A Terran Trader on Toolondo
Chapter 1

Copyright© 2016 by FantasyLover

I could only shake my head irately as my Karkallian police escort dropped me off at my ship, the Phaunos, so I could prepare for this sudden, unexpected, and heartbreaking departure. “Why the fuck was the port’s cargo master waiting at my ship?” I wondered angrily, not the first angry question I’d asked myself this morning. I didn’t even notice that he was the only person visible, and I was too angry to care even if I had noticed.

I still have no idea what the fuck happened this morning. The last I knew, my happy, sated fiancée, her sister, and her two friends left for school this morning aboard one of my shuttles.

---.---

I guess I should introduce myself. I’m Captain Marc Parker, owner and captain of the cargo ships Phaunos and Cornucopia, as well as numerous other ships, both larger and smaller. I sell my cargo of Terran fruits to Karkallians, and then buy high tech Karkallian goods to sell to Terrans--mostly to the Terran government.

Four days ago, I returned to the planet Toolondo, a planet stuck in diplomatic limbo because both the Karkalla Confederacy and the Goroke Empire claim it. Toolondo has been stuck in this limbo for 283 Karkallian years, the equivalent of 330 Earth Years. For most of that time, an uneasy truce has existed on the planet. Each government has a governor on the planet representing their interests.

To prevent governmental and economic paralysis, both governments petitioned the Duban Kingdom, asking them to appoint someone capable of governing so they could form a triumvirate to rule the planet. When at least two members of the triumvirate agree, that’s what happens.

The Karkalla Confederacy, or simply Karkalla, comprises forty-two inhabited planets and is the nearest race to the Terran Republic. It’s located in a galaxy so distant from the Terran Republic that the galaxy’s original name was no more than an alphanumeric footnote in outdated astronomy books. A Terran ship takes four years in hyperspace to make the round-trip to the port on Kai’ka, the Karkallian capital planet, the only Karkallian planet Terran ships can legally visit.

The Terran Republic, or Terra for short, consists of nineteen inhabited planets scattered across the Milky Way galaxy, populated by descendants of people from Earth.

The Duban Kingdom, or Dubanians, is the second closest race to Terra, and consists of thirty-seven inhabited planets. Outbound from Terra, when you reach Karkalla, hang a hard right for another three-year round trip in hyperspace to reach them. The only problem is that they don’t allow Terran vessels in their territory. There had been a brief skirmish between a Terran warship and what they thought was a pirate vessel several centuries ago. The pirate vessel turned out to be the Dubanian Royal Yacht headed incognito for a previously unclaimed planet where parts of the Dubanian Royal Family routinely vacationed. Duban has since claimed the planet and several solar systems around it.

If you remember your high school math lessons regarding 3-4-5 right triangles, a four-year round trip to Kai’ka and a three-year round trip at a right angle to the Duban Kingdom means a direct round trip from Terran territory to the Duban Kingdom would take five years--if it were allowed.

The Gorokians, a third race, are a highly suspicious race and allow no foreign ships in their claimed territory. The only place other races can purchase Gorokian goods is on Toolondo. As near as I can tell, Terran technology lags somewhat behind the Gorokians. Gorokians are slightly behind the Dubanians. Karkallians are the most technologically advanced of the four races, slightly ahead of the Dubanians, but considerably ahead of Terrans.

The Goroke Empire, or Gorokians, consists of thirty-three planets on the opposite side of the Karkalla Confederacy from the Terran Republic. We knew nothing about their race or their galaxy until we learned about them from the Karkallians. We still know very little about them. Well, most Terrans know very little about them. I may be the only Terran who knows much about them, and the government expects highly detailed reports on anything new that I learn about them, or any of the other races, each time I return home.

Terran merchants who buy Dubanian goods must buy them on Kai’ka at a hefty markup. Due to a special dispensation, I can buy both Karkallian goods and Dubanian goods on Toolondo at a much lower price. I can also buy Gorokian goods there, goods unavailable to any other Terran merchant.

