Duval Dirtbag

The Stray

Chapter 42 - Torn Between Worlds (Pheromones)

“Trees, huh?” Rachel asked rhetorically. She lounged on her full sized bed in a silk kimono that seemed to be the bedtime fashion for fuller bodied women. Her prosthetic arm hung from a hook on the wall of the bedroom she was sharing with Finley. It seemed glossy, like a snakeskin ornament, reflecting the morning’s rays from where it hung. She signed TREE absentmindedly with the stump of her right arm. No one would know what she was doing, but muscle memory was muscle memory, even if the muscles were gone. Call it phantom muscle memory. She looked at the arm that wasn’t there and faced the reality that it wasn’t there. Again. She took her left hand and felt the stump of her right arm.

The skin was smooth now, though there were some calluses from where the prosthetic came in contact with it and where its straps went up her right arm and around her back and chest to keep it in place. It had been raw, then scabbed over, but now it was smooth–not healed, it didn’t look like the skin of the rest of her, it was lighter and had varying degrees of thinness. But it was smooth now up until the hard core of bone where there was what was left of her humerous. She rubbed at the bone and played with the different textures of bone, fat and muscle in her stump. She became angry, again, at her loss. Then she looked over at Finley and thought about what she did have.

Again she signed TREE, this time with her left hand up in the air where her elbow represented the base of the tree and her outstretched fingers were the tree’s branches. She looked again at Finley and balled her fingers into a fist. She smirked at how her “tree” had become the sign for “erection” when she thought of Finley. In her processing of what Finley had told her between sexual forays, the covers had fallen off of her. She bent over to grab at the covers. She pulled the covers up over her knees but when she laid back down on the bed she’d found the motion had opened her kimono and left her completely uncovered. She covered back up then flirtily slid the silken fabric over her bosom enough to feel her nipple harden. She knew revealing herself in this way would get Finley going. “I wouldn’t mind seeing your redwood again.”

Finley looked dozily at the wrinkled tower of Rachel’s breast. He was tired but the twitch of his penis came unbidden. Finley had been an undercover agent of the Armored Aurors for a long time. Keeping that and his hatred for the Shil’vati inside had given him chronic fits of fasciculation. However, he was now in a safe house provided by Rachel and her rebel friends which included a large number of veterans in Daytona Beach Florida. He’d been able to unleash what he knew to these rebels and thus form a bond between the rebels in space and the rebels on Earth. They all already hated the Shil’vati. Finley was able to relax for the first time in a long time. His nervous twitching had stopped. It hadn’t stopped Rachel from making his member twitch. Through heavy lidded eyes he smirked at her. “Oh yeah?”

Rachel smiled her angelic smile back at Finley. “If you’re up for it.”

Finley hadn’t had any action in who knows how long and couldn’t let his own personal pride down. Besides, he was a man on the run, who knew how long this peace would last for him? He reached down for the base of his penis and gave it a squeeze, encouraging blood to return. Once it was turgid enough for his satisfaction he pulled it out from under the cover. Still slick from the rest of the morning’s relations, his red rocket shined in the scant sunlight that came in through the closed blinds of the bedroom window.

Rachel’s angelic smile broadened. “You look ready to me!” She pounced at his erection, kissing the base and licking up the side. She grabbed it and tapped it against her cheek, smiling lasciviously. She giggled and pressed it against the side of her head while she kissed the bare, pink-tinged skin of his underbelly. She kissed up to his rib cage then lifted herself up over him. She straddled him, placing his hardness between her lips but not into her. Her pendulous breasts swung with her efforts of sexual tetris. Finley grabbed at them, strategically placing each wrinkled cap between his thumb and forefinger. The rest of his fingers held the heft of her chest in place while copious folds of flesh seemingly melted between his other fingers as gravity fought his grasp.

Rachel tried to keep her deep moans quiet as she slid herself against his shaft. Finley was so enraptured that he did his best to stay in place under her. When she deemed them slick enough, she hissed in a breath. “I want you inside of me.” Finley nodded a hypnotized look of approval.

Rachel fulcrumed herself up slightly with her hands and legs, swinging her breasts closer to Finley’s face, enough so that he took a calculated lick of them. She wiggled his hardness into herself and plopped down with a satisfied moan. Finley’s tongue lolled out of his mouth. His sex-drunkenness had removed him from any conscious thought.

