The three of us stared at the second avian woman and she had a look of pure bliss on her face.

“She will not be happy when she wakes up.” The first avian woman said, then her eyes went to my finger.

“Val is next.” I said and dipped my third finger into the creme and just started to hold it out to her and she dove onto it and suckled on it.

“MMMMM!” Val moaned loudly and her throat warbled when she moved back and my clawed finger was clean. “OH!” She reached between her legs and felt the dampness there. “It make me go!”

“I guess you like me a lot, too.” I said a little smugly.

“You didn't need a dessert to tell you that!” Val said and swatted at me, which made me laugh.

“Now it's your turn.” I said and held the dessert out to the first avian woman. “If you so wish.”

“You want to taste it from my finger?” She asked, surprised.

“It's your nest, so you have the first option.” I said. “If you refuse, then I can't offer it to you know who, because she's unconscious.”

She let out a sigh. “Very well. I won't reject you in turn.” She said and barely touched the dessert with her fingertip and held it out to me.

I gave Val a glance and she gave me a quick nod in return. “Thank you, Honored Matron.” I said and gently licked the small taste of creme from her finger. The flavor hit my tongue and a little tingle went down my spine. Hello. I thought in surprise and she looked at me as if she felt my reaction.

“Now me!” Val said and took a normal amount onto her finger and held it out to me, and I did the same thing she did to me. I plunged my mouth over her finger and sucked it all off. She laughed and warbled in happiness as I did and I got quite a lot of flavor. It was a slightly different flavor and no tingle down my spine.

“Do it again!” Val said and motioned to the dessert, her eagerness and need very apparent. She wanted to know if she could go again from another taste.

I started to dip my first finger into the creme and the first avian woman caught my hand.

“You don't need to keep sharing with me. I've already approved of the food offering.”

“I'm sorry, you have to keep eating it. It's part of the ritual.” I said and finished dipping my finger in. I only took a small amount, so that she wouldn't be insulted, and held it out to her.

“You aren't lying.” She said.

“Nope. Once you start eating, I was told that you have to help finish it or the flavor wanes.” I said and looked at the second avian woman. “Sometimes there are exceptions when they can't finish it, then it's abandoned and wasted.”

“We can't waste such good food.” Val urged the first one, who sighed.

The first one leaned forward slightly and quickly licked the small amount from my finger and she warbled in pleasure again. It surprised her that it tasted just as good as the first taste, even though there wasn't as much, and she stared into my eyes. I felt a very gentle probe and opened my outer mental defenses to let it in.

You desire me. She thought to me in her native language. She struggled with it, as if she hadn't thought that strongly in a long time or had someone to do it with.

Apparently, I really like a challenge. I thought back in her native language and she smiled briefly. I did not return the thought that she desired me, since she was so adamantly denying it to herself. I didn't want to cause trouble, so I dipped my third finger into the creme and Val sucked and licked it off. She reacted the same way as before and she kept a hand between her legs and warbled and chirped happily.

By the time the second avian woman woke up from her pleasure overload, she had completely missed the rest of the great dessert. To say that she wasn't happy was an understatement. Not about missing the dessert, about me giving her so much pleasure that she passed out from it and I wasn't even one of her species. Both Val and the first avian woman had to stand between her and me to stop her from attacking.

“I will rip your eyes out, usurper!” The second avian woman spat at me over the other two women's shoulders. “I will tear your manhood off with my teeth and spit it in your face!”

“I think that's a little uncalled for.” I said. “Then again, you would have to use your mouth to get that close...”

She ignored my implied sex act. “No one can do what you did to me and live! No one!”

“It was just a dessert.” Val lied and the Presence wavered, then she laughed when we all looked at her. “Oh, all right. It was like a creamy mating ritual.” She admitted. “Every taste made me go. Every one.”

The second avian woman squinted her eyes at her as if waiting for the lie, then she glared at me. “One of these days when you fall asleep, there will be no one around to protect you.” She said with a deadly warble. “It is then I will strike and I will make you pay for what you've done!”

“Good.” I said and she looked at me in surprise. “I declare a truce between us until then.”

The three of them took in sharp breaths at my acceptance of her threat.

“Very well. A truce it is, until such time as the conditions are met to break it.” The first avian woman declared.

The second avian woman relaxed as all of the tension and anger left her. “I'll be watching and waiting.”

“I know you will.” I said with a smile, then I motioned at the nest. “Shall we bed down for the night? The guard won't try to come looking for us until tomorrow.”

“What will we do about all of this?” Val asked and waved at the dug out areas as we settled down in the nest.

