Fantasy The People Makers

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Survey Service Captain Michael Taylor
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The little marsh on the southwestern edge of Auburn Field outside of Perth, Australia was gorgeous. The tiny pond, the tall, thin reedy plants, the green lilies decorating the surface of the pond, the calmness and the tranquility was all very soothing. Only four or five times a day would the roar of spaceship engines remind one that this piece of beauty was a mere two hundred feet from the main Survey Service spaceport.

It was beautiful, but Survey Service Captain Michael Taylor barely noticed. He was too busy relishing the sensation of his first officer, Commander Sophie Astor, eagerly rubbing his cock through his pants.

"Michael," she whispered, kissing him passionately. "I want you, Michael!"

Sophie was a Passive Observer; at least, that was how Michael knew her when they first met, so many years ago. But there was nothing passive about her now. For Sophie Astor had fallen deeply, passionately in love with him. It was not a love that Michael could afford to reciprocate. Sophie was his first officer, and even putting aside Survey Service regulations about fucking your subordinates, Michael knew that sleeping with his first officer would simply be terrible for ship's morale and unit cohesion.

"Sophie, we can't be doing this," said Michael, between kisses.

She looked him sternly in the eye, paused, as if mock-considering for a moment, then said, "Yes we can," in that very sexy self-confident way of hers. And then she continued to kiss and fondle him as if nothing had happened. That's one of the many things he loved about her, her inner strength, her resoluteness.

Something had happened to them, or to be more precise, something had happened between them on the planet designated "New Eden." Their DNA had been altered and they had been turned into humanoid plant people. Their minds had been altered and their bodies had been used for reproduction by the sinister forces led by Marnie Glickman. Sophie, out of her love for Taylor, had allowed her mind and body to be transformed to help free her Captain from Marnie Glickman's sinister clutches. She remembered being made to fuck a jub jub plant which transformed her, giving her three internal vaginas, each one deeper inside her than the next; she remembered taking the wooden rod in the newly formed hole in the back of her head, conditioning her to be an obedient servant of Mama Earth; and above all she remembered making love to Taylor, Taylor not as he was now, but Taylor with an enormous 15 inch bendable penis which winded its way through her three sets of interconnected vaginas. When Taylor made love to her Sophie felt so utterly, utterly connected to him. She had lured him away from Marnie's evil daughter Ruthie and helped him regain his senses. They had overcome the Glickmans and even been restored to their original form by the Old Man from the Giant Tree, but the memory of what they experienced, of what they had shared with each other, had remained.

But once they had been rescued, Taylor acted like it never happened. He told Sophie that what she wanted was impossible.

But Commander Sophie Astor, who was normally logical to an extreme, refused to accept the impossible.

And so the normally passionless woman ground her body against him. Her firm, nuclear tipped breasts pressed against him while lower down she felt his stiffening erection pressed against her through his white Survey Service trousers.

"No, Sophie, we can't!" And with an effort he pushed her away.

Sophie looked sullen. "You seem capable enough." She glanced at the enormous erection in his pants.

"That's not what I mean," said Taylor, licking his lips. "You're my first officer! The regulations-"

"When have you ever cared about regulations?" And then she was on top of him again, kissing him furiously, rubbing his cock through his trousers once again.

"Sophie!" And then softer, "Sophie.... oh, Sophie....." A chill went through her body as Taylor groaned.

This time it was Sophie who pulled back, when she felt the time was right, with an uncharacteristic smirk on her face as she brought him to the edge of desire and then abruptly stopped. She sat next to him with a mischievous look as she smiled at him and stole glances at his very obvious erection.

Taylor listened to the sound of the sunset crickets and looked at her. She was gorgeous. Sophie had short straight black hair with bangs over her forehead. She had hazel eyes, a pert nose, a slender face, but big red lips. Farther down she had a wonderfully athletic figure, all slender, except for her breasts, which looked very different from her Academy days, now that she had gotten nuclear implants.

"You're so different now," said Taylor, screaning her appreciatively. He didn't really need his special skill to sense her attraction for him, but couldn't help but enjoy feeling the attraction for him oozing out of her. He could practically see it like a radiant glowing cloud. "What happened to the calm, reserved Passive Observer I knew?"

