A PLUNGE INTO DEEP WATER

 

A Somewhat Dark Star Blazers fanfic (Rating: Heavy R): THIS TALE IS NOT FOR THE SQUEAMISH!!!

 

PART TWO: PRESSURE

 

By Frederick P. “Freddo” Kopetz

 

References to Star Blazers and Space Battleship Yamato are intended as homages and no infringement is intended. Star Blazers and Space Battleship Yamato are © 2011 by Voyager Entertainment and Engagio Productions. Also, references are made to the works of Stephen King. No Infringement is intended.

 

Thanks to “Yuki Wildstar,” Gail Kopetz, and Ami Meitsu for ideas contributed to this chapter, and a A BIG Shout-out to ANONYMOUS READER for ideas contributed.

 

 

I. CHANGES

Planet Earth

Idlewild Fighter Base

Friday, April 7, 2209

1902 Hours: Earth Space-Time

About ten days after Easter, Commodore Derek Wildstar found himself in the Officers’ Club at Idlewild Fighter Base, where the Black Tigers were stationed since the Argo was currently on Inactive Reserve status.

In the Officers’ Club, Derek waved when he passed a booth and saw Captain Mark Venture in the modernistic-looking round booth with Lt. Commander Deke Wakefield.

He said, “Guys, I just got paid; I’m buying. Name your poisons?”

“Anchor Steam Beer for me, sir,” said Wakefield.

“I don’t know if they’d have this, because it’s not the States,” said Venture. “But see about getting me a bottle Genesee, Wildstar?” Venture said. “If not, I’ll drink the same Sapporo you drink.”

“Sure, guys,” said Derek. He came back a few minutes later with a bottle of Anchor Steam for Wakefield, Venture’s requested bottle of Genesee, and a can of Sapporo Ichiban for himself. The three old comrades opened their beers and drank. Then, Venture said, “How are Nova and the kids doing?”

Derek sighed. “Jonathan’s doing great; he loves the Junior Space Cadet Corps, and he’s a squadron leader, now. Wakefield, I’m so glad you talked Nova and I into letting him join up through his school. It’ll really help him when he applies for the Academy his senior year.”

“So, he’s going full-out EDF?” said Venture.

 “Yup. And Nova’s cool with that, too.”

“How are the chirpy twins doing?” said Venture as Deke smiled. Deke was more familiar with Alex and Ariel’s antics because he and Sasha were over frequently; Star, who was close to a year old, was now talking and, as could be seen at the Easter Egg Hunt, she was now a partner in crime with her cousins when they got together; and she had picked up a little of her mother’s ability; she had fun showing off by making her pacifier float through the air when no one was expecting it. Being one-quarter Iscandarian, she was actually developing just a little more quickly than her cousins; she was fully potty-trained already, and Sasha had just stopped nursing her the other day when her teeth had started coming in and she had given her mother a good bite on the nipple. Her speech was even more developed than Ariel’s, and she was beginning to pick up a smart mouth.

“Well, Ariel is a bundle of cutesy energy, as always, and Alex is getting even more smart-mouthed,” said Derek. “He also has this obsession with…poop…”

“Yeah, Star is beginning to call him “poopy-head” like Ariel does,” laughed Deke.

“How is Sasha handling Star?” said Derek.

“Well, she’s been a little moody and quiet lately, but I don’t think that’s all that major,” said Deke. “It’s around the time of the month for that to happen…”

“Oh, that,” said Venture. “Holly gets hers around the middle of the month. Wildstar, what’s wrong?”

“Nova’s been really moody and glum the past week,” said Derek. “And she hasn’t told me she’s gotten hers yet. And she usually shares everything with me. In fact, between us, because she’s a nurse and medical student, she’s been the world’s champion of over-sharing in the house lately. But now, she’s clammed up.”

“That sounds like her, and it doesn’t sound like her,” said Venture, who remembered the way Nova had been early in her pregnancy with Alex and Ariel, since she had been serving under his command on the Arizona then. “I remember that she was getting really moody back when she was with us in June and July of 2206 in the Second Cometine war.”

“So, you’re telling me you think she’s…?” said Derek. Remembering the other night, he thought it was a very good possibility.

“Well, she’s acting the same way she was when she was in the early stages of expecting Alex and Ariel, by the sound of it,’ said Mark.

“Deke?” asked Derek.

“It sort of sounds like the same to me, too,” said Wakefield. “Now, granted, those first weeks we were together on the Arizona, I had my head up my ass because I was depressed over the memory of the relationship with Dawn haunting my life. I was seeing a lot of Nova then, but for counseling…but, yeah, she had this…funny look in her eye then. Being around Sasha, you just sorta know when someone’s got a bun in the oven. If you want Sasha over to check her, she’ll let you know in two shakes of a Tiger’s tail whether Nova’s expecting again or not.”

“Uhhh…not yet,” said Derek. “I’d prefer she told me herself; in her own time.”

“I do remember it took her a while to acknowledge it, Derek,” Mark said. “Nova’s a tough cookie in that way. And you know she’ll want to keep on working as much as possible and not get slowed down…she hates even being sick with a cold.”

“Yeah, I know that,” sighed Derek. “For someone who’s about to be a doctor, she makes a horrible patient…”

“Tell me about it,” said Deke. “Funny thing is…Dawn called me again the other day.”

“Don’t tell me she’s starting that again,” Derek sighed.

“No, she was just feelin’ nostalgic and wanted to see how I was doin’,” said Deke. “She couldn’t take for long. She was cooking dinner for Jeff; they’re still together, you know,  and she told me David started to learn how to walk not long ago. He sounds like quite the kid,” Deke laughed. “I talked with Sasha later on, and she said she would not be averse to going over to Jeff and Dawn’s new place at the Rio Amarillo complex to have Star meet David…so long as Dawn behaves herself.”

“Hmmm,” said Derek. “Maybe we can tag along if you guys do it on a weekend? Nova would love to see Dawn again, she said, and the same with Lynn…”

“Sounds like we may have a road trip set up,” joked Deke. “Okay, when I call Dawn and Jeff again, I’ll let ‘em know of your interest…”

Later on, when Derek got home, he found Nova and her mother arguing in the kitchen. Teri looked overdressed, as usual, in a long blouse, slacks, and a very elaborate pair of house slippers, while Nova wore only a scoop-necked white tank top and dark pink gym shorts and went barefoot.

“Nova, that is not the way you make a roast,” Teri said. “You have to make sure you tie back the fat…”

“Mother, I am trying to make a Tuscan recipe here, and all you are doing is lousing me up!”

David Forrester ran into the kitchen a moment later. He was chasing Alex. He caught up with him, tripped him, and began to tickle the bare-chested toddler, making him giggle and scream as he tickled the younger boy and made faces at him. Nova noticed and threw down her roast. “David! STOP that! You’re being horrible! He doesn’t like being tickled for more than two minutes!”

“Alex is a goofy kid, sis!” said David as he tormented the younger boy. “Look at his goofy face.”

“QUIT IT!” bellowed Derek as he walked into the room. David looked reproachfully at Derek and began to sit there and cry exaggerated tears while Alex ran up to his father and hugged his legs hard. “Thank woo, Daddy,” said Alex.

“You’re welcome, sport,” Derek said, giving his son a kiss on the head. He looked at Nova and said, “Good evening. You look stressed.”

 “Ha! Laugh it up!” Nova barked. “I am stressed, Mophead! And Mother here is not helping!”

“Nova, what gives Derek the right to scream at my son like that?” Teri huffed.

“The fact that this is his house, too,” Nova snapped. “Even if he sometimes stays out a little late at the Officers’ Club after work!”

“And you tolerate his staying out?” snapped Teri.

“What I choose to tolerate and not to tolerate from my husband, is, quite frankly, none of your business!” Nova snapped.

“Mrs. Forrester, what’s going on here?’ said Derek. “You apparently had chaos back at your own home and you are creating it here, too?”

“Derek, I see your point,” Nova said. “You could be a little less blunt about it. This is my mother, here…”

“Nova, I…” said Derek.

“Please hold that thought, dear,” Nova said. “Mother, how close are you to finding a new place?”

Teri didn’t answer.

Nova looked at Teri and said, “Mother…I asked you a question. How close are you to finding a new place?”

“Why would you ask that?” Teri snapped.

Derek gave Nova a searching, “Shall I talk?” look. She nodded, and Derek said, “Because you are causing a lot of tension here, Mrs. Forrester.”

Teri sighed, “You have those two weird purple-haired women living here on your grounds!”

Nova said, “The Tsukikages pay us rent; they live in the old beach house, and they are not that much trouble. Unlike you, Mother, they do not seek to tell us how to live…”

Ariel then came up to her mother, whimpered, and tried to pull up her tank top. Nova knew what the toddler wanted, and she said, “I’ll give you that in the bedroom, dear. I’m just finishing this talk with Grandma…”

“What’s this I hear about you and that robot on your ship who chases your skirt?” Teri said.

“IQ-9?” Nova said. “Mother, it is a programming defect, inerasable, we think.”

“Good girls do not lead on robots,” Teri sniffed.

“I do not LEAD HIM ON!” Nova snapped. “He chases me whether I like it or not!”

“Well, good girls…”

Nova glared at her mother and said, “Before you judge me, Mother, see how you feel if you walk around for a year with a love-sick robot chasing YOU around!”

“I never had to deal with that,” said Teri.

“Yeah, and you never had to cope with being captured by giant humanoid alien bees who think that you are the Gamilons?” Nova said. “And then, IQ-9 protected me from them when they tried to kill me with…tree branches?”

“From what I saw of it when I got there, they were striking you and IQ-9 with sticks made from tree limbs…crude weapons,” Derek said.

“It hurt when they hit me-it really stank to get captured,” Nova added.

“And how did you get captured?” said Teri.

“She couldn’t help being captured!” Derek said. “She was on a recon mission alone with IQ-9 and she got overpowered!”

“Grandma, why are you hanging out here?” Ariel asked. “All you do is cause trouble!”

“Grandpa and I had a big fight,” Teri said. “You need know no more than that…”

“Although, I think we should discuss it…later,” said Derek. 

Nova nodded at that. Then, she looked at Alex and asked, “Like to come into the bedroom with us?”

“No. Wanna go outside and play with Jonathan…”

“Jonathan, would you take him outside?” Derek said. He was well aware of the problem of how David loved to pick on him, and he was glad that Jonathan helped them protect the toddlers from Nova’s bratty little brother and sister, who were close to wearing out their welcome in the Wildstar household.

“Sure,” said Jonathan. “C’mon, Alex. Let’s go play with your trucks…”

“Later, Daddy, Mommy. Don’t let gramma make you sick and throw up?”

Nova giggled as Teri gave her grandson a dirty look. Derek smiled at Alex and kissed him before Jonathan led him outside. At the same time, Ms. Eloise, their household robot, came in. She said, “Nova, how long on that roast?”

