Posted by PK on September 15, 2005 at 17:46:12:
"Just hang your robe on a hook," Joanna said. "They're recycled. Your sandals go in that bin."
Alys complied, a little nervously. Her normal clothes had been left behind in the changing rooms
next to the reception desk where she'd signed in. She'd endured the cleansing and preparation
routines in an acquiescent daze. Putting on a token silky bathrobe for the walk through the
embassy corridors had made her feel like a sacrificial maiden from an archaic Hammer
sex'n'horror movie from the 20th century about Satanic rites. "Now what?"
Joanna shrugged. "It's not complicated. We go in naked. You can lie down on a table if you want
to and if there are any free - some of them like that - or just stand around and wait...."
Alys shuddered. "Until..."
"Until you get chosen, if you do. There are usually a few of us left over. The catering managers
always make sure there's more than enough for the guests; it wouldn't do to look stingy."
Alys glanced down at her slender chest, a little self-consciously. "Um..."
"Oh, don't start on that again," Joanna gruffed. "There's nothing wrong with your tits. Not
everybody likes 'em the size of melons. Some people prefer small and perky. I think yours are
cute. Little apples. Plums? Whatever. Anyway, you've got great legs. Lean and coltish.." She
licked her lips. "They're going to love you."
Alys blushed prettily. "Easy for you to say," she grumbled. Next to Joanna's ripe, voluptuous
figure she felt like a stick insect. For all of that, she felt her nipples hardening. Probably just the
fresh air next to her skin. Goose pimples. Ridiculous.
"There are drinks provided in case you get nervous. You can talk all you like, even to the guests if
you want to. Some of them like to talk first, some of them don't. The Orithras usually wait to see if
you want to recite a poem. They're great fans of Terrestrial poetry."
"How nice of them," Alys said flatly.
Joanna pushed the door open and led the way. "Looks like they've started without us. We must
be the extra servings. Or dessert..."
The dining hall was huge, and packed with people and....things. Alys couldn't take it all in at a
glance. There was too much to see, most of which she didn't want to. The first thing she saw was
a girl being devoured head first by some grotesque being she could only think of as an ogre.
Snarfle, slurp, grunt, burp.
"Well, at least that was quick," she muttered.
"Some of them don't mind if you scream," Joanna said helpfully, "Though the Krond have
sensitive ears. They'll start with your legs, usually, they like the thigh meat, but if you make too
much noise they'll bite your head off. Oh, hello, Henry. Didn't know you'd be here."
A good looking young man shrugged. "Neither did I. Apparently they didn't get enough
volunteers this time so I got the call. Guess my number came up." Henry was, of course, naked,
like all the other humans and most of the aliens present. He was also quite well-endowed and,
Alys couldn't help noticing, had an erection. He shrugged again at Alys' glance. "Can't help it," he
said. "Cat couldn't scratch it." He ran a fingernail up the member in question and flicked the tip.
"Who's your friend?" he asked Joanna.
"Alys". Joanna grinned. "Looking forward to getting gobbled? Or is it just watching all those
naked babes going down the hatch?"
"Hi, Alys. Bit of both, I suppose. Not really looking forward to it, quite frankly, but the old primal
instincts do funny things in extremis. As for the other, well, might as well enjoy the show while I
can."
There was plenty of that to watch, if you liked that sort of thing. Alys saw a woman lying on a
table, half-engulfed from the waist down by some purple, tentacled monstrosity she couldn't
name. The thing's appendages were all over her, writhing and pulsing obscenely. She was doing
a fair bit of writhing herself.
"Qadgopian," Joanna said knowledgeably. "They like to copulate with their prey as they eat. Not
an easy trick unless you're a multi-limbed whatsit with an extensible dick. Looks like fun, don't
you think?"
Alys shook her head dumbly. The theme of aliens eating people was repeated in several
variations all over the hall. Most, though not all, of the humans were female. Apparently the
aliens, regardless of their own gender, usually preferred the gentler sex. "I can't believe you
volunteered for this," she said.
"Somebody's got to do it," Joanna replied airily.
"Why does every bloody ET in the galaxy have to be a people-eating monster anyway?" Alys
complained.
"Not all of them are," Joanna corrected her. "Most of the dominant species tend to be predators,
though. We are, after all."
"But we don't eat PEOPLE..."
"Matter of opinion. We used to eat cetaceans - whales and dolphins - and some would say that
they're sentient beings. All that's different now, since we joined the Galactic Federation, is that
we're lower on the food chain than we used to be."
