At The End of the Day

                                    By:

                                 Fox Cutter

07/28/98:

I knocked gently on the door to Sora's room as I opened it a
few inches and peeked inside. "Can I come in?" I called to
her.

"Sure," came her muffled voice on the other side of the
room. She was hunched over some equipment, head down inside,
her tail up in the air and her wings flexing slowly as she
worked.

The room was huge, one of the three 'great' rooms in the
house. Sora had claimed it as her bedroom so she could
spread her wings out there full extension while she sleep.
It still gave her enough room to have a lab set up along one
wall.

Entering fully into the room I started accost the wood
floor, trending softly as I went. Stacked and stuffed in the
corner next to where she was working was the data systems we
had recovered from the ship. Most of then had been wired up
into the equipment around her, a few others were pushed to
one side, each marked with a red tag.

I stopped behind her, letting her finish her work. It's been
my experience that disturbing anybody when there head is in
equipment usual leads to a banged head. Part of the reason
why the undersides of all the consuls in the _Falcon_ are
padded.

Eventually she pulled herself out of the equipment. Rubbing
the side of her face gently with one paw, the other was
fishing out some tools. When she was done she turned to face
me, "What brings you here?" she asked. "I thought you and
Oriana would be in bed by now."

I shrugged, it was the middle of the night currently. "Oria
is still on her world," I answered. She had returned for a
short time in the afternoon with our new bed, but went back
home, explaining that she had something to take care of with
her sister.

She nodded, "What brings you here then?"

I waved to the pile of data systems. "I came to see how
things were going with pulling the data."

With a soft sigh she started to walk past me, I followed
just behind. "Not as well as I had hopped," she explained.
"They systems were never made to take that much pressure
from the water, a lot of data has been lost."

I nodded, stopping as she sat down in a chair. I took one a
few feet away as she waved me to sit down. "How much do we
have?" I asked.

"The cut off point is about fifteen minutes before the
crash. Everything before that has lost or scrambled," she
clasped her paws on her lap, her wings fanning out a bit.
"We have good quality for the first ten minutes, only losing
about five percent of the visual data. After that it starts
degrading about twenty percent every minute."

I nodded as she spoke, thinking about this. "Well, if were
lucky it should be enough to prove that you're not hiding
anything."

She smiled weakly. "If were lucky, Graven has never removed
his claim on a debt at any time while I worked for him. This
maybe enough to prove that I'm not hiding anything, but that
still may not free me."

I sighed, "point, point. Any other problems?" I asked,
moving the subject back to where it started.

She smirked. "Which one do you want to know about. The
hardware, the software, communications, storage or display?"

"How about the display problem?" I asked.

"Our display format for visual recordings includes a series
of siding frame compression systems. I just can't expand
everything into a full data stream and save it in a
different display format. I have to actually play it inside
the computers and recorded that playback into something the
systems here can use."

I blew air over my teeth, flexing my claws slightly as I
did. Oria was worked me so I would have independent control
of each one, but it was slow going. "How long do you think
it would take?"

She laughed. "Well, once I get some kind of layer between
the hardware systems so they can talk, maybe a month. It
will take two more weeks before I can even get to that point
though."

I nodded, pushing my glasses up on my nose a bit. "Tomorrow,
why don't you call Malia, she's been working tech here on
Prid for years. I'm sure she has some tips and help for this
type of problem, or at least she can point you to someone
who does."

"Her number is in the computer?" Sora asked.

I nodded again.

She smiled. "That would help a lot, it might even improve on
the display systems I was planning. I'll give her a call in
the morning."

Her smile widened as she looked over my shoulder, "speaking
of in the morning, Oriana's waiting for you."

I turned around in my chair to look at the main door of the
room. Oria was standing inside, a nervous smile playing over
her muzzle.

"I'll talk to you in the morning, you to go get some sleep,"
she laughed, "if you sleep at all that is."

I didn't comment, I just quietly stood up and walked across
the room to Oria. She opened the door as I approached,
holding it open for me as we both steeped into the hallway.

"Anything interesting going on?" She asked as the door
closed.

I shrugged. "Not much really, I'll fill you in if you want."

She shook her head. "No, this is between you and her."

I nodded, folding my arms behind my back as we started to
walk down the hall. "How did things go back on your world?"

She smiled. "Pretty well, Rose and I had an interesting
conversation. One of my better clients stopped by as well."

"Oh?" I asked, understanding what she meant by client.

She paced her arm over my shoulder, pulling me closer to
her. "Does that hurt you?"

"I don't know," I answered, "ask me later."

She nodded and smiled. "Don't worry to much, he wasn't there
to see me, but for Rose."

I stumbled on the rug, nearly falling on my face. Oria's
grip on me was the only the keep my face from meeting the
floor.

"Your sister?" I asked, once I righted myself.

She nodded slowly.

"The same sister that reject you for how many years because
you were a whore?"

She nodded again.

"Why?" I asked, unable to think of anything else.

"A lot of things, we ended up talking about most of them for
three hours before she finally decided to do it." She
answered, "Rose has been running the House for over a year
and a half, a few of the new girls even think of her as the
Lady."

I nodded slowly.

"Did you know that she's been able to run the house in the
black for the last three months? I was never able to do
that, nor was Lady Shandin before me. She was actually
wondering if she should officially take over from me."

"You've commented about that yourself." I pointed out.

She nodded, "I know, I was always joking though. I never
though she actually would soften up enough to consider
running a whore house. Let alone be a whore."

"How did that come about, her deciding to get into your
business?" I asked.

