Fantasy The People Makers

Tessa sighed again. "Michael, I'm not an expert, I can't explain it to you. Leave it to the experts! They are the ones who know."

"The experts here being the Federationistas, right?" said Taylor.

"Michael, Honey, they saved us! They saved us, brought us here, set up this infrastructure at enormous time and expense and are working to restart the human race. What more could you ask of them?"

"The truth, for one thing," said Taylor. "This isn't another galaxy, and we aren't 500 years in the future."

She gave him a daring look. "Are you sure of that, Honey? Really sure of it?" She turned to Sophie. "Sophie, you're proud to be a Passive Observer, aren't you?"

"Pride doesn't enter into it."

"Of course not," said Tessa. "But you only report what you see, you don't make conclusions that aren't there, correct?"

"Correct."

"Tell me, what do you see around you?"

Sophie looked around slowly. "I see... bushes. Jungle. A beach. They have the hallmark of holographic quality, though of a superior technology to our own."

"In a broader sense, what is our situation?"

"We... we are on a Space Station. A Space Station with human beings taken from the planet Earth. It is run by aliens who claim that humanity has been wiped out. They also claim we are 500 years in the future in another galaxy."

"And have you seen any visual evidence with your own eyes which would contradict this?"

Sophie paused, feeling Taylor's eyes on her. "No," she said reluctantly.

"So, as a Passive Observer, can you definitively say that the Federationista's claims are untrue?'

"No," Sophie repeated. "But intellectually I find them highly unlikely."

"And I screaned that they are lying," said Taylor.

"Honey, Honey, Honey!" she hugged him tightly. "I've heard your story about how aliens from the distant future gave you this amazing ability. I sweated it out of you during one of our amazing confessional sex sessions, remember? But... that's not the end-all of things. I have good senses too and trust me when I say, these people mean us nothing but good. They have our real well-being at heart, I can tell. Much like the World Government."

Much like the World Government.

Those five words exposed the tremendous gap between Taylor and Tessa. They had rarely discussed politics during their heated, passionate romance. Taylor somehow knew that Tessa felt different than he did and didn't want to explore a possible schism. But there it was.

As a member of the Diplomatic Corps, Tessa was a full fledged employee of the World Government, a loyal and supporting member of the massive bureaucracy. She had been taught in school to believe in the World Government, and she did; all the media she absorbed reinforced that belief; everyone she associated with agreed with her, and so it was only natural that she would want to enter into service for the World Government when the time came. Members of the Survey Service were different; although the World Government indirectly supported the Service, it wasn't as directly answerable to that central body as other arms of the bureaucracy were, and members of the Service by their very nature tended to be more skeptical of the WG's goals and tendencies.

And so then perhaps it was only natural to expect Tessa to swallow the Federationistas' story hook, line, and sinker, as the Federationistas could simply be viewed as a new incarnation of the World Government, a strong, powerful centralized authority controlling others, ostensibly to create beneficial outcomes.

It only took a half second for Taylor and Sophie to exchange glances to communicate these facts and that was all the time that was needed. They knew each other so well.

They both stood outside the orange door, the one door they could not enter. "This is the way out," said Sophie.

"Yes," said Taylor. He studied the control panel, tried pressing some buttons. Nothing happened.

"We don't have the access codes," said Sophie. "We don't have the tools to cut the door open." She studied the control panel, tapped some buttons. "It doesn't even seem to be responsive. Perhaps it's activated another way."

"In other words, we're stuck here until we figure out a way to get past this door," said Taylor. He frowned, considering. "Or maybe around it. Have you seen any air vents?"

"No."

"Airlocks?"

Sophie shook her head.

Taylor took a deep breath. "Let me give this some thought."

At breakfast the following morning, Taylor noticed that Tessa was talking with Gavin Ansom.

Flirting was more like it, from the way she was smiling, laughing, and even touching his elbow. He watched the two talking as he felt a slow burn rising within him.

"Trouble, Captain?" Sophie asked, appearing at his side.

"Tessa seems to be friendly with the locals," said Taylor.

"Too friendly?" Sophie asked, biting down on a piece of toast.

"I hope not," said Taylor.

