THE FINAL FRONTIER

BY

HUGH COX

 

 

AUTHOR'S NOTE

 

All the usual warnings and conditions apply; you all know what they are so there's no point in repeating them here.

There is a certain amount of pseudo-science in this story which readers shouldn't take too seriously; if you have personal knowledge about a subject which allows you spot obvious errors, please try to ignore them. All the locations in this story are fictional and I've been deliberately vague when it comes to the position of planets within the galaxy and the distances between them. Even so, the story obviously places our solar system closer to the edge of the galaxy than it is in reality for the purposes of continuity. I've also made reference to spaceships travelling at super- and ultra-light speed without quantifying what these mean. These speeds allow ships to travel vast distances across the galaxy in a few days and their purpose is to maintain a reasonable time frame for the story rather than to represent a future reality. In addition I've borrowed the term `sub-space' from a well-known sci-fi TV series, which allows almost instant communication across the galaxy without worrying about the limits imposed by the speed of light on electromagnetic waves.

I apologise in advance for any errors and hope they don't spoil your enjoyment of the story.

Hugh.

 

PROLOGUE

 

When humans left the solar system in the early twenty second century and began to explore other star systems, they created the rather grandiose sounding Galactic Federation. By the middle of the twenty fifth century the Federation consisted of fifty seven planets, of which forty three were previously uninhabited human colonies and the remainder were allies who had decided that cooperation was preferable to subjugation. Eventually the inevitable happened and human expansion came into contact with beings of equal, if not greater, technological advancement than their own; in fact they ran into a bitter war between two very different groups.

The first of these had taken to calling themselves The Alliance of Free Systems. They were originally twenty three fiercely independent star systems spread across an area of space several times larger than that of the Federation. They were all advanced peoples who were happy to cooperate and trade with one another but had no desire to form any kind of political or military union. That position was made untenable when they found themselves under attack from the Qardosian Empire.

Actually `empire' was something of a misnomer, as the Qardosians made no attempt to colonise any of the systems they overran. They were a militaristic and warlike race who simply destroyed other civilisations, massacred most of their populations, appropriated as much of their wealth and assets as could be removed and carried any survivors back to their home planet as slaves. By the time the Federation ran into this conflict, five of the six closest systems had already been annihilated, the odd one out being Mykheen, the fourth nearest to Federation Space.

Mykheen was probably the most advanced of all the Free Systems and owed its survival to an energy field which protected their planet and which the Qardosians had been unable to penetrate. Had they shared this technology with their neighbours the Empire's progress would've been halted but it was typical of the self-centred nature of the Free Systems that the Mykheenians refused to do so and therefore doomed their so-called allies to their fate.

When the Federation arrived on the scene they sent diplomatic envoys to both sides. The one to the Alliance was given a rather lukewarm welcome from a group of freedom lovers who viewed the Federation as a direct threat to their independence, while that to the Qardosians was simply murdered. Subsequent attacks on Federation ships and threats to its territory forced them to declare war on the Empire and the fleet was dispatched to the system which was then under assault by the Qardosians.

Technically the battle was a victory for the Federation, in that they inflicted more casualties on the enemy than they suffered themselves and forced the Qardosians to cease their attack and withdraw. However, it was something of a Pyrrhic victory as the Federation losses were huge and, for a quasi-democratic organisation, unsustainable. On the other hand, the Qardosians, who placed far less value on life than did humans, simply licked their wounds and prepared for round two. Furthermore, although the Empire had a smaller population than the Federation, they had significantly larger military forces and, if a war of attrition were to occur, the Federation could conceivably win every battle but still lose the war.

Major diplomatic pressure was placed on the Mykheenians to provide the Federation forces with the details of their energy field and, although they refused to do this, after a large financial inducement they reluctantly agreed to send a ship of their own with the capability to generate an energy field powerful enough to protect the Federation fleet. The Mykheenians are a non-humanoid species and have an appearance which is rather repulsive to other races (think Jabba the Hutt's fatter, uglier brother) and, as a result, tend to avoid contact with outsiders. The ship they sent was crewed by genetically modified, humanoid clones, a technology in which they were much further advanced than anyone else. This was the first time that humans had come into contact with these seemingly perfect beings but it certainly wouldn't be the last.

With the aid of the Mykheenian energy field, the second battle was an overwhelming victory for the Federation forces and the Qardosians were forced to retreat. However, just as the Federation commanders were finalising their plans for an invasion of the Empire, the Free Systems agreed a cease fire with their erstwhile enemies and the Mykheenians withdrew their ship and its vital energy field. Without this support the Federation knew they couldn't win and so a peace treaty was proposed involving all three protagonists.

During negotiations the Qardosians suggested that the planets they had conquered should now be considered to be part of their Empire, something which was bitterly opposed by survivors from these systems. One of those planets, Cyrthinn in the star system closest to Federation Space, was actually a human colony, one of only two in the galaxy not to be part of the Federation. A group of refugees from Cyrthinn raised money to employ a Federation attorney called Zachary Thornton to represent their interests at the peace talks. To begin with he appeared to be successful and the Federation backed his proposal that the five systems should be returned to their original inhabitants but later he appeared to change tack and eventually supported a Mykheenian motion that turned these systems into neutral zones. The refugees were furious and, when the man disappeared following the conclusion of the peace treaty, rumours abounded that he had accepted a large Mykheenian bribe and was now living in luxury with a new identity. Wilder rumours suggested that a secret band of Cyrthinnian assassins had murdered him in revenge for his betrayal but, whatever the truth might be, he had vanished, the five systems were now neutral territory and their few surviving inhabitants were permanent refugees.

With the war over the Federation looked to expand trade with the eighteen remaining Free Systems but they were terrified of being subsumed into the more powerful bloc and insisted that no Federation or Qardosian ships should be allowed in what they now called `Free Space'; this meant that all goods and passengers would have to be carried on ships registered in one of the Free Systems. The Federation was forced to accept this but responded by building a huge spaceport, Sigma Three Five, on Genteros, their planet closest to Free Space, which became the only place where those ships were allowed to visit. This became a major transhipment point, where goods from all across the Federation were transferred to ships registered to the Free Systems and vice versa. As always there were ways around the rules; the Mykheenians, who didn't travel much themselves and had other plans for their clones, were happy to sell ship registrations to entrepreneurial humans and before too long nearly half the trade was being carried by Federation citizens using Mykheenian registered ships.

The Mykheenians had by now found another way to make money, clone based tourism. They terraformed an uninhabited planet within their star system and built a large number of resorts staffed by their seemingly perfect, genetically modified, humanoid clones; everything from Disney style family attractions, through adventure theme parks, all the way to an adult only sex based resort. In this last area the hosts had no inhibitions and were happy to provide whatever anyone might want, man, woman, boy or girl; of any race or age. They were also prepared to sell clones, which they considered to be things not people, to anyone willing to pay their exorbitant prices.

This caused a problem for the Federation authorities; they had introduced a common age of consent of sixteen throughout the fifty seven systems and it was technically illegal for a citizen to have sex with anyone under that age, even outside Federation Space. These clones, however, were difficult to quantify in terms of age; they were created in a laboratory and gestated for nine months in an artificial womb but then they underwent a period of accelerated development, four times that of a natural human, which could be permanently curtailed at any time. This meant that a clone who appeared to be a twenty year old woman might only be five years old, while one who had been created over thirty years before could look exactly like a ten year old boy. In addition, the whole purpose of an age of consent is to protect young people from being pressurised into having sex before they were mentally mature enough to make such a decision; whereas the Mykheenian clones had been genetically engineered to desire and enjoy sex with a particular target group, making this arbitrary age irrelevant.

Eventually a majority of the Federation Assembly were persuaded that trying to legislate in this area was impossible and therefore sex with any of these clones became legal. Since a significant number were already resident within Federation Space, predominantly in the hands of wealthy and influential people, it was also deemed legal to possess one but their importation became illegal and Federal Border and Immigration (FBI) agents worked tirelessly to prevent any more from being brought in. With Sigma Three Five being the only legal port of entry and a string of picket ships equipped with powerful scanners checking for smugglers, the importation of these clones fell to almost zero. Of course, wealthy people will always pay a premium to obtain what is illegal and clever ones will seek to make money by providing them with their desires through illicit means.

 

ONE

 

"Mike Kilo Six Three Eight, you are clear to land at Sierra Echo Two Seven."

"Roger control, Mike Kilo Six Three Eight descending to land at Sierra Echo Two Seven." Xavier Martinez eased the control column forward and directed his ship, the Kestrel, towards the designated landing pad, number twenty seven at the south eastern end of the port complex.

The ship was originally a military, K-class transport but had been adapted to become a civilian freighter; her lack of size being compensated for by her surprising turn of speed. From above she had a bell shaped outline; the small, central protuberance contained the flight deck, immediately behind which was the crew quarters. The ship then curved out and back to the two huge, matter/anti-matter power units which were capable of hurtling her many times faster than the speed of light. Between the power units was the cargo bay, an area of fifteen by twenty five metres which was designed to carry sixteen, standard Federation cargo containers, each of which was six metres long by three wide and three high and constructed from a high strength polymer, as tough as steel but about a quarter of the weight. The Kestrel was also able to carry up to two passenger pods, each of which took up the space of eight containers and was designed to carry a Federation platoon of forty troops. The usual military configuration had been to place a troop pod in the centre of the cargo bay with a line of four containers down each side, which allowed her to transport a platoon plus all of its equipment and vehicles.

Xavi had joined the Federation Space Fleet when he left school at eighteen and trained to be a pilot, hoping to fly fighters against the Qardosians. Unfortunately for him the war ended two years later, before he had the opportunity to see combat and he found himself flying K-class transports instead. Then, when it became clear that the peace was going to be permanent, the Federation reduced the size of the fleet and at twenty three Xavi found himself unemployed, albeit with a handsome pay-off. As well as reducing personnel, the Federation had also sold off a large number of surplus ships and Xavi used his pay-off as a deposit on the Kestrel, the remainder of the money being borrowed. To begin with he worked in Federation Space but several large transport organisations ran a virtual cartel and it was difficult for a small, one-ship operation to compete. Xavi barely managed to survive and make his loan repayments but when he heard about the Mykheenians selling ship registrations which allowed humans to operate in Free Space he borrowed a few more Credits and purchased one. There was no cartel in Free Space and the vast distances between inhabited systems made the speed of the Kestrel an even bigger asset and now, at thirty two, he was finally able to make his repayments and live fairly comfortably.

As Xavi piloted his ship towards the landing area, miles of featureless desert passed beneath him. Someone once described Genteros as the arsehole of the galaxy and Xavi certainly wasn't going to argue with that assessment. The planet was ninety five percent ocean, a highly alkaline, lifeless one at that and the only significant landmass, about the size of Australia, was nearly all desert. There were a few oases where hardy pioneers scraped a living on subsistence farms but, unlike other colonies where early settlers had succeeded in making their fortune when the colony expanded, Genteros had gained a huge spaceport and nothing else. Like all ports in history, Sigma Three Five had its dark side; sleazy bars, brothels and drugs proliferated despite the best attempts of the authorities and the planet's poor reputation was thoroughly deserved.

The Kestrel moved in until she was hovering above the landing pad, Xavi then swung her around until the rear of the ship was facing the buildings and dropped her neatly onto the pad on the tripod landing gear. Almost immediately an extension of the loading dock moved out towards the ship and, simultaneously, the Kestrel's rear cargo door opened to meet it as Charlie, the second member of the crew, sprang into action. Once contact was made, Charlie began to use the ship's cargo handling system to unload the containers in the hold. As soon as one of the containers exited the hold a ground based colleague took control and the container was whisked off to be loaded onto a Federation ship which would carry it to its ultimate destination. Time was money and there was no point in having a fast ship if there was no speedy turn round in the port.

Charlie wasn't the crewman's real name but he was a Yakonian and their language was incomprehensible to most humans; therefore Yaks, as they were commonly but unfairly referred to, were generally given human nicknames. Yakon was one of those planets that had opted to join the Federation and, while its population was humanoid, they were larger than people from Earth and generally of lower intelligence, Charlie was 7'2" and over 300 pounds but with an IQ of around eighty. Despite this, they were capable of learning how to operate complex systems, even if they didn't necessarily understand how they worked and Charlie made an excellent cargo operator for the Kestrel. He had other uses as well; he was a surprisingly good cook, specialising in the spicy Yakonian stews which were similar to Asian curries and his size made him a useful bodyguard for his captain when they were in some of the less salubrious ports in the galaxy such as Sigma Three Five. Xavi, an athletic five feet ten and a hundred and seventy five pounds, was well able to take care of himself in a fight but it was all too easy to take a knife in the back in a crowded bar and, although Charlie couldn't guarantee to prevent such an incident occurring, someone of his intimidating size was a useful deterrent.

Once Xavi had completed his post-flight checks, he left Charlie to complete the unloading and headed into town accompanied by the third member of the crew, seventeen year old Sam. He wasn't technically a member of the crew at all; Xavi had found him selling his body four years earlier and had offered him the alternative of a life on a space transport in return for sex with one man, rather than having sex with numerous men for money and all the dangers that entailed. Sam had jumped at the offer; he was a native of Genteros and an orphan, who hated his life of drudgery on his aunt and uncle's smallholding and had run away to Sigma Three Five with the intention of getting away from the shithole of a planet. Like many runaways before, he found the reality very different from his fantasy and was soon forced to choose between prostitution and starvation. Naturally he chose the former; the one useful thing his uncle had taught him was how to suck cock and, although he wasn't gay, he didn't find it too distressing a chore and happened to be reasonably good at it.

Fortunately Xavi discovered him before he was arrested or worse and for the next three years he was the man's catamite, even allowing himself to be fucked after a little persuasion. Eventually he became too old for Xavi, even when fully depilated and he in turn was desperate to have girlfriends and no longer wanted to have sex with a man. The Kestrel didn't need and Xavi couldn't afford a third crew member, so for the last year the boy had been nothing but a hanger-on that Xavi wanted to be rid of but didn't have the heart to throw out. The lad kept promising to find another job but never did and, whenever the man threatened to leave him on Genteros, a quick blow job allowed him to remain a little longer.

The main road leading to the port was lined on either side with bars and nightclubs; later, when it got dark, neon signs would advertise girls and strippers but even now, in the middle of the afternoon, there were prostitutes touting for business on the street corners. A short distance from the port entrance they entered Solo's Bar (someone had obviously seen too many old movies) which, at this time, was still fairly quiet. Most of Xavi's business was legitimate and communications regarding it were carried out using the usual electronic devices but some of his best paying contracts were illicit and no technology was one hundred per cent secure, so dodgy meetings were held with shady characters in sleazy bars, just as they had been for centuries. With the bar being quiet, only the owner was serving and, as soon as he spotted Xavi, he came over and said, "The Troll says he'll meet you here at ten tonight."

The Troll was an ugly, half-human freight agent who had a lucrative side-line in smuggling and kept his personal details, including his real identity, to himself. Xavi didn't trust the guy one inch but his contracts generally paid well and he'd always settled in full and on time, so there was every reason to believe that the meeting would lead to a profitable outcome for all parties. With nearly seven hours to kill until the rendezvous, Xavi returned to the Kestrel to check on how Charlie was doing, leaving Sam to his own devices.

As expected, all the cargo had been unloaded and almost half of the next load was already secured in the hold. Not all of this cargo was ready yet, so they'd have to complete the process in the morning prior to departure. By the time Charlie and the ground team had finished, twelve of the sixteen containers were aboard and Xavi was satisfied that loading the remaining four would not delay their departure, assuming they arrived on time of course. If not, then someone else would be liable and would have to pay the charges for late delivery. He told Charlie about the meeting with The Troll and they agreed to meet at Solo's Bar at nine thirty; he always made sure that he had the big Yakonian with him when he met with lowlifes like The Troll.

Xavi rented a small, one bedroom apartment in town as he liked to have somewhere to call home and to sleep away from the ship occasionally. He went there now, showered, changed and had something to eat before heading out again, to another bar but one that was considerably more upmarket than Solo's. Sigma Three Five might be a shithole but that didn't mean that there weren't a few decent places to drink and meet people in. The Rainbow Lounge was, unsurprisingly, a gay venue but it was also one where you could meet underage boys, or at least beings who appeared to be such.

There were effectively three ways in which a man like Xavi could indulge in his sexual preference while in port. One was to fuck genuine young boys but that was dangerous, as the authorities were always on the lookout for liaisons of that kind and weren't averse to running a sting operation. Being caught would mean fifteen years on a penal planet, not a pleasant thought and certainly not worth risking for a quick fuck. Xavi had been lucky when he found Sam but he knew that his chances of repeating the trick were remote. The second option was a clone; these were available on Genteros but were ridiculously expensive and well outside Xavi's price range; no fuck was worth that kind of money as far as he was concerned. That left option three, a young Pardani.

Pardan was another non-human, Federation planet whose population were virtually the opposite of the Yakonians; instead of being large, they were a short, slender race who appeared extremely youthful to human eyes. In addition, their sexuality was unlike any other that humans had so far discovered in the galaxy. Females made up approximately one third of the population and were basically asexual most of the time. However, they became fertile for about a month each year, at which point their sexuality kicked-in, one that was nearly one hundred per cent straight, lesbianism was almost unheard of. During this brief period they made love with their male partners as often as possible and hopefully became pregnant. Males fell into two distinct groups of equal size; the first was `active males' who were nearly all bisexual, in human terms a combination of straight men and gay tops, this group were the females' partners and fathered their children. The second group was usually referred to as `passive males', these were all homosexual, the equivalent of gay bottoms and, since the females were only interested in sex for brief periods, this group were the sexual partners for the active males during the remainder of the year. Just like humans, some Pardani males were promiscuous and had many same sex partners, although they were usually monogamous with their female ones. Most, however, stuck with a single male partner and it was common for threesomes to live together in harmony, with all three sharing domestic duties, including raising the children.

Shortly after humans had discovered Pardan, it became a popular destination for paedophiles who discovered that a Pardani male in his twenties could easily pass for a human boy in his early teens, especially once his body hair was removed and this made for an acceptable and legal alternative for such men. The passive males were delighted with the human presence, as men were bigger than Pardani males in every way and were also willing to pay good money for sexual favours; there was no stigma attached to prostitution on Pardan. This sex tourism soon upset the balance of Pardani life and eventually the Federation required humans to obtain visas in order to visit the planet and these were only issued when travel to Pardan was essential. The planet returned to some sort of equilibrium but a significant number of passive Pardani males still left each year either seeking sexual fulfilment or looking to make money from the sex trade and many of them ended up in Sigma Three Five. It was from this group that Xavi tended to seek a sexual partner when he was in port, they might not be the real thing but they were cheaper than a clone and avoided the danger of fifteen years on some planet worse than Genteros with a deranged Yak who wanted nothing more than to ram his foot long cock up your arse. That was no idle threat, Xavi had seen Charlie's cock and knew that a thick, twelve inches was average for a Yakonian.

