Sexy Briefs: Knickers in a Twist

Ambassador by Nobilis Reed

“Oh, Miss Walker, you’re finally here.” The man scrambled from behind his desk to shake her hand.

Kay put down her travel bag so she could accept the handshake. “You’re Mister Chumley, then?”

His grip was weak and trembling, and the haunted look in his eyes betrayed many sleepless nights. In the photos she had been given, his posture had been proud, but those broad shoulders were now stooped, like those of a man twice his age. “Yes, yes, Victor Chumley, that’s right, that’s right. I hope you had a pleasant trip? Can I get you some water, maybe something to eat? They have food we can eat here. Haha, of course they do, what am I saying? Let me get some for you, okay, Miss Walker?” He spoke too quickly, the words tumbling over each other to get out.

“You can call me Kay. That won’t be necessary. I ate before the transference. You’re going home.”

“I am? Oh, oh…” Relief washed some of the stress out of his face, and while he didn’t look any less broken, at least he wasn’t going to collapse in pieces on the floor.

She patted his hand lightly. “Everything will be just fine. I’ll pick up where you left off.” A little knot of tension sprang up in her stomach, causing a wave of nausea. She let go of his hand again, and it quelled. This was going to take some getting used to.

“What? No. Oh, no. Oh, nonono. I can’t ask anyone to go through what I’ve gone through. It’s too much.”

“Ambassador, you were unprepared for this post. You were prepared for reports, presentations, meetings, committees-everything except what you found. When your first reports got back to Earth, the Department knew immediately that you didn’t have the right skills. That’s why they sent me.”

“You-you know what happens here, and you came willingly?”

“I have special qualifications.”

“I don’t know.” Victor glanced around the room, as if the walls were about to suddenly crash in on him. “I don’t know if anyone is prepared for this. The affinity-you don’t know what it does to you.”

“Mister Chumley, I worked in one of the most exclusive escort services in Berlin for six years. I built up a reputation as the girl who would do anything, with anyone, and do it with a smile. I really don’t think there’s anything here that is going to be more than I can handle. The scans and samples you provided ruled out the possibility that there would be any medical consequences. Given that,” she shrugged. “I’m ready for anything.”

“I have a better idea. You and I take the files, the records, and just go. We’ve gotten a wealth of new information, enough for us to declare success and just go home. Nobody will blame us.”

“Mister Chumley, think of me like a highly paid mercenary. I have been paid to perform a mission, and I am going to perform it.”

“If you say so, Miss Walker. I warned you.”

“Duly noted. I assume all your reports and files are up-to-date?”

“Yes, yes, of course. Yes. Let me show you.” He went back to his desk and laid his hand on a small plastic board, in the center of a glowing orange outline. His eyes glazed over for a moment, and then he pulled them away again. “There. I’ve given you access to everything. All you need to do is register.”

“Interesting. Alien technology, yes?” She sat down and put her hands into the two outlines, and the virtual interface of the computer sprang up in her mind’s eye. She opened a few files at random and scanned them, making sure that she had the access she needed, then disconnected. “That seems to be in order.” She set the panel down and turned toward Victor. “Now I want you to brief me.”

“It’s all there in the reports…”

“Victor. You and I both know that not everything makes it into the reports. This transition will run more smoothly if you do this personally.”

“I… I don’t want to think about it. I just want to go home. Don’t you see? I just want to go home!”

Kay had a job to do, but Victor needed stability. She stood up and put her hands on his shoulders. It was a gentle touch, but he flinched. “Let me help you,” she said.

As the contact continued, she could feel a trembling take hold in her fingers, and a weakness in her knees. It felt natural, like the fear was her own, but she rode it out until she felt the tension drain out of his shoulders. His expression softened, and he sighed.

Kay smiled. “There now.”

“Thank you.”

She kept her hands there, letting the effect continue. “I was briefed on the affinity effect back on Earth. I understand how a little sharing of emotions can help the diplomatic process, but one thing seemed a little confusing. How does it help with the language problems?”

“The affinity effect goes far beyond mere empathy. The closer the contact, the deeper the affinity; at the deepest levels you can transmit information and ideas freely. Most of the races here speak languages we can never hope to learn in any degree of fluency. We just can’t make the sounds, when their languages even use sound at all. But to get to those deep levels of affinity…”

“You need to have intimate contact. I see how it works. I also see how threatening it could be.” Kay could feel the trembling subsiding. “Victor, I want to ask you a very big favor.”