"You know, I've seen this before. We both have," said Sophie.

"I know," said Taylor.

"On New Eden," said Sophie. "You and I and Lieutenant Sean Parnell and Ensign Jennifer Titatchi were stranded there. The locals, the plant people, were so friendly, so very friendly."

"I remember," said Taylor.

"They seduced us," said Sophie. She touched his arm. "They fucked us. They turned us into them."

"I remember that too," said Taylor.

"And now it's happening all over again," said Sophie. She bit her lip. "She's carrying your child. Doesn't she have any sense of self-restraint?"

"Tessa just thinks she's being friendly," said Taylor.

"And what do you think, Captain?"

Taylor gave no response.

Taylor sat and watched stonily as Tessa talked with various men during the day in the Algeria lounge. She smiled, laughed, and had vivid conversations. She talked to the women too.

When they met up for dinner Taylor said, "Did you have a nice day?"

"I did," said Tessa. She looked at him. "But that's not what you mean, is it? I can tell just by a glance at your disapproving face. I know you so well, Michael. What did I do now that makes you so unhappy?"

"You... and the other men," said Taylor grudgingly.

"What did I do, Michael? Tell me." She wrapped her arms around him. She had the most beautiful eyes. "Did I fuck them, Michael? Did I fuck each and every one of them right in front of you?"

"You...." It was so hard to put into words!

"I talked to them, Michael," she said. "To find out what the situation was. I talked to the women too. I hope you won't accuse me of secretly wanting to fuck them as well." She gave a sly grin. "That's what I'm trained to do, Michael. I'm a diplomat. My role to get a room to open up and talk to me."

"And what did you find out?"

"That there are a lot of good, decent people trying their best to save the human race," said Tessa.

"Slaves on the flying stud farm," said Taylor.

"Yes," Tessa smiled at him. "As you would call it, slaves on the flying stud farm." She surprised him with a kiss. "Really Michael. That cold, suspicious Survey Service perspective is needed sometimes, I suppose. But that's why the big decisions are made by the World Government, by-"

"Diplomats like you-"

"-guided by experts in every field," said Tessa smugly. She put a hand on his chest. "You are a warrior. The Service needs warriors. But it also needs people in times of peace, too. Negotiators."

"Is that what you were doing on Craig Cobin's lap today? Negotiating?"

She laughed as she put a hand inside his jumpsuit. "Jealous?"

"Should I be?"

She stared at him coyly. "I don't know, Michael.... should you be?" Her lips were so red, so full.

And then they were kissing and hugging and Taylor didn't want to let go of her. Before long his jumpsuit was off, and he was helping her take hers off over her burgeoning belly. The belly containing his child. Taylor smiled as he rubbed the growing bump. He would do anything to ensure its safety.

He slowly and carefully inserted himself into her.

Tessa gasped appreciatively and Taylor smiled as he started poling in and out of her. He imagined the Federationistas were watching but so what? It had been so long since he had been inside his woman, too long....

As he moved in and out of her, he reveled in the familiarity, the strong bond of love both he and Tessa shared for each other. The fundamental disagreements they had were momentarily forgotten, lost in the whirlwind of emotional passion and physical pleasure. But as Taylor moved strongly in and out of his lover he realized her reactions were muted.

Of course, he realized. We don't have the bar here. Nor the whip.

"Tessa," he whispered. "Is there... is there anything I can do for you?" he asked, as he pounded into her.

She looked at his face with pure love and understanding. "You're doing it."

"But... you won't be able to come... will you?"

She paused. "No...." she said. "But it feels... it feels all right."

Taylor wanted his love to feel much more than all right.

She saw the intense desire etched on his face, the desire of one lover to bring the other off along with him. She said, "It might help if you slapped me."

"What?"

"Slap me. Go on, I won't bite."

Taylor tentatively tapped her cheek.

Tessa frowned. "What was that?" She grabbed his hand and made him slap her forcefully.

WACK!

"Ooooh!" said Tessa. "Yes, like that. More, Michael, more!"

And so Taylor started to slap his lover even as he plowed into her.

WACK! WACK! WACK!

His penis furiously pounded into her. Her cheeks were as red as his penis. He daren't do any more, for fear of leaving lingering marks. "Tessa... I'm going to come soon... and you?"

