Contort me against your body and mind - Chapter 24 (Early Access) (Patreon)

Effie

There was a tension rippling over The Sentinel that made Effie uneasy.

The Ailu’t members of the crew had been taking up a lot more communal spaces with their soul stretching. The humans were filling up more communal spaces with their music. Together, it was causing a squash without the possibility for overlap.

Bonnie had called it ‘coping mechanisms,’ but Effie wasn’t sure what that was. Sometimes when she had too many questions to ask, she would prioritise one or two so that Bonnie wouldn’t think she was stupid. It left a long backlog in her brain at all times.

Effie had never felt so ignorant in her life as she did aboard The Sentinel. She was always the top student in everything but languages, and she had studied the human texts vigorously in the lead up to deployment to cover her lack of natural ability. But every day there was more she did not know. With every question she asked, she became aware of more she didn’t understand.

When she finally found a moment to ask about mechanics of coping, Bonnie’s body stiffened. Effie felt a wave of panic that she had asked something incredibly offensive.

Her mentor straightened slowly from where she had been digging through her desk and walked to her office door. For a moment, Effie believed she was being left behind, then the door was shut firmly, and Bonnie returned.

“Is something wrong, Dr Bonnie?” she whispered. She had been told she didn’t need to call her doctor anymore, but the habit was hard to break.

“I do not like to gossip, but I feel this is relevant to your understanding for care of those on-board,” Bonnie said carefully. “If someone were to hear us, however, I think they would take my words in a way that I don’t mean them.”

Effie nodded slowly. “I understand. I will not take your words outside.”

Bonnie gave her a weary smile and sat on the corner of her desk. “I believe the officers are turning to coping mechanisms due to the stress that Commander Slate is imposing upon them all,” she said. “I know it is not my place to criticise him. It is his ship - his command, but I am becoming very worried. The pressure on the officers is physically noticeable as well as mentally.” Effie nodded; she had certainly noticed the physical aspect. The officers were exhausted. “He has them wound so tightly that they are turning to all they have for comfort. For the humans, it is music. For the Ailu’t, it is soul stretching.” Bonnie paused with a thoughtful frown. “But this isn’t a permanent solution. Already, both sides are growing annoyed with the other. The humans find all the stretching takes up too much space and the Ailu’t are irritated by the sound of human music. I feel we are heading towards a clash.”

“How do we heal coping mechanisms?” If anyone knew, it would be Bonnie, Effie was certain.

“It is a symptom of an underlying issue rather than an issue itself. It is problems manifesting themselves in noticeable ways. Coping mechanisms can be very useful when adopted purposefully, but they can also be a blaring sign that something is wrong.”

“The something wrong is the pressure?” Effie guessed.

“These officers are not in the trenches. They are not in battle, but their stress levels would have you think they were in the fight of their lives. The blood pressure average across the ship is raising my own out of worry. The only solace the officers seem to be allowed is their soul stretching or their music, and each side is growing in complaint about the other.”

“The humans are complaining about soul stretching?”

“Obviously, I cannot name anyone, as is the nature of my appointments, but yes. And the Ailu’t are becoming frustrated by the music.”

Effie could relate to that. She wouldn’t say it to a human’s face, but their music grated on her nerves like a jagged rock.

“What do we do?”

“Unfortunately,” Bonnie sighed. “Our best is all we have. We cannot directly affect the pressure being put on them, so must try to help them release the stress in other ways. Ways that will not brew bad feelings between the species.”

Effie nodded, determined. Bonnie gave her another weary smile.

They began a list of low-disturbance activities for their respective races, and Effie was colour coding hers with bright pens when there was a knock at Bonnie’s office door.

“Ellie!” she gasped as she pulled it open.

Ellie wheeled her chair over the threshold to greet Bonnie.

“I have permission to be out,” she reassured her. “I get one lap of the ship.”

“And now you have to choose between myself and Effie for who to take as your chaperone?” Bonnie joked.

“It’s a tough one, ma’am,” said Ellie, playing along.

“And yet, as a marine major, I’m sure you are used to quick decision making.”

