“I fucked up, man! I fucked up big time!” Jay blurted as he met with Valentino and Osborn right outside their apartments. It was around 10 in the morning, his neighbors were just about to go out for breakfast, and the boy joined them per Valentino's request.

“What you mean you fucked up? Were you below her and thrusting upwards?” Osborn asked as they began to walk unhurriedly by the edge of the fourth layer of the lower city. The sky was clear and it was a warm morning, but the sun was on the opposite side of the gigantic construct, which covered this entire western side in a cool shade.

“What? No, I mean I made a mistake. A fucking bad one,” Jay replied.

“A fucking bad one?” Osborn raised an eyebrow.

“Yea, his people use the term 'fuck' in some... interesting ways,” explained Valentino. “For us, it's mostly a term of endearment. Well, something like 'fuck me' can be an expression of feeling down, as in 'I really need a nice fuck right now'. But it's a positive term.”

“Huh.” Normally Jay would have found this little linguistical difference random and funny, but right now he only found it random. He wasn't really in the mood to care.

“But anyway,” the blue-haired man continued. “It was your first time ever, and without any sort of proper prior training. Don't be so hard on yourself!”

“He can't get hard by himself anymore, can he?” Osborn laughed.

“Witty,” his flatmate admitted, then he glanced at Jay again: “What happened, exactly? What kind of woman was your first provider?”

“What happened? It was fine. My provider was a mil... a mature woman, but sexy.”

“That's nice. What was the issue, then?”

“That I cheated on my girlfriend!”

“Oh. But of course, it's still bothering you...”

“I can't fucking believe myself! Why did I do that? I was gonna have my first time with Kate, I was so looking forward to it!”

“Well, we talked this through already. You had your reasons, right?”

“At least we didn't actually have penetration... yea, like that makes a difference. I'm a total fool! How could I ever show my face in front of Kate again?”

The bulky man shook his head. “Starting the day with a head full of madness is...”

“Leave it, Osborn!” Valentino scolded him, and the big man shrugged.

“And the worst thing is,” Jay said, “just as I was leaving, she called me. And I just... chatted with her like nothing happened, I couldn't admit it. She was so cute, worrying about me and everything! But my dick was in the mouth of another woman minutes before. Fuck!”

“She called you?” Osborn asked. “From up there?”

“From their contact centre, I think. The archprincess was there with her. Oh, and they told me to keep quiet about the call, by the way.”

Valentino turned to his friend. “You hear that, Osborn?”

“I don't get why you think I'm such a loudmouth,” the large man said irritably. “Our new pal may be a bit of a weirdo, but I don't wanna cause more trouble for him.”

“That's good, but we both know your tongue can be quite loose when you drink.”

“What do you want me to say, then? You want me to stop drinking?”

“No, just... do your best. And listen, Jay! Remember what we talked about! Unfortunately for you, your prior lifestyle is incompatible with Motherland's norms. It's really not your fault that your orgasms never depended on women before, but now they will. It's a big deal for someone like you, of course it is! I still think you did nothing wrong. All you did was follow your natural urges, in the way that can be done here.”

“But... but Kate...”

They reached the nearest canteen, and stood in the line of men waiting to get their morning ratio. Right now, Menu A was mushroom and sweetcorn omelette with fresh bread, Menu B was cereal, and Menu C was cheese on toast with tomato salad. Valentino and Jay chose Menu A, Osborn went with all three options. Drinks were optional: there was fruit juice, coffee, tea and mineral water (sparkling or still).

They sat close to the large windows on the front side of the building, and just as they began to eat, the muscular, glass-wearing Michael turned up once again, with a tray of his own (he too was having some omelette).

“Big man!” the guy held up his fist for Osborn.

“Muscle man!” They fist-bumped.

“Waking up earlier and earlier, are we?”

“When a man runs out of credit, his dick tends to pull him out of bed. You know how it is.”

“That's damn right!” Michael sat next to the bulky man, right across from Jay.

“How about you?” Valentino asked. “Is this your breakfast or lunch? Aren't you an early waker?”

“Yea, I'm having a late breakfast today. I just felt like starting the day with a normal session. I had such a cute young ma'am!”

“How did she look like?” Osborn inquired. “Let me visualize!”

“She was a brown-haired girl, more on the skinny side, but in good shape. Tiny tits, strong legs...”

Jay choked on his food, and Valentino patted his back.

“Are you okay, boy?” the man in glasses asked.