"I'm part of the way there," she gasped, her cheeks rosy red.

"Only part of the way?"

She nodded. "It might helped if you choked me."

"What?"

"Choke me!"

Taylor hesitantly put his hands around her throat.

"Harder! Harder, Michael!" She slapped his face. SLAP!

Taylor roared and choked his lover. Her face started to turn red and she gasped.

"Oh... oh... ohhhhh... OOOOOOOOH!" She gasped and stiffened as she cried out his name. Taylor stiffened as well as he felt his sperm flooding into her. He collapsed on top of her, grateful it was over.

After a moment he opened his eyes, and saw her smiling at him. "Are you all right?"

She grinned widely and kissed him. "Never better!"

Things continued as they were for several days. Taylor was happy to be back together with Tessa again and was also glad he found a way he could satisfy her. After sex on successive nights he found that merely putting grasping hands around her throat rather than actually cutting off her air was enough to sexually satisfy her, which relieved him greatly as he found the whole process quite uncomfortable. Still he was a little disturbed that his lover, the mother of his child, had such unusual desires.

The person who was most dissatisfied at this time, however, was Sophie. It wasn't just Taylor and Tessa who were having sex; it seemed most everyone around her was having sex, either for partnering purposes... or just because they could. She frowned inwardly as she sat at the woman's table and listened to Susan Shinn describe how Harold Ramis gave her a good hard boning in her vagina.

"I mean, we're not compatible, I know we're not," she said, giving them all a knowing grin as she stroked her blonde hair. "But he felt so good inside of me! And then he stayed the whole night with me!"

"Really?" said Marion Kelly.

"Yes!" said Susan. "He held me in his arms and we fell asleep together!"

"He likes you, he really likes you!"

"Maybe," said Susan shyly.

Sophie listened stoically to this kind of talk for three days before Tessa collared her one afternoon right after lunch when Taylor was going on another tour of the station.

"How're you doing, Honey?"

"I am fine," said Sophie.

"I notice you're still all alone," said Tessa.

"Your powers of observation serve you well."

Tessa grimaced. "Come, sit and talk with me, Sister."

She pulled Tessa down to a table surrounded by genuine imitation holographic palm trees. They were in the Algeria Lounge today.

"I'm concerned about you, Sophie," said Tessa.

"Why?"

"You need someone."

"Do I?"

"Everyone needs someone," said Tessa. "You're a woman, aren't you?"

"Yes," said Sophie.

"And women have needs, don't they?"

Sophie paused. "I... I suppose."

"Do you suppose you might enjoy the comforts of a man?" Tessa asked gently.

"Possibly." Sophie wet her lips. "If it were the right man."

"Well, there are so many handsome men here, Honey," said Tessa. "There's Gavin Ansom. He's a former World Government Controller, did you know that? There's Ardis McDuff, he's a billionaire!"

"I don't want government officials or billionaires," said Sophie coldly.

"We both know who you want, don't we?" she said. "Don't we?"

Sophie hesitated, and slowly nodded.

"You want him. It's all right, dear. It's just us. Come out and say it. Come on, it will make you feel good," Tessa implored her.

Sophie looked into her eyes. She saw not a hint of malice. With some effort she said, "I... want... Michael."

"There, that didn't hurt so much, did it?"

Sophie shook her head.

Tessa squeezed her hand. "You're a good girl. A really good girl. I like you. A little cold on the outside, but sensitive and kind on the inside. I've always known. I have a sense about people, you know. Not like Michael's vaunted 'screaning', you know," she gave a half-satirical smile, "But my own senses have always served me well." She paused. "I made you an offer, 500 years ago, before we left Earth. Do you remember it?"

Sophie nodded.

"I renew my offer," said Tessa.

Sophie paused. "You... would let me have sex with Michael... if he would have me?"

"Oh, he would have you if I allowed it. Never doubt that, Honey."

"But... would you still want to watch?" said Sophie.

"Of course," said Tessa. "He's my property, and if I loan him out, I want to be there to see that he's used properly." She smiled tenderly. "And when I get big, really big, you could help me out."