“Two hours. Call for us in ninety minutes so I can begin working on the potatoes,” Nova said.

“And you still have no idea how to cook those,” Teri said.

“Mother, please!” said Nova. “We’ll see you later.”

___________________________________________________

Time passed in Nova and Derek’s bedroom.

In the bedroom, Nova stripped off her clothes in the heat, laying out a fresh top (something like a loose camisole; her mother be damned) and shorts to put on later while she gave Ariel a quick shower. When she was done with the toddler, Derek stepped into the bathroom beside their bedroom to take his shower. When he came back out, Nova was still naked from her shower, and was cuddling her unclad little daughter next to her, rubbing her back as she gave her one of her breasts. Derek smiled at them, because the scene looked adorable.

Ariel soon fell asleep. Nova smiled at her, kissed her, and Derek, clad in only a fundoshi, followed  as Nova carried her little daughter to the bedroom that she and Alex shared (for now). She tucked her in for her nap, kissed her, and allowed Derek to kiss her and then, her husband led her into the bedroom….

In the bedroom, Derek stripped off his fundoshi, and jumped into bed beside Nova (who had nothing on to take off; of course…)

The couple began to kiss, cuddle, and then, Derek began to play with Nova’s breast, making her gasp with joy when he touched her.

Nova thought, This feels more intense than usual…not that we’ve been able to do this much…at least for the past eight days…Mom, you are putting such a crimp in our lives! It is just ridiculous!

Nova guided Derek’s hands to the center of her…and she began to moan with pleasure as Derek tenderly began to pleasure her…and, then, a while later, as their bodies joined, they melted into each other’s arms (and each other) a while later.

Thankfully, Teri did not disturb them this time out. They had last started doing this eight days ago…until Teri had interrupted them with a knock on the door for some favor or errand. Both of them had been fit to be tied, they were so angry at Nova’s mother at that point.

Later, after Nova and Derek showered together and dressed, they went out to finish making dinner. Another argument ensued between Nova and Teri over how to make potatoes, with Nova giving up and shouting, “Mother, if you know so much about making Tuscan potatoes in beef gravy…”

“Yes?”

“YOU make the damned things! And I mean that! You want to be under our roof? Well, contribute something to the house! I mean that!”

Teri gave Nova a black look as she decided to help Nova make the potatoes.

II. PRETENTIOUSNESS AND RAGE…

Planet Earth

Derek & Nova Wildstar’s Residence

Tuesday, April 11, 2209

2008 Hours: Earth Space-Time

 

Nova’s mother Teri was driving her positively crazy with her pretentiousness as her unwanted stay dragged on…

 

One night, after a family dinner was over with and Jonathan took the kids off to play in the yard, the three adults in the household were sitting about drinking coffee and having some Danishes when Teri looked at Nova, and said, in perfect French (which she spoke well),  “Nova, plus cher, nous a laissés continuent cette conversation en Français.” (“Nova, dear, let’s continue this in French”).

 

Nova rolled up her eyes and responded with, “La mère, Derek ne parle pas français. Il parle anglais standard, japonais, et de l'espagnol.” (“Mother, Derek doesn’t speak French. He speaks Standard English, Japanese, and some Spanish”)

 

“What are you two going on about?” Derek said.

 

Teri grinned evilly and said to Derek, in incomprehensible (to him) French, “Nous parlions de combien incivilisé et de combien uncultured la plupart des militaires comme vous sont.” (“We were talking about how uncivilized and how uncultured most military men like you are.”)

 

Nova said to a puzzled-looking Derek, “Excuse me, we’ll get you back in the loop in a minute.” Then, she looked at her mother, pointed her finger, and said very quickly and angrily, “La mere…c’elle est une chose horrible à dire à Derek! Et pourquoi allez-vous indéfiniment entre nous dans une langue qu'il ne peut pas comprendre? Est-elle pour rendre lui la sensation stupide?” (“Mother, that is a horrible thing to say to Derek! And why are you going on and on between us in a language he cannot understand? Is it to make him feel stupid?”)

 

Teri really grinned and said to Nova, “Oui, le plus cher Nova de bébé. Mille fois oui. Oui, oui, et OUI!”

 

“I caught yeah, yeah, yeah,” said Derek. “Nova, why is your mother suddenly talking like Pepe le Pew?”

 

Nova replied, “Derek, she is trying to make you look stupid and I am having enough of this. Mother, he does not have time to learn all of these languages. Derek works for a living. Unlike you, with your just teaching a reduced three-course fine arts load this past semester at the University. And what happened with that when you ran away from Boulder?”

 

Teri put her hands against her breasts and said, “My horrible Karl is the one who messed us all up when he said he was tired of me and wanted his space while he thought of divorcing me! Luckily, I have friends and colleagues who took over my remaining few lectures for my Twentieth Century Retrospective of Cubism, Art History of the Late Renaissance, and Life Drawing 202 courses. But I can talk to Assistant Professor Reinsmith if you’d like to fly to Boulder and model for the life drawing class like you did twice for…”

 

“No, thank you, Mother,” Nova said with a bit of a blush. “I don’t care for modeling in the altogether for a three-hour period….”

 

“You did for your child care book,” Teri pouted. “In fact, you’re the primary nude model for your own book.”

 

“May I finish?” Nova said. “I don’t mind posing nude. You know I have done it quite a bit for my book! I do mind being stared at by thirty drooling sophomores while holding up an apple with my bare feet on a cold, cold classroom floor! In case you do not know, that classroom is cold when you go naked in it! The last time I posed nude for you at school, Mother, I was shivering! Don’t you ever think of comfort for your models, Mother? And why did you have me holding an apple that time? That was stupid! If you want people to model for you naked, at least get a nice proper Artists’ Garrett with a skylight and some comfy chairs so we don’t all freeze...or at least turn down the air conditioning!”

 

“I’d like you to model for me, again….” said Derek.

 

Nova blushed and said, “Derek, that is different! You at least use a camera and have me pose for you in a warm, comfortable place and make it nice and quick like we’ve done for our own memory pictures, the baby pictures and for the baby care book. And I think a nude model looks better photographed than painted anyway…”

 

“Philistine,” said Teri. “And why are you modeling for your medical book, again, anyway?” 

 

“You were so agreeable about this when you helped me, Mother! You forgot?” Nova huffed. “I’m the author, Alex and Ariel look adorable, and Derek is a very good photographer. Also, for about forty percent of the illustrations, we are dressed. We’re even using some of the pictures you took of me when I was pregnant. I think they’ll look very nice in the book.”

 

“Nova, your taste is bizarre,” said Teri. Then, she said to her, “Continuons cette conversation en français ainsi il ne nous comprendra pas.” (“Let’s continue this conversation in French so he won’t understand us.”)

 

Nova rolled up her eyes and said, “I le désolé, mère, I le ve perdant Mon Français….et j'ai un mal de tête…” (“I’m sorry, Mom, I’m losing my French, and I have a very bad headache”) Then, Nova looked at Derek, and said, “Let’s leave Mother alone and go down to the rec room and play a video game until the kids come back in.”

 

Derek smiled and said to Nova (and his mother-in-law) in some of the little French he knew, “Oui, Mademoiselle. Merci Beaucoup!” (“Yes, Miss, and thank you very much!”)

 

Derek and Nova went off laughing as they ran down into their carpeted basement.

 

Teri Forrester sighed and said, “I don’t think I’m very popular here. Is it because none of you understand the soulful, educated, sensitive artist who wants to protect her eldest daughter from Philistines? Derek is a Philistine! And she is becoming just as smart-mouthed and vulgar as he is! Quel un idiot vulgaire, vous êtes, Nova!” Teri yelled in French. (“What a vulgar fool, you are, Nova!”)

 

Then, Teri just began to cry.

 

__________________________________

 

The next day passed. Nova finished her classes at Medical School for the day and then picked Alex and Ariel up from day care before driving off to her church to spend an hour volunteering to help out sorting canned goods at her church’s food bank for a bit. Nova smiled as Alex and Ariel “helped” her at the food bank while they ran into a young woman named Tania Summerfield. Now, Tania was a musician at the church who had heard Nova playing her piano in solos, and she was a fan of the young EDF officer’s playing.

 

“Nice to see you here, Tania,” Nova said.

 

“How’s Med School going?”

 

“I had a bit of a struggle last semester, but I did all right at the end,” Nova said. “I earned three A’s and one B-plus. Thank God Derek is very supportive…even if we are having some tension at home right now.”

 

“Tension?” said Tania. “Nova, you and Derek seem to be the ideal couple. What would you two have to fight about?”

Nova sighed. “An eight-hundred pound gorilla in our house known as my mother, that’s all. My mother had a fight with my father, who, incidentally, has been trying to reach us. However, Mother has been hanging up the phone. We took Mother and her two youngest in for what was supposed to be a few days, and she’s worn out her welcome. She…”

 

“Mommy, your cell is ringing!” chirped Alex, who was up on his toes in his little sandals. Tanya smiled at the intelligent little toddler, who looked so cute in the little shorty coveralls his mother had dressed him in.

 

“Yes, Mommy is getting it,” said Nova, who kissed her son’s bare little shoulder as she answered the phone. “Derek, is that you?”

 

“No, Nova…it’s me,” said another voice. Nova glanced at the number and said, “Daddy?”

 

“Nova, do you know where your mother is? We had a bad fight around Easter, and she just ran off with David and Aurora, and I haven’t heard from her since!”

 

“I’ve been…in…touch with her,” Nova said as she adjusted a spaghetti strap on the dark pink hot-weather top that she had on with her miniskirt and sandals. “She claims you threw her out?”

 

“No, no, no, Nova,” said Karl, who was almost crying. “We had a fight, and she was drunk, and she just ran out of the house with two suitcases. She left most of her keys behind, including the keys for the apartment in the Megalopolis. Do you know where she’s staying?”

 

“Somewhere here in the city,” Nova replied, being vague only for the moment. “She asked me not to tell you if you called. She claims you hit her and she says she is afraid of you?” Nova shrugged at that, thinking, I don’t believe that….

 

“Nova, that’s such a line of horseshit, and you damn well know it,” said Karl. “I’ve never laid a hand on Teri in our marriage. The one who has…well, you know about her old boyfriend, ‘Uncle Jack’, right?”

 

“She’s mentioned him in the past, Dad,” Nova said.

 

“He was the one who’d hit her. Have you seen any signs that she’s been bruised up?”

 

“Dad, why would you ask that?” Nova said.

 

“When she gets weak…she goes bonkers in her head and sometimes she tries to go back to him. It hasn’t happened much, but…well…she has this tendency to do it. I told her to see her analyst when that happens…him, or our priest.”

 

“Who’s the priest for your church in Boulder now?” Nova said.

