A PLUNGE INTO DEEP WATER

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

PART FOUR: A DARK SONG BEGINS… (Act One: With Pride Comes a Great Fall…)

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.

Thanks to “Yuki Wildstar,” Gail Kopetz, and Ami Meitsu for ideas contributed to this chapter.

A BIG Shout-out to ANONYMOUS READER for artwork and ideas contributed.

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I. A TALE OF MURDER MOST FOUL

The Edge of the Milky Way Galaxy

Space Battleship Argo

Wednesday, April 26, 2209

2219 Hours: Earth Space-Time

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Commodore Derek Wildstar glanced away from Nova’s agony for a moment to grab Homer by his shirt.

“You…miserable…Captain Obvious! Nova’s being killed before our eyes and you’re just trying to analyze it? Aliscea, you have the power to stop this! What are you doing?”

“Waiting,” said Aliscea with a cold smirk.

“Waiting?” yelled Paul as he got in her face. “Waiting for what?”

“If she’d quit thrashing around, and reach inside herself, she could break that hold by herself!” Aliscea yelled.

“What?” yelled Derek.

“Wildstar! When you let Alex and Ariel learn to walk, did you two hold them up, or let them toddle and fall on their butts a few times until they got the idea?”

“But….Aliscea…Nova has none of your power…she can’t break a psychic stranglehold by herself!” Derek yelled. “Are you crazy?”

Nova fell against the radar, almost slamming her face into it. Her breaths were coming in only sharp gasps now as she coughed blood and drool all over herself from deep in her throat. Her gagging was the most agonized sound Derek ever heard in his life as he ran to her.

Nova gagged, weakly braced herself….shut her eyes…

…then, she struggled up with her hands, gagging away….

…and she managed to psychically grab and rip away the force about her neck as her eyes popped open.

Derek saw that through her tears, and a few streaks of blood, that they were glowing. Nova breathed hard, gasping as her body took in air as a shocked Samuel looked on.

“Nova…what are you…doing….?” said Derek.

“I’m fine…” she gasped in a barely audible voice through a near-crushed larynx as blood ran from her mouth. She angrily wiped it away, and put up her hands to her throat. A slight gleam appeared at her hands as she repaired the damage in her own throat and fixed everything up so she could talk above a whisper again. “Now, Samuel,” she said in a clear, but slightly raspy voice. “You and I have some words to say. You. Stinking. Traitor! But, I have a message to give you. A message to give you to give right to your new Master Ekogaru. Oh, I can feel him linked you with right now, Samuel. So, Ekogaru, this is for you. I do hope you are listening. Ready?”

“Yes, I’m ready,” said Samuel and Ekogaru as their voices merged as the Dark Lord left Maples and slid across the stars right into Samuel, gloating as he awaited the chance to phase on over to the Argo, grab Nova by the neck, finish killing her (even if she was sort of awakened now) and then stomp her remains and the remains of her unborn children into a nice jelly-like mess. “What is it, Nova, dearest?” said Ekogaru as the vile face appeared and Aliscea stood back in shock…he had never felt so strong before, and even she was scared…and…what was worse…her hold on the Matrix had lessened, and its power had slipped from her hands…

Nova got up, smiled, and walked up to behind Paul Rosstowski’s chair with a massive grin on her bloody face. “A message from me, and from the rest of the Star Force, Lord Ekogaru, you so-called god. We. Never. Give up. Never. You…will…go…and…smile…eat…crap…and then, you will die!”

Nova then looked up at Ekogaru, screamed, and let loose a bolt of power from her hands that illuminated the First Bridge like lightning for a moment. It hit the screen…vanished…

…and then, it exploded right on the bridge of the R’Khell sub, like a Magna-Flame Gun blast, right in Ekogaru’s face!

Ekogaru and Samuel were immediately turned into a screaming human torch.

Nova gritted her teeth, and shook her head as she saw her cousin burning before her on the screen while he and Ekogaru both screamed, “It HURTS! IT HURTS! Oh, GOD! IT HURTS! I’m burning alive! AAAAAAAAAAA, IT HURTS!”

Samuel stood alive like a burning torch, half his body being consumed rapidly to the bones by the horrid fire that Nova had sent in her rage. He suffered and screamed, kept alive by the Dark Lord trying to hold on to his dying form as a new host of opportunity, hoping that Samuel would die in a minute so he could then take the remains and rebuild them into a new form for himself. But, he just burned, screaming until he had no voice left as Samuel died in pain…

…then, Aliscea said, “Look, Nova! The Dark Lord is dissipating! I can’t feel him! I don’t think he can reincarnate anywhere now! We’ve WON! He’s dead at last!”

The R’Khell troops sprayed him with fire extinguishers as he fell to the deck burning and twitching. It looked as if he was dying. The scene was gruesome. Samuel’s arms were rapidly being burned down to mere bones as his face had already disappeared into the form of a skull on fire.

In the background, Aliscea and Nova and the others saw R’Khell troops screaming and wailing in grief as Ekogaru’s ghost faded away, screaming.

They wailed and tore their own clothes and yelled, “DAAAAR, SHITE! Eko’wa Danna! DAAAAR, SHITE! Eko’wa Danna! DAAAAR…SHITE…Eko’wa Shatmaja! SHATMA!!!”

Paul and Venture saw some of them shooting themselves. One man screamed and shot himself in the head.

“What are they yelling?” Derek gasped.

“Yes, those are other R’Jkharrazim, or psionics…” said Aliscea as she grinned happily. “Nova, they are screaming and wailing, “Ekogaru is dead! He is a martyr! Our God is dead! Ekogaru is no more!” We got him, Nova, he’s GONE!” Aliscea cried as she hugged Nova. “Nova, if my mother was not saying “no” in my head, I do not know why, I would give you the Matrix right now! I no longer need it! He’s dead! Our greatest enemy is gone! Hahahahahahahahaha!” Aliscea yelled. “You got him, you big stupid silly pregnant little Fluff!”

Nova fell to her knees, shaking like mad, and said, “Homer, go turn that off…I can’t watch anymore!”

“We’ve won and we’ve finally killed that traitor cousin of yours and Ekogaru and you can’t look?” snapped Aliscea as the screen went off. A moment later, Paul Rosstowski worked the main guns of the Argo. The first hit was a major hit on the lead R’Khell sub that Samuel had been aboard. The Argo took two more hits from torpedoes as she fired again. Two enemy subs were destroyed as the others submerged.

Then, Paul fired again.

The Argo’s guns went off, and the damaged R’Khell sub that Samuel Josiah had been in command of was destroyed. At the same time, Katrina ran onto the Bridge, followed by Foxy, who was yelling, “They are having a battle! You can’t go up there now! Wildstar is going to kill you!”

From her post, Sasha said, “Captain! They’ve retreated! Game over! Auntie, are you all right?” said Sasha as she ran over to help Nova up. To Nova’s surprise, Katrina appeared out of nowhere, clad in a white blouse, black skirt, a red sash, and sandals. She helped Sasha hold up her friend while Katrina thought, Something just happened to me…as soon as I touched Nova….

….it’s like I can suddenly see millions of lightyears, without radio telescope…Invidia thought as she **almost** spontaneously Changed…right in front of everyone. She avoided the Change only by gritting her teeth and snarling as Aliscea came over to assist.

Katrina did not like Aliscea, who whispered in her ear, “Almost you slipped, eh, Princess?”

“You are so mistaken! Drop dead,” hissed Katrina. “We are supposed to be helping Nova.”

Aliscea then grabbed Nova’s hands as she swayed as if she was drunk. “C’mon, get up,” Aliscea said roughly. “Nova, stop blubbering, you dumb bunny! Congratulations! Ekogaru is dead! Long Live Lady Nova! You just put me out of a job, you silly bitch!” Aliscea said while laughing.

“Congratulations! Thanks to you, I just incinerated my own cousin!” Nova sobbed. “I’ve got family blood on my hands twice over, now. Doesn’t bother you, does it?” Nova sobbed.

“It was him or you, Nova! Think, woman!” yelled Aliscea as she made Nova stand while making then other two women step away with a black look.

Nova nodded dully…and then, she crashed to the deck like a stone.

Derek immediately ran to her as the women gasped.

She definitely did not look well.

“Don’t upset her anymore…any of you! Keep away from her” yelled Derek. “Nova, how’s your chest?” he said as he saw her moaning and holding it.

Nova moaned for a moment before sitting up weakly in Derek’s arms.

“Mild signs of…angina…my heart rate’s probably up in the stratosphere someplace…” Nova said. “I need an EKG….heart’s…going like mad…I killed Ekogaru? Yaaay. I hope I don’t have a heart attack right here on the bridge! Controlling the fires of Creation is not good for one’s health if one is not used to it!”

The medics Homer had called were up there a moment later. Two of them, along with Derek, Katrina, Aliscea, and Sasha, worked to get Nova up on the stretcher.

“One…two…three,” they said.

They got her up there quickly. A moment later, one of them unzipped her uniform down to the crotch while another pulled off her boots. Soon, sensors were attached to her exposed torso and ankles as they hooked Nova up to an EKG reader.

“You have to strip poor woman in front of everyone?” yelled Katrina.

“This is emergency treatment, we can’t get an electrocardiogram if she’s dressed!” snapped a medic. “Mister Aljeer, get the anti-coagulant ready-we may need to give her a shot in the ass!”

“What are you reading, Miyazaki?” yelled Ensign Mahmoud Aljeer from Egypt, who was the other medic. He still had his knit skullcap on; the alert had called him away from his prayers toward Mecca.

“Minor heart damage that is resolving…her heart’s slowing down…rhythms back to normal…Ma’am, you’re soaked with sweat, and there’s static electricity all over you. Did you just sit on a power line?” asked Miyazaki.

“No, Mister Miyazaki, I’ve been illuminated. Literally,” Nova said with a small grin. “Derek, keep Alex and Ariel away from me for about an hour…they might light up…”

Dash looked at Nova before they threw a sheet over her, and his eyes went wide as he saw her, basically, exposed on the bridge. “Damn! Nova…don’t you wear undergarments anymore?”

“No, not when I have to nurse twins at the drop of a hat,” Nova said as she struggled out of her suit under the sheet, baring her shoulders as Derek gently wiped her face with a baby wipe and then kissed her. “Oh, guess what, now I’m cold…” she said with a blush.

 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Mommy, what happened to you?” said Ariel as she hugged her mother in bed in Sickbay about an hour later. “Are the babies in you okay?”

“They’re fine…Doctor Sane just checked them out…” Nova said tiredly as she tousled Ariel’s hair as heart monitors and other monitors beeped all around her. Nova had wires and IV tubes all over the place, and she was cold and naked under a sheet.

A moment later, in spite of her cold, Nova pulled off the sheet and sat up in bed, because she was restless. Ariel kissed her and ran off to play with something. Like her mother, she was running around Sickbay naked, having taken all of her clothes off by herself when she saw her mother sitting bare in bed. She had some nail polish on her. So did Ariel’s “Auntie” Aurora, who had gotten the idea to polish her big sister’s fingernails and toenails in bed. Sure enough, Nova now had a different psychedelic color-for each finger and toe! Most of the nails were visible even though she was kneeling there in bed with her long legs curled cat-like under her. 

“Doctor Sane?” Nova said. ”How much longer do you want me hooked up like this?”

“It’s going to be a while,” said Doctor Sane. “I want to perform some tests on you and those babies. Blood work, amniocentesis, every scan I can get of your heart and throat, and I am also getting those sensors off your body in a while and replacing them with wireless ones, because I am putting you on the treadmill for a nice stress test. And, given that your heart was running wild and that it nearly stopped a while ago on the First Bridge because you had an arrhythmia from Hell, and given how your temperature has been fluctuating, I hope you aren’t feeling modest this evening, Nova, because I am keeping you completely naked until I release you from here, both in case I have to Code you, and to keep your crazy temperature regulated.”

“Okay, I guess I’m going to be running the treadmill like this, too?” Nova laughed. “If Derek came down here, boy he’d get a kick out of it…what with my breasts and tush jiggling as I run,” she said with a laugh.

“Hulllo! Speak of the devil!” laughed Derek who started when he saw Nova. “Uh…hi, Nova. Wow! What are you modeling?”

“My bare skin,” Nova said, as she beckoned Derek up and gave him a deep hug and a kiss that also went deep for a moment. “Same with Ariel…”

“Hi, Mommy!” screamed Alex when he ran in. All he had on were his training pants, and he was followed by his grandmother.

“Nova! What happened to you?” said Teri as she ran up in a light crocheted button-down mini-dress and sandals and hugged Nova, who was also hugging Derek.

“Quick version,” Nova said. “Aliscea awakened some psychic abilities in me…said I would need them for self-defense…and I had to fight Ekogaru...and…”

“My GOD! Did we get attacked? Was that what those slamming noises and explosions were?” yelled Teri as she gave Derek an accusing look. “And where’s that strange Katrina? I hear she helped protect you.”

