FALAHA'S JOURNEY Into Pleasure | 18+

4. FALAHA

The Head of BIOME Industries was angry.

Angry probably wasn't the right word to describe the deep pit of dark rage boiling at his core underneath his always-shaven but already-stubbly golden skull as his gaze scanned—no, more like attempted to peel off the skin from every quiet and serious face of his scientists and engineers present. Even Eyuran kept his head down under the heaviness of his father's sharp stare. Needless to say, none of the people gathered here seemed pleased with the situation either.

Aa. Everyone I've met seemed so intense today!

Since parting with Ainne at the reception foyer and taking an elevator to the upper level, for a brief moment I stood peeking through the slightly opened door. Finishing my situation assessment, I entered BIOME's conference hall quietly, observing plenty of angry people who allowed only quick glances my way, too absorbed in their own matters, and took the empty seat by Eyuran's side. He gave me a quick, disoriented smile, like he wasn't expecting my sudden appearance here, and a kiss, then focused on his dad again.

The initial aggression waned, yet I still had this dreadful feeling like I had just walked into a kill zone.

A couple minutes later I slowly began getting the picture of what was going on with my second spouse.

The source of Orewen's frustration lay on the round table in the middle of the hall: a small black box, with its lid open.

From all I, and everyone, knew, the box was what BIOME packed in their renowned high-quality recreational technology.

While this particular box was identical to the original and carried the same shiny BIOME mark, its contents were what had turned my second spouse from a loud but kind and loving man into a quietly (for now) raging monster no one currently dared to cross paths with. Yet I could feel everyone's tension and emotions slowly catching up with the Head's, and knowing our hot-blooded people well, I could tell this room was about to explode.

The problem? Their, and first and foremost Orewen's, reputation was at stake.

The issue appeared to be days old, yet strangely enough, none of the Eaters bothered telling me anything about this at all. Nothing. I had been living in a carefully sustained information bubble, though they continued being supportive in all my endeavors, all of my exploration and research mission plans and several new long- and short-term tasks from the Rjg to the crew of Gal Runagh, as if nothing had been troubling them at all.

Even now both were catching glimpses of me, of my reaction, as if there was something they were trying to conceal from my knowledge. This behavior—I would say they were intensely thinking about how they should cover up something before I discovered what had been going on. Did I make my appearance at the wrong time? True, right now I was supposed to be at a different place, but I'd made a change of plans and dropped by slightly earlier than promised. And I didn't need permission to visit my spouses whenever, wherever.

Keeping my ear tuned in to the conversation and noise in the hall, I continued with my observations, while also tapping and browsing into latest BIOME news and announcements, and other, personal data that correlated with those. Normally, I rarely had to read those, learning all things going on socially and within our kennar and family firsthand from my Eaters and others.

The current issue—I would bet my arm that even my father knew about it in detail. Only a bunch of powerful kennar heads had such an influence to create a vacuum around me. The other one was definitely Ainara.

Digging into the soma of angry or frustrated people was not a light and pleasant experience, so I waited until it all calmed down to look deeper and used the publicly accessible part of the siSystem Node network to gather information.

What I found only partially explained my spouses' behavior.

It appeared that the case of counterfeit pleasure toys came to light when, during his last medical shift, Orewen himself had to remove items out of people's butts stuck there due to a technical malfunction, exposing issues of torn-off safety cords and other failures while in use. People doing silly experiments and ending up in Urgent Care or Trauma Ward was nothing unheard of—and in Orewen's nearly two-century-long medical career he'd seen plenty of youngsters and older folk doing crazy things out of curiosity or on a dare and getting hurt—but such item failures had never happened before. Ore ordered a full check on every piece of technology they were producing: from space suits and things of necessity to tiny fun vibes. Since this information was now publicly open, the matter had been huge. BIOME had to issue a warning about certain items to prevent more cases of people getting uncomfortable or into trouble while expecting to have a pleasurable experience.

The good thing was that non-originals, according to available reports, had parts in them that BIOME never put there for reasons of safety and durability, which distinguished the counterfeits from the quality products!

Since I'd found everything out so suddenly, I had yet to figure out where these items came from and how they ended up with the users. Was it a prank? Did someone aim to defame BIOME and push them out of their niche? Was it someone on the inside?

The answers to some of these questions were likely to be found at the beginning of the supply chain: the materials and their origin, methods of production, and so on. Something that BIOME had probably dug out while bypassing support from the Peacekeepers. The actual breach was somewhere in the middle of the supply chain, starting right after production of the items, though supply chain security was high.

Anika's people were definitely already investigating the matter and I decided to check with her later. The first person to fall under suspicion—Grandfather Yaren—wasn't behind the shady business affair this time for sure. As strange or even silly as it appeared at first glance, the whole mess could end up in disaster, because from what I was observing at this meeting, BIOME people were about to take the matter into their own hands and initiate a headhunt to drag the culprits out. Seems like they already had an idea where to look and who was behind this sabotage. Even before Orewen began his speech to propose a plan of action, his face made it obvious that whoever gets caught will be subjected to truly horrific things that will absolutely involve those badly-made sex toys.