The first thing you should know about me, aside from my name, is that I have an eidetic memory. Once I read, see, or hear something, I remember it. Hyperspace travel leaves me with lots of spare time to read and study. I covered the walls in my quarters with shelves full of antique printed books, especially reference books. I also have a huge computer memory vault filled with hundreds of thousands of electronic Terran books, mainly non-fiction. The vault also holds Karkallian, Gorokian, and Dubanian electronic books, although far too few Gorokian and Dubanian books, as they are hard to find on Kai’ka. Aside from my native language, Terran, I’m reasonably fluent in all three of the other languages.

Because I remember what I hear, as well as what I see, I pick up languages quickly. Before my first trip to Kai’ka, I bought copies of Karkallian news broadcasts from another captain who had made the trip. He included a list of about a hundred words written in Karkallian and then wrote them phonetically in Terran. By the time I reached Kai’ka the first time, I’d listened to the news broadcasts hundreds of times. I managed to piece together what they said in the recorded newscasts by translating the words the other captain gave me and extrapolating the rest. Then I made sure the extrapolated translations made sense in other places where the words were used. I was nearly fluent in Karkallian when I arrived.

I picked up Gorokian and Dubanian after having my androids programmed with those languages, as well as Karkallian. Having androids fluent in four languages comes in very handy in the marketplace.

---.---

I guess my story actually began some time ago, when I only had one ship. I was inside claimed Karkallian space, en route to Kai’ka on my third round-trip when I intercepted a distress call from a Dubanian merchant ship being pursued by a pirate ship. By the time my AI pinpointed an intercept point, dropped us out of hyperspace, and reached the intercept, the pirates had heavily damaged the merchant ship. The pirates had targeted the ship’s engines and weapons first so the ship couldn’t flee or fight. The pirates were closing in, planning to board the merchant ship.

The pirates had barely a second’s warning between when I dropped out of hyperspace and my AI and androids successfully targeted and fired on the pirate ship, sending two blasts that vented their bridge into space, killing any pirates on the bridge. Why the pirates weren’t wearing protective suits and didn’t have their blast doors sealed before beginning an attack is beyond me. When the atmosphere on the bridge of the pirate ship vented into space, it depressurized enough of the ship that it killed everyone aboard before they could react and get into EVA suits.

It took an hour for me to decelerate after dropping out of hyperspace, and another to come about and return to the scene of the battle. The merchant ship was on minimum life support by the time I arrived and couldn’t be repaired enough to operate without visiting a repair facility.

The Dubanian captain of the merchant ship was surprised that a Terran ship would stop to help him. Once our scan of the two damaged ships was complete, he scratched his scraggly gray beard. “If I help you upgrade your engines and install the jump drive from the pirate ship, would you tow me to the Karkallian shipyard orbiting Kalangadoo?” he asked.

“Sure,” I replied cautiously, wondering what he could possibly do for my engines. I already had top-of-the-line Terran engines that were available to civilians on my ship.

I was surprised to learn that jump drives existed. Terran scientists had long postulated the feasibility of jumps. They just didn’t understand the physics of jumps well enough to build the engines, although they’ve been trying for centuries.

We docked all three ships together and started making our way slowly towards Kalangadoo. The captain seemed sure that he could upgrade my ship enough that I could get our two ships there. I wasn’t sold, and worried that propelling the mass of three ships docked together would cause me to run out of fuel long before reaching either Kalangadoo or the necessary speed to re-enter hyperspace, especially with two of the ships full of cargo.

We continued accelerating for three months while he worked on my ship. The mass of three ships docked together made acceleration a very slow process. My engines were designed for a single ship. His androids did most of the work at first, training my androids on the job. I had no idea what he was doing most of the time as he scavenged parts and spare parts from both his ship and the pirate ship and installed them on mine.

At least my androids knew what he was doing by the time they finished, and now know how to install, maintain, and repair everything. We also drafted the androids that the pirates used to help crew their vessel. That helped the work go even faster. The forty-eight Gorokian military androids we found aboard the pirate ship helped by carrying parts. I learned that the pirates used them to board captured ships.

The captain commented that he was sure the pirates were Gorokian, even though they spoke Karkallian, and operated a Karkallian-registered ship. Their accent placed them as Gorokian, as did the presence of the impossible-to-buy Gorokian military androids.