“Yes…we did, and we had to defend the ship. As for Katrina, she is working on a project,” said Derek while Nova laughed as Alex took off his training pants, climbed naked into his mother’s lap, took one of her conveniently bared breasts, and began to suckle away. “Careful of Mommy’s wires, honey,” whispered Nova. “We don’t want Doctor Sane to think something happened to Mommy…”

“Sure, Mommy,” said Alex.

“Who attacked us?” asked Teri.

“he R’Khells,” said Nova. “Led by Cousin Samuel. He…turned traitor and went to their side. Just like Yvona did, years ago…”

“Oh…my…God,” said Teri. Her concerned frown turned into a smile as Alex quit nursing, squeezed his mother’s bare breast, and giggled when some milk squirted onto his bare chest. He played with his mother’s breast as Nova tousled his hair, and then he went back to nursing again.

Aliscea came in a moment later, clad again in her black dress and sandals. “And Samuel Josiah had the power of the Dark Lord in him. In fact, Ekogaru possessed him. Ekogaru and Samuel tried to kill Nova during the battle by strangling her with their power. Nova was maybe a minute away from death when she broke the hold with the Power I awakened in her, and…she fought back. Nova, tell your mother what you did…”

Nova put her head down and said, “Mother, I killed Samuel with my new mind-energy. I burned him to death….alive…with fire that I somehow called up and sent to the alien ship. And, since Ekogaru was in him, I think I got him, too…”

“You did!” laughed Aliscea. “That is what I wanted to tell you! I have been in touch with my mother. She cannot feel Ekogaru’s presence anywhere in the Cosmos now. Neither can Sasha. And Sasha and I called up Queen Starsha. Starsha concurs…she believes that Ekogaru is dead and gone forever! You finally defeated him, Nova! We still have his works to deal with, but the war with the Technomugar is finally over! Ekogaru the Great is no more, except for the part of him that, I guess, is burning down in Hell! We won, Nova!” said Aliscea, laughing her head off as she kissed her.

“He’s dead?” cried Teri.

“Yes, I guess…he is,” Nova said.

Aliscea then said, “Mother and I have determined that you have passed through the Fire, fulfilled the Prophecy, and that you will receive the Pellian Matrix after we arrive on Gamilon…the Degree…because the Matrix is both a thing and a ceremonial post, will probably be conferred upon you on Iscandar at sunrise of the next day with me, Mother, Derek, Deke, Sasha, Katrina, who is on board ship with us with Foxy to assist Karl, and Queen Starsha present. Make sure you take a nice bath the night before. You will wear a white robe in the beginning of the ceremony, but you will be barefoot and in the nude for most of the ceremony. I think…I think…part of the Power already jumped to you of its own accord a few hours ago. To you and to one other….”

“And who’s that other?” asked Derek as Mark Venture came into the room with Holly, who had been serving on the Second Bridge. Holly smiled when she saw Alex nursing, and said, “Look at this, Mark. She can’t be that sick if she’s letting Alex nurse and play with those cute titties like that…” 

“The other one is your vile friend; the Cometine/Pellian half-breed,” said Aliscea with deep scorn in her voice as she thought, And you, Nova, you are the damn mostly Terran, partly Pellian and partly Iscandarian half-breed! You have the Ancient High Royal Blood in you, all right, you bitch, closer to the Ancient Line than mine, as a matter of fact, but that High Blood is mixed with the ancestry of that damn little dirty planet of yours? You…in the words of a writer from your world, early 21^st century, you are a damned MUDBLOOD! Such High Blood mixed with your…commonness? Commoner Mudblood scum! And the power is going to YOU? It is not fair! Not fair at all!

“Don’t you dare call Katrina vile, Aliscea! Derek, I had a scare but I’m fine,” said Nova, as she blushed, thinking of the times she had to fully expose her breasts…or entire body like this in public in the heat back home to feed Alex and Ariel (depending upon what she had on). “And I have breasts, Holly. Not titties!”

“Fine? You scared the holy crap out of us,” Mark said. “Is he gone?”

Nova nodded. “I’m pretty sure he is…”

“For good?” said Mark.

“We’re 99.9% sure of it,” said Sasha as she ran into the room, with her uniform wide-open, with Star nursing at her breast. “You look comfy, Auntie…”

“I’m tangled up,” Nova said as she extricated an EKG sensor wire from between the big toe and second toe on her left foot, where it gotten lodged like a strap on one of her pairs of flip-flops. She stretched out her leg, and giggled as Ariel ran up and began to tickle her foot. Then, she said, “Mommy, can I play w’ Star? She’s a year old now!”

“AWIEL!” screeched Star as she saw her second cousin. “Lookie Auntie Nova! Clothes, off, MOMMY!” yelled Star as she began to strip Sasha’s uniform off her shoulders. Sasha laughed as she made herself gleam a little…and, then, a moment later, her clothing and boots were neatly piled and folded on a table along with Star’s clothes as both mother and daughter went naked. 

Doctor Sane laughed, and then he said, “Sasha, lie down on that other bed near Nova! NOW!”

 “Okay,” Sasha said in all innocence as she held and cuddled Star. A moment later, as the second naked young pregnant mother began to burp her little daughter, Doctor Sane gestured to Dawn Hardy, who came back in a moment later in her nurse’s shift and crepe-soled sandals pushing an EKG unit on a cart, with a sensor pack in her hand.

“Star, run along now…you can go sit with my David in the nursery,” Dawn sang as she kissed Star and watched her run off to the room in Sickbay designated for this voyage as the “nursery”, a spare space filled on an ad hoc basis with a pair of beds for mothers to nurse on or change their toddlers, some playpens, some toys, and a deck surface partly covered with washable rugs to accommodate the little barefoot toddlers, as well as their often equally barefoot mothers (and sometime fathers) as they played with them or cared for them. There was usually always a caregiver in the room, a post which was rotated between Nova, Sasha, Dawn, Teri Forrester, Sergeant Trish Kane from the Living Group, Wendy Glitchman, and one other crewmember who was also a mother…even Aliscea had volunteered for a watch or two here. The mothers who volunteered would come lightly dressed, ready to undress if needed to bathe or nurse one of their little charges. Teri was also able to assist with nursing because she was on the same hormonal shot Nova had been taking to assist her in generating milk when Aurora and David had been born, and Aliscea was able to use her powers to make and stop a flow of mothers’ milk at will. 

“What are you doing?” asked Sasha, who tried to cover her breasts as she saw Dawn grinning at her with wires in her hands.

“Doctor Sane wants you to get an EKG, and you are getting your amnio and stress test on the treadmill after Nova gets hers,” said Dawn with a grin. “You two are both pregnant and were both in contact with the Dark Lord, so, both of you need to be checked over from stem to stern. “Nova, I hear that you have freaky powers, too, now. I don’t know whether I should congratulate you or go into mourning for you. Did you really finish off Ekogaru?”

“Everyone is telling me I did,” said Nova.

“I’m cold like this,” whined Sasha as Dawn made her lay down so she could connect the EKG wires to her chest.

“You’re the one who just phased all her clothes off, Sasha,” Nova said with a giggle. “It gets warmer after you move around a bit. Also, why complain? Look at those gozangas on you,” Nova teased. “Your boobs are bigger than mine!”

“You be quiet, Auntie; she’s not about to stick things under them, and hook wires to them!”

“Doc got me already, Sasha,” Nova said as she held her breasts up. “You can see that!”

“Quit squiggling, you!” said Dawn as she stuck wires onto Sasha’s sensors.

“Auntie, do I ever get a break?” Sasha whined as Teri smiled.

“Nooooo,” Nova said as Derek was sitting on the bed with her, making Alex giggle by stroking, tickling, and kissing every part of his little naked body from head to toe. Nova then squealed with laughter as Derek began to do the same to her.

“Hey, Mark! I win my bet! You can see she’s still ticklish!” Derek laughed.

“You two made a bet about me?” Nova laughed.

“My fault,” laughed Venture. “I bet Derek fifty credits you were too high and mighty to be ticklish anymore. He bet me back that you were still ticklish…”

“Okay, I’m still ticklish!” Nova laughed. “Derek, HELP! Stop it! Alex! Stop tickling Mommy!” she laughed.

“Mommy’s boobies jiggle when she laughs!” Alex said.

“So…does…Alex’s tushie!” Nova yelled as she began to tickle her son back. She was soon making him laugh. A minute later, Ariel and Star ran in and jumped onto the bed and began to tickle Alex and Nova, joining in with their father.

“Okay, enough!” yelled Doctor Sane as he ran in. “Nova, your heart is within normal parameters, even with three little kids and one big kid who is supposed to be the Captain of this ship tickling you!”

“Oh. That sounds great. When do I get that stress test?”

“In a while…”

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Later on, it was about 0200 hours on April the 27^th…just a few hours after the battle with Ekogaru and Samuel Josiah and his forces.

Katrina could not sleep, so she sat in her cabin with Foxy, wearing an elegant black nightgown trimmed with red, and going barefoot as she sat curled up at her desk chair, wrapped in her favorite dark-red blanket from home, brooding as she sat listening to the stately yet ominous organ sounds of the Cometine National Anthem through her headphones.

“What are you doing?” said Foxy as he woke up. He and Katrina had made quick love before…with her Changed into her true form as Invidia for a bit. Now, she had Changed back into her shape as Katrina, and she was giving off darkness and scorn like a battery.

“Working on article about the Terran Yunagi class space patrol cruiser for my new editor Graham at Jane’s,” she said. “Yunagi is the same size as the old Amazon class, but she is packing more punch. We are supposed to be making a rendezvous with her on this cruise, and Derek has promised me a tour.”

“I see. Why are you wrapped in your blankie?” he teased.

“Because it is cold, I am upset, and it is not Blankie!” she snapped.

“Sorry, Katrina, Princess,” said Foxy as he kissed her. “Like you have enough to do, with those negotiations with Desslok and all that…”

“I am not looking forward to sitting in room with that man. Or with her,” hissed Katrina.

“Meaning?”

“That. Accursed. Aliscea,” said Katrina. “She believes she has such a high and mighty attitude. She is only a Lady. I am a full-blown Princess,” snapped Katrina as she Changed into Invidia. “I have my own agenda and plan to someday return peacefully to power without further bloodshed, and what does she have?” A tear ran down Invidia’s cheek as she said, “After touching Nova…when she was all powered up…”

“And what was all that about? Nova has powers? Nova, from little old Boulder, Colorado, has space-chick powers now?”

“Very sudden thing; seems she always had the potential, but Aliscea, for her reasons, had to…awaken something in her. It turns out Nova is far more important than we thought. The Comet Empire may have to handle Earth carefully from now on. Very carefully. As it appears she is not fully Terran. It seems…she has some Pellians and some Iscandarians in her bloodline…we may even be very distantly related…through the Pellian side. Kinship obligations? Maybe. We knew we would have to deal with the Pellian Confederacy someday in our bid to rule the Universe…either force them under our protection…or defeat them in the Blackeye Galaxy. But…I thought that when Ekogaru defeated Pellias, that was the end of them as a Power. But, no. Astrena is allied with Desslok. She is peaceful, but great potential threat to us. Aliscea? She is not peaceful; she is vicious. She is scornful, vile snake! A monster! Someone who uses people for her own ends…” Invidia then trailed off. “As I used to openly do. But Nova? My little friend? With…power in her? Yes, we may need that Power to defeat the Dark Lord.”

“She may be able to bring that Bastard down?” said Foxy, impressed by that.

“Aliscea and Astrena have the opinion she just did in the battle earlier,” said Invidia. “I am not so sure. I worked with him, remember? He is not so easy to defeat. He is vicious, devious, utterly evil, a genius, utterly mad, and filled with a thousand disguises, glamours, and tricks. I tried to tell Nova before I think maybe he went to ground somewhere. At least she listens. Aliscea, the arrogant fool, just laughed at me and told me to go suck an egg. Such High Blood in her, and she scorns Nova and I for not being fully Pellian? What a piece of animal waste she is!”

“I never liked her. She and Nova used to be close; now they are barely civil to each other. What happened?”

“I tell you, since…now…I can perceive things! Yes! I can now see with a sight that is not of the eyes. I know where HE is. R’Khell’eva. Hiding in a hole someplace, He is. Lurking, and wanting us all dead! Just like when he so often lurked on the Eritz Gatlantis in that Pit of his in the ship. And he wants Nova dead like a Vampire wants Blood.”

“Why? Why is she so important? I mean, she’s cute, smart, can do quite a few jobs on the ship, and will be a doctor someday…maybe also a ship’s captain, because she can run a ship in combat. I mean, really do a skipper’s job. She and Derek are the only couple I know of other than us who discuss strategy and tactics on a regular basis.”

