The Sarran Senator (9 page)

::Can we have some Asta while we wait?::

::Of course, my fox. We have glasses in
the kitchen and the Asta is in the library where we spent this
afternoon.::
Tarin’s eyes flashed.

::Will it bother you to move away from
Soarer’s Nest? This has been your home for so long.::

::No, not at all. This hasn’t been a home
since Nezier died. And for us I want something new with no memories
for either of us.::

::Can we keep the leather sofa?::
Sam
had a sparkle in his eye.

::Yes, as a matter of fact, that’s new and
it’s made, not fabricated. I wanted one place to sit without
memories. The same for the bed. I’m the only Warrior that has slept
there.::

“And now Midnight. There is the door. Our cat
tree is here.” It took both men to carry the tree inside. They put
it in the library so Midnight could be with them in the evenings
until they moved to the Duchy.

Midnight came out of the slumber chamber,
stretching.
::Is that my cat tree?::

::Yes, it just arrived.::

::I have superior persons. This is indeed a
fitting cat tree for a cat my size. Thank you. I also spy a bed. If
you will move that into the slumber chamber, I’ll sleep after I
patrol the house and garden for bancs.::

::We’ll probably be asleep when you come
home, so good moontine to you.::

::And to you, my persons.::

The door opened and Midnight went outside on
patrol.

“Come, my fox, let’s make love.” Tarin
grabbed Sam’s hand and led him into the slumber chamber.

The room was done in reds and navy blue. “We
can save the navy for the Duchy, the red furnishings and linens are
handmade and can be bartered for fresh meat and vegetables.”

They took off their flightsuits and tumbled
into the bed.

Tarin took Sam’s face in his hand and began
to suck on his lips. He moved his mouth to the fleshy area between
Sam’s shoulder and his neck and sucked up a mark.
::You wear my
mark this moontine and in the rising we’ll have our
rings.::

Sam put his hand between them and palmed
Tarin’s shaft. His hand came away wet with slick. “We need to put
down a towel.”

“Yes, slick increases in direct proportion to
desire.” Tarin got up and retrieved a towel from the bathing
chamber and laid it on the bed.

::Come here, my love. My bed has been empty
for too long. Lay on top of me. I want to rub against your
cock.::

Sam lay on top of Tarin and began to kiss
Tarin’s face. Tarin had a light end-of-the-day scruff on his face,
which he rubbed against Sam’s chin. Sam groaned in heat. Tarin took
Sam’s hands and placed them over his head. Sam obliged.

Tarin ran his hands over Sam’s body again and
again, sensitizing the skin so that each caress made Sam shake with
desire.

::I love the feel of your naked skin. Your
body is that of a hardened Warrior. Like our Elders, you were a
Warrior before you went into governance.::

::I admit I identify with your Warrior
culture with clear rules and punishment applied equally. The fact
that the government doesn’t need to tax its citizens is
unbelievable.::

::Once the fabricator was invented, all the
things that government needed to build, cost nothing. The Warriors
all serve and receive credits based on merit. No one here is
advanced in rank because they’re in a certain profession. TeAxit
was a gardener before he became an Elder. TeWell ran an eatery.
Both Warriors also served honorably against the Zyptz and were at
the top of their profession. We don’t pick people for high office
because they know how to debate, we pick them because they know how
to do.::

Tarin’s mouth roamed down to Sam’s chest. Sam
had very few chest hairs. He chuckled,
::If anyone should use
the depilatory cream, it’s me. The few hairs I have between my pecs
are unattractive. You should be either smooth or have a nice scruff
of hair. I have neither.::

::Your hair or lack of it is of no concern to
me, love. I’ll take you any way I can get you. The depilatory cream
is in the bathing chamber if you wish to use it.::

Sam laughed
. ::I may, vanity is one of my
besetting sins.::

::Don’t do it for me. I love and accept
you as you are. There isn’t anything about you that doesn’t make me
want you. Let me nuzzle that small patch of hair while I can.::
Tarin rubbed the scruff on Sam’s chest. Slick poured out of Sam’s
cock. It seemed as though it was running out of his cock in buckets
but he wasn’t the only one with a plumbing leak.

