Toby's Tours Nexis Pas (c) 2007 by the author
David was completely engrossed in his biochem problem set when it happened. One of the things he liked about being at university was that he could concentrate on the subjects in which he excelled. In chemistry, the problems had correct answers, and he was good at finding them. The structures were elegant, and they combined in predictable ways. He had been glad to leave subjects like English literature behind him when he started the A level preparation courses. David had never quite understood how widely different interpretations of a story or a poem could all be correct. He much preferred the neatness of molecules to the complexities of finding meanings in literature and the messiness of the social sciences and the humanities.
David was vaguely aware of Gavin behind him in the sitting room they shared. He had briefly turned around and waved a greeting before turning back to his computer screen when Gavin had returned to their set of rooms around 10:00. Gavin had dropped his backpack on the floor just inside the doorway and begun undressing even before he went into his bedroom. A trail of discarded clothing indicated his passage into his room and then out again. He had padded naked into the small kitchen and checked the contents of the refrigerator before heading into the bathroom. The noise of the shower running, followed by Gavin brushing his teeth and gargling, barely impinged on David's consciousness. The bathroom door opened, and a brief blast of hot steamy air followed by the scent of soap and a warm, freshly washed body spilled into the room. Gavin threw himself onto the sofa in his customary prone position and opened a book. The only sounds in the room came from the occasional turning of a page as it brushed against his stomach and David's tapping of the keys as he worked out the problems.
Later, David would recall that what he would thereafter think of as the `incident with Gavin' began with a flash of a bright light at the edge of his vision and a feeling of pressure within his skull. It wasn't painful, just a feeling that something was happening inside his head. For a few seconds, it felt as if his life had been interrupted in midstream, as if the air had been drained from the room, and he had been lifted up and displaced into the future. Even that didn't make sense to him. How would he know what it felt like to be displaced into the future?
He heard Gavin groan. `Did you feel something?'
`Yeah, what was that?' David swivelled around in his chair to face Gavin. As usual at that time of night, Gavin was wearing only white briefs. He was just swinging his legs over the side of the sofa and preparing to sit up, shaking his head as if he, too, felt something inside his mind. The two roommates stared at each other. David surged to his feet and leaped across the room. He was overwhelmed by a compulsion to have sex with Gavin. He didn't want to. His mind recoiled as he embraced Gavin but he was helpless to resist. He wasn't horny. It wasn't a matter of lust or desire. He simply had to have sex with Gavin.
Gavin's face betrayed his own confusion. `Noooo.' The cry escaped his lips as their two bodies collided in a tangle of arms and legs, and they tumbled to the floor. David found himself lying on his back on the rug. Gavin was kneeling over him and taking David's cock into his mouth, his hands clasping David's hips tightly as he swung around so that his groin was poised over David's face. David watched with horror as Gavin's cock descended toward him. It filled his vision, big and thick and hard. His mouth seem to open automatically, and he took Gavin inside him, his lips and then his tongue and throat closing tightly around Gavin's cock. He struggled to free himself from Gavin's grasp, to take his hands off of Gavin's body and to pull away, but he was also aware that it wasn't so much that Gavin was holding onto him as that the two of them were locked together. He willed his hands to release Gavin's hips, but instead they just grasped harder and lifted Gavin up and down, in and out of this throat. He no longer controlled his own body. They were fighting to free themselves from each other even as their bodies and minds responded to the stimulus of sucking and being sucked.
Even as David struggled to escape, he was conscious that Gavin's body felt good against his. In one part of his mind, he knew that Gavin's firm flesh joined with his in a way that only increased his excitement, that it felt as good to be sucking Gavin's cock as if felt to have Gavin sucking his cock, that both of their groins were pumping into each other. And they couldn't stop. They became more and more aroused, but neither seemed any closer to orgasm. They were expending maximum amounts of effort, but sexual pleasure wasn't part of the equation. David thought his chest would burst open, his heart was beating so wildly. The sound of his pulse echoed in his ears. The air was humid and viscous, and every breath was a laboured gasp of pain.
