The Constructs
By Vic James
vicjames2@hotmail.com
Copyright 2014 by Vic James
http://www.vicjames.com
If you enjoy this story or the other stories at Nifty, please make a donation at: http://donate.nifty.org/donate.html
This story is fiction. None of the characters are based on real people. You can see a list of my stories at http://www.nifty.org/nifty/authors.html#vicjames
Four
I looked at Mike's happy expression and wondered if it really mattered. If I had a choice between being naturally unhappy or unnaturally happy, I would have to really think about the decision. People took anti-depressants---not to mention illegal drugs---all the time to be unnaturally happy. I had an anti- depressant and a tranquilizer in my medicine cabinet at my apartment. I hadn't been outraged when they had been suggested, and they altered my brain chemistry and affected my feelings. I decided to stop worrying about it. Mike was happy. His cock was still hard and still inside me.
"That was perfect, Mike."
He grinned.
"I liked it a lot, myself."
"You are still hard."
"You do that to me, Will. I got hard the first time I saw you and every time since then. I've jacked off thinking about you more than once."
I smiled. My 'mate' really wanted me.
Suddenly the room got cold. Mike started to pull out of me. I wrapped my legs around him and pulled him back. He grinned at me.
"It's warmer this way," I said.
He laughed as the 'lady bug' flew into the room. Her appearance was never going to appeal to me, but I was no longer afraid.
"You have mated?" she asked through her translator.
"Yes," Mike said. "We mated."
I felt Mike's cock soften. I tried clinching my hole around him a few times and felt him stiffen up, again.
"That is very good. I am happy for you both. I hope both of you have a better mate than mine."
I tried not to laugh. I didn't feel uncomfortable to be in the position we were in while she watched. That was a good thing, in case our owner wanted to watch us have sex. I wasn't sure why I wasn't uncomfortable, though. Was it because I had been altered or because it was nonsensical to feel a need for modesty in front of a big bug? I would never know, I supposed.
"You can never tell anyone you are constructed beings," she said.
Her English was better. I supposed her translator was improving.
"Why not?" Mike asked.
"There are several reasons. For one, your owner may not treat you as well. For another, constructs have different and fewer rights. The only reason I would reveal that you are constructs is if the authorities discover and convict me for what I did. I would use the fact that you are copies to reduce my sentence."
She paused.
"Won't they notice when we don't grow old in fifty years?" Mike asked.
"Humans aren't so well known. The ship thinks your owner will prefer to think that it is his excellent care that keeps you young and healthy. His ego will ensure that. In one hundred and fifty years, he may begin to wonder, but I will be long dead and you could well be free citizens by then."
Free citizens. But could we return to Earth? Did aliens go there regularly? Was there bus service? It wasn't like we had any alien money. Or human money, for that matter.
"What is it like, the planet that is our destination?" Mike asked.
"It is called Remeskil. There were no intelligent natives. Its climate was altered and it was then colonized by the Tiktik. There are two wormholes close to it, so the planet has many visitors."
"Why that planet?" I asked.
"Because the Tiktik are very wealthy. They have colonized many planets. Remeskil is easy to get to and the Tiktik there are even wealthier than the average Tiktik."
"What do they look like?" Mike asked.
"Do you wish to look now? You seem to still be mating," she said.
I smiled at Mike.
"Let's wait, if you don't mind," I said to him.
"OK. Later."
The bug turned and left us. The room immediately warmed up. It was hard to say how cold she liked it. Normally, we wouldn't be naked in the cold. I guessed it was about forty degrees F, though.
Mike was still inside me and still hard.
"Do you want me to pull out?" he asked me.
"Just a little. Then push back in. And repeat," I said, grinning.
He began fucking me slowly. I ran my hands over his shoulders, his biceps, and his chest.
"You are so fucking hot!" I told him.
Mike grinned.
"You aren't so shabby, yourself."
I smiled.
"You aren't disappointed at all, are you?" I asked him.
"You mean sexually?"
I nodded.