Xavi bought a drink and stood at the bar, looking around the room to see who was in tonight. Under-eighteens were not allowed in The Rainbow Lounge but Pardani males were, provided they could produce ID which showed them to be above that age, even when they were obviously purporting to be younger humans. After a few moments Xavi spotted a group of three young looking guys sitting at a table and went over to speak to them, where he discovered that two of them were Pardani guys he already knew but the third was one he'd never seen before and suspected that he was new to Genteros. He was extremely cute and, at a little over five feet and under a hundred pounds, could easily pass for thirteen, or even twelve at a push. Xavi wasted no time in taking him aside for a private chat, where they soon established that Vittal was actually nineteen, looking for older guys who'd pay him for sex and quickly agreed on twenty Credits for an hour. That was a fairly average price but good value for someone who looked as young as he did and no doubt he would start asking for more when he was better established and gained confidence.

The pair finished their drinks and headed for Xavi's apartment where, with only an hour available, they wasted no time in heading for the bedroom, stripping off and getting down to business. They stood and kissed briefly, while Xavi fondled Vittal's arse cheeks, before the man pushed the `boy' onto the bed in a sitting position and offered his cock to be sucked. He might've been very young looking and new to Genteros but he obviously wasn't new to fellatio and set about licking and sucking Xavi's balls and seven inch cock with plenty of enthusiasm and no little skill.

After several minutes of that they moved onto the bed, with Xavi on top in a sixty nine position and began to fellate one another. The lad's genitals were the one give-away that he wasn't really a human boy; although his penis was only a slim four inches it was clearly a fully formed adult cock and his balls were large for his size and low hanging. As he worked on the boy with his mouth, Xavi reached a hand between his legs and began to rub his hole. He paused briefly to moisten a finger with saliva and then inserted it into the lad, followed a few moments later by a second digit.

That was sufficient foreplay in the circumstances and Xavi told the boy to move onto his back at the edge of the bed with his legs raised, while he quickly lubed his cock, lined it up with the puckered entrance and pushed it in. Thanks to modern drugs, STDs were a thing of the past and condoms were no longer required except as a means of contraception, which was certainly not a concern to Xavi or his partner at present. Once again, despite Vittal's diminutive size and apparent youth, he accommodated the man's cock with ease and was clearly no stranger to being fucked, working the muscles in his rectum as Xavi pumped in and out to increase his client's pleasure. Other than the occasional blow job from Sam, Xavi had been reliant on his right hand for several weeks and soon felt his orgasm building. He moved Vittal further up the bed, lay over him, supported on his arms, so they could kiss and began to increase the rate of his fucking. A few seconds later he came, giving one huge thrust and several smaller ones as he emptied his balls into the boy's tight hole. Vittal hadn't cum yet, so Xavi moved them back into the original sixty nine position and, while the boy cleaned his cock, he sucked the lad to orgasm; the sharp, tangy taste of his semen being another reminder that this was not really a boy in his early teens.

The hour wasn't up yet, so they lay spooned together on the bed and talked while Xavi kissed and caressed the boy, something he always liked to do after a fuck. Vittal asked what Xavi did for a living and, when he discovered that he was a space pilot, admitted that he'd love to explore the galaxy and that his dream was to save enough money to visit Mykheen. This gave Xavi an idea; if he could only persuade Sam to leave for pastures new, Vittal might be willing to take his place as the man's catamite. He didn't say anything to the boy at this point as getting Sam to move hadn't proved easy up 'til now and he didn't want to raise Vittal's hopes in case he couldn't deliver on his offer. When the hour was up Xavi paid the boy his twenty Credits and they exchanged contact details, as both were happy to repeat the experience without relying on a chance encounter in The Rainbow Lounge.

Xavi arrived at Solo's just after nine thirty, to find that Charlie was already there and that he'd secured a booth in a relatively secluded corner. The place was much livelier than it had been that afternoon but Xavi knew that things were just warming up; by two a.m. it would be jumping and dangerous and he had no intention of still being here by that stage. When he sat down Charlie pointed a finger and, when he looked in the direction indicated, he saw Sam attempting to chat up a stunning blonde woman who appeared to be in her mid-twenties. Xavi laughed; the skinny, seventeen year old was way out of his league and had absolutely no chance. He just wished the boy would pick a fairly attractive girl, around his own age and decide to leave the Kestrel to be with her. Sure enough, a few minutes later, a disconsolate Sam appeared at their booth with his tail between his legs and Xavi proceeded to take the piss; as you do in such circumstances.

The Troll arrived at ten on the dot, moving Sam out of the way so that he could sit opposite Xavi, who had Charlie sitting outside of him as security. "I've got a client who wants an illicit piece of merchandise to be delivered from Mykheen and I'm sure that you're the perfect man to satisfy him," The Troll said abruptly, never one to bother with preliminaries.

"What is it, and how much is he willing to pay?" Xavi replied, in an equally business-like manner.

"It's a clone and he's willing to pay one hundred thousand Credits."

"Fuck off!" Xavi retorted. "There's no way I'm going to risk bringing a Mykheenian clone into Federation Space for a measly hundred grand. I'd want half a million for that."

After a few minutes of tiresome negotiation they settled on two hundred and fifty thousand, which was probably the price that each would've expected prior to the start of their haggling.

"What sort of clone is it?" Xavi asked, already starting to plan how he was going to beat the FBI.

"A young boy of twelve apparently," The Troll replied, "That's why I thought you'd be the perfect choice, especially with Mike being otherwise engaged at the moment." Mike Clarke was another small time cargo pilot who was also a boy lover. He and Xavi had an intense, semi-friendly rivalry which consisted of each them continually trying to drop the other in the shit and Xavi owed him one. At present Mike was nearly half way through a year-long contract moving cargo between Mykheen and Parvos, one of the Free Systems furthest from Federation space.

Xavi's brain moved into top gear as he worked out his options. He'd considered various ways to beat the FBI and smuggle in a clone over the years, with different scenarios depending on its apparent age. When a `child' was involved there were additional complexities and, although he had come up with a theoretical solution to the problem, he had never had the resources required to put the plan into action. Vittal, the young Pardani he had met for the first time that evening, might just prove to be the missing piece he needed.

"When does the job have to be done by?" he asked. "I'll have to organise a passenger run to make it work."

"I've already thought about that," The Troll replied, smugly. "I checked your schedule, noticed that you've got a run to Parvos in five weeks and that you've only got seven containers lined up so far. I'll make it up to eight and I can give you a Mykheen tourist job at the same time. You can drop the passengers off, make the run to Parvos and be back in Mykheen with a day to spare."

"I'll also need sixty grand for expenses and five false passports, good ones."

"Why do you need all that?"

"It'll cost ten grand each for a thirty something couple and their twelve year old son to take a two week vacation on Mykheen's pleasure planet plus another ten grand each to make the risk worth their while. A couple of friends of mine and a young Pardani I know can play the parts."

"Does it really need two parents?" The Troll asked, looking for ways to keep the costs down.

"A twelve tear old can't travel alone and a single man with a young boy would be just as suspicious. Very few single mothers can afford to take their kids on such a trip, so a couple with an only child is much less likely to draw attention."

"Alright, I'll accept that but you're only getting fifty grand. You'll just have to persuade them to do it for less or pay them out of your own pocket."

"OK, that's fine." Xavi was happy with that, the thirty thousand for the vacation was a necessity but he was sure he'd need less than twenty to secure the cooperation of his accomplices; he'd simply asked for more as a bargaining position.

"I still don't understand why you need five passports."

"Two are for the couple playing the parents, who'll travel both ways. The third is for the Pardani, in the name of their twelve year old son, for the outward leg. The fourth is also the son's but for the clone this time, who'll be travelling back with his `parents'. Finally the Pardani will need to get back home but he can't travel under his own name because there won't be any record of his leaving Federation Space. Mike Clarke has got a Pardani as his crewmate at the moment; use his details and Vittal can say that they fell out and he was abandoned on Mykheen. The FBI will give him a thorough going over but that can work in our favour; if we make sure that he goes through immigration a few places ahead of our `family', then he'll get all the attention and there's less chance of the clone being discovered. It's Mike who'll have all the problems when he and his boy come back and the FBI realise that they've been conned; they'll practically tear his ship apart out of sheer frustration," Xavi added with some satisfaction.

Once the meeting was over, Xavi and Charlie left Solo's and went to an apartment block near to Xavi's own, where his friends Allan and Claire lived. They were con artists, who'd come to Sigma Three Five because a large port is full of people who're desperate to be parted from their money and the couple were perfectly willing and able to do just that. Xavi put his proposition to them and they agreed to do it for five thousand Credits each; after all, they were being paid to take a free vacation and the only danger would be at the end when they returned to Genteros. Next they met with Vittal who loved the idea and would've done it for nothing but Xavi promised him a thousand Credits anyway; a sum that would've taken him fifty hours of fucking to earn at his current rate.

After getting the agreement of the three, Xavi returned to Solo's and passed their contact details to The Troll so that he could organise their fake passports and visas for them; the passports would be biometric, so he would also need retinal photographs. The Federation took great care to ensure that their computer systems weren't hacked but nothing could prevent the interference of an inside man and The Troll had one of those in the passport office. He would ensure that the five passports were apparently genuine, switch the biometric details for the boy from Vittal to the clone and substitute his details for Mike's boy before switching them back again when the mission was complete.

During Xavi's absence from the bar Sam had tried a second time with the pretty blonde woman and, to the man's amazement, the boy actually appeared to be making progress this time, as the two of them were snuggled up together in a booth. Perhaps this would be the one to persuade the lad to leave the Kestrel at long last and allow Xavi to find a new boy, maybe even Vittal.

 

TWO

 

Five weeks later the Kestrel was sitting on another landing pad at Sigma Three Five, with eight cargo containers sitting in two rows of four, either side of a passenger pod into which thirty eight passengers were filing via an air bridge that connected through the ship's open rear cargo door, where they were greeted by four flight attendants. Two of the seats hadn't been sold but, as Xavi contracted to carry the pod at a set price, that meant less profit for the tourist operator not him and ensured that there would be room for the poor, abandoned Pardani on the return leg. Amongst the passengers were Allan, Claire and Vittal, or Simon and Joanne French and their son Simon Junior as their passports and tickets declared them to be. Vittal's hair hadn't been cut during the five week preparation period and was now longer than normal; it had also been dyed dark brown rather than the usual pale blond and his blue eyes were hidden behind brown contact lenses. These alterations to his appearance had made him look much more like the clone, although they would still look very different if seen side-by-side.

People with a bit of money used the large passenger ships which were far more luxurious but also more expensive and considerably slower than the Kestrel. A typical vacation to Mykheen's pleasure planet took six weeks in total; three days from Earth to Genteros, a day's transhipment on that dump and then ten days to Mykheen. A fortnight's holiday was followed by the same tortuous process to return home, which meant a period of time away from home and work that not all could afford. The Kestrel could do the Genteros – Mykheen run in three days, reducing the total time to a more manageable four weeks and, as her food and accommodation were much more basic, the cost was also lower, making this the travel option of choice for those on a limited budget.

Xavi received take-off clearance, the Kestrel lifted off the pad, moved forwards and raised her nose almost to the vertical before the two power units rocketed her up through the planet's atmosphere and into space. The first part of the journey, from Genteros to the edge of Federation Space, was relatively slow, at high sub-light speed. Close to the boundary with Free Space a Federation picket ship came alongside and scanned the Kestrel to ensure that the number of lifeforms aboard matched her passenger manifest. Then, when clearance was given, Xavi opened up and his ship accelerated to super-light speed on a course for Mykheen.

Before the war, a ship like the Kestrel could've made the run in just over two days but that entailed passage close to two of the star systems that had formerly been members of the alliance and had been destroyed by the Empire. These were now considered neutral space and therefore out of bounds; this meant a detour which added nearly fifteen hours to the journey time. Nevertheless, just over sixty eight hours after leaving Genteros and an hour and a half ahead of schedule, the Kestrel landed on Mykheen's pleasure planet and the passengers disembarked. Allan and Claire were going to spend two weeks in a child free resort, eating, drinking, soaking up the sun and whatever else took their fancy. Vittal had been torn between two different adventure resorts and had eventually decided to spend a week at each, which meant he'd had to spend some of his thousand Credits on an internal transfer but hadn't been bothered about that. The flight attendants would have a two day stopover and then return on another ship which meant the Kestrel would have four different attendants on the return journey, reducing the chances of anyone spotting that that the Simon French Junior who arrived was not the same as the one who returned.

While the passengers and their luggage were being offloaded, Xavi contacted the Mykheenian clone department and confirmed that his client's boy would be available for collection in thirteen days. Once the disembarkation was completed, the Kestrel took off again on her six day journey to Parvos. During the trip Charlie was his usual quiet, diligent self but Sam was morose and uncooperative, clearly missing his `girlfriend' Myra, the pretty blonde who, in Xavi's opinion, was just stringing the lad along for some reason. He had tried to persuade the boy to remain on Genteros with her but had refused his request for the use of the apartment; he was having enough trouble getting the boy off the ship, without being stuck with him in his apartment as well. Whether Sam was missing Myra, was frustrated at his lack of progress as regards getting into her knickers, was pissed at Xavi over the apartment, or a combination of all three, he proved to be a total pain in the butt and Xavi was closer than ever before to dumping him when they returned to Sigma Three Five.

As luck would have it they ran into Mike Clarke on Parvos and both crews went for a few drinks together where Xavi took the opportunity to check out Mike's Pardani boy, Sindal. He was older than Vittal, twenty six as opposed to nineteen and looked around fifteen or sixteen in human terms; Xavi just hoped that the FBI personnel on duty when Vittal returned to Genteros weren't too hot on the appearance of Pardani citizens and didn't recognise that he was too young to be Sindal. The cargo turnaround was problem free, as was the six day return flight to Mykheen, where Xavi first headed for the planet that contained the clone production facility, rather than the pleasure planet.

The facility was a restricted area but the Kestrel was a Mykheenian registered ship and The Troll had supplied Xavi with documentation which allowed him to land there. They were met by an incredibly handsome humanoid geneticist, a clone of course, who insisted on explaining every detail of the new clone's development.

"His embryo was created four years ago from cells provided by a human donor, whom the client selected from photographs and detailed personality profiles; a submissive, gay bottom with a preference for older men in this case. The embryo was then genetically modified to fully meet the client's exact requirements before being placed in an artificial womb. When he was removed after nine months he was given a hormone injection which triggered a pre-set rapid growth rate of approximately four times that of a normal human. After three years, when he reached the client's desired age of just turned twelve, he was given another shot which immediately and permanently stopped all further physical development. Throughout his growth period he has been given intensive education to ensure that he behaves like a real boy of that age and over the past few months he has undergone sexual training."

"What does that involve?" Xavi asked.

"It's a combination of theoretical and practical instruction and watching a lot of movies. On the practical side we use extremely realistic artificial phalluses, which the boy has learned to take both orally and anally. Orally, he is now able to take a phallus larger than that of the client's penis, although anally he has only taken one a size smaller so far; this is to allow the client the satisfaction of stretching his boy that last little bit. The clone is now so well practised that he should have no difficulty taking his masters cock and will only feel a slight discomfort the first time he does so. In addition, over the last two months he has been involved in a relationship with a fourteen year old boy, which mirrors the donor's first sexual experience."

"Does he genuinely desire to have sex with a man at his age?"

"Not yet, he still only has a pre-pubescent child's curiosity about sex. The client is supplied with a course of two more hormones which he will give to the clone on receipt and which will trigger the final two stages of development. The first produces the desire you mentioned; effectively it causes the mental changes associated with puberty but without any physical alterations. The second causes the clone to form a deep emotional bond with the first person who has sex with it."

"Do you mean he'll fall in love with the man?"

"Love is a close analogy to what happens but, unlike humans who can fall in love and then later lose that love, the clone's emotional bond will be permanent. That's why we don't approve of a clone being placed with a client more than forty years older. Human life expectancy is now close to a hundred years while that of a clone is sixty; if a clone outlives its master it can cause severe emotional problems and very often leads to suicide. Clones that are designated to be sex workers only get the first shot which creates the desire and enjoyment; without the second they can avoid creating an emotional bond with their clients."

"Why don't you give the last course of hormones here, before the clone leaves?"

"We used to do that but on one occasion, before the Federation banned their importation, a female clone seduced a fellow traveller on the journey to Federation Space and they had sex; she fell for the guy big style and was ruined for the client. We were then forced to produce another clone for the client and compensate him for the lost time. Ever since then we have provided the client with the final course of hormones."

At that moment one of the man's female colleagues appeared, accompanied by what Xavi considered to be the most beautiful boy he'd ever seen; his passport photograph did not do him justice in any way. The lad was an even five feet and must've weighed around ninety pounds; he was far prettier than any girl, with dark, wavy collar length hair, large, deep brown eyes and full, extremely kissable lips. When he smiled and showed his perfect, even, white teeth his whole face lit up and Xavi was embarrassed to find that he was sporting an erection. Fortunately neither of the scientists seemed to have noticed but the boy looked from Xavi's face to the bulge in his groin and back again before grinning at him knowingly.

"This is Tyler," the woman said, forcing Xavi to break away from the boy's mesmerising eyes.

"Does he have a surname?" he asked.

"The client didn't want to divulge that for security reasons, he's remained anonymous throughout and all his dealings with us have been via his agent on Genteros." By which Xavi assumed she meant The Troll.

"Well Tyler, are you looking forward to going into space?" he asked the boy.

"Yeah, it'll be cool," the kid replied, in a piping voice which was as gorgeous as the rest of him. "Can I sit on the flight deck?"

"You can for the first part of the journey . . ."

"Alright!"

". . . but you'll have to travel in the passenger pod with the people who're pretending to be your parents once we pick up the rest of the passengers."

"Boring!"

Xavi laughed, "You're right, I'm sure it will be boring but it's only for three days; just remember to call them Mom and Dad and do what they tell you." The doubts that Xavi had harboured up until now, receded. The clone was a perfect twelve year old boy, far more realistic than Vittal who looked the part but acted in too mature a fashion and he was now more confident than before that the mission would be a success.

Even at sub-light speed, the journey from the clone facility to the vacation planet only took a little over an hour but an excited Tyler enjoyed every minute of it. There were only two seats on the flight deck and Charlie was generally happy to remain back in the crew quarters but Sam, who liked to sit up front as if that somehow made him a bona fide crew member, wasn't pleased to be ousted from his usual position in favour of the clone and sulked in the rear.