 

“Father Hartnell. He’s a nice younger man, but he never connects to your mother like our old pastor did… Too bad Father Likanski is back there in Tokyo…he could always talk her down from her flights of fancy and get her to see reason.”

 

“Rumor has it he’s about to become a Monsignor,” Nova said. “He’s here at St. Luke’s.”

 

“Anyway, please meet me at my office in two hours,” said Karl. “Where’s Derek?”

 

“Finishing up at the Argo,” Nova said. ”I’ll be meeting him in town with the kids for an early dinner…then we can come over.”

 

“I’ll see you and Derek then,” said Karl. “Take care.”

 

“Love you, Dad,” Nova said. Tania turned to her and said, “Personal business?”

 

“Yeah,” Nova said.

 

“I won’t get into that. Ever thought about joining a band?” Tania said.

 

“I’ve played with some bands in the past,” Nova said. “What sort of band is this?”

 

“A Jazz Quintet called “The Middle C’s,” said Tania. “I sing, play some bass. We have a girl named Fumiko who plays lead guitar, another girl named Jacqui who plays the drums, another girl named Halli who sings and plays the vibes, synthesizer, and sax, and we need a pianist. Like to sit in with us and get behind the ivories on Friday night, Nova? I’m not even going to ask you to audition, since I know you can play, and we’ll have a mike up at the piano in case you want to sing. We had another girl named Danielle who played piano with us, but she got deployed with her ship.”

 

“I’ll have to think about it, but it sounds like fun,” Nova said. “Where’s this gig at?”

 

“A club in Shinjuku called Le Cirq. It’s a classy pick-up bar. Wear a nice gown and heels when you show up. Your shoes should be backless, since I know you kick them off when you play. Here’s my number; we usually play there Friday nights.”

 

“Thanks, Tania. I’ll let you know,” said Nova.

__________________________________________________

 

 Later, after dinner with Derek and the kids, Nova and Derek drove to Karl Forrester’s office. Derek was pleased at the formal, respectful greeting that Karl had given him, in contrast to the way Teri treated him. After giving Derek a warm handshake, followed by a rough, masculine hug, and after giving Nova a fatherly hug and kiss on the cheek, Karl kissed all three of his grandchildren, and they sat down on couches in a conference room while Karl said, “You know, my dear ones, I’m sickened at Teri’s behavior. But I’m not at all surprised.”

 

“She’s threatened this before; hasn’t she, Dad?” sighed Nova.

 

“She sure has,” said Karl.

 

“The more you get to know Teri, the less you get to like her, sadly,” said Jonathan. “My mother is thirty-one now, and we all know that she can take care of herself; she and Dad have seen more danger and combat than I care to think about…”

 

“But so have you, Jon,” said Derek. “And you’re getting to be a great soldier and you’re fitting so well into our world.”

 

“Yeah…but why does Teri treat my Mom like a little kid?” Jonathan asked. “And why is she so over-protective? I find it insulting!”

 

“So do I…” said Nova. “It has to do with something from family history…” Karl sighed and nodded at that.

 

“Is it because of your Aunt Yvona?” said Derek.

 

“Partially,” said Karl. “It also has to do with…’Uncle Jack’…and the sister Samantha that she gave birth to and lost when Nova was five.”

 

“Uncle Jack?” said Nova. “I’ve heard him mentioned, but every time Mother talks about him and I begin to ask questions, she changes the subject. Derek has noticed this, too…”

 

Karl sighed. “Nova, Teri and I thought…we hoped…you’d never have to know this…but…well…your mother made some big mistakes when she was young. Mistakes we hoped we could protect you from, but…” Karl looked down at the floor and said, “This began back when your mother was nineteen. Yes. You know that she was very young when we began to date. I was older than she was; I was twenty-five, and I was already a JAG officer and I was assigned to serve as one of the officers in charge of the ROTC unit at the University of Colorado at Boulder unit. The Commanding officer was “Uncle Jack”…I served under him. The man was a Lieutenant Colonel at that time. What I never told you about him was that he was a rival for your mother’s affections. In fact, he and your mother dated before I came into her life.”

 

“Who was “Uncle Jack??” Nova asked.

 

“Yeah…I’d love to know,” said Derek.

 

“That is one thing we were asked to keep secret from you,” said Karl. “The man is still alive, and if you were to know everything about him…well…he could and would still make a lot of trouble for Derek and for you because he has connections in Headquarters. But, this officer was not a nice man. He had a problem with your mother. Your mother had broken it off with him, but he kept on trying to worm back into her life. I also had to be careful about confronting him, because he was my Commanding Officer at the ROTC Unit on the campus. I was surprised that he granted us permission to marry…I know he heard that I had gotten her pregnant with you, Nova. I guess he backed off then…for a while. Your mother and I got married in July of 2177. You were born in February of 2178, Nova.”

 

“Sort of interesting to know that there was another man around,” Nova said. “But what does that have to do with why my mother was overprotective?”

 

“’Uncle Jack’ kept away…but he didn’t stay away,” said Karl. “Now, while your mother finished her undergraduate work at the University of Colorado, I was eventually reassigned to work as a JAG Officer at the Lowry EDF Base near Denver. It took some time for her to get into Juilliard in New York, so we spent a year living in Boulder before moving to New York City for a while. In that year, you ended up becoming three years old. At three, Nova, you were a very bright little girl. You learned to read a bit, and you could count somewhat. Then, that summer, we found out your mother was to be admitted to Juilliard, and my request to be reassigned to the EDF Base at Governors’ Island was granted. We were beginning to move out of Boulder and to rent the house out to other tenants…when you were kidnapped.”

 

“Kidnapped?” Nova said.

 

“You were kidnapped once?” Derek said, shocked.

 

“I guess I was,” Nova said. “I don’t really remember much of it…”

 

“Why did you never tell me about this?” asked Derek.

 

“I wasn’t sure it had really happened,” Nova said. “I thought…it was just a recurring set of weird dreams I had!”

 

“It was no dream,” said Karl. “It really happened.”

 

“How did it happen?” Nova asked.

 

Karl sat in thought for a while. Then, he said, “It happened in July of 2181. You were with us at a carnival being held on the grounds of the University, and you were getting off a pony ride when one of the ROTC cadets helping to direct traffic at the ride directed you out through a side gate in the crowd to another cadet known as Hewlett, who directed you to a car in the parking lot. A third cadet named Braverman, who was not involved in the scheme, managed to see what was going on, and he warned us you were being taken off. Mother and I got there just in time to see you chatting with this cadet…and then being hustled into a car. To your credit, you began to scream when the cadet was trying to get you to go into the car, but he slapped you on the bottom and acted as if you were just another naughty little girl in a sundress and flip-flop sandals carrying a little purse with an ID in it and a few credits. We spotted you being hustled into the car and yelled for you. You screamed back, “Mommy! Daddy!” but it was too late. The cadet took you away….”

 

“I sort of remember that now,” Nova said. “This cadet was making all kinds of phone calls while I yelled and kicked at the back of his seat from the back seat. He called someone and said, ‘I’ve got the little…shit…but she’s fighting like a wildcat, Boss. What do we do?’” The boss for this cadet must have given orders, because when we stopped forty-five minutes later, I had my hands forced behind my back, and I was tied up and had my mouth gagged with duct tape. Then, he kept on driving for several hours. What happened to you and Mother?”

 

“We called Campus Security and the police. They started a search for you and the aircar the cadet took you away in,” Karl said. “When we got home, we got a phone call from someplace in Wyoming, to the north. It was someone disguising their voice. He said that we had to pay three hundred thousand credits…and that Teri had to agree to leave me in order to get you back. The man said, “If this does not happen in twenty-four hours, you will get Nova back. But…she’ll be dead and stuffed in a bag.” We had the call traced and let the detective handling the case know what to do. Luckily, there were witnesses to the kidnapping, so it was handled as an abduction case right away. He wanted the money and Teri brought to a location in Cheyenne, Wyoming, where he said he’d give you back.”

 

“I sort of remember dreaming that we drove and drive for a while,” Nova said. “I was supposed to have been taken to a house somewhere in Cheyenne, but I whined loudly. When the cadet finally stopped on Interstate 25 to pull off the duct tape and check on me, I cried about having to go pee and being hungry until the cadet stopped at a mall outside of Cheyenne. He freed me from my bonds and said, “We’ll go in here and I get you something to eat in the food court and take you to go and pee, but no funny business.” Well, he walked me right into the men’s room to go to the bathroom. I came out of the stall, but I ran rather than stopping to wash my hands, and before he could catch me, I ran away from him as fast as I could go and got lost in a crowd. I made my way to a phone,” Nova said. “I stood up on tiptoes and got the phone down and knew enough numbers to call 9-1-1. When I got a dispatcher, I gave my full name, Nova Dawn Yukiko Forrester, said I was three years old, and said I had been ‘kiddynapped’ and needed a ‘coppiceman’ at the mall. While I was making the call, the cadet and someone from mall security caught up with me. The ROTC cadet was insisting I was his little sister, and I remember saying, “If I’m his sister, you’re an elephant! I’ve been kiddynapped!’”

 

Derek smiled. “Nova, that sounds just like a pint-sized version of you. Now I know where Ariel gets her mouth from.”

 

“You were kiddynapped, Mommy?” said Ariel.

 

“The proper term is ‘kidnapped’, Ariel,” Nova said with a laugh.

 

“So what happened?” said Karl.

 

Nova said, “The Security Guard at the Mall believed me rather than the Cadet. He told the cadet to stay there while he called for backup and they checked the ID Card I had in my purse. I remember it looked like a little drivers’ license. Dad, where did you get it made up?”

 

Karl replied, “We had taken you to another fair, and my Masonic Lodge, in conjunction with two other Lodges and our church, was running a Children’s ID project. They made up that little ID card for you and took fingerprints and a DNA sample and kept records. We had the police look up those records to try and find you. They were very specific about the info they put out about you in the APB. Nova, how did you escape from that cadet again?”

Nova then said, “Well, the cadet then got nabbed himself by another member of Mall Security while the police showed up. They took me away, took me to a police station in Cheyenne, and gave me ice cream and stuff. A nice policewoman asked me if the cadet had done anything funny to me or touched me in any bad places, and I said no. She had me in a side room where I was stripped of all of my clothes anyway, looked over and given a quick sponge bath; then they gave me fresh clothes to wear since my dress had gotten dirty. In the meantime, the police in Cheyenne must have called the State Police in Colorado. I found myself on the way back to Boulder in a Wyoming State Police car a few hours later. I went home in a little sailor top and shorts, and they let me go barefoot in the police car like I wanted but I had to carry my sandals and my little purse. And, the next morning I was home…”

 

“And your mother did not let you out of her sight for the next two years,” Karl said.

 

“Did they ever catch the scumbag who was behind the cadet who took Nova?” Derek asked.

