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- @BEGIN_FILE_ID.DIZ
- Journal Entry 019 / 0264@END_FILE_ID.DIZ
-
-
- It was very dark and very late when I finally decided to get out of
- bed. So far I hadn't been able to sleep, and I was getting annoyed. I
- finally sighed and decided to go upstairs and get myself something to
- drink.
-
- I stepped carefully out of bed so as not to disturb P'nyssa, who
- was one of the reasons I couldn't sleep. She'd been running a fever all
- day, and was still hovering about 372 degrees, well over her normal 358.
- Since humans tend to run at about 370, her body was warmer than mine for
- once, and I was actually uncomfortable. I was still more worried about
- her, though, running 24 degrees high like that. That's dangerously high
- for her, it's like us running close to 400, no fun.
-
- I walked under the access portal in the ceiling and leapt up just a
- touch; the antigrav tractors grabbed me and silently pushed up to the
- floor above. I grabbed the railing and easily hauled myself into the
- living room with the familiarity of movement that comes with living in
- the same home for years and years. I glanced outside the porch glass
- doors; the snowstorm was still raging as it had been when I'd gone to
- bed three hours earlier. It was probably the darkest night I'd ever
- seen on Pendor; usually we get a lot of light reflected indirectly from
- the other, daylit sectors. But today the blizzard had virtually
- grounded the castle into the protection of the mountain crater it
- usually floated above, and the snow blocked the passage of what light
- there would be.
-
- Despite the complete darkness, I maneuvered about my home at
- complete ease; everything was in it's place, nothing was strewn
- miscellaneously about the floor; Dave had seen to that. Every night he
- tended to fix the place up. I guess being an Artificial Intelligence,
- he has a need for order. I walked over to the refrigerator and was
- blinded by the light inside as I searched for the orange juice. I found
- it and, leaving the door open for light, I found a glass and poured
- myself some.
-
- When the door closed, darkness returned, but I was still
- comfortable. The castle was still warm and quiet, the way it usually is
- at ten o'clock at night. Everybody was in bed (except for the night
- owls, of which there were always a few, my beloved Ember among them, but
- that's mostly because she works in sectors where it is daytime right
- about now). I sat down on the couch and tried to figure out what I was
- going to do with my sleeplessness.
-
- You see, one of the strictly physical reasons that P'nyssa and I
- get along so well in bed is that our body temperatures are comfortable
- to each other. P'nyssa is one of those perpetually cold people, unless
- it uncomfortably warm for everybody else- then she's "just perfect."
- Me, I tend to like something to keep me cooler than the temperatures I
- run at. When we sleep together, she gets a good heat source and I get a
- heat sink. Sounds funny, I know, but it's one of the reasons we like
- each other. True, she could get the effect with any human (or some of
- the other races), but I'm glad she picked me.
-
- In any event, I sipped my cold drink and felt the slight
- temperature gradient pass through me as the heat of the room sank into
- the outside walls and out to the snowbound world beyond. Don't get me
- wrong, the house is very well insulated, but I could still feel it.
- Familiarity with my surroundings again.
-
- So I sat and paused when I heard a familiar .click. from a relay
- installed in the ceiling coming to life. "Ken?"
-
- I was surprised at the voice. The speaker was not Dave, but a
- relative of his. Still and all, Dave must be listening to this
- conversation, or this person would not have gotten into my bedroom.
- A.I. Jean Majors. "Hello, Jean."
-
- "I'm sorry, but when Dave told me you were up and restless, I
- decided that it was time I had a little talk with you." Her words
- echoed strangely about the living room, and I realized that a privacy
- field had come on over the bedroom access. Jean did not want P'nyssa to
- hear this conversation. Politeness? or...
-
- "So what's up?" I said.
-
- "Before I say anything else, I need to tell you that I'm probably
- going to be violating someone's trust in this."
-
- "Jean, are you sure that this conversation is necessary?" I asked.