And then as suddenly as it began, it was over. For David, it was if his body had been drained of all its energy. He and Gavin rolled away from each other, but he didn't have the strength to get up off the floor. He wasn't sure if he had ejaculated at all or if he had cum ten times. Later, he heard Gavin stir. He opened his eyes and watched as Gavin, with much effort, lifted himself off the floor and then staggered slowly into his bedroom and shut the door. He supposed that he should go into his own bedroom, but he just didn't feel like moving. It was nearly morning when he awoke again and stumbled groggily to his bed.
As he waited for his next client, Toby admired his new advertisement on the view screen in the limousine. It was everything he had hoped for, well worth the substantial number of energy credits he had had to pay. Elegant, restrained, just a hint of the excitement that he offered the discriminating visitor from Cubus to /+3/210096. Unlike the ordinary tour guides, who shepherded charabancs crowded with day-trippers on hurried visits to the planet, making brief stops to sample the natives' wares, he took on only one visitor at a time and arranged lengthy opportunities to savour the local cuisine. Toby prided himself on knowing the best spots, on cultivating the locals and training them to satisfy the sophisticated and always demanding palates of his clients. Of course, his services were expensive, but then those who engaged him could well afford his prices. And to judge from the frequency with which they recommended him, he knew that the gratifications he provided had found favour with them. For those who had known the products of /+3/ only in canned or bottled form, he provided an array of fresh flavours and taste sensations.
The first ship from Cubus had arrived hundreds of cycles before. It had been a drone, programmed to search out new sources of energy for the Cubi. The readings from Planet /+3/ in system 210096 had been promising enough that a manned exploration had been launched. The dominant species on the planet radiated so much energy that it could be measured from space. The energy was particularly high when the natives became excited, as they were prone to do. Some of these episodes took the form of mass violent encounters between groups. For reasons the Cubi could not fathom, these outbreaks led to the mutual extinction of many of the indigenes. Although the build-up to the extinctions led to massive radiations of energy, which the earliest visitors had found overwhelming in their intensity, the sudden deaths of so many natives had left the unwary Cubi overstimulated and prone to feeding frenzies. Not a few of the Cubi had succumbed themselves until they had learned to shun the inhabitants of /+3/ when they engaged in this behaviour.
Further samplings of the planet had led to the discovery of alternative sources of high energy emissions. The earliest explorers had noted that the climax species on the planet was divided into two forms, which they had labelled Type Alpha and Type Beta for convenience' sake. With some frequency, again for no discernible purpose, two of the plusthrees would link up. Most commonly, a Beta would absorb an appendage of an Alpha for a brief period of time, and the two would engage in thrashings, sometimes intense, other times almost mechanical. During the more vigorous of these linkages, the Alphas and, to a lesser extent, the Betas would give off a large amount of energy at the red end of the spectrum. Some researchers argued that the linkages were part of the conception process of the natives because only after linking with the Alphas did the Betas give birth to young. Others pointed out that not all such couplings resulted in pregnancies and that it was illogical that any species would expend so much energy simply to reproduce itself. Evolution would soon have led to much less wasteful forms of reproduction. In any case, they noted, when two Alphas or two Betas engaged in this activity, no pregnancies resulted.
The argument still raged among the /+3/onologists. Toby kept himself informed about the latest scholarly theories, because many of his clients asked about this aspect of plusthree behaviour. He was, however, more interested in applying this knowledge to the practical matter of earning a living by supplying his clients with the largest possible emissions to feed on. Many gourmets favoured the Alpha-Beta couplings, and Toby did supply those to his clients as part of every tour. There were even a few who extolled the Beta-Beta couplings, a taste that Toby viewed as an affectation and thought appropriate only for the very young or very elderly cubi. He personally recommended that the Alpha-Beta couplings be sampled only as hors d'oeuvres, as a build-up to the more substantial Alpha-Alpha linkages, especially among the younger adult alphas. The members of that subset still retained their youthful energies but engaged in longer and more frequent couplings, couplings that in the end released copious amounts of energy. The more adolescent members of the species tended to dissipate their energies quickly in one large explosive burst; sometimes the older, less nimble Cubi could not move fast enough to absorb all the energy emitted by the younger plusthrees.