In addition to the Gorokian military androids, there were twenty-eight Karkallian androids aboard the pirate ship. The pirates always kept the androids from ships they captured and trained them to operate their ship, reducing the number of men with whom they had to split their ill-gotten gains. I didn’t know it at the time of the attack, but there were only six pirates aboard the ship when they attacked; androids did everything else. Shit, not only could the androids help with the upgrades but the Gorokian military androids now gave me a formidable defensive force if needed, not that I had ever needed one before now.

Aside from the engines, power supply, and jump drive, the captain stripped the pirate ship of her weapons, AI, cloaking, and shielding, installing them on my ship. We were lucky that the pirates had concentrated all of their power to their forward shields to deflect any shots fired by the merchant ship. My shots hit from the unshielded rear.

Even though the captain said he would install it on my ship, actually seeing the jump drive from the pirate ship surprised me. I’d heard scuttlebutt in port on Kai’ka that jump drives existed, but always shrugged those reports off as rumors resulting from wishful thinking by ships’ officers and crew who had imbibed in too much of their chemical intoxicant of choice.

One hundred twenty-seven days after interrupting the pirate attack, the Dubanian captain declared the Cornucopia’s upgrade complete. While the work was underway, some of the Gorokian military androids had transferred the fuel and everything of value from the pirate ship, packing my ship so full that I even had stuff stored in my quarters and in the passageways.

I turned the derelict hull of the pirate ship loose once we stripped it. Sure, it was worth some serious bucks, but it would be next to impossible to jump with three ships docked together. I attached a salvage beacon to the hull of the pirate ship, planning to come back to retrieve it once I sold my cargo on Kai’ka.

Having reviewed the information available on the AI from the pirate ship, I knew the locations of six other ships they had captured and plundered before they scuttled them, hiding them on uninhabited planetoids where they wouldn’t be found. Once I salvaged and sold the pirate ship hull, one at a time, I’d pick up and sell the six ships the pirates had attacked and abandoned. I had all the necessary information from the pirate ship’s AI stored aboard my ship in a data dump. I’d probably pick up and sell one ship each trip rather than sell them all at once, so I didn’t flood the market with used ships. When I finished selling my cargo each trip, I’d run back and pick up an abandoned ship to sell, and then fill my ship with the usual high-tech Karkallian goods I sold back on Terra. I sent a hyper-light message to Kalangadoo, the nearest Karkallian planet, informing them of what happened and of our pending arrival. However, if the jump drive worked, we’d get there well before my message arrived.

Even with just two ships docked together, and having accelerated for more than four months, it took a full day to get up to speed to make the jump. Once we started the jump, it took seven hours to complete. Four hours after completing the jump, I towed the Dubanian ship into the shipyard that orbited Kalangadoo. By the time we got there, the captain had finished my tutorial on using the jump drive and had updated my navigational charts to show where the gravitational influence of each star and solar system began and ended so I would know where it was safe to begin and end my jumps.

I had to begin and end each jump outside of the gravitational influence of a solar system. Otherwise, the gravitational field would influence the jump. On a jump across a dozen solar systems, the influence could be enough that I could exit in the middle of a solar system, aimed right at a planet, sun, moon, or asteroid.

Making a jump is similar to sailing blindfolded. Assuming that the wind and current stay constant, you set your course, turn on the autopilot, and determine how long the trip will take. At the time you calculated that you would be near your destination, you remove your blindfold, and you’re there--hopefully.

The gravitational field of a nearby star or solar system will affect you the same way as if the wind shifted slightly at the beginning of your blindfolded sailing trip, sending you far off course over such a vast distance.

Since I was no longer towing another ship, the next leg of the trip went much faster. Four hours after departing the Kalangadoo shipyard, I exited hyperspace. After reporting my presence to Kai’ka Space Traffic Control, I contacted the harbormaster and received directions to my berth. When we arrived, I was surprised at the small crowd waiting for me. Normally, there was a customs agent accompanied by six android troops. This time, there were several additional people.

“Welcome, Captain Parker,” the customs agent greeted me cordially. That was unusual in itself, as customs agents usually range somewhere between businesslike and gruff, even Terran ones.

“The Karkallian government sends their regards and their thanks for the service you rendered by ridding us of a pirate ship. The captain of the ship you saved released the data from his AI showing your masterful attack on the pirate ship.

