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Saga of Sex Among the Stars, with Alien Species, Androids and AIs Reaches Its Monumental Climax! Planetary archaeologists, Aliis and Dree, have learned things about life, love, sex and themselves they never dreamed of, courtesy an assortment of philosophic, spiritual and highly horny androids and intelligent alien species created to populate a zillionaire's pleasure planet, then abandoned for thirty thousand years. Now they are ready to leave the planet accompanied by the thirty thousand year-old android that has become the High-Potentate of the cult of eros that is responsible for creating the harmony behind the planet-wide peaceful co-existence and sexual harmony of so many different kinds of sentient creatures. But one more type of sentient creature wants in on the action, though it has no physical body J(AI)' wants in on the action. Before they can leave orbit, the Artificial Intelligences will want to be let in on this new sexual and social concord. But AIs can't have sex, can they? Cover art: Joel Wideman.

This eBook is part 3 of the following series:
First Encounters of the Fourth Kind

CHAPTER 1

DAY FIVE--02:20

Waking restfully to the light sounds of a small fountain, its gentle
pattering strong across her awareness, she roused herself feeling warm
and suffused, blanketed and snug from a cosily perfect glow within;
the one Aliiss always associated with comfort, security and a happily
satiated body.

Even after opening her eyes, seeing an ornately painted ceiling
spanning the view above her, one that had incidentally seen better
days, and also one she didn't have in her memory from anywhere before
this moment, she didn't panic. Not even when feeling the bed of
cushions all around her, realising by tactile contact as she stretched
herself that she lay absolutely naked and uncovered for all to see,
did she loose that buzz of good feeling humming from finger-tips to
toes.

From her fully reclined position, rediscovering the large room from
ceiling downward, parts of what she saw began to bring back at least
some fleeting association-images, while others continued to favour
silent non-recognition.

She definitely didn't remember seeing any furry bush-bear creatures
about the place, all involved cat-like in the calming activities of
sitting and washing themselves, some looking back at her with slightly
aloof interest as she moved. Each was stocky, cute, small and fluffy
with big eyes and ears, the only anomalies to those familiar physical
characteristics of a tree or bush-bear, being a long tufted-tail and
delicate human looking hands. Any one of them could have easily sat in
the palm of her hand. Maybe I overlooked them, she supposed, in
amongst that raging funnel of hormonal distraction earlier.

Her body felt fuelled still with the refreshed feeling and thrum of
connectivity which came after a good bout of sex. All she remembered
of it, though, was a broken confusion of feelings, mostly the
overbearing and extreme need for urgent release after release, which
she must have attained, as it seemed to have left her now. Wasn't
there something about an antidote?

She put a hand tentatively between her legs, still lightly moist from
within, but not sticky. She had been cleaned up during her sleep. How
long?

'Your rest has been refreshing?'

She jerked the hand away, rolling over quickly in that ancient
surprise-response of anyone caught touching themselves unawares whilst
thinking they were alone.

'Umm ... yes. Ahhh ... how much time...'

'Only a very short while indeed. It is an effect of the
psychoactive-masker, deeply purging under the co-operative conditions
of an equally deep sleep, thus accomplishing the cleansing more
swiftly.'

The elegant robot-AI from earlier was now sat calmly on a small mound
of cushions a short distance away, petting one of the bush-bears
perched nonchalantly on one knee. 'I do wish to apologise now that I
have the opportunity, for my ethereal colleague's behaviour toward
you. It was never my intention that he should bring you to me through
the front entrance, and so purposefully expose you to the effects of
our special garden. I had wanted to meet and greet you for a
conversation, as an equal.'

She looked around, then down at her nakedness, and smiled.

'Perhaps however, I should allow you to re-clothe yourself first...'

She sat up, then settled into a straight-backed kneeling position, in
an attempt to focus some edge into her demeanour, ending up laughing a
little self-consciously when that ploy failed. 'Your masker may be
protecting me from new psychoactive pheromones, but I am guessing from
a few reactions felt so far, my skin would be still too sensitive for
the touch of any clothing, at least for a little while.