"How?"

"I'm getting big now but that's nothing compared to what I'll be like in a month or two. I'm not going to be able to satisfy Michael in my eighth or ninth month, and probably not for a month or two after. If you would take over in the interim, satisfy his needs until I was able to resume, I'd be very grateful."

Sophie's jaw dropped open. She stood up abruptly, and walked away on stiff, wooden legs.

"They are not partnering," said X. "The last batch you had unfrozen are not partnering with others. Not even themselves."

"They need more time to adjust," said F.

"They have been on the Station for five standard days. That is more than enough time for them to begin interviewing and winnowing candidates. But they are doing none of that," said J. "Perhaps we should end the experiment now."

"We talked about having 60 more days," said F.

"That was contingent on some sign of progress or even movement. We see none," said J.

"Hello, Captain Taylor," said Frog. "Tessa, Sophie, good morning to all of you."

"Hello Frog," said Tessa, as she sat with her friends at breakfast in Oregon. "And how are you today?"

"Fine, thank you for asking," said Frog. "I was wondering if you had given any thought to who your first mating partners would be?"

"We've been giving that some thought," said Tessa.

"No we haven't," said Taylor.

"Definitely we haven't," Sophie added.

"I sense some dissension," said Frog. "Perhaps a tour of the facilities would change your mind."

"We've already seen the Station," said Taylor. "At least the parts accessible to humans."

"I was thinking of our reproduction facilities on New Earth," said Frog.

"Reproduction facilities?" said Tessa.

"Yes," said Frog. "After a genetic pairing is approved on the Station, that information is uploaded to our planetside base on New Earth. Our flesh replication tanks are then activated, creating the first batch of 69 subjects who will be the nucleus of the new human race."

"How do babies fend for themselves?" Taylor asked.

"The first batch are not babies, rather fully formed adults who are given flash learning to make them quickly capable of assuming adult duties soon after they are formed from the womb," said Frog. "It would be easier to understand if you see it. You would actually be the first Test Subjects to see it, if you're interested."

"Why, we'd be honored!" said Tessa, with a big smile. "Wouldn't we be, Honey?"

"Flattered beyond end," said Taylor.

"Can Sophie come too?" Tessa asked. "I wouldn't want to leave her behind."

Sophie looked away, a bit embarrassed.

"Of course," said Frog. "You may all come. Follow me."

Frog took them to the Orange Door, one of the only doors that Taylor couldn't get access to. But the door opened easily enough for Frog. It opened into an enormous hanger bay.... as well as a yellow door on the left. Taylor asked about that.

"That leads to our Central Core. Authorized personnel only," said Frog.

"Of course," said Taylor, turning his attention to the landing bay. There was a large ship there and a number of smaller ones in port. Taylor immediately headed for the large one.

"Not that way, Captain," said Frog. "We'll only be needing a shuttle. We're not going more than a few hundred thousand miles... and a few hundred years into the future."

The shuttle cockpit was cramped. Frog was in the pilot seat, Taylor in the copilot position. Tessa was behind Frog, and Sophie was behind him. He screaned Sophie's excitement at even the simple act of sitting right behind him.

Taylor watched Frog study the controls. "You know how to fly this thing?"

"Of course," said Frog. "I was designed as a caregiver, but also have other skills."

"Designed?"

The shuttle smoothly took off and left the hanger bay. From a rear monitor they could see the Station for the first time. It was big, very big, a combination of a horizontal doughnut shape encompassing a long oval in the center of it. The shuttle made a leisurely turn into outer space.

Taylor toyed with the idea of knocking Frog out and taking control. But this clearly was not a vessel designed for interstellar travel. He noticed their course.

"I thought we were going to the planet."

"We are," said Frog. "But first we must find the right time portal to take us some 500 years into what you call the future."

"The future?"

"These two suns generate magnetic and gravity waves. Where they intersect creates voids in space time." He indicated squiggles on the sensor holo. "We can manipulate these voids, to a certain degree, by our angle of entry and velocity, to take us when we want to go. Excuse me one moment, this is a bit complex."