“Three of the people with me represent companies that insured six ships missing in that area before your intervention. They hope the AI from the pirate ship will help them determine if the ships they insured were attacked by the pirates. If so, they hope to determine what the pirates did with the ships and the people aboard them. Naturally, you will receive a 50% finder’s fee for the value of any ships and cargo they recover.

“The others with me are attorneys hoping to review your records of the items you legally took from the pirate ship. They are hoping to find family heirlooms or items with sentimental value to their clients that the pirates kept. If they do, you will also receive proper compensation for those items,” he assured me.

I motioned for him to come aboard. “I already have the locations of the six ships they attacked. The ships are all repairable and hidden in an asteroid belt. I planned to return and salvage each ship, as well as the hull of the pirate ship,” I explained as I showed him the excerpts from the pirate’s AI showing the pirate attack on the first of the six ships.

Within an hour, I had a serious influx of cash into my bank account as the three insurance companies paid me for the six damaged ships. It was worth it to the insurers to buy them as repairable salvage and haul them back to repair before selling the repaired ship to recoup part of the claim they paid for each ship. One company even paid me salvage cost for the pirate ship hull, planning to haul it back to repair and sell as well.

The attorneys were more difficult to deal with, but it was my difficulty, not them being difficult. They offered me much more for the family heirlooms and keepsakes than they were worth, hoping to convince me to sell them back to the families. After an independent appraisal, I sold them for half of the appraised amount. The customs agent commented on my generosity.

“Those families could easily afford what they offered,” he told me afterwards.

I shrugged. “Probably, but I’m not the type of person to take advantage of a grieving family. I couldn’t return the loved one who died in the pirate attack and tried to do something to help them. If the family members had come here personally, I would have given the items back to them for nothing.”

One of the android soldiers accompanying the customs agent was speaking quietly with someone on a com unit. When he finished that conversation, he took the customs agent aside and spoke quietly with him. The customs agent was grinning when he turned back to me.

“Your generosity has already been reported to those in the upper echelons of our government. Combined with your intervention in the pirate attack, they have agreed that you will be welcomed at any Karkallian shipyard, anytime. In addition, you may trade with the disputed planet Toolondo, and you may purchase items here, or there. We will eliminate all import and export duties, charging only the same tax that Karkallian ships pay. We always watch foreign merchants and know that you visit the marketplace here, but have never tried to buy anything illegal,” he said.

“I was just looking to see if there was anything interesting so I could buy it through proper channels, or anything that I could buy there legally,” I replied defensively.

“As I said, we watch every foreign merchant. We are aware that you went through proper channels to purchase items you saw in the marketplace, or only bought legally allowed items in the marketplace. We will still be watching, and should you accidentally purchase something you shouldn’t, the government will reimburse you for the item and confiscate it instead of arresting you,” he advised.

“Personally, I recommend that you sell your goods on Toolondo. Prices there are normally higher than here because a middleman buys them here to sell on other planets. With your new jump drive, the trip should only take you a few hours,” he added.

“Please let the proper officials know that I’m honored,” I replied.

Once the customs inspection was complete, I sealed the hatches and headed for the marketplace. I wanted to buy three things that I kept seeing for sale there but couldn’t afford before. The first was a Karkallian long-range scanner with a range twice that of my current Terran long-range scanner. The second was rail guns. I could charge those ahead of time, so another ship didn’t see me charging my weapons, interpreting that as a hostile act. The third thing was printed books. As I said before, I read a lot. For some reason, there are few printed Karkallian books available, just electronic books, and the available printed books are expensive. Among the more than four thousand printed books in my library, only twenty-six are Karkallian.

The long-range scanner was cheaper than I thought it would be. Two of the two dozen androids accompanying me took it back to the Cornucopia. Having never before seen more than two rail guns for sale I was surprised to find four, and bought all four. However, the ten books I bought excited me the most. In addition, forty-four electronic Karkallian books and even seven electronic Gorokian books went back to the Cornucopia to load into my library vault.

After stocking the Cornucopia with fresh food and other supplies, I headed for the spaceport in orbit above the planet. They had obviously been told about me as they greeted me warmly. Normally, foreign ships may only refuel or receive critical repairs. When I told them what I wanted, they didn’t bat an eye.