“Oh, I didn't say he would succeed. I said he would try.” I joked. “We're staying in here for a week, just like they wanted.”

“What about food?” Val asked and cuddled into me at one side of the nest, as far out of the way of the other two women as possible.

“I have it.” I said. “I got it just before we were brought in here.”

“You have a week's worth of ration trays with you?” The first avian woman asked.

I quickly took out seven of them and put them back into a bag of holding. “They are flavored as well.”

“The administrator was right.” Val said with a laugh and kissed me. “You are ruining this punishment.”

“I really am.” I gave her a kiss back. “I do like being all alone sometimes, so even if I let myself stay in solitary confinement, it's not even close to being a real punishment for me.”

“We can leave you alone and...” Val started to say.

“No, I can be alone at any time by cutting off my senses. How often am I going to be alone with three strong women like you?” I asked and they didn't say anything. “We have a week to spend together and we don't have to work or do anything for anyone else except ourselves.” I smiled. “I'd like to hear your story if you want to tell it.”

“Do you really want to know?” Val asked.

“I do.” I held her close and she started to speak in a mix of common and her own language, when the terms she used didn't have a spoken equivalent.

*

The next day a few people were in a meeting in the administration section.

“The intercom still works at least.” One of the guards said.

“None of the cameras?” The administrator asked and he shook his head. “Did you send someone down to check on them?”

“Yes, and we can't open the door or see into the isolation hallway.”

“What? How did that happen?”

“As far as we can tell, it's filled with dirt.” One of The Order members said.

“It's WHAT?”

“I only have a limited detection range.” He admitted, even though it was kind of a secret that most of The Order could develop the ability to see the Presence through walls. “From what I can see, there are several tons of dirt and rock on the other side of the door. Since it swings inwards, it can't be moved.”

“We can't cut through it, either.” The guard said. “That will leave nothing between the cells and the stairs to leave the building.”

The administrator sighed. “What do you recommend we do?” She asked The Order member.

“The preliminary survey of the area shows that there's nothing on that side of the building. No caves, no natural fissures or escape routes. If they were trying to leave, that was the worst place to try a jail break.”

“Wait, where did all the dirt come from?” The administrator asked.

“The supervisor said that Hunter has a digging tool on him.” The guard said. “He also said there's no rules about loaning the diggers, to his surprise, since they are needed to clean things up occasionally while mining.”

“By the goddess, how has it come to this?” The administrator asked. “We have a rogue from The Order messing everything up, and he only just arrived!” She exclaimed. “I order you to bring him here to see me.” She said, angrily. “Don't cut the door down. Cut into the wall beside it. We can easily patch the wall afterwards.”

“What about the dirt filling the hallway?” The guard asked.

“Once you cut into the wall, recruit a dozen prisoners to shovel it out of the way.”

“Yes, ma'am.” The guard said and saluted.

“That's going to take several days.” The Order member said.

“I don't care.” The administrator said as her anger simmered. “You will go in there and find him, wherever he has dug to. I will have him here in front of me and I will be making a few things very clear to him.”

“I can assist you if...”

“No, he won't harm me. If he did, he would never leave this place.”

*

I stayed awake all night after listening to Val's fairly mundane story. She had been caught trying to swindle a high ranking Order member out of a few thousand credits and he had been so outraged at someone being able to trick him that he had her sent here for a life sentence, without a trial, over eight years ago.

Neither of the other two women volunteered to speak, so I eased the three of them to sleep with Presence and didn't have to worry about the second avian woman trying to attack me on the very first night.

When I felt someone enter my limited detection range, I immediately read their loose thoughts. Damn, they want me already? I asked myself with a laugh, then I carried all three avian women back to their cells. I laid them on the floor and tucked them into the corner to hide their faces and they would stay asleep for as long as I wanted and wouldn't freak out about being alone again.

I went back to the nest room and covered the walls with Presence, stored the nest and bath, then used Presence to pull piles of the dirt back into the room and packed it tightly. Surprisingly, most of the dirt fit into the room, so I only had to weld the walls of the cells back into place and didn't have to back fill them with dirt. I reassembled all of the cells and stored my dessert appliance, then used Presence to reattach all of the cameras at once.

That should get their attention. I thought and sat down in the middle of my cell and waited.

*

“You're making us do what?” One of the men asked as they were led into the administration section.

“Digging.” The guard said and led a dozen prisoners down the stairs to the isolation section and came to a stop. In front of him were three guards and an Order member, part of the wall cut away, and they were staring into the empty hallway beyond. “What's going on?”

“It's gone.” One of the guards said and put down the plasma cutter. “We just cut into the wall to clear the dirt out and there's no dirt.”

