Hylozoic (21 page)

“Keep it. I doubt Lusky would let it aboard.” Thuy smiled at her wise, jokey friend. “I'll love you forever.”

“Just like Chu,” said Kittie, kissing her. And then she grew ghostly and was gone in a confetti of bright dots.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

S
itting
on the edge of the fire escape, Thuy stretched one arm toward Lusky, keeping her other arm wrapped around Jayjay's waist. She had to wonder if she were making a catastrophic error.

With a blast of warm, fishy air, the mothership manta ray's red-glowing mouth bumped against the metal fire escape. Thuy got to her feet, levered Jayjay over the lip, and followed him in.

“Hurry,” teeped Lusky. “I'll camouflage myself and fly away.”

Inside the manta, all was calm, with the space dimly lit by glowing traceries of magenta veins in Lusky's yellow flesh. The warm, damp cavity was smaller than Thuy had expected. She sat on the ridged floor with Jayjay stretched out beside her.

Although Lusky was teep-blocking herself from outside
viewers, Thuy could teep around the manta's interior quite well. She located Chu and a humanoid female lying nude on bunklike ledges toward the rear of the chamber. The alien woman had three eyes, her skin was chartreuse, and she smelled like Brussels sprouts.

A fleshy cone hung from the ceiling like a stalactite, shielding the dark tunnel of Lusky's throat. It was like a person's—what was the word?—uvula. The dull red uvula wobbled back and forth with the beating of the ray's massive wings.

“Hello, Thuy,” teeped Chu. “I—I didn't think I'd see you again.”

He sounded shy. Maybe he'd heard her imitating him when she said good-bye to Kittie. As usual, Thuy had been live on
Founders
—although, now, inside the Hrull, her teep to the outer world was blocked. But she'd be online again whenever Lusky opened her mouth. The ratings for this adventure would be huge.

“I'm glad you're okay,” she told Chu. He really was very cute. “I thought you might be in outer space by now. Somewhere like the—Hrullwelt? Is that where this green woman is from?”

“Glee's from a planet called Pepple,” said Chu. “She's a pusher for Lusky. Her boyfriend, Kenee, just died, I'm not sure why. I might replace him. But there's one part about being a pusher that I don't like.”

Pepple—hadn't the Peng mentioned that place? But before getting into all that, Thuy needed to think about Jayjay. He was sleeping as deeply as before. She leaned over him, making him comfortable, teeping into his mental state. Thank God, still no Pekklet.

Suddenly the floor lurched and the sound of an explosion filtered in.

“The Crownies alerted your air force,” teeped Lusky,
banking to the left. Her virtual voice came in pulses. She was flapping fast. “Even though the pilots can't see me or teep me, they're tracking my gravitational signature. Hang on tight while I try some moves. And get ready to push with Chu and Glee! We'll want to teleport out of here soon.”

The manta heeled to the left, and did a loop. Breathing the warm soupy air as shallowly as possible, Thuy lay pressed against the membranous floor beside Jayjay, doing her best not to puke.

“I'm warning you right now that I'll spit out Jayjay the instant that the filthy Pekklet takes him over again,” Lusky informed Thuy. “She'll set Jayjay to casting runes against me.”

“Well, you can't just drop him from the sky!” said Thuy sharply. Maybe she could get away with being masterful. “I want you to ferry us to Seven Wiggle Labs in San Francisco, Lusky.”

“We'll talk about all that after we hop,” said Lusky noncommittally. “Right now I'm dodging jets.”

“Look, we don't have to be inside you at all,” snapped Thuy. “We can perfectly well teleport to California on our own.”

“Except that your husband is too zonked to teleport himself,” said Lusky. “At least for now. Also you're hoping for a nice ratings bump if you try and rescue Chu. Don't think you have secrets from me.”

Thuy sighed and sat up. The damp heat was oppressive. It might have been more comfortable to strip down like Glee and Chu, but she didn't want to be teasing the boy. It might make her look bad.