“Yea... I'm fine.” Come on, Jay, there is no way she was Kate... right?

“And she was more on the submissive side,” Michael continued. “She really liked doggy style.”

“You're an animal!” Osborn cheered.

“How long was her hair?” the boy had to ask.

“Kind of long, it reached the middle of her back, I would say,” the muscular man replied.

Thank god!

“I see you have a healthy interest in this stuff. I knew you would fit right in with us!” Michael winked at Jay.

“So what are you guys gonna do today?” Valentino asked.

“I'm just gonna chill in the gym all day, chase some blokes around the track,” said the man in glasses. “I still have plenty of credit saved up from last week. And you guys? Osborn, will you work in the city, or would you rather fly out again?”

“Not sure yet,” the large man finished his toast in one large bite. “We'll see.”

“There is gonna be a big escort mission this afternoon, have you heard? Ruby Sulien herself will go out to meet with the Vessivians, plenty of peacemakers needed.”

“Sounds good.” The bulky man raised his cereal bowl to his mouth.

“It's about that new peace treaty, isn't it?” Valentino asked.

“Yea, to honor the agreement,” nodded Michael.

“Those shifty lizard people, they better stay true to their promises this time!” Osborn slammed his now empty bowl down on the table. “Yea, I think I'll be there.”

“I knew you would be interested. And you, Valentino?” asked Michael.

“I'll pass. I have an appointment with a friend of mine this afternoon, we will paint together.”

“Nice. Are you still living the sigma life?”

“For now.”

“In that case... take this!”

The muscular man pulled out one of those sexy magazines from his back pocket. Valentino smiled, shook his head and just focused on his food. Osborn and Michael on the other hand ended up admiring the models, guessing what kind of personalities each of them might have, and what their sexual preferences might be. Michael made sure to show every page to Jay as well, and the boy dutifully looked at the pictures, pretending that it isn't agonizing for him. But when a rather overweight woman was shown to him, he couldn't help but ask: “Do you guys seriously find her attractive?”

“Well... fat women aren't really my favourite, but a woman is a woman,” said the man in glasses.

“That's fat to you? That's not fat,” Osborn stated. “You haven't seen real fat if you think she is fat.”

“Yea yea,” Michael shrugged.

“But what if she ends up picking you for mating?” Jay asked. “Or... imagine the least attractive woman ever, what if she would pick you?”

“Sometimes a man has to take one for the team.”

“Jay, it's not like men don't have preferences,” spoke Valentino. “That's okay to a degree, you just have to be civil about it, polite. Even having sex with the least attractive woman on the planet is not the end of the world, it's not gonna kill you.”

“You should practice seeing beauty in all women, pal,” Osborn suggested.

“Even in old women?” Jay asked.

“There is a cut-off, women cannot be providers above the age of fifty,” explained the blue-haired man. “At that point, the dynamic changes. Older women can still apply for a rendezvous with men, but that's free on our end. And completely randomised, neither side choses their partner in that case.”

“It's nice hanging out with those experienced ladies sometimes,” said Michael. “Sex is not expected, but it's a possibility.”

“Hmmm. And how about men, is there a cut-off for us too?” asked Jay.

“Women's primary sexual value is beauty, and while us men should do our best to be flexible about what we see as such, it is undeniable that beauty deteriorates with age, unfortunately. On the other hand, our main sexual value is productivity. So long as a man can work, he can participate in mating, simple as that,” said Valentino.

“I see.”

“I bet this is all mind-blowing to you, Jay,” the muscle man said. “To think that a dude your age is so inexperienced... In a weird way I almost envy you, it must be so exciting. You have so much fucking ahead of you, my friend! Even with...” he looked around and lowered his voice, “with you having to wear that cage, it's worth it, isn't it?”

Jay didn't know what to say. Osborn glanced at the boy kind of suspiciously, Valentino put his hand on his shoulder, and Michael seemed a bit confused about the awkward silence.

“Sure,” Jay said at last.

“That's the spirit!” a smile returned to the face of the man in glasses. He then gulped down his apple juice and stood up. “Well, I better get going. See you later, fellas!” He fist-bumped all three of them, then left.

“Fuck meee!” Jay sighed.

Osborn slammed his fist on the table. “Oh no, look at me, I'm a poor boy who can't fuck women because of very good reasons, totally necessary reasons! My poor dick, I'm not allowed to use it!” He looked right into the eyes of the boy. “Come on! Just do what you are meant to do! Be free, love women, work for your satisfaction! Tear the universe apart if you have to! You are a man, so live like a man!”

