Caleb's Web Read online

  ‘Fine, we go up then. You can climb, can’t you, Blue?’

  ‘No argue, climb.’

  They used Oki’s tunic to tie the little one to Oki’s back, and each shimmied up a tree. Caleb caught the thought that Oki would have been much faster than the human if he hadn’t had the little one to be careful of. There was an almost audible sigh from the little one.

  They waited, weapons drawn, but none of the natives thought to look up and the danger passed underneath. Eventually the hunting party became a drinking party and wandered off back in the direction of town. There could be other things hunting in the dark, so Caleb and Oki secured themselves into the crooks of large tree limbs and spent the night in their respective trees, although neither of them slept. Suki woke up once crying out, but Caleb soothed it in his mind at the same time that Oki did, and they found agreement in that at least.

  By the time dawn came, Caleb was more than ready to leave. ‘What now? Can we meet your shuttle?’

  Oki did some math, and some communicating on a device that Caleb didn’t recognize. ‘Four of your hours. There is a lake about an hour walk from here, good landmark, no population, they will meet us there.’

  Suki had nursed on Oki overnight, and Caleb found himself welcoming the little one’s need to nurse on him as well. His body needed it too, in a strange way, and he was beginning to understand why idiots would have stolen these children, if they thought they could get these feelings from them. And then he felt guilty because his body was reacting this way to a child.

  ‘Not child, not in years, just couldn’t grow and develop alone. Need family groups, then triads. Can’t be alone.’ Suki shuddered against him and held on tighter.

  ‘Shush, little one, it’s alright. You won’t be alone again. We’ll get you home, don’t worry.’

  Suki looked up at him in astonishment, and this time the ‘stupid human’ came from the small one, although it was sent fondly.

  ‘I am home now. That is what a triad is. Always together home.’

  Caleb was still trying to figure out exactly what this meant for the three of them when Oki glared, again, and motioned for them to get moving.

  ‘Stupid human. We do not have all day.’

  The lake was an easy half hour’s walk, and beautiful. Caleb was immediately suspicious.

  ‘Why doesn’t anyone live here? Or fish here? Or something?’

  Oki shrugged. ‘Because they don’t. Maybe they are scared of getting clean. Suki, come on, you can have a bath while we wait, little one.’

  Even without soap Suki was able to shed several layers of filth, and came out of the water laughing, a much brighter shade of blue with purple highlights. The wounds on his small body seemed to be almost totally healed already, and Caleb was surprised to see that their little one now had small nipples and a small penis, which he was pretty sure hadn’t been there before.

  Suki laughed at him. ‘Yes, we do not reach sexual maturity until we meet our triad partners. Then we develop. So I will develop quickly now, and grow.’

  ‘But ... Oki? He is already, um, developed.’

  ‘He was with his family group, so was larger, healthier, further along, and he has sensed me for a long time. He still could not reach full sexual maturity without us. We are a triad, you know what this means?’

  Caleb did, kind of, to the extent that some part of him had recognized a bond with the small cute one. Not so much the large stubborn one. Triad as in a temporary hook-up, or some kind of commitment to whatever these aliens’ version of marriage-til-death-do-us-part was?

  ‘Yes, forever bonding.’

  Caleb mulled that over, along with the possibility that Oki’s first orgasm ever had been that morning.

  ‘Your species is different?’

  ‘Um, yes, humans, my species, mate in pairs, but the pairs do not usually stay together.’ He didn’t want to even begin trying to explain gender, sexual orientation and all the myriad ways humans had of creating and then messing up relationships.

  ‘Oh. Very strange. How lonely, to have sex without your triad.’

  Caleb was so distracted by that, the thought that maybe that’s what had always been missing from his alleged love life, that he almost missed what he had been sure was going to happen since they first found this idyllic shore. He had hoped that maybe he was being too paranoid, of course, but maybe there was no such thing.

  There was a large ripple of water heading straight for where they stood on the beach.

  ‘Oki.’