“Yes?”

“I want you to show me this deep affinity.”

He gave a puzzled look, and then his mouth fell open. “Oh, my.” He pulled away, his gaze dancing away to the corners of the room. “I don’t think the Department would condone that kind of thing.”

“The Department isn’t here. And the sooner you can give me the information I need, the sooner you can get back home.”

“But… my wife…”

“I’m sure she’ll be happy to see you.” Kay extended her hand. He took it, and Kay felt a fresh blossoming of fear. The aliens terrified him, true, but the affinity effect scared him too. He had been brave indeed to face it for the three weeks he was stranded here. “Where do these meetings happen?”

“Each embassy has a place, a sanctuary of a kind, where they can make the guest ambassador comfortable-at least physically. Let me show you.” He let go of her hand and crossed to a side door, which opened at his touch. Beyond it lay a circular room about four meters in diameter, with portals scattered around the walls and ceiling. A soft amber light shone from the ceiling, illuminating a shallow bowl-shaped floor scattered with pillows.

“Very nice. It’s missing a few things, but it’s workable.” She wrapped an arm around his waist and led him into the room. She went slowly, monitoring his feelings through her own, trying to keep him from slipping into full-on panic. “Let’s just sit here a while.” Kay pulled up a large firm pillow and sat him down on it, then took another and sat at his feet. Gently, she took off his plain black shoes and began massaging.

He let out a deep sigh as her fingers deftly worked out the knots in his muscles. It was becoming easier for her to segregate his feelings from her own, recognize the ones that were alien to her. It felt a little like a drug, operating on the most primal parts of her mind. She tried to analyze the feelings, the guilt and shame and anxiety that did not normally form a part of her professional life, to find if there was anything that would identify them as foreign.

The feelings faded, however, gradually eroded by the sea of comfort and good will that she sent to him along with the massage. There was little reaction when she gently removed his shirt and turned him over to work on his back. “This doesn’t seem too unpleasant,” she said, keeping her voice low. He murmured some vague syllables of agreement.

There were some stirrings when she turned him over again, and laid gentle kisses on his forehead and lips, but they faded quickly. His emotions stirred again, a mix of guilt and anticipation, when she opened his trousers and wrapped her lips around his flaccid cock. Slowly, that tension melted into the warmth of arousal.

She was not one of those women who walled herself off from the people she serviced, but she wasn’t used to getting turned on this soon in an encounter. Usually she relied on fantasy or memory in order to ignite those emotions. Not this time.

Victor’s desire was flowing into her through the affinity, lighting fires wherever it went. Regardless of the source, her body was reacting. Her breath came sharper. The room felt warmer. She could smell not only his scent coming up, but also her own, even through her clothes.

“You see?” he said, in between breaths. “Even like this…”

She decided she wasn’t going to worry that her body wasn’t reacting the way she expected. After all, wasn’t it a good thing to be turned on during sex? Who cared whether the arousal was home-grown or imported. She was going to enjoy it just the same-and maybe even learn something. Surprised, yes. She was surprised The single-minded maleness of the drive, the unrelenting, testosterone-fueled power, was very unfamiliar. But that didn’t make it any less appealing.

While she was sucking his cock, she quickly pulled off her clothes. This skill had served her well in Berlin, but this time there was an added urgency. She wanted him in a way she had never wanted a man before in her life. It didn’t matter who he was, it didn’t matter that he’d be leaving in a matter of hours, it didn’t matter that she’d probably never see him again in her life. She needed to fuck him, and needed to fuck him now.

She climbed up onto him, took his cock in her hand, and lowered herself onto it, driving his hips into the pillow underneath. She gasped as the sensation broke through, feeling not only the delicious fullness of being penetrated, but also the incredible pleasure of being the penetrator. Simultaneously, she was the fucker and the fuck-ee, riding and ridden, dominant and submissive. She could feel his hand on her breast, and feel her breast in his hand. The buoyant, driving, ecstatic synergy was like nothing she had ever felt. She cried out, growling and weeping and squealing in pleasure. Her mind was a shout caught in an endless echo chamber of ecstasy, an image caught between two mirrors.