“But...”

“I don't care about your excuses!”

“He is not wrong, Jay,” said Valentino softly. “You don't have to force yourself though, you can take your time. But denying yourself when you don't really want to is definitely not healthy, no matter what planet you are from. I second that.”

“You guys don't get it.”

Valentino put down his fork and wiped his mouth with a napkin. “I sort of get it. Maybe. At the very least, I respect that I don't fully get it. But I'll tell you what: I think if that sort of exclusivity can really work, then honesty needs to be a part of it. One day, you should tell this Kate girl everything. Everything. How it felt to be stuck here, locked up in a chastity cage permanently, not being able to get hard on your own for the first time in your life, all the while seeing all the other men having this freedom. You should tell her how much of a relief our mating system was for you. Because I know it was. And when you tell her all this, it will be up to her. You have to accept that, I think. I mean, if she would resent you for this part of you, can you two really be together?”

Jay stretched his body, making a frustrated, whimpering sound. “I just don't know. If Kate had sex with other men, that would kill me.”

“That sounds like a you problem,” Osborn stated.

“Yea, that's the exact same bias you wish she could overcome, isn't it?” asked Valentino.

“I fucked up...”

“But you do wish she could overcome it, don't you?”

Jay stayed silent.

“You have all the time to reflect upon yourself,” the blue-haired man continued, “but in the meanwhile, how about working to save up some credit, just in case? You still wouldn't have to use it, but maybe it would ease your mind a bit, to know that you have that out.”

“Eh...”

“Listen, boy!” Osborn stood up, stacking up his empty plates on his tray. “I'm gonna apply to that peacemaker job the muscle man talked about. If you wanna, you can team up with me, I can show you how it's done.”

Jay shrugged. “Why not, I guess.”

The large man walked to the nearest tray-holder trolley, dropping off his stuff, then he walked back to their table. “These kinda jobs pay well, cause of the risks. But this one won't be difficult, we will just have to be there, and there will be a ton of us. A good introduction for a rookie like you.”

“Hmmm.”

“About the third guy, though... Valentino, you think it's okay if it's someone random?”

“Should be fine. Just try not to talk about Jay's unusual stuff in front of him.”

At that moment, the boy got a text message. It was from Mack Thomson. “Hello, my friend from Earth! Doing okay? There is gonna be a cool peacemaker mission coming up, wanna join me?”

 

The peacemaker facilities of Motherland were inside the cityhull, past the hangars of the peacemaker ships. These facilities consisted of storage rooms, a few office rooms, changing rooms and shooting ranges. There was even a course where apparently guys could practice against each other at any time, using toy guns – sort of like laser tag.

Jay met up with the handsome Mack right outside the large opening of the hangar, and they walked in together, going past the black ships of Motherland's soldiers. This time, there were quite a few working men around, guys on mechanic jobs doing a last check up on the peacemaker ships before the big outing. There were regular men too, mostly small groups, walking on the side of the hangar towards the automatic doors leading in. Two hours were left till the departure, and some squads were already grouping up. There was a sense of restlessness and excitement in the air.

“How have you been? Are you getting used to our ways?” Mack asked. He lived a layer above, on the fifth level of the lower city, but of course he could easily come down to join his two squad mates – team ups like this were not that unusual.

“I guess,” Jay answered slowly, with a tired and expressionless face.

“Have you gotten a... release?”

“Yea. I have done it once.”

“I knew you would come around, fucker!” Mack said with a friendly smile. ”It's really not that bad, is it?”

“I guess not...” Jay said not too enthusiastically.

“Oh man, aren't you excited?” Mack rubbed his hands together. “We will escort the archprincess personally, the amazing Ruby Sulien! You surely know who she is by now, right?”

“Uhum. I even talked to her.”

“You did?” the blonde looked at Jay with a bit of jealousy in his eyes. “But I guess that makes sense, you are kind of a special case, after all.”

“Seems like it...”

They entered a long corridor, and walked towards a door on its other end, the entrance of the peacemaker facility. It had one of those fingerprint machines next to it on the wall.

“You seem to be a bit down, my friend. Are you homesick?”

“That's part of it.”

“Cheer up, my guy! Everything will be all right, you are in good hands!”