  ‘Yes. Suki, get back in the trees.’

  They backed up together, weapons at ready, keeping their bodies between whatever was coming at them and Suki. A large snout rose above the water and narrowed eyes stared at them, but before anyone could make another move something from above cut a line through the water between the water creature and the beach. The water hissed and bubbled, and the creature pulled back as though its nose had been burnt. It sank sullenly back beneath the water, apparently deciding they were going to be too much trouble. The ripple departed back in the direction it had came from.

  Caleb readied to defend against this new airborne attacker, but Oki talked into his communicator for a few seconds, and then shrugged.

  ‘Four hours, one hour, I always get your times mixed up. That would be our, what do you call it, our ride.’

  Chapter 4.

  Caleb hadn’t been sure what to expect, but this was a pretty fancy shuttle craft. No wonder Oki hadn’t wanted to leave it parked in town. It would have been stripped down in minutes. It could have seated a dozen of the big aliens in style, but there were only the three of them and the pilot, who did his best not to look surprised when he saw Caleb. Right, he was the alien now.

  The pilot did look like he wanted to hug Suki, though, and Caleb got the feeling that retrieving their lost children was something in the nature of a crusade for these people. How were they going to feel about a human barging into one of their triads, just when they had Suki back after however many years he’d been gone?

  Oki was addressed as ‘Captain’, which somehow didn’t surprise Caleb.

  ‘Did you know that Suki was part of your triad when you went down there, before you met him?’

  Oki glared at him. ‘I knew I was looking for one of our children and my third, but I did not realize until I landed that both of my triad lovers were on that planet. I did not expect one to be human. We will discuss this later.’

  Caleb got the feeling that ‘later’ and ‘never’ were approximately the same in Oki’s language.

  Their ship, appropriately named Crusader, was large and newly commissioned, and Caleb was beginning to understand why Oki had thought so poorly of his own small ship, although it had done its job well for many years. Everyone on the Crusader was delighted to meet Suki, and most of them were even happy to meet Caleb.

  Suki made a great deal out of how Caleb had saved his life, and that the clever brave human was Oki and Suki’s third. Oki seemed to be the only one who was really having trouble with that, Caleb thought. Where did they go from here?

  To start with, apparently, they went to the Captain’s quarters, which was their new home. It was bare of any luxury, but the bed was huge. Oki showed them where everything was, hugged Suki and kissed him gently, and then glared at Caleb. Whatever he might have said next was interrupted by the intercom.

  “Captain, we need you on the bridge …”

  ‘Suki must go to Medical. Maybe you too, you might have parasites. I will send someone to take you both there.’

  The Second Officer, Kasu, took them to Medical, and it turned out that while Suki was small he was surprisingly healthy, and Caleb did not have parasites. The Medical Officer thought the suggestion that he might have was hilarious.

  “You have had the usual vaccinations, haven’t you? It is good of you to be concerned about our little one, though.”

  “But, Suki”, the MO said, “you need to spend some time in the gymnasium, doing exercises, training
. Your body will be growing very rapidly now, and you need to keep in balance through this growth spurt. Exercise and rest, both in moderation, and I will talk to the cooks about your diet. You must have the best of the fresh food.”

  Kasu took them to the gym, and Caleb was ridiculously jealous every time the Second Officer touched Suki, using his hands to position Suki, allegedly to help him with the training. It seemed to be a bit too much touching, in his opinion. The exercises were not difficult, and as soon as Caleb understood them he dismissed Kasu, politely.

  “Thank you, I am sure you are needed at your other duties.”

  The tension in the room dissolved once they were alone, and Suki and Caleb tumbled around together, getting a feel for working out and for each other. Caleb was quite a bit larger, and his body was harder and more sinewy, so he was careful with the little one, and let himself be taken down more than once. Having Suki’s body land on top of his was an added bonus.

  They rolled to their feet, both of them sweating and laughing, and discovered that Oki had joined them, and he was not laughing.