"She fell in love," said Sophie simply. She reached out with her hand and idly started to stroke his shaft again through the straining material of his pants. She smiled as he didn't pull back or tell her to stop.

"When? When we were on New Eden?"

"Uh uh." She shook her head.

"Earlier?"

"Uh huh." Her hand kept moving. She seemed fascinated by the imprint of the head of his penis on his trousers.

"Years ago, when we both served on the Relentless?"

"Earlier."

"Even Earlier?" Taylor frowned. "What's even earlier than that?" He gave her a puzzled look. "The Academy? No, it couldn't be."

"Yes," said Sophie. "It could."

Suddenly, he had a flash of memory, of his first day at the Academy, visiting the memorial to the Ganymede, the first ship to launch with the Varonkov drive, where he met Sophie for the very first time.

Sophie looked Mike squarely in the eye, and for some reason he found himself getting excited. "A Passive Observer is someone who observes every aspect of reality. Sight. Touch. Taste. Smell. Hearing. A Passive Observer analyzes all stimuli objectively. Dispassionately."

She looked at Taylor for a long moment, as if searching him with her eyes, as if expecting a response, as if she were testing him.

"It... it sounds like fun," said Taylor, not sure what else to say.

Sophie raised an eyebrow, snorted, and turned on her heel and walked off the bridge.

"What an odd person," said Taylor.

"She lykes yew," Joanna Martin said.

"How can you possibly conclude that?" Taylor asked.

"When she stood five inches from yew, and looked at yew really close... I could tell."

"You didn't show any interest in me at the Academy," said Taylor slowly.

"Didn't I?" said Sophie, her hazel eyes sparkling.

Taylor didn't have to screan it. He knew. "You fell in love with me-"

"From the moment I first saw you, yes." She sealed it with a kiss.

Taylor felt an electric shock going through his body. All those years! When she pulled back he looked as bewildered as he felt. "How?" he said. "You're such a logical, methodical person. How could you fall in love-"

"On first sight?" She smiled at him playfully. All the masks were off now. "I plead guilty to biology. You were just so handsome, so dashing." She gave him such an adoring look as she played with his gold brown hair. "I loved the way you carried yourself, the way you were always so confident, in command. You don't know how tortured I felt for years as I watched you fuck Cherry, and Andrea Farber, and all the other women in your intergalactic harem."

His intergalactic harem. The bitterness of her words struck him like a blast from a compression gun.

"Sophie... I never knew you felt this way," Taylor whispered.

She gave him an endearing look. "Well... now you do." She kissed him again. "Tell me, when did you realize you loved me?"

He had told her. On the long trip home from New Eden on the Relentless, he had broken down and admitted his love for her. It had been a mistake, one which he realized immediately. But now that she knew-

"Was it when you made love to me, on New Eden?" She kissed him again.

Taylor shook his head.

"When you first saw me naked on New Eden?" She resumed kissing him.

"No."

Sophie stared at him intently. "Before?" She sounded incredulous.

Taylor bit his lip and nodded.

"When?" She shook him. He refused to answer. She shook him harder. "Tell me!"

"I... I don't really know the exact date," said Taylor. "It... it was when we were serving together on the Relentless."

"When? Tell me when, Michael!" She looked so animated!

"I don't know," said Taylor. "I've always been... fond... of you, Sophie. You're a very attractive woman." He stared at her elf-like face and then down to her large, firm nuclear tipped breasts. "Your personality... your flirtatious looks... your cool wit... everything about you. I... I just woke up one day and realized... that I loved you." He felt a burden lifting from his shoulders just saying it.

"You've loved me for years?" Sophie looked shocked.

"Yes. Years." Taylor leaned forward and gave her the kiss of her life. Sophie moaned, grinding her body against his. Then she feverishly started to pull him off the bench and down to the ground

"Sophie!" Taylor cried.

She tried again to pull him to the ground, to pull him into her. "Get down here!" she cried. "You've got some heavy fucking to do!"

Taylor swallowed heavily. "Sophie... I... I can't."

"Why not?"

"You're my first officer. It would destroy my command. I can't, Sophie, I simply can't."

Sophie gave him a hard look, one laced with traces of vulnerability. Tears started to stream out of her eyes. She abruptly got up and stomped off.