While they were installing the long-range scanner and the four rail guns, two fore and two aft, the head guy took me aside. “That Terran shielding you have is worthless out here,” he warned. “The Karkallian shielding from the pirate ship is good. Since Karkallian technology is superior to others, I have little use for Gorokian or Dubanian items that I pull from ships we sell for scrap. I have a Gorokian shielding unit and a Dubanian shielding unit, as well as the power supplies for each so they don’t draw power from propulsion or weapons,” he offered.

I almost choked when he told me the cost. Normally I would have laughed at him and told him to forget it, but the encounter with the pirates still weighed heavily on my mind even if mine wasn’t the ship they had attacked. When all was said and done, I spent the recovery fee for one of the six ships to make the improvements to my ship and spent the salvage fee for the pirate ship in the marketplace for the books, rail guns, and the long-range scanner.

“Remember,” said the top man from the spaceport right before I left, “shields won’t stop a thing unless they’re on. Too many captains try to save fuel by only powering the front shield. Almost every ship I’ve repaired that was attacked by pirates was attacked from the side or the rear.” I know I blushed, being guilty of only using my forward shields to ward off space debris.

Then he pulled me closer, looked around to make sure nobody could hear, and whispered, “When you get to Toolondo, find Three-Finger Nardu in the Gorokian marketplace. Tell him that Yuka sent you. Ask him for the special loads for rail guns. They’re legal for you to have, but Karkallian companies can only sell them to the military. Nardu is Gorokian.”

I thanked him for everything and even tipped him for the suggestions he made. I could tell that tipping him with a watermelon both surprised and pleased him immensely, especially since it was probably worth two- or three-days’ wages for him.

Two hours later, we were beyond the gravitational effects of their solar system. Without the extra mass of the second ship, we reached jump speed in ten minutes and made the jump to Toolondo. My AI calculated that the jump would take two hours, so I settled in with the book I had been reading on the way here. I just finished it when Ramina, the female android running both my ship and my business, warned me that we would be exiting the jump in five minutes. “Charge all four rail guns before then, and make sure all shields are fully powered when we exit,” I ordered. No sense in having the guns and shields if I didn’t use them.

They weren’t necessary; we were all alone when we exited the jump, and quickly made our way to the only port on Toolondo. It was also the only city on the otherwise nearly pristine planet. I was surprised when they didn’t even question a Terran ship arriving. I wondered if they already heard I was allowed to trade here, or if they just didn’t care.

It turned out to be both. The Karkallian official knew that I had received permission to trade here. He admitted that I could have traded there anyway unless the Gorokian customs agent protested.

Since it was barely dawn here, I hurried to the marketplace with a squad of my androids as guards and rented three adjacent spaces. Within minutes, the first shuttle from my ship filled with goods from the pirate ship arrived and set down near the rear of the combined spaces. The former pirate androids climbed out and quickly unloaded everything under the guidance of my female Terran androids. While they set things out, the shuttle I took from the pirate ship landed and unloaded just as quickly.

Once people started showing up, I had my four sexy female Terran androids selling things, as well as the nine equally sexy female androids I inherited from the pirates. I told Ramina what price to request for each item, then what I hoped to sell it for, and finally, the least I would accept. Karkallian marketplaces are a cacophony of voices haggling over the prices on items being sold there. Inside a store, however, there is no haggling. Just like Terran stores, prices are set and posted.

The female androids wore a short sarong that didn’t cover everything. Their breasts were bare, jiggling enticingly as they moved or motioned to things. Karkallian society is much more accepting of female nudity than Terran society. Some sort of covering over their nether region is all that’s required in public, and that could be loose enough to show everything as the woman moved about.

I’ll admit that I had definitely enjoyed the scenery on my previous business trips to the marketplace on Kai’ka. The women didn’t even take offense if you ogled. So long as you didn’t make rude comments and didn’t touch, you could watch all day.

Ramina shared the prices via her electronic connection with the other androids, so I didn’t have to repeat myself. If one of them had a question for me, they could ask by thinking the question to me and I’d hear it on my com unit. As business picked up, I had several of the pirates’ military androids take up stations around my stalls. Their presence let people know that I wouldn’t tolerate theft. Thieves and pickpockets frequented marketplaces.