It was early evening when they landed at the passenger terminal; with take-off due at eight the following morning. Allan and Claire were spending their last night in a hotel near the terminal, booked-in as a family of three and Xavi took Tyler to join them. When he returned to the ship the flight attendants were preparing the pod for the return journey and the senior crew member approached him and said, "We've got two extra passengers for the return leg, is that OK?" It was standard procedure to get permission from the captain for any additional passengers although it was usually a mere formality.

"Oh, where did they come from?" Xavi asked, his genuine surprise that there were two disguising any hint that he had been expecting one.

"One is a Pardani lad who was a crew member on a cargo ship. He fell out with the captain and was left here to make his own way back to Federation space. The other travelled out on one of the large cruise ships but got into some kind of trouble with an influential fellow passenger and now they won't take him back. He's also been blacklisted, so none of the large carriers will touch him; our company is less choosy so, as long as you're happy, he's coming back with us."

"Do you mind if I talk to them first?" Xavi asked. Normally he wouldn't have bothered but he wanted the opportunity to talk to Vittal, give him his new documents and make sure that the lad remembered what he had to do. It would've been odd if he just spoke to one of them, so that meant he'd have to see both.

"No, that'll be fine," the attendant replied, "they're both in the same hotel next door. I'll give you their room numbers."

The man, Frank Gill, was a bear; around six feet two and over two hundred pounds of what had once been muscle but was now turning to fat, with dark hair matting his forearms and showing at the neck of his polo shirt. He greeted Xavi warmly and offered him a beer which he gratefully accepted.

"What happened on the outward trip?" Xavi asked, once the preliminaries had been dispensed with.

"I like boys," the man said, "but I never touch genuine underage ones, which is why I came here looking to have some fun with their clone boys. There was a really cute kid of about fourteen on the ship and he obviously liked me as much as I liked him. We flirted with one another but nothing happened beyond that. Then the boy's father noticed what was going on and warned me to leave his son alone. I pointed out that I hadn't done anything but agreed to keep my distance. The problem was that the kid wasn't taking any notice of his old man and kept following me around. Eventually the father complained to the crew that I was stalking his kid and, since he was a shareholder and director of the company, they believed him, not me and I was refused a return passage. They even blacklisted me, so I've really struggled to find a ship home."

"Well, as a fellow boy lover, I sympathise with your situation and I'm happy to have you aboard. Just one thing; two friends of mine are travelling with their twelve year old son and I'd appreciate it if you stay away from him."

"Don't worry, if he's twelve and looks his age then he's too young for me. I like a bit of grass on the pitch and a boy who can shoot a sweet load." The two men shook hands and Xavi left for his second meeting.

Vittal, whose hair had been cut short and returned to its usual colour, greeted Xavi with a hug and then chattered about his amazing vacation for ten minutes before the man could get a word in. Once he did, he made sure that the boy had the correct paperwork and knew exactly what he had to do when he arrived on Genteros. His mission complete, he returned to the Kestrel and prepared for the return trip to Federation Space.

The Pardani was nervous when he boarded the ship the following morning. The Kestrel had a small number of single cabins which had been originally provided for officers and sergeants and Vittal had occupied one of these on the outbound leg while his `parents' had shared a twin one. On the return trip, however, Tyler would have the single cabin while Vittal was going to have to share a twin with the other additional passenger. His nerves weren't lessened any when he met the man who turned out to be just the sort of large, hairy guy that the young Pardani was particularly attracted to. Much as he liked Xavi and his smooth athletic body, this man got him hard on sight and he wondered how he was going to keep his feelings to himself for three whole days. His misgivings were soon dispelled when Frank, recognising the lad's desire immediately, revealed that he was a boy lover and would like nothing more than to spend the entire journey pounding Vittal's cute backside; something to which the lad was more than happy to accede.

The passenger pod was isolated from the rest of the ship, although the crew could reach it via the cargo bay in an emergency but there was CCTV in the communal areas which allowed Xavi to monitor what was happening there. He was a little concerned that someone would realise that young Simon French was not the same person who had travelled out and, to reduce the chances of that happening, Vittal had spent most of the outbound leg alone in his cabin playing games and watching recorded TV and Tyler, he was pleased to see, was doing the same on the return trip. Frank Gill had kept his word and hadn't spoken to the boy at all but Xavi felt a little pang of jealousy when it became obvious that the man had become intimate with Vittal and that the young Pardani was obviously smitten. Xavi just hoped that the kid wouldn't reveal what was really going on.

When the evening meal was over on the second day, most of the passengers went to the lounge to relax for a few hours before bed. As he'd been instructed, Tyler returned to his cabin for another boring evening, while Frank and Vittal went to theirs for a much more enjoyable one. Xavi would've been horrified to discover that Vittal had let slip his real name and that he was travelling under a pseudonym on the first night but relieved to know that Frank didn't care and had no intention of passing that information on to anyone else. He had also guessed, correctly, that whatever Vittal was up to involved the beautiful boy who seemed to spend all his time alone in his cabin, only appeared for meals and whom Frank had been warned to avoid.

The two narrow bunks in the cabin weren't ideal for sex, certainly not where a guy of Frank's size was concerned but they made do; the man stripping off and lying back with his hands behind his head, while the Pardani climbed on top and began to explore the large, hairy body which fascinated him so much. He ran his hands through the thick chest hair, tweaked and then sucked Frank's nipples before diving in and licking the man's pits; the aroma and taste were totally masculine and drove the lad crazy. They started kissing, Frank's hands caressing Vittal's back and sides as they did so, before moving down to the lad's arse cheeks, massaging and then spreading them to expose his hole into which the man inserted a spit slicked finger followed soon after by a second.

The young Pardani moved southwards again, giving the man's nipples some additional attention before continuing down, planting kisses on the expanse of Frank's belly as he followed the substantial treasure trail towards his ultimate goal. The man's cock was about the same length as Xavi's, seven inches but was substantially thicker and his balls were also bigger and heavier. Vittal started with these taking each into his mouth in turn and sucking hard, inflicting a little pain, just the way Frank liked him to do it. Then he licked the length of the shaft, took it in his hand and peeled back the man's foreskin, revealing his glistening glans which was already leaking pre-cum. The lad licked this off, prodded his tongue into the slit and then took the cockhead into his mouth and sucked while he ran his tongue over it, giving particular attention to the sensitive frenulum. Frank gasped, grabbed hold of Vittal's head and pressed down; the lad relaxed his muscles and allowed the man to force the thick seven inches into his throat until his nose was pressed against Frank's pubic hair. After a few moments the man released his grip and Vittal came back up, sucked on the glans for bit and then went back down again working his throat muscles to stimulate the man's cock.

They continued in this vein for several minutes until Frank reached over to the bedside cabinet, picked up a bottle of lube and handed it to the boy who quickly applied a generous layer to the man's cock and some in and around his own hole as well. Vittal crouched above the man's thick, hard appendage and then lowered himself onto it, the reddened glans pausing briefly at the lad's anus before popping through his sphincter and burrowing its way into his rectum until the entire seven inches had disappeared and the his buttocks were resting on Frank's loins. He leaned forward, with a hand on each of the man's pecs for support and began to raise and lower himself while Frank fondled the boy's much smaller cock to bring it to its full, slender four inches. The Pardani hadn't bothered to depilate himself during his vacation and his pubic hair had grown back to some extent but Frank liked his boys to have a little hair so he'd asked Vittal to leave it as it was and the lad had been happy to oblige.

After a while Frank pulled Vittal down on top of him, bent his legs until his feet were flat on the bunk, wrapped the lad in his arms and began to pound into him while they kissed. With Frank's thick cock hitting his prostate with nearly every stroke and his own cock rubbing on the man's ample belly, Vittal soon felt his orgasm approaching and before long he was shooting his small emission between their bodies. The boy's obvious pleasure and tightening anal muscles quickly brought the man to his climax and he roared in ecstasy as he pumped his much larger load into Vittal before they relaxed in one another's arms as their cocks subsided. When Frank's softening penis had slipped out, the lad spun around and began to clean the man's cock and lower body with his mouth while Frank licked and sucked on Vittal's anus, gathering up the mixture of semen and anal juices which they then shared via another passionate kiss.

The bunk was really too narrow for them to spoon but, with Frank's back hard against the bulkhead and his arms wrapped around Vittal to prevent the boy from falling off the edge, they just about managed to get comfortable in that position. As they lay there and talked, both realised that their feelings for one another were far greater than just sex and they started to make plans for a future together on Frank's home planet, one of the human colonies. He owned his own business there and was well enough off that they could afford a Mykheenian vacation every couple of years. Vittal could ask for no more than that along with a life with a man he adored while Frank, for his part, would finally have a boy of his own and one who would appear to be in his age of attraction for another ten years at least. Neither of them, of course, was aware that their plans had scuppered those of Xavi, who still entertained thoughts of Vittal taking Sam's place.

 

THREE

 

The return journey took a little longer than the outward one had, as they had to slow down outside Federation Space and were subjected to a lengthy scanning by one of the FBI picket ships as they entered it. Once they had landed and an FBI officer had given the crew area a cursory search, Xavi hurried through to the passenger reception where he waited for Tyler and his `family' to appear. This was the most dangerous moment and he was very nervous, a state of mind that wasn't helped when another pilot casually mentioned that the FBI seemed to have received a tip-off and were paying extra attention to young boys.

Xavi wasn't the only one who was nervous, Vittal and Frank were amongst the first passengers into immigration and, while Frank was expected and processed quickly, Vittal was not so lucky, being questioned closely before being ordered to take a DNA test which would ascertain whether or not he was a clone. Following the instructions which Xavi had given him, the lad complained about his treatment but avoided taking things too far as he didn't want the FBI to take more interest than was necessary in his documentation. However, Frank had no such inhibitions and, having been processed already, began to harangue the official who was dealing with Vittal.

A little further down the line, Tyler had just completed his retinal scan and the official who was dealing with the `family' was just starting to explain to a very worried Allan and Claire that he was going to have the boy DNA tested, when his attention was taken by angry voices across the room. He turned to see one of his colleagues in a fierce argument with a large man who was with another young boy and, after a moment's hesitation, passed the family through and hurried over to aid his colleague, assuming that this boy was the clone that the tip-off had been about. Allan and Claire wasted no time and they and Tyler moved quickly through to the baggage retrieval before the guy could change his mind.

Although Frank couldn't be certain that the pretty boy was a clone, he strongly suspected that there was something dodgy about him and that both Xavi and Vittal were heavily involved in whatever it was. Since he owed one a favour and was rapidly falling in love with the other, it had been an easy decision for him to create a disturbance in immigration which he hoped would distract attention from Tyler. When he saw the family leave he changed his demeanour immediately, apologised for his behaviour, blaming it on tiredness from the journey and assured the officials that he would wait quietly for Vittal's test to be completed. Xavi never knew that the tip-off was nothing to do with Tyler and that the boy's arrival should coincide with it was nothing but bad luck.

Outside, a very relieved Xavi took Tyler from Allan and Claire, who were glad to be rid of him; although they were all able to laugh when the couple explained what had happened. He took the boy to his apartment and then contacted The Troll, surprised that he hadn't already received instructions for passing Tyler on to whoever was going to take him on the next stage of his journey. Xavi had another cargo lined up and expected to be away again the following morning so, when The Troll didn't answer, he left the boy in his apartment, under strict instructions to stay inside and not to answer the door and headed off to Solo's.

Sam was already there, sitting at the bar with Myra but, when Xavi asked the owner about The Troll, the man just shrugged and said that he hadn't been seen for several days. Sam and his girlfriend moved to a booth and Xavi was about to leave when Charlie walked in.

"I thought you were loading the new cargo," Xavi said.

"There isn't any," Charlie replied.

"What?"

"I unloaded the cargo and the passenger pod but the port guy said that the next cargo was cancelled by The Troll."

Xavi was puzzled; something was going on which he didn't understand and the only person who could explain it seemed to have disappeared. "I've got to get back to the apartment; I can't leave the boy on his own for too long," he explained to Charlie. "You hang around here and if you see any of The Troll's guys tell them to tell him to call me immediately. Meanwhile I'll keep trying to contact him."

He bought the big Yakonian a beer and Charlie wandered off looking for any of The Troll's associates as he'd been instructed. When the bar owner returned with Xavi's change he passed him a padded envelope at the same time with a terse, "From The Troll, for you only. Don't tell anyone else."

This was getting more bizarre by the minute. Xavi felt like he was involved in some weird noir thriller with smuggled clones, disappearing agents and mysterious packages, when all he wanted was to pass the boy to someone else, collect his new cargo and fly off to his next destination. Nevertheless, he returned to his apartment without mentioning the package to Charlie or Sam and, once there, went to his bedroom and opened it away from Tyler who was watching TV in the living room.

It contained a folded sheet of paper and two memory cards, which Xavi recognised as the type used to program the systems on a spaceship. He unfolded the paper and, to no great surprise, found it was a letter from The Troll; the contents were a surprise, however. The Troll's letter stated that he had discovered that he was under surveillance from people whom he was certain were trying to identify the client who had ordered the clone with the intent of causing him harm, although it didn't explain how he knew that. Because of the surveillance he'd been unable to finalise arrangements for Tyler's onward journey, so he'd taken the liberty of cancelling Xavi's next trip and wanted him to deliver the boy without telling anyone else, something for which he would be well rewarded financially. He knew, because Xavi had told him, that the Kestrel was still fitted with military specification sensors which allowed her crew to detect when they were being scanned while still outside the range which would allow the scanning ship to detect them. This, along with her speed, would allow Xavi to avoid being followed by those who wished the client harm.

The letter went on to explain in detail how this was to be done; Xavi was to replace the Mykheenian program card in the Kestrel's identification transponder with the ship's original one, returning her to being a Federation registered vessel. Then he was to use the supplied memory card marked `One' to load two pre-set routes into the ships navigation computer and follow the first to an unidentified point in space. Once in orbit there, he was to monitor his sensors to ensure that he remained un-scanned for twelve hours; if at any point the Kestrel was scanned he was to wait a further twelve hours before continuing. Then he was to replace the original transponder card with the supplied one marked `Two', which would give the ship another, totally new identity and then follow the second route to the rendezvous with the client.

Xavi thought that the whole thing was melodramatic and needlessly complicated but, since the technical side of it was beyond The Troll, he suspected that the client had specified this rigmarole and wondered why he was so secretive and why people would be putting so much effort into finding the guy. He was tempted to chuck the whole thing in but he suspected that The Troll had sufficient influence to make life extremely difficult for Xavi if he did and he'd also be stuck with Tyler; not an unpleasant thought but the client was obviously wealthy and probably influential and would no doubt cause him even more trouble than The Troll would. He began planning the journey and quickly realised that he wouldn't be able to take Sam with him, he couldn't leave Charlie on his own and with Tyler aboard there wouldn't be room for a fourth person as there was insufficient sleeping accommodation. This was finally the moment when he was going to part company with the lad but he still couldn't bring himself to chuck him onto the streets, so he decided to let him have use of the apartment while they were gone with the proviso that he find a job and somewhere else to stay during that time.

It was getting late, so Xavi decided to leave the details until the morning and went back to the living room to see how Tyler was doing. The boy had fallen asleep on the couch, with the TV still playing and Xavi thought he looked adorable, dressed only in T-shirt and briefs. He covered the boy with a blanket, switched off the TV and the lights and went to bed, where he tossed and turned for a couple of hours before drifting off to sleep.

Tyler woke with a start in the early hours, wondering where he was for a few moments, until he remembered that he was on Genteros, waiting to be transported to meet the man who would be his lover for the remainder of his life. He'd been prepared for this to happen for as long as he could remember but now, for the first time, he had a few misgivings. During his sexual training he'd been taught that he wouldn't experience a genuine desire for sex with a man until he'd received the final hormone shots and that he shouldn't worry if his first impressions of the client were unfavourable, as he would develop a close bond with him once they'd made love the first time. However, when he'd read the autobiographical details supplied by the donor from whose cells he had been created, Tyler discovered that the man hadn't reached puberty until he was fourteen but had developed a strong desire for men immediately after his first affair with an older boy had ended just after his twelfth birthday. Tyler was now that same age, in appearance at least and he had felt just such a sexual longing the moment he'd seen Xavi with that bulge in his pants when they first met and his desire was very specifically for the handsome pilot.

He lay on the couch and wondered how these new desires would be affected by the hormone shots and whether or not his bond with the client would erase his feelings for Xavi. He was confused, worried and needed someone to talk to but the only other person around was the man in question and he didn't feel comfortable discussing the subject with him. He didn't want to be alone, however, so he got up and went through to the bedroom, where he pulled back the duvet, noticed that Xavi was sleeping naked, stripped off and joined the man in bed.

The next time Tyler awoke, he was lying on his left side with his back against Xavi's chest; the man's arm was around him and a hard cock was pushing between his thighs just below his bum. Xavi was in that strange state of limbo, not quite asleep but not fully awake either, nuzzling the boy's neck and murmuring something about Sam when he fully came to with a loud, "Oh shit."

Tyler giggled and asked, "Is Sam your boy?"

"He used to be but not anymore," the man replied. "Sorry about that," he continued, moving his cock away from the lad. "What are you doing here anyway?"

"I woke up and didn't want to be alone in a strange place. What's the matter, don't you like me?"

Xavi recognised the concern in the boy's voice, so he hugged him close, kissed his cheek and replied, "I like you a lot, probably more than I should but you've been promised to another man and I'm afraid of what I might do if we stay naked in bed together."

The boy giggled again, reached back to get a hold of the man's still hard cock, gave it a gentle squeeze and said, "You can do whatever you want, I know I'll enjoy it."

"I didn't think you'd be ready for sex with a man until you'd had your final shots," a puzzled Xavi responded.

"The man I was cloned from was an early developer and so am I," Tyler said, before going on to explain what he'd discovered about the donor.

"I still don't think that anal sex is a good idea. Your new man has paid a lot of money for you and expects to be the first man to fuck you, while I'm being paid to deliver you safely to him."

"We can still do oral," the boy replied, "he'll want me to be good at that and practice makes perfect. Unless you'd rather get rid of this by jerking off, of course," the boy responded, giving the man's cock another gentle squeeze.

Xavi groaned and surrendered to the inevitable; the combination of Tyler's impeccable logic and his own desires had broken down the final blocks of the man's resistance and he `reluctantly' agreed to allow the boy to practise his fellatio technique.

And what a technique it turned out to be! Both Sam and Vittal were accomplished cock suckers but neither was in the same league as Tyler who, despite his tender years, had been taught well and had practised long and hard until he was as close to perfect as any boy could be. Xavi's glans was virtually sealed inside the lad's small mouth, while Tyler's tongue tantalised the man, darting around and seemingly licking every part at once. Then he relaxed his throat and took the entire seven inches effortlessly, the tight grip of his narrow gullet almost causing Xavi so shoot his load there and then; in fact it was only because Tyler pulled away at the last second that he didn't. That scenario played out several times over the next few minutes, the boy continually bringing the man to the brink of an orgasm before some sixth sense warned him to stop briefly, working on Xavi's balls for a bit and then returning to his cock once the crisis had passed.