“What?” The other guard walked over and looked into the hallway. He didn't see any trace of dirt. “How is that possible?”

“I didn't think it was possible to fill the thing with dirt, so I have no idea how it's not now.” He said. “Now I have to weld this back in place.”

“You can hold off on that.” The Order member said. “If it happens again, we need the quick access.”

The guard nodded and pushed the plasma cutter aside and opened the security door.

“It looks like we don't need the extra help, so you can take the prisoners back to the mine.” The Order member said to the guard with the prisoners.

“What about our extra rations?” One of the men asked.

“Did you do any extra work?” The Order member asked him.

“No, but...”

“Then no extra rations.”

“We walked all the way up here...”

“... and you'll walk all the way back.” The Order member said and went through the security door and into the isolation section.

“Well, back we go.” The guard said and had them turn around and they all started walking.

“This isn't right.” One of the other prisoners said.

“I walked it twice to get you here and I have to walk it twice to come back.” The guard said and led them away. “Talk to me again about fairness.”

The prisoners stayed quiet and followed him all the way back to the mine.

*

I almost laughed and watched them cut away part of the wall. I had been tempted to turn off the plasma cutter to give them time to check the security feeds and to notice that the cameras were operating again. Instead, I sat there and waited for them to open my cell door.

“Hey, there.” I said and stood up. “Can I lose the shackles?”

“No.” The Order member said and waved me out of the cell. I shuffled out and by him and he and the guard led me out of the area, up the stairs, and through the administration section. We went to a lift and went up two floors, then we went down the hall to a large office. The guard knocked and waited.

“What is it now?” The administrator asked.

“We have the prisoner.” The guard said.

There was the sound of a gasp, a smashed glass, and then clinking sounds as the glass was kicked under her desk. I watched it all through her door and managed to keep a smile off of my face when she said we could come in. As the door opened, she resumed her composed stance and glared at me.

“Sit him down, secure him, then leave.” She said in a voice that brooked no argument. “I have a few things I need to... discuss... with the prisoner.”

Both I and The Order member felt the Presence waver, which meant she didn't really want to discuss anything with me. The guard sat me down on the chair and he hit a button on the back of it. My wrists suck to the arms and my ankles stuck to the legs when the magnetic locks changed alignments. The guard and The Order member left after that and the administrator lifted a small screen on her desk and watched to see them get on the lift and leave the floor.

The administrator nodded and put the screen down. “How did they get you out so quickly?”

“They came in, opened my cell door, and got me.” I said with a smile.

“What happened to all of the dirt in the hallway?”

“It's packed back into where I dug it out from.”

She gave me a surprised look for a moment. “You're not going to deny it?”

“Why would I?” I asked. “It's not like I was digging to escape.”

“What were you doing?” She asked.

“Keeping my word.” I said and didn't elaborate.

“What am I going to do with you?” She asked. “You said you wouldn't cause trouble.”

“I didn't cause trouble.” I said. “You all just assumed I did.”

She glared at me for a moment, then she sighed. “Please tell me something to help me streamline this place.”

“I can't.” I said and she sat on the front of the desk in front of me with a sad face. “Although, if I did some things on my own... without telling you... I'm sure that would get by the rules.”

“Like what?” She asked eagerly and I just smiled at her. “Hunter, I can't just let you roam around doing whatever you want.”

“I didn't ask you to, since I've been doing that anyway.” I said.

“What do you want?” She asked and held in her sigh.

“I told you before that I'm just here to relax. I'm going to be here for a while and I'm going to be comfortable.”

“All on your own.”

“No, I'll need help from a few people. I've got a couple things going and getting certain things will help me.”

“Tell me what you need.”

“You need plausible deniability.” I said. “According to the rules...”

“FORGET the Goddess-damned RULES!” She yelled into my face. “You tell me you can improve things that have worked well for years... for decades... and also tell me you can't TELL ME!” She spat. “If you don't tell me what I want to know, I will have to take measures to make you tell me.”

I gave her a calm face. “Do your worst.”

The administrator gave me an evil smile and reached for my jumpsuit, then opened it up and pulled it off my shoulders. “What's this series of scars?” She asked as her hand started to glow and she caressed the circular scars above my heart to make the skin tingle, then she traced the 'H' symbol. “Marking yourself with your own initial is quite narcissistic of you.”

I didn't say anything and she knelt in front of me.

“Let me show you the most effective interrogation technique to have ever been developed.” She said and reached down into my jumpsuit and her Presence leapt into my body through my manhood. It reacted immediately and almost painfully. “No one has ever resisted it... for long.”

The evil smile never left her face as she interrogated me.