 

“No, but we had our…suspicions,” Karl said with narrowed eyes. “We thought it was this character who had once been Teri’s boyfriend…this ‘Uncle Jack’ but he had an alibi and got out of the investigation, and the cadet they arrested refused to talk. Of course, the cadet was drummed out of ROTC and expelled from the University, and he served six years in jail for what he did to you. By the time he got out of jail, we were living in San Diego for a while…and we never heard anything else about the case. That is why your mother was, and is, so protective of you to this day, Nova, dear. But now…I think she needs help. Major help,” sighed Karl. “I think she may need to be in a hospital for a while. Nova, can you ask your mother if she’d meet up with me? I’ve been worried sick.”

 

“I sure will, Dad,” Nova said.

________________________________________________

 

Later, upon their arrival back home, Nova sat down and talked with Teri.

 

“You talked with your father?” said Teri.

 

“Yes, I did, Mother. And…well…he’d like to see you, and he thinks…”

 

“No, I do not need help!” snapped Teri. “I just need to be away from him!”

 

“Mother, I think things would go a lot better if you met with him….and then, maybe, if you two talked about getting together and you talked with him about seeing a…Mother, where are you going?”

 

“Nova, you watch David and Aurora; I’m going out!”

 

Teri got up, went to their shoe closet, buckled on a pair of sandals, and walked out of the house as Nova and Derek yelled at her.

 

She took off, driving the used aircar she had recently purchased.

 

She did not say where she was going.

 

“What’s her problem?” yelled Derek.

 

“Derek, you know what my mother’s problem is,” snapped Nova.

 

“Well, why are you biting my head off? What did I do?” Derek yelled back.

 

“I’m just so on edge these days,” Nova said as she sat in the kitchen, got a rag, and wiped off Ariel’s face after she was done playing with her food in her highchair. “It’s her, Derek! She’s driving me out of my mind!”

 

“Well, what about me?” protested Derek, “What about Jonathan, Alex, and Ariel?”

 

“She’s probably going to get drunk again,” Nova sighed. “Derek, we talked about this before. I’m getting as sick of her as you are…but…”

 

“But what?”

 

“Derek, you know she’s not playing with a full deck. I want her to get help! And to go back to my Dad! What did we swear, Derek? For richer, for poorer, in sickness, health, et cetera, if my mother is here…?”

 

Derek kissed the back of Nova’s head. “Yeah…okay…she is your mother. This is just crazy, though. You can see that, can’t you?”

 

Nova nodded. “Yes, but give her some time?” she said. Then, she sat at the table and began crying, out of the blue.

 

As Derek held her, he said, “Nova?”

 

“Yeah?”

 

“You’ve been on edge so much lately. And you told me you missed your period…do you think you might be…expecting?”

 

“Maybe I am,” Nova sighed.

 

“Let’s go get a test kit and check you out, okay?”

 

Nova smiled and nodded sadly. She got up, and checked their bathroom; the guest bathroom, even her nurse’s bag.

 

Oddly enough she did not have an EPT kit in the house.

 

“Well, I think I need to run to the drugstore, and…” Nova began as she sat in the bedroom.

 

Alex came running into the room a moment later, in nothing but wet training pants, crying, “Mommy! Daddy! That stupid David called me names again and stole my teddy bear! I want you!”

 

“Shhh,” Nova said as she held and rocked her son on her lap. “Do you want anything?”

 

“Mommymilkie…” he said as Nova tenderly pulled off his wet training pants and washed him with a rag Derek got from the bathroom.

 

Derek kissed Alex and then he kissed Nova, and he tenderly helped her pull her spaghetti-strapped top off, and then, he helped Nova lie back on the bed as he looked at her skirt with a questioning look in his eyes as she held and rocked her naked toddler son. With a nod, as Alex began to latch on, Derek tenderly undid the side snaps holding on Nova’s miniskirt, and he took it off of her, followed by her underpants as he stripped his young wife nude. Then, he smiled at Nova as she let Alex slide skin-to-skin into her bare lap as she sat on the bed next to him.

 

Derek looked at Nova’s other breast for a moment. “Your nipple’s getting darker on that side,” he said.

 

Nova nodded and said, “I know…they’ve both been getting dark.” She yawned loudly and said. “And now I get sleepy at the drop of a hat! And my emotions are all over the place, lately, and…”

 

Then, David ran in. At six, going on seven, he thought he was so cool when he yelled, “Hey! Look at stupid Baby Alex! He still wets his pants! He’s so stupid; he needs to suck milk out of his mommy’s titty! Stupid kid! Stupid kid!”

 

Derek snarled at David. “That’s because he still is a baby!” he yelled back. “Get out of here!”

 

“Ya gonna make me?” sneered David.

 

Derek kissed Nova and whispered “Excuse me,” in her ear. Then, like a thunderhead, he got up, and snarled at David. “Your dad is not here to give you a spanking for your rotten behavior, and neither is your mother, so it looks like I have to do it!”

 

“Derek, don’t!” Nova protested as Wildstar glowered at David. “It’ll just create more trouble with Mother!”

 

David tried to run, but Derek caught him by the seat of his shorts, dragged the protesting little brat onto the bed, and swatted him three times on the butt. “You’ll get worse than that if you torment your baby nephew again while you’re in this house and I catch you doing it! Now beat it and let your sister feed him in peace! And she did the same for you when you were a baby! I remember it!” snapped Derek.

 

David, whining exaggeratedly, took off while his big sister held and comforted little Alex in her arms. 

 

“Nova, I know it’ll create trouble…but I had to protect you and Alex…”

 

Nova smiled sleepily at Derek and she said, “Thank you, my dear, big, mean protector. My God, David is turning out to be such a little creep!”

 

 “You’ve noticed, milady?” Derek said.

 

Nova smiled sadly and said, “I sure did, Derek,” while continuing to comfort and nurse poor little Alex in just her naked skin. “I’d love to go to sleep after this…I’m so sorry. Can you take him when I’m done and put him in bed?”

 

“Who says he can’t stay in here with us?” Derek snapped. “Maybe that little shit David will think twice about teasing him if we all take a nap together. Let me go tell Jonathan and Ms. Eloise what’s up and to send Ariel up here if they start picking on her next. I’ll be right back, love.”

 

Nova kissed Derek, and he slipped off to do just that.

 

When he came back, Nova and Alex were both fast asleep. Derek pulled off his clothes and climbed into bed with them, hugging both his wife and small son as their soft breathing lulled him to sleep.

 

Derek was worried about Nova, though.

 

What was making her so tired and irritable all of a sudden?

 

Maybe she is pregnant again, Derek thought as he fell asleep.

 

____________________________________ 

 

III. CLUB NIGHT…

Planet Earth

Derek & Nova Wildstar’s Residence

Friday, April 14, 2209

1912 Hours: Earth Space-Time

 

______________________________

 

 

“So, you need to go out tonight?” Derek said to Nova as she pulled on a nice gown. It was light blue, and it was sequined. Simple, but elegant, Nova looked rather cute in it.

 

“Uh-huh,” Nova said. “You’ve heard me practicing my guitar and piano the past two nights, right?” Nova said cheerfully.

 

“Yes, I have,” said Derek as he thought, And after you finished school, your study group, got the kids, came home, cooked, and dealt with all of the kids and those past two arguments with your mother, you were too tired to play around the past two nights…except for that quickie we had late last night in the shower…. Oh, well….these things happen, he thought. And you still need to get that EPT kit. Well, if you don’t get one, soon…I’ll buy one. And have you take the test. We need to know, Nova. Like right now.

 

“Why are you going out?” Derek said.

 

Nova looked around and motioned Derek into a bathroom. She shut the door and said, “Mother’s been driving me out of my mind, Derek. A friend at church gave me an offer to play with a jazz quintet called “The Middle C’s”. So I’m going out tonight, dear. I’m going to play and sing a bit, and then come home…is that so bad?”

 

“You know what I’ve wanted the past two nights, Nova…”

 

“Yes, I do. Why do you think I bought those bath oils? Tomorrow night is our night, Derek. Just us,” she whispered as she ran a finger down his chest. “I’m encouraging Mother to take all the kids out to a movie tomorrow night. That will leave us all alone in the house, dear. And even Ms. Eloise will be turned off.”

 

“You told me you’d give your mother a deadline?”

 

“I did, Derek. I want her to find a place and to leave in the next ten days, by the twenty-fourth. That will be important because we are getting deployed for that visit to Gamilon on the Argo on the twenty-sixth, which will be a Wednesday. I don’t want her in the house when we leave on the ship, Derek.”

 

“You don’t trust her,” Derek said.

 

Nova smiled a little. “You got it! By George, you got it!” Nova mussed his hair and kissed him. “I have to get going,” Nova said. “See you later,” she said as she ran into the rec room, got her guitar in its case, and slipped on her high-heeled backless sandals at the door. She kissed Derek, Alex, and Ariel, and took off right before her mother ran up to ask her where she was going. In response, all Teri got for a goodbye was the sound of Nova’s little Fiat speeding out the driveway, and the sight of Derek waving to her at the door.

 

Teri ran up and asked, “And where did Nova go?”

 

Derek shrugged and said, “I’m just her husband, Mrs. Forrester. Not her trainer or her father. She was nice enough to tell me where she was going with her guitar, but what she is doing is her business.”

 

“And what is she doing?” said Teri.

 

“Playing some jazz at a club tonight,” said Derek.

 

“THAT again?” sighed Teri.

 

“I thought you liked it when she decided to use her musical talents, Mrs. Forrester,” said Derek.

 

“But in a club?” sniffed Teri. “Well, never mind. I’m going out. You watch the kids?” said Teri.

 

“Yes, on one condition.”

 

“Which is?” Teri snapped.

 

“You don’t give me any static again if I have to discipline David,” Derek said. “He loves to just pick on Alex, and he is, quite frankly, a little brat. In this house, we realize you are the guest, but in a battle between your son and my son, my son…your first natural-born grandchild, has to come first because he is smaller and more vulnerable than your kid. Do we understand each other?” Derek said in an authoritative voice.

 

“Yes, Mr. Wildstar, we most certainly do,” snapped Teri with her typical “I am so superior to you” look on her face. “Now, if you will excuse me, I must be going.”

 

Teri walked past Derek and to her room without another word. A little while later, with no explanation, Teri walked out of the house carrying a suitcase. She waved at Derek, and took off, not even bothering to say goodnight to her own children.

 

Derek wanted to yell something, but Teri shot out of the gate too fast in her aircar.

 

“You’d better not get back here drunk,” said Derek. “Like the other night. My God! Nova, did you grow up in this chaos? If you did, dear, you deserve a frakin’ medal!”

 

___________________________________________________ 

 

Just a while later, at the Le Cirq Club, Nova met her confederates in “The Middle C’s”. Tania Summerfield smiled at Nova; she was setting up her Fender Jazz Bass and amp when Nova sat down behind the baby grand and adjusted her mike after kicking off her sandals under the piano. Nova ran a few scales and runs and asked, “What are we doing tonight?”