Orgasm came quickly, more quickly than she had ever had before, and with far more power. Her heart thudded in her chest, sweat broke out everywhere, and their combined screams echoed from the bare walls, and then…

She was not alone. Victor’s thoughts were there, a mostly-unintelligible mass of impressions, thoughts and feelings, until one finally rose to the surface.

››Thank you.‹‹

››That was incredible,‹‹ she replied. Communicating in this environment was instantaneous and effortless.››I should be the one thanking you, but I understand.‹‹ Of course she understood. The information was right there, offered to her, and she took it.

His mind had been coming apart. He dreaded every day working at the embassy, but going home was just as scary. Would anyone be able to help him? How could they heal a mind that had endured things no human had ever endured? But those worries were gone now. By bringing him here, into the affinity, and giving him a human mind to connect to, she had saved him. Like a cast, guiding a broken limb into its proper shape, her mind gave him the support he needed to pull himself together. He wasn’t healed, not yet, but she could see he had the resources to do it now.

››Now comes the hard part,‹‹ he thought.››My memories, plans, all my thoughts of my work here. It isn’t pretty.‹‹ The experience of contact with Victor through the affinity wasn’t a strictly visual one, but her mind resolved the memories as a ball of sticky black bubbles, held together with slime and webbing and wire.

She hesitated. She could feel Victor’s unease radiating through their link, and no matter how she prepared herself, it would not be pleasant to absorb those memories. The fear reflected back to her from Victor and she knew that the more she waited, the harder the job would be. Bracing herself, she sent back,››Go ahead.‹‹

The memories enveloped her. The terrifying encounters flashed through her too fast to interpret, but the emotional context was clear. This man held a profound shame about sex, which was violated and inflamed every time he needed to contact one of the other races. Knowledge came with these images, knowledge of trade deals and technology transfers, but they were inconsequential compared to the memories of what he had been forced to do to obtain them. I wondered why a man with so many issues would take this job.

The torrent ended abruptly, and Kay felt the contact fade. She became aware of her surroundings to find herself still straddling him, though his softened cock had slipped out. The strange sexual urge that had taken her was gone, and she felt a strange combination of relief and loss. She rolled onto a nearby pillow and let out a long, calming breath.

Victor’s eyes, clearer and steadier, regarded her. “Will you be alright?”

“I think so. Now that the contact is broken, the memories don’t have the same emotional impact. I’ll be able to handle things, I’m sure.”

“Good. I wouldn’t want to hurt you.”

She smiled. “I know.”

“I guess that doesn’t leave much to say, does it?”

“No. It doesn’t.”

He chuckled and pulled himself up off the floor. “I guess I’ll go pack up my desk. Let me know if you need anything.” As he collected his clothes, Kay saw that he stood with shoulders a bit straighter, back a bit less bowed.

Kay didn’t bother getting dressed. “I think I’ll just get cleaned up.”

“Oh, certainly. There’s a bath over in the residential pod, behind the office.” He helped Kay to her feet.

“I know. That’s where I’ll be. I need some time to process all this.” Kay tapped her temple, walking past him on her way to the bath. The briefing she had received on Earth had told her that she’d have to operate alone for three months before anyone would be coming to relieve her. Skimming through the memories Victor had given her, she felt confident that she could do the job. Where her predecessor had felt guilt, shame, and humiliation at the encounters he had gone through, for her it was the assignment of a lifetime. She bent down and pressed the blue button on the spigot aimed at the tub. The green button, she knew, would provide an analogue of seawater; the yellow one, the near-boiling sulfurous water of a hot spring. Bathing in either of those wouldn’t be useful.

As the tub filled and she settled down into the shallow basin, she called up the memories Victor had given her. Many seemed familiar, but that didn’t come as a shock. According to the theories advanced by the dimensional scientists, the other worlds that sent ambassadors here were also Earth, but in alternate time-lines where different species had evolved sentience. There were cat-people, dog-people, pig-people, bear-people, parrot-people and dolphin-people, but also elephant-people, crow-people, orca-people, squid-people, and bee-people. There were even a few varieties of dinosaur-people. She was curious about all of them.

The only commonality between them was that they had sex. In every sentient species, the drive to procreate had been sublimated into a drive for physical connection and sexual pleasure. It seemed to be a universal constant, a hard line between animal and not-animal. Here on the Embassy, that was enough.

It would be a challenge, but Kay was ready. She made a mental note to send her first invitation to the dog-people ambassador. From Victor’s memories she knew he had quite a tongue.