- For an AI to tell anything told in private is like a confessor breaking
- silence; something serious is going on.
-
- There was a pause. "Yes, yes I am." Another pause. "Ken, how
- long have you an P'nyssa been living together?"
-
- What? "Uhm, about a hundred and sixty eight years."
-
- "And how many kids does P'nyssa have?"
-
- "Three, all girls. Jean, what are you talking about?"
-
- "Hold on. When did P'nyssa have these kids?"
-
- "Well, P'Maya was born in '56, P'Rose was born in '63 and P'Lissane
- was born in '70."
-
- "And when you met P'nyssa was in '81, wasn't it? P'Lissane was 11
- then if I recall, and lived with her father."
-
- "Jean, what's the point of all this?"
-
- "Which means that P'nyssa hasn't had a child in 183 years, right?"
-
- "Uh, right." I said. I was starting to get the picture. But I
- decided to let Jean tell it to me.
-
- "Ken, P'nyssa told me recently that she'd like another child."
-
- I thought for a while and then said, slowly, "Okay. So what's
- stopping her?"
-
- "You are."
-
- "I am?" I said, surprised.
-
- "Yes. She's afraid that you won't approve."
-
- "But I love children."
-
- Dave's voice came on-line for the first time. "Yes, so long as
- they aren't in your home."
-
- That stopped me. Somehow the statement struck me as true; children
- are great, so long as they're someone else's. But me? A father? No
- way, I'm not cut out for it. I can't do a 1-hour-before-dawn feeding.
- I can change a diaper, but only in an emergency. I've done my fair
- share of babysitting in the castle, but rarely late night or overnight.
-
- "A fair statement," I admitted. "Jean, thank you for bringing this
- to my attention, but I'd like to speak with Dave alone for a moment."
-
- "Of course," she answered.
-
- There was a short pause and then I pointed up in the general
- direction of the ceiling with an accusative finger. "You knew, didn't
- you?"
-
- "Yes." Was all Dave said.
-
- "Then why didn't you tell me?"
-
- "Because it's not my duty to, Ken, you know that. You have been an
- insensitive boor sometimes, you know that? And at the moment is a
- perfect example. Your lover for over a century and a half is pining
- away because something is missing from her life, something she doesn't
- think she can have, something I'm not sure she can have."
-
- "And why not?"
-
- "Because she loves you. Because she wants to stay in your bed all
- the days of her life, but you have your positions and your opinions and
- she doesn't think you'll let her have both. You have a rule that you
- yourself will never have children, because one viviparous child of your
- own would incur the jealously of all the vitroparous children you
- already have. Never mind that I think we're all a little more mature
- than that. But I think you can be a stepfather; I think the years have
- mellowed you to at least that point, Ken, and I want you to admit it to
- yourself. Promise me that you will speak with P'nyssa tomorrow."
-
- I thought about it. It was a big change. I knew for fact that
- P'nyssa had TNP in her blood and couldn't get pregnant without a
- counter-programmed TNP-CF injection. But I could get my hands on that
- stuff with little or no problem.
-
- I wandered back to the portal down to the bedroom. I was actually
- feeling tired. "Okay, Dave, I promise. Goodnight, please?"
-
- "Goodnight, Ken." The field dropped. I leapt into the portal and
- fell slowly down the hole into my bedroom. P'nyssa stirred a little as
- I pulled the covers over myself and went to sleep.
-
-
- The next day I arose well before P'nyssa, who was still a touch
- warm, and walked out of my domicile into the castle hallway.
- Maneuvering around the corner and past Dave's installation, I greeted
- everybody with a mute "G'morning" as I walked past the open meeting hall
- where four children played some game that only children understand and
- their parents watched quietly and patiently. I watched the scene for a
- few minutes when Ember, who turned out to be one of the parents, hailed
- me over. I waved and said "Too busy, gotta be on my way." She nodded
- and I retreated over to the indoor SDisk. Don't use them much, mostly
- because I like the ritual of walking upstairs and then falling to the
- ring floor to use the one down by the lagoon; but not in this cold
- when even the river was frozen. It was record cold out, the kind of
- cold that occurs only once ever thirty years or so, and I decided it was
- time to go to someplace else, where it might be warmer.
