Clues

As I looked up from my computer, and thought about the potential perils of anyone finding out what I was looking for, the girl moved into the row just ahead of me and sat on a table with her feet on the chair beneath. The way she settled had her casually spread her legs, revealing a bit of an oddity for her age: her pussy was shaved.

“What are you up to, then?” she asked, lending credence to my fears. Next time I would contrive a cover story in advance, with logged and open searches to show.

“I’m trying to help a friend with some travel shenanigans, so I was looking at the next departures and stuff to get a hang of the system. I’ve never travelled before.” That was a lie outright. Hopefully I’d never mentioned visiting the old colony on Terra’s Moon to anyone at school.

“Did you hear the Mag-Lev line caved in on our end?” she asked. I tried not to gawp, as that was exactly what the title of a news article I glimpsed suggested.

“I didn’t, what happened?”

“They don’t know, apparently. My dad works there, and he says the maintenance crew are stumped. One moment the hole was open, the next, it all fell in. They reckon there’s two miles worth under Mount Thordon that’s collapsed.”

Well, my “friend” wasn’t about to leave in a hurry. I shook my head. “He is going to be really put out when he finds out he has to take the overground train....”

“Why?” she laughed, “Is he a Burrowsman?”

I took her offering gladly, “Oh yes, and as stubborn as any. I think he might have dwarfish blood in him too.”

She laughed again, tipping her head back. I was grateful to be able to ogle her breasts unnoticed for a split second. The way they jiggled was distracting enough, but the very light shade of her skin added another dimension. Of course in the current climate she probably couldn’t care less. The students on the other side of the room were rapidly escalating into a boredom-fuelled orgy.

“What’s your name?” asked the girl as she recovered.

“Frank.”

“Lenina. Enchantée, as my ancestors would say.”

“I thought there was less pink in you than the rest of us.”

“Busted.” she said, “I’m half-Terran indeed. Mother came here the week they lifted the blockade.”

“Very brave.” The Triplanetary Alliance at the time was still unstable, and the Patrolmen had particular troubles with the Terran nations. They had remained too big and too powerful longer than on any other world.

“So, Lenina,” I said, “Did you have a particular reason for interrupting my most important research for my intractable and quite frankly bad-tempered friend?”

Lenina smiled and leaned forward as though to divulge a secret plan. She probably needn’t speak much more quietly than normal; the orgy opposite us was gaining in volume exponentially. Still, she almost whispered “I slapped your bum while you were screwing Carmen yesterday...”

Initially my heart sank, and I mentally rolled my eyes at where I thought this was going. But I saw an opportunity. It would be useful to know how my act was received outside Carmencita. “Was there anything of particular hilarity about the way I was screwing her?”

She smiled and bit her lip. “Well,” she started, “It looked rather theatrical. It looked like you were doing something to her. Like you were doing it in spite of her. I guess the absurdity of that is what made me giggle. Like there would be any resistance in sex...”

“So you have no concept of-” I choked. I was about to comment she had no concept of dominance – submission, but to say that aloud was as good as admitting to my being a thought criminal. It applied to everyone I had encountered so far. If I hadn’t started fighting Carmencita (much as I feel I was justified in doing so for my own safety), would she have been combative? It occurred to me my behaviour might have changed her in some way. There was nothing to say the psychedelics didn’t work two ways...

“I have no concept of...?” Lenina was on the edge of her table now, leaning forward again. It was too late. She wanted to know more.