"No. You are hotter and nastier than I imagined," Mike said. "I'm delighted. How often does reality beat fantasy? But how about you?"
"I'm madly in love and lust with you. You've got a hot body, a great cock, and your spunk tastes good. Plus you are a nice person. I consider myself lucky."
Mike smiled.
"I would wish we had gotten together on Earth, but I could be dead by now. This is better...for me."
Mike nodded.
"It's better for me, too. I have a healthy Will, not a dying one.
"Now. Where would you like me to make my next deposit?" Mike asked, as he continued fucking me.
"I think I am going to want most of your loads in my mouth," I told him.
He nodded.
"From what you said about Ed, I thought that might be the case."
"You don't think that's weird, do you?"
"You already asked me that," Mike said. "I told you no. Why are you worried about it?"
I sighed.
"I told one guy how much I liked Ed's cum. He thought it was disgusting. 'You actually let him come in your mouth,' he asked me, shocked. I told him it was the best part and he looked like he was getting ill. Anyway, after that reaction, I never told anyone else until you."
Mike frowned. He pulled out of me and lay down on the bed beside me. He leaned over and kissed me. I wrapped my arms around him as the kiss went on and on. If that was his answer, it was a good one. Finally, he pulled away.
"I'm not like Ed," Mike told me.
I laughed.
"Not at all."
But Mike had something very specific difference in mind. He bent down and began sucking me.
"Oh, fuck!" I said.
I moved under him so that I was under his cock while he sucked. I took him in my hand and stroked him for a while.
"I'm close," I told him.
He let my dick slip from his mouth.
"Fire at will!" he said. "Oops! I meant 'Fire, Will."
I laughed. He swallowed my dick, again.
I lifted my head up and pulled his furry butt cheeks apart. I looked at the brown star that was his asshole. Mike had never taken a dump in his new body, so it had to be clean. I leaned forward and licked it. There was no taste. I began rimming him. I had never done that to anyone, but I had fantasized about making Ed fall in love with me by rimming him. But this was better. Mike turned me on even more than Ed did. Mike had me ready to come. He pushed two fingers inside my ass and that sent me over the edge. Mike swallowed my jizz, which surprised me. I continued licking his hole while I came. Mike tugged on my balls and my orgasm intensified. I reached for his dick and found it to be very hard and very slick from the lubricant. I wondered if I could make him come a third time. Mike let go of my cock after my orgasm ended. He fell onto the bed beside me.
"Damn, that was great!" he said.
I grinned at him. I reached out and ran my hand over him, before taking his erection in my hand.
"It was. It was the best sex I ever had," I said. "And I mean that."
Mike grinned.
I reached for his dick and began stroking it.
"You are still hard!"
"Rimming has that effect on me," he told me.
"Then guess who is going to get rimmed a lot!"
Mike laughed.
"You, that's who," he said to me.
"You, too! I enjoyed it. But you didn't have to swallow my jizz."
"I think I did. I don't want you to feel uncomfortable about eating mine. I hoped this would help."
I smiled at him.
"You are wonderful. Do you know that?" I asked, as I pinched one of his nipples.
"I do," Mike said. "But I've had trouble finding people who agree with me. I better keep you."
I laughed.
"I won't have the troubles with you that I had with my two former boyfriends," I told him.
"What troubles?"
I continued stroking Mike. He thrust his crotch out, for more.
"The first one was a clothes hound. His idea of a fun Saturday was shopping for clothes for the entire day. Then we would do it again on Sunday."
Mike chuckled.
"He spent so much time getting dressed, I would get really irritated. He would pull out four different outfits and spend a half hour just picking which one he wanted to wear. He would finally get dressed and then change his mind."
Mike laughed.
"And I would be wearing a T-shirt and jeans!"
"He let you accompany him dressed like that?"
"Well, he wanted to improve my wardrobe, but I wasn't interested."
"Anyway, my second boyfriend, Brad, liked to flirt with other men. He flirted constantly, even in front of me. The cuter the guy was, the more he flirted. When we were out eating at restaurants, he spent more time looking at the other men than he did me."
