INTERLUDE SEVEN

I have seen many unclothed: men, women… and even a not-inconsiderable number of those that qualify as both or neither. A few have been truly beautiful, I have to admit; a greater number, I must say, have been horrific beyond description. This never bothered me, in the abstract; after all, the ugly still desire beauty… to be close to it, to enjoy it in all the ways that their more attractive brethren do. They cannot help the misfortune of their birth any more than I can.

In eight years, I was had by numerous men (with more than a few repeat offenders… or, as prostitutes everywhere call them, “regulars”; most of these were fabulously rich, and, to be candid, spectacularly incompetent in bed), more than a few women, and a number I disdain to categorize—human, Hermat, and Estrallacean hermaphrodites, mostly. Of the creatures that do not qualify as humanoid, there were Gorn, Felisians, Tzenkethi and one or two of many other species I'll not bother to mention—except for a tentacle-laden creature, a prisoner whose race I didn't then know (he was an adolescent Cephalian, actually) but to whom I shall always be grateful: He had a serrated beak, and was encouraged by his bloodthirsty Orion audience to use it… but indignantly refused to do so, and was instead as gentle with me as he could manage. Thus, we were less than entertaining that night.

Strangely enough, I hope I somehow pleased him.

Chapter Twenty-Nine Chapter Thirty