  He glared at Caleb. ‘That is the best that you can do?’ And then he attacked.

  It hadn’t been even close to the best that Caleb could do, and as it turned out the two were fairly evenly matched, Oki bulkier but Caleb faster. Oki took Caleb down, but Caleb rolled out from under him and pinned him, and they went back and forth while Suki watched in amusement.

  At some point Caleb realized that he was pinned under Oki and not minding it at all, and was in fact enjoying having that large body rubbing down on his, pressing his growing erection into his belly, feeling Oki’s equally urgent one pushing into him. Oki hesitated and stared down at him, and Caleb gave in to some strange impulse and reached up with both hands to pull his head down until their mouths were almost meeting. Then he waited.

  Oki cursed softly and then his lips were on Caleb’s, pushing his lips open, his agile tongue invading Caleb’s mouth. Caleb opened up for him, moaning and welcoming him, wrapping his arms tighter around him. He hooked one long leg around one of Oki’s thicker ones, pulling them even tighter together and rubbing their erections side by side between their bodies.

  He managed to roll Oki over and lay on top of him, cradling his head with both hands, while Oki sank his fingers into Caleb’s soft hair and pulled his head down, sucking hungrily at his mouth. Caleb found himself happily sinking into a mix of unfamiliar emotions. Desire, need, hunger, the warmth he felt for the little one, whatever he was feeling for the big stubborn one, all blended together and more. Much more.

  ‘Yes, gods, so good …’ Oki purred at him.

  ‘My beloveds’, Suki purred at both of them.

  “Captain, we need you on the bridge …”

  Oki sighed as he pulled away. ‘Fine, you may have potential.’

  And then he rolled out from under Caleb and left. He didn’t say potential for what.

  Suki laughed. ‘Now rest. Doctor’s orders.’

  The Captain’s bed was large and comfortable, although missing something important without the Captain in it. Suki distracted Caleb by insisting that he needed to be nursed again. Hugging and kissing were included in the definition of resting, he assured Caleb.

  The little one was exhausted and fast asleep long before Oki rejoined them, and Caleb was having trouble keeping his own eyes open. Oki slid into bed next to them and the three of them slept wrapped around each other, and Caleb felt truly safe for the first time in years, tucked in between the two blue aliens.

  Oki was gone again before they woke up in the morning. Apparently running a ship of this size took a lot of time, because they seldom saw Oki as the days went by.

  They did get a brief tour of the ship, as Captain Oki was proud of his ship and their mission.

  ‘Most of our crew feel the beginnings of bonds with missing ones, as I did, which is why they have volunteered for this mission. Sometimes we find others of our children as well, who are not yet belonging to triads, at least that we know of. We bring them all home.’ He seemed to struggle with words. ‘And you are not the only human. Our species can bond with yours.’

  ‘But you prefer not to?’ He had heard that hesitation.

  ‘I respect the choices that others make, and it is very much a personal choice.’

  Caleb felt like he’d been kicked in the gut. ‘Whoa. Wait a minute. You, personally, can choose not to complete the bond?’

  It was Suki that he was worried about, of course. His little Suki had suffered enough, and deserved to have a life-long bond.

  Oki shrugged. ‘We will complete the bond, so that Suki and I can be complete. What happens after that, who is to say? It is unlikely that a human will actually feel the bond, and if that is the case we can drop you off at the planet of your choice.’

  And then he walked away.

  Suki found Caleb where he was sitting staring at a wall and curled up on his lap, although his little one would soon be too big to do that.

  Suki nuzzled into his neck and kissed him softly.

  ‘With or without the formal bond, we are a triad for life, beloved. Oki is stubborn, and this is not what he had thought to have, but he will come to understand it. You are part of us, and we are part of you. It cannot be any other way.’

  So he was going to be kept around as some kind of pet for Suki? That was wonderful, Caleb thought. At least that would be better than being dropped off on the nearest habitable planet. Wouldn’t it?