 

“Sorry that we didn’t get together to rehearse today; were you rehearsing the Coltrane charts I gave you?”

 

“Sure was, Tania,” Nova said as the red-headed young woman named Jacqui Hammersmith sat down behind the drum kit and began to do a few rolls as Nova played some chords. Halli Railsford, who was, to Nova’s surprise, another nurse she knew from Central Hospital, took her place with her sax as she wiped off her striking African-American features and she whispered to Tania, “What are we doing?”

 

“’Blue Train’ when Sherri shows up with the horn,” said Tania.

 

Sherri Kiiyama showed up a moment later with her trumpet; she was Japanese-American and as she flipped her reddish hair out of her eyes, she asked, “Who’s the new babe, bossola?”

 

“Nova Wildstar,” said Tania as Nova blushed.

 

“You’re Nova Wildstar?” said Sherri. “My God, you look like a kid!”

 

“Thanks for the compliment…uhh…what is your name?”

 

“Sherri,” said Kiiyama. “I work in the EDF Chief of Staff’s Office…and…I hate that jerk General Stone!”

 

“Amen to that,” said Nova.

 

“Enough jawing; let’s play!” said Tania. She took the mike and said to the crowd. “Welcome to Le Cirq tonight! My name is Tania, and we’re “The Middle C’s” back with you on Fridays for a couple of weeks. We do freeform jazz, some rock, and some rhythm and blues. We’re starting off with some ancient, old John Coltrane stuff. The song we’re doing is called “Blue Train” and it gives us a chance to improvise a bit. Halli…take it from the top…one…two…”

 

And, at that, the band began. Nova played her chart from the top; her chords fitting in nicely with Halli’s sax and Sherri’s trumpet. When Tania and Jacqui came in with their bass and drums, Tania smiled, knowing that she had a pretty good little cool band going as Halli tooted away, doing some improv and high runs on her sax.

 

_______________________________________________________

 

In the meantime, General Stone was laughing at an obscene joke in the crowd below as he sat at a table with Maples…and with his own “date” tonight…a youngish-looking middle-aged woman who wore shades and a platinum-blonde wig that was obviously fake. She had on a short dress, a very long string of pearls, wrap-around sandals that went up to her knees, and she also wore pretentious-looking elbow-length gloves. The gloves hid her wedding band

 

“Who’s the bird?” asked Maples, who was mostly in control tonight. The Dark Lord Ekogaru was indeed present in him tonight, but he did little except grinned as Nova took her cool part at the piano and began to do some runs and improvs as she looked down at the lights and thought, Something is very weird here…I can feel it, but can’t put my finger on it…what is it?

 

Down in the crowd, the blonde looked at Maples and said, “Call me Teresa, okay? Yeah, that’s my name! Teresa!”

 

“Do you have a last name, Teresa?” mocked Maples.

 

“I’m the bird with no name what-so-ever,” laughed Teresa as she took a big swallow from her drink and then, to look cool…she pulled a cigarette from her case and smoked it.

 

“When did you start smoking?” asked Stone.

 

“Well, when did you decide to screw the pooch and leave Jade at home?” said Teresa.

 

“Jade’s got her time of the month. She is all nasty and argumentative, so, that’s why I got you…Teresa…” said Stone. “So sorry that does not meet with your high moral standards, Teresa, dear, but aren’t you the one who contacted me this time?”

 

“My husband is a drag. Squares-ville,” said “Teresa” as she made a sign like a square with her fingers. She took another drink; it seemed evident she was getting quite giddy.

 

“Where are you staying?” said Maples.

 

“Squares-ville,” laughed Teresa. “I’m staying with my oldest daughter and her son-in-law for now. I’m making them think hubby abuses me while I spend my time looking for a place.”

 

“Is your last name ‘Forrester’ by any chance?” hissed Maples.

 

“Teresa” glared at Maples, and then, with fire in her eyes, she slapped him across the face. “It is, but you do not say my name around here, you son-of-a-bitch!” hissed Teri.

 

Maples grabbed her hand and said, in an unusually low, quiet, and deep voice mixed with his own, “You have one warning, Teresa. Just one warning! No one who walks the face of the Earth has a right to strike Me,” he hissed while glaring into Teri’s eyes with the greatest malice that Teri had ever seen in her life. “Do it again, and I will make that booze-ridden excuse for an adulterous heart just stop right in your chest, and you will be dead right where you sit! Are we clear on that, Mrs. Forrester? I have dealt with your sister Yvona; she had a very, very strong will. And your daughter’s will is as hard as case-hardened surgical steel…Devil knows where she gets it from, because it was most assuredly not from you, you pretentious, hypocritical, weak-willed, overdramatic little liar! You have no idea of the High, Ancient Bloodline that courses in your veins, you common, pretentious git! Now, you sit there and play with your boy-toy, because, let me assure you, I do not play! Are we clear?”

 

Teri looked at Maples…or…the Thing inside him, and she said in a trembling voice, “Yessir…whoever…you….whoever you…are…?”

 

“Teresa, you have just been initiated into a Great Secret,” hissed Stone as he grabbed her wrists. “I am taking you off to a hotel tonight for some fun. But, breathe a word about this to anyone else, and you will be dead, because I will find you and I will kill you,” he whispered. “That is…if HE does not do it first, right, Colonel?” Maples just smiled at Teri. She shivered, and waved at him with a smile on her face. He took her hand, kissed it, and said, “Let us discuss other things, shall we?”

 

“Such as the concept that you may be getting two for the price of one tonight?” said Stone with an evil grin.

 

“Uh…heh…heh…what does that mean?” said Teri.

 

Stone and Maples looked and each other and laughed uproariously.

 

“You, my dear, are going to love what we have planned for you tonight,” said Stone. He called for a waitress, and said, “Another Scotch and Water for myself and my friend. And give the lady here another Bloody Mary, and make it a double!”

 

“Of course, sir,” said the cocktail waitress.

 

______________________________________ 

 

The “Middle C’s” set went on for about another hour. The band did more Coltrane, namely all of “A Love Supreme”, followed by “My Favorite Things”.

 

When “Teresa” heard the piano part on the song, she turned around and looked at the pianist. She had had two more Bloody Marys, and she was quite giddy as she said, “Jack! Lookit that?”

 

“Look at what?” snarled Stone.

 

“That girl playing the piano! She looks just like my daughter!” laughed Teri as she took another drag on her cigarette. “The dive she’s playing must be this place! I’m getting’ her auto---autta…autta…..graaaa…”

 

“No, you are not,” said Maples as he grabbed one of Teri’s wrists as Stone grabbed the other.

 

“Why…noooooot?” said Teri.

 

“She will begin talking if she sees you now,” hissed Maples.

 

“But you can confront her with it at home, dear,” said Stone.

 

“Yes, I can!” laughed Teri.

 

“Good,” said Stone. “Because we are leaving soon…aren’t we, Gary?”

 

Maples just laughed. “Yes, Jackson, we are leaving. Very soon…”

 

They both laughed at that.

 

From behind the piano, Nova almost flubbed a chord as she noticed the platinum blond getting up and leaving with Stone and a rather creepy-looking Colonel. “What?” she said to herself, softly. “Mom? Is that you? If it is…what are you doing here; with General Stone, of all people? If that is you…we need to talk tonight!”

 

As Stone and Maples left, Maples saw who was at the piano, and he smiled. Then, he noticed Doctor Sakezo Sane sitting at the bar, drinking alone. He smiled, and sent a suggestion into Sane’s mind, which simply went, Get Nova to sit at the bar with you, get her nice and sloshed on Sake’, and you and IQ-9 drive her home. I need the girl’s faculties dimmed tonight. Why? Because she’s already seen too much…

______________________________________________________ 

 

2100 Hours….

 

A while later, as she was about to leave, Nova saw Doctor Sane sitting like a deranged Buddha at the bar with IQ-9 nearby. He had been wearing geta, which he had kicked off so he sat barefoot on his bar stool.

 

“Hello there, bright-eyes,” said IQ-9 as he hiccupped.

 

“Have you been drinking again, Tinwit?” sighed Nova.

 

“Yes, I have been. Unlike you, I can hold my liquor, ha, ha, ha…” said IQ.

 

“Actually, we were wondering if you wanted to join us in a bit of sake,” said Sane, whose voice was already slightly slurred.

 

“I…don’t think so,” Nova laughed. “Three reasons.  One. Derek and the kids are waiting up for me. Two. I’m driving. Three. I might be pregnant again!”

 

“Congrats!” laughed Sane. “Come see me aboard the Argo on the twenty-sixth when we get on our way to Gamilon, and I’ll confirm it! In the meantime, one drink can’t hurt you…or the baby…if you are, that is? And if you get a little giddy, so what…IQ or I will drive you home!”

 

“If I am?” said Nova.

 

“You thought you were expecting again a few months ago because you…you know…missed a time, and what was it?” said Sane. “Just a false alarm, right? Why deny yourself sake because you think you might be pregnant?”

 

“Because I’m still nursing Alex and Ariel,” Nova said. “Just a little now, but…”

 

“You can skip a day,” said IQ-9.

 

Sane poured Nova a drink. “I got this whole bottle of sake’ before, and I am not drinking by myself!”

 

“Where’s Kei tonight?” Nova said, referring to Doctor Kei Stuart.

 

“At home…her time of the month,” said Sane. He poured Nova a pottery cup of sake. “Drink up!”


“Well, I guess one can’t hurt,” Nova sighed as she took the cup.

 

She sipped at it, and then he grinned a little as she drank up. “Okay, one isn’t so bad,” she laughed. “Let me finish this…..I played good tonight and the girls liked it. I guess I can celebrate…a little…” Nova did this, unaware of the mistake she was making, even as her mind began to feel strangely clouded.

 

Sane and IQ-9 laughed like crazy as Nova grinned, licked her lips and said, “A second one, please, guys?”

 

“Kampai,” said Doc Sane as he laughed, unaware that, tonight, he was an unwitting tool of the Dark Lord.

 

________________________________________ 

 

IV. A NIGHT OF CORRUPTION…

Planet Earth

The Imperial Hotel

Room 1492

Friday, April 14, 2209

2206 Hours: Earth Space-Time

 

 ________________________________________

 

By the time Stone and Maples got Teri Forrester to Room 1492 in the Imperial Hotel, her wig had come off, and her usual near jet-black locks were loose and free about her shoulders as she laughed, walking along drunkenly as she was held up by Stone and Maples, who had gotten her very, very drunk for this moment. She was laughing and spouting utter nonsense as General Stone just picked her up and carried her into the room.