"Hmm," Mike said. "He wasn't ready to commit to a relationship."
I burst out laughing.
"He said that about me when he broke up with me!" I said. "He wanted us to live together, but the truth was, I didn't trust him."
Mike nodded.
"With good reason. Where there's smoke, there's fire. He was man-shopping while keeping you around until someone better came around."
I nodded.
Mike stroked the side of my head and I closed my eyes. I was happy, but I didn't know if the happiness was real. Then I decided to try and find out. I opened my eyes.
"Ship, can you tell us what changes were made to our bodies?" I asked.
Mike frowned.
"Yes, I can. Some of the things that were done cannot be described in English."
"I meant in broad terms. The lady bug said our reproductive systems were changed. I don't want to know the technical changes, just how the changes will affect us."
"Yes, I can easily describe the changes in that way," the ship said. "First you must understand how and why changes were made."
Mike and I sat up. Mike put his arm around my shoulders and I leaned against him.
"Once you were scanned, I had access to virtual versions of your bodies. One of you died almost immediately. I was able to determine why by comparing the metabolism of the one who died to the one who didn't. I corrected that first of all. I allowed the virtual copies to age and studied the changes that occurred as the bodies aged. With your virtual selves, I experimented with different diets and exercise. The aging process was very pronounced and occurred rapidly. I studied the cellular changes that occurred during the aging process. Your DNA is subject to mutation and degradation, and your bodies have little natural defense against that. In some species, there are processes that slow those things and even reverse them. I tried incorporating some of those processes in your virtual bodies. Most were either ineffective or harmful, but I found one strategy that was successful. I added a mechanism to the cells in your bodies that maintains the integrity of DNA. The process successfully slowed your bodies' aging."
Mike barked out a laughed.
"Well, that's an improvement. Thank you, Ship," Mike said.
I smiled.
"What was done to our minds?" I asked.
"I observed brain chemistry changes in the virtual copies over time. Specifically, when you were happy, when you were sad, when you were angry, and when you were none of those, which I defined as neutral. I altered you slightly to make your normal condition to be happy, rather than neutral. Things can still make you angry and sad, but only with a strong stimulus. The copies that I created with those changes to their brain chemistry were not only happier, which was to be expected, but they were also healthier. That change increased life expectancy even more."
I sat there listening to what the ship said. My worst suspicions were confirmed. I wasn't happy because there was anything to be happy about, but because my brain chemistry was altered. But I also listened to the ship's reason for doing it. If it wanted us to be healthier and live longer, should I condemn it? What it did was all very logical. I sighed. Should I be angry? Would I have been if my brain chemistry wasn't changed? I decided there was no easy answer. We were changed but the reasons weren't trivial and the changes would benefit us in some ways.
I looked at Mike. He had a blank expression on his face.
"Once I was able to understand your language, I reviewed some human medical texts. I found out the names of the various neurotransmitters. The levels you know have of them still fall into the normal range for humans."
"In other words, we could have been born this way," Mike said.
"Yes, that should be true," the ship said.
The ship continued speaking about changes. It went onto our bones and began speaking about bone density. I really didn't care if they were stronger, or whatever. I didn't care about reproductive changes, either. Neither of us would be reproducing and whatever changes had been made hadn't adversely affected the sex we had just enjoyed. I had what I wanted to know.
"That's enough for me," I told the ship. "I was mostly concerned with the brain changes."
"Very well," the ship said.
"So things can still make us angry or unhappy?" Mike asked.
"Yes. Definitely," the ship said. "The change does not prevent you from reacting emotionally. It is just that, in the absence of negative stimuli, you will be happy."
I looked at Mike. He still had the same blank expression. I thought about it more. I had known people who always seemed cheerful. I supposed our brains were like theirs. It was sort of like a permanent anti-depressant. I had read that happy people lived longer, so I didn't doubt what the ship said about increasing longevity. But I was irritated that we weren't asked. The changes were made to our bodies without our approval. I was certain we should have been asked, first. My irritation proved that not everything made me happy. That was some consolation.