"I don't see why we had to join at all," Alys said pettishly.
"Apart from the economic benefits...." Joanna started to lecture.....
"We didn't have much choice," Henry cut in bluntly, tearing himself away from the vision of a
group orgy reaching its climax in the belly of a semi-tranparent blob. "Once the Galactics
discovered us, it was that or be turned into a game preserve or a factory farm by some non-
federated species."
Of course, like most people, Alys had been disinterested in politics until it had affected her
personally. Her introduction to the wider reality had come in the form of a summons by e-mail to
attend a ceremonial feast at the GalFed embassy as part of the refreshments. The document had
included instructions which she had read through a haze of rising panic. Naked, no inedible
adornments or scents, etc. Where to go, what to do, blah, blah. It was an invitation she couldn't
refuse, unless she wanted to be arrested along with her immediate family and shipped to a stock
breeding facility on some other misbegotten planet in Outer Space.
"I wish they'd just stuck to admiring our poetry," she said. "Don't they have cows and sheep and
things? Why do they have to eat US?"
"It seems we're a delicacy," Joanna said. "The tastiest species in known space."
"How gratifying. Our brilliant contribution to galactic culture......"
"Might as well get a drink while we're waiting," Henry suggested. "I know I could do with one."
Joanna agreed and Alys followed them to a trestle table laden with the liquid refreshments
permitted to the human buffet, trying not to step in anything squishy. Some of the aliens were
obviously messy eaters; there were piles of bones, entrails and other leftover parts here and
there. A pretty young blonde woman's head had been deposited carelessly on the table, sightless
eyes staring at nothing.
"Bit tactless of somebody," Joanna commented mildly.
"Not everybody likes the crunchy bits," Henry observed.
"Try the fruit punch," a tall, brown skinned woman invited them. "It's quite good. Not very strong,
though. It's considered bad form to get really drunk at one of these bashes."
"Assuming we get time," Alys said sourly.
The woman smiled politely at the feeble sally. "Quite. Eat, drink and be merry - well, drink
anyway. No food here but us chickens."
"For today we're sushi. Doesn't quite have the same ring to it." Mentioning sushi brought
something to Alys's attention that she had previously ignored, presumably because it was
something she already associated with dinner parties. The smell of cooking meat. She glanced
around. At the far end of the hall there were several glass-fronted rotisseries displaying human
carcasses, rotating slowly like spitted chickens.
The tall woman nodded. "Yes, some of them like us cooked. I suppose the roasters have to get
here a bit earlier."
Alys considered that. "Lucky them. At least they don't have to watch all this. Just chopped and
popped in the oven..."
"Oh, no. They're spitted alive. The ET's like to watch them wriggle for a bit. It's supposed to
improve the flavour, like boiling lobsters alive. Besides, it shows they're fresh."
"Oh." Alys grasped the point. Human corpses, if they'd died reasonably young and fresh, were
exported as food, she knew that. Well, why not? They'd only be burnt up or rot in the ground
otherwise; might as well get some use from them. Presumably they were sold in the alien meat
markets already butchered and packaged. Possibly made into sausages or potted meat and
hamburgers. Supermarket food, good enough for the average Joe Alien sixpack. Then there were
the surplus populations quotas. Alys didn't give much thought to that. If the third world hoi-polloi
produced children they couldn't feed, they were fair game for the alien middle classes. Not for the
higher-ups like these sybaritic dignitaries. "Pick your trout while it's still swimming, sir, this is a
top-class joint."
"Exactly. Personally, I prefer it this way. Meet what eats me...ohhhh...." The woman's face went
blank and she sagged slightly at the knees.
"What? Oh..." Alys glanced down. Something pink and wet had appeared between the woman's
legs and slithered into her vagina. Presumably a tentacle - no, a tongue - connected to the giant
toad-like thing standing behind her. Somehow she hadn't noticed its approach. The woman
sagged further, folding in the middle and entering the thing's wide mouth rump-first. "Nice
meeting you...er..."
"Antonia," the woman said absently. "Yes, Master, it will be an honour to be your dinner..."
Since this last remark obviously wasn't addressed to her, Alys didn't reply. She watched like a
fascinated rabbit as Antonia, compliant as a rag doll, was slowly swallowed whole. She didn't
struggle or speak again, just gasped a little. Well, considering the placement of the tongue...
When the pair of shapely feet finally disappeared between the rubbery lips and Antonia was all
inside, presumably being digested, Alys was left staring blankly at the toad thing itself. That
seemed rude, so she broke the awkward silence with "Er, hello. I'm Alys. I suppose I'm next?"