“Trelaina was, and is, bright, but young. She was and is, I believe, a teenager, and a pacifist teenager at that. Still sort of a silly thing, with all that Power,” giggled Invidia. “Nova is an educated, refined, and serious as a heart-attack woman who is a leader of men, even though she does not quite know it yet. Oddly enough, partly our wars made her into what she is now; someone who will probably be very high in Earth’s Government or High Command someday. Think of her with the Powers of Trelaina! Think of that picture! A leader of men and a strategist with the Power of Trelaina! Someone who may someday have an Agenda! Does that scare you? Oh, she is my friend. But it scares me! Intensely!”

“Why?” said Foxy.

“A warrior with Trelaina’s Power someday. Leading men under her banner. How do we know that if she acquires her great power that after she finishes off our Dark Lord, our mutual enemy, that she will not just turn on the Comet Empire next! How do we know that?” cried Invidia.

“Nova’s not the type to conquer anyone. She’s too…meek. Too quiet,” said Foxy.

“If the Comet Empire ever tried to attack Earth again…openly…You Terrans are nice, quiet, peaceful. Attack your kind…”

“You attack us again, and we won’t stop until you’re smashed,” said Foxy grimly.

“That is scary coming from you. Think of those words from someone who might someday be able to will planets to explode,” said Invidia.

Foxy went very quiet at that.

“You have to be careful…Princess,” said Foxy.

“I know zat,” said Invidia as she shut her eyes…and went back to work on her article. 

EIGHT HOURS LATER….

It was 0900, the next morning, being April the 27^th.

Nova had gotten some sleep, and had been given her stress test at 0600. When the results were normal, she was allowed to dress and return back to her duties.

After a morning space warp, the Argo was now about 10,000 lightyears beyond the edge of the Milky Way, heading into the deep void of inter-galactic space 30,000 lightyears away from Earth. Eleven more long warps like that would bring her to the Sanzar System in a few days.

Nova was well enough to rejoin the Command Crew at a briefing the next morning at 0900 Hours, where Sandor was going over their upcoming course.

Sandor said, “Now, you are all aware that relative Galactic movement causes our course to be a little different every time that we make a long trip, such as the one we are now making to Gamilon and Iscandar. This time, our straight course on our next space warp, scheduled for 1600 hours, will cause us to pass through a star system that is on charts the Gamilons provided for us, but through which we have never passed before.” He tapped the deck with his pointer. “And, our projected course, represented by this pink arrow, will bring us right here in this system, near the second planet.”

“What’s the system called, suh?” asked Hardy.

“The Mecanner System, Hardy,” said Sandor. “Nova, please be kind enough to recite its characteristics.”

“Of course,” she said. “A smallish G2 yellow star, and seven planets. The inner three planets are small rocky iron/nickel-based worlds like the inner planets of our own Sol System. Those inner three worlds occupy their own orbits. The fourth planet is a large gas giant with rings like our Saturn, with several satellites of its own. The fifth, sixth, and seventh planets share the outermost orbit of the system, and they are very small ice-based planets. We think the third planet may be habitable; the Gamilons have never discovered any intelligent life there, however.”

“Depending upon our time frame, we may want to take a survey of that planet,” Commodore Wildstar said.

“I could lead a party down there,” Nova suggested.

“It’ll be considered,” Derek said. “It might be a good idea, since we’ve never explored the place.”

“We’ll be passin’ Beemira tomorrow?” said Eager. “Ah can remember when it took us months to get out that far!”

Sandor nodded as another graphic appeared. “”We will be at Balan late tomorrow after we do a third warp in the evening. We’ll be 100,000 lightyears out by Saturday after three warps, and should arrive in the Sanzar System Monday morning.”

“It’s a little quicker each time we do it,” said Deke Wakefield, who was standing to Eager’s right.

“As the wave engine gets better, these journeys get easier,” said Sandor.

“Any other comments or questions?” asked Commodore Wildstar.

The group was silent.

“Very well,” said Derek. “I have some work to do with going over the meeting agenda on Gamilon with Karl Forrester and Katrina Savela; I’ll be in the Captain’s Quarters if I am urgently needed. Nova, you’re scheduled to take the conn as Officer of the Deck until 1200; Eager will take over for you afterwards. Your orders are to keep us on course, and maintain a watch for enemy forces.”

“Yessir,” Nova said as she saluted and then took off for the First Bridge.

Nova assumed her post behind the Captain’s console on Bridge Number One, having brought with her a cup of coffee.

“How’s our course?” Nova asked Holly Venture, who was at the helm.

“Steady as she goes, ma’am. We’re on course for our space warp to the Mecanner System at sixteen hundred hours. Current time is now oh-nine fifty-two hours. Our speed is at slow cruising speed, fourteen space knots, heading towards Alpha-X-ray 231 on the charts.”

“Increase speed slightly to fifteen space knots,” Nova ordered.

“Aye, ma’am, I’m slowly increasing our speed,” Holly said.

The bridge doors whizzed open, and Nova smiled as Diane Sandor came through the doors. “Acting Skipper, I’m here as ordered on the duty schedule to spell Orion.”

“By all means,” said Nova. “Please take your station.”

“Are you sure you’re all right?” asked Tim Orion as he prepared to turn over Engineering to Diane.

“I’m doing fine, sir,” sighed Diane, who took her post as Homer and Dash gawked at her.

“She shouldn’t be here,” whispered Homer.

“What do you mean by that?” Dash whispered back.

“It’s too soon after her damn miscarriage,” mumbled Homer. He looked at Nova and muttered, “Did you hear that Nova and Wildstar are also on the outs?”

“What do you mean?” said Dash.

“Didn’t you hear?” said Homer after he made sure Orion had left after he motioned Dash over. “Wildstar was caught hugging Diane Sandor in his cabin. I saw it. I spread the story around, and now I hear that Nova and Wildstar are in separate cabins and that behind the scenes…”

 “Behind what scenes, Homer? Are you spreading tales again?” Nova said as she sipped at her coffee.

“Uh-oh,” said Dash.

“Ma’am, no disrespect, but I’ve been hearing all sorts of things…”

“Good. Report them to the Captain, then,” Nova said. “I’m sure he’d love to know who is spreading these rumors around the ship. I need not comment on my personal life here with the Captain except to say that it is very good, we are not separated, any small differences we had are in the past, and…” Nova then flipped up her hair on her left side. “This mark on my neck, known as a hickey, came from my husband, and recently. Homer, we’d love to know who is spreading these rumors, because the Captain and I would respectfully request that they be stopped. At once.”

Diane looked at Nova and said, “Ma’am, we need to talk, outside, for a minute…I…” Diane then held back a sob.

Nova took a deep breath. “Mister Rosstowski, take command for a minute. Diane, please leave your post and follow me.”

Diane saluted Nova and she got up and left.

The two women went through the hatch at the aft part of the bridge. They stood in the foyer near the stairs and the lift and Nova leaned against the bulkhead, bracing herself against it with a booted foot as she looked at Diane and said, “Are they spreading scuttlebutt about you?”

Diane tearfully nodded. “I’m hearing all sorts of things since I left Sickbay at 0530 this morning; Steve hit me and caused the miscarriage; I risked the baby by working in a radiation-filled compartment and caused the miscarriage; I’m having an affair with Derek and hugging him and sleeping with him; you’ve been abandoned and you’re sleeping with Steve…”

“What?” Nova said. She kicked her bulkhead. “How many of these rumors can be traced back to that…idiot at Communications?”

“The Marines and the young Knox kid are spreading a lot of these stories…Homer’s been doing his part, too…I heard him talking to people at breakfast about it…in the messhall! About me! About Derek! About you!”

“Holy Jeez,” sighed Nova. “Yeah. Derek and I definitely have to talk with Homer and Knox Junior about this. Return to your post; I’m calling Derek from down here,” Nova said as she picked up a phone. Nova gave Diane a sisterly hug and a kiss and said, “Like you told me once, don’t let the buggers get you down. Ignore them. They’re idiots who need to be put in their places.”

“Thanks, Nova. You’re one hell of a friend,” sniffed Diane.

“Anytime, dear,” Nova said as she patted Diane’s cheek. Diane saluted her and Nova returned the salute before she dialed the extension to the Captain’s Quarters.

Derek sat in his cabin talking to his father-in-law and Katrina as he said, “Would one of you give me a quick run-down again on the trade situation with the Gamilons?”

Karl Forrester said, “What it boils down to is the fact that the Gamilons have high tariffs on a lot of our goods because we have high tariffs on Gamilon goods. They won’t lift those tariffs until we start lifting some, and…”

“Is it that Desslok is being a prick as usual?” asked Katrina.

“I don’t know how much he has to do with this,” said Commodore Wildstar. “You know the Gamilon-Galman Empire is a vast organization. This may be a decision made by his generals or bureaucrats.”

“If we lay it before Desslok, he’s bound to change his ways,” snapped Katrina.

“Yes, but we need to do so delicately; namely, the two of us, your husband, and Wendy Glitchman, who is along at the Commander’s request to try to encourage some trade back and forth on military procurement,” said Karl. “She’s also there to give the message that the EDF and the highest ranks of the Earth Government want some progress on new trade agreements. Which reminds me; Derek, have our profiles been sent to Gamilon yet?”

“Yes, they’ve been sent, and we should be hearing from them soon on the final formal acceptance of everyone’s credentials, even though Desslok said there should be no problem with that…” At that, Derek’s phone went off. “Captain’s quarters. Yes?”

Nova was on the other end of the line; “Derek…we have…a situation.”

“What kind of situation?”

“Bizarre rumors are being spread…about you and Diane, about me and Steve…about how Diane’s miscarriage was caused…I heard this from Diane and I caught Homer and Dash playing ‘whisper down the valley’ about it…”

“Damnit!” Derek snapped. “Who do you think is behind it?”

“I heard Homer and that Vic Knox kid. And Diane told me Homer was behind some of this…and that Knox has been spreading around other…garbage, and I personally heard Homer, and plan to have a talk with him…”

“Nova, hold off on talking to him until the end of your watch; because I want to have a good, good talk with him, too…”

“Yessir,” Nova said. She slammed down the phone and went back onto the Bridge. “Mister Rosstowski, I am taking back command.”

“Aye, ma’am,” said Paul. Nova looked at Homer, who was whispering to Dash, and she said, “Mister Homer Glitchman! Mister Dashell Jordan! You two will both concentrate on your posts and cut out the extraneous talking!”

“We were talking about the Yoimuri Giants, ma’am,” lied Dash.

“I don’t give a flying crap if you two were talking about The Little Red Hen!” Nova snapped. “I have given both of you a direct, lawful order from the Captain’s Chair while I am in charge of this vessel as Officer of the Deck! Would you two jokers like to be written up for Mast?”

“No, ma’am,” said Homer quietly.

“Then tend to your work!” Nova snapped. “Commander Sandor?” said Nova.

“Yes’ ma’am,” he replied.

“Prepare me a maintenance report of the ship’s system status since 0500. Have Mister Glitchman and Mister Jordan send you reports on the status of the comm systems and main guns. Sasha, assist them with a report on the Cosmo-Radar. Holly, I need a Navigation report from you and Eager. Diane, send along an Engineering Report. Of course, if there is an alert, we will tend to that first. I’m going to be running a computer model of our engine power curves from my post, Diane, so your responses may be a little slow from the mainframe,” Nova said.

“Of course,” said Sandor. “You have your orders; see to them…”

Nova then sipped at her coffee and began running her own computer model.

The time was 1005 Hours.

II. FIGHTS, TODDLER HIJINKS…AND THE SONG OF SHALIN’SKAR REVISITED

Deep Space

Space Battleship Argo

Thursday, April 27, 2209

1225 Hours: Earth Space-Time

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

A while later, after eating a quick lunch, Commodore Wildstar, making sure he had his pea coat off, tapped Homer Glitchman on the shoulder; hard.

“Hey! Wildstar! What’s the big idea?”

“Homer, we’re going off to the port side observation deck right now….to have a little talk…just you and me,” Derek said in a slow, measured, dangerous voice. “C’mon…Homer.”

Upon reaching the empty port side observation deck, Derek turned to Homer and said, “I understand you’ve been spreading around some stories about Diane Sandor and about Steve. And, you’ve been spreading stories about my wife and me. Care to tell me why…asshole?”

Homer gritted his teeth at Wildstar, and he said, “Oh, so that’s it!?! I saw you holding Diane…your old girlfriend that I remember you banging like a rabbit back at the Academy…and Nova must be livid over it! Did she throw you out yet? And did Sandor throw out Diane for having her damn miscarriage, yet?”

“Nova and I had a discussion about it, primarily because you were spreading all kinds of stories that appear to be creative works of fiction. I don’t appreciate you talking about my wife and my friends in such a fashion!” Derek said as he pushed Homer, hard. “You got that?”