As Toby waited at the visitors' port for his next client, he ran over the tour he had planned. The client was arriving in a private vessel, a fact that by itself spoke of access to power and wealth. Who but a member of the upper reaches of the aristocracy or the court could command such resources? The name he was using, Jon Doebus, was an obvious pseudonym. The secrecy surrounding the visitor's identity had inspired Toby to make sure that the visitor would experience the best he could offer. A recommendation from such a client would increase his business immeasurably.
And Toby had a secret weapon, one that the other tour guides did not share, one that would ensure his success. The Cubi existed in a part of the light spectrum the plusthrees could not see. In the early years of contact, a few plusthrees had betrayed some awareness of the Cubi. They had quickly been eliminated from the gene pool, and at present the plusthrees were oblivious to the presence of the Cubi. The government now felt sure enough of this that it rated /+3/ safe for all visitors. This, of course, immensely facilitated the ability of the Cubi to feed on the plusthrees' energy emissions. But every plus came with a minus. The downside was that the plusthrees often carried on their activities in low levels of light. The complaint of not being able to see what the plusthrees were doing was a hazard of the tour business.
In experimenting with different kinds of light in the ranges outside the spectrum visible to the plusthrees, Toby had discovered that a rapidly blinking light at one frequency in the ultra-violet range had a curious impact on the behaviour of the plusthree. When exposed to this light, a plusthree would stop whatever it was doing and stare fixedly in the direction of the light, even though the light was totally invisible to it. The oscillations of the creature's brain waves would dampen, and its posture would become rigid. By itself, this behaviour would have been no more than an interesting phenomenon. But Toby had discovered that the plusthrees in this state were extremely suggestible and somehow open to his thoughts. He had only to imagine a plusthree engaging in a certain activity, and it would do so. He had soon put this discovery to good use. His reputation for knowing the best sources of energy emitters among the plusthrees owed much to a small handheld light source. He was not finding the best emitters but creating them. He simply selected the most promising young Alphas and Betas he could find and trained them to emit high energy levels over a sustained period of time. It was difficult to be sure that one was reading the plusthrees correctly, but he felt that his stable of energy suppliers were enjoying themselves.
The quiet ping of a bell at the teleport announcing that his client was arriving interrupted Toby's thoughts.
For the third time in five minutes, David reread the same page in the book lying open before him on the library table. His concentration had been broken when he had looked up and seen his roommate entering the reading room. Gavin had also spotted him immediately and quickly turned down the aisle that led to the periodicals reading room. Both of them had been avoiding each other for the past two weeks, ever since that night when--god, he couldn't even say the words to himself, but he couldn't prevent the images from surfacing in his mind.
Since `that evening', he had fallen into the practice of staying late at the library or working in the residence hall commons room until he was sure that Gavin would be asleep. Then he would rush into their set of rooms, brush his teeth, and dash into his bedroom. He had even begun to lock the door to his bedroom behind him, something he would never have done before. He knew that Gavin was taking the same precautions. The student housing office didn't allow anyone to change rooms during term. He would have to survive the situation for another seven weeks until school finished for the year.
He didn't know what to do. Until it' had happened, he had liked Gavin. At first Gavin had struck him as too quiet and subdued, but he had soon come to appreciate Gavin's sly sense of humour. Sometimes it was not until later that he realised that Gavin had said something really funny. But even more, he valued Gavin's openness and willingness to discuss, really discuss, things. With others, David sometimes felt that their thoughts were running off in some other direction, that they were only half there. He knew that he was equally prone to paying scant attention to those he was with. Gavin, however, was different. Gavin listened, and he really tried to understand what you were saying. And it wasn't that Gavin just echoed his thoughts. On more than one occasion, he had helped David see that he was misinterpreting a situation. Gavin just kept asking questions until David finally understood that he was being a git. David had had friends' before, but until Gavin he hadn't known what that word could mean. Some evenings after they had talked, he would lie in bed, curled up around a pillow, and replay their conversation in his mind. He would drift off to sleep thinking about the things they could talk about next. He had begun to look forward to the time at the end of the day when both of them set their work aside and just chatted.