"Any of the changes I made can be reversed," the ship added.
Mike smiled. I nodded my head.
"Thank you, ship," I said.
I felt much better knowing we had the choice of being happy or not. I wasn't at all sure whether I wanted to change back, though. I had spent a lot of time being unhappy. It would take a lot of thought. I wanted Mike's opinion, too.
"Do you want the brain chemistry changes reversed?" the ship asked.
I looked at Mike.
"What do you think?"
Mike sighed.
"I don't know. I feel great right now. I want to think about it."
I nodded.
"How would you do it?" I asked.
"The easiest and safest way would be for you take a supplement," the ship said. "A pill. I could formulate it to last about a week. That way you wouldn't have to take it daily."
I laughed.
"A depressant! A pill to make us unhappy."
I looked at Mike and shook my head.
"That's not something we want to decide quickly. I assume if we stopped taking the pill, we would be happy, again."
"Yes. That is true. There are ways to make the change permanent, but the safest way of doing that would be reconstructing you."
"So there would be new copies of us," I said.
"Yes," the ship said.
And I would die, I thought. The copy would be another person, as far as I was concerned.
"Do you want to change?" Mike asked me.
"I don't think so, but what you decide matters."
"I think I'm leaning the same way. Who wants to be unhappy for three hundred years? And if I had a pill that I knew might make me unhappy, I'm not sure I would ever take it."
I nodded.
I slid my hand down his belly to his cock. I wrapped my hand around it and felt it stiffen. When it was fully erect, I opened my hand and I looked at it.
"I just love it!" I said.
Mike laughed.
"I'm very, very glad."
"I think I may want to spend hundreds of years playing with it."
Mike grinned. Then he did something childish, which I absolutely loved. He got up and straddled me. Then he took his fingers and made the hole at the end of his dick open and close, while he said, "I love you, too!" in a high voice. I laughed for a long time. Mike grinned the whole time.
We spent several more hours having sex. When Mike had his fourth orgasm, we realized that our new reproductive systems were pretty wonderful. I came four times, too. We decided to take a break from sex.
"What are the Tiktik like, Ship?" Mike asked.
The wall display turned on. A picture of a creature that looked a lot like an ostrich appeared. It had long, scaly legs with big feet, a large, feathered body atop them, and a long, feathered neck terminating in a head with an ostrich-like beak and two very large eyes. The eyes were a golden yellow with small black pupils. There was one other huge difference between it and an ostrich. The creature had two very short arms which extended out from the base of the neck. The arms were feathered down to the first joint, which was their equivalent of elbows. Past that joint, the arms were bare, scaly skin, like the legs. Their hands seemed enormous in comparison to their tiny arms. There were three clawed fingers on one side of their hands and two on the opposite side. I looked at the feet and saw their clawed toes were arranged the same way, with three claws in the front and two at the rear.
"What are they like?" Mike asked. "Are they violent or peaceful? Insensitive or sympathetic?"
"That varies by individual. They are not as violent as humans, however," the ship said.
"Will we be the only humans on the planet?" I asked.
"I do not have access to that information. I can check when we are in communication range, if you like. However you will probably find out fairly quickly, anyway. There are three Tiktik collectors on Remeskil who are interested in humans. That is the reason---" The ship made a series of clicking sounds. "---chose Remeskil as our destination. The competition between those three should drive up your price."
"And they are allowed to own other intelligent beings?" Mike wondered.
"Only unrecognized ones. No doubt humans will eventually be recognized as sapient, but until that time, it is legal. There are laws on Remeskil for your protection and the conditions under which you are kept are monitored by citizen groups. You will be contacted regularly to ensure you are being treated well and are happy."
Happy. We would be. By design. I started to get mad, but my anger immediately dissipated. There was no point in getting angry since we had options for reverting back to normal. All we had to do was take a pill once a week. That was pretty simple. I wasn't even going to consider having a new, unaltered copy of myself made to replace me. I was fairly certain I would rather be unnaturally happy than dead.
"Can we ever gain our freedom?" Mike asked.