"She just told me she felt strange running the house,
helping the girls and the guys with there different problems
without really having any experience on the subject. So she
finally decided to at least try it once, before she could
talk herself out of it I called up one of my clients who I
knew would be gentle and asked him over."

"And she actually did it?"

She nodded, "She didn't even have to get drunk like I was
the first time. She actually seemed slightly proud when he
paid her. I think she might do it a few more times, she
won't be involved as I am, but every now and then she
might."

"You know your parents will kill you if they ever find out?"
I commented as we started to walk down the hall again.

"Neither one of us wants to tell them." She responded, "all
they know is that Rose is running a successful business and
I'm not working at house anymore, or the streets."

"So Rose will be taking over as Lady then?"

She nodded, wrapping her arm around my shoulder again. "Yes,
we're not sure of when, there are some details to work out.
We have to change the legal owner ship of the house,
re-negotiate all the assorted bribes and the other things
that have to change from Lady to Lady."

I smiled. "So, are you actually going to leave the business
or keep a few personal clients?"

She laughed, "It depends on what my boy-friend says doesn't
it?"

I squeezed her gently. "Well, for right now I don't mind all
that much. Ask me again later though, when I'm used to the
idea of us being a couple."

Oria stopped walked suddenly, pulling me back with a jerk.
We were standing in front of the door into the master
bedroom.

Our bedroom.

"So," she asked softly, "what do we do now?"

"Sleep?" I suggested.

She smiled. "There are other things I could suggest, but you
know what? I want the first time we sleep together to also
be the first time I've sleep with anyone and have it not be
sexual in some way."

I nodded, stepping forward and opening the door. As I past
the threshold I reached for the light, turning it on. The
room was large but barren, the only thing inside of it was
the bed. I guess if this worked out, sleeping together, we
would both move in here, but not yet.

Oria followed me inside, closing the door behind us. We both
striped, I helped her a bit as she had more to take off,
then each slipped under the covers. I was on the left side,
she on the right.

She squirmed a bit under the sheets as she tried to get
comfortable. "Damn this is strange," she finally said,
turning to look at me.

"Agreed."

She reached out and touched me right between my eyes, just
at the top of the bridge of my nose. It was the sign of love
on her world. I returned it willingly.

There was a minute there when either one of use said
anything, we just sort of looked at each other. I couldn't
help thinking about how much things had changed between us
from when we first meet. I was a young kid trying to meddle
through out the multi-verse. She had just become an adult
and had decided to become a prostitute.

Now, now here we were, in bed together, in loved with each
other, and both of us feeling strange about it. Kind of
wired in it's way I guess.

Oria broke the silence. "Fox, there's something I need to
tell you?"

"What?" I asked.

She sat up in the bed, not bothering to stay modest with her
breasts. It didn't matter as much to either of us now.

"Remember those pills you had to take when we were
switched?"

I nodded. "Yes," I said, sitting up myself, "you said they
were for a hormone imbalance."

"Right, they where. There birth control pills."

I chuckled. "Well, I guess it makes sense, I did take a few
liberties with your body."

"With my permission," she responded with a smile. "But
that's not the reason why. My species, we don't have the
usual menstrual cycle like most do. We go into heat."

This got my attention, "oh really? How often?"

"About every other month," she responded, "they are easy to
time and you only need to take the pills during them."

"So," I asked, "When we were switched was the time you where
suppose to go into heat?"

She shook her head. "No, that's just it, I don't know _when_
I'm suppose to be in heat. Something is wrong with my
internal clock, some times it could be months apart, other
times just days."

"I see, so you take the pills all the time so you don't
accidentally go into heat."

She nodded, "Yes, it's embarrassing to do so in public, and
if I was with a client at the time I would be pregnant."

I shook my head, "That wouldn't be good."

"Right, but there's more... the longer I take the pills, the
more times I miss, the stronger my next heat will be."

I had never heard of that before. "How is that?" I asked.

"The pills trick the body into thinking it's pregnant," she
explained. It was the same way most birth control pills
worked actually. "The problem is it doesn't work as well as
being pregnant. Normally, while pregnant, the hormones that
cause the heat bleed of safely. With the pills it doesn't,
it builds up."

She took a quick breath, "Different people have different
levels for how much there body can hold before having to
bleeding some off. Mine is moderate, when I'm in a full heat
I can control myself. Some people can't though, I once had a
girl who held back her heat for over a year. When she
finally had one she was so overwhelmed that she couldn't do
anything else for the next three days," she sighed, "it was
only by the greatest of luck that she didn't get pregnant."

I bent over to kiss her on the nose. "I can see how much of
a problem this is for you. You dare not miss a pill for fear
of losing yourself."

She nodded. "A heat can be forced as well, I used to do that
at times. Usually at the Temple, I would ask for an
Expulsion for four days and let myself go."

"Why did you stop?" I asked.

She blushed. "I couldn't ever explain it to you, and was
worried what would happen if I lied about it and you found
out."

I nodded, "I see. I don't think you need to worry about it
now that I know. I have no problems with you going off every
now and then to deal with this."

She laughed. "Fox, it would be easier just to force it
around you. I don't think you could get me pregnant, at
least not without a few more transformations."

I smiled a bit. "Lets hope I don't have the transformations
to find out shall we."

She nodded back, sliding back down under the covers. "I feel
more relaxed now." She commented.

So did I now that she mentioned it, I sliding back down as
well just as she yawned. Finally I just reached over and I
turned out the lights in the room.

And you know what? It was one of the best nights of sleep
I've had in ages.

-----

This story is (c) 1998 by Fox Cutter, hardcopy reprints
limited to one a person, all other rights reserved. This
story may not be distributed for a fee except by permission
of the author, and this copyright notice may not be removed.