But now the matter of `the incident' stood between them. The conversations had been replaced by a loud silence that was all the louder because both of them were so aware that it was a silence. David felt that he had to do something. He couldn't spend the rest of the term hiding from his roommate. He wanted to be on the same comfortable terms as before; he hoped that was still possible. If only dealing with people were as easy as dealing with the hydrogen atoms that bonded by sharing their electrons and filling the first shell. But, then, two hydrogen atoms became a highly combustible gas when combined, not unlike what had happened when he had joined with Gavin. Hydrogen atoms joined together readily and just as readily and much more explosively parted. Chemistry, he thought ruefully, could only serve so far as a metaphor. The inert elements were safe and stable but they didn't join with other elements. And all compounds could be split apart into their constituents if you applied the right catalyst. No bond was permanent.
He gave up attempting to read the book. He wouldn't be able to concentrate until he had confronted the situation head on and worked things out with Gavin. He stuffed the book and his notes into his backpack and went looking for his roommate.
Melissa finished lighting the candles on the table. For the tenth time, she realigned the silverware and tried to coax a recalcitrant rose to stand up straight in the vase. Everything had to be perfect for tonight. She hoped the candlelit dinner and the filet steaks, Randy's fixed rare as he liked it, would put him in the mood again. An hour earlier, she had carefully opened the bottle of red wine to let it `breathe' as the man in the shop had told her to do. The potatoes were baking, the salad was sitting in the fridge ready for the dressing, she had removed the chocolate gateau from the baker's box and put it on her best cake plate. She hoped that all of her efforts would make Randy, well, make him randy. Sometimes he could be so passionate. She didn't know what triggered him, but she hoped to find the formula. He spent most of the dates droning on about his work. She had to pretend to be interested and sympathetic when all she wanted was for him to become that insatiable, lust-filled cave man dragging her into the bedroom and making exuberant athletic love for hours until both of them were exhausted. But his romantic moods were so unpredictable. Unpredicktable, she giggled to herself. She had to learn to control these urges. Randy, the Palaeolithic Randy, was turning her into a nym-pho-ma-ni-ac. If he didn't put out this evening, she would have to find someone else. She checked her appearance again in the mirror. Randy had told her she looked good in blue. Her new blue halter top was a bit tight, she thought. It didn't exactly hide the fact that she had breasts and lots of curves. Well, at least it had the virtue of being easy to remove.
Toby had immediately seen through the visitor's disguise. He was too well known to be made unrecognisable by a dark visor and a billowing black cape. Toby hoped that his face did not betray his surprise. Certainly this client was powerful enough to obtain permission to maintain a private stable of plusthrees and rich enough to afford the enormous cost of such a facility. Even if he did not, surely the king would allow him to feed on his private troop. Why would he go to the trouble of travelling to the home planet of the plusthrees?
He had been about to address the client by his true name, but luckily he had caught himself in time and hastily converted the name to the all-purpose term of respect. Milord, welcome to Plusthree.' Toby bowed low. The client nodded impatiently in response. I'm afraid that I do not have much time. Unfortunately I can spend only a few hours here. I am in the neighbourhood to take care of other business and thought I could give myself a small treat. I have long wanted to sample the plusthrees in the wild, in situ as it were. I am told that the domesticated varieties available on Cubus give only a very rough idea of the pleasures of the real thing.'
`Milord, I have arranged a series of three meals for you. The first is . . .'
`Oh, please, don't tell me. Let it be a surprise. Too much in my life is carefully scripted. I want to get away from that for a few hours.'
`Then, Milord, shall we begin?' Toby bowed again and opened the rear door to the limousine.
The cinema theatre was packed for the first showing of the seventh sequel in the long-running Cobra series. Part buddy movie, part action adventure, it had won a large body of devoted fans, mostly young and overwhelmingly male. Toby and his client arrived about a half-hour into the movie. The two squared-jawed heroes had already dispatched a dozen minor criminals and twice avoided certain death by the most tenuous of plot devices, once literally by a muscular fingernail clinging tenaciously to the edge of a flagpole forty stories above ground. Now they were closing in the arch-villain's Caribbean island hideaway, disguised as two clueless but insouciant tourists who had lost their way and blundered into the waters surrounding the island. When their own craft had sunk, they had been snatched from the water just a millisecond before the sharks' jaws would have snapped shut and removed significant portions of their anatomies. Their rescuers were a boatload of bikini-wearing nymphs whose monumental mammaries were only slightly less impressive than the well-developed pecs of the heroes. The blazing tropical sun had forced everyone to discard all but a few square inches of clothing. Bronzed and muscular bodies filled the screen.