Even a boy of Tyler's ability had to tire eventually and Xavi's climax couldn't be delayed forever, so finally the lad sucked hard on the man's cockhead and he came with a shout, filling the twelve year old sized mouth with rope after rope of thick man juice as he enjoyed his best orgasm in years, possibly the best ever.

"Holy shit!" Xavi exclaimed when he'd recovered sufficiently to speak. "If practice makes perfect, then you've obviously practised for hours. Somehow I don't think your man is going to be disappointed."

"Thanks," the boy replied, beaming with satisfaction. His instructor had told him that he was one of the best cock suckers he'd trained and he was very proud of that.

"Turn onto your back and I'll do you now," Xavi said, "Though I can't promise to give you as much pleasure as you gave me."

"Will you finger me at the same time?" the boy asked as he moved into position. "That always makes it nicer for me."

"Sure, will I get some lube?"

"Nah, spit'll be fine."

Tyler settled on his back with his left leg bent to give the man some access to his anus. Xavi knelt to the boy's right, wet a finger and began rubbing it around the lad's hole while licking his little balls in their tight, hairless scrotum. Then, after wetting the finger again, he pressed it against Tyler's pucker and felt it slip inside to be enveloped in the boy's warm interior, while he simultaneously started licking and sucking on the small but perfectly formed, slim, three inch shaft. Desperate not to be left too much in the shade by the boy's brilliance, Xavi put maximum effort into giving the lad the best experience he could. Deep-throating a three inch cock was obviously impossible but he managed to find the little lump on the front wall of Tyler's rectum which indicated the position of his immature prostate and, by gently rubbing it while he gave the boy's genitals a good working over, he was able to bring the lad to a shattering dry climax which, he assured the man once he'd recovered, was the finest he'd experienced up until now.

They rose and showered, separately to Tyler's obvious chagrin, then had breakfast before Xavi left the boy in the apartment, with the same warnings as the previous day and returned to the ship. Charlie reported that he'd been unable to locate any of The Troll's associates but Xavi told him that it didn't matter anymore as he had arranged a run starting the following day. The big Yakonian, who took little interest in what jobs they had, didn't ask what they would be doing; he trusted Xavi and simply followed wherever the man led.

Sam hadn't been seen since the previous evening, which Xavi took as an indication that he was making positive progress with his girlfriend. He called the lad and arranged to meet him at Solo's, where he explained that he'd have to remain on Genteros while Xavi and Charlie were away on a short trip. Offering Sam the use of the apartment must have really pleased him as he was extremely keen on the plan and, like Charlie, never even asked what the job was, although that was probably because he had correctly guessed what it entailed. He promised to come to the ship that afternoon, to collect enough of his gear for a few days and then rushed off to tell Myra the good news.

Xavi's next problem was how to get Tyler aboard the Kestrel without anyone else knowing. When Sam had first joined them, Xavi had passed him off as his son and had obtained false documents to back that up. However, that had taken several days to set up and he didn't have time to do something similar for Tyler, so the only solution he could think of was to smuggle the boy aboard and for that he required Charlie's assistance. He called the Yakonian, asked him to come to the apartment and told him to bring his large rucksack with him, as Xavi needed to move some equipment. When they met there, Xavi explained to both Charlie and Tyler that he needed to sneak the boy onto the Kestrel and intended to achieve that by having Charlie carry the boy aboard in his rucksack. The big Yakonian regularly carried ship's stores aboard in this manner and the port security guards, who all knew him well, always waved him through without a search. Charlie, as normal, was unfazed by this suggestion whereas Tyler, who thought of it as a game, was excited by the idea and actually looked forward to it.

They made the move in the early afternoon; although Xavi didn't consider it likely that Charlie would be searched at all, the quiet period just after lunch was the time when any possible danger would be reduced to a minimum. The boy fitted easily into the Yakonian's capacious bag and his ninety pounds were carried equally easily on Charlie's broad back. At the port gates, the security guard on duty never even left his hut, simply waving at them through the window as they passed and Tyler was safely deposited aboard the Kestrel a few minutes later.

An argument over the sleeping arrangements immediately ensued. The Kestrel's crew accommodation was designed for two people and was therefore cramped for three. Aft of the flight deck were the port and starboard access doors and behind these was a small communal area which had originally contained two reclining seats, one of which Xavi had replaced with a two seat couch when Sam had joined them. Opposite these was a wall mounted 42" TV, below which was a fold out dining table and two chairs; there was only room for two to sit at the table so the third person had to eat separately. Behind the communal area was a short corridor with a small kitchen opening off one side and an equally compact utility room on the other, into which were squeezed a washing machine, tumble dryer and freezer.

After these rooms the corridor split into two, heading at ninety degrees to the left and right. Opposite the main corridor was the entrance to the toilet/shower room and either side of this were the two sleeping cabins, each of which was entered from one of the side corridors. The cabins had originally contained small, single bunks but Xavi had replaced these with larger ones, which weren't quite full size doubles as those wouldn't have fitted but were about a bed and a half size. Charlie needed a bed this size for himself, while Xavi found his to be ideal for a man and a boy to have sex and snuggle in, although it was too small for two adults to share.

After Sam had ceased having sex with Xavi, he'd moved into the communal area and slept on the couch, even though that meant him either curling up or having his feet hang over the end. When Xavi suggested that Tyler should sleep there, the boy objected, pointed out that there was plenty of room in Xavi's bed for a small boy like him and insisted on sleeping there. The man, who naturally liked that idea, tried half-heartedly to change the lad's mind and then agreed to the revised arrangement, pointing out to a grinning Charlie that it would probably only be for two or three nights at the most.

An hour or so later, Sam arrived with a bag of his own and began packing some of his gear. If he was surprised to see Tyler aboard, he hid it well and once he'd finished he offered the boy an electronic games machine, explaining that he never used it anymore. Tyler was delighted to accept the gift and Xavi too was pleased to see Sam exhibiting a degree of generosity; that hadn't always been his strongest suit and the man hoped that it was a sign that the lad was finally maturing emotionally.

That evening Xavi left Charlie to look after the boy and headed to Solo's, on the off chance that The Troll might've come out of hiding but he was out of luck. There was no sign of Sam or his girlfriend in the bar and Xavi assumed that they were already making good use of the apartment. He stayed long enough to have a couple of drinks and took the opportunity chat to some of his fellow pilots; acquaintances that he only occasionally ran into in places like this, in various far flung parts of the galaxy. Once he was convinced that The Troll wasn't going to make an appearance, he made his excuses and left, heading back towards the port and his ship.

He'd almost reached the port entrance when he realised that in all the excitement of smuggling Tyler aboard the Kestrel, he'd forgotten his washing and shaving kit, which was still in the apartment's bathroom. Turning around he hurried back, wondering if he could sneak in and out without Sam and Myra realising that he was there and trying to think of what to say to them if he failed. He made as little noise as possible as he opened the unlocked door, crept down the hallway past the living room and bedroom and entered the bathroom, where he retrieved his belongings and retraced his footsteps. It was only then that he became aware that the apartment was totally silent. It was far too early for the young couple to be asleep, yet the door had been unlocked so they couldn't be out. Xavi gently pushed the living room door open but it was empty, although the lights were switched on; then he moved to the bedroom, opened that door and stood transfixed in horror at what he saw.

Sam was naked, lying face down on the bed, with his wrists and ankles tied to the bedposts. A pillow had been placed below his belly, pushing his arse upwards and, even from the door, Xavi could see the gaping hole that had once been the boy's puckered anus with a rivulet of dried blood running down his perineum. His head was turned to one side, so Xavi could see that the boy had been gagged and his staring eyes were proof that he was dead; the red scarf wound tightly around his neck being the obvious cause.

For several seconds, perhaps even a minute, Xavi stood and stared, his mind reeling. Who had done this and why? Was Sam the target or was someone using him to get at Xavi by killing the boy in his apartment in this manner and if so, for what reason? Where was Myra and was she involved somehow? How long would it take for the body to be discovered or had someone made an anonymous call to the police and were they already on their way? What should he do now? The correct answer to the final question was to call the police himself; he knew that he'd be a suspect and would receive some pretty tough questioning but he was innocent and had enough confidence in police forensics to know that they'd eventually rule out his involvement. Any other time that's exactly what he'd have done but at this moment, he had an illegally imported clone sitting on his spacecraft and there was no way he could keep that a secret once a homicide investigation started. He could try to claim that the clone had been on Genteros for some time but it wouldn't take the authorities long to match Tyler with the boy who'd arrived as a passenger on the Kestrel the previous day and then Xavi could expect a long stretch on a penal planet even if he wasn't guilty of murder. Much as his natural instinct was to behave as a law abiding citizen, he reluctantly crossed that option off his list.

Option two was to leave and then deny all knowledge when he returned; but how would it look if the body was discovered and he was shown to have changed his ship's ID and headed off into Federation Space on some unknown route? That would be like writing a signed confession and he dismissed the idea immediately. The third option seemed to be the dumbest but the more he thought about it, the more he came to realise that it was the only one that gave him a chance of avoiding a conviction for either clone smuggling or murder. It would only work if the police didn't turn up within the next hour but his brain was starting to work again and now he was fairly sure that Sam had been killed for something that he had been involved with, not Xavi but in a place and style that would put his ex-lover in the frame. For that to work best the murderer would want Xavi to depart in the morning and it was therefore unlikely that the authorities had been tipped-off yet.

He called Charlie, told him that they had forgotten some equipment and asked him to bring his large bag to the apartment. While he waited for the Yakonian to arrive, he untied the body, removed the gag and ligature and placed Sam into a foetal position. The corpse was cool, not cold but Xavi had no idea how long it would take before rigor mortis set in and he didn't want to have to mutilate Sam in order to fit the boy's remains into Charlie's rucksack. He found a couple of large black bags and, by sliding one over Sam's head and the other over his feet he was able to completely cover the body.

When Charlie arrived, Xavi explained what he had discovered, what he intended to do and why. He gave the Yakonian the option of backing-out but Charlie had complete faith in the man who was both his captain and his friend and readily agreed to help. After something of a struggle they managed to squeeze the shrouded corpse into the bag, Sam proving to be a tighter fit than Tyler had been earlier that day. He was also considerably heavier, at nearly a hundred and forty pounds and Charlie had to strain a bit to hoist the rucksack onto his back, although he seemed to be comfortable enough once it was there. They left the apartment, locking the door behind them and set off for the port, stopping twice en-route to allow Charlie to rest the load. Unlike the early afternoon, this time the security guard stopped them and checked their ID but he had no reason to suspect that there was anything amiss and didn't bother to look inside the Yakonian's bag.

Finally they arrived aboard the Kestrel where, for the second consecutive night, Xavi found Tyler sleeping on the couch with the TV still on. Leaving the boy to his dreams, they went to the utility room and opened the deep freeze. It had a large, hinged door on top and was divided into three compartments each of which had a basket above it. Fortunately, thanks to their recent long trip, the freezer was less than half full and they were able to empty one of the bottom compartments, place Sam's body into it and then hide it under a basket of frozen vegetables. After they had taken off, the chance of Tyler, or anyone else, discovering the corpse in the next few days was remote and there would be plenty of time to arrange a fitting send off for the boy once the mission had been completed.

With their macabre task completed, Charlie went to his cabin, while Xavi headed for the communal area where he switched off the TV, picked up the sleeping boy and took him to his own cabin. Once there, he stripped the boy and himself down to their briefs, climbed into bed and then, with Tyler spooned in front of him, tried but failed to fall asleep.

His brain was in overdrive again, trying to work out why anyone would want to kill a boy as harmless as Sam. The more he considered the problem the more convinced he became that it involved Tyler or, to be more precise, the client who had ordered him. The Troll believed that he was being followed by people who wished to find the man and do him harm and, if this surveillance had been going on as far back as his meeting with Xavi to agree the contract, then it was likely that these people would also have been keeping tabs on the Kestrel's crew. Xavi's eyes opened wide and his mouth gaped as realisation dawned; something else had happened on that night. Sam had tried to chat-up Myra but had been rebuffed; it was only after the meeting that he had been successful; therefore it was probable that she was part of the operation and had been using the unsuspecting boy for inside information on the Kestrel's movements. That would explain why the lad appeared to be making headway with a woman who was out of his league and Xavi had been correct in his suspicion that she was stringing him along.

With Sam being left behind on Genteros, his usefulness was at an end but that didn't justify killing him; there had to be more to it, the boy must have had some knowledge that could upset the plans of these people and for which he had to be silenced but Xavi couldn't think what that could be. Finally tiredness overcame him and he drifted off to sleep wondering why the fuck he was going to all this effort to deliver the most beautiful boy he'd ever met into the arms of a man who was the cause of so much trouble.

 

FOUR

 

"Foxtrot Five Seven One Four, you're clear for take-off," the controller said before adding, in a far less professional manner, "What's up Xavi, how come you're using your Federation call sign today?"

"Sorry Bill, I can't give you any details. Let's just say that someone with more money than sense is paying a premium for a personal delivery."

"Roger that Xavi, I'm looking forward sharing in your good fortune in the bar when you get back." The Kestrel lifted off and moved forward, before raising her nose skywards and thundering up into space.

Earlier that morning Xavi had gone to the end of the corridor outside his cabin, opened the bulkhead door and entered the ship's left hand electrical equipment centre. Outside of the crew accommodation area, the carpeted floors and tiled walls, gave way to a stark, metal grilled walkway and the inner hull was almost visible behind the grey insulation blankets. On each side of the walkway were five racks of electronic boxes and, halfway down on the right hand side, Xavi stopped and opened the hinged panel on the front of one of them, the ship's identification transponder. He removed the memory card which gave the Kestrel her Mykheenian identity and replaced it with the one he kept in the safe in his cabin, returning the ship to her original, Federation identity. Then he had gone to the flight deck and put the first of the cards that The Troll had given him into the ship's data loader and added the two new routes to her navigation computer's database.

Once the Kestrel was out of the Genteros atmosphere Xavi engaged the autopilot, the ship accelerated to super-light speed and followed the first of the pre-set routes programmed by the memory card. Before too long it became clear that they weren't on a direct course, the ship travelling from star system to star system, in an apparently random way. By the end of the day they had passed through, or close to, seven systems but were only about six hours in a direct line from their starting point. The ship began to orbit the small satellite of an uninhabited planet in an obscure star system and the navigation computer indicated that they had reached the end of the programmed route. Xavi set his sensor system to give an audible alarm if the ship was scanned and joined Charlie and Tyler in the crew accommodation.

The boy had been in the huff first thing that morning, when he awoke to find himself alone in Xavi's bed. He'd fallen asleep on the couch so the man must've brought him here and undressed him and, to begin with, he thought Xavi had slept elsewhere. Later he'd discovered that they had actually slept together but that the man had risen before he woke up and he was annoyed that they'd shared a bed all night but nothing sexual had taken place; he would soon be the property of another man and wanted to have as much fun with the handsome pilot as he could before they were parted. By evening his usual good humour had returned and, when Xavi explained that they had a wait of at least twelve hours ahead of them, he was determined that they should make the most of it.

Following their evening meal Tyler suggested an early night but didn't seem too perturbed when Xavi demurred, explaining that it was a little too early for him. Instead they settled down to watch a movie, Charlie on the reclining chair and the other two on the couch. Tyler, who'd stripped down to T-shirt and briefs, immediately snuggled up to the man who instinctively placed his left arm around the boy's shoulders while he in turn rested his right hand on the man's left thigh. Young boys tend to be restless and Tyler was no exception; after a few minutes he half-turned towards Xavi and exchanged hands, the new angle allowing him caress the lightly muscled leg more easily, each stroke bringing his hand closer to the man's groin. Xavi tried not to grin too broadly as he allowed the boy to proceed with his `subtle' seduction and, when the small hand finally reached its intended target, the hardness it discovered there indicated that the man was enjoying himself as much as Tyler was.

The boy's nimble little fingers quickly unfastened and opened Xavi's trousers and released his throbbing cock, which was already leaking pre-cum in eager anticipation of what was about to occur. "Yum-yum," Tyler thought to himself as he licked up the slippery, slightly sweet substance, a taste to which he was starting to become addicted. The teenager he'd been involved with on Mykheen hadn't produced much of it and he hoped that his new man would be more like Xavi in that regard. As he stroked the man's cock, in preparation for going down on him, it occurred to him that it was almost the same size as the largest phallus he'd used orally and that meant that it was larger than his new man's would be. Size hadn't been an issue for him before, he'd gradually moved up in size with the artificial cocks, the teen boy had been bigger than he was and Xavi larger again; the idea that his new man would be smaller now disappointed him and, not for the first time, he wished that he could stay with Xavi and become his boy permanently.

He set about giving the man oral pleasure, repeating much of what he had done on the previous occasion and being rewarded with his lover's ecstatic groans. During the blow job he raised his eyes and saw Charlie watching them and rubbing the huge lump in his groin; despite being straight, the sight of the cute boy slurping on a man's cock and taking it fully into his throat was a turn on for the big Yakonian and Tyler would be his wank fantasy that night whatever his sexuality might be. For his part the boy wondered if Charlie was as large as rumour claimed his species to be; although he liked the guy, he didn't find him sexually attractive and decided that twelve inches was just too big; he wasn't that much of a size queen, not yet anyway.

Just as before, Tyler's natural ability and something like a sixth sense, allowed him to bring Xavi to the brink of orgasm time after time and then back off before the man actually climaxed. The boy was concentrating on the task at hand, the man had his head back, eyes closed and was thinking that he must've died and gone to heaven, while Charlie was staring at the erotic scene being played out in front of him and thinking that he better disappear for a wank before he made an embarrassing mess in his pants. No-one was paying the slightest attention to the movie!

Finally Tyler started to tire and brought proceedings to a close, bobbing up and down the next time Xavi's climax approached and pushing him over the edge into another mind blowing orgasm. The boy swallowed most of the thick, salty goo but kept some in his mouth as he scrambled onto the man's lap and shared a cummy kiss with him. As they kissed, with Xavi fondling the boy's buttocks through the fabric of his briefs, the man wondered how much of Tyler's personality and sexuality was natural, i.e. inherited from the donor and how much was due to genetic engineering. In his limited experience of human boys, as opposed to young Pardani men, he'd found that they tended not to enjoy kissing, whereas Tyler seemed to take great pleasure from the act. The donor had also been described as `a passive, gay bottom' and, although he was in no doubt that the boy was a gay bottom, he couldn't really be described as `passive', which suggested that some of his personality at least had been engineered to meet the client's specifications. He knew that the boy couldn't be a hundred per cent natural but he was close to perfect the way he was and the idea that his personality might be radically altered by the final hormone shots troubled Xavi. Soon, probably tomorrow, he'd be handing the boy and those shots over to the man who'd paid for him to be created and who would be his lover for the remainder of his life; he just hoped that the guy appreciated what he was getting.