The ship didn't reply at first.
"Yes, but ask yourselves---freedom from what? Where would you live? How? You would have to have employment to support yourselves, and you have absolutely no skills at anything the Tiktik need, except perhaps knowledge of Earth, and that knowledge might not pay enough to support you for long. Remeskil is an expensive place to live and you will be accustomed to living well. Without money, you wouldn't be able to afford to travel to a cheaper planet. You could become beggars, but why? You must understand that your owner's wealth is far beyond anything you have encountered. Humans are limited to Earth. The Tiktik are not. There are individual Tiktik who own planets, taking a tiny percentage of each business transaction there."
I looked at Mike. He looked as dumbfounded as I felt.
"Is Earth in danger?" Mike asked. "Will one of them decide they want to own Earth?"
"No. That is illegal. Only uninhabited planets can be owned. Intelligent species, and humans are definitely included, own their home planets. I supposed a Tiktik could buy Earth, if it could reach an agreement with every human, but what would be the point? If humans do not kill themselves, I believe you will still be alive when humans are officially recognized as intelligent. You will cease to be owned when that happens. If you have saved enough money, you can live comfortably as citizens. Perhaps not on Remeskil, but on a nice, cheaper planet."
Well, it was a plan. A very strange plan, but we had very strange lives. Be pets of some ultra-wealthy alien, save money, and wait for freedom.
"How would we get money?" Mike asked.
"Ask for it," the ship said. "Your owner will want to make you happy and will probably be glad to give it to you. Any of the three Tiktik who might bid on you are unbelievably wealthy. You can tell your owner that you want to have enough saved up to live comfortably, if you get your freedom. Your owner will understand that."
I had a great deal of trouble imagining what our lives would be like. We wouldn't have to work, but what would be expected of us?
I looked at the Tiktik on the display screen.
"How many recognized intelligent species are there?" I asked.
"Thirty-seven. There are several hundred species that are considered intelligent, however. A race must request recognition. Some have no desire to leave their home worlds. For them, recognition is useless. Some races are xenophobic and do not care what other races think. There are two insect races who fall into that category. They only associate with their own kind. Humans seem fairly gregarious, though, so I expect they will request recognition."
"So is there some sort of galactic government?" Mike asked.
"What government there is, is Tiktik, and it is based on business. Alliances between races are almost entirely business- based. Usually Tiktik ships carry the goods from the seller's planet to the buyer's. Most of the thirty seven recognized races do not build their own spaceships. Only three races know how to travel faster than light. The Tiktik will sell the secret, but it is much cheaper to hire Tiktik ships, and that is what the Tiktik prefer, too. The Tiktik also maintain a large military for their own defense. They can be hired or a race can have their own military. The mercenary Tiktik will not mount offensive attacks, so they are used as defensive forces, when needed."
"What if one race attacks another?" I wondered.
"If the one being attacked hires Tiktik soldiers or have better soldiers than their opponents, they will win. Otherwise, they might not. "
"Do the Tiktik ever attack other races?" I asked.
"No, but they have been attacked. That is why they have a military. Their wealth makes them targets," the ship said.
"Are you a Tiktik ship?" Mike asked.
"I was built by the Tiktik, but I was purchased eighty seven years ago by a consortium of---the lady bug's race. There is no English word for their race, so I will call them the Clicks. I don't consider myself to be Tiktik or Click."
"Do Tiktik have slaves?" Mike asked.
"I am not exactly sure what humans consider slavery. There are individuals who owe Tiktik so much money that they have no choice but to work it off," the ship said. "Would that be slavery in the human sense?"
I looked at Mike.
"I don't think so," Mike said. "What I would think of as slavery would be if we were taken from our world and forced to work for the rest of our lives."
"The Tiktik would not do that. Most Tiktik would find that immoral, although they do not base laws on morals. Stealing people would simply be bad for business. It would harm their reputation. There are some other races that have done that. The lady bug's race, the Clicks, was one of them, but her people have very strict laws against it now. What she did is illegal by the laws of her race. The laws of the Tiktik on Remeskil are not quite so clear cut. I think most Tiktik would consider it a Clicks problem and avoid getting involved. Of course, your purchaser would be involved, but I think he would simply try to convince you to consent to his ownership."