Toby silently motioned his client to stand at the back of the theatre. He made his way softly forward, carefully stepping over the outstretched legs of those in the front row. He waited until the rapt stares of the audience revealed that they were caught up in the action on the screen before turning on his special light and concentrating on the behaviour he wanted. The response was immediate. Every one in the audience, alpha and beta alike, yearned to be embraced by the male leads. A collective moan of desire filled the theatre. The alphas were so intent on the screen that few noticed that they had become aroused until their clothes refused to expand further. Even the pain and discomfort of an engorged cock entangled in tight underwear failed to deflate their lust. The air was filled with the energy of longing. It had a slightly bitter tang that cleared the palate and prepared it for the more robust pleasures that Toby had planned.
Through the red fog hovering over the audience, Toby could see that his client had extended his feeding tubes and was sampling the energy emissions. Toby could only admire the delicate restraint with which his client fed. Not for him the ravenous gulpings of the glutton. Like the true connoisseur he was, he merely sipped enough energy to satisfy his palate. When the client retracted his feeding tubes, Toby turned off the light. A wave of disappointment swept the audience. A few alphas even gave voice to choked sighs and cries of `no'. This was followed immediately by embarrassment at their swollen state. Several bent forward in their seats in an attempt to hide their tumescence. Later, not a few members of the audience would search out the male leads' websites and relieve their attraction in private while gazing at their photographs.
`I knew as soon as I read the report that he didn't understand.' Randy had been talking for what seemed like hours about his latest triumph at work over his rival and nemesis, Neville. Melissa was finding it harder and harder to pretend enthusiasm. She was beginning to contemplate claiming a sudden headache and sending him away. The thought of being alone and devouring a second piece of the chocolate cake was proving more and more enticing. She mashed a few crumbs against the tines of her fork and then licked them off. She made up her mind. Chocolate would definitely be more satisfying than Randy.
Randy, I'm sorry, but I've had a very long day and I'm feeling a bit . . .' There was a brief flash of light and a feeling of pressure. I'm feeling so hot.'
Randy leaped to his feet and ripped open his shirt. Melissa found the buttons scattered throughout the room the next time she cleaned. She had been waiting for Randy to growl like that all evening.
`That was delightful, my dear Toby. It's true what they say. The energy is much tastier in the wild than from a tame source. I know I shall never be satisfied again with the tinned or bottled varieties. I envy you for living here. I was tempted to feed for a bit longer, but you told me you had three meals planned, and I wanted to save room for the final course.' The client looked toward him expectantly. Clearly, the tour was already a success. And the piece de resistance still awaited him.
Toby's client had devoted more time to sampling the energy released by the alpha-beta coupling but after a couple of hours he had pulled back and indicated to Toby that he was finished. This particular alpha-beta couple were proving to be one of his happier finds. Toby paused for a few seconds to give them a reward. Before turning off the light, he revved up the energy level. The client gasped in surprise at the violet aura that suddenly mushroomed and spiked around the two. `Oh, lovely, just lovely. Can they do that again?'
Evidently Gavin had fled the library after seeing David. It was not until David returned to their rooms that he found his roommate. Gavin had just finished showering and was wearing a heavy terrycloth bathrobe that extended almost to his ankles. When he saw David, he pulled on the lapels of the robe to cover the vee of his chest visible through the opening and then cinched the belt tighter around his waist.
`Hi, how's it going?'
`Oh, hi. I'm, umm, I'm doing ok. I'm going to bed now. Good night.'
`Gavin, we have to talk.'
`Nothing to talk about, man.'
`Gavin, about what happened . . .'
`Nothing happened. I don't want to talk about it.'
Gavin . . .' David felt a sudden pressure within his head. It was as if a bright light had been shone into his eyes. Gavin, I just want to talk. I didn't mean for that to happen. I don't know what came over me. It was like I couldn't control myself.' David massaged his forehead. The pressure was getting worse. He had to sit down and put his head between his legs. `I feel sick.'