The unwatched movie was switched off and an early night was taken after all; the man slinging the giggling boy over his shoulder as he headed for his cabin, while Charlie grabbed a box of tissues on the way to his. Xavi tossed Tyler onto the bunk on his back, where he bounced once, then sat up and peeled his T-shirt off; he was about to do the same with his briefs when the man stopped him, "Leave them on," he said, "I want to finish stripping you." The boy obeyed immediately, lying back with his hands behind his head, resting on a pillow and his legs spread apart; it appeared that the passive aspect of his personality wasn't too far beneath the surface.

Xavi undressed, climbed onto the bed and moved over the boy, bringing their lips together and kissing him, gently to begin with and then more forcefully. His tongue pushed into Tyler's accepting mouth, rubbing its smaller counterpart before retreating and allowing the boy mirror the act. Then he planted soft kisses on the lad's face, moving around his jaw and nibbling on one of his ear lobes before dropping down to his neck and chest. He kissed the hollow at the base of Tyler's neck and then continued down until he reached the boy's small, dark nipples. He licked and sucked on the left one before switching to the other, while his right hand tweaked and rubbed the first, eliciting some very welcome gasps and moans from their owner. Xavi then gave each of the lad's armpits some oral attention which produced more giggles from Tyler, while the man revelled in the incredible, pheromone induced aroma of sexually aroused boy.

Xavi enjoyed a second helping of boy nipples, before continuing southwards across the lad's smooth belly, pausing to tongue his cute, innie navel on the way; he nuzzled the lad's small but hard package, rubbing his nose against the front of his briefs and then mouthing his shaft through the fabric. Tyler thrust his groin up into Xavi's face, silently demanding that the man take care of his needs, which he meant to do, of course but in his own good time. Finally he lifted the front of the lad's briefs and peeled them down, releasing the three inch boy cock which stood upright, seemingly pleading for attention.

"Turn over," Xavi said, as he fully removed the tiny garment, leaving the boy completely naked.

"Why?" the boy whined, wanting only to be sucked to orgasm as quickly as possible.

"Do as you're told and you'll find out," the man replied cryptically and Tyler obeyed with alacrity, the commanding nature of the man's order producing an automatic, submissive response from the boy. He turned around and then lay down on a pillow, which Xavi positioned lengthways beneath him, leaving his perfect little bum exposed to the man's admiring gaze. He then spread the boy's cheeks, licked his perineum and continued up through his cleft, pausing to give his puckered anus a little extra attention as he did so.

Tyler squirmed and moaned with pleasure; he'd seen rimming on screen and had discussed the technique with his instructor; he and his teenage friend had even practised together a little but nothing had prepared him for the reality of having his hole tongued by someone who knew what he was doing. Short of being fucked, this was the greatest pleasure a little gay bottom boy could experience and Tyler nearly climaxed there and then. Xavi licked around the boy's sensitive hole then kissed and sucked it before prodding his tongue at the tight entrance. The lad instinctively tensed, making entry more difficult but he was no stranger to penetration and quickly relaxed again, allowing the man's oral muscle to push past his anal one. Tyler gripped the sheets tightly in his fists and buried his face in the bed to try and stifle his ecstatic, uncontrolled moans and groans; he wasn't normally so vocal and was a little embarrassed to be making so much noise now.

Xavi continued to rim the boy for several minutes then, when his tongue began to tire and ache a little, he pulled out, got the lad onto his knees, removed the pillow and lay face up below Tyler's still hard three inch cocklet. Next he pulled the boy down, taking the little shaft into his mouth and, reaching around, pushed a spit slicked digit into the lad's hole, placing the pad of the finger-tip against his small prostate. Xavi paused in that position but Tyler understood what was required and began to hump into the man's mouth, pushing his arse against the invading finger each time he pulled back and providing himself with two points of pleasure. The boy was in charge now, it was up to him to set the pace and how long this lasted would be determined by how fast and hard he humped and whether or not he had enough self-control to pause when he felt his orgasm approaching. It was one thing to be able to pause when performing fellatio and it was someone else's climax he was delaying; it was an altogether different matter being asked to delay his own.

He did remarkably well, given his apparent age and level of experience. Three times the feelings built in his lower body and on each of those occasions he forced himself to stop for a few moments before continuing but the fourth time they came more quickly and, despite his best intentions, he found himself picking up the pace rather than slowing down until his climax hit like a sledgehammer and he enjoyed another thundering boygasm, one which was even better than his first time with Xavi. When the boy had recovered a little he raised himself up, allowing the man to move up the bed until his head was resting on the pillow and then lay down on top of him, his head on Xavi's right shoulder and a pair of strong arms wrapped around his slender body.

They fell asleep in that position and neither could've moved much during the night because, when Xavi woke in the morning, the only changes were that the boy's head was now on his other shoulder while his right hand had slipped down and was cupping the lad's cute bum cheeks. It was very tempting to start again but he had an important task to carry out, so he reluctantly turned and lay Tyler on the bed before getting up to shower and dress.

The first thing Xavi checked when he entered the flight deck was his sensor equipment. There hadn't been any warnings overnight but he double checked the scan history and was pleased to see that it was blank, even though another twelve hours with Tyler wouldn't have been too onerous an experience. Once he was satisfied that he'd carried out his instructions to the letter, he switched cards in the transponder again then activated the second route with which he'd been provided, engaged the autopilot and the Kestrel moved out of orbit and began the final leg of the journey.

This time the ship followed a more direct path taking them beyond Earth, towards the area of Federation Space furthest from Genteros. As on the previous day, they finished up in orbit around a small moon; this time, however, the navigation computer did not indicate that the route had been completed and, after a couple of orbits, a message came through instructing him to land and a beacon activated on the moon's surface. Xavi took manual control and descended towards the beacon, which he saw when they got lower marked one of two landing pads that appeared to be part of an abandoned mining facility. He landed on one of them, designated Landing Pad Two he noticed, and immediately an air bridge extended out and locked onto the hull outside the starboard access door which Xavi then opened.

Leaving Charlie to keep an eye on the ship, he and Tyler crossed to the main building, which clearly had power and light and was therefore not as deserted as it had first appeared. A voice came over the address system and told them to follow the lights; one corridor was illuminated while the others were in darkness so they followed it until they came to a junction. The corridor in front of them was now dark while that to the right was lit, so they turned in that direction until they came to an illuminated stairwell which took them up four flights and into what had clearly been the facility's control room. Xavi found himself face to face with a man who was at least sixty years old and looked vaguely familiar. Given that he'd been told that the Mykheenians didn't approve of a client more that forty years older than the clone, he was surprised that the man was so old and, when he took a quick glance over to Tyler, he saw a look of disappointment on the boy's face. At that moment he realised the importance of the final part of the hormone treatment; once Tyler had completed the course and had sex with the man, he would develop a strong bond with him and the man's age and looks would become irrelevant.

"Xavier Martinez," Xavi held out his hand as he introduced himself.

"Robert Wilson," the man replied, shaking Xavi's hand. The name meant nothing to him but Xavi couldn't get rid of the nagging thought that he'd seen this guy before, he just couldn't think where. "And you of course are Tyler," the man continued, smiling at the boy and stroking his cheek.

Tyler swallowed whatever disappointment he felt, smiled back and said, "Hi, Mr Wilson."

"There's no need to be so formal," the man replied, laughing. "Please call me Rob."

"OK Rob," Tyler responded and Xavi felt a little better about the situation as the ice broke.

"Honey, why don't you take a look around while Mr Martinez and I complete our business," the man said to Tyler and Xavi felt a pang of jealousy at the use of the endearment.

"Why all the secrecy and the rigmarole about getting here?" Xavi asked once the boy had left the room. "You do look a little familiar, have we met before?"

The man laughed, "I don't think we've met but you have a good memory for faces; I had my fifteen minutes of fame a few years back."

The light dawned for Xavi, "You're Zachary Thornton, the guy who represented the Cyrthinn refugees at the peace talks and then disappeared."

"Correct, that's the name I was known by then. I've had a few over the years and my current one won't last much longer, that's why I don't mind you knowing it. As for the secrecy, well the Cyrthinnians have long memories and they still have an assassination squad looking for me."

"Because you betrayed them?"

"The situation back then was much more complicated than people realise. The Federation authorities publicly supported giving the colony back to its inhabitants but I discovered that they were secretly planning to take it over themselves. The Alliance was bitterly opposed to any Federation expansion into Free Space and its negotiators were even prepared to let the Qardosians keep Cyrthinn in order to maintain a buffer. I secretly passed what I knew to the Mykheenians and their proposal for a neutral zone kept the colony out of the hands of both the Federation and the Empire and keeps alive the possibility of the inhabitants returning at a later date."

"Why didn't you tell people that?"

"The Cyrthinnians might be trying to kill me but if I'd revealed the Federation's plan their agents would certainly have succeeded; it was simply a matter of survival. The Mykheenians rewarded me financially for the information and I've kept my head down ever since."

"Is it all worth it, to live in a place like this?"

"I don't live here," the man replied. "This is merely a useful place for surreptitious meetings. In my dealings with the Mykheenians, I discovered their tourism plans for their clones and that they were going to allow humans to register ships on their planet. I invested heavily in passenger shipping stocks, made a fortune and now have a very nice, secure little hideaway."

"If you don't mind me saying, you're a fair bit older than I would've expected a client to be for a clone of Tyler's age."

"I wasn't totally honest with the Mykheenians; I still have contacts there and, if I'd used my real identity, I could probably have obtained a discount on an older clone which appeared to be the same age as Tyler. The problem is that he'd be experienced, not `virginal' the way Tyler is and, since personal clones bond with their man and don't have any other relationships, there aren't any second hand ones available. The only way I could get an older clone would be to accept one that had previously been a sex worker and I didn't really fancy that idea, so I used an alias to get a new, unspoilt one."

"I'm just a little concerned about Tyler's future, I've grown quite fond of him over the past few days."

"I'm pleased that you're looking out for him but I've already put plans in place to take care of his future. I'm fortunate to live in a place where it's acceptable to have young boys as lovers and over the past twelve years I've had three of them. Each of them was my boy from the age of eleven through fourteen before being replaced by the next. The eldest is twenty three; I put him through university on Earth and he's now my personal assistant. The second is nineteen and currently at university; when he graduates he will become my assistant while the first will be ready to make his way in the galaxy, with a degree, a good reference and a substantial number of Credits in his wallet; not bad for a boy who came to me as a poverty stricken, eleven year old waif. The third is fifteen and, in time, he will follow in the footsteps of the other two.

"As I get older, I'm finding it more difficult to obtain suitable, willing boys; hence my decision to splash out on a clone this time. Tyler will be my last lover; he'll see me to my grave but, as he'll never reach adulthood I've made different arrangements for him. I intend to adopt him, he'll be my son and heir, when I die everything I have will become his; in fact, I've already altered my will to that effect."

Xavi was about to point out that it was Tyler's emotional wellbeing that concerned him, not his financial situation but he never got the opportunity; a huge explosion rocked the building and Xavi was thrown to the floor. When he looked up, the man was pointing at a screen, "My God, that was your ship!" he exclaimed.

Xavi followed the outstretched finger and saw the smoking remains of the Kestrel strewn across the landing pad. "Charlie!" he screamed, his first thoughts being for his friend and crewmate rather than his property; the one could be replaced, the other most certainly couldn't. He climbed back to his feet but at that moment a second explosion killed the lights in the control room; debris rained down, a piece of which caught Xavi a glancing blow to the head and he slumped back to the floor, unconscious.

When he came to, the control room was lit by emergency lighting and he could see that Thornton had been tied to a chair and appeared to be unconscious. There were five other people in the room now, all armed with hand weapons; four were men that he didn't know, two of whom were setting up what appeared to be a camera on a tripod which they pointed at Thornton. The other was a platinum blonde woman and this one he did recognise, "Myra," he said and she turned to look at him.

"Sit still and shut up," she told him tersely, pointing her weapon at him. "If you speak again without permission I'll kill you, understand?"

He nodded and kept silent as she turned back to Thornton. "Wake him up," she said and one of her colleagues slapped the man none too gently until he came to. "Zachary Thornton, the People's Court of Cyrthinn has tried you in your absence and found you guilty of high treason. The penalty for that offence is death and it is the duty of this armed service unit to carry out that sentence. Do you have any last words?"

"Look, you've got it all wrong. I saved your planet from subjugation, you've still got the chance to get it back, thanks to my actions," the man pleaded desperately.

"Don't waste your breath. If you wanted to justify your actions you could've done so publicly years ago; by disappearing you surrendered the right to give evidence. The court has already found you guilty and passed sentence, this is merely an opportunity for you to make peace with your conscience."

"Just get it over with," Thornton replied resignedly, slumping back into his seat.

"Very well," Myra stepped back, aimed her weapon and fired a brief, high energy beam into her helpless victim, snuffing out his life in an instant. After confirming that the man was dead, she turned and said something that Xavi couldn't hear to two of her colleagues, who then left the room, while the other two were dismantling the camera equipment which had recorded the `execution' for posterity. Finally she turned her attention to him. "Tell me why you shouldn't be next?" she asked.

"All I'm guilty of is clone smuggling. The last time I checked that wasn't a capital offence; I don't think your so called People's Court would sentence me to death for that."

"It might consider aiding and abetting a fugitive convicted of treason to be treasonable in itself."

"Until a few minutes ago I had no idea who the client was, so I don't think you can make that charge stick; unless of course what you claim to represent is nothing more than a jumped up `kangaroo court'."

"Your ignorance is the only reason you're still alive," she snapped back, "although you might come to regret that."

"How did you find Thornton after all this time?" Xavi asked, deciding that a change of subject was a good idea.

"We have a website dedicated to finding him and people pass on information and sightings all the time. Most of them are false or out of date but about six months ago we received information that Thornton was using The Troll as an agent in order to buy a clone from Mykheen. We put The Troll under surveillance and checked out anyone who had dealings with him that looked suspicious; your meeting in the bar fell under that category and it was simple to seduce Sam into spilling all he knew. Our biggest concern was that we didn't know who was going to carry the clone from Genteros to the rendezvous, so we deliberately allowed The Troll to discover that he was being watched and he immediately went into hiding and did exactly what we expected him to do; he used you for that task as you already had possession of the boy. All we had to do was follow you here and hope that Thornton would turn up in person. It might've got a bit messy if he'd sent someone else and we'd had to extract Thornton's location from them but we were prepared for that."

"How did you track us? We weren't being scanned as far as I could tell."

"We didn't have to scan you to know where you were," she responded smugly. "You were good enough to take a sub-space transmitter aboard and we simply followed its signal."

"A transmitter? How?"

"That foolish boy, Sam, gave it to the clone; it was inside a games machine. Unfortunately he overheard me discussing our plans for Thornton with one of my colleagues afterwards and threatened to tell you, so I'm afraid we had to silence him."

"You murdering bitch!" Xavi exclaimed, trying to sound surprised. He didn't know whether it mattered or not but he didn't want her to know that he'd discovered and moved the boy's body. She'd obviously left the corpse in his apartment in order to frame him and divert attention from herself and, knowing that he'd foiled one of her plans without her knowledge, boosted his confidence that he could do so again.

"It wasn't personal, I assure you," she replied. "It was necessary, in the interests of operational security."

"What about Charlie, was killing him an operational necessity too?"

"I don't understand."

"Charlie was my friend, he was aboard the Kestrel when you blew her to bits."

"I'm genuinely sorry about that but it's standard operating procedure to take out the enemy's ship prior to an attack, to prevent any escape. I didn't realise that anyone was aboard."

"Your contrition is touching," Xavi said, sarcastically, "but that won't bring him back."

"Enough of this, I think you should be more concerned with the future than the past."

"What do you have planned for me?"

"I know you like boys, so I intend to leave you here with the clone. I'm sure the two of you will have lots of fun together over the coming years."

"I take it that's what you meant by me coming to regret still being alive."

"Exactly, I would imagine that the boy's charms will wane after you've been stuck here for a while. You might well come to prefer the idea of death but, if so, you'll have to take care of it yourself."

At that moment the two men who'd been out of the control room returned and one of them said, "Thirty minutes," to Myra.

She nodded and turned back to Xavi. "I'd love to stay and chat but we've got to be going. I'm sorry I missed that cute boy and, whether you believe it or not, I really am sorry about your friend. Goodbye Xavi." With that, she and her four colleagues left the control room and headed back to their ship.

When Rob, as he knew him, had suggested that he take a look around, Tyler had agreed and left the control room but he didn't take in the sights, instead he started thinking. His first impression of the man had not been favourable at all, although he'd done his best to hide his disappointment. He just hoped that the hormone shots would make him desire the man but he couldn't see how they could erase his love for Xavi; and by now he was certain that he did love him. He had just entered what seemed to be a conference room, walking with hands in pockets, head lowered, deep in thought, when the first explosion rocked the facility. Like Xavi he had been thrown to the floor and some instinct made him scramble under the large table which dominated the room. Following the second blast, which had been caused by a shot aimed at the communications antennae on the roof, the ceiling had collapsed; the table had protected the boy, preventing him from suffering any injury but the debris had piled up around him and he found himself trapped.

Fortunately there was nothing especially large or heavy amongst the debris and neither was it piled very deeply, so Tyler was able to pick his way out from under it, piece by piece. He had just climbed out and was brushing himself down when he heard footsteps in the corridor outside and the strange voices of two unknown men. Deciding that discretion was the better part of valour, he scrambled back into his erstwhile trap, now his hiding place.

"In here will do," one of the voices said and the two men entered the room where the boy was hiding. There was a gap through which Tyler could observe the men and he could see that they were carrying what appeared to be a wooden case, which they laid down on the floor. One of them bent over it and the boy heard the electronic beeping noises which he associated with someone pressing the buttons on a keypad. After a few moments the man stood up and said, "OK, it's done. Let's get the fuck out of here." The two men turned and hurried out of the room and up the corridor.

Tyler came out from under the table and brushed himself down a second time; he then walked over to the case and looked into it curiously. Inside was a silvery grey, metal cylinder about three feet long and a foot in diameter, with a keypad and electronic display on top; the display showed 28:52 and was counting down in seconds. It didn't take a genius to work out that it was some sort of bomb or, that with under thirty minutes remaining, the two men would be planning on leaving the facility sooner rather than later.