 

He dumped her on the bed as she laughed like a fishwife. He kicked off his boots and began to roughly kiss her as Maples locked the hotel room door behind them and he took his jacket off. He poured himself a drink from a decanter of sherry waiting on the bureau in the suite along with bottles of other things and he smiled as he watched Stone and Teri undressing each other as they tickled each other.

 

Finally…Teri was nude on the bed, laughing and squealing and trying to “fight off” Stone as he sucked at her breasts. She pulled down Stone’s trousers and said, “Is he ready to play again tonight?”

 

“He sure is, dear,” laughed Stone as his member became exposed.

 

She crawled into his lap, curled up, and presented Stone her bottom at a ninety-degree angle as she took his member in her mouth…and thus broke her marital vows to Karl for the second time this week.

 

Stone began to touch her there, listening with pleasure to her drunken, besotted moans and sighs as Maples undressed himself and smiled at Stone, who gave him a look as if to say, “What the hell are you doing?”

 

Maples replied, in his deep voice, “Teri, you are barely going to remember this night, except to remember that I have put My Mark upon you! I plan great things for Earth in the next few years. Since Invidia was a most unfaithful servant and your sister is dead, you…my dear…will make a fine and dandy replacement catamount for Me!”

 

Then, nude, he shifted Stone’s hand aside….and he drew himself close to Teri Forrester after making her drink a glass of sherry, laced with the first of many alien drugs and sorcerous potions of his own demented making that he planned to force-feed to her that night. One must remember that Ekogaru had been a trained scientist, albeit an extremely mad one. Then, as Teri let out a sudden scream of agony like a banshee, HE took her.

 

Teri began to weep and scream as Ekogaru began to rut with her, not quite believing this nightmare was real, and praying it wasn’t. Because it hurt! It felt as if she was being made love to by an icicle.

 

Teri was soon in agony, and she was trying to fight off Ekogaru…and Stone as Stone touched her breasts…

 

But, her fighting was to no avail, as Teri gasped, cried, and was taken, in a black fog of pain and forgetfulness, by Ekogaru, then by Stone, and then by both of them at once, and then, the horror grew worse when a Dark Man with a shadowed face who was all clad in blue denim came up and had his way with her as Stone and Maples laughed at her as the drugs began to take effect and she began to slide sideways into a weird world. This nightmare world was partly of her own making, since her own subconscious was being turned against her, and she was being forced to believe in things that weren’t there.

 

The fact that Teri Forrester was hyper-emotional and somewhat suggestible made her a perfect subject for this mental manipulation by the Dark Lord. Ekogaru knew that Teri’s eldest daughter would be far, far harder to break this way, since she had been trained by the EDF to resist such interrogatory measures, and the Dark Lord had a sneaking suspicion that the hidden Fire within Nova and her stronger will would make her much harder to break now, indeed, even harder to break than she had been just a few years ago. Oh, Nova would see the visions, all right if she had been force-fed the drugs, but Ekogaru guessed her damned mind would make her fight the forced dreamscape, and, maybe even like Aliscea, Sasha, or Astrena, she just **might** have the willpower to begin bending the dreamscape to her own wishes against him!

 

The one called Maples on kept touching Teri, and she moaned and cried as the horrid night of pain and weirdness went on, and on, and on…

 

As Teri cried out a few times while Ekogaru rutted with her, Stone stroked her hair and said, “My Lord?”

 

“Yes?” hissed Ekogaru, who was now wholly in control of Maples.

 

“Lord, what purpose does this serve?

 

“WHAT was that?” hissed Ekogaru as he pulled away from Teri. He slapped her in the face and left her weeping.

 

“Lordship, do you feel this is necessary? I mean, Lord, I have some feelings for this woman, and she is not that much of an enemy to us…if we had Aliscea, Astrena, or Nova here, we would have to break them like this…and probably that Katrina, too. But this woman? Is she that much of a threat to us? And she was my first serious girlfriend…"

 

Ekogaru snarled at Stone and threw him against the wall. “Stone! I decide I who is to be tormented here and for how long! Flagg! Give her more!”

 

“Yes, of course,” said Flagg. With a smile, he and Ekogaru made Teri drink more things…liquor, and things that she sensed were worse than liquor.

 

Strange drinks.

 

Potions?

 

Teri could sense her world spinning about as the chemicals began to alter and twist her brain chemistry, sending her into a state far worse and far weirder than simply being drunk.

 

Why did the place suddenly look like a Heath in Scotland?

 

What were Three Weird Sisters doing in the fog?

 

One of them yelled, “Oy, Graymalkin!”

 

“That wasn’t ‘er, that was the name of ‘er Familiar back in 1391!” yelled another one of the Weird Sisters. “I know Thane Macbeth lived in the eleventh century, but, so what? GARN! We Witches live on and on and on and on and on….ha ha ha ha ha HA!”

 

“Garn and aye! I forgot me name seven hundreds a’ years ago, so I may as ‘ell be Graymalkin!” yelled the Third of the Weird Sisters.

 

Weird Sisters. Three weird, ugly women chanting strange things and making Teri drink some kind of weird…hot…bubbling BREW served to her by Stone and Maples?

 

They were chanting something…downright weird…as they said,

 

Gall of goat, and slips of yew
Silver'd in the moon's eclipse,
Nose of Turk and Tartar's lips,
Finger of birth-strangled babe
Ditch-deliver'd by a drab,
Make the gruel thick and slab:
Add thereto a tiger's chaudron,
For the ingredients of our cauldron.

 

Teri almost vomited as she drank the Weird Brew, and the Heath began to swirl around her, and around her, and around her as this night devolved into something nightmarish, bizarre, and just plain weird….

 ___________________

 

2350 Hours…

 

Poor Nova was laughing her head off in her Fiat as IQ-9 drove her home.

 

“How many cups of sake did you have?” asked IQ-9 as he hiccupped.

 

“I don’ rightly remember, IQ dearest! Five! Six? Seven, maybe! Hahahahaha!” Nova said as she banged the dashboard of her car and laughed. “WHEEEE!!! I love the feel of the wind in my face!” she screamed as she tottered to her feet in the moving car and put her arms out as if she was the heroine of Titanic on the ship’s bow in that movie.

 

“Nova, you’d better sit down,” said IQ-9.

 

“Maybe I’d better. (hic) Close your eyes…..let the mi’night shine…good night…sleep tight….now the moon’s begun…to shiiiiiiiinnneee!” Nova sang badly (and loudly) at the top of her lungs as she sang an old Beatles song in her drunken, giddy state.

 

“Did anyone ever tell you that there should be a law against getting you drunk?” said IQ-9. “Doctor Sane did not have a good idea.”

 

“Aaaaa…ya killjoy! Wha’s wrong wi’ havin’ fun, HUH?” Nova screamed. She laughed and said. “Put a dress on, IQ. I want to chase you and to begin lifting YOUR skirt tonight, sweeeeetheart!”

 

“That is not a logical idea, Nova.”

 

“You always do it to me!” she screeched.

 

They pulled up at the Wildstar house. It was near midnight.

 

IQ rang the bell and carried in a giddy Nova in his arms.

 

Derek answered the door, clad in an old white sweatshirt, jeans, and bare feet. “Nova, where the HELL were you? I tried calling your phone like…eight times!”

 

“Hiiiiii, Derek, my sweetums!!!” she said as she burped loudly.

 

“IQ-9, what is going on?”

 

“Doctor Sane met her at Le Cirq. Nova decided to take a drink of sake. One became two. Two became four. The slippery slope grew worse. Nova is now thoroughly loaded. Drunk. Pickled. Schnockered. Name your term, Commodore!”

 

“Nova, how could you do this?” said Derek.

 

“It’s…simple…you know how t’ ingest liquids. You just crook your elbow, and begin to sip of the stuff, after a while, ya feel NOOO pain!” Nova said. “I wanna take you wi’ me to the Isle of Malta, Derek! Ever know the Brontosaurus is large and placid and stupid? Buy me a Brontosaurus skeleton for our anniversary, I can catalogue all three thousan’ of its bones.” Nova then sloppily kissed Derek and tried to undo his belt buckle—in front of the Tinwit!

 

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, girl!” Derek said, laughing his head off as she somehow got his belt buckle open!

 

“Aaaaaaa, let’s do it here inna hallway…no one will see us…!” Nova laughed.

 

“I am seeing you, Nova…it is most bizarre and frightening,” said IQ-9 as he watched her unzipping her dress from the back…and then pulling it off, followed by her scanty panties, and her sandals, which she kicked off. Then, in the nude except for her silver necklace, she jumped on top of Derek and laughed and tickled him…with the house door still open!

 

“Nova, you can’t do this while you’re…drunk….” Derek laughed.

 

 “Remember our honeymoon, dear!???!?? We did it up in a TREE!” she squealed, and then she laughed at her own joke because she thought she was so funny at this point.

 

“Nova, it is not chivalrous or nice for me to take advantage of you while you’re like this!” laughed Derek as he thought, as much as I’m…tempted to…although not with the door open and not in front of IQ-9!

 

“Why not let me take advantage o’ you, Derek?” she said with a crazy light in her eyes as she struggled with his pants... “Haahaa! Found it!”

 

“Nova put that back in my pants! Please!” laughed Derek as she pulled out his member and began to play with it, even as he took her necklace off so she would not strangle on it. She then struggled drunkenly in her clutch bag and got out her wedding band (which she had taken off to play her piano) and put it back on.

 

“Hey, remember that treehouse on our honeyJune? It was like Robinson Crucifix…and the expert and the texpert…ever tell ya General Stone tried hiring me to be a Texpert once?” Nova said.

 

“I…” Derek laughed. “If you want to play…let’s run up to bed before the kids run out here and see us?”

 

“I wuvs woo,” Nova said. “Let’s do it right here?” she whined.

 

“I know, Honey,” said Derek. Nova got giddy on too much wine, but he had never seen her acting this weirdly in their lives together…not since their honeymoon, anyway. “How much did you drink? Oooooohh…God,” he said as she drive him quietly mad. 

 

“Five, Six, sevem eight nine sakes…two Kirin beers, two Budweisers and a partridge in a pear family… no, itsa phylum!” Nova mumbled, not quite remembering what she had really had to drink! She had really just had six and a half cups of sake before Doctor Sane had encouraged her to stop drinking.

 

She continued with “Animal Kingdom? Vegetable? Minral? Minral wasser. J’aitme, Derek! I woulda hadda go Civil Service on ya then, Derek baby buddy Captain pal, sweetheart honey bunny liebchen aisuru J’aitme….whatever…and the wave motion gun…it compresses energy and creates a great force, real kosher an’ kashrut baby! Those Marines! I shoulda been drunk talkin to those Space Marines-then Sergean’ Knox woulda stopped winkin’ at me…and tell my stupid mom to buy a new blouse, she’s been wearin’ that same greenie thing for I estigrate three hundre’ years Jollian Calendar. Are we on the Joolian or Gregorian Calnder now? Gotta tells Desslok that…” Nova tried to keep her words straight but couldn’t.