`David, what's wrong?' Gavin reached out to steady David and guided him to the sofa. His robe came loose as he bent over, and David was very aware of how close he was to Gavin's chest. The warm scent of Gavin's body filled his senses and he groaned. The damp hair on Gavin's forearm brushed against his David's hand. He found the whisper of Gavin against his skin incredibly shocking. For a second, his entire attention narrowed to that small area of his body in contact with Gavin. The heat flowed into him at that point and spread upward along his arm. He felt both light-headed and exhilarated.
`David, it was just that it was so violent and sudden. I've . . . I've been parading around almost nude all year hoping that you would take the hint. But I could never get you to pay any attention to me. Then you leap up one night and practically rape me and then you turn away and won't talk to me. What was I supposed to think? I can't deal with your heterosexual guilt.'
`You wanted us to have sex?' David gazed in surprise at Gavin. He had never suspected Gavin might feel that way. He was suddenly very conscious of the smooth flesh of Gavin's chest only inches away. The image of what it would feel like to spread the lapels of Gavin's robe and gently kiss the space just below the joining of the throat to his chest filled his mind. The sensation in his lips was so strong he couldn't be certain that he hadn't done just that.
`No, I wanted us to make love. There's a difference. We had the sex. I don't think either of us found it very fulfilling. We have these intimate talks until all hours of the night and then we go to our separate beds, and all I can do is think about you and what we can talk about next and how much I want to be with you, to be closer to you. Not just physically but emotionally. And, oh hell, I'm not making any sense. And I'm disgusting you because I'm . . . because you'll think I'm a queer who's just after your body, and it's not like that. It's not like that at all.' Gavin drew back and turned away. He started to stand up.
`No, stay. Please stay. Don't go.' David grabbed Gavin's arm and pulled him back so abruptly that Gavin lost his balance and fell on the sofa next to David. Their bodies were touching from shoulder to thigh.
Gavin quickly pushed himself back and sat at the other end of the sofa. He bent forward at the waist and hid his face in his hands. `Don't do this to me. It's hard enough for me to be gay. I can't deal with your problems. And I don't want to be a way for you to have sex when you're feeling horny. Let's just get through this term with a minimum of interaction, and then we won't have to see each other again.' Gavin's body shuddered as he rocked back and forth.
David touched Gavin's back gingerly. The terrycloth robe stirred beneath his hand as Gavin took a deep breath. He could feel the vibration of Gavin's sobs through the cloth. His hand tingled from the energy pulsing through it. He was surprised at how easy it was to speak and find the right words. `Gavin, I've had sex, but I've never made love to anyone before. So you'll have to be patient with me. Please.'
Hours later, the two of them lay in David's bed, spooned together, David's arms wrapped around Gavin and holding their bodies pressed together. Gavin had closed his hands around David's and their fingers were interlaced. David marvelled at the intensity of the sensation where their fingers met. He could separate out each small satisfying point of contact and feel the infinity that opened out from it. He kissed Gavin gently on the back of the neck. Gavin stirred slightly and then sighed with pleasure when David tensed his arms and pulled him back closer.
`So, this might be love,' David thought. They had had the lust and the sex. And now, he decided, if Gavin were as willing as he, they would try to have the love. Sometimes human relations were as simple--and as perfect--as chemistry. They would talk about it over breakfast. Gavin would help him find the words.
Toby knew as soon as he had entered the room that these particular alphas would not be coupling again that evening. The pulsing red auras that usually surrounded alphas had cooled and faded to the steady glow of the coppery shade, with the complex eddies of rose and blue and silver, that betokened a pair of plusthrees who were sated. Toby was nothing if not resourceful. He had a backup pair of alphas nearby. He was about to apologize to his client and escort him out when he noticed that his visitor had extended his feeding tubes and was delicately imbibing the energy field.
`Oh, this is marvellous. Exquisite, it's absolutely exquisite. I would never have imagined that a flavour this subtle existed. Thank you for letting me sample this. It must be very rare. I shall treasure the memory of this.'