It was going to be an interesting day.
Thirty-Five
“So this is The Pit, where all the Slime-porn is filmed.” The Beast gestured to a large enclosure with clear plasti-glass walls almost like a huge aquarium. Inside was a knee-deep pool of green slime with numerous alien creatures writhing in it.
There were Slimerians like Gozeriam, Cassie saw, penetrating each other with their slime-shafts. There were also some small, mud-like people who looked more humanoid—well, except for the fact that they both had six arms. They appeared to be rubbing against each other and then pulling apart, leaving trails of slime in the air between them every time they did.
The oozing slime trails reminded Cassie in a weird way of the “cheese-pull” shots you saw on food videos when a grilled cheese sandwich was cut in half and pulled open to show how stringy the melted cheese was inside.
Only I guess instead of “cheese-pull” it’s slime-pull, she thought, feeling slightly ill.
There were other creatures writhing and cavorting in the slime as well, but it was hard to understand exactly what erotic activities they were engaged in, since they weren’t humanoid and Cassie couldn’t tell which body parts they were putting together. Small round camera drones hovered above each pair—or threesome or foursome or moresome, in some cases—recording their carnal activities from all angles.
“The Pit, huh?” she said, trying not to let the disgust show on her face. “Did you ever work in there?”
“Me? Only once.” The Beast made a face. “I had to fill in for a Lush-slump slug who had called in sick with a case of anal valve rot. Didn’t like it much though—that fucking slime gets everywhere.”
“I bet,” Cassie murmured, nodding. Behind her, she was very aware of her partner standing guard. Stone always ‘had her back’ in any given situation but this time she couldn’t help feeling he was taking that phrase a bit too literally. He was practically glued to her, so close she could feel the heat from his big body radiating against her skin.
The good thing about her partner’s over-protectiveness was that The Beast wasn’t coming anywhere near her. He stood well back, giving her partner a wary eye as he talked her through the guided tour.
They had already seen the enormous jungle room which housed the Zodor Death Porn. Bone-chilling roars emanated from its leafy green depths and thundering footsteps could be heard in the distance. There was no porn being filmed there that day due to the recent loss of the tirano trainer but the angry beasts were apparently being kept hungry in order to get them ready for the next vid-shoot.
Of equal interest was the Aqueous Enclosure, an enormous tank filled with million of gallons of water. It was divided into two sections—the smaller, fresh-water tank and the larger salt water one. In it, various aqueous aliens had been doing all kinds of underwater sexual acrobatics.
Most of them just looked like fish to Cassie, but she had seen what appeared to be a mermaid and merman engaged in vigorous coupling, which was only made possible by the fact that the merman had a penis that appeared to be something like three feet long. He had been swimming after the mermaid, who appeared to be trying to escape, and poking her from behind with the bulbous red tip of his extra-long penis.
It was a bizarre sight which left Cassie feeling uneasy. Was this some kind of rape porn? Or was it just the mating habits of the merpeople? She didn’t know and didn’t want to ask The Beast, knowing his own disgusting record of rape and murder.
Even now it was an effort to pretend to be interested in what he was saying when she mostly just wanted to shoot the bastard right between his fake-gold eyes. She couldn’t help thinking of poor Leela back on Earth and the awful things this asshole had done to her. Not to mention his victim from the snuff film…
“…the Aphrodisiac Lab,” The Beast said and she realized she had missed what he was saying because she was hating him so hard.
“Um, sorry—what was that?” she asked, as they started moving again.
“I said, that way is the Aphrodisiac Lab,” the Beast repeated, pointing to a corridor to one side of The Pit. “But there’s no porn there, so it’s not really worth seeing.”
“Oh, show me anyway—please!” Cassie begged quickly. “My, uh, body-slave was trained as a botanist before I bought him—I know he’d love to see it.”
“Uh, sure. Okay.” The Beast cast another uneasy look at Stone and then jerked his head in the direction of the corridor he had pointed out. “Let’s go.”
Cassie and Stone followed him down the long hallway, around a corner, and found themselves standing in front of another broad, glass window. This area was filled with various plants in pots. Some of them had special, colored lights focused on them and a few were enclosed in clear tanks filled with fine mist. A few of the plants had vivid, bright blossoms but others didn’t look much different from regular grass or moss or mushrooms.
“What did you say they grew in here?” she asked The Beast, eyeing the door to the lab and wondering which—if any—of the plants they saw through the window were the Pain Fruit variation of the Kindred Bonding Fruit.
“Aphrodisiacs,” The Beast told her. “Gozer—I mean, his Slimefullness—gathers plants from all over the universe that cause any and every kind of sexual response. I actually tested a new one for him recently,” he added proudly, lifting his chin.
Fury threatened to choke Cassie but somehow she managed to keep it off her face.
“Oh? And what was that?” she asked, as casually as she could.
“A new kind of extract that makes whoever takes it want pain instead of pleasure. It really works too—I was fucking surprised,” the Beast said. “Made the female I was with fucking beg me to hurt her.”
“I see.” Cassie strove to keep her voice neutral and cool. “And what did you do?”
“I gave her what she wanted—what they all want.” The Beast’s eyes gleamed and he laughed, as though what he had done to the innocent girl he’d left at the crime scene was some kind of joke.
You son of a bitch!
Cassie bit her tongue to keep from saying it out loud. She couldn’t help remembering the multiple stab wounds on the victim’s body and the way her head had wobbled loosely on her neck… She wished she could arrest The Beast right now and slap him in handcuffs but unfortunately, that would blow their cover. Also, he wasn’t their only mission, she reminded herself. They needed to get the snuff film and kill the Pain Fruit plants before they could go.
“Who works here in the Lab?” she asked, abruptly changing the subject. “Can we get a look inside?”
“I’m afraid not.” The Beast shook his head. “There’s no admittance unless one of the lab techs or scientists is in there to escort you. Some of those plants in there are really valuable—and some can be fucking dangerous.” He nodded through the glass window.
“Oh, really? Like what?” Cassie asked.
“They got ginna plant in there—the plant itself doesn’t do anything but one single seed will give a humanoid male a hard-on that lasts for a solar month. Also, y’claw blooms. One sniff makes just about anyone unbearably horny for an entire day. Of course, afterwards they’re suicidally depressed for a year, but you get some really great performances out of them before the crash.”