::I used to think I wasn’t a very sexual
being, yet your touch makes crazy with want,::
Sam
admitted.

::I was attracted to Nezier and we had a true
bond. Back then, he was exactly what I required. My needs have
changed since he died. I want something different. I crave you. I’m
desperate for your touch. Everything you say, everything you are,
fascinates me. I love you more than I thought it was possible to
love anyone. Goddess, I survived the loss of Nezier. I would never
survive losing you.::

Sam’s eyes were bright with unshed tears of
joy. He loved this man.
::This is my gift to you,::
Sam said
and completely opened his mind to Tarin.
::This is who I am, all
of it, the good, the bad, and the ugly.::

Tarin opened his mind in return.
::I
accept your gift and give you that same trust in return.::
The
two men looked at each other in awe. They rubbed against each
other’s shafts and spilled cum all over the towel.

Sam and Tarin got out of bed and took a
shower, jacking each other off again. Just after one tine they went
to bed, Sam wrapped in Tarin’s arms. At one-thirty, Midnight came
in the front door which, as all the doors on Sarran had been
programmed to let the cats come and go as they please.

::You’re finished.::

Sam and Tarin laughed out loud.
::Yes,
we’re done.::

::Good. Tigger said I’m too young to
listen.::

* * * *

To simply wake up every morning a better person

than when I went to bed.

—Sidney Poitier

Soarer’s Nest, Vineleaf Village: 9:15 tines

Sam woke up the next dawntine to the smell of
fresh coffee with Midnight on his head.
::We thought you’d never
get up. It’s after nine.::

::Don’t be a scold, Midnight. Sam had a big
day yesterday and he was worn out. I have your coffee, my fox, and
a new coffeepot that can make coffee neither you nor I can screw
up. I dropped one off at the gatehouse an hour ago.::

::Why did you go there?::
Sam was
almost pouting.

::I went to fix a pot so that you’d have
your coffee this dawntine and not turn into what your femspring
described as a grisly.::
Tarin sent a picture of an ursine
creature with big teeth, pointy ears, and tusks.

Sam shuddered. “That’s not like any bear I’ve
ever seen.”

“That’s because it’s not a bear, it’s a
borad, a Sarran forest animal that tastes something like your pork.
Our hunters butcher the meat and cook it and it tastes like pork,
or they cure the meat so it comes out like your ham. Syn told me
that. She’s right. I tasted both from the fabricator, but borad is
better. I went over to consult with Bron on the coffee pot. We
decided that Warriors had to learn to make good coffee to serve
their fems.”

Sam opened his eyes, “Wait, we have
coffee?”

“Kona coffee, I purchased three grun after
Bron and I fabricated the pot.” Sam sat up in bed and Tarin handed
him a mug. “You said a dollop of cream. I put in cha, Sarran cream.
Try it.”

Sam took a sip of the coffee. “Fuck, this is
the best coffee I’ve ever had. How did you do it?”

“Precise measurement; the grinder won’t take
any more coffee beans than it needs to make a pot. After the beans
are ground, the coffee goes into a receptacle to await the water.
You can dial weak, medium, or strong and the reservoir won’t take
any extra water and will beep at you if you don’t put in
enough.”

Sam put the mug down.

“Precise measurement was what was lacking,”
Tarin said with a satisfied look.

“My love, you have solved my chief problem
with Sarran—having to live without coffee.”

“That will never happen, my fox. I won’t let
it. Even if I have to get special permission to grow the beans
myself. What do you want for breakfast? We have to be swift,
because we have an appointment with the jeweler at ten-thirty and
the piercer at ten-forty-five.”

“I don’t have my kit bag; can I use that
cream of yours to shave?”

“Let me show you how to use it or you might
end up bald.” Sam threw a pillow at Tarin, who caught it midair and
lobbed it right back at him. Sam hastened out of bed, used the
facilities, and took a shower.” Tarin showed Sam how to use the
cream with a steamed towel. They got out of the bathing chamber,
this time, without any hanky-panky.

“Do Sarrans eat eggs?”

“Yes, we have a type of water fowl, the
martinel, who lays eggs. The gatherers keep them in ponds and
harvest the eggs. I made that and laptard patties for the dawntine
meal. We need a chef.”