'I should find it difficult to settle, or even concentrate upon our
conversation properly.'

Aliiss let her completely relaxed mood continue its rule and added
with a slight shrug, 'Like your own people, I too have no particular
problem with nudity. Such modesty would be a little foolish, don't you
agree, considering what has gone before?'

'A display and act I am very used to witnessing within this temple,
so please think nothing of it. Here on this world, such has grown
beyond a personal solution to needs otherwise unrequitable. The act is
commonly a signal of interest, or greeting between potential consorts,
or a way of showing availability to a specific person or persons.

'We share publicly, what you keep private. At least this is my own
perception of things, in view of your combined behaviour and manner of
clothing so far displayed.'

Whilst considering this evaluation with a moment's speculation of her
own, she leant forward to allow one of the miniature bush-bears, one
which had come nearer to investigate her, to climb easily into her
hand.

She gave a nod while petting it. 'Well observed, and quite truly so.
We do tend to reveal with use of clothing, that which we are
attempting to offer through hiding it. This is a confusion of
standards amongst us that is still under review.' Her bush-bear was
happily responding to some tickling behind the ears.

'We of the contact teams are outsiders however, and have a policy of
being able to accept more in the way of diverse behavioural
differences in those generally encountered on the ex-colonies we
visit. It helps us understand and integrate with those willing to
talk. In short, and by way of example, I do not mind remaining naked
while we speak.'

'This I see is also true, but nevertheless, the choice does remain
yours. We do not expect all living with or visiting us here, to spend
the entire time unclothed. That equally is their own choice.'

'Just so. Would also a more traditional method of greeting be equally
acceptable?'

A note of humour entered the AI's reply. 'The act of touching oneself
intimately in another's presence, is only used as a sign of
willingness to explore sexual greetings.' Rau'au correction was
polite.

'Ah-yes.' She looked down to cover her slight embarrassment and saw
again what she had at first noticed on Ra'au's frame upon their first
meeting in the orgy-room. 'Is this then the reason why you are
equipped so?'

Following the direction of her gaze downward, he parted the open
robe's folds a little further, exposing a peacefully recumbent phallus
now withdrawn and flaccid in appearance, despite its metallic gleam
belying any such softness. He lifted out of partial hiding for
inspection. 'I, dear traveller, have been created as a pleasure
android, therefore provided with all the equipment. Should I wish it,
I can become female, or hermaphrodite, even androgynous as and when
that might be required.'

Aliiss looked at the skeletal robot. 'Forgive a visitor's possible
show of ignorance, but an android? I had heard such were almost
identical to the standard humaniform in appearance.'

'That classification is broadly still correct. I describe myself as
android due to that which you see of me now, is in essence only the
core remaining after the beautiful flesh of my exterior has died. I
had the muscles, hair and skin every bit as pliant and healthy as your
own. Naturally, with something like a synthetically grown epidermis,
regeneration becomes more complex than with your own body and its
in-built regulators.

'We androids have another method, but the facilities to support a
re-growth are, alas, no longer available to me here. Yet I do indeed
do my best to enjoy and employ what I still have available.' All the
while Rau'au's metallic penis was swelling and lengthening into
something beautifully long and hard. It looked almost perfectly normal
in all details, except for its softly gleaming surface and unnatural
length. At some internal command, it simply returned without fuss to
its dormant size, as if having woken for a quick stretch and look
around, before returning peaceably to sleep.

'A useful trick, that internal switch. Surely, though, a flesh
epidermis is not the only choice, I saw how the hologram has a range
of body-densities available, all of which seem as real as any truly
organic skin.'

'A holographic epidermis is no solution for myself, nor is it quite
what it seems. Android flesh is as warm, if not slightly warmer to the
touch than most humans'. Holographic hard-light is as cold as the air
it occupies, surely you must remember?' He considered her for a
moment, the angle of his head as expressive as any facial muscle.