-
- I laughed when I thought of that. I wasn't going anyplace warmer;
- I was going to Cutter's, which is situated right on top of a heat vane
- on the outer edge of the delineated Ring; it's the equivalent of an
- arctic environment, complete with polar bears descended more from a
- rodent group than the original weasel group. Oh, there are weasel based
- polar large types, but they're in a different ecocenter. I stepped onto
- the disk.
-
- And found myself in the large pentagonal room on the far edge,
- under "visitors" The other disks were reserved for "staff," and
- "emergency-1 and 2," and "residential." I noticed that there was nobody
- else in the area, so I wandered down the hallway towards what I knew was
- the pharmacy. Nobody stopped me; nobody questioned my right to be
- there. After all, if I was their gengineer, I had damn well better know
- what I was doing, right? I walked into the pharmacy and asked the
- Tindal who asked me if I need help where I could find the compound in
- question. He looked at me rather quizzically, but did indeed hand over
- my request, plus an applicator. I thanked him and wandered back towards
- the SDisk. When I reached a hallway that was deserted Jean's voice
- interrupted my musings again. "So you're going to do it, huh?"
-
- "Well, I'm going to take the first two steps, yes."
-
- "You break everything down into steps, don't you?"
-
- "Basically," I said with a smile.
-
- "Good luck, Ken."
-
- "Thanks, Jean." I reached the SDisk room and returned home. I
- walked back to the commons and found Ember sitting with her four-year-
- old, M'Jahrl, who was fidgeting impatiently. "Hi."
-
- "Hello, Father," she said quietly. The child growled a similar
- greeting in Felinz. I smiled and growled back at him. He seemed
- pleased with that.
-
- "Can I ask you a question, Ember?"
-
- "Sure," she said with conviction.
-
- "What's it like to have a kid in the house?"
-
- "What do you mean?"
-
- "I mean, starting from the beginning, is it really worth the effort
- it seems to be to actually have a child in the house? To deal with the
- feedings and the changings, and then the curiosity and the rivalries and
- the fights and the growing up?"
-
- "You should know better than I do about that," she said.
-
- "But I don't. Every one of you came out if the tank with a basic
- set of programming and a mature body. Not a child. Not like your
- little monster there." The kid had managed to weasel his way out her
- arms and was now careening around the commons with a small model
- airplane. "I know every one of you from the inside out, but I know
- nothing about pre-adolescents."
-
- "What about Donna?"
-
- "Don't mention that, please? Besides, I've helped, I've done my
- fair share of sitting."
-
- "I don't know what to tell you. I think it's worthwhile enough,
- I've done it five times, which means I've wrapped up about fifty years
- of my life in it. Besides, who are you planning on having children
- with? I thought you'd decided not to do that sort of thing."
-
- "Not my decision this time, sweetheart. P'nyssa's."
-
- Ember's eyes widened. "She has three, doesn't she?"
-
- "You've met them all, I thought."
-
- She nodded. "They're nice people. Come to think of it, I've even
- slept with Lisa."
-
- I smiled. "Why does that not surprise me?" I sighed and said
- "Okay, thanks anyway." I rose again.
-
- Jahrl had managed to disappear. She shook her head and said "Well,
- I don't really know what to say. Except that you know I love you both,
- and I hope everything good comes of this."
-
- "Make it a rumor, sweetheart."
-
- "You know I will," she said. I leaned over and kissed her on the
- muzzle. She pulled me down and kissed me, her tongue meeting mine.
- "Remember, I live just down the hallway."