“Michael could never last this long.” Rachel purred drunkenly.

Michael? Finley thought. Why would she bring up Michael now? He felt himself slipping back into reality. “Huh?”

“He was more of a ‘hands on’ kind of guy.” Rachel said as she bobbed on top of Finley. “He couldn’t keep it up for as long as you can, baby.”

Finley felt more of his blood rush to his head and away from his active party. “Why does fucking me remind you of fucking Michael?”

“Oh, I don’t know.” Rachel felt his flame going out. “I didn’t mean to distract you.”

Finley dwindled inside of her. “Yeah. No. The last thing I want to think about is that idiot.”

“Oh, come on, baby! Don’t be done now!” Rachel pleaded teasingly while she wiggled on top of him.

Finley squinted his eyes and felt one of his ears twitch. “Oh no, we’re done here. What are we doing?” He looked around as if waking up from surgery. “I mean, what are we doing for the betterment of our household?”

“I mean, we’re kind of waiting for the old folks to get their shit together and then we’ll plan our next strike.” Rachel said, covering herself up with her kimono and collapsing onto the bed beside Finley.

Finley had had it though. He sat up on the edge of the bed. “We’ve got to do more. We’ve got to think of something big that will show them that we are done messing around!”

Rachel whimpered, “Couldn’t we have done a little more messing around first?”

Finley looked back at her sternly.

She flattened her angelic face into a flat-lipped expression of begrudging agreement. “Yes. Agreed. We should think of something bigger.”

Finley smiled wickedly, “I may have just the thing.” Rachel came up behind him and embraced him. He folded his arm behind and above himself to pull her face closer to him in a loving headlock.

***

Michael knocked on the doorframe of Joph’rena’s office. “Um, hello?”

“Hello Michael. How’s the search going?” Joph’rena asked as she swiped her omnipad closed.

“It’s going.” Michael rolled his eyes. “But I have different concerns at the moment.”

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“What do you have going on that’s more important than quelling rebellion?” Joph’rena smiled too pleasantly.

“It’s my mother.”

“Ah, that’s new. I thought you must’ve been formed on a seashell in the form of the ocean.”

Michael tilted his head to the side. “Like the goddess Venus?”

Joph’rena looked at Michael intently, “Sure.”

Michael looked at Joph’rena skeptically, “Yeah, no. I have parents. Humans even.”

Joph’rena interrupted, “Dad’s dead.”

Michael looked at her skeptically, “Yeah, that’s the briskest way of saying that.”

“Look, Michael, it’s facts.” Joph’rena stated plainly. “And your mother’s ill. What does that have to do with you?”

Michael shook his head briefly, “Do you have no room in your heart for family?”

“What heart?” Joph’rena joked. “Seriously though, I don’t. We don’t.”

“How?”

“When we sign up with the military going to interstellar places, we understand the sacrifice we make. By the time I return to Shel from my deployment, a relative lifetime, maybe lifetimes will have passed. I will be younger than only the most recent of birthed relations. If I had had children on Shel, they may be my age by now and I will be younger than them when I get back.” Joph’rena explained. “And through trial, error, math and experience, we know that.”

Michael squinted at her, “That’s not what’s happening here, with me.”

“Obviously.”

“Well obviously, I am needed and you are not.”

Joph’rena sat back in her chair. “It’s not that I’m not needed, I could probably do a world of good back home. But I can also do a world of good,” She paused with a look that pierced through Michael. “On your world.”

Michael scrunched his mouth. “Are you challenging me to think beyond myself?”

Joph’rena shrugged.

“You mean there are bigger things that I can accomplish than helping my own mother?”

“If you apply yourself, who knows what good you could do?” Joph’rena smirked.

“The kids are here too. I see them a fair amount.”

“Ah yes. Think of the children, Michael.” The smirk never left Joph’rena’s face.

“Ok. You’ve got me here for a little longer.” Michael conceded. “But I need you to know that I’ve got a viable conflict going on and I might not be able to stay here for much longer.”

“How viable is it, really?” Joph’rena poked.

“My mom. She needs me.”

“Does she? Really?” Joph’rena continued. “It seems to me that if she would go to any medical center or social services center, she would get the same,” She paused. “If not better services than if you were to intervene.”

“It’s different back home.”

“How so?”

“Eastern Kentucky is a different breed of people.”