Taylor watched as a complex series of equations appeared on the holodisplay. Frog spoke in a foreign language to the shuttle computer and it spoke back to him. Finally, Frog nodded. "Course set. We'll be entering a space/time rift in 45 seconds. Prepare yourself."

"For what?" said Taylor.

He watched and waited. The ship moved through empty space. He saw nothing. Then, a few seconds later, there was a tiny tremor.

Frog checked her instruments and nodded. "Very good." She changed course and headed to the planet.

"Wait a minute," said Taylor. "Are you telling us we just traveled 500 years forward in time?"

"Closer to 497.494 years, but yes," said Frog. "This is not the first time we have done this, and we have gotten very good at getting more and more exact at it. Each time we go forward we go several minutes earlier, to do undo the last experiment and replace it with another."

"I don't understand," said Tessa.

"If a genetic matching fails, we put a new genetic matching into place," said Frog, as the planet rapidly grew in the shuttle's window. It was a beautiful blue-green planet, with larger land masses than Earth. "But it would be tremendously wasteful to use separate resources to do pairings over and over again, so we simply perform the pairing once, the first time, and each successive time stop ourselves from doing that particular pairing and replace it with another. Each time we stop ourselves from doing a pairing we go back in time a few minutes before the current pairing to stop ourselves."

"And how many times have you done this?"

Frog looked out the window. "Many. Very many."

They landed at an enormous facility full of square alien buildings surrounded by rolling hills filled with green alien plantlife.

As they stepped out of the shuttle they saw workers scurrying here and there. The workers were of all different shapes and sizes. From Taylor's perspective, some looked like oversized furry pink rabbits. Some looked like sheep who walked on two legs. Some looked like spotted horses. There must have been twenty or more different alien races in the landing area alone.

"So many different races," said Taylor. "I've never seen anything like it."

"That is the fundamental idea behind the Federation," said Frog. "That different races work together for the common good."

"Yes, but different species usually have very different values," said Taylor. "It's odd for all of them to agree on the same things."

"They were made to agree," said Frog dryly, his talk crystal hanging around his neck glowing with every word.

"What do you mean?"

"Come," said Frog, waving a green hand. "There is much to show you."

They were dormant giants.

There were at least five of them in the enormous building, totally nude and lying on their backs. They all looked to be perhaps two hundred feet tall, perhaps more. And they were all females.

All females, with enormous bulging bellies, and their legs widely spread.

There were conveyor belts of sorts coming out of their enormous vaginas, which were as large as giant cave entrances. And on these conveyor belts were bodies, human bodies, fully adult human bodies, covered in white webbing. Every few seconds an enormous vagina would contract, squeezing out a human body onto the waiting conveyor belt.

Taylor tried to make sense of what he was seeing. "These... these creatures...."

"Genetically designed to mass produce the next human race," said Frog.

Taylor watched the enormous vagina contract again and again, squeezing out another body. How many bodies could it fit in there at one time? He looked at one of many holomonitors which showed one of the giant's faces. Her eyes looked vacant and dull, her mouth wide open as something approximating a feeding tube was shoved into it. "Are they...."

"Conscious? To a degree. But they are not truly sentient beings. They were not designed that way," said Frog. "They were designed to be mass incubators of reproduction. We provide the embryos, made to our specifications, and they are made to grow rapidly inside of the Large Ones."

"But... they look like they're aware," said Tessa, watching one blink.

"Barely so," Frog assured her. "Trust me when I say they are not sentient. We are a not a cruel people."

"I never thought that for a moment," said Taylor, exchanging glances with Sophie.

He looked at the forms coming out conveyor belt style. "These... bodies... can act as adult people?"

"Eventually," said Frog. "There is flash learning and training and instruction. Come, I will show you."

Before they left Taylor look one last look at the enormous giant's vagina. That... thing was squeezing out an entire human race. Humans made inside the bodies of a giant alien creature. He watched a person's legs, body, and head squeezed out of enormously slick red, wet lips and gently plop down on a conveyor belt. The body was covered in an oily, white substance.

"Does that make you want to become a mother, Sophie?" he asked.

Sophie shivered, staring at the enormous vagina. "Not any time soon, Captain."

He patted her on the shoulder, saw Tessa staring at him meaningfully, and pulled his hand away.​