The World Game (21 page)

In theory!”

“Yah! In theory!” came back Sheila with grim humor. “Let’s do it people!”

“It just goes from great to amazing! Now we have Martin and Corcoran in what could be their finale interacting with Sheila and Bob who have come out of nowhere and are really contenders along with the performers out there on the fragment!” Peepers was shedding endorphins of excitement that were churning through the network. “Howley, who would you choose as the winner”

“Peepers, I love all of them. They’re fighters, they’re funny, talented and they want to hold on to life like it was the most precious thing ever. You know, I wouldn’t want to see any of these finalists get squished, blown up, vaporized or horribly asphyxiated, but keeping in mind that they do get a second chance in stasis, I’m still particular to Hannaford and Shaw.

I mean, this Sheila is great, coming out of left field like that, with her Pirogi Cholent martial arts taking down a guy twice her size in twenty seconds, but I just have a brain feeling that Felicity turns on my primeval engine.”

“Thank you Howley. Charonelle, what do you think with this new development.”

“Peepers,” came across the warm sexy voice, “Just when you think you’ve seen it all, well these groups pull out all the stops and raise the bar. It is too hard to call so I’m not going to try.”

“What she talkin’ ‘bout raisin’ bars? She ain’t got no legs for high jumpin’ any mo! Fact is she just another blobby brain swimming in a glass bottle. Sheesh! It’s me Nickle Gannon that’s gotta keep a body going so’s I can service all them brains and I ain’t gonna jump no bars!”

“Settle down Nickle. You will get to join us as soon as this game is over and a new com-repair is trained and active.”

“That’s easy for you to say Peepers. You didn’t have to hang around for five and a half thousand years with a sore back and a blocked terlit!”

“Just think about all those emergencies you took care of over the time to save our people the discomfort of isolation. You can feel good about that.”

Nickle gave a middle finger in Peeper’s general galactic direction and went “Hmmmfff!”

CHAPTER
51

On the Iranian fragment.

Felicity was a comet swinging in a tethered arc towards the unforgiving rock ridges of the fragment surface. Shaw had seconds to attempt a rescue.

He quickly looked to his own second tether to make sure it was secure as everything he had calculated depended upon it holding.

“Felicity! I’m coming to get you!” He jetted forward at maximum thrust towards Felicity’s tether which was now steel taut as it swung her around. He snagged the tether in the crook of his arm and then released, to slingshot him back the way he had come. Applying full acceleration to his jet packs again, his own tether was now dragging Felicity’s down, shortening her arc of travel but also accelerating her velocity in compensation. Her splat on the surface would be even more severe if he has miscalculated.

“Felicity, you with me?”

“Yes!” came the panicked reply.

“Grab hold of my tether really tight and release yours!”

There was no time to talk about it. Felicity’s gut took over as she ignored the fast approaching surface that would shred her to bloody ribbons. She hooked Shaw’s sliding tether under one arm and used the other to flick the emergency release that had been redundant to this point. Releasing earlier would have shot her off into space with no hope of recovery.

Shaw saw the change over and immediately vectored for an upwards trajectory that started slowing Felicity’s plummet to death.

“Use your jets now Felicity! Help me slow you!”

“Can’t!” She moaned, her shoulder in agony from the twisting and pressure that the youniform tried to compensate.

She was already starting to swing into a parabolic dive, the question in Shaw’s mind, was it too late to avoid impact?”

Seconds that felt like lifetimes had elapsed. Felicity saw the surface racing at her but now she was going to skim it at high velocity, hanging on to Shaw’s tether like a knot in the middle of a skipping rope. Shaw was now travelling against her motion, slowing her horizontal velocity. She bunched up her legs anticipating impact. Her speed relative to the surface was now survivable if she could miss the worst rocky outcrops.

She hit, feet first that set her tumbling but ricochetted her off the surface and she lost her grip on the tether. She was now a space object, disoriented and flying away from the fragment at a much reduced speed. Shaw released his tethers, reversed his course and came jetting after her.

He caught up after a minute, still over the fragment but at some altitude. Felicity was spinning and tumbling, completely disoriented and barely conscious. He felt that if he grabbed her, his youniform would be able to compensate and stop the tumble effect she would impart to him, so he made a split second analysis and grabbed hold of her.

The stars and fragment started whirling around for him, but the youniform controlled the jet thrust to bring him under control.

He checked his remaining reaction mass. There was not much left so he would have to activate Felicity’s thrusters to get them safely back to the transport. He held Felicity in a tight clutch and looked at her unconscious face through the youniform helmets.

Even under the dire circumstances, he felt the softness and femininity under his fingers and saw the simple beauty of her features in repose. A rush of warmth and care, sheer hungry desire, churned in him, his male human instincts unsupressable as his youniform stretched to accommodate an ill timed tumescence.

Felicity’s eyes flickered as she regained consciousness and looked into Shaw’s concerned face inches in front of her. She stretched her arms around his shoulders, adding to the pressure between their bodies as they drifted in space.