She trembled slightly, not entirely in fear. Good grief, was she actually getting turned on by that?
A shockingly human voice replied, "What? Sorry, I was miles away. I'm Jerry, or close enough.
Friend of yours?"
"Antonia? Not really, we'd just met. Seemed nice though."
"Yes, quite a charming person. And delicious. She likes you too."
Likes? Alys thought, nonplussed.
"How do I know and why the present tense?" Jerry guessed. "I'm an empath, and she's still alive.
It's the way my digestive system works. It'll take quite a while to fully absorb her and she'll be
conscious for some of it. Oh, don't worry, it doesn't hurt. Quite the opposite."
Alys took a steadying drink of punch. "Nice to know. Will I be joining her?"
"Afraid not. Nice of you to offer, and I'd really love to, but I'm full. Still, if you want to chat until
somebody else eats you, I'd enjoy your company."
Alys glanced around. Joanna was nowhere to be seen and Henry was chatting to a tall, furry,
felinoid female who was cupping his balls in a proprietary manner. Maybe the cat-woman wanted
to shag him before she bit them off. It wouldn't do to intrude. She turned back to Jerry. He didn't
seem so bad for a people-eating monster and at least he was polite. "Maybe nobody will," she
said hopefully. "Joanna said there are usually some of us left over."
"There usually are," Jerry admitted. "but I'll be surprised if you're one of them. I'd snap up a tasty
little morsel like you in a second if I wasn't stuffed already."
Alys felt an odd sensation at the compliment. A tingle ran through her like an electric shock, a
perverse mixture of fear and arousal. She forced herself to speak evenly. "How did all this start,
anyway?"
"This? The embassy banquet?"
Alys gestured vaguely and helplessly.
"The whole relationship between your people and the galactic community?" Jerry gave the
batrachian equivalent of a shrug. "I could say it's complicated....."
"People usually do," Alys retorted. "Politicians, anyway."
"But I won't," Jerry went on. "Oh, the details go on and on, but you don't want to hear about all
that. What it comes down to is that your people needed the protection of the Federation and you
had to bring something to the table, so to speak."
"Our bodies, it seems." Henry had said something similar.
The batrachian equivalent of a nod. Alys was getting the hang of this, or maybe it was the
empathic thing. "Yes. You humans are an ingenious species but you're the new kids on the
block. Low beings on the totem pole. Whatever. Your military technology is way behind the
GalFed's. You're good fighters but you've got pointed sticks and we've got muskets. Am I making
sense? I'm never sure if my translator is working properly. The similes and metaphors....English
is difficult."
"I get the gist," Alys said. "So you eat us when you feel like it because you can."
"Well, yes and no," Jerry said diplomatically. "The trade treaty just formalises how and when we
do it, in what quantities, etc. Gone are the old, romantic days when your planet was a Mecca for
gourmet poachers like the legendary pioneer Albert."
"Albert?"
"An Aldebaranian, like myself. His gastronomic travelogues are classics."
Alys would have liked to hear more about this, but as usual at a party when the conversation was
getting interesting, a stranger butted in. A very large stranger, resembling a giant, bipedal bear,
loomed up on her left and placed a paw on her shoulder. "This meat taken?" it grunted in barely
intelligible English. Alys, at a quick glance, guessed that it must be ten feet tall. And the
oversized genitals were definitely male.
"No," Jerry said, with a look at Alys that might have been apologetic or merely regretful. "We were
just talking. Help yourself. Goodbye, Alys. Nice to meet you."
"Bye, Jerry," Alys gasped. The bear thing picked her up by the waist, inspected her like a
gourmet appraising a chicken leg or a corn on the cob and, without even the courtesy of a formal
introduction, bit off her left arm at the shoulder. He gobbled it down so quickly that she could still
see her fingers twitching as the hand disappeared into his mouth, followed by a grunt of
satisfaction. Must like lean meat, Alys thought. And bone. Maybe he needs a lot of calcium, or
something. He's a growing boy. It was odd watching a part of herself vanish like that and she
couldn't help clenching the left hand that wasn't there any more. The pain of the injury seemed
distant from her, as though she wasn't really there either. She was probably in shock, she
realised. The ursid wasn't interested in her reactions, he just took her right foot into his mouth.
For a fleeting moment, she felt wet tongue under the sole and then - snap! - her foot was gone.