Taylor was the Captain of the Super Dreadnaught USS Immortal, the mightiest and newest ship in the Survey Service fleet. After all the wars with the Ramadans and alien incursions they had suffered through the years, the Service decided it was time to add some punch to a fleet largely consisting of cruisers, destroyers, and frigates. The fleet already had three space battleships but the Immortal was something of a very different kind, meant to take on and beat entire Ramadan armadas singlehandedly. And Taylor, in appreciation for all he had done to save the Earth, had been given command of this enormously powerful prototype. It was supposed to be the highlight of his career.

And it was, until the ship started to develop malfunctions. Small ones at first, and then more and more significant ones until the ship started to develop engine failure. The Immortal had limped back to spacedock where it was discovered that there were cracks, significant ones, in the engine manifolds, cracks which would take six months to repair.

"Six months!" Taylor raged. He was in the office of his patron, Grand Admiral Janet Chellina. After Admiral Von Windhoek had retired, Admiral Chellina had become his unofficial patron. There were those in the Admiralty who were not among Taylor's admirers, considering him too controversial and not a solid role model for the Service, but Admiral Chellina had been instantly charmed by the young, brash, officer and had helped guide his career. She was a blonde in her mid 50's but not unattractive, given to bright smile and flirty stares... at least when Taylor was around.

"I'm sorry Mike, but that's what the dockmanager says," said Chellina.

"Surely it shouldn't take six months to fix a few tiny cracks," said Taylor.

"It's not just a few, Mike, it's thousands of microfractures," said Chellina.

"I know what they are going to do," said Taylor. He stood over the Grand Admiral, who was seated behind the desk in her chair. "They are going to coat the core with a metal composite. How can that take six months?"

"It's not just a paint job, Mike," said Chellina, running a hand through her bright yellow hair as she eyed the handsome man standing above her. Her body began to feel warm. "The remediated sections need to be tested, there are all kinds of reports and analyses to be done-"

"Admiral."

Chellina looked into Taylor's solid blue eyes and shivered.

"We both know that this sort of thing doesn't take six months," said Taylor.

"Well, of course not, Mike, but yours isn't the only ship in spacedock," said Chellina.

"Admiral." Taylor's smile grew broader. "Admiral."

Chellina felt a tingling between her legs.

"Why don't we talk more about this over lunch?"

Lunch.

Chellina looked at his smile and realized she had lost.

Two hours later Taylor lay in bed with a Grand Admiral of the United Survey Service, his arm confidently wrapped around her shoulders. Chellina liked this part, the afterwards part, almost as much as she liked the act itself. She had only had Taylor two times before but each time had been incredibly memorable to her.

Taylor screaned her and sensed she was troubled. While he was plowing into her she had asked him repeatedly if he had climaxed. He sensed how important it was for her. She felt insecure about her body and having sexual intercourse with a much younger officer, and desperately desired to be desperately desired. It was true that Janet's breasts had the consistency of soft pudding, but they were still large and quite a nice handful, and her smile and bright blonde framed face more than made up for any firmness she was lacking farther down. And so when Taylor climaxed inside of her he made sure he knew it, putting on a slightly more elaborate performance than he usually did, just for her.

"Oh, Janet! I'm coming!" Taylor cried.

"Yes, Mike! Yes!" She looked so excited!

"I'm coming, oh, oh OH!" he cried out, stiffening immediately as he climaxed, in only a slightly exaggerated way. For Taylor really did climax inside of her. There was something about the Admiral's beautiful, vulnerable smile he just found so endearing, especially her dark hazel eyes, which looked so much like-

"Ooooh!" Janet shuddered. The knowledge that Taylor was climaxing caused her to climax, just as Taylor had screaned that it would. Her body stiffened beautifully even as Taylor continued to release inside of her. When they both relaxed, nearly simultaneously, Chellina started chuckling and then Taylor did too and they both smiled and kissed.

But after Taylor pulled out, he sensed she was still troubled.

"What is it?" Taylor asked.

Chellina frowned as if startled to be so transparent. It wasn't the fact that she was married; she had long ago forgiven herself for her occasional dalliances, and she suspected that Frank, who had lost much of his interest in sex years ago, would not even mind very much. Oh, he still performed, just to please her, but the act was more mechanical than passionate.