“Hmmm, Mr Shaw... Are you just pleased to see me?” She murmured, “Or is that a banana in your pocket?”

They both giggled at the reversed cliche and hugged together even tighter, sharing Shaw’s erection through the thin youniform material.

Felicity wrapped her legs around Shaw and commanded her buddy to meld the youniforms. The youniforms flowed into a cocoon around the pair, leaving them skin to skin as they kissed deeply with the passion that only sharing a near death experience could create.

And then and there,

In outer space,

Was again conceived,

The human Race.

“Shaw? Hannaford? Are you guys OK?” Fuller’s concerned voice rattled in their ears. They looked at each other, nose to nose in the cocoon, relaxed after the rush of weightless, simultaneous orgasm.

“Yes Colonel, we are both fine, now.” Felicity could not suppress another giggle. “We have merged youniforms to share reaction mass and will jet back at optimum velocity to regain the transport.”

Fuller wasn’t hearing someone who had just cheated death by a whisker. Something was going on here and he had a fair idea now of just what it was. “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.” He hinted.

“We are fine sir.” Replied Shaw who then whispered in Felicity’s ear “And if we do I’m not naming it after him!”

Felicity broke out in a fit of laughter while Fuller’s request for repeat, transmission unclear, rattled in their ears. They turned off the comms transmission and locked lips again as Shaw explored Felicity’s warm, smooth body. They had at least ten minutes until they reached the transport. Felicity felt his erection harden again and looked at him with wide eyes. “Again?” She said with a cheeky grin.

“Forever...” Shaw answered breathlessly.

Far away across the World Game network Peepers could not get a word in as the voyeur audience roared with approval at Shaw and Felicity as they coupled in total abandon and bliss. If there was one emotion and sensation that could be vicariously shared with greater intensity than violent death, it was the peak of sexual climax and satisfaction. The immortal brains that made the World Game audience were all screaming in superlative ecstasy as they pseudo climaxed along with the human couple. The junction of vagina and penis ruled the universe as billions of immortals focused upon the intensity of sensation that controlled the two warm, copulating bodies. The pseudo orgasms were a mixed double for the audience, combining Felicity’s rolling pleasure with Shaw’s sharp and intense pulsations.

As the multiple climaxes faded and the two clutched together, slippery with hot sweat and body fluids, the hubbub of moaning and screaming across the network died down, giving Peepers a chance to regain control.

“Wow!” Peepers gasped. “Charonelle, Howley, are you ready to go on?” They too had all enjoyed the experience, but professionalism dictated they get back on the job. He received single word affirmative from his co-panelists but could hear them still gasping.

In the background Nickle was grumbling. As a full corporeal caretaker he was not hooked in to the network so he had missed the shared climax. He turned on his time out signal and ambled off to his private quarters to fix his problem.

“Well everyone! What do you think about that? That has to be one of the most spectacular events of audience participation for all times and editions. I mean, how could you beat that? Howley, what do you think?”

“Peepers, you know I don’t like messy or dangerous things, but this time I felt that I wanted to be one of those little sperms swimming about weightless and being welcomed into Felicity’s warm tunnel of love. I had an urge to seek out the core of her sex, her womb and to join with her half of the new life. I was wallowing in his semen and her lubricating fluids and actually enjoying it. Peepers, I have said it once and I’ll say it again. These two are just so far ahead of the other acts, my money is on them. Phew! I’m still high from the endorphins.”

“Charonelle, your comments.”

“Oh Peepers. If I had a face I’d be blushing right now. I did something very naughty I think.” There was a slight roar from the audience.

“Keep it down! Keep it down! Where in the galaxy is Nickle when we need him? Go on Charonelle, what did you do naughty?”

“I actually masked out Felicity’s orgasm and just left Shaw’s. I never, in all these millennia, experienced a male climax sensation before and I wanted to know what it was like, on its own, so the second time they coupled I did it. Wow, you guy get it short term but what intensity!”

“So Charonelle,” asked Peepers, “would you want to come back as a male if you had the choice?”

“Oh no Peepers. I just wanted to feel the sensation. I wouldn’t want to have to walk around with all that equipment hanging between my legs all the time. It has to get in the way, and in any case I still think that a female orgasm lasting much longer but at lower intensity if far more enjoyable than the quick flash bang of a male release.”

“Interesting. Very interesting Charonelle. So your opinion at this time?”

“Oh, these two for sure! They’ve got it all going for them as an act with spontaneous action. They have cheated death several times now and unlike Martin and Corcoran, have given all of us something to enjoy besides terror and death!”

Nickle had come back by now, a beatific smile on his face. “Maybe not all of us. They is a few poofter-brains out there that would rather see Martin and Corcoran do something like this together!”

“Aw Nickle! That is just gross!” complained Howley.

“Ha ha!” Peepers laughed to defuse the moment. “Alright people, let’s focus and get back to the Game.” Peepers paused. “Where did you get off to when we needed you Nickle?” he asked on the private channel.

“Ah had to get off - as you say. I ain’t no monk you know. Them two love birds was driving me crazy. OK?”

“Oh!”