The boy trotted after the men, in the direction of the control room, only slowing up when he approached it and heard a female voice coming from within. He retreated into a nearby doorway and peered around the corner, just in time to see a woman and four men, including the two he'd seen earlier, leave the control room and walk rapidly downstairs. Once they were out of view, he hurried into the control room and pulled up short at the sight of Thornton slumped in a chair to which he was tied and obviously dead. He was oddly unmoved at that but, seeing Xavi sitting on the floor with his head in his hands and clearly distressed, affected him deeply and he rushed over to hug the man.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"Charlie's dead," Xavi replied. "That bitch Myra and her boys destroyed the Kestrel with him aboard."

"I'm sorry about Charlie but we've got to get out of here, there's a bomb back there," Tyler said, pointing towards the door.

"What?"

"A bomb, I saw two men arm it and there's less than thirty minutes left."

"Shit. All that talk she gave about us being marooned here for years was a smokescreen, she was just lulling me into allowing them to leave without a fight. Come on, show me; maybe I can do something with it."

The timer was down to twenty two minutes on what Xavi recognised as a small, thermonuclear device; a tactical weapon designed to be dropped by fighters onto large concentrations of troops. During his training he'd been briefed on the properties of this type of device and knew that `small' was a relative term, it was still powerful enough to vaporise the entire facility. He was aware that if this were fiction, he would either guess the correct code to deactivate it or else he'd find a screwdriver and wire-cutters, remove a convenient access panel and, faced with a red and blue wire, cut the correct one stopping the timer with one second remaining. This was real life, however and he knew that the odds against him correctly guessing the code were astronomical, plus there was neither a screwdriver to hand nor an access panel to be seen and he doubted that there would be a red or blue wire waiting to be cut even if he did manage to get into the device. Instead he grabbed Tyler by the hand and they raced downstairs and turned towards the landing pads, just as the roar of its engines signalled the departure of the Cyrthinnian ship from Landing Pad Three.

"Now what do we do?" the boy asked. "Should we start running away?"

"There's no point, we wouldn't get anywhere near far enough away by the time that thing goes off."

"Isn't there another ship?"

"I doubt it, this place looks like it was abandoned years ago. Thornton only used it for . . ." he stopped in mid-sentence.

"What's up?"

Xavi seemed to have several thoughts at once; how had Thornton arrived here and how was he planning to depart? Unless someone else had dropped him off and was going to return and collect him, he must have a ship somewhere close by, but where? Xavi looked through the observation window at the remains of the Kestrel, spread across Landing Pad Two, Myra's ship had just departed from Landing Pad Three, where was Landing Pad One? Xavi hadn't considered that before and neither had Myra, seemingly; it was possibly her first major mistake, if only he could take advantage of it. There was a map of the facility on the wall, with an arrow pointing to a spot marked `You Are Here'. According to the map, the main corridor continued ahead of them, up a long spur of the building between Landing Pads Two and Three; behind them it went back past the turn-off to the main stairwell and into a smaller spur, at the end of which was an area annotated Landing Pad One.

"Come on, run," he shouted, grabbing the boy by the hand again and hurrying back the way they had come. They continued past the turn-off for the control room and a few moments later they arrived in a small passenger reception area where they paused briefly; obviously this had been the place through which the facility's workforce had arrived and departed, whereas the other two, much larger landing pads had been for the big transporters which had taken away whatever had been mined here. Xavi looked around until he spotted a door in the corner marked, `Restricted Area. Pass Holders Only'. "This way," he said and hustled Tyler through the door and into a hangar. In front of them was a small, two seat starship; an ex-military trainer and, in fact, just the kind of vehicle that Xavi had trained in over a decade earlier.

The ship was based on a single seat fighter and the front cockpit of the trainer was identical to that of its sister craft. The rear cockpit had been designed for an instructor, who could monitor the performance of the student but also simulate problems such as engine failure or loss of control due to battle damage. Xavi pushed Tyler into the rear seat, strapped him in and showed him how to operate the intercom, admonishing the boy not to touch anything else; he had no idea how much of the original equipment was still active and the last thing he needed was a simulated engine failure on take-off. He jumped into the front cockpit and familiarised himself with the controls; it might've been more than ten years since he'd last sat in one of these ships but the memories came flooding back and he quickly ran through the pre-flight checks, and started the engines. Then he looked up and found the closed hangar doors in front of his eyes.

Normally ground controllers would open the doors and for a few seconds Xavi cursed himself for not opening them before they got into the ship but then realised that wouldn't have been possible as the moon had no atmosphere and the hangar was pressurised. Thornton must've had a method of opening them from the ship and Xavi looked around the cockpit frantically, trying but failing to find a device to do that. Eventually he remembered the personal equipment locker by his right foot, opened it and found a numbers of items inside, including a hand weapon, a tablet and what looked like a remote control. He grabbed the remote, pointed it at the doors and pressed the button. For several, heart wrenching seconds nothing appeared to happen, as the air in the hangar was evacuated in order to equalise the pressures; then, finally, the doors started to open at what seemed to Xavi to be an incredibly slow rate. Eventually they reached the fully open position and he lifted the ship off the floor, advanced the throttles slightly and flew outside; once out of the hangar he raised the nose, opened the throttles to the take-off position and the ship rocketed upwards, moving swiftly away from the moon. As they went, Xavi was aware of a bright flash in his peripheral vision but they were already too far away to feel any of the blast from the nuclear explosion.

He settled the ship in a high orbit while he considered his options but, before he could give much thought to what to do next, a warbling noise in his headset indicated that the ship's sensors had detected a scanning beam. He was about to take evasive action but stopped as he recognised the sound as a caution rather than a threat warning, this ship had advanced stealth technology which made detection by anything other than the latest military systems almost impossible. He activated the long range camera and locked it onto the source of the beam; the Cyrthinnian ship appeared on his screen, in a lower orbit and scanning the surface of the moon; to ensure that here were no survivors presumably, as if anyone could survive a nuclear blast at that range.

A quiet rage came over Xavi; these people had murdered Charlie and Sam in cold blood and had tried to kill Tyler and him too; Thornton's `execution' hardly seemed to matter in the circumstances. His right hand was holding the control joystick and his thumb went to the weapons switch on top, flicked open the guard and selected `armed' without any conscious thought from Xavi. He started slightly when a target indicator appeared on the screen, superimposed over the Cyrthinnian ship, he hadn't really expected the weapons to still be operational but the glowing green indicator suggested that they were both operational and ready to fire. He paused for a second or two and then his training took over; he pressed the trigger, firing a two second burst during which the high-power laser cannon released twenty pulses. Unlike in science fiction, the laser was invisible in the vacuum of space but the Cyrthinnian ship appeared to glow and expand slightly as it absorbed incredibly high energy of the photon pulses, before it blew to pieces in a bright but silent explosion. The only regret Xavi felt was that her crew had died instantly, without ever knowing that they were being punished for their actions.

"Wow, that was awesome," an excited Tyler yelled over the intercom. "Can we blow-up something else?" Only a young boy could've witnessed so much killing in such a brief period and considered it to be a game.

"No, that's enough death and destruction for one lifetime," Xavi replied. "I have to work out where we're going to go now. This ship is incredibly fast, much faster even than the Kestrel but she also has a more limited range and I doubt if we could get all the way to Genteros without refuelling unless we travelled at sub-light speed. We might have problems if we try to refuel; this isn't our ship and most places check registrations. As for going slowly, it would take us several thousand years to get there if we remained below light speed."

"Who wants to go to Genteros?" the boy asked and the man had to admit that it was a good question.

He checked the fuel level and was pleased to see that the tanks were seven eighths full; Thornton must've filled up as close to the rendezvous as he could. Next Xavi scrolled through the pre-set routes in the navigation computer; one of them was simply annotated `home' and he assumed that it would take them to wherever Thornton was based and that the ship would have sufficient range to get them there. "What the hell," he muttered to himself, selected that route and engaged the autopilot; the ship accelerated rapidly to ultra-light speed and raced towards her destination.

 

FIVE

 

They were already in the area of Federation Space furthest from Genteros and, at the speed they were travelling, it only took another two hours to reach its edge. At this point the end of Federation Space coincided with the edge of the galaxy; it truly was the final frontier, with millions of light years of nothing stretching out before the next galaxy would be reached. The ship slowed and Xavi noticed that they were being scanned by a drone; it probably couldn't detect them directly but the ship's transponder replied automatically to the drone's coded interrogation and the reply must've been satisfactory because it moved away and allowed them to continue. One last star system remained in front of them and, checking his chart, Xavi was surprised to see that they were approaching Djimeria which, since the loss of Cyrthinn, contained the only human colony not to be part of the Federation. He knew very little about the place; only that it was a restricted area and that the people prized their privacy.

He entered the name into the computer and a brief summary appeared on the screen. Djimeria had been an early human colony, its first settlers having come as far from earth as they could in this direction. The star was fairly small and its only planet was about the same size as the Earth's moon but its high density gave it a gravity of 0.97g and it had an atmosphere very similar to that of earth. Like Genteros, the planet Djimeria was nearly all ocean but this one was saline rather than alkaline and, instead of a single land mass, it contained two hundred and thirty seven small, inhabited islands. The climate was warm and fairly dry, average daytime temperatures ranging from 25 to 30°C with sunshine almost guaranteed 85% of the time. The planet was `owned' by a company set up by the original colonists, which in turn leased the islands to individuals or groups; buying a lease also gave the owner one share in the company which effectively meant that the inhabitants owned the planet communally. There was no government as such, the inhabitants of each island were pretty much free to do as they pleased, although egregious behaviour, such as rape or murder, could see a shareholder's vote being taken and the culprit could have their lease cancelled and be expelled from the planet. If Thornton had been a lease holder that would explain what he meant when he said that he lived in a place where it was acceptable to have young boys as lovers. As long as a boy lover was discrete and didn't flaunt his behaviour, his fellow inhabitants were unlikely to take offence; after all, most likely each of them had some sort of sordid little foible.

The ship descended towards the planet's surface and began to circle one of the islands. Xavi spotted the landing pad, took over manually and dropped the ship neatly onto it. He noticed that a small reception committee had gathered at its edge, obviously the drone had signalled their presence to the inhabitants. There were five people in total, three of whom stood behind, probably staff, while a nervous looking young man in his early twenties and a bored looking boy in his mid-teens stood in front of them. Xavi guessed that these were Thornton's first and third boys (the second was away at university) and he realised that he was going to have to break the news to them that the man was dead.

When Xavi and Tyler stepped out of the ship the teenager looked surprised and certainly wasn't bored anymore; the young man seemed less surprised and Xavi thought that his nervous look had almost been replaced by one of relief. "Who are you and where's Zach?" the young man asked as they approached. Obviously, whatever pseudonyms Thornton used elsewhere, he was still known as Zach here at home.

"This is Tyler, Zach's Mykheenian clone and I'm Xavier Martinez; it was my job to deliver him to Zach. I'm very sorry but we were followed to the rendezvous by a group of Cyrthinnian assassins and I'm afraid Zach was killed."

"If they followed you once how do we know they haven't followed you here?" the teenager asked, looking worried.

"They're dead," Tyler piped up, "Xavi blasted them to smithereens."

"It's a pity you couldn't have done that before they killed Zach," the young man responded accusingly.

"Look, they killed two of my friends as well, if I could've stopped them sooner I would've done, believe me."

"We'd better go up to the house and discuss what happens next," the young man said. "I'm Paul Corrigan and this is Ian Bridges," he added and they all shook hands.

When they reached the house, which resembled a large Mediterranean style villa, they sat around a table by the pool and Paul provided a beer each for Xavi and himself and soft drinks for the two youngsters. "I'm Zach's assistant, or was I should say," Paul began once they were all settled. "He allowed me to run things while he was gone but he also left instructions about what to do in the event that something should happen to him." He picked up a tablet from the table and began to make rapid selections on it, after a few moments he paused and said, "He's left a letter appointing me as his executor, he points out that there's no proper law here but he used an attorney on Earth to make a will and there's a copy of it on the computer. I'll be able to access it from here. The letter goes on to say that some of us will be disappointed by it but he expects us all to abide by its terms. Fighting over his estate would cause chaos and I for one am willing to accept whatever Zach decided to do with it, how about you two?"

Tyler and Ian gave their agreement but Xavi maintained his silence. He wasn't personally involved but, for some reason, he didn't trust Paul. The guy seemed too calm and composed in this situation, it was almost like he'd been expecting it to happen and had prepared for it. Xavi remembered the nervous look on his face when the ship had landed and then the one of relief when he and Tyler had climbed out. Was that relief because Zach wasn't on board? If so, then Paul hadn't been expecting the man to return, which suggested that he knew about the Cyrthinnian plot. Myra had mentioned a tip-off regarding Thornton and Tyler; that had to have come from someone close to the guy and who knew more about his business than his personal assistant? The only question was, why?

While Xavi had been deep in thought, Paul had been making more selections on the tablet. "Here's the will," he said and began reading silently but stopped after a few seconds and said, "That can't be right, he's left everything to me. He hasn't mentioned Grant or Ian at all, just that he expects me to keep on all the staff who want to stay and give generous pay-offs to any that want to leave."

Now Xavi knew the `why', it was a simple case of greed. Thornton had told him that Paul would be replaced as assistant by the second boy when he graduated and that he planned to adopt Tyler and had already altered his will to leave everything to him. Clearly Paul had found out about this plan and had come up with one of his own in order to inherit himself. "My I see that?" he asked, holding out his hand for the tablet.

Paul hesitated for a second, then said, "I don't see why not," and handed it over.

The will looked perfectly legitimate and the contents were just as Paul had described them but one thing did catch Xavi's eye, it was dated October 2462. "This is twelve years old," he said, isn't that about when you first came to live with him?"

"Yes, what about it? He obviously wrote the will then because he had someone to leave his estate to."

"Don't you think it's strange that he never updated it in all these years? I would've expected him to change it every time another boy came here."

"I agree but for some reason he didn't. The letter directed me to the folder named `Will' and that's the only document in it."

"Who's Roger Sinclair? He is down as having witnessed it."

"He was a friend of Zach's; he lived on one of the neighbouring islands but died about four or five years ago."

"What about Abe Bernstein, the lawyer who prepared it?"

"I've never heard of him. I've only been Zach's personal assistant since I graduated and I didn't know he had a lawyer on Earth until today."

"Let's see if we can find him then," Xavi said.

He picked up the tablet which had been resting on his knee but found that it had timed out and the screen was blank. When he woke it up again he was prompted for a password. He asked Paul what it was and, after another moment's hesitation, said, "Knabo Amo. It's Esperanto for boy love," he added when he saw the puzzled look on Xavi's face.

According to the will, Abe Bernstein worked for Bernstein, Bernstein and Cohen of New York City. He tried the website address given but it came up blank and when he tried a directory of New York attorneys it informed him that the company was no longer in existence, having closed down on the death of Abe Bernstein. There was an email app on the tablet and when he selected it, Xavi was given a choice of six different accounts, all in different names, none of which he recognised. "What are these?" he asked, showing the tablet to Paul.

"Zach never used his real name when dealing with outsiders and constantly changed his pseudonym. Every time he changed names he created a new email account but he didn't always want someone that he'd been dealing with under one name to know the new one, so he kept some of his old accounts going until he'd finished all his business with them and then deleted them. Those six are his most recent."

Xavi went through the contacts on each of the accounts but none of them were for an Earth lawyer. Something didn't seem quite right about the accounts but he was tired and couldn't put his finger on the problem, so he gave up and handed the tablet back to Paul. "It's been a hell of a long day for us," he said, yawning. "Do you have a spare room we can use?"

"I certainly have one for you," Paul said to Xavi, "but the boy can sleep with me. He'll need to get used to that, he's mine now."

"What do you mean? Tyler's a clone not a slave, he's free to make his own choices," Xavi responded.

"You're forgetting, this is Djimeria, it's not Federation territory. The boy belonged to Zach and he left everything to me, therefore he's mine if I say so."

"Maybe so, but he needs to have two final hormone shots before he's ready for sex and the ones that the Mykheenians supplied were destroyed today. You'll have to buy some more and get them sent from Mykheen and that'll take a while. If you force him to have sex with you against his will before he's ready, that'll constitute child rape and I'm sure the other residents of this planet would consider that sufficient grounds to terminate your lease and chuck you out."

Paul glared at Xavi but didn't dispute the point. "Show them to the spare room, then come to mine," he snapped at Ian, before he turned and stalked out.

The room was a pleasant, en-suite double and in other circumstances Xavi would've loved to have spent the night in it with Tyler. Ian showed them where to find everything they might need and went to leave but stopped at the door and said, "You shouldn't upset Paul like that. If you do what he wants he's usually nice but if you make him angry he'll hurt you, he likes doing that." Then he left, closing the door behind him.

Xavi avoided discussing the matter with Tyler while they got ready for bed. From what he'd seen and from what Ian had said, he reckoned that Paul was a sadist and possibly a psychopath; it was no wonder Thornton had been planning to get rid of him. It seemed unlikely that he would be able to prove that Paul had betrayed the man and that there was another will but at the very least he wanted to get Tyler away from the guy.

It had been a very long and exhausting day and neither of them felt like doing anything sexual, so they just cuddled up together, with Tyler half on the bed and half across Xavi. "I don't like Paul, he's mean," the boy said, once he'd managed to get comfortable. "Rob was a bit too old but at least he was nice to me, I liked that he called me `Honey'"

"Shit, that's it!" Xavi exclaimed, sitting up suddenly and almost throwing the startled boy out of the bed.

"What's up?"

"You called Thornton `Rob'. He introduced himself as Robert Wilson and asked you to call him that before I realised what his real name was; he said that was his current pseudonym."

"So what?"

"If that was his latest name, it should've been the name of one of the email accounts but it wasn't. Paul said that those were his most recent six but I didn't recognise any of the names; I realised that something wasn't right but until you used the name `Rob', I couldn't think what it was."

"How does that help us?"

"We need to get into the computer somehow; quickly, before Paul can change too much. He couldn't have made too many permanent changes before we arrived because he wasn't certain that Thornton was dead. The will was on the main computer but if there's another one he could simply have hidden it and then put it back if Thornton had returned; he's probably deleted it by now. The email app was just on the tablet and it would be easy to remove one account from the app but he can't actually delete the Robert Wilson account yet, he'll need it to communicate with outsiders in order to complete the process of transferring the lease and the rest of Thornton's assets into his own name. The account must still be on the computer somewhere, we've got to get to it before Paul can complete the transfer."

"What's so important about the email account?"

"If Thornton changed his will recently then he was almost certainly in communication with a lawyer on Earth. That's how he arranged the first will so the chances are that's how he always did things. There will be an email trail and possibly even a copy of the will in an attachment."

"How do we get into the computer?"

"I've got an idea but I'm going to have to sneak down to the ship."

"You're not going to leave me here, are you? What if Paul comes for me?"

"He won't. He thinks I'm here with you; anyway, he's got Ian to keep him entertained tonight."