No, it was something else. "Is... is this right?" she asked hesitantly, putting trembling fingers on Taylor's chest. They had done it two times now, no, three times and she still hadn't gotten used to it. The idea of having sex with a subordinate.

"Right?"

"My... seducing you. Was it right of me to use my rank to seduce you?" Chellina asked. Suddenly her voice was soft and hesitant, like a little girl's. She was a Grand Admiral but still very much a woman, and Taylor loved her for it.

"You didn't seduce me, Janet," said Taylor, in a voice which brooked no argument but also sent chills down her spine.

She looked at him with searching eyes. "Then... was it right of me to let you seduce me?"

Taylor chuckled.

"What's so funny?"

Taylor's chuckle turned into a laugh.

"What's so funny?"

Taylor kept laughing.

"Tell me!"

"First you worry about the impropriety of seducing me. Then when I assure you that you didn't seduce me, you immediately wonder whether I improperly seduced you. If we're in bed and having sex, then one of us has to be guilty of something, right?"

Chellina looked at Taylor's face and laughed. Her endearing feminine laughter made her face even more beautiful, so beautiful that Taylor couldn't resist reaching under the blanket, turning her laughter into something else entirely as her eyes grew wide.

"Mike! Oh MIKE!" She gave him a kissed filled with passion. When she pulled back, her eyes had a dreamy quality to them. "Oh Mike, how I love our time together! I do satisfy you, don't I?"

"Very, very much," said Taylor, looking into her eyes with a confidence which made her shiver.

"Good!" Her head fell back in her pillow. She licked her lips. "I... I suppose I could have a word with Admiral Starnes. About moving up the Immortal on the repair list. We might be able to get you out in four, maybe three months instead of six." She suddenly looked troubled again. "Mike, is this why you slept with me? To get your ship moved up on the repair schedule?"

Taylor started to casually play with her breast. "Janet, when I invited you back to my apartment did I ask you for any favors?"

"No."

"When I started kissing you and undressing you, did I make it conditional?"

"Nooooo." She gasped as he fondled her nipple. And then his hand moved lower....

"When I came inside of you, filling you with my sperm, was there any quid pro quo? Was there, Janet?"

Chellina gasped as Taylor roughly manipulated her sex. "Kiss me, Mike!" she cried, all thoughts of impropriety thrown out the window.

"And did you?"

"Did I what?"

"Kiss her?"

"A gentleman never tells."

Sophie Astor kissed him again. They had reconciled after their latest blowup, as they always did, meeting at the secluded bench at the picturesque marshland on the southwest corner of Auburn Field.

"You just finished telling me that you fucked the Admiral blind and now you won't tell me whether you kissed her at the end of it?"

"I never said I had sex with her, Sophie. I never said that," said Taylor, with a smile on his lips.

"No, you didn't," Sophie admitted. "You just said you invited the Admiral back to your quarters and used your powers of persuasion to convince her to repair the ship faster. Do you think I'm stupid?"

"I think you're beautiful," said Taylor, kissing her on the lips.

Sophie looked pleased but said, "Then you do think I'm stupid."

"What?"

"Every time a man calls a woman beautiful when asked if she's smart, it means he thinks she's stupid."

"Then you're the exception." he started tickling her. "The only exception."

"Hey, stop that!" She started cackling.

"What's wrong?" Taylor asked. "Am I interfering with your Passive Observing? Are you unable to make unbiased observations?"

Sophie kissed him hard. "Fuck me, Michael! I want you so bad!" Her breath was hot and sultry.

"I... I can't," said Taylor.

"You fucked her!" Accusingly.

"But she's... she's an admiral....."

Sophie abruptly got up.

"Where are you going?"

She straightened out her dayshirt, looking down at her prominently erect nipples. "To see the Admiral."

"Why?"

"About getting a promotion." She walked away, swaying her hips wonderfully.

While his ship was being repaired, there was nothing to do, nothing but kiss and fondle his sexy first officer illicitly in the evenings. And so Taylor, with the Admiral's help, got a part time teaching job at Survey Service Academy. He led a seminar on the topic of contact with alien cultures.