After Jay changed into the black uniform of the peacemakers in a locker room, he really was able to momentarily forget about his suffering, at least somewhat; Mack taught him how to use a blaster, which was pretty cool. These laser-projectile shooting guns were straight out of a sci-fi. They were surprisingly light compared to the guns of Earth (Jay used to go to a shooting range with his uncle) and they were easy to use as well, with very little kickback. Their projectiles and their sound were quite similar to something like the guns of Star Wars, and they left smoking holes on the cardboard targets they shot at. The walls behind the targets were made of a special material that was resistant to these blasts, of course.

There was a group of three, and a lone man practicing in the same shooting room as Mack and Jay. The lone guy was focusing quite intensely, firing round after round, as soon as his blasted targets were replaced by the automated system. The group of three was arguing about a TV show while nonchalantly shooting a shot every once in a while. Jay himself has already been practicing for about half an hour, and he was starting to score pretty well.

“Check this out! My special move!” Mack ran from the entrance of the range with blaster pistol in hand, lunging forward, doing a dive roll. He landed and got to his knee, looking a bit disoriented for a second. Turning suddenly to the left (towards their firing lane), he released a series of shots at his targets. He completely missed the first five shots, but he did land the remaining three.

“Oh wow...” Jay chuckled.

Mack stood up. “Two years ago, on the planet Deltuin Seven, my squad was chased down by a group of mixed race scavengers. It was a desolate planet where once an alien civilization existed, we were sent there to search for artifacts, and just to explore the place. Suddenly, this other ship turns up, hovering in the distance, obviously watching us. We get on our own ship and try to leave, but they get behind us and start shooting at us, damaging the ship. We land, crashing into this ancient alien building, and we call for reinforcements. We hear that those scavengers are getting on our ship, so we hide in the bathroom, trying not to make a lot of noise. And then, as I hear them getting close, I think about women. I think to myself: 'If these scum kill me now, I won't ever get to feel a woman's embrace ever again.' I'm filled with anger and determination, and I dive out onto the corridor just like this, surprising them, and shooting the crap out of them. Pew pew pew! And they are all dead.”

“Wow. Did this really happen?”

“Of course it happened! It's documented too, I can ask for a copy of the files later, if you want proof.”

“Nah, it's okay. It's pretty insane though.”

“Just a day in the life of Mack Thomson. You know how we got the better of those Bagawians too, the ones who captured you. That was more of a calculated effort, and they aren't the quickest bunch, but yea. I do have a good amount of experience, you better believe me.”

“So... could something like that happen today, then?”

“Us being attacked? Not likely. Motherland is a famous superpower in the multiverse, so it's rare that others dare to mess with us. Today, it's gonna be especially unlikely, there will be a ton of us, a whole convoy. But even if something happens, I'll be there, so don't worry!”

“Okay.” The boy turned to the targets to shoot again, this time imagining the possibility that he might seriously end up in a real fight one day. He had mixed feelings. Is he an idiot for risking his life for no reason? Being a badass space soldier though... Either way, everybody was saying that this mission will be a safe one, so for now, he surely doesn't have to worry.

“Nice shots! We might have a promising future together, boy! Mack Thomson and the Earth-person, the legendary duo. Doesn't sound bad, does it?”

They continued practicing for a while, then the blonde led the boy back to the changing room, where now a bunch of freshly cleaned spacesuits arrived, those black astronaut outfits. Jay picked one his size and tried it on – Mack said they will need these suits on the planet where they are going. There were no issues, the suit fit well, and it too was surprisingly light. It had an in-built communication system, adjustable with the panel on the forearm of the costume, which allowed squad members to communicate from a distance. They tried that, and then they took off their suits, packing them in a bag for the journey. They were strangely foldable too.

Meanwhile, more and more men came into the facility, changing into their black outfits, packing their spacesuits, arming themselves with weapons. Eventually, a slightly robotic, female voice announced that it's time for them to move out, to get on their ships. Mack and Jay exchanged a puzzled look. The boy pulled out his phone and called Valentino (as he still didn't have Osborn's number).

“I know, I know, he fell asleep. He is on his way know.”

“But the mission is starting right now!”

“I knew I shouldn't have went on a walk... but he swore it will just be a bit of a snooze, and that he will wake himself up in time. Well, I do hope he makes it, he might get there any second now.”

“What if he doesn't make it?”

“You guys won't be able to go. And he will be penalized with some negative credit, but only him, if you two are there in time.”

“All right... thanks.”

“In case he makes it, good luck! And in case he doesn't, see you soon!”