“Oh, you wanna make a Goddamn fight out of this, Wildstar?” snapped Homer. “Yeah, that’s fair! You’ll push me into hitting a fucking flag officer so I’ll go to Leavenworth for ten years? That’s a real class use of your authority, Deputy Captain!”

“First of all, you address me as Captain!” snapped Derek. “Second of all, for the next fifteen minutes, we aren’t Commodore and Lieutenant Commander at all, Homer. Just two guys having a little fight to settle some shit,” said Derek as he pushed Homer again. “So, c’mon, Homer. You always liked to fight with Venture. Let’s see how long it’ll take me to wipe this deck with you…huh?”

Homer then cocked up his fists, and went for Derek, yelling, “Okay, you long-haired motherfucker! Starting this by pushing me around? Let’s go for it!”

His first punch was dirty. Namely, below the belt. He tried to punch Wildstar right in the balls. Derek dodged the blow, but he could immediately tell he was fighting a guy who would not fight fair. Derek threw a sneaky rabbit punch that connected with Homer’s head. Homer was staggered back against the bulkhead, but as he hit the bulkhead, he jumped up and kicked Derek in the gut with both feet.

Derek gasped, holding back tears of pain as he collected himself and then kicked back at Homer with a martial-arts kick. Homer crashed to the deck.

Derek moved in on him, raining punches against Homer’s face, one, two, three…on the fourth punch, Homer’s lip was cut, and Derek drew first blood.

Then, suddenly, Homer got his legs curled up in a ball, and, as a small crowd of Space Marines, gunners, and Black Tigers began to gather, he again kicked Derek in the stomach, and sent him flying. Derek slammed against a bulkhead, but, with stars exploding in his head, he threw himself off the bulkhead with a yell, and went for Homer’s neck with two punches.

One connected, but Homer blocked the other one.

Homer then responded with a punch to Derek’s lip that drew blood, and then a second punch to Derek’s crotch that most of the crowd (except some of the Marines) loudly booed. The Argo’s Captain was doubled over in pain and fell to his knees gasping….

…as a blur of gold and black came as if from nowhere and smashed into Homer.

“What the fuck?” yelled some pilot as Derek looked up…

“Hey, you, this is my fight!” Derek yelled, as he looked through his blurred eyes while some other crewmembers yelled, “WOOOO!” and some Marine yelled, “Knock her off you, Homer! Kick her skinny little butt!”

Derek saw that a young woman in a Living Group uniform had joined the fight and was punching Homer in the gut while her head blurred because she took two of Homer’s maddened fists to her face as Homer fought like something possessed. “STOP THAT!” yelled a familiar voice at the top of her lungs, as Derek realized that the person throwing punches on top of Homer was Nova!

“WOOOO!” yelled another pilot as Derek staggered over, and looked at Nova’s goofily smiling face as a little blood ran down her chin from a cut lip.

 “What are you doing here?” gasped Derek.

“Derek…is your crotch all right? I saw red when I saw him punching you like that!” she said as she held Derek and cuddled him while Homer lay back there and began to cry.

“Nova, you bitch!” whined Homer. “You’re as bad as he is! You fight dirty!”

Nova kissed Derek, saying, “Please excuse me for a moment.”

Then, she turned to Homer. Nova abruptly punched him in the gut, outraged as she snapped, “And you fight dirty, Glitchman! I don’t appreciate that! Especially where my husband is concerned! I once took on Desslok to protect Derek! Would you like to see what I can do to you if you really make me mad?” she snapped as she stood there with her fists cocked, ready to go in a combat stance.

Nova gave him a shove, and let him stagger up.

Homer got onto his hands and knees, just as another little white blur ran into the room.

It was Ariel Wildstar.

The toddler saw Homer, and she saw her Daddy and Mommy bleeding from their mouths. She put the events together, and ran up in her little white sailor blouse, little navy shorts, and little white sandals, and then, she kicked Homer in the butt with all of her strength (which was not very great because she was only a baby!) and toddled up to her parents and said, “Bad man hurt Daddy and Mommy? Ariel will protect!”

“Oh, come here, Ariel, yes…Homer is a bad man,” Nova said as she scooped her baby daughter up and hugged her.

Two members of the Marine Group came up and grabbed Homer, and said, “Captain Wildstar, you want this guy in the brig?”

“No, let him go,” Derek said. He looked at Homer and said, “Eighty hours’ worth of punitive extra duty for you, Homer. Sixteen extra watches over the next few days. Starting now.”

“What?” whined Homer. “You started the fight, sir!”

“That was man-to-man, but Nova and I settled that personal stuff. This is for your fucking up shipboard morale by spreading those rumors,” Derek said. “Unless you’d prefer a court-martial, then? In which case, you would go to the brig…”

“I’ll take the informal punishment, sir,” whined Homer.

“Good. It’ll stay out of your jacket then, Homer. Get to work and get out of my sight!” Derek snapped.

“Yessir,” said Homer as Nova wiped Derek’s bloody lip off.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Later that afternoon, a tranquil scene was taking place in the improvised nursery in Sickbay at around 1345 Hours.

There, after having eaten her lunch with Derek, Nova was sitting on the rug with Alex and Ariel in her lap with a tub of water nearby. In preparation for this chore, Nova had taken off her nurse’s uniform in Sickbay, and she had come into the nursery in nothing but a towel, which she now had off as she, Alex and Ariel all went naked both for a bath and so that she could also give them her breasts.

Not far away, Wendy Glitchman sat in the same condition in the nude with Joshua and Aaron in her lap suckling at her breasts while she washed Aaron’s bare bottom with a washcloth. “Homer really said those things, Nova?” asked Wendy.

“Yes he did,” said Nova. “And Derek and I still can’t figure out why he had to spread those tales. Oh, Derek gave it to him all right, and I gave it to him, too, after I saw him kick my husband in the balls…”

“He did that?” Wendy sighed. “What a jerk! Is Derek okay?”

“He is,” Nova sighed. “Or he was…after I put some ice on him there…and what is Homer’s problem, anyway?”

Wendy sighed as she kissed Aaron while Joshua whimpered a little. “He likes to be the center of attention, Nova. He thinks he saw something real important when he saw Derek hugging Diane.”

“And I know from interrogating both of them that nothing happened,” Nova sighed as she got Ariel to go up on her toes and knees so she could wash her little bottom. “I even checked the security camera video in our cabin for that hour and day, and saw the whole thing transpired in five minutes, and was totally innocuous. It…well…it catches a lot more when we are there…” Nova said with a blush as she tried to prevent her mind from going there again, especially in her current state of undress.

“Yeah, at least the security registers clean out every fourteen days unless there is an incident to be recorded and retained,” Wendy said.

“Homer bad, stinky and whiny,” said Ariel as she took her mouth off her mother’s nipple for a moment. “My mouthie sorta hurts little…”

“That’s not nice to say in front of Mrs. Homer,” said Nova.

 “Well, he is bad,” said Ariel. “I kicked him in the butt when he was trying to hurt Daddy and Mommy!”

“No,” giggled Wendy. “Nova, how did she get involved?”

Nova replied, “She got loose and she…toddled in…

A moment later, a wet Alex squiggled loose, and, in his toddler nakedness, with his hair looking lighter in the bright light in the room, he ran over to a stool and said, “My tushie has funny stuff all over it!”

“Alex, that’s just water,” Nova giggled.

“Not poopie?” he asked as he felt his own bare bottom. Wendy giggled as, in his innocence, Alex went up on his toes as he stood against a small pink stool, blissfully uncaring about the fact that his little penis was dangling all over the place.

“No, not poopie,” said Nova.

“Mommy go poopie?” said Alex.

“Yes, Mommy went poopie fifteen minutes ago, and yes I showed you the poopie after Mommy went potty. Come back to Mommy’s lap, Alexander,” Nova.

“No, wanna see stuff going boom,” Alex said.

“Alex is a poopyhead!” sang Joshua Glitchman as he took his mouth off his mother’s breast.

“That’s not nice!” scolded Wendy.

“Well, he goes poo-poo everywhere!” giggled Ariel.

“Pee-pee too,” said Alex as he sat on the deck and became interested in his own boyhood. “Alexander, we don’t do that in front of people,” sang Nova as Alex reached down and played with his genitals for a minute.

Joshua pulled away again from his mother’s breast and began to play around with his equipment. “Honey, we save that for when nobody is around…” Wendy said.

Alex ran back to his mother, and he took Nova’s breast again for a moment, and then pulled away, screeched, “Bored!” and ran for the door as fast as his little feet could take him.

He jumped through the door as it whizzed open, blew raspberries at his mother, and took off without bothering to dry off…or, of course, put a single stitch of clothing on his little naked body.

“Alex!” yelled Nova through the hatch as she held Ariel, momentarily ignorant of her own lack of clothing on her own body. “Come back!”

“Come and get me!” he giggled.

And, off he went.

Alex wandered the ship, actually toddling down a few stairwells on his own as his frantic, towel-clad mother tried to catch up with him.

After going down a few decks, a giggling Alex walked down a long corridor, sucking on his fingers.

He was beginning to feel a little cold as he toddled, in his bare feet, right into the Argo’s lower landing bay.

“Pwanes!” he yelled when he saw all of the real fighter planes sitting there. “Weal Pwanes!”

He ran up to a group of three planes on the deck as fast as his little legs could take him. They looked pretty. And they were not toy planes, but real planes.

Two of them, it turned out, were two of the three Super Starfighter planes deployed aboard the ship. They looked very pretty to Alex as he crawled under the wing of one on the planes.

“Commodore, you’re sure about that new name on your ship?” asked a tech as he looked over the first Super Starfighter that sat on the deck, with its access panels open and cables connected into it.

“Nova and I talked about it; my plane has been refitted along with hers, so you could say they’re a pair now; I’d like her named Natsukaze, for “summer wind” because she’s hot and comes up on you like crazy!” he yelled. “We’d…”

“Daddy!” piped a voice under the wing. “Daddy!”

“Your plane’s talking, Wildstar,” said Deke as he looked down at the wing.

“There’s somethin’ moving around under here,” said one of the techs. “Shut that damn air-hammer off!” he yelled.

Derek looked down, and he suddenly saw his son crawling out from between a fuel tank and a (disarmed) missile under the wing of his plane. “ALEX! Where’s your mother?”

“Got away from her, daddy, got tricky!” said Alex as he crawled out from behind the missile. Alex was dirty, messy-haired, and, of course, completely naked.

“Alexander Derek Wildstar!” yelled a feminine voice from behind another plane as Derek was picking Alex up,

“Uh-oh, Mommy coming...Daddy hide Alex?” burbled Alex as Sakamoto and two other pilots wolf-whistled while Nova came running up, clad in only her towel, with her wet hair tied back in a cute ponytail.

“No, I’m not gonna hide you,” said Derek as Nova ran up. Nova kissed Derek, and then, she looked sternly at Alex. “Where did you get the idea to run down here?”

“Wanna see planes. Real planes, not toy planes! Whose plane dat? Love the planes!” he said with his eyes lit up.

Nova had been about to slap Alex on his little bare bottom, which Angie Hartcliffe smiled at as she said, “Awwww…look at his little bare butt….he’s so cute!” Instead, Nova smiled at her happy son, and she ended up caressing his little bottom as she kissed his chest, and then ran her fingers over his tummy and belly button, gently checked his genitals to make sure he hadn’t gone wee recently, and she ended up stroking his leg and playing with his toes after she kissed him and Derek and then took Alex from his father, cuddling him against her half-bare chest. Nova shivered a little in her towel as Derek asked, “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine…this is the first time I’ve ever been half-naked on the flight line…cold,” Nova said as she held Alex, who began to shiver and whimper in his nakedness. “We’re so close to space out here, Derek…he’s cold! I’d better get him…”

“Wanna see more planes!” Alex whimpered as Angie Hartcliffe talked to Hardy. A moment later, she came back with a small Black Tiger shirt. “Wrap this around him, Nova. Nozaki’s gonna check the supply locker to see if she can find a spare flight jacket you can throw on over yourself. Were you in the nursery giving him his bath like I was doing earlier with my boy? Isn’t it cute but maddening that Astrena wanted all of the kids brought out to Gamilon?”

Nova nodded. “Yes, and he got away…”

“My boy did the same thing the other day after we piped on board,” said Angie as Nova and Derek dressed Alex in the Tiger shirt like a big sleep shirt. When he was clothed, only his head, hands, and kicking little bare feet showed. “Would you like to see Mommy’s plane?” said Nova. “The flight crews are working on Daddy’s cockpit, so you can’t sit in there, but you can sit in Mommy’s cockpit.”