It was obvious that my guards were androids, which would deter thieves even more since tricks and sleight of hand didn’t fool androids. I also had both shuttles hover overhead to provide shade as well as a further deterrence to theft. Thieves would assume, correctly, that we had video monitors and could easily track them if they tried running.

When I looked up, it looked like half of the people in the marketplace were hanging around my stalls. Those who couldn’t get in because it was too crowded would cry out when the androids brought out something they wanted to buy. I had to chuckle thinking that the crowd would be pissed if they knew my main cargo was still aboard the Cornucopia.

Imagine what people of our era would want to buy from people more than a thousand years behind us technologically--not much. The trick was finding things I could sell to them to earn enough to buy their advanced technology to sell when I returned to Terra.

They want three things that we have to offer--ingots of metal, wood, and certain foods. With what they offer for the metals, less the taxes and cost of the trip, the profit isn’t enough to bother. Plantation-grown wood is very popular back home on Terra, even if it is fairly expensive. Still, the profit is high enough to make it worth hauling, and its increasing popularity at home means more Terran companies are growing it.

By far the biggest export is Terran fruit. Oranges, bananas, strawberries, tomatoes, and several varieties of melons sell out in hours. I keep them in stasis for the entire two-year trip, so they are still as fresh as when they were picked. The produce is completely ripe when picked, and I’ve watched much of what I sell to individuals eaten right in the marketplace. I asked why they don’t grow their own, but they haven’t yet found a planet where the produce they grow tastes the same. I must admit, I find Karkallian-grown fruit to be bland.

It might have to do with the fact that their suns aren’t as strong as those of Terran planets are, but I know that the suns of some of their inhabited planets would work. They’ve grown Terran fruits from seed and from rooted stock and it was as bland as other Karkallian fruits. As long as they keep buying Terran produce at the exorbitant prices I charge, I hope they don’t figure out the solution. The Terran farmers I buy everything from hope so, too. I bring a few new fruits each trip to see if any of them sell well enough to add to my repertoire.

By early afternoon, most of the booty from the pirates had sold. Tomorrow I’d sell the produce. As the crowd dwindled, the vendors on either side of me thanked me for drawing such a large crowd as their prepared food sold out, and for a slightly higher price than usual. I arranged for five adjacent stalls tomorrow, expecting the crowd to be even bigger. Normally, the planet only received a small fraction of the Terran fruit sold in Kai’ka. That means people have tasted the fruits and there is a huge demand for them. With their jump drives, I have to wonder why Karkallian merchant ships don’t make the trip to Terra.

The man with the stalls on my left who sold the Karkallian version of fast food, offered to pay for his two stalls and for one of my extra stalls if I let him set up in the middle of my produce tomorrow. I agreed, but warned that I needed room at the rear for the shuttles to land so they could unload cargo containers to keep the tables in front filled. I also gave him two melons, suggesting that he add their equivalent of a one-inch cube to each meal at no charge. That would bring him even more business since the cube of melon alone was worth the price of the meal. I thought for a minute that he was going to kiss me.

With the worst of the crush of buyers gone, I took a few minutes to enjoy the scenery. Karkallian women all seem to be cut from the same pattern. They are taller than the men are, universally six feet tall. I’ve never seen an overweight Karkallian woman. They carry themselves with a regal grace and elegance that Terran fashion models would die to possess. The kicker is that they all have red hair--and not just on their heads.

That’s why Karkallian men and women alike are intrigued by the pubic hair my androids display beneath their short, flimsy sarongs. No other woman on the planet shows blond, brown, or black pubic hair. The only women with those hair colors are Gorokian and Dubanian women, and their usual mode of dress covers more. Gorokian women always keep their breasts and pubic region completely covered. All Dubanian women keep their lower body covered, and only a few go topless.

Some Karkallian women have hair light enough that it would qualify as strawberry blonde on Terran planets. Others have a darker red hue to their hair, and some have an orange hue to their hair. The men, on the other hand, have the same hair colors found on Terran planets.

The single women all have B-cup breasts, and most married women sport a C-cup. I assume giving birth and nursing causes their breasts to grow. Even among the women with C-cup breasts, I have yet to see one who needs a bra.