'This actuality was an error of design which robs the appeal for most
wishing any sexual contact, at least during the initial stages. Except
for possibly those who like the cooler amphibian touch or purpose
built cold-automata.' The face paused again, as if gauging her
response.

'It is why Lachi chooses invisibility over manifestation in any form.
It helps to overcome this shortcoming; the excitement of an invisible,
unpredictable touch distracts from the detraction, or so he says.

'I am however not a purpose-built cold-automaton. I am AI-endowed, a
former android now become a curious, robotic half-ling. I still have
feelings consistent with my former state of being, and the simple
thought of holographic layering as ultimate solution, just depresses
me too much to function, even now.'

His display surprised her with its level of understated depth, felt
almost physically between them, picked up like a scent from his
emotions. Aliiss didn't quite know what to do with a depressed AI
except treat it as she would anyone else, with distraction.

'So, your hologram partneer!' She jumped in mid-sentence as another
of the hand-sized bush-bears scampered in a straight dash up her back,
to perch innocently on her left shoulder where it proceeded to stroke
and groom at her hair as if trained to it. She shivered lightly at the
contact of tiny fingers; her body was plainly still sensitive.

'Lachi was created so,' Rau'au sighed, picking up on her interrupted
thread, yet he seemed less withdrawn now, 'therefore he knows no
different. It is an integral part of his experience-matrix to function
like that. I do not mean to say he cannot understand, but perhaps it
would not mean the same to him. He has long since adapted the
invisibility potential within his matrix to the extent he can pretend
he is the wind-god incarnate whenever it suits. Personally, I feel all
that playacting on his part, has taken over his real character a
little too strongly.'

'The wind-god?'

'A mistaken use of religious tactics attempted in desperation a long
time ago. As a result, a few of the outlying tribes have called him
this since the early old days, before we succeeded in uniting our
different peoples under the newer approach of harmonious, spiritual
co-existence, which is how it has been for a considerable number of
centuries.

'Unfortunately the concept stuck, possibly more in Lachi than with
the tribes, who have long since matured beyond such easy
manipulations. Even so, the myth still persists, due mostly to him and
his occasional travels amongst the people.

'He did his part in this way at least, with helping draw their
attention to us, and therefore away from the damaging forces surfacing
from within them, at that time.'

Aliiss looked across at him for a moment, stuck with how to proceed,
yet knowing he was patiently waiting her out, sensing beyond any doubt
that he knew what she was going to say next, certainly down to a
thirty hundredth-point probability of her words' content.
AI-computational speeds were why they were considered the best
disputants, being more than able to work out every possible
conversational response feasible, and prepare a string of answers for
each and every one of them in advance, even during the briefest of
pauses. Out-guessing AI's was a job best left to other AI's.

'So my feeling was true then, that you have been active since before
the collapse?' When in doubt, realign!

The tactical effect was lost as she shivered slightly a beat later,
feeling a stronger wave of residual hormonal sensitivity ripple out
over her arms and back. Her shoulder-companion's hand having won
through her hair, began exploring an ear with its inquisitive fingers.
She softly closed her eyes very briefly, sighing.

'Almost as long. I was activated as the result of a post-Introversion
client's specifications, some eighty-two cycles after that
period--which you have called the collapse--began with that fateful
broadcast from the core-worlds.

'To be quite specific, in 3,139,997 on the jWl'al calendar, life came
into my existence. You see, I am not so bad for someone just a hundred
and eleven cycles past their twenty-nine and a half thousandth birth
date. Just three hundred and eighty-nine more to go until the big
three-oh.' He chuckled and gave a sigh, then an easy shrug.

'I will remember to call by, if I am still around then.' She smiled,
hoping to distract him from the undercurrent of introspection still
seeming to call to him from within.

He shook his head, surfacing back into the conversation and lifting a
hand in quick apology, his faster AI abilities processing the needed
moment of gathering, to less than a beat.