Taylor couldn't help but notice that fifteen of his nineteen students were young female cadets. And more than a few looked at him adoringly. There was Cadet Sydney Straighter, a young blonde with large round melons which so very nicely filled out her cadet dayshirt. She sat there with a hypnotized smile on her face as she ate up every word he said. If indeed she was listening at all.

Then there was Cadet Susan Craw, a redhead with smaller but undeniably perky breasts which stuck out even farther than Cadet Straighter's. Taylor didn't have to use his screaning ability to know that the women were infatuated with him.

"-and so I and my first officer, Jennifer Hale, were captured by a group of militant female Laquintan warriors."

"Female warriors?" said Cadet Antoinette Williamson. She was black, and all the white cadets wanted to be her friend.

"That's right."

"But I thought Laquintan women were made to assume subordinate roles, in the home."

"That's normally true. But these women had a rather creative interpretation of the Book of Blood. They believed that Laquinta wanted women in charge."

There was open laughter in the classroom.

"It was no laughing matter," Taylor said. "The leader of the female warriors, Ankara, was in league with a male Laquintan named Mohammad who wanted to have me executed."

"What did you do?" Cadet Straighter asked.

"Did you try to negotiate?"

"Did you try to contact their superiors?"

"Did you call for an international mediator-"

"No!" Taylor looked sternly around him. What were they teaching in the Academy these days? "I challenged him to a fight to the death."

The students gasped.

"Because that's what impressed their leader, Ankara. And impressing their leader was the key to getting us released. Remember that, class. Values are subjective. When you find yourself in an alien culture, find out whatever is important to them and make yourself a paragon of perfection of it, whatever it is."

The buzzer rang and the class was dismissed.

Cadets Straighter and Craw approached him. "Sir... did you really fight him to the death?" Craw asked.

"I did," said Taylor. "I failed to mention that Mohammad had ambushed and murdered a World Government mining team which had arrived before me. I had more than a professional interest in meting out justice."

"I'll say," said Straighter, leaning forward to better show him the curves in her dayshirt. Craw also smiled at him avidly.

The buzzer rang again.

Taylor couldn't help but notice how eagerly the girls stared at him.

If having sex with your Admiral is wrong, having sex with two of your Cadets is about a hundred times wronger.

"You girls better get going, you'll be late for your next class."

Sophie also was spending time at the Academy while she waited for the Immortal to be repaired. She had volunteered to participate in a joint project between the Survey Service and Passive Observers International. The project involved staring at facial expressions of students at the Academy and seeing if there were correlations with academic performance.

Sophie was paired with a Passive Observer named Clarence Norman. Clarence was a young man in his late 20's with dark hair. He wasn't in the Survey Service, but rather was a four dimensional architect who had also volunteered for this assignment. He and Sophie sat in on a class on Varonkov drive physics, sitting by the front door with their Pads, making note of facial expressions in the aggregate.

Four passive looks... two intense looks.... twelve looks of boredom... five looks of interest.....

As their facial expressions changed, Sophie and Clarence made note of them.

"I've heard a lot about you," said Clarence.

"You have?" said Sophie.

"You're almost a legend in POI," he said.

"In what way?" said Sophie.

"You're the first officer of one of the most famous Captains in Survey Service history."

"So I'm admired for being in proximity to someone else who is admired," said Sophie.

"You shouldn't view it that way, Sophie. You're one of the most senior Passive Observers in Survey Service history. I personally know of two PO's who joined the Service because of you."

"Really?"

"Yes," said Clarence, as he continued to make a notation on his Pad. "You're quite a remarkable woman, Sophie."

Sophie froze and looked away from the sea of faces and directly at him.

"It was just... an observation," said Clarence.

Taylor missed Andrea Farber.

Captain Andrea Farber was the Captain of the USS Relentless, Taylor's old ship. She had taken command of it over from him when he had been presumed lost in action on New Eden, and for a short time, Taylor had felt envious. But not for long.

Taylor had always felt a connection with Andrea, one that had been formed at the Academy, a connection which had never been consummated because Taylor had been involved with another cadet named Cherry Oteri. They had more than made up for it over the years, enjoying brief, passionate trysts whenever their paths crossed. The fact that Andrea was married to an uninspiring banker named Harold never seemed to bother either of them. The fact that they were equals, both Captains, neither subordinate to the other, permitted their sporadic relationship to flourish, a distinction Sophie never could or never would choose to understand when he refused to fuck her.