“Okay,” Alex said as Nova climbed up an access ladder to her own cockpit with Derek spotting her from behind and helping her climb up. Sakamoto whistled again as Nova’s towel slipped a little, showing her shapely bare tush off for a moment until Derek pulled down her towel and covered his wife’s assets as she stood on tiptoes on the access platform at the top of the maintenance ladder.

“What that say?” said Alex as he looked at the writing on the side of his mother’s Super Starfighter.

“Those Japanese letters are the new name of Mommy’s Recon/Fighter plane,” Nova said gently as she pointed Alex’s little finger to each of the symbols in black hiragana script trimmed in gold at the edges. “Yu…ki…ka…ze…” she said. “Mommy’s plane is called the Yukikaze. That means ‘Snow Wind’ or “Winter Wind’ in Japanese and you can see a snowflake painted there on the fuselage, under Mommy’s name. It was the name your that Uncle Alex considered naming his ship the Paladin years ago before you were born, before he had to name her the Paladin. Daddy told me that. Daddy advised Mommy to name her plane that because he thought it would bring Mommy good luck, because Yuki is also one of Mommy’s two middle names and it is part of the word Yukikaze!”

“What does Mommy’s name say?” said Alex.

“Commander Nova D. Y. Wildstar,” said Nova as she pointed Alex’s finger to each of the words and letters. “Commander is Mommy’s rank in the Earth Defense Forces, Nova is Mommy’s first name, D stands for Mommy’s first middle name Dawn, Y stands for Mommy’s second middle name Yukiko or Yuki, and Wildstar is the last name we all share; that’s Daddy’s name…I share it because I’m married to Daddy, and you and Ariel have that last name because you are the children of Mommy and Daddy. Let’s get you in the cockpit!”

“Shiny buttons and things!” he said as Deke Wakefield came up the maintenance ladder on the other side as he helped Nova and Derek seat little Alex in the cockpit of his mother’s Type 52 Super Starfighter. “What’s this?” he said as he pushed at a big, funny-looking stick with his toes on his left foot.

“Sit up,” said Derek as he maneuvered beside Nova on the maintenance platform. “This is a joystick. It works most of the flight controls, and….Nova, can you turn on the artificial horizon readout?”

“Sure,” Nova said as she punched a few buttons and watched as some of the dials and readouts on her dashboard blinked to life. Nova then said, “If you can see that light blue outline moving a little there, that’s the attitude as it would be changing if the plane were active and you were really flying her right now.”

“That little plane’s moving its wingies?” said Alex.

“Uh-huh,” Nova said primly as she stood up a little and stretched her long, bare right leg into the cockpit, heedless of the exposure of her buttock, which Derek affectionately covered with a hand as he supported Nova and made sure her womanhood was kept covered. “Look down at where Mommy’s toes are. That’s a rudder pedal. If Mommy pushes on that with her foot…and Mommy is finding this is very cold because she never tried to work her plane without her boots on before in the flight bay in space…Mommy has flown barefoot on Earth, though, in Flight Medicine systems tests where she couldn’t really be dressed because she had sensors stuck all over her body… the globe moves to the right or starboard. See that?”

“Star-board,” said Alex as his little eyes crossed and a look of concentration went over his face. “What’s this-way called?” he said as he put out his left hand.

“Port,” said Deke from that side. “Off over there to port is my plane, the Diamond Girl. I named it that after your Auntie Sasha.”

“Auntie Sasha pwetty but Mommy pwettier,” said Alex as he kissed his mother. “When can I fly your plane, Mommy?” said Alex as a PA announcement filled the lower flight bay. “Advisory from Upper Port Ops Bay: Tiger Delta Bravo Three-Niner in the bay from BARCAP ops! Tiger Delta Bravo Four-One prepping for BARCAP launch!”

“Inform Lieutenant Commander Marrable that’s a Roger,” said Deke into a mike that a tech handed him. “Wildstar, where’s Hardy?”

“Was in the damn head,” said Jefferson Hardy as he ran up. “Wakefield, what’s the status of Squadron Four?”

“Brew just pulled in Tiger Three-Niner and he’s launching Four-One on BARCAP patrol, sir,” said Deke with a salute.

“We’re gonna be warpin’ in two houhs and we need this whole damn flight line clear! Wakefield, get the tech crews to finish screwin’ round with your bihd and the Yukikaze and Natsukaze from their mornin’ flights and get these planes stowed away ASAP!”

“Roger, sir, in about five minutes. Have a look at our newest recruit for the Tigers!”

Alex waved from the cockpit of “his” plane as his parents smiled at Hardy.

“Well, what’ve we got here?” said Hardy as Alex kicked his legs and wiggled his little toes.

“Pretty plane,” Alex said breathlessly. “Not POOPY!”

Everyone laughed as Hardy said, “No, a Super Starfighter is NOT Poopy. But the Tigah Two is better. Wanna see a Tiger Two?”

“Dat plane over there?” said Alex as Deke began to lift him up for a look at his plane.

Nova reached over and kissed Alex’s hand and said, “Now let Uncle Deke show you his plane.”

“Goodie!” screamed Alex as Nova and Derek slipped away from Nova’s plane as three techs began to crawl over her to finish their tuning of the ship before stowing her away in one of the flight bays.

As Deke picked up Alex, the little boy began to grunt and kick his legs.

“What’s wrong?” said Deke.

“Gotta go POOPY!” he screamed. “Need the potty!”

“Oh, great, we didn’t bring the damn potty chair,” said Derek.

“I’ll run him over to the head, sir,” said Angie Hartcliffe as she ran up.

“Good, get him there fast!” said Nova as she ran around the front of her plane with barefoot grace. “And where did Nozaki go? She was supposed to get me a flight jacket! My towel’s falling off!”

“I’ll find her, ma’am,” said Deke, who ran off.

“You keep on shivering like that, I’ll give you my shirt,” Derek said as he held Nova against him for warmth. “You must be freezing.”

“Yeah…you don’t realize how warm we keep that nursery until you end up in other parts of the ship on baby-chasing duty half-naked,” Nova said.

Derek smiled at Nova and whispered in her ear, “Anyone ever tell you that you have such a sexy ass in a towel?”

“Yes, you,” Nova whispered back. “Homer’s on baby duty tonight, sir, so we have some time, before I go to sleep, for you to reacquaint yourself with my sexy ass as I sleep naked beside you tonight…with no kids in the room,” Nova said as a sudden, insane wave of desire for Derek ran over her from nowhere.

Derek shivered, feeling closer to Nova than he ever had in their lives together as the world seemed to stop, and for a moment, he just wanted to kiss her and find a place to pull her towel off her pregnant body and lie down with her. He felt her heart beating, and he swore, for a moment, that he could feel the warmth of her very life-force in her soul, followed by the innocent feel of the two tiny life-forces inside her. He could immediately tell with a knowing beyond all rational knowledge that one of the new children she would give birth to would be a gentle, intelligent boy gifted with technical knowledge, although there was a strange cloud around him, and a deep intimation of something tragic, twice-over, about his fate. But, this strange, bittersweet feel was replaced by the knowledge that the other would be a very special little girl with very wild hair and a heart that burned like fire…his very, spitting rage-filled image turned into a girl who would love big guns and weaponry and be a very strong personality, stronger-willed than even her mother or any of their other children.

And, as Derek held his wife, he sensed her naked in his arms…not physically nude, since she still was clad in her towel, but she was, instead, naked in her spirit, as he was, as they seemed to meet somewhere, in some strange realm in their spiritual innocence. It was the most uncanny thing they had ever felt in their lives. Their souls were already long-bonded as lovers and marriage partners, and their bodies had joined, many, many times. The joining of their spirits was what was now happening as, unknown to them, Nova’s new, awakened psychic abilities, combined with the Power that was slowly beginning to slip into her, and combined with her natural love for Derek and Derek’s natural love for her were all conspiring to create something that the Pellians and Iscandarians both considered as a rare blessing and a curse at the same time…as their spirits began to lock and bond in a totally spontaneous Shalinskaa bond…one not looked-for or even sought or generated by the partners. This was the sort of thing that both Pellian adepts and Iscandarian adepts knew had only resulted a few times in over three millennia…and it only happened when the partners involved were already deeply in love and were in the closest of relationships beforehand. These bonds…when they happened…just happened spontaneously and without the knowledge or awareness of either partner, and it only happened when the abilities of an untrained, innocent adept were suddenly turned on and aroused. Deke and Sasha were linked in a Shalinska bond, as were Paul and Aliscea, but, in both cases, at least Sasha and Aliscea had some knowledge of what was happening.

Nova had no such knowledge, except as an outsider in having observed Paul and Aliscea and Deke and Sasha.

This time, she was falling into a bond with Derek as a participant. She looked into his eyes and smiled as she felt and basked in the warmth of his love for her, and he basked in the warmth of her love, wanting to cry as he began to truly comprehend how much she cared for him, and how thoughtless he was at times.

On Gamilon, Astrena was suddenly aware of this new bond, and she felt awe as she realized how the young lovers and parents were joining so quickly and smoothly. You two always were bonded to each other…it may have begun, indeed, when you first laid eyes upon each other in the Underground City on Earth nearly ten years ago…when what was inside Nova still slept…I need to talk to Aliscea…you two need to be sheltered, given your time alone, and you need your peace to be together in….

Sasha was able to feel her Aunt and Uncle’s bond at her radar as she worked, and she wiped away a tear, being so happy for them.

Aliscea also felt the change, but her feelings were mixed as she sat at her post in her gold and black uniform with white collar. Mother, I am joyful for her…but I’m damned jealous! How did they get this gift dropped in their laps?

Astrena said, sternly It simply is! Do not question it! You need to speak to Captain Venture as soon as you can to make sure they are excused from duty, so….

I need to be with Paul again, thought Aliscea, whose burning desire and lust for her husband startled him as she reached across from Analysis and kissed him…hard…on the Bridge.

What is that for? Paul thought through their Bond.

We are not going to the Captain’s Table tonight…we are going right to our cabin! Aliscea thought through her bond with Paul. Then, she grabbed his hands and intensely held hands with him for a moment. Then, she kissed him.

Venture looked over from his post and said, “Mister Rosstowski! Mrs. Rosstowski! What is going on?”

“Shalinska’ aaadra leglits de,” snapped Aliscea in Pellian. “Renewal and reinvigoration of my bond with Paul, in light of the fact that two others on this ship have just Bonded, and I don’t need to tell you who, because when you see the goofy look on their faces as they sit there playing footsies with each other at the Captain’s Table, you’ll figure it out very fast, sir! For that end, we request permission to be absent from the Captain’s Table tonight, because we need to go to our cabin, lock the hatch, and get busy, busy, busy, sir.”

“I can’t grant you that permission,” snapped Venture. “You’ll have to ask that of the Captain. And that way you two are acting is endangering your PRP Waiver. You are not supposed to do that stuff on duty!”

“Duty, schmoooty,” said Aliscea.

“He has a point,” said Paul. “Aliscea, when we get off-watch, we’ll do as we please, but for now….discipline? And please don’t think that? Okay, I like the idea, but…”

“What was she thinkin’?” said Eager.

“Whipped cream,” said Aliscea as she lasciviously licked her lips. She smiled at Paul, and sent him a sexy image of herself dancing naked before him, and then throwing her legs up as she lay on the deck as she showed him everything…

In the meantime, down below in the Flight Bay, at around 1410 Hours, Angie Hartcliffe came out of the head about five minutes later with Alex in her arms, and the Black Tiger shirt she had been wearing tossed over one shoulder.

Alex was again naked. And he had obviously gone potty. Indeed, a trace of the evidence was still on his little bottom.

“awww…where’s your clothes?” said Nova as she took him, and finished wiping his little tush with a baby wipe that Angie offered. Then, she turned him around in her arms as he whimpered and shivered, and Nova tenderly wiped a tiny mess off his testicles and the base of his penis as he shivered. “Cold…mommy…” he whimpered.

“He made a mess on the bottom of the shirt right as I got him on the potty,” said Angie apologetically.

“Michi…hurry up with that coat!” Nova yelled at Michi Nozaki. “My poor little boy’s shivering!”

“I’m cold…mommy…need…milkie…need…Mommy…” whimpered Alex as Derek also stroked him from behind.

“Mommy will give you milk and her warmth as soon as we get back to the nursery…Mommy’s getting cold, too,” Nova said as Derek held them, aware that Nova was naked except for a towel and his son was simply naked.

A moment later, Alex pulled at his mother’s towel and pulled it off her, whimpering loudly for her breast. Nova, blushing from head to toe, cuddled into Derek’s arms in surprise, cold, and some shame as she just gave up and comforted Alex with her breast, her milk, and her warm body as she let him latch on and nurse. Nova smiled at her son cuddling against her, comforted by the feel of her naked body, her milk, and her heartbeat as she kissed him on the head and then was kissed herself by Derek.