Xavi dressed, opened the sliding glass door that gave access to the terrace and slipped out; he reckoned that he would make less noise and be less likely to be observed going that way than trying to sneak through the house. In the dark and on unfamiliar territory, it was no surprise that he lost his way at one point and had to retrace his steps but after about fifteen minutes he arrived at the landing pad and approached the ship he and Tyler had arrived on. All two hundred and thirty seven shareholders contributed to a private security company who protected the planet, it was their drone which had scanned the ship on arrival. There was no need for any security on the islands themselves and therefore Xavi had no trouble with guards or alarms and was able to enter the ship without being detected. He climbed into the front cockpit and felt in the pilot's locker where he had found the remote for the hangar doors; inside it his hand soon discovered the tablet that he remembered being there and pulled it out. As an afterthought, he also retrieved the hand weapon that was also stored there; he didn't want to have to use it but he suspected that Paul was the sort who might turn nasty if things started to go against him.

His return to the house was aided by the lights which were burning in one of the other bedrooms, it turned out to be three away from his own and, as he passed, he heard sound of a lash striking bare skin followed by a muffled shriek of pain. The curtains to the lit room were closed but there was a slight gap in the middle which Xavi was able to look through and see part of the interior. He could make out the bed on which a slight, naked male figure lay face down with his wrists and ankles bound to its corners; this he assumed was Ian. Standing next to the bed, holding a whip with numerous lashes, was an equally naked Paul who was sporting an impressive erection which Xavi estimated to be between eight and nine inches with a girth to match. As he watched, Paul swung the whip against the buttocks of the prone figure, who gave another muffled scream and arched his back; as he did so his face came into view, confirming that he was indeed Ian while the gag which was visible across his mouth explained the muffled nature of his yells. Xavi was tempted to intervene, after all the boy was only fifteen and he suspected that Paul wouldn't have bothered to gain the lad's consent for what he was doing but the man had something more important to do and Ian's long term welfare would be better served if he succeeded in that than it would be by him ending tonight's torment.

Xavi slipped back into his own room where he was greeted warmly by a very relieved Tyler. He told the boy to go to sleep and powered up the tablet, which immediately requested that he entered a password; he held his breath and typed `Knabo Amo' which, to his great relief, proved to be correct. He had been fairly sure that Thornton would've used the same password for all of his devices, most people do but his plans would've been scuppered if he'd been wrong.

He went straight to the email app and smiled when he saw that there were seven rather than six accounts, the extra one being in the name of Robert Wilson. The contact list for this account was significantly larger than the others and scrolling down it he came to the name of Jonathan Cohen, a lawyer with the firm of J. Cohen and Partners. This was most likely the former junior partner of Bernstein, Bernstein and Cohen, who had no doubt started his own company on the death of the last Bernstein and it made sense that Thornton would have used this guy when his previous attorney had died. Xavi spent the next half an hour working on the tablet then, satisfied that he'd done all he could for now, he placed it and the weapon in a drawer in the bedside cabinet, climbed into bed and spooned behind Tyler.

"Did you find what you wanted?" a sleepy voice asked.

"Yes, everything is going to be OK. Go to sleep," Xavi replied, kissing the boy's cheek.

Three rooms away, things were definitely not OK as far as Ian was concerned. About a year earlier, he'd made the mistake of confiding in Paul that he enjoyed being spanked by Zach and that he and Grant, the second of Zach's boys, had played bondage games together. The next time the man had gone off on business Paul had offered to show Ian some other stuff and, when the boy agreed, had proceeded to tie him up and whip him. It had been too much for the then fourteen year old and he'd screamed for Paul to stop but he hadn't until he was ready to fuck Ian, which had also been extremely painful because Paul was considerably larger than Zach.

One of the staff must've heard his screams and told Zach when he returned because Paul had been called in to see the man and there had been a terrible row. Unfortunately, Paul must've thought that Ian had told because, although he hadn't touched the boy since then, his attitude towards him had become cold and distant. Now that Zach was dead Paul was no longer constrained and had taken great pleasure in taking out his resentment on the boy.

Paul's body gleamed with sweat and he was panting slightly from his exertions. He looked at Ian's naked back and buttocks, glowing with bright red weals and felt a sense of satisfaction. The boy had wanted to experience BDSM and Paul had obliged, only for the snivelling little shit to go running to Zach when he decided that he didn't really like it all that much. Zach had told Paul that he was giving him notice and that as soon as Grant had graduated he was going to ask him to leave, although he promised to give him a decent reference despite what had happened. Paul had been eaten up with resentment and, when Zach made plans to obtain a Mykheenian clone as his next boy, he saw an opportunity to get rid of the man and take over. It had been easy to leave an anonymous tip on the Cyrthinnians' website and so far everything had gone to plan with the exception of that man, Xavi Martinez, turning up; although even that had a positive to it, as he'd brought the clone with him and Paul couldn't wait to get the cute boy into his bed and give him some of the same treatment.

He was ready to fuck now; the sight of Ian's pain wracked body had him hard and dripping. He climbed onto the bed, spat onto the boy's exposed hole, rubbed a little pre-cum into the mixture as the only lubricant and then pushed his thick, eight and a half inches fully home with one thrust. Ian screamed louder than ever into the gag, which was only there to prevent Martinez from hearing them; Paul suspected that the man was a boy lover and would interfere if he thought the fifteen year old was being abused. Once he was gone, Paul would be free to enjoy both Ian and Tyler without the need for any gags; the un-muffled shrieks would only add to his pleasure.

Paul placed his hands on Ian's shoulders, pulled his cock out slowly until just the head remained inside the boy's anus and then slammed it back in to the accompaniment of another satisfying, if muffled scream. He repeated this over and over, speeding up as he did so, until he was pounding the boy's arse and Ian was reduced to agonised groans. He had no thought of delayed orgasms or of extending the fuck, the one saving grace for Ian; it was pure savagery and within a few minutes he was shouting, "Fuck yeah!" as he filled the boy's arse with cum. When he pulled out, his cock was pink from the mixture of semen and blood and he pulled the lad's arse cheeks apart so that he could enjoy the sight of the same mixture dribbling out of Ian's hole and down his perineum.

The only thing that could beat this, he thought, would be to repeat the experience with Tyler and for that to happen he'd have to get rid of Martinez. If he couldn't persuade the man to leave Djimeria soon, then he'd have to make other arrangements and get rid of him permanently.

Xavi gradually moved from sleep to consciousness, desperately trying to hang on to his dream in which he was being expertly fellated by a beautiful boy. Unfortunately dreams are ephemeral and disappear all too quickly but Xavi was lucky, for him the reality he awoke to was far better than the dream, as Tyler was putting all of his considerable talent into turning the man's morning wood into a mind blowing orgasm; something he achieved with ease a few minutes later. Xavi felt compelled to return the favour and, after rimming the boy for a bit, sucked him off while fingering his prostate; thus ensuring that they both got out of bed in the highest of spirits. Xavi showered and dressed first and while Tyler was in the bathroom he pulled out the tablet, checked the emails and smiled at what he saw; now he was ready to confront Paul.

Xavi's flying suit had large pockets on the outside of each thigh and he placed the tablet in one and the weapon in the other; they were each visible but a casual observer would be unable to tell what they were beneath the fabric. They left the bedroom and headed back towards the main room, where a member of staff directed them to the breakfast bar which was already occupied by Paul. He was back to being the charming, urbane young man they'd first met but neither of them was fooled by the act. Their scepticism was fully justified a few minutes later when Ian arrived; his cheek was bruised from what looked like a slap and his lips were puffed from the gag; he walked over to the table unsteadily, sat down gingerly and bid them good morning in a subdued voice. Xavi, who knew exactly what his problem was, kept quiet but Tyler asked, "What's wrong? What happened to you?"

"Nothing. I fell over, that's all."

Tyler was about to say something else but he caught Xavi's eye and the man gave him a brief shake of the head so he decided not to pursue the matter. During the meal Paul chatted brightly about inconsequential matters with Xavi joining in occasionally; Tyler and Ian ate silently, each aware of a certain tension between the two men which wasn't entirely hidden behind their friendly chit-chat. When breakfast was over Paul suggested that Xavi join him in the study to discuss what they were going to do next and walked out of the room. As Xavi rose to follow him, Ian leaned over and said quietly, "Be careful, there's a weapon in the top drawer of the desk."

He thanked the boy for the information and, when he left, Ian turned to Tyler and said, "I hope he's going to be OK."

"He will be," the other responded confidently but whether he was trying to reassure Ian or himself wasn't entirely clear.

Xavi entered the study to find Paul sitting behind Thornton's desk as if it were his own. "First of all I'd like to apologise for my behaviour last night," he said. "I'm afraid the news of poor Zach's death hit me harder than I realised and my attitude as regards young Tyler was out of order. I stand by my assertion that he's mine now but clearly I'll have to obtain the necessary shots from Mykheen before I even consider having sex with him. However, I think you'll have to accept that once he's had those shots and I've had sex with him, he'll bond with me and will desire to stay here and be my catamite; it's what he was created for after all."

Xavi smiled, inclined his head and replied, "I accept your apology Paul and I would like to add one of my own. I've become very protective of Tyler over the last week or so and I was probably a little hasty when I questioned your right to him. If you are to be Zach's heir, then it's only right and proper that he should be your boy and I'm sure that he'll be very happy here."

"Thank you, Xavi. I'm pleased that we've resolved our little differences; the only thing left to decide is when you are planning to depart. I think sooner is better than later, I'll be very happy to organise transport back to Genteros and of course you'll be paid in full for delivering Tyler safely."

"I think perhaps you're jumping the gun a little," Xavi responded. "I said `IF you are to be Zach's heir'; that matter has yet to be resolved."

Paul tutted and rolled his eyes. "You're not still barking up that tree are you? I assure you that there's only one will and it names me as Zach's heir. It's time you accepted that and if you don't I'll have to ask security to come here and remove you and if that happens you'll forfeit all payment."

Xavi pulled the tablet out of his left pocket, switched it on and entered the password while Paul him watched with a worried look on his face. He then explained to the young man what Zach had told him about his plans for Tyler and the new will and how he'd discovered this tablet on the spaceship. He went on to describe how he'd found an email from Zach to the lawyer on Earth with a new will attached; one which left money to each of his three boys but the bulk of the estate to Tyler.

"He might've been planning to change his will but it's not legal yet," Paul blustered.

"That's where you're wrong," Xavi responded. "I sent a sub-space email to Cohen last night and received a reply this morning; not only is the will legal but there are also two others that supersede yours. I was right; Zach changed his will each time he took on a new boy; yours was the first, then there was one which split the estate between you and Grant Harris and then a third which added Ian and divided it three ways. Now this new will changes things again, I'm sorry Paul but this place belongs to Tyler, not you."

Paul made a grab for the top right hand drawer of the desk; Xavi, who had already drawn the weapon from his pocket in anticipation of just such a move, raised it and said, "Stop Paul!" The young man ignored him, grabbed his own weapon and lifted it from the drawer. "Don't do it," Xavi begged him but Paul continued to raise his weapon, turning it towards Xavi.

Tyler and Ian were chatting on a couch in the main room when they heard the sound of a weapon discharging and the clatter of a body falling out of a chair and hitting the floor. They clung to one another during the several moments of silence that followed, then there was the sound of footsteps in the corridor outside and a man appeared at the door. "Xavi!" the younger boy exclaimed, jumping down and running over to the man who knelt down and hugged him as he leapt into his arms. "I was so worried about you," he bawled, tears streaming down his face.

"I'm perfectly OK," the man assured him.

"How's Paul?" Ian asked. "Is he dead?"

"Yes, I'm sorry but he didn't give me any option. When he realised that his plans had been foiled he grabbed the weapon you told me about and I had to shoot him."

"Don't be sorry," Ian replied, smiling for the first time that morning. "I'm glad the bastard's dead; I just wish he'd been made to suffer a bit first."

Xavi explained to them about the new will. "Zach left a million Credits each to Grant and Ian and also gave them the right to live on the island for as long as they want; for the rest of their lives if they so choose. He also left Paul half a million, which I think was rather generous but without the right to stay here. The rest of the estate is now Tyler's; the only proviso being the same as that in the original will, the staff have to be kept on if they want to stay and a generous pay-off given to any who opt to leave."

Ian turned to Tyler and said, "Grant and I are very good friends. There's a small villa on the far side of the island and we've often talked about how great it would be if we could live there together. Do you have any objections to that?"

"No, that'll be cool. You two will have your own place but you'll be close enough to visit Xavi and I whenever you want." then a horrible thought struck the boy and he turned to the man and asked in a trembling voice, "You do want to stay here with me, don't you, Xavi?"

"Are you asking me to give up a free life; one spent flying around the galaxy from planet to planet in order to stay here and look after a perpetual twelve year old brat?"

"I think I could make it worth your while," Tyler replied with a lascivious leer.

"In that case I'll give your offer some serious consideration," the man replied, earning himself a thump on the shoulder.

 

SIX

 

The two hundred and thirty seven shareholders of Djimeria Holdings Inc. elected a five person board of directors and a chairman from amongst their number. Xavi emailed the chairman, copying in all the others, explaining that Tyler would be taking over the lease and attaching a copy of the will; he also gave a brief account of Paul's attempt to seize control and its outcome. The chairman replied, welcoming them to the planet and telling them where to find the form that would have to be completed to make Tyler's inheritance fully legal. As far as Paul's death was concerned, as long as Tyler hadn't been directly involved then it was an internal matter and if the boy was satisfied that Xavi had acted in self-defence, then the shareholders would have no reason to get involved.

Xavi found the form online and immediately hit a snag. "Honey, you need to have a surname," he told the boy.

Tyler smiled inwardly at the man's use of the endearment; he'd mentioned that he liked Zach using it and Xavi had obviously taken the hint. "I think it's obvious what that should be," he replied.

"Not to me it isn't. What name did you have in mind?"

"Martinez, of course. If I'm going to be your boy then I'd like to share your name."

"I hoped you'd say that," Xavi responded, grinning as he typed the details.

"What happens to the money that Zach intended for Paul?" the boy asked when the man had finished. "Can I give it to Ian and Grant?"

"Of course you can; it's your money, you can do what you like with it."

Ian had already messaged his friend, telling him what had transpired and Grant had been all for returning home immediately but Xavi had sent a second message advising him to remain on Earth for another three weeks and then come home for the summer break. He had agreed to that and had indicated that, like Ian, he was excited by the idea of the pair setting up home together. Once that had been sorted, Ian crossed the island to look at his new home and started planning what changes he wanted to make there, while Xavi and Tyler were finally able to take breather after their hectic morning and cuddled up on the couch for a chat.

From what Ian told them, it seemed that Grant had become fairly dominant since he'd ceased being Zach's boy and that his friend expected to act as his submissive. That confused Tyler, who struggled to understand the difference between Grant and Paul.

"Paul was a sadist and possibly a psychopath," Xavi explained. "He wanted to genuinely hurt others, wasn't in the least bit interested in their pleasure and ignored any demands to stop. If Ian and Grant have a D/S relationship, then each will try to satisfy the others' needs; they'll set out limits and Ian will have a safe word which he'll only use if Grant exceeds those limits. If he does use that word, then Grant will stop what he's doing immediately and they'll discuss what Ian isn't happy about before continuing."

"But he'll still be hurting Ian, won't he?"

"Some people like to feel some pain while they're having sex and Ian is one of those. Grant will only be providing his partner with what he wants and needs."

"OK, I think I understand. Two people can do things to each other that might seem to be extreme to others but as long as they both agree then it's OK. On the other hand if someone forces another person to do something against their will then it's wrong, no matter how mild it might appear to others."

"You've got it, it's called consent and it can be withdrawn at any time, even if sexual activity has started. Ian agreed to do stuff with Paul but when he went too far and Ian said `enough', then there was no longer consent and Paul should've stopped."

The boy sat quietly for a few moments before saying, "Xavi, if I own this place now then I'm in charge, right?"

"So?"

"So, no more excuses," the boy replied, with a grin, "now you'll have to fuck me."

"What about your hormone shots? Shouldn't we wait until we've received a new supply from Mykheen?"

"I don't need the first lot; I'm an early developer like the man I was cloned from and I already enjoy sex with you and want to do more. I'll take the second lot to make me yours permanently but I don't need them to make me love you; I feel that way already."

"In that case we can do without them. I'd much rather have your love for a limited period than have you bound to me for life artificially. If you stop loving me I'll be upset but at least you'll be making your own decision, not one that's been forced upon you."

After dinner that evening, Tyler took Ian aside and the pair disappeared into the master bedroom, where the elder boy helped the younger prepare for his first experience of anal sex. Tyler had been taught everything that he needed to know back on Mykheen but wanted someone with more practical experience to help him the first time. Once he was ready, Ian left him and came out to tell Xavi that he could go in; the man had already showered and was waiting nervously, like a schoolboy going on his first date, wearing only a pair of shorts.

Xavi walked into the bedroom to find the boy reclining seductively on the huge bed; he was wearing a sleeveless top in shocking pink and a pair of tight, white, high cut shorts, which nicely highlighted even Tyler's small package. He looked amazing and the man popped a boner the moment he feasted his eyes on the incredibly sexy boy. "Wow!" he exclaimed. "I love your outfit, where did you get it?"

"Zach bought a whole wardrobe for me but I think some of the clothes are a bit small; like these shorts for example."

"No, they're definitely not too small. I wouldn't advise you to wear them in public but right here, right now they're absolutely perfect and so are you."

Xavi sat on the edge of the bed to the boy's right and caressed his bare foot, before sliding his hand up his slender calf to gently squeeze above his knee. The man leaned in and they kissed; a chaste meeting of their lips to begin with before Xavi's tongue emerged and made its way into Tyler's accepting mouth. At the same time the man's hand moved upwards, stroking the boy's inner thigh and eliciting a moan of pleasure from him. The kiss became more passionate and Xavi's hand moved to the front of Tyler's shorts, the boy responding by thrusting his hips and pushing his hard boyhood into it.

The man broke the kiss and instead pecked around the boy's jaw until he reached his left ear where he nibbled on the lobe before pushing his tongue inside causing the lad to giggle. He then gave the same attention to the boy's right ear, simultaneously moving his hand up under the lad's top until he could play with his nipples, which were soon as hard as his little penis. With his free left hand he moved the boy's right arm above his head, pinning it to the bed by the wrist, exposing the lad's armpit which his sleeveless top left uncovered. Taking advantage of this access, the man gave the smooth hollow some oral attention, while still working on the nipples with his other hand. Tyler writhed and moaned with pleasure as the man worked on two of his erogenous zones together, then moved his own free hand to his groin and began rubbing it, trying to provide relief from the sexual frenzy into which he was being driven.