Looking over the remaining shoppers, I saw that the majority of the women here now were single. Married women wear their hair either pulled back and secured, cut short, or put up somehow. Girls who aren’t legal yet (younger than 15 of their years, which is the equivalent of 17.5 earth years) keep their hair in a ponytail or braided when in public. Single women old enough to be considered adults who want to be sexually active wear their hair loose.

During the morning and early afternoon, most women in the marketplace are married or too young to be in school yet. Even the married women don’t mind being ogled, and I don’t mind ogling them. If there is such a thing as an ugly Karkallian woman, I have yet to find one.

Speaking of ogling, one of the legal single women, albeit on the young side, is ogling me back. Karkallian women don’t believe in subtlety. I’ve never experienced it before, but I’ve seen dozens of their women approach a man they were interested in. I’ve also seen men approach a single woman.

She smiled at me the entire time she approached, her hips undulating erotically as her unfettered breasts swayed and bounced enticingly. Her strides were long enough that I caught glimpses of the sparse patch of strawberry blonde hair usually hidden by her sarong.

“My name is Tiyya,” she said in a voice oozing sexuality. As she closed the last foot between us, she touched my bare arm with her hand. One thing I learned in my reading is that a Karkallian woman touching an unrelated man, bare skin on bare skin, is inviting the man to touch her back much more intimately in a more private setting.

Moving even closer, she whispered in my ear, making sure her bare breasts were pressed against the bare skin of my upper arm. “I know that you are the Terran captain with all of the sweet fruit to sell. Perhaps your wives would allow me to join you for dinner ... and the rest of the night,” she whispered suggestively, twisting her upper body slightly so her bare breasts rubbed against my arm.

My first reaction was to scream, “Jailbait,” and run. However, having read a Karkallian law book (and Gorokian and Dubanian), I knew that I was safe, even if she was too young. Once she let her hair down, announcing that she was of legal age, I couldn’t get in trouble unless I somehow knew that she was underage.

“You’re welcome to join me for dinner and for the night, but I’m not married,” I replied.

Her head jerked back slightly as she looked at me, surprised. “If you’re single, then why do you wear a shirt? All of our single men go bare-chested to let women know they’re single,” she explained.

“I didn’t know that,” I explained. “I do know about your women wearing their hair loose to indicate that they are single and an adult,” I added. She beamed happily.

“I’m also aware what it means when a single woman touches a man, bare skin on bare skin. I’m looking forward to tonight,” I whispered back suggestively.

“As am I,” she replied, her voice vibrating as if she were purring. With the crowd thinning out, I had the androids pack up what little remained. We could put it back out tomorrow to be viewed by the throngs who came to buy the fruit.

“Put it away,” I said into my com unit. Those three words transmitted to Ramina, my primary female android. The favoritism was only due to her appearance since all of them had virtually the same personality and programming. I programmed all of them with a wicked sense of humor to keep me on my toes during my four-year round trips through hyperspace.

Ramina would electronically pass my message on to the others through their com web. The new androids we got from the pirates were already tuned into the com web. In addition, all the androids were now fluent in Terran, Karkallian, Gorokian, and Dubanian.

Half an hour later, with everything packed up, Tiyya joined me aboard my shuttle as we headed back to the Cornucopia. “I assume that your family knows where you are tonight,” I commented. The last thing I wanted was her family worried about her whereabouts.

“Yes, my best friend Marile was with me when I told her I wanted to be with you. She stayed and watched to make sure. I also commed my mother while you finished up to let her know where I would be,” she replied. Once we reached my ship, the male androids stowed everything, and the female androids started dinner for the two of us. Tonight was not a night for replicator food. I was glad that I had bought fresh food today from a stall near to mine that sold local meat and produce.

On my first two trips to Kai’ka, I tried the local food, and even paid to have Ramina programmed so she could cook Karkallian, Gorokian, and Dubanian dishes, information that she shared with my other androids. If, for some reason, I had to entertain a business client, I wanted to be able to serve dishes they were used to. I was also curious about what food from each race was like.

During dinner, I learned that today was Tiyya’s fifteenth (Karkallian years) birthday, making her now old enough to be with a man. When she turned fourteen last year, she was old enough to have sex with other fourteen-year-olds, as well as immediate family members. She and her friend had come here to find the man that her friend frequently had sex with, but Tiyya saw me and opted to approach me, instead.