“And yet, this may just be the hardest one I’ve had to make.”

Effie was inching closer to the door as they poked fun at each other.

“Have her back within the hour, please,” Bonnie said, somehow soft and stern.

“Yes, Doctor.” Ellie seamlessly dragged the office door shut behind her as she wheeled alongside Effie.

Effie grinned. “I missed you.”

“It’s only been a day,” Ellie reminded her.

With a flush and pout, Effie looked away. They spent time together every day, but it didn’t mean Effie couldn’t long for her lover’s touch when they were apart. They were trialling at becoming mates, as official as a pair could be before taking a verbal commitment. Somehow Effie still felt as fluttery and skittish as she had after their first kiss.

“But I missed you, too.”

Effie’s grin returned.

“Forehead warning,” Ellie announced. “We’re going to my quarters.”

Effie liked the human expression ‘head’s up’ as a synonym for forewarning but had managed to get her tongue twisted and say, ‘forehead warning.’ Technically, she felt, it was still correct. Now Ellie kept repeating it and Effie couldn’t tell if she was making fun of her or trying to make her feel better.

Ellie’s words caught up with her and she flushed. They hadn’t had any private time since the hallway incident… and Effie had been desperate to talk about it ever since. It wasn’t a topic that could be raised on the ward, even cozied up in the corner as they were.

Behind the closed door of Ellie’s private quarters, Effie hopped onto the neatly made bed.

“Were you surprised?” she blurted. She had been planning how eloquently she was going to raise the topic for days, but her nerves burst out of her.

Ellie turned in her chair. “Hmm?” She wheeled to the edge of the bed.

“I know that humans only have half-genitals.” Effie was twisting her fingers into knots. “And the human doctors are aware of ours… but I didn’t know if you-”

“I didn’t know,” Ellie said with a nonchalance that Effie had never experienced in herself. “But it’s not an issue. Do all Ailu’t have both?”

Effie nodded, shy at the thought of her parts being alien to the woman she was hopelessly falling in love with.

It wouldn’t be polite to ask after Ellie’s genitals. Effie didn’t need to be an expert in human culture to know that question was odd. Curiosity burned, though. And obviously, she had a preference. She was a receiver, and if they were to be compatible, Ellie needed to be a giver.

Without the right parts, they were growing closer and closer only to be eventually ripped apart.

Fingers curled under her shirt, untucking it in smooth pinches. Ellie was out of her chair. She pushed Effie backwards, pressing her down into the mattress and climbing over her. Effie allowed herself to be physically manipulated, watching her clothes peel off by beige hands. Speckles of kisses were scattered along her skin as it was bared. Over the distended skin of her stomach. The curves of her hips. The dips of her waist.

Ellie reared up, yanking her shirt the final inches and smiling down at her crookedly. With her shirt hitched to her neck, Effie’s breasts were displayed to the small room. Ellie dropped her head, blonde hair swinging just above her shoulders, and took a pointed nipple between her lips. The moment she pulled the hard nub, Effie’s hips bucked.

Her cock was already straining against the inflexible material of her uniform trousers. She bunched her hands in the sheets beneath to keep from rubbing at herself desperately. She was slick soaked immediately.

Ellie toyed with the nipple under the tip of her tongue, rolling it in her saliva. Effie whined, pressing her chest up into the hot, wet lips. They pulled away with a smack sound that was satisfying to hear, but not to feel. The cold air on her damp nipple only served to have it straining harder.

Her trousers were wriggled off of her and Effie yelped at the manhandling. Ellie was stronger than she looked, especially for a sick person. Her knees were pushed open, and Effie let them droop into a diamond shape, displaying all of herself to her lover’s multi-coloured eyes.

Two fingers entered her with a slow but certain push. Effie’s head fell back against the bedding with a groan. Shallow thrusts became deep digging, opening her up until Ellie was stroking and jabbing her insides with perfect tempo. A second hand took her shaft and began to pull on it lazily, a perfect combination that brought loud moans from Effie’s chest.

Her back arched involuntarily. Her eyes slid shut. Allowing the pressure of being roughly filled over and over to lull her closer to the edge. Giving herself over to Ellie’s expert handling.