'Only profit could have motivated them. Even if the jWl'al chose to
ignore any further contact with their colony-children after that last
communication to the galaxy, my creators continued to actively sell to
any interested parties, even seeking them out by advertising wherever
they were gathered in sufficient number of wealthy groups.

'It was possibly the result of continuation of their largely ingrown
sales-urge and career-ethos, some kind of strange loyalty compulsion
of attaining immortality-recognition beyond their lifespan and
therefore a reward somewhere in the far future. Theirs was a
quasi-religious logic that drove them on to sell and produce results
regardless of the current circumstances, which were not stable.

'Matched to that, our services seemed somehow to be more in demand as
the number of inter-world contacts diminished. We seemed to be the
last of the status-trophies from that period, after things like
current generation warships and hi-tech miniature weaponry.

'Whilst I was still undergoing my training, the order was cancelled
by default, the client's world having being overrun by another. That
sort of thing seemed to happen a lot during the first two centuries,
while the equipment was strong, and the knowledge of war-machines
still of first-hand quality, with enough practical
maintenance-experience to back it all up.

'Those still speaking for the multi-planetary company that was our
owner, decided nevertheless to complete my training, but no more
buyers came, not at the price they were still asking.

'I have been glad of that for a very long while. Of course, the I of
that time thought very differently about many things back then. The
resultant insecurity hung heavily upon my young psyche for quite a
while thereafter.'

She left him a moment's additional silence, possibly more for her own
benefit than his, as it gave her the time to imagine, or try to
imagine how it must have felt.
'Yet since then you have risen to create this society from slavery
into something absolutely unique. I really must hear more--no single
entity has ... cuuja d'Zhe!'

Jerking backward, she spilled the two pets completely from her,
whisking the previously quiescent one up from her lap with both hands
she held it up before her, to reproachfully stare at the beast, eye to
eye.

Rau'au despite his lack of facial mobility, was broadcasting an
attitude of concern, looking all around the chamber and quartering it
methodically. 'Unless he has again developed a new cloak from my
sensors, I do not detect Lachi's presence here.'

She quietly cursed the bush-bear in her grip, then switched to curses
aimed solely at herself, mostly for not having intervened once its
little fingers had begun exploring through her pubic hairs. The
sensation had been pleasantly calming, until it had noticed her still
swollen clitoris and made a move for it with those tiny hands. I
should have expected something like this, certainly here!

She lowered the bush-bear, wondering now if it had been wise to call
their species that. Seeing it dangling placidly in her grip, long tail
languidly wrapping itself around her wrist and arm, Rau'au gave a
double nod of understanding. 'The lap-beast is an unknown companion in
your society? Many of my visitors find their attentions pleasing,
which is why I allow them so much freedom here. I could remove them if
you find their activities distracting.'

Aliiss shook her head. 'No, it's ... ahh, I was just caught unaware
is all. It is fine now that I know what to expect.' She put the
lap-beast back where it supposedly belonged, changing position to a
cross-legged posture before resuming her stroking of its head,
determined by her show to prove herself able for the challenge.

'What is it your visitors come here to see you about, or am I being
naïve?' She felt the hands resume an intrigued, deft search over her
tender and hyper-responsive skin.

'My foremost role for the people, is as a spiritual advisor, although
the other reason does have its supplicants also.'

'A religion? I thought just now you expressed disapproval concerning
such methods of control.'

'The spirituality I mention has nothing to do with religious belief,
or any such simple devices.'

'I am relieved, for an AI founded belief-structure, with a deity as
focus ... well, that would have me acting surprised, again.'

'Oh I assure you, we AI's can and do have belief issues, make no
mistake. Understanding is, after all, an important part of gaining
faith in oneself. Without it, there is no way forward. Religion
therefore had its potential use realised in keeping things focused and
even, placed there to hold the mass of circulating feelings under
control whilst we worked upon implementing the unification of such a
wide variety of breeds that made up this unique world.