Now would have been the perfect time for Taylor to enjoy some downtime with Andrea. But Andrea was out on assignment and wouldn't be back for another 16 days. Taylor found himself actually counting the days and looking forward to their reunion.

But right now he was lonely, very loneliness, with an emptiness even Sophie's furtive kisses by the pond could not fully satisfy. And so when he learned about a party sponsored by the Diplomatic Corps, he decided to go... just to look. Chances are the party would be filled with old, crusty diplomats, but you never knew... some of those diplomatic attaches could be quite... aesthetic.

Taylor found himself talking to a dark haired young thing, barely out of the Diplomatic Institute, and instantly founding himself regretting it. She had a nice face and a reasonably good figure but she was as boring as stone. She had a very naive view of the world, as 25 year olds often do, talking about how the Diplomatic Corps would bring peace and justice to the galaxy. She went on and on about her aspirations to eventually become the deputy assistant something to the deputy assistant something else, but truthfully Taylor wasn't paying any attention. His eyes roamed the crowd. Suddenly he became fixated by a face across the room. A face he had never seen before.

The first thing he noticed was her hair. Big, curly orange-red hair, actually more orange than red. The second thing he noticed was her large breasts, which elegantly filled out the graceful red dress she was wearing. They looked like ripe melons.

But the thing that captivated him was her smile. For a second, just a second, their eyes met, and she smiled at him, and Taylor felt electrified from head to toe.

Suddenly, he felt like precious moments of his life was wasting away talking to this boring drone, who was still completely oblivious that she had long since lost any interest he might have had in her.

"-and the World Government World Peace Institute is a great resume builder for my career-"

"I'm sure it is," said Taylor as politely as he could. "But could you excuse me? I see something I have to attend to." And he left her without even waiting for a response.

He strode confidently through the crowd, barely noticing the people he brushed by. His attention was focused on her. She saw him coming, glanced repeatedly out of the corner of her eye, seeming to get a bit nervous as he got closer and closer. She seemed to be talking to another woman, one who Taylor didn't even bother to notice until he was right on top of both of them.

The first thing he heard was her voice. "-and of course Estelle, I told them it was negotiable. It was all negotiable." She turned and acted surprised to see Taylor. "Why hello there. Can I help you?" The orange haired beauty gave him an incredible smile.

Her smile seemed to paralyze Taylor's vocal cords. "I... I...."

"You, you," said beauty, giving a little laugh. "Why don't you start with your name, Handsome?"

Handsome. "My, my name is Michael, Michael Taylor," Taylor stammered. What was wrong with him?

"So nice to meet you, Michael." She gave him a radiant smile. "I'm Tessa, and this is Estelle," she said, extending a dainty hand.

Taylor took it. When their hands touched, he felt a flash go through his body. She felt it too. he could tell. He could screan it.

"What brings you to the offices of the Grand Diplomatic Corps, Michael Taylor?" she asked.

"I'm a teacher here... at the Academy," said Taylor. No, that was wrong! "Temporarily, I mean. My ship-"

"Your ship?" Tessa looked quizzically at him. "Wait, that uniform, it looks familiar! Are you with the World Government military?"

"No," said Taylor-

"The Australian border guard?"

"No," said Taylor.

"The Port Auburn shore police?"

"No!" Taylor roared, as Tessa laughed. "I'm with the Survey Service!"

"The Survey Service!" Tessa put her hands to her cheeks. She looked to be in her late 30's, but still looked very young. "I'm so sorry! I didn't know! I'm delighted to meet you, Commander!"

"Captain," Taylor managed. "I'm actually a Captain."

"A Captain? Really?" Tessa reached out and rubbed his arm flirtatiously. "I've never met a real live Survey Service Captain before."

"Of course you have-"

"Quiet, Estelle!" said Tessa sharply. When she turned back to Taylor her eyes were sparkling. Green eyes, they were bright green. "What's a handsome Survey Service Captain like you doing in a place like this?" When he didn't answer immediately she filled in the blanks. "Are you here to arrest one of us?"