 

Nova looked at Derek cross-eyed and said, “I’m sssoooo sleepy, dear!” She stopped playing with him. At just the wrong time! (Derek was beginning to enjoy this!)

 

A moment later, she fell asleep on top of him…right in her birthday suit. She was snoring loudly as she smiled…and held onto Derek’s….thing.

 

“Commodore Wildstar, I don’t know whether to envy you or pity you,” said IQ-9.

 

“What I need is to get her off me,” he said as he gently got her hand off his…member. He got free and got his pants closed just as Jonathan ran into the room.

 

“What’s wrong with Mom?” he cried. “Why is she lying there on the floor naked?”

“Oh, she’s just a bit drunk,” Derek sighed. “She probably just let her hair down a bit too much at that club tonight. If she is pregnant, I hope she didn’t hurt the baby!” She was expecting, but did not yet know it for sure, and thanks to a strong liver and plain dumb luck, she didn’t harm the child. She would know better than to do this again in just a few days, as it turned out.

 

“She might be pregnant?” said Jonathan.

 

“It’s a good possibility,” Derek said as he picked Nova up, thinking she looked adorable naked and asleep in his arms. He could also see in her nudity that she had gotten quite aroused for him. “Would you get her a robe, Jonathan? I have to get her into bed   before she wakes up and throws up or something. Oh, yes…get a waste can. If she wakes up and her body needs to begin rejecting this stuff, you might just see your sweet, dignified mother throwing up.”

 

Jonathan did so as Derek carried Nova to the couch. He got her into her white bathrobe in his lap just as she began to moan and come around a little.

 

“Uhhhhhhnnn…my stomach…so sick…and I’m hot…” Nova said.

 

“Do you need to throw up?” Derek said gently.

 

“Probably an affirmative on that, sir,” Nova said with a cockeyed smile as she began to sound a bit more like her old self. “I’m…drunk!”

 

They got a waste can and Nova began to vomit into it. When she was done, she slurred, “I’m not doin’ slo good. God! I wish I was dead…”

 

“Nova, don’t say that,” said Derek.

 

“I’m gonna be no good to you or anyone else…uselessh,” Nova said, beginning to cry. “Why’d I let him talk me into this?”

 

“Who talked you into this?” Derek said.

 

“Doctor Sane. He conv’icted me to start drinkin’ and I drink, drank, drunk. Now I am drunk….”

 

“I think I need to have some words with Doctor Sane,” sighed Derek. “His drinking is his business…but pulling you off the wagon with him?” Derek also thought, and where was your usual common sense, Nova? You usually don’t go in for this sort of thing…if you drink; you usually stop at two or three.

 

“Yeah…I know…I deserve an Article 15 for this…”

 

“Not at home, Nova. The ship would be a different story. On the ship, you might spend a night in the brig for this. And I know you detest the place because it is not very…tidy down there.”

 

“I’m sorry, I said,” Nova moaned.

 

“I wonder where the heck your mother is?” Derek said.

 

Then, the door to the house banged open again.

 

A man in denim with long hair carried Teri Forrester into the house. She was moaning, tossing her head from side to side, and she appeared to be dressed in nothing but a t-shirt.

 

“What…the?” said Derek.

 

“Mother?” Nova mumbled as her mother was dumped into her lap.

 

“Who are you?” snapped Derek.

 

“Lieutenant Flagg, special EDF undercover agent,” said Randall Flagg as he flipped open a badge holder. “She was found like this in a hotel. We have no idea who did it, or why. She’s been drugged.”

 

“I….I…recognize…you,” Nova slurred. “And…I’m going to…”

 

“I’m not that man!” yelled Flagg. “Commander! Cut that out!” he yelled as Nova dropped Teri onto the couch and went for a shovel near the fireplace with her teeth gritted.

 

“That day by SS Headquarters! You were helping Stone and his goon squad!” Nova yelled as she swung the shovel at Flagg. “I…remember you, and….” Then, she stumbled over her own feet, retched, and threw up in the fireplace.

 

Flagg, in the meantime, turned away and ran into the foyer, where he vanished.

 

“Where’d he go?” yelled Derek.

 

“Come back here, yaaaa cooooowaaaaaaaarrrd!” Nova yelled in what Derek swore was the only time he had ever heard her using a Bronx accent in her life.

 

Derek summed up the situation. Their front door was open. Nova was drunk as a skunk and running around screaming in a bathrobe with a shovel in her hands. His mother-in-law was passed out on something on their couch.

 

Ariel ran downstairs in only her underpants saying, “Mommy? Mommy? Are there bad men in the house? Daddy?”

 

Nova spotted Ariel and ran up to her after she dropped the shovel. She was crying, and she hugged her daughter. “Oh, ya poor baby!! Ariel! Mommy missed you!”

 

“Mommy, your breath smells yukky…” said Ariel.

 

“Uhhh…Mommy does not feel well,” said Derek. “Neither does your grandmother. Mommy, sit down, please,” Derek said, getting her to let go of her underwear-clad baby daughter and sit down in her beanbag chair.

 

Nova muttered, “Derek, I think Dawn Hardy’s o’ duty tonight…call her…I ain’t much good…oh…stomach…uhhhhh…”

 

“What’s the number?” yelled Derek.

 

“928-1570,” Nova said. “Extenshun 4512.”

 

Derek dialed a number at Central Hospital. He reached Dawn a moment later.

 

“World Health Organization Ensign, Hardy, Dawn, speaking,” said Dawn.

 

“Dawn, this is Derek. I…have a medical situation here at home. When do you get off work?”

 

“0130, sir,” said Dawn. “With all respect, sir, isn’t Nova home? She has meds at home, her whole kit, she can do first-line treatment far better than I can…”

 

Derek sighed, “She’s part of the problem. Doctor Sane talked her into going out and drinking with him; she’s nice and drunk right now. Someone whom Nova obviously feels is one of General Stone’s men dropped her mother off here. I told you Teri is staying here due to some martial problem at her home. She’s in far worse shape than Nova is…drugged…”

 

“Don’t you think you should call an ambulance, then?”

 

“I only want to do that if it’s really needed…maybe I’d better do that,” Derek sighed.

 

“I’ll meet you over there in twenty-five minutes. Luckily, David is home with Jeff tonight in San Diego. I was going to use a Jet Recon Boat at the hospital to shuttle home in a suborbital jump, but I’ll have them hold it on the landing pad. See you in a bit.” Dawn then hung up.

 

A moment later, a knock came at the door. Derek sent Jonathan to open it, and, of all people, Yuri Tsukikage was there in a sleep shirt and bare feet. “I heard Nova screaming. I hate to intrude, but are you people all right?”

 

Derek sighed. “Yes, come in….”

 

Yuri came in in just enough time to find Nova curled up in a ball on the floor, moaning softly, while Teri lay there on the floor unconscious. Derek explained the situation and said, “Damn! If Stone was behind this, he should be arrested and indicted! No one deserves to have this done to them; not even Teri….sorry I have not been around that much, but I know things were tense around here…”

 

Yuri called her mother, and asked her to throw on some clothes and come over with a forensic analysis sensor kit with connected laptop. Haruna was over a few minutes later, and as she was getting things ready, Dawn came over, in her nurse’s tunic and sandals carrying a medkit.

 

Nova woke up, startled, to find Derek, Yuri, Dawn, and Haruna leaning over her and her mother. Teri moaned and her eyes snapped wide open as Dawn gently drew some blood from her with a needle. The blood sample went into a small sensor-equipped Petri dish as Yuri and her mother began running urgent tests on her blood.

 

“This is weird,” said Haruna as she knelt over the computer in the battered shorty coveralls she had thrown over her nude body in the hot night while Dawn undressed Teri to listen to her heartbeat with a stethoscope. “She has a blood alcohol level of 0.28 percent,” said Haruna. “How much does she weigh?”

 

“She keeps that a secret,” said Derek. “She’s sort of vain…”

 

“About a hundred and twenty pounds, close to m’ own weight,” Nova moaned as she came around a bit. “She’s gonna need an antidote…she’s legally intoxicated and may go into arrest with those seven or eight drinks in her…”

 

“I have some Metablin,” said Dawn. “Nasty stuff, but…”

 

Nova nodded weakly. “Shoot her up with some….then shoot some into….me….”

 

“What does it do?” Jonathan asked.

 

“It’s a drug that enables the body to metabolize alcohol faster,” Yuri said. “It’s not an instant cure-all, and it does not eliminate a hangover, but it makes the period of drunkenness shorter. The side effects are that it raises body temperature, often causes diarrhea, causes severe sweating that ruins one’s clothes…which won’t bother Mrs. Forrester much because she is nude anyway, and if we give this to Nova, she should be stripped immediately, and it causes very painful muscle cramps and a sense of paranoia….nasty stuff…”

 

“Give me 100 Mg,” Nova moaned as she knelt and tore off her robe, going naked on her own.

 

Derek kissed her and held her gently while Dawn gave her the shot. The sweating and moaning began for Nova a moment later as Yuri checked a blood sample that Dawn took from Nova. “Her blood alcohol level is just 0.20 now…she’s had some time to metabolize out some of this stuff.”

 

“Crap!” yelled Yuri as she checked Teri’s blood. “Some maniac also dosed Teri with Atropine and an infusion of jimson weed…along with a little Rikashan Spice.”

 

“Oh, my God,” Nova moaned, lucid enough to recognize what was going on. “Mother!” she said, their feud dropped for now as she realized that the drug cocktail in Teri Forrester’s veins could easily kill her. “Dawn, do you have Retvol?”

 

“I do….the side effects will be worse if we give Teri both Metablin and Retvol at once,” said Dawn. “Retvol also kicks the liver, spleen and kidneys into overdrive as an emergency measure. But, she may need it. If she starts going into shock, she needs to go to the hospital at once, because she will need dialysis in that event. Retvol might be called for with Nova, too…just a little…”

 

“Dawn…I might be pregnant,” said Nova.

 

“Might?” snapped Dawn. “Then what were you doing drinking sake?”

 

“I don’t know for sure…I missed a period, and….my breasts have been more tender,” Nova said. She looked down at her naked, sweating breasts and said, “You can see my nipples are getting darker, and…”

 

Nova screeched as Dawn got her buttock with another needle and took another blood sample. She put that sample aside in a small dish and rapidly put in some chemicals. “The Revised Hangford Test is positive, Nova. Congratulations, ma’am. You’re going to be a mother again.”

 

“Will the Metablin hurt the baby?” Nova moaned as she had to pause to throw up into a waste can.

 

“No, it’ll actually help to keep the alcohol from getting into your placenta. If we gave you Retvol, you’d most certainly have a miscarriage on that stuff,” Dawn snapped. She also checked Teri’s blood and said, “Your mother’s not pregnant, so she gets 50 Milligrams. This will also begin to bring her around…violently.”

