straddle my lap and I brought his lips to mine, feeling his sated cock stiffen anew as he tasted his own ass on my tongue.

I broke the kiss, holding him against the sodden mess his prolonged release had made of my torso. "You think that let you have a good chance to meet my knot, Dani? I hope you liked that."

"Totally." His voice caught as I moved to slide my full sex along his cleft slowly. "Sir?"

"Easy there, cadet. You should know by now it isn't my way to force things," I said soothingly. "But I haven't cum yet, and I assuredly intend to - in you or on you, Dani - fair's fair." He snuggled himself into my sticky pelt, relaxing again. "But there's lots of ways to go about it, that doesn't involve knotting you. I'd rather you are free to disengage, if it gets uncomfortable, as you learn to enjoy yourself back there, okay?"

"Yes, Sir." I felt him relax further, tense again as my slick tip plucked at his bud, then let himself relax again as it just idled there, making him slick where his ring shivered at its heat. I resumed the slow, patient teasing he'd learned to trust from my tongue, this time just using the tapered end of my seeping cock.

I bent my head to speak right against one hot ear in my most confidential tone. "Some nights, this is all Iawrrl will let me have, from dusk to dawn, slipping away if I try to press back in my sleep. So better believe I know how this feels. How do you think that would be? We don't have to go any further. I can carry on like this all night." I already had him arching and squirming, trying to match my pace, slipping in a bit more tip before plucking it free again. "You like that?"

"Yes, Sir." His bud quivered, tried to grasp my tip only for it to slip slicky away. "But I can't keep still. I feel all..."

"Hush." I stroked and soothed down his back. "Told you, Dani - I know how it feels. I do. So nice, hmm?" I slid and plied, plucked and strummed lazily until I had him virtually purring, cock stiff against me and starting to leak. "But there's that spot, inside, isn't there? Waking up, getting fussy. That place up in there I had to use my whole tongue to reach. You know the one?"

"Yes, Sir." I rewarded him with an entire thickening inch slipping in, only for it to slip out again as he tensed with a shiver.

"Well, just my tip, out here like this, can never reach there, can it, Dani?" I resumed teasing again, slowly, patienly painting all around his ring.

"No, Sir." His hips arched back and he spread his legs wider, the shift in position dragging his stiff sex through soft, slicked belly fur.

"You want to reach that spot now, what is it you need? Do you know?" That first full inch again, held there as I let him find his answer, withdrawn only to return it again as he replied.

"Yes, Sir." I hadn't thought that his scent could become more complex and alluring, but it was. I knew what he wanted. So did he. But his scent told me that he needed to say it.

An inch and a half, just to where the taper opened to my full upper girth. Then out again, teasing with the tip, starting the whole, slow dance again. "Tell me, then."

"Your cock, Sir." His ears were burning, and his cock throbbed in time to the beat of his heart. "I need you to fuck me. I need you to make me cum with your cock, Sir."

"Good boy." He shivered. I gave him the first inch again, teased at offering more. "But you should know that if you do cum, with me inside you, your whole snug little burrow wrapped around me as I find that spot you like..." He started to press back, and I let him, for a moment, pulled back before he could enforld me. "That just might make me cum, too. Deep inside you. You think that's still something you'd want?

He nodded urgently, but couldn't find words. I didn't press for them. I didn't know where his tolerances lay before his senses overloaded, and I didn't want to take him there, now.

"Good boy." An inch, another, and a pause. "At your pace, then, Dani. I won't pull away this time." Kneading his shoulders, soothing his back. "Just ease on back if you like."

He liked. With his first, urgent climax past, and my patience easing him open, Dani's innate, sensual instincts took hold, and he sank himself with a little sound of wordless pleasure back onto my full length in a single, supple, gliding motion until the soft fur of my sheathed knot softly scoured his ring.

I rolled my hips, to change my inward angle against his silken grip, pressing where he needed it. "Good boy." I rocked slowly, letting his Halivarri nature teach him the use of inner muscles to grip and stroke me. "Sit up," I coached. "Lean back, I'll hold you. But keep going. I want to see you shoot for me. I want to see you like it."

I made a backrest of my thighs and another of my arms. I couldn't hope to support Iawrrl this way for long at all, but Dani was managable. I didn't expect him to need long. He didn't.

As soon as I had leaned him back, he found the advantage the posture offered in letting him direct how my cock fit inside him, and he began to lift, then lower himself. Once, again, finding his rhythm. Instincts helped, but I could see, from the focussed way his eyes met mine that he was doing this deliberately, intentionally, with fierce pride as he rode down me to the top of my knot, shivered, gripped, and loosed a glittering fountain. "Good boy."

As he did, I took up the pace he had set, deep thrusts lifting my hips, prolonging his release so that it milked at my length. His cum drummed audibly when the first jet struck him, from navel to chin. I drove again, found that spot to coax out another. His eyes lost focus as I sought to draw out a third, and this one I shared with him.

I hadn't cum since before Iawrrl and I had entered Halivarri orbit, three nights ago. I was ready to match and surpass him, my initial release triggering yet another jet. He leaned forward again, and rode it out, until I lay back as well, spent, still lodged inside him.

* * *

From the other end of the bunk, slow applause. By now, I later learned, Iawrrl had teased three separate climaxes from Tobi, as he'd slowly, tortuously worked one big one from Iawrrl. They'd been contentedly observing us, whispering to each other, for a while.

Tomorrow, we would take the airsled to the public wash house at the ranger station - the boys objected to using our own fresher for washing - and make ourselves more presentable for the public. But tonight, Iawrrl and I wanted the boys to baste in the scents we'd built together, and learn to identify them with security, and comfort, and satiety, and home.

* * *