"I-"

"It's me, isn't it? You know my grav car is parked illegally! I'm sorry, Gallant Captain, I couldn't find a legal parking space!" She extended her wrists to him. "Take me in, Gallant Captain, take me in and give me the full duration!"

The full duration.

Tessa exuded sensuality. She exuded sensuality, and charm, and wit.

Where have you been all my life? Taylor wondered. He was rapidly thinking up a response when a man with a large Spanishy mustache got between them. "Tessa, there you are! Wherever have you been?"

"Right here, Raul. Where have you been?" she asked.

"With the Deputy Secretary. She'd like a word with you, Tessa."

Tessa gave Taylor a sly smile. "Duty calls. It's been a pleasure, Captain." She gave him a wink and then left with the Spanishy man.

Taylor watched her go.

"She likes you," said Estelle.

"You think so?" said Taylor.

"You don't?" said Estelle, astonished. "When you came to her it was like a door had opened."

A door had opened.

Tessa started speaking to an older woman. As she did Taylor could see her periodically looking back at him.

Not good.

If he stood there, waiting for her, it would make him look desperate. He should go, now.

"Nice to meet you," said Taylor. During this entire encounter he still hadn't bothered to really look at Estelle. Tessa had captured his undivided attention.

"Who is she?" Sophie asked between kisses.

"Who is who?" Taylor asked, as they embraced on the bench by the marsh pond.

"Who? Who?" said Sophie, imitating an owl. She pulled back and stared at him.

Taylor sighed. "How did you know?"

"Maybe I screaned it."

"Sophie!"

"I'm a Passive Observer. A Passive Observer who knows you oh so well," she said, running her fingers down his thigh. "Who is she?"

"Her name is Tessa." Taylor hadn't intended to tell Sophie about Tessa, but-

"Tessa...."

"I... I don't know her last name," said Taylor. Suddenly he realized his error. He had let Tessa go without learning her full name. If he had been thinking properly he could have asked Estelle... whose last name he also didn't know."

"You mean you had sex with a woman and don't even know her name?"

"Sophie, I didn't have sex with her!"

"You mean there's another woman besides me you won't have sex with?"

"Sophie!"

Sophie sighed, causing her nuclear tipped breasts to heave inside her Survey Service dayshirt. "You want her, don't you?"

"Yes." Taylor grimaced, knowing how much it hurt Sophie to admit it.

Sophie slapped her thigh and then extended a hand. "Then... go and get her."

"You... you mean it?"

"Sure! I'm your friend. Friends want each other to be happy, don't they?" She stared at him without blinking.

"Really?" Taylor tried to screan her.

"Of course not!" she said, lightly slapping his face. "But that's what I'm expected to say, isn't it?" She sighed. "If I must be miserable there is no reason why you shouldn't be happy, especially if your happiness causes my misery."

"Sophie-"

"Go! Go and make your newest conquest!" She leaned back seductively on the bench. "Then come back to me, your one and only true love, and tell me all about it."

Tessa.

Who was Tessa?

The first thing Taylor did was to search the government database to find the name of a member of the Diplomatic Corps whose first name was Tessa. He figured it shouldn't be difficult.

There were no members of the Diplomatic Corps in Perth with the first name "Tessa".

Taylor expanded the search, to include all members of the Diplomatic Corps. The answer came back 2.1 seconds later.

NULL RESULT.

Taylor tried to restrain his panic. How could he have let her get away without finding out her full name? He wasn't thinking!

Could it be possible that Tessa wasn't a member of the Diplomatic Corps? it had been a Corps function, but Taylor had been there, and he wasn't a diplomat either. In that case Tessa could be anyone... anywhere.

Taylor swallowed his nervousness and punched up an official list of Diplomatic Corps functions. There were three more being held over the course of the following week in Perth.

Taylor went to all three of them. It was ironic because he had no eye for other women and yet young women attached themselves to him like moths drawn to a flame. But Taylor had no interest in any of them, even ones younger and more attractive than Tessa. He just wanted her.

But Tessa could not be found. After the first social event Taylor was frustrated; after the second, he was panicking; and after the third, he became convinced that he had lost her forever and felt supremely foolish.

He worked out his frustrations during a moonlit evening on the marshland bench with his first officer.

"I feel so very very bad for you," said Sophie, in between kisses. She had her arms wrapped around him and he around her.