 

Nova nodded weakly as she wiped off vomit and said, “Derek, go grab my mother and hold her in your lap; turn her so that one of her buttocks faces Dawn…and hold her hard…she may well fight you. Oh, God…they’re listening to me!”

 

“Who?” said Derek.

 

“THEM!” Nova cried, pointing at the thin air. “I….oh…it must be the paranoia from the Metablin…I just heard accusing voices….”how could you drink? How could you hurt your baby, bitch?” they were saying…”

 

“Side effect of the Metablin, she’ll come out of it,” sighed Yuri as Dawn readied a needle…

 

Derek held Teri tightly as she was given an injection.

 

Teri Forrester’s eyes opened, and, Alex, David, and Aurora ran into the room with Ariel, in spite of Jonathan’s efforts in trying to keep the young children from seeing their stricken mothers. In the hot night, Aurora wore only her underpants on her six-year old form, and David wore a fundoshi while little Alex went naked. Teri howled, and she screamed at Derek, “YOU’RE TRYING TO KILL ME! ALONG WITH THE WITCHES! I’M IN HELL! OH MY GOD!” she screamed with terror and rage in her eyes.

 

Her hands then went around a shocked Derek’s neck as she tried to strangle him. “You’re General Stone! Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble! Cauldron Brew and Cauldron Bubble! Witches’ Brew! Drugs! Booze! Stone, how could you? I want Karl back! I want my husband!”

 

Nova, even in her shaky condition, aided by Yuri (the two strongest women there) joined forces to gently pull Teri’s hands off Derek’s neck. Nova held her mother skin-to-skin in her lap, gently restraining her as Haruna, Dawn, and Derek gently washed off her sweaty, burning form as she trembled on the rug. Teri then threw up. Nova tenderly guided her head over the waste can as she retched, and then Nova made use of it herself as she also threw up.

 

“I…feel…awful….” Nova moaned as she held her mother and began to cry as Derek kissed her on the head and gently began washing her.

 

“What’s wrong with Mommy?” cried Aurora as she ran up to her mother and stroked her cheek.

 

“Mommy…is….sick…” moaned Teri. “Mommy…did…bad…things….mommy….”

 

“Mother, please open your legs so I can look at you…” Nova said.

 

“My God…I’m naked,” moaned Teri. “They’ll all see me…”

 

“I’m not wearing anything, either, Mother,” Nova said. “You’ve been on the beach, in the pool, and in the bath naked with all of us…we all know what you look like by now…no need to be ashamed,” Nova said as she got her mother to open her legs. She looked at her womanhood and said, “She’s…kind of irritated down there, Dawn….get a light in there…”

 

Dawn had a look. “Looks like there was some rough sex…I don’t see any damage…”

 

“Mother, did anyone force you to have sex with them?” Nova said.

 

“General Stone…but…I…I let him,” said Teri as both Derek and Nova looked shocked at Teri. “Maples was there, and…and….then….HE came, and HE…HE…HE WAS COLD! HE WAS REAL AND NOT REAL! HE WAS AND IS DEATH! HE…”

 

Nova heard a few chords of organ music in her head and shivered. “Mother…was it…him?”

 

“I think it was…there were witches…demons…Flagg….I…saw…things….three witches, weird sisters, hags, animals, monsters, creatures, Him, worms, things, HIM….I had a horrible dream…I…”

 

“If Stone was behind this, he should be drummed out of the EDF for this and should be in prison,” hissed Derek.

 

“Mother, what did General Stone do to you?” Nova said.

 

“Made love….then, they showed up, gave me…things…oooooohh…then, I….I went into Hell,” said Teri. “They made Hell appear in the Imperial Hotel…”

 

Then, the phone rang. Derek picked up, and he was shocked and enraged to see Stone on the other end. “Commodore Wildstar, is Teri Forrester all right?”

 

“Is she all right?” roared Derek. “SIR! She is here, half-comatose…half-insane….and…”

 

“I met her at the Le Circ Club. We had some friendly drinks…then, she passed out. Some strange man was around her drink…before I could get to her, two men grabbed her by the arms and took her out of the club,” Stone said. “They were SS men…one was a man that I just reprimanded, named Callingford…the other was a bad actor named Tsuriname. I have an APB out for those men, Wildstar. I had the MPs check her glass…they gave her some Rikashan Spice…they…”

 

“Stone, are you telling the truth?” snapped Derek.

 

“On my mother’s grave, Commodore,” said Stone as he crossed his fingers behind his back.

 

“Did you touch my mother?” Nova roared, glaring at Stone without a thought for her nakedness.

 

“No, Commander, I did NOT ‘touch your mother’!” roared Stone. “What do you take me for? A rapist? You know that drugs cause people to rant things…”

 

“Liar, liar, liar, liar, liar,” hissed Teri.

 

“Teri, I am sorry, but you are sick, you are deluded, you are not well,” said Stone, who also thought, and you look ravishing naked like that! And so does your oldest daughter with her bare ass and tits out!

 

Ariel crawled up to the phone and began making faces at Stone. “STOP LOOKING AT MY MOMMIE!” she yelled. “What are you? The Walrus?”

 

“Honey, please get down,” said Derek, gently as he grabbed Ariel. “This is very important. I need to talk to the General.”

 

“I’m taking swabs from Teri and Nova,” said Yuri gently. “Derek, please go to voice only, and try not to let the kids see this…”

 

Derek said, “Stone…I believe you…for now…but if we find any evidence you touched Nova’s mother, you will be under arrest, and if I find any evidence you took advantage of MY wife…my pregnant wife, mind you, while she was drunk…”

 

“What?” said Stone.

 

“If you touched my poor Nova, man to man, I will fucking come for you myself!”  hissed Derek as he cut off.

 

________________________________________

 

0310 Hours…The Same Night….

 

Derek held Nova and his mother-in-law, trying to soothe both of them as Yuri and Dawn analyzed the DNA swabs they had taken from both women. Finally, the result came up for Nova.

 

“Well?” said Derek as Nova moaned in his arms, half-asleep.

 

“We found that Nova was with one man about twenty-six hours ago….” Yuri said. “The DNA matches up with yours. I hate to ask prying questions like this, but, were you two together and having intercourse recently?”

 

Derek blushed and nodded. “Yes, Nova and I had a quick little rendezvous last night…in our shower…”

 

Nova held Derek and smiled and nodded herself.

 

Yuri said, “Nova, you’re clean. You were with no one but your dear husband, so….”

 

“I would have known it if Stone or the Dark Lord or Flagg had slept with me,” said Nova in a very insulted voice. “I may have been drunk, but I’m not insane! And, Derek, tell them to stop TALKING ABOUT ME!” she yelled. “Those voices! I can HEAR them!”

 

“Nova, dear, you are perfectly safe here at home,” cooed Derek. “There is no one here but us…”

 

The results for Teri came up a moment later.

 

Yuri and Haruna and Dawn all looked together. Haruna said, “One person that we can detect was at her. But the DNA of the semen is very, very alien. We are picking up other bits of DNA, but it looks like she was washed…or irrigated, or something…”

 

“Someone trying very hard to get rid of all evidence who almost succeeded,” said Yuri. “Derek, she belongs in bed, along with Nova. I’ll carry her; you get Nova.”

 

“Right,” said Derek. Nova and Teri were taken together to Nova and Derek’s bedroom and laid side by side in the same bed. Nova was crying softly as Derek tried to comfort her, but Teri was just moaning.

 

Derek lay there for two hours, sacrificing sleep to hold and comfort Nova and Teri. As the antidote to the alcohol slowly took hold on Nova, she was a little more use, helping to hold up her mother’s head as she moaned and whimpered. Nova threw up two more times, and had to get up once to go to the bathroom (with Derek and Dawn’s help) but Teri was as helpless as a child. She threw up and Derek and Nova held her head up and helped her aim into a bucket. Teri was laid on one of Alex and Ariel’s bed pads, and, at least once, she lost control of herself like a baby and messed the plastic-backed absorbent pad both ways. Nova, Dawn, and Derek soothed her, washed her like a baby, and, at one point, Teri came around a bit and cried on Derek’s lap as Nova and Dawn worked on making the bed around them, changing all of the bedding.

 

As Teri lay there, she sobbed to Derek and said, “I’m so sorry for all the trouble I caused…I’m so sorry…please forgive me, you and Nova both…please forgive me…I was so wrong, I left Karl on my own, I wish he’d take me back…I don’t deserve to have you be so kind to me,” sobbed Teri.

 

“It’s all right,” said Derek as he stroked Teri’s hair. She sounded almost like her eldest daughter at that point, gentle, kind, almost helpless…

 

Nova sat on the bed beside her mother. Nova had put on a long sleep shirt, and she said, “Mother, I’m sure that Dad will at least talk to you. He calls here, asking about you…he misses you…”

 

Then, the phone went off.

 

Derek answered. “Yes? Mr. Forrester? Teri’s home…..yes…she had a bad experience last night…she was assaulted while out at a bar…she’s home…Nova and some friends of mine are taking care of her…Put you on speaker?”

 

Derek did so, pointing the screen at Teri. “Mrs. Forrester? It’s your husband…”


“Teri?” Karl said tearfully as he sat there in his pajamas. “Are you all right?”

 

“Yes, Nova and Derek are caring for me. Some men hurt me, Karl…I…”

 

“How?” said Karl Forrester.

 

“I was dancing and drinking at Le Cirq, and these men grabbed me, and…”

 

“Do you want to come back to me?” said Karl.

 

“Will you have me back?” sobbed Teri.

 

“Yes, as long as this never happens again,” said Karl. “I told you that you need to see a psychiatrist. Now, will you listen?”

 

“I sure will,” said Teri. “Will you come see me?”

 

“We’ll meet tomorrow…at my office. I want you to go to a psychiatric rehab hospital before you move in again, Teri,” said Karl. “I’ll hire a governess to help me with Aurora and David so that Nova and Derek can have their privacy and their time with their children back. And, Derek, Nova, I am so grateful that you took care of Teri for me,” said Karl. “Thank you so much…”

 

“You’re welcome,” said Derek as he stroked his mother in law’s hair and his wife’s hair. Teri had gone back to sleep again, and Nova was nodding off.


Derek turned off the phone and said to Yuri and Dawn, “I’m going to hold them in their sleep. Everyone out, for now. We’ll talk again…in the morning.”

 

“I’m so glad we were able to help,” said Yuri. Dawn smiled.

 

“I’m so glad, too,” said Nova. “I’ll have wonderful news for Alex and Ariel tomorrow. About their baby brother…or…sister…right now, need to sleep,” Nova said, looking as peaceful as a lamb as she fell asleep, the voices and fears gone, safe in the arms of her mother and the man she loved.

 

 

To Be Continued…with Chapter Three “Peace of Mind (With Storm Clouds)”