The space inside the manta's mouth was like a low gothic chapel. In addition to the two pusher bunks by the throat, there were a pair of larger ledges near the front, perhaps for the absent Wobble and Duxy. Fleshy feeding tubes dangled in each niche. But the humanoid woman, Glee, looked emaciated.

“Glee just
looks
puny,” said Chu, in tune with Thuy's thoughts. “She's her normal weight; she's tough, like beef jerky. Lusky feeds us as much as we like. She needs to keep her crew healthy.”

“Kenee didn't look so healthy,” said Thuy. “He looked dead.”

“Kenee had a—a personality problem,” teeped Glee, getting in on the conversation. She was using a teep voice that carried a lilting, throaty accent. “Not really Lusky's fault.”

The thud of another explosion filtered through Lusky's flesh, and the great Hrull rocked heavily one side.

“Whoops!”
teeped Lusky. “Time to push, guys! What if we skip California and go straight for the Hrullwelt?”

“Gaia needs us,” protested Thuy. “Drop Jayjay and me in San Francisco like I said—and release Chu, too.”

“Chu's my pusher now,” said Lusky. “He wants to stay.”

“I'm not so sure,” said Chu. “I need to think about it a little more.”

“So, fine, we'll go to SF,” said Lusky equably. “Start charging my pusher cone. You help, too, Thuy. Just try it this once. Once you have the full pusher experience, you might want to stay on, too.”

Chu and Glee focused their attention and began teeking at the ship, trying to move it with their minds. That's all that pushing was. Thuy joined in. But, for the moment, nothing happened. The manta ray was too heavy for three people to move all at once.

“Don't stop,” urged Glee. “Nothing is wasted. Our teek goes into the pusher cone.” She was referring to the fleshy uvula at the back of Lusky's mouth.

Drawing on her mental visualization tools, Thuy saw the quantum jiggles of their telekinetic waves as orange and purple bands that wrapped around the wobbly, dangling pusher cone.

Glee's three eyes were golden in her triangular green face. She had smallish breasts, wide hips, and a human-looking pubic mound. Thuy was ever so slightly jealous to see this alien female stretched out nude so close to Chu. Absurd to feel that way, but there it was. Maybe Thuy was a little jazzed to have a youthful admirer. Jayjay sure wasn't doing much to make her feel sexy.

As Glee, Chu, and Thuy continued teeking at Lusky's bulk, the pusher cone trembled and grew moist. Slime glistened on its surface; drops dripped to the floor.

“Hrull gel!” teeped Glee. The goo had an invigorating smell, like musk and cloves, a scent with a somehow purplish quality.

Galvanized by the odor, Glee stopped pushing and sat up. No matter, the teek accumulator was full—and now it discharged an illusionistic switcheroo of spacetime frames.

“All right,” teeped Lusky. “We're over San Francisco. I'm going to circle in a holding pattern while you three enjoy your treat.”

“Drop your teep block,” Thuy told Lusky. “I want to see for myself.”

“No,” said Lusky. “I don't want those planes to find me again.”

“Gel time!” messaged Glee. She was crouched beneath the pusher cone, scooping up slime from the puddle, smoothing the funky stuff onto the skin of her minimal breasts.

“What is it exactly?” Thuy asked uneasily.

“Health,” teeped Glee, smiling over at her, showing her pearly teeth. She stretched out her glistening green hands. “Try some, Thuy and Chu. See how it feels to be a real pusher.”

“The gel is a drug?” said Thuy, taking a careful step back. “From the Hrull mothership's body?”

“I haven't taken any yet,” said Chu, standing at her side. “After each hop, Glee gets some. This is the part about being a pusher that I don't want. I don't like doing things that make me lose control.”

“I'm with you,” said Thuy. “I bet that gel is totally addictive.”

“Gel is my bond to my pushers,” said Lusky, not really contradicting her. “You'll love it.”

The three-eyed Glee grinned at them, but for the moment made no move. Thuy poised herself to kick the wiry alien girl in the stomach if need be. And Chu took a fighting stance as well. Useless Jayjay continued lying limply on the floor.