"I'm sure you do."

"Ummm, yeah," Sophie grinned slyly. She had changed so much over the years! In public around others she was still the dispassionate, logical Passive Observer. But in private, with him, she was all emotional and oozing femininity.

"I have a solution, though," she said, giving him an earnest look.

"You do?" Taylor asked, screaning that he had an idea what it was. Sophie's body was aflame in passion, a giant orange yellow glow.

"Yes," said Sophie, kissing him tightly. "Fuck me, Michael. Fuck my brains out!"

"Sophie-"

"It's true!" said Sophie. She grabbed his crotch possessively. "Once you drain these you won't care about her or anyone else."

There was an element of truth to what she was saying. Taylor's sessions with Sophie had made him increasingly frustrated and in dire need of a woman, a woman he could work out his frustrations to completion with. That was the reason he had first gone to the diplomatic event, to find a woman he could safely use to ease his sexual tensions. Tensions which had been stoked by his first officer.

"Sophie, I can't."

She pushed away from him, looking sullen again. It was a cycle with her, she got angry at him, left in a huff, but always returned for more. "You're the most decorated starfleet captain in the Survey Service. You've saved the galaxy from total destruction. And you can't even figure out how to find a girl you met?" She gave him a hard stare.

She was right.

Taylor pulled up the holoimages of all the female members of the Diplomatic Corps. There were 292 of them stationed on Perth. He went through them one by one.

No, no, no, no, no...

No, no, no no....

Yes.

Tessa's face smiled blankly at him. It was her!

Her name was Contessa Hetford, Special Negotiator Tessa Hetford. She had been with the Diplomatic Corps for nearly 14 years. She had quite a distinguished record as.... Taylor glanced rapidly over the details. He didn't want her resume. He wanted her.

Tessa sat in her tiny office in the Gay B. Blackwoman Building chatting on the holocom. "Yes, Rochelle, I think the Ambassador feels that way too. Yes. Yes. Um um...." her eyes gradually turned to the right and widened. "Um hm, um hm, yes, I quite agree. Listen Rochelle, something's come up, can I call you back in five? Thanks."

The holoimage faded.

Tessa turned to see Survey Service Captain Michael Taylor. "Well well well, if it isn't...." she frowned. "What was your name again? Wait, don't tell me."

She got up and actually touched his hands. "Manny."

Taylor shook his head.

"Moishe."

Taylor shook his head again.

"Um....."

"You know who I am, Tessa," said Taylor. "In fact, I think you knew who I was even when we first met."

"Did I?" She gave him a curious smile. Then she put a delicate hand to her chest. "What makes you say that, Michael?"

Michael. So she did remember him!

"Just a feeling I had," said Taylor. He was, after all, one of the most famous Survey Service Captains in existence. He had felt her excitement when he had told her his name. She knew who he was.

"A feeling." Tessa started massaging his hands. She lowered her head and gave him a sly look. "And was it a feeling which brought you here, Michael?"

Taylor panicked as he felt his penis starting to assemble itself. This woman was just so hot!

"I thought I'd-"

"Thought you'd what?" She abruptly pulled away and leaned back against her desk. Her prominent breasts stuck out of the tight sweater she was wearing. She smiled as she saw him noticing them.

"Thought I'd come by and say hello," said Taylor.

"Oh. Then... mission accomplished." She turned away as if to return to work.

Taylor turned her around gently to face him again. "You are a lively one, aren't you?"

She gave him another sly look. "Do you like lively women, Survey Service Captain Michael Tiberius Taylor of the USS Immortal?"

She had been researching him. She had been thinking about him!

"However did you find me?" she asked, leaning close to him. Her lips were mere inches from his, so red, so thick, so kissable.

"I'm with the Survey Service," said Taylor. "We don't leave people behind."

They went out for drinks. She had changed into a very tight red dress which showed every shape, every curve, her breasts sticking out in front and her ass in back. Even the contours of her shapely thighs could be seen through it. The dress was like a tight red wrap that covered her from neck to knee. It revealed nothing and everything. Taylor noticed her big, heavy melons. How he tried not to look at them! He failed, miserably. Tessa clearly enjoyed it, though. Whenever she caught him looking at them she gave him a sly grin.​