“Open your legs.” The demand hit her deep in the gut.

She fought against the trembles taking over her thigh muscles to widen them just a little more. The thumb at her slit ground in and her knees snapped together. It wasn’t intentional. There was barely a thought in Effie’s brain to tell her limbs to do anything anymore.

“This is why I only fuck soldiers,” Ellie chuckled, there was a gravelly edge to her voice that was not helping to slow the slick leak. Everything was coated and sticky, herself, Ellie, and the bed. “They know how to take orders.”

Effie’s cunt clenched. Her body wanted to obey; her mind was still fighting in the fog. She’d lost control.

She writhed back against the sheets and whimpered weakly instead of arguing. Ellie silenced her with a messy kiss, biting at her bottom lip hard enough to bruise. Effie whined into her mouth and felt her knees open again.

The fingers were merciless. She came with a scream that was muffled by Ellie’s pink lips. She realised as she was clutching at Effie’s shirt and riding her hand like a horny animal that somehow, she was the only one naked. Once again, she was also the only one getting off.

With all of her energy momentarily drained, she flopped onto her side and groaned. Ellie chuckled in that dark, groin-tingling way and began rearranging her, making room for them to lie together on the single bed. Next time, Effie vowed, she would make sure that Ellie was stripped and pleasured first. For now, though, she was a lump of exhausted blue goop.

"Is this normal?" Effie whispered. Her entire body was laid flaccid against Ellie’s, leaving her nose-deep into the dip of Ellie’s shirt-covered cleavage.

Ellie kissed the top of her head. “Which part?”

“Before this trial, I had never even stood inside of a spaceship,” Effie admitted. “On missions like this, is it normal to have these kinds of relationships?”

Ellie tilted her head with a thoughtful expression. “Depends on the mission and the crew,” she answered slowly. “But I see it happen at least once on every trip I've been on.”

“What about you?”

“It's happened.”

Effie hummed. “Did it ever continue after?”

The air seemed to turn stale between them. “What do you really want to ask?” Ellie’s words were suddenly hostile.

Effie hesitated. Nervous at the change in atmosphere. “I just... want to know more about you. Your past trial mates-”

“I'm not talking about my exes.”

“What about your family?”

“You go first,” Ellie replied without a moment’s hesitation.

“Oh, um.” Effie floundered for a moment as she thought about how much to share. How much Ellie wanted to hear. “I don’t have any siblings,” she announced. Ellie nodded for her to continue. “But my parents separated from their… being mates, and one of them found a new mate when I was very young, who I also had as another parent. All together I have three fathers. I have many… I have forgotten the word. Children of my fathers’ siblings?”

“Cousins.”

“Yes.” She didn’t bother to count the horde in her head. “Many.”

“Do you miss your dads?” Ellie asked quietly.

“Oh yes.” Every day. The image of them, standing at her side as she held up her final certificate of schooling was on permanent display on the small screen in her living quarters. The father who carried her, the father who gave her, and the father who chose to raise her with them. “But they are very proud of me, so it feels a bit better.”

Before Effie could ask if Ellie missed her family, too, she had found another question of her own.

“With your people all having both parts. Has anyone ever tried to make a baby alone?”

It was a strange change of topic, and it took Effie a few moments to come up with an answer.

“It’s actually quite rare to be fertile from your giving and receiving parts,” she said first. “But yes, it has been tried. But in a laboratory rather than in a living being’s body. It never grows beyond a clump of… the word is stuck in my teeth.”

“Cells?” Ellie offered.

“I think so. There have been very few attempts because it is a sensitive subject for us. It is often discussed by our top officials because of the differing opinions. No one can agree if it is right or wrong to do. I suppose that makes it a good thing that it doesn’t seem to be possible. But…”

And Effie fell into a rhythm of rambles. Whenever she slowed a tangent, Ellie always had a question ready to give her an accelerating boost. She talked so much they almost missed the hour deadline given by Bonnie.

Back in Bonnie’s office, colouring her activity list, Effie realised Ellie hadn’t actually answered a single one of her questions.