  ‘No, no, no. You are our beloved. You will see. He will see. I have been blessed with two very stubborn beloveds.’

  ‘Have you? Been blessed? I’m sorry, Suki, I’m being selfish. You’ve suffered a lot, little one, and you deserve better than this. Can you trade me in?’

  Apparently Caleb had just made a great joke, because it kept Suki laughing for the better part of an hour, and he told it to everyone who would listen. Trade him in! Trade in one of the two most important people in his life, trade in one who he had waited for all his life? Not likely. Caleb noted that Oki didn’t laugh at the joke.

  Chapter 4.

  Caleb found himself with too much free time, so he set to learning about his new people. He asked what they called themselves, and got puzzled looks. They were the people, of course. All others were aliens. What was their planet called? Home, of course. Okay then. Like his previous people, they knew themselves to be the center of the universe. Some things never changed.

  Their bodies were similar to his in some ways, but quite different in others. Suki was delighted to help him learn anatomy, and more than happy to demonstrate ways in which their bodies were and weren’t alike.

  His new people, he learned, were androgynous until they felt the mating bond with one or both of their partners. They developed in stages, and the final morph into the fully adult hermaphroditic phase did not occur until they were with both of their triad lovers.

  Oki had been spiritually and physically well-nourished in his family group, and he had known from far out in space that one of his triad was on that planet, so he was further along in his morphing.

  Suki had known that one of his triad was coming for him, but hadn’t known as soon, and had been surprised to find both at once. Abused and malnourished, he had some catching up to do.

  Now that Caleb had joined them, Oki and Suki were both moving rapidly towards full sexual development. Others, such as Kasu, were mature in all other ways, but still androgynous, still waiting.

  Oki, who towered over both of his partners, was already physically mature. Suki was growing fast, but he would probably never become that large, he said. It was evident that Oki was going to be the physically dominant one in their triad, and it was not only normal but also good to have that difference. He smiled up at Caleb from his usual position curled on his lap.

  ‘It would be difficult if everyone was dominant. Bad enough two stubborn beloveds.’

  Caleb, of course, being an adult human, was stuck in the body he had. He wasn’t sur
e that he was comfortable being the smallest – and submissive? – partner in a triad with two large aliens, but the feelings he had for Suki – and maybe for Oki, stubborn as he was – were coming to override any concern. If bonding was the same as love, he was falling into it.

  Suki laughed at him again. ‘Dominance has nothing to do with size, stubborn one. You will see, when we bond. What you call love, yes.’

  And then he looked worried again, but distracted both of them by biting at Caleb’s ear-lobes, which seemed to fascinate him. Their people had fewer protruding facial features, and no ear-lobes.

  ‘You are sexually mature?’ The erections had not escaped his very interested attention.

  Caleb explained that his species, his previous people, as he now thought of them, reached both sexual and physical maturity at about the same time, when they were about halfway though their second decade. He had done so almost two decades ago and he was not going to change any more. Suki was fascinated by this information, as he was by the hair on Caleb’s head and at the base of his penis.

  He ran a curious hand down Caleb’s erection and tickled at the nest of hair, and then probed back into his puckered hole with one long finger. Caleb arched up in surprise at the dry intrusion, and Suki looked surprised too.

  ‘So, when do you start lubricating?’

  ‘Um, what?’

  Sex Ed 101, the Alien version. As hermaphrodites, his new people played all roles in loving each other in their triads, and their holes lubricated to facilitate that loving. They also had long agile tongues, which could also serve to lubricate, Suki informed him. Caleb’s deficiency in this matter was surprising, but not a big problem. Caleb found himself very curious about those tongues.

  And, Suki explained, they had barbs, primarily on their penises but also in their mouths, with which to draw their beloveds closer to them during the coupling, hold them and make sure the seed was not wasted. Caleb was only marginally relieved to be told that use of the barbs could be controlled. If he’d learned about barbed penises back when he was a teenager he might not ever have had sex.