Most of those present just smiled and went “Awwwww” because the scene of the naked mother and child looked tender rather than lascivious. 

Derek held and protected them both as Sakamoto and two of his buddies wolf-whistled.

But, one of Sakamoto’s friends stopped when he looked hard at Nova….he could swear that she was gleaming softly with a white light from head to toe that looked…beautiful. The soft gleam from Nova made her almost look like an angelic messenger as she stepped away from Derek for a moment and confronted Sakamoto and his buddies with a hard look on her face and a shining fire in her eyes as she gave them a dirty look. At the same time, Derek yelled, “Do you two want to come right up to her and do that? I can always go with another workout!”

“Thank you, Derek…but I have…no fear of these people now,” Nova said with a strong confidence in her voice as she said, “I have no fear of the spirits of Ekogaru’s disciples, since he may well be dead now, and I have no fear of…these,” she sniffed as she glared at Sakamoto and his friends, who stepped away as Nova smiled at her husband and let him hold her again.

Ensign Michi Nozaki ran up a moment later with an extra-large Black Tiger flight jacket and said, “Sir, ma’am…here’s something big enough to wrap them both in…I also found these shower flip-flops so she at least has something on her feet with this cold deck…”

“Thanks,” Derek said as he put the large jacket over Nova and Alex to clothe their nakedness. Nova slipped her bare feet into the simple flip-flops, and said, “Thank you, Ensign.”

“You’re welcome, ma’am…”

Derek held Nova as she cuddled and fed Alex inside the warmth of the flight jacket, and then, Derek said. “C’mon, let’s get back to the nursery…”

“Yeah…Poopyhead probably needs anutah bath,” teased Hardy.

“My name NOT Poopyhead!” screeched Alex.

“That’s yoah Tigah name now, Poopyhead,” said Hardy as the others applauded and laughed. “When ya graduate from the Academy and join the Tigers, we’re puttin’ it on yoah plane!”

“Me not Poopyhead!” whimpered Alex.

“Looks like he has a new name,” sighed Nova. “Right, Poopyhead?”

“Poopy is in the Potty, Mommy! I went POOPY!” he yelled.

“Okay, Poopyhead,” said Derek with a laugh as Alex slapped him.

“Zey call zis food?” said Katrina Savela angrily as she sat in the Argo’s messhall poking at her food as Foxy looked at her, amused.

Katrina had on a white blouse with a bikini top under it, black slacks, red sandals on her feet.

Foxy had on a striped Brooks Brothers dress shirt, red and black striped tie, and suit pants and dress shoes.

“Vhy so dressed up for you?” asked Katrina, “It looks cute…”

“I was on the comm system before with Karl Forrester. We were getting more directions for the trade negotiations from the President. Then, we teleconferenced to Gamilon and talked to Talan for a while in the preliminary talks.”

“And how are zose going?” demanded Katrina.

“Not well. Talan and the generals are demanding a lot of concessions from us, and we can compromise only so damn much.” Foxy sighed and picked at the Salisbury Steak. “I think this is Salisbury Steak. Isn’t it?”

“I’m not sure,” said Katrina.

There came a loud stomping, and a group of teenagers in Junior Space Cadet Corps uniforms ran stomping into the messhall. Katrina rolled up her eyes when she recognized that Jonathan was one of the cadets.

The cadets were standing there, running in place with loud stomps as their unit drill instructor; a female Lieutenant in black Space-Marine style fatigue pants, boots, and a sweaty white t-shirt stood running and snapped, “What do we want?”

“MOTIVATION!” snapped back the cadets.

“When do we want it?” yelled the dark-haired, ponytailed young woman.

“NOW!” yelled the cadets.

“When is it important?” screamed the young woman.

“Any time that it’s demanded by an officer of higher rank, ma’am!” yelled back the cadets.

“When are we ready to receive orders?”

“AT ANY TIME!” yelled back the cadets.

Then, Nova ran into the room, clad in a black tube top bra and black and yellow bike shorts that fit her slender form well; she was also barefoot and looked just a little sweaty. She had also been running, and part of her run had included meeting the cadets and helping their instructor hector and harangue them as they ran through the ship, and she had also taught them three new marching songs, one of which was peppered with some salty space-sailor language. She ran in place, stopped, and waited for the cadets and instructor to salute her. Then, she looked the cadets over and said, “Lieutenant Nijinsky, where did you get these cadets from?”

“The high school, ma’am!” said Janis Nijinsky, the Lieutenant in the t-shirt.

“The high school,” Nova said in exaggerated tones. “The high school. Oh, my God. What are you doing to my Fleet?” Nova said. “No slackers like this would have survived long in the old fleet, back in the days when we were fighting the Gamilons. Nova then grabbed a wooden spoon from a messhall server, wiped it off, and brandished it like a Prussian drill instructor’s swagger stick. “YOU!” she snapped at a cadet. “What’s your name?”

“I am Junior Space Cadet Corps Cadet Corporal Ellison, Sabrina, ma’am!” screamed the girl that Nova was pointing at.

“First voyage?” said Nova.

“Aye, ma’am!” she snapped.

“How did you like the first space warp of the voyage?” Nova asked.

“Not much, ma’am. I survived it!” said Ellison.

“Tell me how you really felt,” Nova ordered in a softer voice.

“Per…permission to speak freely, ma’am?” said Ellison as she bit her lip, trying to keep from crying.

“Granted,” Nova said.

“I…I threw up…”

A cadet standing beside Jonathan tittered loudly at that one. Another cadet mooed. Nova glared at them and banged the wooden spoon down on the table. “SHUT UP, Cadet Dalton!” Nova yelled. She pivoted on the balls of her bare feet and marched back in ranks to scream into Dalton’s face. “You think it’s funny to see a shipmate suffer? You think it’s hilarious? Huh?”

“Permission to speak candidly, ma’am,” said the 6’ 3” tall football jock with muscles on top of muscles, who was trying to keep from laughing as he was screamed at by the much smaller and shorter woman with a cheerleader’s build.

“Granted!” Nova snapped.

From her table, Katrina said, “Zis training crap happens often at lunch?”

“Only when there are cadets aboard,” muttered Foxy.

“Good. Make them work for zis…zis pathetic mystery meat made of something that I do not know what it is made of,” said Katrina.

In the meantime, Cadet Sergeant Dalton said, “Ma’am, Ellison’s a waste. We all know it. She doesn’t belong in this outfit because she’s a…girly girl! The military life will never suit her, ma’am! Half the time, she cries, half the time, she can’t even do more than like eighteen pushups! And she throws up when we do space warps! She’s hilarious!”

“Well, Cadet, I know another woman who cried through much of her Plebe Cadet year in Senior ROTC in college, had nightmares about her drill instructors, and who threw up during quite a few space warps in her career, including one on this very voyage. Like to know who she is?”

“I’d love to know, ma’am, so I can help the Captain haze her outta the EDF. Who is this sad sack of an officer? She sounds worse than Ellison, ma’am!”

“Myself,” Nova said as she stared hard into Dalton’s eyes. “I threw up during one of our space warps because I’m pregnant. Do you think my shipmates laughed at me? Negative,” said Nova. “They helped me clean up and I got back to my post two minutes later. Because that it what you are supposed to do aboard a ship…help your shipmates when they need a hand, not crap all over them! What would happen if you were in a 40mm gun-house in the conning tower with Ellison and it took an indirect hit from a Bolar Federation fighter plane and she got half her arm blown off? Would you help and calm your shipmate in agony and do first aid and try to continue manning your post because, buddy, those planes are still coming at you, or would you laugh at her because you thought it was funny? Tell me, Dalton. What the hell would you do?”

“Help my shipmate?” said Dalton.

“Good; we may make an officer out of you yet, Lance Corporal,” said Nova.

“Ma’am…I’m a Cadet Sergeant.”

“Not anymore,” said Nova. “Cadet Sergeant Ellison, put him to work later on under your command. The railings down here need a polishing job.”

“Aye, aye, ma’am!” said the beaming girl as she saluted Nova.

“Oh, by the way,” Nova said. “That story about the forty millimeter gun-house? I lived it. Near the end of the Battle of Gamilon, after my radar went out, I had to stick on a helmet and man a pulse laser turret for about six minutes with Gamilon missiles coming at us with another girl who lost her arm in that battle; it ended up in my lap, as a matter of fact. The Deputy Captain was in auxiliary gun turret number one at the same time since his bridge post was blown all to short-circuit city, too and we had taken massive casualties. It was one of the longest six minutes of my life, until we landed, and I went out on deck, and I saw what we did to Gamilon, and I had a good cry about it, and…Captain on deck!” Nova screamed.

She was one of the first to come to attention and salute Derek when he showed up. “Training the cadets, Commander?” he said as he looked at Nova.

“Aye, sir. Running, too.”

“I can see that. You can carry on when we finish,” Derek snapped. “Attention, all hands! We’re warping again at sixteen hundred. I want everything secured, and all children under the age of seven are to be secured in their parents’ cabins during this warp, and all children under three are to be secured in the nursery during warps. Two rug rats got loose today. Now, while these kids are cute, cute, cute, we are trying to run a space warship here, even though she is on a diplomatic mission, and we are traveling through territory where the R’Khells can come back at any time, or the Bolars, or Spectra, or some new enemy we don’t know about yet. We have three people with psi-ability on this ship who can give us a sort of heads-up, but even then, Iscandarians and Pellians, or part-Iscandarians and Pellians cannot catch every threat, and they have their limitations like the rest of us. Stay on the alert, maintain your schedules, and…that will be that. Carry on!”

The crew saluted Derek and he turned to Nova. “You need a shower,” he whispered.

“My workout’s not done yet. I have to go below to the gym next,” Nova said. “And…” Then, Nova saw Katrina beckoning her over. “Oh, what does she want now?” she sighed.

“Diplomatic guest…see to it,” said Derek. “I’ll see you later.”

“Likewise,” Nova said as she gave her husband a quick peck on the nose and then saluted. Derek returned the salute, and then Nova turned to Nijinsky. “Take over again with the cadets. Hope you didn’t mind the lesson.”

“Not at all, ma’am. What are you doing?”

“Some cooking, I think. I’m getting used to this,” Nova sighed. “She bugs me to cook for her,” she said as she pointed conspiratorially at Katrina. “She says the shipboard food makes her sick.”

“Well, ma’am, she’s right,” laughed Nijinsky. Nijinsky saluted Nova, and then Janis screamed at her cadets and got them to form a line to get their chow.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

A few minutes later, Nova had on an apron over her workout gear and she had wooden kitchen sandals on her bare feet as she worked in the galley to individually make up some pancakes with applesauce and kren just for Katrina’s picky palate as she looked at Homer, who was at work scrubbing dishes and pans with an apron on. He was also barefoot, except for wooden kitchen clogs like hers.

Homer looked at her and thought, Ma’am, you look a lot better in this damn little apron than I do. And your feet? Your feet are made to live in sandals. Mine aren’t!

“What brings you here, ma’am?” said Homer.

“Katrina and her tummy,” sighed Nova. “I know why you’re here, Homer. As Nova got done, she got some of the food on a plate for Katrina, and a little for herself as a snack. She came over and checked Homer’s cooking pot. “Got a spot on it…right here,” she said. “Get that clean, please.”

“Okay,” he said, holding back the impulse to whine.

“How are you sleeping?” Nova asked.

“Not. Not since Wendy threw me out of the cabin and out of our bed.”

“Maybe you’ll learn a lesson from this?” Nova said.

“I’ve never really in been in the doghouse in our marriage with Wendy before…it sucks!”

“Both Derek and I put each other in the doghouse a few times a year. But we make up. Trust me, the making-up part is fun,” Nova said with a twinkly light in her eyes. “Keep up your spirits and keep working, Glitchman.”

“Aye, ma’am,” said Homer as Nova stepped out of the galley with her tray for Katrina.

Nova stood up on her toes three minutes later awaiting Katrina’s verdict on her cooking.

Katrina chewed up the pancake and said, “It’s better than the slop they gave us, but it could stand some improvement. You don’t have the same pans you have back zere that you have at home, do you?”

Nova sighed and shook her head.

“Go make me some pancakes, too,” said Dash with a wink.

“You go and soak your head, Dash,” Nova said with a grin.

Sasha ran up, clad in a kimono and geta. “Auntie, I have a problem with Star…she’s coughing weird…can you have a look?”

“Coming down below in a minute,” Nova said as she undid her apron and kicked off her clogs. She ran into the galley and left them and followed Sasha out.

Foxy smiled at Katrina and asked. “Is there anything at all that makes you happy on this cruise?”

“Yes. You,” said Katrina as she smiled at Foxy. She finished her food and said, “That’s much better. Now, let’s go and…do some things…alone…”

“Such as?” said Foxy.