Tiyya’s eyes widened in surprise after dinner when dessert was served--ice-cold watermelon. I buy most of the fruit chilled, and it remains at the same temperature in stasis, even during my two-year trips to Kai’ka. As she ate the watermelon, she moaned happily, so much that she could have done voice-overs for a porn video.

“You will be well-rewarded for that tonight,” she purred when she finished her bowlful of watermelon. With what I charge for the melons, she just ate the equivalent of one- or two-days’ wages for an average Karkallian worker.

When we got to my cabin, she looked around eyeing all the books. “So many books,” she commented questioningly.

“I have a lot of time to read during the trip here and prefer hardbound books. It used to take two years each way,” I explained.

“I would just read my favorite books a second time,” she said as she thumbed through one of the books.

“I don’t have to read them again, I remember every word in every book,” I explained. She stared at me in disbelief.

“Pick any page in the book you chose,” I challenged.

“Page 283,” she replied after randomly opening the book and glancing at the page number. After I recited the first four sentences, she believed me.

“I wish I could do that. That way, I wouldn’t have to study so much,” she lamented.

“Not necessarily,” I replied while taking out one of the Karkallian books I bought last time. It was a book on advanced math, probably college level if their schools were anything like Terran schools.

“Read this and tell me if you understand it,” I challenged, choosing a page near the back of the book.

“No, I won’t take that class for another year,” she replied.

“So, even though you can look at the words over and over, you still don’t understand it. It’s the same way when I read. I had to review Terran math books before I could understand what that book meant,” I explained.

When I turned around from putting the book away, Tiyya was right behind me and encircled my waist with her arms, her sarong pooled by her feet.

Tiyya was an enthusiastic partner and then took advantage of the early hour I usually awoke for yet another round.

Tiyya had never seen a shower before. She entered mine nervously, but only after I did. Only sonic cleaners were used here. Showers had been banned centuries ago to save water. The one on my ship was fine to use since I used water that I brought with me, and the shower unit cleaned and recycled it. She stayed in the shower until we were both extremely clean.

I was surprised that I had been able to keep up with her all night and not exhausted after a long and energetic night. We shared a quick breakfast, although I was ravenous this morning for some odd reason--like maybe fucking myself senseless last night.

When the shuttles were fully loaded, Tiyya knew that I had to go to work. I had no idea if this was supposed to be a one-night stand but figured that it was. I also had no idea what Karkallian social protocol stipulated the morning after fucking a beautiful young woman senseless. Back home, I’d make sure I had her com number.

“If I bring my best friend with me, can I come back tonight?” Tiyya asked nervously.

That was the cue I needed, so I slipped my arms around her waist and hugged her to me. “I would love it if you came back tonight, with or without your friend. I would have asked if you wanted to join me again, but I’m still unfamiliar with many of the nuances of your culture and didn’t want to upset or insult you,” I explained.

“After the way you treated me last night, it would require a lot to upset me,” she purred. “I’d like to bring my friend so we don’t need your female androids. She and I already shared many boys this last year,” she giggled. “She tried to talk me into sharing one of the men she’s seeing now, but I saw you in the marketplace yesterday and wanted you to be my first man. You’re taller than our men, very muscular, and good looking. If you take your shirt off in the market today, you will have many women offer to have sex with you,” she said nervously.

“All I want is one ... this one,” I replied, squeezing her delicious ass. She seemed surprised by my comment. We shared a final kiss while the shuttle settled to the ground.


[Author’s note: I appreciate all e-mails regarding my stories, both complimentary and critical. However, I do have two requests.

First, please report any errors that you find. At the very bottom of each chapter is the “Feedback to Author” button. I try to correct every error so future readers enjoy the story more.

Second, I appreciate knowing what you enjoyed most and least about the story. or, if you decide not to finish reading it, why.

I try to learn from each criticism and compliment in order to improve my writing skills. So far, I’ve learned so much that I can’t believe I passed English classes in high school and college.

Thanks.

FantasyLover]

My thanks to my editors, Himself, Bigbillh, and Lonelydad for their words of encouragement, as well as necessary criticism, corrections, and reality checks that I hope made this a better story.

The source of this story is SciFi-Stories

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