-
- "I can't forget. I see you everyday. And sometimes I still have
- to babysit Jahrl while you stay up all night with a sick AI."
-
- She smiled and said "See ya."
-
- "You too."
-
-
- P'nyssa was awake when I arrived home. "Hi!" she said when I
- walked in.
-
- I waved and smiled widely as I grabbed a cup of tea and sat down
- with her at the table. I pulled her close and nuzzled her. She replied
- warmly, but only half-heartedly, and I could tell she was still feeling
- under the weather, not that the weather outside was all that pleasant.
-
- "I have something for you," I said.
-
- "What?" she asked.
-
- "Give me your ten." She extended a tentacle across the table and I
- ruffled some of the fur on the upper quarter to find the skin
- underneath. I reached into the jacket I wore and removed the injector.
- I reached again for her when she pulled her ten back and said "What is
- it?"
-
- "I'll let you know after I've put it in."
-
- "No. I want to know now. You know I don't want anything for my
- cold; when I get a fever it burns itself out quicker if I don't take
- anything."
-
- "Then this is fine for you."
-
- "What is it?" she demanded.
-
- "Nyss, you trust me, right? This has nothing for your cold. It
- has nothing do with your fever. Trust me?"
-
- She looked at me through questioning eyes, then extended her ten
- again. I quickly inserted the injector and squeezed. There was a
- momentary .paf. as the pressure pushed the fluid suspension into her
- arm. "Fine. Now what was it?"
-
- "Tindal Nano-Proph Counter Factor."
-
- "WHAT !?"
-
- "TNP-CF" I repeated.
-
- "Why?"
-
- "Because last night I had a long conversation with an old friend
- who made me realize that you haven't had a child in over a hundred and
- fifty years, and apparently you've been talking at the hospital about
- children. Don't blame you, after all, you do work in pediatrics. So?"
-
- "Ken, I don't want kids."
-
- "Don't you?"
-
- "I..." She paused. "I do. But, what about you?"
-
- "What about me? I can handle it. Come on, I can do twenty years
- standing on my head."
-
- "Can you?"
-
- "Sure I can. That's not the problem."
-
- "Then what is a problem?" she asked.
-
- "Have you thought about an appropriate father?"
-
- "Waitaminute. What about you? Do you think you can handle having
- children in this house?"
-
- "Sure. We could open up the doors to your old apartment. It's
- basically unchanged in the past hundred years. Wouldn't be surprised to
- find cobwebs."
-
- Dave's voice came over the speaker. "There are no cobwebs in the
- room next door." He sounded slightly miffed.
-
- "Oh well, blows that theory. But seriously, we could open up the
- doors and turn the room into a nursery. It's not that bad."
-
- "You're really enthusiastic about this, aren't you?"
-
- "Yes! Yes, let's do it."
-
- "It could take you out of all the things you like to do, you know.
- Going to concerts, bars. Having nights with other people, at least for
- a while. It could take up every last minute of your free time. I hope
- you don't have a project going at Alpha."
-
- "I don't. P'nyssa, you and I both know that life is what happens
- to you while you're making other plans. Let's be serious about this."
-
- "I am being serious. Very serious. Are You Sure?"
-
- I stopped, and in a very quiet and sober voice I said "Yes."
-
- "Then I know who I want the father to be."
-
- "Who?"
-
- "D'israeli Mittleson."
-
- "Who is?" The name was only vaguely familiar.
-
- "He was a fellow student back when I was studying my psionics."
-
- "Not a father of your other three, was he?"
-
- "No, no. Why?"
-
- "Don't you think you might want to call your children and tell them
- their going to be sisters, again?"
-
- P'nyssa paused for a second and said, "After the test proves
- positive."
-
- "Deal."