“Ew? I think.”

“They don’t accept authority very well. They’re fiercely independent.” Michael puffed up with undeserved pride.

“Oh, I don’t know, if you’re representative of them, you’ve conceded very easily.” Joph’rena still smirked.

Michael wilted. “Well, I may be a special case.”

“Of course, Michael. You’re very special.” Joph’rena leaned forward. “I don’t care where you’re from. You’re doing a vital service for me. I need you here.”

“And you’ve got me.” Michael sighed. “For a little longer.”

“Don’t you want to see how this all wraps up?”

“You’ve got bows and everything?” Michael asked sarcastically.

“Perhaps. And you should probably check in with your friends. You’re Pack, as you say.”

“I’ll do just that.” Michael turned toward the door, then turned back just before he left. “You know, I should probably thank you for the opportunities you’ve given me.”

“You should.”

“Seriously. You’ve given me a home and a job and I never would be doing the things I’m doing without your being here.” Michael smiled at Joph’rena. “Thank you for giving me the opportunity to do better for myself.”

Joph’rena accepted his thanks. “You’re welcome. Just see to it that you don’t forget all that.”

“Sure.” Michael smiled at Joph’rena one more time then walked out the door.

***

Walking back to the barracks that was his home on the Shil’vati base, Michael spotted the rest of his Pack arriving home as well. He’d had his space adventures but they’d had their own, separate duties, at the same time. He saw Linnet and almost skipped to her.

Staring at rocks at his job had made any kind of contact a revelation to Michael. He gladly went through and gave them friendly contact but grabbed Linnet in a hug. She held her arms to the side. “Hey Linnet!” Michael tried to spread his happy spirit to her. She lifted her arms mechanically and laid them on his shoulders.

“Hi Michael.” Linnet said blankly.

“What’s up?” Michael asked.

“Can we talk privately?” Linnet asked, looking at the others. Even Ssgt Remington had a knowing look in his eye. Not knowing hurt Michael.

“Yeah, let’s find a spot inside.” Michael agreed.

Michael and Linnet walked into their pod. They saw Bill, who started to give his salutations back but saw the look on Linnet’s face and retracted his jovial greeting. Linnet led Michael to her room. They sat down on her bed facing each other.

Linnet took a deep breath. “You know, having some distance from each other; and some things that Fala has pointed out.” She paused then looked into Michael’s eyes. “This isn’t going to work out.”

Michael dumbfoundedly asked “What?”

“It’s not like we can have a family together.” Linnet continued. “You know, in the traditional sense.”

Michael tried to catch up to what she had just told him. She was listing off reasons they shouldn’t be together. “Yeah, but we have,” He gestured outside, “the Pack, you know?”

“Yes, but we’re at least the same species. We have made a clique because we are all the same.”

“This is all very sudden to me.” Michael pleaded. “You sought me out!”

“I’ve been thinking about it a lot.”

“I know, you seemed to be taking sides with Fala in Daytona; but I thought that was just a heat of the moment thing where immediate decisions needed to be made.”

“No. Fala got me thinking about it.”

“Fala just dropped Bill like a bag of garbage. Is that what you’re doing to me?”

“A bag of garbage seems a little dramatic but not all that wrong, I guess.” Linnet contemplated. “I wonder if it’s just pheromones: when we’re close, your chemicals and mine combine and I have a physical reaction. But when we’re apart I don’t even think about you. You don’t exist.”

“I don’t exist?” Michael groaned.

“There’s nothing I can think of that would draw me to you. Not a connection to Serca. Not physical compatibility. Not even a charismatic appeal. You bring me calm, but I think that’s mostly because I’m bored when I’m with you. And I don’t want that.”

Michael stewed on that for a few minutes. Linnet sat in the silence with him. Eventually, she said, “See?”

“See what?”

“You’ve got nothing to say. You’ve got no reason for us to be together either.”

Michael let a few tears escape his eyes. “I don’t know why we were together. I don’t know why we would be apart. This is all so sudden.” He looked at Linnet knowing his tears were useless. “Why?”

Linnet shrugged her shoulders at first, then put her hands on Michael’s arms and looked him in the eyes. He pulled away from her. Eye contact was too intimate after this betrayal. “You’re a great guy. I’m sure you’re going to need a stick to beat the women away from you. But I’m not the woman for you.”