“Get you out of that suit,” Katrina whispered as she kissed Foxy.

A FEW MINUTES LATER….

Katrina was with Foxy, in their cabin, hatch sealed and locked, with the lights turned down a bit as she lay on top of him, kissing him.

“Mmmmmmm,” she said, sighing as she opened Foxy’s shirt. Katrina herself only had on her bikini top and panties at that point, and she was letting Foxy mess her hair up as he ran his fingers through it.

“I love when you let me do that,” Foxy muttered.

“You Foxy, goofy person…I love you so much….” Katrina said as Foxy pulled her bikini top off.

Foxy began to kiss her breasts, suckling each nipple.

“Zat feels good…” said Katrina. “Where did you…get…that….idea?”

“I had to run into Sickbay, and when I ended up in the nursery, I saw Wendy and Nova…with the kids in their laps…feeding away like this…Alex was really drooling and acting cranky…”

“You are saying you are baby?” murmured Katrina.

“Goo…goo…goo…goo…” whispered Foxy.

“You are bizarre,” whispered Katrina. “But you do this…so….good,” she said as she pulled off Foxy’s shirt and pulled down his pants. Foxy got Katrina out of her panties.

Naked, she got on top of Foxy, and she lay back on his chest, moaning as he pleasured her with his hands while she pleasured him with other parts of her body.

Finally, Foxy kissed Katrina again and again in the back of her head and took her. Then, he whispered, “Change…”

“You’re sure hatch is locked?”

Foxy nodded. “Please Change…I love you, but I want to see Invidia….”

Katrina made the Change to Invidia in Foxy’s arms as she moaned as she sat in his lap, going up and down on him in much the same position Nova had been in in Derek’s car at the Drive-In a few weeks ago.

Invidia’s long hair flew around them as they made love and kissed, made love and touched…made love…

…and, then Foxy felt he could feel Invidia inside his mind.

What is happening? Foxy thought.

I do not know…how…or why…and something has passed into me…some…Power…Invidia thought.

I love you! Foxy thought.

O, Goddess Arishna, I love you! Katrina cried in his mind.

Then, their climax hit them like waves on the beach.

They lay there spent, sweaty, loving each other, tired.

But happy…

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Later on, at 1507, Sergeant Victor Knox and his buddies were working out in the Argo’s gym, doing such things as sit-ups, push-ups, work with free weights, and martial-arts workouts with each other.

“Looka this, Sarge,” said one of the Marines. “Dere’s a bench-press here…wanna try it?”

Knox was doing sit-ups, sweaty, and shirtless in his fatigues and socks. “I know my cousin was able ta bench-press a lot. I can do more than he can! And more than any girl.”

“Heard some shit earlier than some dame got involved inna fight with some guy,” said Corporal Jankovitz, Knox’s assistant squad leader.

“Who’d ya hear that from?” said Knox.

“The Lieutenant, Sarge. Ya know…Fumimoto hisself.”

“Lieutenant Hiro Fumimoto,” said Knox, referring to their Marine Group Leader, the officer who was over his Platoon of forty and Bravo Platoon of forty. Knox’s platoon was the Strike Platoon, while Bravo Platoon, under Sergeant Leslie, was in charge of shipboard security. “Yeah, he’s a tough little dude, but he’s got lotsa shit on his mind, like any officer. Officers is like cockroaches; they make ‘em do too much.”

“Don’t let Corporal Tyler from Bravo hear ya say that,” said Lance Corporal Westin, another Marine from their platoon. “She likes the Lieutenant…”

“And she can’t even bench-press her own body weight,” sneered Knox.

“Can you bench-press yer own body weight, Sarge?” asked Jankovitz.

“Ain’t easy but I can almost do it…can do it on a good day,” said Knox.

“How much ya weigh, Sarge?” asked Westin.

“Two hundred and forty fuckin’ pounds of muscle,” barked Knox.

“Sergeant…kindly cut out some of the profanity amongst the ranks,” said Lieutenant Fumimoto as he came in, clad in a karate gi.

“Hello, sir,” said Knox. “Come to work out with one o’ us?”

“No, I have an appointment with someone else…” said Hiro Fumimoto.

A moment later, Nova ran into the gym. She ignored the wolf-whistles. She was still practically, but scantily dressed in the black tube sports bra top and comfortable black and yellow bike shorts that she had been wearing earlier, and she was barefoot and in a light sheen of sweat.

“What were you doin’?” asked Knox.

“Running about the ship,” Nova said as she stretched.

“Are you ready to spar, ma’am?” asked Fumimoto as he opened a bag. He pulled out a bamboo boken practice sword and then tossed one to Nova, who caught it in mid-air and went into a fighting stance.

“Let’s go for it,” Nova said.

Lt. Fumimoto and Commander Wildstar bowed to each other, and then their swords met with a clash as they both screamed.

Fumimoto was the more aggressive of the two to start off with, pressing his advantage on Nova while she quickly parried his blows, dancing backwards and forwards as she caught his thrusts and slashes. Then, she twirled about and started slashing herself, the clicks and bangs of the bamboo blades coming faster as Fumimoto attacked, with Nova stopping it, and then Nova attacked, with Fumimoto parrying her quick blows. Knox saw they had similar but different fighting styles; Fumimoto’s style was aggressive and seemed to be based on the strength of the smallish but wily Marine officer, while Nova’s attack style was based upon her speed and unpredictability, like a deadly dance. Indeed, Nova scored the first actual hit, a light hit across Fumimoto’s thighs that made him grunt as he took the blow. Nova then took a blow to her bare forearms a moment later; she gritted her teeth but otherwise ignored the pain, pressing her attack even harder.

Fumimoto scored a light hit on Nova’s shoulder that left a red mark, but she responded with two quick swings that knocked Fumimoto off-balance. The third hit his boken so hard that it knocked it out of his hands. “HA!” Nova snapped in a high voice as she pointed the boken ceremonially at Fumimoto’s heart. Fumimoto nodded, and then he bowed to Nova. She put up her sword in a salute and bowed at him, and then they stopped and shook hands. “Good work,” said Fumimoto. “You carried out the same disarming tactic I pulled on you the other day back on Earth. Who taught you to do that?”

“I picked it up with some help from Derek,” she said calmly as she tossed the boken at him and he caught it.

“Aaaaa, that’s trickery,” said Knox as he laughed. “Ma’am, let’s see how much ya can bench-press…” as Nova put a towel around her sweaty shoulders.

“Hey, Sarge, hold off…she’s pregnant,” said Jankovitz.

“Ahh…pregnant is not a synonym for weak,” Nova said. “Have you ever carried a baby, Corporal? It’s a good amount of additional weight in your stomach…all the time. Most men I know of who put on a pregnancy simulator pack on their bellies have to give up after a few hours because they say it’s too heavy. A woman doesn’t get that option when she’s eight months pregnant until the baby comes. And none of you here have given birth, I take it? Or carried around a baby all day? Or babies? Or tandem-nursed crying twins in a store while helping your husband find the peas in Aisle Six?” Nova said calmly as she went up on her toes and stretched. “Knox, let’s see how much you can bench-press; proportionally. Then, I’ll take you on and we’ll see what I can do…”

Knox said, “You’re on,” as some of the Marines helped him ready a barbell while he climbed onto the scale while Fumimoto and Nova checked his weight. “He’s 238,” said Fumimoto. “Ma’am, do you agree?”

Nova looked and said, “Agreed. What are you trying to bench-press, Sergeant?”

“Two hundred thirty. Just under my weight. I’ll go easy on ya, kid,” Knox said as he patted Nova’s arm while he put on a weightlifters’ belt to assist him in keeping his stomach in. Skinny girl here won’t be able to do more than ninety, I bet, he thought with a grin.

Knox lay down on the bench, and with two Marines waiting to spot him in case he flagged while lifting the weight, he grunted, got the weight off the holder, held it up as he gritted his teeth, and then he let it down towards his chest, pushed up, got the weight up, and then, grunting and cursing under his breath, he did six repetitions of the move, growing visibly winded at repetition number five, and, at six, he stopped and let the weight thud back down on the holders. “Okay, I did my weight, more or less…”

“Just under it,” said Fumimoto. “Fair. You can do better, Sergeant. And you should.”

“Yeah, I know,” grunted Knox. “Now, let’s see what the lady can do. First, let’s see how much she weighs…”

Nova stepped onto the scale, stretching and shaking her head before she stood still. Fumimoto checked her weight. “One hundred and thirty-one. What’s your physical condition, ma’am?”

“Good. About a little over a month pregnant…I’ll need a Pepsi after this; I’m borderline diabetic due to my pregnancy.”

“It’s not showing yet,” said Knox as he looked at her bare stomach.

“Give me about another five or six weeks and we’ll begin showing,” Nova said as she stepped off the scale. “Gentlemen, make mine a hundred and forty, please. More than what I weigh.”

“Sure you can do that, ma’am?” said Fumimoto.

“Oh, I do that all the time at home,” Nova said. “We have a weight bench in our pool house.” Nova then adjusted her shorts, pulling them down just a tad.

“Why are you doin’ that? Getting ready to use the belt?” Knox said.

“I don’t use a belt,” Nova said.

“Well, what do ya lift in, then?” he said.

“What I have on. Or what I wear to swim in. I usually do this before or after a swim at home,” Nova said as she put a little talc on her hands as the weights were set. “At home, I usually wear workout gear like this, or my swimwear, or…on a really hot day, I just go naked. Not that I am going to do that now,” she said primly.

Nova concentrated upon the bar, and then she locked her hands on it. Shutting her eyes as the spotters stood nearby, she dug her toes into the gym floor, and let down the weight, down to near her breasts. Then, with a soft grunt, she pushed it up, down, up, and down. Then, with her muscles working in her slender frame, Nova did another rep, and then another, at a quicker pace, and then, she tied Knox at six reps.

Then, gritting her teeth, and shutting her eyes, Nova reached within herself for the strength, and the bar felt like nothing to her all of a sudden as she did four more reps in rapid succession. She was ready to do an eleventh, but she felt her body trembling all over, so she stopped with a grunt and parked her barbell with a bang.

She then opened her eyes, looked up, and saw Derek looking down at her, bare-chested in only martial-arts pants. “Hi,” she said. “It’s not that heavy, Skipper…”

“How much does she weigh?” barked Derek.

“131, sir,” said Fumimoto.

“How much weight was that, Nova?” Derek said.

“Hundred and forty,” she puffed. “Stopped at ten reps.”

“Very respectable, but please don’t try anymore. I heard what you did, Knox,” said Derek. “She still takes you, Vic. Your late cousin was stronger. Not so many cheeseburgers,” he said as he gave Knox a playful shot to the gut. “And you try too hard,” he said as he tapped Nova lightly on the nose and then patted her stomach. “Mom,” he said with a smile in his eyes.

“I’m tougher than I look, and I know my limit,” Nova said.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

III. A TRIP TO MECANNER III, AND THE DARKNESS OF HAR’VALSKA

Deep Space

Space Battleship Argo

Thursday, April 27, 2209

1600 Hours: Earth Space-Time

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Commodore Derek Wildstar should have guessed that the Argo’s next warp would be very intense when all of his clothing vanished within five seconds of Venture’s pulling the warp lever.

It’s cold…this has happened before, now I really know how Nova feels when this happens, hoo boy, he thought as he sat there at the Captain’s station, cold, disoriented in the blue lights, and as naked as a newborn.

Oho…now you get it, came Nova’s voice in his head. She sounded somewhere between angered and amused.

Nova? I can…hear you? Howzat?

Part of this bond thing…oh, don’t be all ashamed of being naked; I’m naked, too, she thought.

Derek craned his head around. The Cosmo-Radar seemed to have vanished.

And, Nova was, indeed…very naked in the weird light patterns.

What could you use right about now? Derek thought.

A raincoat, sandals, and a space heater, Nova quipped back.  Knock, knock….

Who’s there? Derek thought.

Isabelle, Nova sent back.

Isabelle, who? Derek thought.

Isabelle Necessary on the door? Nova quipped. Knock, knock…

Who’s there? Derek thought.

Eye think… Nova thought.

You think what? This makes no fuckin’ sense! Derek quipped.

I think, Therefore I am, Nova sent back.

Not far away, Sandor’s reality was splitting into three.

It looked like he was, too. One, two, three Stephen Sandors flashed into and out of existence.

He had been naked, too, but his reality was going all over the place.

So was Diane’s.

At her post, Diane wondered if she would have her clothes back on when she came out of warp. It would serve Miss Muffett across from me if I came out of warp like this…although I see her sitting there grinning in her birthday suit… She likes being naked now? Great, we corrupted Nova for good back on Gamilon a few weeks ago…after you have the next pair of kids, let’s all get drunk and play strip poker…we all have to be drunk…

The Argo emerged from warp a moment later with a bang.