-
- It was three days before P'nyssa's fever broke, but we spent those
- days in bed while P'nyssa called in to Cutter's and told Jean that she
- might not be available for a few days, possibly much longer. Jean was
- very polite about the request, saying she understood and she hoped that
- P'nyssa would return as soon as possible but that it was also likely
- that the staff could handle everything even if their chief of pediatrics
- was out for a while, ect. ect. We decided to not push our luck, and
- even though we had a few visitors in those days, few people mentioned
- the rumor that had to be spreading like wildfire.
-
- In any event, five days after this whole thing started P'nyssa and
- I awoke, ate and got into the shower. I was washing her back, scrubbing
- under the fur to get the sweet-smelling soap up against her pelt when
- she reached around and slowly began to stroke my cock. I hissed in
- pleasure and heard her chuckle. "Like that, huh?" she said.
-
- "Wonderful," I replied, reaching forward to stroke her between her
- legs and up the crease of her ass. She giggled, and when I ran my
- fingers over her clit she crooned thankfully. I pressed up against her,
- my cock protruding between her thighs, pressed down against her ass.
- Having tens instead of arms is both a disadvantage and an advantage for
- tindals; while she can't lift nearly as much weight as I can, there is
- no such thing as an awkward position. She easily found my cock and
- seized it with her mittens, stroking it intently. I leaned against her
- shoulder and groaned. I reached around her and slowly stroked her sex
- in response. Using my fingers is a half-measure for me; I wanted to get
- down there and use my tongue, but she kept right on stroking me, coaxing
- me further and further towards orgasm. Her other tentacle reached
- around behind us both and slowly began to caress my ass. She knows how
- that drives me crazy, and slowly the combination drove me over the
- brink, and I came in a wonderful orgasm, shooting out onto the shower
- floor and her fur.
-
- I collapsed to my knees, both in momentary exhaustion and in a
- desire to get at her cunt. She still faced away from me and with both
- hands I parted the cheeks of her ass, probing with my tongue to get at
- the tiny brown hole hidden there. Her fur tickled gently against my
- cheeks as I traced my way from her asshole towards her cunt, licking
- between her labia to part them. I upended my self to get a better angle
- and slowly I began to lick her cunt, avoiding her overly sensitive clit
- and licking around it, over the hood and between the lips. She crooned
- softly, and I began to lick a little harder when she said "wait."
-
- "What?" I said, backing away slightly.
-
- "Use that," she said breathlessly, pointing to the showerhead.
-
- I stood from where I was as she settled to the shower floor,
- leaning against the far wall which I had long ago padded with
- polyurethane for just such an occasion. I grabbed the shower massage
- and handed it to her. The massage was a blatant misuse of transporter
- technology; there was no hose, just a direct transporter feed somewhere
- in the wall. I've seen the same thing done with glassware at bars and
- parties; it's hard to judge how much you've drunk when this annoying
- little thing at the bottom fills your glass when you're not looking.
-
- She took the shower massage and turned the dial to massage, one
- stream. A softly pulsing stream of water came out of it, and she
- directed it towards her cunt. "Hold me open," she said in a hoarse
- whisper. I lay down on my stomach between her legs and reached forward,
- parting her cunt open. The stream of water aimed at her clit, circling
- it slowly. Her cunt became red, and her clit stuck out visibly as the
- water circled it. She groaned. I watched intently as she masturbated
- herself, her mouth open and her breath coming in ragged, hoarse gasps.
- At times she would increase the pressure on the spray, and by the time
- she was on her fifth orgasm, the stream had become a strong, steady
- flow.
-
- She snapped it off and lay there, gasping for air and totally
- splayed out against the shower floor. I wiped the spray off my face.
- "How do you feel?" I asked. I love watching her masturbate.
-
- "Tired. Whew. Help me up?" I did, gracefully. Somehow, I don't
- mind being replaced by a machine; I know that, more often than not, she
- prefers my tongue to the shower or vibrator. Still, I did get her these
- toys. We actually cleaned off this time, getting ready to go, dressed
- in out best travelling clothes, and headed out for the SDisk.
-
-
-