"Oh no, you don't," Xavi said, removing the boy's hand and placing it beside the other, while taking the opportunity to peel the boy's top off and expose his torso. He didn't take it all the way off, leaving it around the lad's wrists to aid him in keeping them in place with one hand while he went to work on Tyler's body with his mouth and the other hand. He licked, sucked, stroked and tweaked, moving from nipple to armpit and back again, with the occasional trip down to tongue the boy's navel or up to his neck and lips. Tyler squirmed and squealed as the action continued until he was reduced to begging Xavi to play with his cock too.

At last it seemed as if the man was going to oblige as he paused to remove the boy's tight shorts, releasing the little three inch spike, which sprang up to stand vertically, twitching in anticipation of receiving the same attention to which other parts of Tyler's body had been subjected. It was going to be disappointed, however, as Xavi intended to make the boy wait a little longer for relief; his way of letting the boy know who was really in charge. Instead he licked the lad's groin either side of his genitals, before switching to his scrotum, licking the hairless sac and then sucking his little balls, individually and then both together. Tyler's frustration was growing and he expressed that vocally when the man moved even further down to kiss and caress his inner thighs.

Finally Xavi stopped, moved back up, stroked the boy's cheek and kissed him gently on the lips, "What's wrong, Honey?" he asked, his face a picture of innocence.

"You know exactly what's wrong," Tyler retorted with a pout. "You're not touching my cock and you won't let me touch it either. I think I'll die if you don't start doing stuff to it."

Xavi laughed, amused at the boy's desperation, "What's the magic word?" he asked.

"Will you please suck my cock Xavi," the lad enunciated slowly and clearly.

"Certainly," the man replied, kissing the boy again before moving back down in order to comply with his request.

Tyler's cocklet hadn't softened in any way, still standing erect demanding attention. Xavi slowly licked its length while rubbing the lad's nuts between his thumb and fingers causing the boy to gasp and grab the sheet tightly in both hands. Releasing the lad's balls, the man took hold of his slim shaft, retracted the foreskin and licked the glistening, crimson glans, turning his gasps into groans; then, taking the top part into his mouth, he sucked it while using his tongue to provide further stimulation. A moment later the entire three inches had disappeared and Xavi began to bob up and down while rubbing Tyler's testicles once again. Having made the boy wait for this, the man didn't bother delaying his orgasm any longer; there would be plenty time for more than one tonight, so he kept going and soon brought the lad to a shattering climax.

"Are you going to fuck me now?" Tyler asked when he'd recovered from his orgasm.

"Have a little patience, Honey," Xavi replied. "We've got all evening and that will be the concluding part of it. If we fucked now I think I'd blow my load as soon as I got inside you and that wouldn't satisfy either of us. If you suck me off first, then I'll fuck you when I'm ready to go again and I'll last much longer that way."

"OK, lie on your back," the boy instructed as he scrambled to his knees, thinking that he now had the opportunity to pay the man back in kind and provide his lover with exactly the sort of frustrations he'd just endured. Of course things didn't exactly pan out the way he intended; he started off well enough, copying what had been done to him but he lacked the man's patience and his desire for Xavi's cock was greater than that for revenge, so before too long the seven inch appendage was in his mouth and he was once again demonstrating his talent for oral sex. It was the man's turn to groan, as Tyler's lips, tongue and throat worked their magic on his cock and balls but now the boy was able to control his urges and his uncanny ability to sense his partner's impending climax allowed him to delay Xavi's orgasm and gain some measure of retribution. When, at last, he began to tire and his mouth and throat started to ache, he increased the pace of his head movements, sucked a little harder and was soon rewarded with a mouthful of tangy spunk, which he then shared with his lover via a passionate, cummy kiss.

Tyler lay on top of Xavi, their lips touching and their tongues rubbing together while the boy's cocklet, which hadn't lost its hardness despite his earlier orgasm, pressed against the man's belly. His partner's hands ranged over his back and flanks, moving down to cup his buttocks, kneading and parting them to allow a finger to slide into his cleft and rub around his anus.

"Would you like me to rim you now?" Xavi asked. Tyler didn't bother to answer; instead he scrambled down from the man's chest, grabbed a pillow, laid it lengthways on the bed and climbed on top of it with his legs apart and his arse presented for his lover's attention; a perfect illustration that actions speak louder than words.

Xavi knelt behind the boy and, starting at the nape of his neck, began to kiss his way down the lad's back while massaging his buttocks with his right hand. Those perfect, smooth globes were next in line for attention from the man's lips and then they were parted to reveal Tyler's puckered entrance. The boy had cleaned himself thoroughly, inside and out, prior to them starting but that hadn't completely removed his natural, musky odour and for that Xavi was thankful. He breathed in the wondrous boy scent while revelling in the sight of Tyler's most private part, then dived in and began to eat him out.

He attacked with gusto, licking and sucking to some extent but concentrating on penetrating the boy's anus with his tongue; the main event of the evening would be him fucking the boy and this was primarily preparation for that. Tyler pressed back as the man's tongue pushed in, his prostate was extremely sensitive and he'd learned in a very short time that anal penetration was infinitely more enjoyable when that little bundle of nerves was stimulated; his efforts certainly aided the man in his purpose but unfortunately failed to achieve those of the boy. Xavi pulled out, dribbled plenty of saliva into the boy's hole and then resumed his oral assault, gradually getting the lad's anus looser and more relaxed.

When he eventually decided that he'd achieved as much as possible, Xavi withdrew his tongue and reached for the top drawer of the bedside cabinet, in which he'd earlier found Zach's lube, along with some other items. It was the lube he wanted now, his right forefinger and the boy's hole each receiving a generous amount before the latter burrowed its way into the former. The man pushed, pulled and twisted his finger, continuing the loosening up process started by his tongue; once or twice he gave the lad's sensitive gland a gentle stroke just to remind him that this was just a preparation phase and that his pleasure was the ultimate aim of the evening. After a while Xavi introduced a second finger into proceedings along with more lube, producing a slight gasp from the boy, which was followed quickly by a sharp denial when the man enquired if it hurt. Two digits moved less easily than one had, so the man slowed down and waited for Tyler to become accustomed to the greater girth before moving on to the next stage.

Xavi went back to the drawer and pulled out a second item, an extremely lifelike, six inch dildo, which he showed to the boy. "It's just like the ones I used back on Mykheen," he said. "It looks a little larger than the biggest one I used but it's smaller than you," he added with a giggle.

"I think Zach ordered it from Mykheen and, if I had to guess, I'd say it's probably the same size as he was. If that's true, then your trainers prepared you to take a cock this size, so I thought we could start with this before moving on to the real thing; it should make things a little easier for you."

"OK," Tyler replied, just wanting the man to get on with it and not really appreciating his lover's attempts to make the event as enjoyable and pain free for the boy as he could.

Xavi smeared the dildo and the boy's anus with lube, pressed the phallus against the puckered entrance and pushed it in. Tyler, who was accustomed to doing this, pushed back and the head popped through his sphincter, eliciting another, louder gasp from him, although he managed to say, "It's fine, keep going," before the man could ask how he felt. Firm but gentle pressure moved the dildo further into the boy until it bottomed out with about an inch of shaft still outside. Not wishing to force it any further and cause the lad excessive pain, Xavi slowly pulled it back out until just the bulbous head was lodged behind Tyler's sphincter and then pushed it back in, this time producing a moan, one that was so obviously an indication of pleasure that he didn't bother asking the boy if it hurt or not. Having established that the lad could take the dildo without too much discomfort, the man began to slide it in and out more rapidly, twisting it as he did so in order to complete the loosening up process which had started with his tongue half an hour before.

How much preparation is enough to get a boy ready for his first fuck? That's an impossible question to answer, each one is different and he's going to experience some pain no matter how long you spend getting him ready; eventually the man has to make a decision, end the foreplay and start the main event. That time had arrived for Xavi and he withdrew the dildo to reveal Tyler's hole, now gaping open rather than puckered as it had been at the beginning. He wanted to move quickly now, to make the initial penetration while the boy was still dilated; the longer he waited, the more Tyler's anus would close up and the boy would suffer extra pain as a result. He tossed the dildo aside and moved Tyler onto his back, with the pillow turned ninety degrees beneath him before lifting the boy's legs, pushing them back until his knees were next to his shoulders and instructing him to hold them there.

Xavi quickly smothered his cock in lube and added yet another generous dollop to Tyler's hole; when it came to taking a young boy's virginity, he was firmly of the opinion that there was no such thing as too much lube. He moved into position, raised the boy slightly, lined up with his target, placed his cockhead against the lad's anus and pushed. Nothing happened; despite all his training and half an hour of foreplay, Tyler had tensed up at the vital moment.

"Hey, relax," Xavi told him.

"Sorry," the boy replied sheepishly and did his best to comply with the request. The man tried again and this time his glans slipped past the boy's sphincter with remarkable ease, although the boy's gasp was unmistakably one of pain.

"Are you alright, Honey?" Xavi asked.

"Yeah," Tyler replied, a grimace turning into a grin as the pain faded. "It hurt a bit when you pushed in but it feels OK now."

Despite the boy's reassuring words, the man paused for a few moments before gradually working his cock, an inch at a time, into the welcoming warmth of his rectum, watching his face throughout for any sign of distress. He bottomed out with about two inches still exposed but, just as he had with the dildo, he stopped and didn't force the issue; there would be plenty of opportunities in the future to stretch the lad's innards until he was able to take the full length.

Now he began to move his cock in and out with long, slow strokes, the skin around the boy's anus seeming to adhere to the man's organ, stretching outwards as he withdrew before returning with each inwards thrust. Tyler was aware of a dull ache in his rectum but the sharp pain he'd felt at the moment of penetration had vanished and the sensations that surged through his body each time the man's glans brushed over his prostate more than made up for any discomfort. The boy's enjoyment was evinced by the hard, three inch spike which still stood vertically, his erection never having wavered, even during the earlier moment of pain. This was a new experience for Xavi, Sam had never really enjoyed anal sex and his cock had always been soft during it; even the Pardani bottom boys he'd been with over the years had been unable to maintain an erection throughout and they'd usually had to resort to masturbation to recover it, either by their own hand or the man's. This was the final proof, as if any were needed, that the apparently twelve year old, pre-pubescent clone was fully ready for and thoroughly enjoyed anal sex with a man.

"Do it faster," Tyler demanded. Xavi pulled out, applied more lube and pushed back in before acquiescing. He leaned forward over the boy, taking his weight on his forearms and kissed the lad while increasing the rate of his thrusts. The boy had his eyes closed tightly and was moaning into the man's mouth, when Xavi broke the kiss, he heard the words, "Oh, yeah," being repeated over and over, which encouraged him to speed up even more. Suddenly Tyler's eyes opened wide and he yelled, "Fuck," as his sphincter clamped down on the man's cock and his little cocklet twitched and jerked in response to his first true anal orgasm, as opposed to one in which both his penis and prostate had been stimulated simultaneously.

Having cum earlier, Xavi wasn't yet ready for another climax so, as soon as the boy relaxed, he began to fuck him again, finding the going to be much easier now, the lad's sphincter had seemingly given up the unequal fight and surrendered to the inevitable. His little cocklet certainly hadn't given up though and was still standing proudly to attention, his erection showing no signs of wilting despite the orgasm he'd just enjoyed.

After a few minutes Xavi decided on a change of position, moving them both onto their left sides with the man behind the boy. He raised Tyler's right leg in order to gain access to his hole then, once safely inside, laid it across his own thigh. Holding the boy in the crook of his left arm he could still fuck and kiss him but now he could caress him too; he ran his right hand over the lad's smooth torso, rubbed and tweaked his nipples and fondled his cock and balls. His mouth ranged from the boy's lips to his neck and ear and even went as far as his nipples while his hand was otherwise engaged lower down. Unsurprisingly, all this stimulation soon produced a second climax, this one so intense that Tyler actually lost consciousness for a few seconds, `La Petite Mort' in the language of love. While he was out, Xavi withdrew his cock, lay on his back and pulled the boy down on top of himself, holding him in his arms until he'd recovered.

"Why have you stopped?" were the first words out of Tyler's mouth when he came to.

"I didn't think it was fair for me to continue while you were out of it and not able to enjoy the experience."

"Well, I'm awake now, so you can begin again. Unless a man of your age needs to take a break," he added cheekily.

Xavi put his hands behind his head and replied, "It's time you did some of the work; if you want it, take it."

Tyler crouched above the man's tumescence and lowered himself onto it, the first five inches disappearing inside him with no difficulty. When he bottomed out and realised that there were still two inches of shaft sticking out of his hole, he frowned, relaxed and allowed his weight to do the rest; the final two inches slid into the boy's hole and he let out a yelp as a sharp pain stabbed through his abdomen.

"Are you alright, Honey?" a concerned Xavi asked, not for the first time that evening.

"Yeah," the boy replied with a grimace. "I should've taken it a bit slower but the pain's easing now, I'll be OK."

He waited a few moments until the sharp pain had reduced to the dull ache that he was beginning to like, then leaned back, placing a hand on each of the man's thighs and began to move himself up and down on his cock. Xavi couldn't help smiling as he noticed that Tyler's cocklet was still fully erect and wondered if it would ever soften again. It wasn't the most comfortable position for the boy but the angle meant that Xavi's cockhead was bumping into his prostate rather than simply brushing against it in passing, so he gritted his teeth and kept going until he achieved his aim of a third orgasm, admittedly with a little help from the man who jerked him off at the same time.

Xavi, who was finally nearing a second climax of his own, took control again; moving the boy back into the original position, on his back, with a pillow below him and his legs raised but this time at the edge of the bed. He pushed the first five inches of his cock into Tyler's rectum quickly and then the final two inches more slowly, checking that the boy was still comfortable as he did so. When the boy gave him a smile of encouragement, he gripped each of his legs behind the knees and began to make long, slow strokes, gradually increasing the pace and switching between long and short thrusts. As he felt his orgasm approach, he released the boy's legs, placed his hands flat on the bed either side of the lad's head and began to pound in and out as fast and hard as he was able. Tyler had his eyes closed tightly again, his head was moving from side to side and he was moaning, "Fuck, yeah," over and over.

At long last Xavi climaxed for the second time, one final thrust and his balls emptied their load into the boy's hole. Looking down, he saw Tyler's cocklet doing its little dance again and realised that the boy had enjoyed a remarkable fourth orgasm during the final pounding, which was something of a relief as he'd been worried that he might've overdone things a bit. His cock softened and slipped out eliciting a groan of disappointment from the boy whose own erection finally wilted as he realised that it was all over for now. A rumbling from somewhere within Tyler's abdomen saw him scramble to his feet and dart into the bathroom, where he relieved himself of a smelly mixture of cum, lube and his own rectal juices; the unfortunate lot of bottom boys throughout history. He returned a few minutes later, wrinkling his nose and saying, "Yuck," which naturally made Xavi laugh and earned him another punch on the shoulder.

Soon they were spooned together under the sheets with the boy in his favourite place in the galaxy, being held in the arms of the man he loved. "How do you feel?" Xavi asked.

"A bit sore," Tyler admitted, "but it's a nice sore because it was your cock that caused it and I can't wait to have it inside me again."

"Do you mean I'm going to have to do that again?"

"Of course, every day for ever and ever."

"Will you make do with every day that we're together and both fit and able?"

"I suppose so but don't you dare pretend that you're not able. I was created to have sex with a man and it's your job to keep me satisfied."

"When I'm old and decrepit you can always trade me in for a younger model."

"I want us to stay in love for the rest of our lives."

"So do I Honey but who knows what the future holds. We're not exactly going to grow old together, are we? Let's just enjoy our lives, take each day as it comes and see what fate has in store."

 

EPILOGUE

 

Tyler walked into the main room and saw the young man in tennis whites sprawled on the couch. He took in the handsome thirty-something face, the glimpse of chest hair at the unbuttoned opening of his top, the strong, tanned legs which emerged from his shorts, the lump at the front of those shorts which promised so much and popped a three inch boner. He smiled inwardly at the memory of a certain man suffering the same indignity at their first meeting many years before. Fifty three years after his birth, he was still a twelve year old boy, in appearance at least and emotionally much of the time. He had, however, accumulated over half a century of knowledge and experience, so in many ways he was much more than a kid.

Time was something that was starting to tell on Tyler; a clone's life expectancy was sixty years so he could only expect to be here for about another seven. He had to make the most of what time remained to him, which was why the young man had been brought here. Tyler recalled wistfully how Xavi used to play sports with him and the realisation that those days were gone brought moistness to the boy's eyes.

"Hi Greg, where is he?" he asked the young man.

"In the study," Greg replied.

Tyler wandered through to the study, where an elderly man was sitting at the desk looking intently at the computer screen. He had to think for a moment to work out the man's age and then remembered that he was now eighty two, although with human life expectancy now having exceeded a hundred, he could probably expect to live for another twenty years. If someone from the early twenty first century had seen him they would've been amazed to be told his age, to their eyes he would've appeared to be in his early sixties. The boy thought about Zach and how he'd considered the man to be too old when they'd met, yet this man was now twenty years older than that and he still loved him as much now as he had five decades earlier. Tyler walked over and placed a hand on Xavi's shoulder, when he looked up the boy leaned in and they kissed on the lips.

"Happy anniversary," the boy said.

"What anniversary is that?" the man asked.

"It was fifty years ago today that you first fucked me."

Xavi laughed, "Trust you to remember that, you little sex fiend."

"How could I forget it? It was probably the greatest experience of my life." The man pulled the boy onto his knee and they kissed again. "What're you doing?" the boy asked when they broke apart.

"I'm looking at the Mykheenian clone website."

Tyler pulled away from Xavi and stood up. "You're doing what? Are you trying to replace me before I'm dead?" it was a typical twelve year old's emotional response, the kind that the boy still exhibited from time to time.

"No, of course not," the man replied calmly; after fifty years he was used to these outbursts. "Look, they're offering a hormone boost for older clones which they claim adds another ten to fifteen years of life."

Tyler looked at the screen. "Fifty thousand Credits is a lot for an unproven product," he said sceptically.

Xavi laughed, "You're one of the wealthiest twelve year olds in the galaxy and you're worried about a mere fifty grand."

"Why don't you buy some then?"

"I already have," Xavi replied, reaching into the desk drawer and pulling out a gift wrapped package. "Happy anniversary, Honey. I couldn't forget the best experience of my life either and this way we'll hopefully be able to celebrate our sixtieth together as well."

Tyler threw his arms around the man's neck and they kissed again, much more passionately this time. "Come on, I think this anniversary needs to be celebrated in bed," the boy said, grabbing the man by the hand and dragging him to his feet.

"What about Greg?" Xavi asked as they walked towards their room. "He's expecting to play tennis with you."

"Bugger Greg," Tyler replied, closing the bedroom door behind them.

"No thanks," the man said as he took the boy in his arms and pulled him onto the bed. "All things considered, I'd sooner bugger you."

 

THE END

 

© Hugh Cox 2018

 

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