Sam didn’t eat very much so they were out the
door in a half-tine.

* * * *

Vineleaf Village Square, The Jewelers: 10:30
tines

“These are perfect,” Sam said as Tarin held
up a set of rings enameled with a blue orb and the flowing stream
Tarin showed him the day before.

::This can’t be a coincidence, love. How
did he get your exact drawing?::
Sam raised a brow.

::I must admit I stopped here with the
specifications before I went to the workshop to see Bron. You did
say you liked it.::

::I did say that, didn’t I. Sneaky, but
they’re just what I envisioned when you showed me the drawing last
rising.::

::I was leery about going without you, but I
wanted them right away in case we find our fem.::

::Why are you so sure we’ll find our fem
right away? Other WarriorPairs wait years. We’ve only been together
one rising.::

:: The day before I met you the Goddess
promised me I would be in Triad soon. I didn’t believe her, but I
went to Bron’s anyway; because he is an Elder and runs the workshop
where I do my tinkering and there you were. I almost lost it in
front of three pair of Elders. I wanted to carry you off; instead I
asked you for coffee and went home and thanked the Goddess.::

::I’m curious. Why, love, why didn’t you
claim me right away?::

::You were from Earth, I didn’t want to scare
you away with the type of instant love a bonding engenders. I
wanted you to get to know me first.::

::That lasted all of five mots.::
Sam
laughed.

::Ah, but then I found out that you were as
eager for me as I was for you.::

::…And took full advantage of that
fact.::
Sam kissed Tarin with great passion right in front of
the jeweler.

“We’ll take these. You rendered the design
beautifully,” Tarin said when he turned to the jeweler with a red
face.”

::I’m sorry, love, no public displays of
affection on Sarran?::

::That’s not it…look down at my flight suit,
with Nezier I had better control.::

::As I did with Mary. Fate is a bitch. I
loved Mary with what I thought was my whole heart and she gave me
Sara, but it’s only been a day and a half and you’re dug into my
heart so deeply that I’d have to rip it beating out of my chest to
leave you. Now I know how Sara felt about Mark and Juraens even
though she was just coming out of the worst situation
imaginable.::

::No, Sam, the worst situation imaginable
would have been Mark and Juraens not getting to her and Michael on
time to save their lives. You would have lost your femspring and
her WarriorPair would have lost their bonded. But worst of all, I’d
never have met you, that would have been a catastrophe of epic
proportions. Everything happens for a reason. I’m firmly convinced
of that. I know the Goddess doesn’t control our lives, but
occasionally she gives us a nudge in the right direction.::

::I’m not so sure about the Goddess, but
all the unattached Earthen fems will be at the hanger for the
buffet and mixing in less than seven risings. If we want those
glasses handmade, we better get moving. We also have a house to
refurbish.::
Sam clapped Tarin on the back.

They went to the glassblowers and ordered
glass the color of the moontine sky with the faintest blue orb in
the distance, circling a yellow star. The grove of Tierest trees
started at the right and ran along the right bank with the wider
part of the stream on the left—all laid out in perfectly rendered
miniature.

::Maybe we’ll go on Brightstar with the next
trade delegation and invest in some speculative goods. The more
trade ties we have with Earth the easier it will be to make them
see how much better off they would be with a world council. It
could be a vacation for our fem. I have a premonition that she
hasn’t been very many places.”

“I had an idea about speculative goods—skis.
You use them on your feet to travel great distances and down
mountains in the snow. Skiing is a sport on Earth. Juraens says you
have no such thing on Sarran. My esteemed offspring said it would
be a way for those in the mountains to earn credits. All you’d need
are lifts and marked trails.”

“Do you know how to do this skiing?”

“Yes, and I’m sure you can make your own pair
of skis fashioned like mine,” Sam laughed, “and improve the
design.”

“I tend to think, as Syn says,
out of the
box.
Bron does too. That’s why we’re good engineers.”

“How old are you? I never asked.” Sam gazed
into his lover’s eyes.

“I’m forty-six cycles and you?”

“Forty-seven, in a half-tide. We had Sara
when I was twenty-one.