A deep laugh gusted up from the manta's throat—and she sprung a surprise. Her great mouth puckered, forcing Thuy and Chu against the sulfurous green woman beneath the pusher cone.

Glee's slime-coated hand massaged Thuy's face, her slender fingers working the gel deep into the chambers of her nose.

Wow!

The gel was great! Thuy didn't feel zonked, not even high—just
really healthy
. All aches and weariness drained from her frame; the tension she'd been carrying in her shoulders was gone. She felt like she'd done yoga, taken a shower, and napped.

The mouth's walls opened back out.

“You see?” teeped Glee with a sunny smile. “The gel is good.” She'd smeared it on Chu as well. “There's another effect, too,” she continued, slyly winking her third eye. “It makes you feel like—you know.”

Thuy knew. She was already feeling the tingle in her loins.

“Do you want to?” said Chu, looking at her with a sweet, tentative smile. “Please? I don't really know how, but—”

Thuy cast a quick glance at Jayjay. He was lying there with
his eyes closed. She was sick of being his coma nurse. He'd brought all this on himself, getting so high and yoo-hooing Pekka. She'd never felt so horny in her whole life.

But—Chu was an innocent kid. Fourteen. She thought back to her own self at fourteen, with her girlish dreams of dates and dances and the perfect kiss. The pumping and grinding of actual sex would have horrified her.

“No, Chu,” said Thuy, fighting back her lust. “It wouldn't be good for you. You're not ready.”

She was doing okay, she was taking the high road—but then Lusky teeped into her head and nudged her over the edge.

As if in a dream, Thuy undressed, laid down on Chu's bunk, and began passionately kissing him, her visual field overlaid with the pulsing networks of Lusky's veins. Glee sat off to the side on her own bunk, looking amused.

“Do it, Thuy,” moaned Chu. “I love you.”

With Chu urging her on and the gel throbbing in her cells, Thuy found herself unable to summon the will to stop.

They moved from kissing to fondling, and then to the real thing, Thuy on top, Chu on top—back and forth, in and out, the lovers riding volcanic waves of sweet sensation, kissing each other over and over again. Chu came once, twice, three times, and Thuy more times than that.

Perched upon the lovely boy, riding him down the stretch for one last orgasm, Thuy happened to glance toward her husband. Oh shit. Jayjay's eyes were wide open, fixed upon her, fascinated. But his limbs were paralyzed again. The Pekklet was back in charge. No teep block could keep the Pekklet out. Jayjay opened his mouth and began to moan and hum, gently twitching his hips. Goose bumps sprang into relief on his skin. In that instant he seemed utterly loathsome.

“I have to ditch him!” blared Lusky, angling toward the
ground. “Oh, why did I wait so long! I was busy watching you two! And, damnit, some more jets are coming.”

The manta ray's mouth parts twitched, inching Jayjay forward so that she could spit him out. The great jaws opened to reveal the chockablock pastel homes of San Francisco blanketing the hills far below. It was nearly dusk here; the air was moist with fog. A plane roared past, trying to force Lusky down.

The wind and noise brought Thuy to her senses. It suddenly struck her that, with Lusky's mouth open, she and Chu were visible on
Founders
right now. And Chu's penis was still in her vagina.

Poor Jayjay was wedged against Lusky's lower jaw, with his head turned at an awkward angle. Thuy's heart flip-flopped.

“Don't,” she screamed, pushing herself off Chu and scrambling after her pitiful husband. “You'll break his neck!”

But now Jayjay slid free and lurched across Lusky's lower lip, halfway out of her mouth, moaning a rune, beaming it into the flesh of the manta. Thuy grabbed his feet, dizzied by the downward view. They were at least two hundred meters above the ground.

“Let him drop!” teeped Lusky. “He's—”

Thuy heard a series of crunches and wet snaps, like a butcher's cleaver cutting up a chicken. Jayjay's rune had not only killed Lusky's flight lice, the rune was telling the atoms in Lusky's wings to opt out of their chemical bonds.