Definitely into the crunchy bits, she thought. Doesn't he like the soft and juicy stuff? What about
these tits? Where's Joanna? she wondered as it started on her legs, taking large bites of her
calves and thighs. Should be dead soon, she thought. Loss of blood, at least. I wonder what they
do with the leftovers? Do they make them into sausages like the corpses we send them? Maybe
there's a species out there that likes eating our guts....why waste them...? Alys realised her mind
was rambling.
The ursid issued one of its unintelligible grunts and nuzzled her right breast. Dessert? Alys
remembered Joanna saying "Some people prefer small and perky," but it wasn't obvious whether
the ursid really cared. One or two licks - Alys felt her nipples erecting - and he tore it off and
swallowed it with relish. With a slightly guilty thrill, she realised her remaining hand was stroking
her pussy. Masturbating in public wasn't her normal style - Alys was quite a shy girl - but surely it
didn't matter now. She might as well have one last bit of fun before the requisite organ got eaten.
Or the bear bit her head off.
The creature seemed to be taking a break, or at least pausing for breath. Then, just when Alys
was getting a rhythm going, it bit off her right hand. Alys felt its teeth brush her wet slit and
another shock ran through her. Lick it first, please, she begged wordlessly. The ursid ignored her
silent plea and tore out her belly. The lean muscle gone, he started devouring her guts, his
bloody muzzle burrowing inside her, right down to her cervix.
He's going to eat my vagina from the inside, Alys thought dizzily, from the uterus on down. It was
an unforgiveable violation of her intimacy, and it tickled unbearably. She remembered an old joke.
A woman gets dragged into a gorilla cage and raped mercilessly. She ends up in a hospital bed.
Her friend comes to see her and asks if she's badly hurt. "Of course I'm hurt," she says. "He
hasn't written, he hasn't phoned.."
The ursid didn't care at all, Alys realised. She was nothing to him but a meal. What else had she
expected? The creature rummaging around in her torn and dying body didn't see her as a
person.
Alys accepted that and felt her final orgasm coming at her like a comet. She relaxed. Her mind
and body fused and exploded. She died.
"Cute pussy," she heard. Was this the afterlife? She sat up. She was still naked and lying on a
table. No, a sort of tray.
"Oh, you're awake." Joanna was smiling down at her. She was also naked, as were the others.
Lots of others. It took her a while to recognize the blonde woman whose disembodied head she'd
last seen on the refreshment table.
"Julia," the blonde woman said, smiling. "Pleased to meet you."
Alys didn't know what to say. You look different with a body on? When you're not dead? She
looked at her own fingers and flexed them. Everything seemed to be working. "Why..."
"Why aren't you dead?" Joanna prompted. "All the newbies ask that, one way or another. Here
comes the science bit. You were scanned and copied during the preparation process. All that
stuff where your excreta were evacuated and you got elecrohypnosis so being killed wouldn't hurt
too much."
"But I remember..." Dying.
"Quantum entanglement," Henry said. "Your psyche reverts to the duplicate when your original
expires. As long as it hasn't diverged too much. That's why they keep them dormant."
"I'm a copy?" Alys still felt a little dizzy, but it was more of an existential dilemma than a physical
problem. She stood up.
Henry shrugged. "Your body is. You're still you. Lots of people with degrees in obscure branches
of philosophy might disagree, but personally I couldn't give a toss." He smiled at Joanna. "Party?
Being eaten always gets me horny. That cat girl....wow."
"Good?"
"Hot and furry. Purred and licked me all over. We fucked and then she ate me. Cute wench, her
name's Mrrin. I'd love to make a fur coat of her."
"Wait a minute," Alys said. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"Newbies don't get told the first time," Julia said kindly. "Now, just don't tell the ETs. They don't
know that we're doing this."
"Doing what?"
"Remember the MIBs?"
"That's a myth."
"No it isn't. We've been stealing alien tech for years and adapting it in ways they never thought of.
They're not really very bright, just older cultures. Stagnant. Before long, they'll all be in zoos."
"Are you with us?" Julia asked.
Alys considered this. She remembered Jerry. He'd been very polite and she was a soft-hearted
lass.
"If you volunteer to get eaten again you can try for an Aldebaranian," Antonia suggested. "I can
recommend it. We'll have to keep a few of them alive just for the fun of it."
Pointed sticks, Alys thought. It's not just the technology, it's how you use it. But she was
suddenly very horny again. "Um...I'll think about it," she said. Her crotch itched. She really
wanted a good, honest fuck. Until she had it, she couldn't think straight.
"My place," Henry said. "You, me, Jo, a couple of joints and a bottle of wine and then total
debauchery."
"Sounds like a plan to me," Alys said.
"