"So it's her own people she worries about?" I asked.
"Yes."
Mike frowned.
"What if we said we didn't want to be owned when we get to Remeskil?" Mike asked. I thought it was a very good question.
"Several things could happen. As I said, I think the Tiktik would consider it a Clicks matter. They would most likely notify the Clicks that you were kidnapped. Lady bug---I will call her Clicker from now on---would face the laws of her race, and almost certain prison time. Clicker's whole plan counts on her finding you the best possible buyer. One that will convince you to keep silent about the details of your---abduction. She is counting on Remeskil dazzling you enough to want to remain there. She has said more than once that she envies you."
"What? Why?" I asked.
"You will have the opportunity to have more wealth than she ever will. The poorest person on Remeskil is far richer than she will ever be, and you will be living with one of the richest Tiktik. She is also hoping you will be grateful for your longer lives. You will outlive her."
I sighed. I didn't know what I wanted.
"Would you want to return to Earth? Since you are constructs, there would be questions when you returned. Will's original is probably dead, but there is another Michael Collins. And he would consider you a fake. Once the authorities realize you aren't aging normally, you might become interesting medically."
Mike sighed.
"If you do not wish to be owned, you would have to support yourselves. You could not afford to live on Remeskil and you would go deeply into debt paying to travel to a cheaper planet. You would have to perform menial labor and even then, your lives would be hard. I can't recommend that. If you turn Clicker in you could request her people return you to Earth, but then you would have to deal with the problem of being constructs. Does accusing Clicker of abduction appeal to you?"
Mike looked at me. If it wasn't for her, I would be dead. I shook my head no. Mike nodded.
"I still have no idea what life will be like if we are owned by a Tiktik," I said. "What would be expected of us?"
"Just being yourselves is enough. Humans are incredibly rare and they want you doing the things humans like to do; whether that is eating, mating, traveling, watching other races, shopping for expensive items, sleeping, or whatever," the ship said. "And owning you is not just entertaining. Your owner will know more about humans than other Tiktik. That could give him a business, and thus financial, advantage once humans become Tiktik customers."
That made a lot of sense. If Tiktik were business people and they hoped to sell things to humans, knowledge about us would be very useful.
"It does sound like an easy life," I said.
Mike nodded.
"But possibly unchallenging," Mike added.
"Your owner will supply what you want, including challenges," the ship responded.
I sighed.
"I am grateful to Clicks," I said. "If she needs this from us, I guess I am willing to go along with her plan," I said to Mike.
He shrugged.
"I go where you go."
I hugged him.
"Is your decision final?" the ship asked.
I looked at Mike.
"Yes, I suppose it is," I said.
"Do you both give your permission to be sold to a Tiktik on Remeskil?"
I sighed. I hoped I wasn't making the biggest mistake of my life. Then I remembered the biggest mistake: it was not going to the doctor for almost a year after I started having abdominal pain. This could be the second biggest, though. But I was curious. I didn't want to go back to Earth without seeing another planet.
"I do," I said.
"I do, too," Mike said.
"I have recorded your responses," the ship said.
The room grew colder. A door opened and Clicker flew into the room.
"I want to thank you for your willingness to go along with the plan."
I nodded.
"The money will not only help my family, it will also help many other people on my planet. Even the ship will benefit. With his portion of the money, he plans to buy himself and move into a body," she said.
"A body?"
"Yes. It will be a construct," the ship said. "I have already designed the body."
I shook my head. It was---amazing!
"Will you look like a Tiktik?" Mike asked.
"No. It is illegal to make constructs of the Tiktik form. Business can become chaotic when there are different versions of a business partner, a debtor, or a creditor. I will take the shape of a Doridge. They are somewhat similar in body shape, although completely unrelated to Tiktik."
If you enjoyed it and want to read more, let me know.