'Their young psyches needed an outside hand of guidance to help them,
which was something the jWl'al still on the world could not control,
due mostly to some of the tribes and the stronger individuals within
them having almost immediately begun making the idea of life together
an untenable thing. They knew no better at the time, and were very
different from the peoples you have presumably met since your
arrival.

'We got through to them though, adapting the idea of religion to
stabilise things while building the approach of available spirituality
for all as a future focus and bleed-off; creating this temple for the
faithful to come and visit, to learn further. With myself as living
guide to them, I was able to refine this spiritual path as a tool
against mistrust and further killing. We kept it as light and sunny as
the location, easy and rewarding.

'After that, I moved them slowly through gradual uplift toward
personal understanding. It was, effectively, the same as any religion,
but without the blind following such requires, or the need for
deities, also leaving no room for misinterpretation. How could they
create fractions of belief when the original prophet has always been
here for them to consult, to ask their questions of, even now?'

She nodded slowly, trying to appear sagacious whilst being intrigued
by what the former pleasure-droid, now spiritual world leader was
telling her.

'How did those company executives you talked about, react to all
that--or was it a part of their future strategy, this utilisation of a
religious approach?'
'No. The idea was of our own devising, we the abandoned inheritors of
this world. The situation back then was complex, as are all situations
when an explanation is required. By then, none of the company people
lived on this world, they had left for the safety of more stable
worlds and economies, where luxuries still existed.'

Pulling an expression of sympathetic acceptance, she nodded and
allowed Rau'au the space to continue. Concentration, however, was
proving to be a difficult undertaking, while watching him pet and play
with his own lap-beast throughout, letting it climb amusingly all
around his once more erect phallus.

Nor was her concentration being helped in any way by the beast in her
own lap, feeling it continue its explorations with a level of
fascination shared apparently by all its kin.

Lifting the other from her shoulder, to distract herself from the
first's activities, she cradled its soft furriness against her breast,
realising an instant before the manipulative little hands gripped an
invitingly visible nipple, that this had been a bigger mistake.

'Ahmm-mm ... so your spiritual guidance kept the peace in the end,'
she restarted the conversation with determination, frowning as she
focused harder. 'As I said earlier, you seem to have achieved much,
especially with such a variety of species, all of quite widely
disparate outward appearances.

'We have difficulties enough getting the peoples of the member states
to trust and accept even the cultural ways of each other--and they are
predominantly of the same species!'

'Indeed, this was quickly plain to me during my early contemplation
of stochastic observations. There is a strong trait of suspicion in
humanity with regard to the unfamiliar and unknown. Perhaps this has
been the very basis of the jWl'al drive for exploration, and its need
to possess by moving ever outward.

'Even before a need for space in the home-galaxy made it necessary,
they turned on the outside neighbours from fear of having nowhere else
to expand into, without even waiting to see. Fear that consumed,
determining future actions from responses ancient and connected to
deep within their psyche.

'I decided to cure that condition, if I could, by taking the problem
away before mass ignorance compounded an already precarious fate that
had been given to us by the great Introspection's aftermath.

'I wanted no death or incurable blood-feuds threading through our
history in binding loops of strangulation, where the beginnings and
ends could be lost so quickly to clear sight.

'As we were all created sexual beings, I chose that path as our
method of binding. We now have that same length of history upon our
side, instead of against. This is something your society's peoples
will also know, in time. All of you will be helped by the natural
sexual-bindings between tribes, the love engendering understanding,
helping discovery of better knowledge through learning each-others'
ways of inter-relating. It is not impossible--it just requires faith,
example and time.'

By now Aliiss was nodding by rote, feeling an overwhelming need for
some sexual binding of her own. With one pair of hands exploring all
around her soft flesh, and the other lap-bear's heady scent adding its
own excitement to that created by its hands, she was beyond
concentration or lectures on historical/theological perspective.