While the distortion hum faded, Venture muttered, “Warp completed. Arrrgggh….that was a bad one…unnnghhhh…”

He looked around the bridge.

Everyone was decently dressed in their ordinary uniforms, although Derek had his head in his hands, Eager was retching, Sasha had her head back at Analysis and was gasping, Dash was passed out, and Nova was passed out in her seat.

It was just another typical space warp.

Down below, in the nursery, Ariel Wildstar and David Hardy were crying because they had just had accidents…pee for Ariel, and poop for David. Luckily, cleanup would be easy; like all of the toddlers, Ariel and David had been simply stripped naked and placed on absorbent pads in their little carriers by Dawn Hardy, their caregiver of the moment.

This was now actually more or less standard operating procedure on passenger vessels, since it was found toddlers were often upset if their clothes went bye-bye during a warp. It was found the best way to deal with this was to simply have everyone under the age of two experience space warps naked, while gently restrained in a small bed or carrier. 

“Anyone get the number o’ the chicken truck that done hit us?” groaned Eager.

“You okay, Rosstowski?” said Venture as he shook Paul.

“Aliscea’s sending to me that you should be dragged behind a truck for that space warp,” groaned Paul.

“Yeah, everyone yell at me,” snapped Mark.

“Guys, that’s enough!” Derek snapped. “Hey, Nova! When you can raise your head, give me a location. No Knock-Knock jokes this time!”

Nova shook her head and said, “We are fifteen megameters away from Mecanner III…in position to assume standard orbit…”

“Venture, standard orbit of the planet,” said Derek.

“Yessir,” said Mark as he worked the controls.

The Argo was soon hanging in orbit over the beautiful blue Earth-like world.

A moment later, a signal came in.

Wendy Glitchman was manning Communications instead of Homer, who was on punitive duty on Bridge Number Two, so she said, “In response to your hail, this is the Earth Federation Space Battleship Argo, Pennant Number Zero-Zero-One, over.”

“What’s the big damn idea coming over our planet without any prior clearance?” snapped an irritable-sounding voice over the speakers as Wendy looked at Derek with eyebrows raised; he nodded as she turned on the speakers. “You idiots just caused our Rigelandan Strategic Air Command to go to Defcon One, and we’re on the Goddamn Hot Line trying to convince the Goddamn Vilani on the Goddamn Great Northern Continent that you are not a Goddamn defense platform that is about to launch a hundred nukes at them.”

“I’m sorry,” said Derek. “We didn’t even know your world had any intelligent life on it. I’m…”

“Captain Derek Wildstar. I know! Or Admiral! Or Goddamn High Grand Poobah! We know who you are! You had a little more sense back in the Rikashan War…before we got our passenger ship miswarped here from Earth, crashed, turned into linguini, and now we’ve Goddamn gone Native! This planet is in the late 1960’s, tech-wise. Or it was, anyway. I used to be Commander David Troughton of the White Star Line Vessel National Velvet. Now, I’m a General.”

“So, what’s the current situation now that we’re here on Mecanner?” Derek demanded.

“We don’t call it Mecanner,” said Troughton. “They call it ‘Tierre’ or ‘Earth’…. Same meaning. Although some have already begun to call it New Pellias, believe it or not! We want to become part of the Pellian Federation. All of us. Except the Vilani Union and their power bloc. Funny, the way it is turning out…Rigelandia is something of a Constitutional Monarchy, under, ostensibly, a very old King. A Prime Minister and a High Council run most things here. The Vilani Union is under a system called Sistema de’ Commala which is sort of like the old Communist System. Vilani is ruled by a Premier and they are pointing 111 nuclear missiles at us. We are pointing over three hundred back at them. Their Fourth World War is brewing as we speak. Their Third World War ended up with nine cities being nuked. They’re awfully aggressive. You need to be careful.”

“We won’t even go down there, then, if the situation is that bad,” said Derek. “We’ll leave, and….”

“That’s the rub. You can’t leave now. You’re still married to the former Nova Forrester. Isn’t that right?” Troughton said.

“Uh…yes,” said Derek.

Troughton sighed and said, “His Majesty, King Roland V, who is damn near eighty, has been dreaming about her for two weeks. He wants to see her.”

“Interesting,” said Nova from her post with her eyebrows raised.

“Oh, you’re there,” said Troughton. “That’s nice. Would you come and see the King? He’s been raving about you for….”

 “Yes…Two weeks,” Nova sighed. “I’m fine with this. So long as I can bring my husband. Where I go, the Commodore goes,” Nova said as she got up and held Derek’s hand. “You know, until lately, that was the other way around.”

“Your fame precedes you, m’lady,” said Derek. “Or should that be your imperial majesty?”

“Oh, you be quiet!” Nova laughed as she got a weird feeling running down her spine as she looked at the planet while making a peace sign as a sort of act of bravado.

Derek put up his arm and said, “Looks like we have an away team heading down there. Any special requests, General Troughton?”

“Yes. I know you’ll have to fly your ships down in uniform, but please have a bag of civilian clothing ready to change into soon after you land, since the military is not well-regarded here, shall we say? You’ll find out what we mean when you land. Bring a bag with a nice casual outfit for each of you. I know you do not have much room, so bring something cool. His Majesty would not be offended if you meet him in regular clothing, and it would be best if you dress like us so you can blend in. The style is sort of like 1960’s Terra.”

“It sounds good,” said Derek. “Nova, you’ll fly your fighter down; you’ll need to get some hours in the Yukikaze before you get too pregnant to fly a fighter in about six weeks.”

“Yessir,” Nova said. “Let me check on the kids first.”

“You have children?” said Troughton.

Derek said, “Affirmative. We have twins who are about nineteen months old, an adopted boy who is a cadet on this ship…and two more on the way.”

“God bless you!” laughed Troughton. “Lots of sleepless nights for you two?”

“Affirmative,” Nova said with a grin as Katrina came onto the First Bridge in a black dress trimmed in red with dark red sandals.

“What brings you?” asked Venture.

“I’ve had dreams about that planet. You two need to be careful,” said Katrina. “It was once a Pellian colony, long, long ago, called “Wajhinaa”, which means “Farthest Point from the Capital.” It was the old planet from which trade and commerce left the Pellian Federation up to hundreds of years ago bound for Iscandar. Or it was…before Gamilon took over this space,” Katrina snapped with a note of bitterness in her voice. “Mother told me that Desslok’s forefathers drove the Pellians off this world and left the population to fend for themselves. The Pellians are remembered well by some, while they are not remembered well by others.”

“How do you know so much about Pellias?” asked Troughton.

“I am part Pellian and part Cometine,” Katrina snapped. “Cometine father. Pellian mother. It is long story. It is too long and too sordid for here.”

“We see. We will see you soon,” said Troughton as he cut off.

Derek and Nova immediately turned their heads as a familiar voice sounded on the Bridge.

“Sordid,” said Aliscea as she came up with a smile, clad in a sequined black dress and black flip-flops. You BET that your story is sordid!”

“Ve were never to mention zat!” Katrina said. “When ve were on Gamilon last alone vid Astrena, you swore to it!” yelled Katrina as she grabbed Aliscea by the shoulders and shook her hard.

“Swore to what?” snapped Aliscea “And what is more, I am a Royal Personage with special Rights, Obligations, Holinesses, and Privileges! I am the Lady of Pellias, Lady High Protector, Lady Psionic Protector, Guardian of the Matrix, Foe of Ekogaru, Defender of the Faith, Prophetess and High Priestess of the Pellians, recognized on Terra as a special nuncio from Pellias to the Terran Federal Government and Vatican and holding the rank of Extraordinary Archbishop under a Special Papal Commission!” Aliscea screamed. “In other words, KISS MY FEET!”

“I would never kiss your feet!” yelled back Katrina.

“I am going to be the next Queen and will probably sit recognized as the High Queen to boot!” yelled Aliscea.

That is right, whispered a soft, deep voice in her head. Cling to your titles and your high exalted rights and the Matrix! Only you have the wisdom to defeat Ekogaru. Not the Cometine whore you see here, and not the stupid, crazy cow of a pregnant Earthling whose head has grown ten sizes and who is wearing ten-league boots because she thinks she can throw some fire around and kill the Dark Lord. Who, by the way, you know is not dead!

Aliscea then snarled and spat on Katrina. Katrina threw up her hand, and felt something fly from her to Aliscea. It hit Aliscea like a punch in the gut.

“What gives?” yelled Aliscea.

“We are on the First Bridge, this is my vessel, and you two stop it unless you both want to go in the damn brig!” Derek snapped.

“You shut up, worm!” yelled Aliscea as she slapped Derek across the face. “And you are a slut!” she screamed at Nova as she slapped her.

Before anyone could react, Aliscea vanished.

“Venture, I have to leave now, but have the Marines find her. When they do, she is to be confined to quarters until I can deal with her!” yelled Derek. “Nova, are you all right?”

“Yeah,” Nova said with a sob. “Katrina?”

“Yes?” hissed Katrina.

“Are you all right?” asked Derek.

“Foxy’s not here, please hug me,” sniffed Katrina.

Derek then drew both Katrina and Nova into a hug. He then said, “She does not need to scream at you two at all…you did nothing to her…”

“I know,” Nova sobbed. “What’s gotten into her?”

“Power,” said Katrina. “She goes mad with power. I know that feeling all too well…” she said. “Too well,” she said in a soft voice as she guarded her thoughts around Nova.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Deep, deep below the capital city of the R’Khells on Planet R’Khell’eva, there was a complex of caves.

The caves were called the Har’valska, which translated meant, “The Heart of Hell.”

Hundreds of meters below what was supposedly his Temple, the black remnants of the spirit of Ekogaru had reformed, and the ghost of the demonic Sorcerer had taken his Sphere there with him.

Ekogaru’s spirit had been present in his fight with Nova, but she had not destroyed him because his accursed Sphere had survived the attack.

The Dark Lord would only be able to die if his accursed Sphere was destroyed…the very Sphere he was gazing into now as his ghostly form laughed and drooled like the mad thing he was. Since the Sphere was not destroyed, the grievously wounded, but drooling and rage-filled spirit of Ekogaru now skulked maimed in spirit like a one-legged pirate in the Dark on R’Khell’eva.

He did not dare another fight with any of the psionics now, since he feared that the mutating Matrix would learn his secret and grant it to either Nova…or…that accursed Invidia.

He guessed that if his secret was known, it would not be long until the psionic women of the Local Group of Galaxies came for him. If any of them, Starsha, Astrena, Trelaina, Aliscea, probably even Sasha, and possibly even Nova or Invidia knew his secret….

“I would then have my Sphere smashed, be sent to Hell, defeated. If they knew and if they could get to You, O Sphere,” Ekogaru whispered. “The Matrix is changing. Part of it is with Nova now. Part is with Invidia, part, the Root, still resides in Aliscea, and part resides in some other person who is not yet clear to Me. My best hope? Whisper to Aliscea. Use her own lust for glory and her pride against her. She is a warrior. One trained to fight me with a warrior’s instinct. Turned to me…she would be a fine, fine ally. Even though much of the Matrix is now in the pure little girl of Terra, my great hope is keeping the energy divided and keeping the little pregnant bitch Mrs. Wildstar from learning the truth about me….”

“So,” said Ekogaru. “My next target, therefore, is the proud Lady Aliscea. My foe; my eternal dear bitchy opponent…but how best to proceed? Oh, these matters must be done…delicately…”

Ekogaru laughed to himself as pleasant thoughts of monsters, demons, and Flying Monkeys ran through his twisted spirit.

Ekogaru smiled and began to hum to himself, “Now, my next plan for Aliscea…hahahahaha…yessss….ooo…reee…ooo…yooohrum…..ooo….reee….ooo….yoooohrum…”

“Doctor Sane, I am not interested in being wired up today!” Nova cried as she confronted Doctor Sane in Sickbay while checking on the kids before running to her fighter with her bag.

“Nova, this is space medicine,” said Sane. “I’ve always wanted to get the heart rate and lung rate of a pregnant pilot in a fighter now that they allow it as part of the first trimester now that the radiation shielding has been improved in fighters.”

“Yes, and I’m a convenient lab rat?” Nova said.

“Come on….you only have to wear the little tiny sensors. We’re not making you strip like in the L36 series of tests you, Derek, and Hardy flew in years ago…”

“Then I can’t wear my uniform boots because those things hurt with sensors on your ankles…you know that,” Nova sighed. “They are just so tight…darn ladies’ boots!”

“We got an environmental report from that planet; you could get away with a quick barefoot flight if you shoot your heater up while you’re in space? After all, it’s warm, down there. And weren’t you changing into a skirt, top, and sandals after you landed anyhow?”

“Yes, but what if I have to punch out in space?” Nova said. “I would need a full spacesuit on…not like flying below 12,000 feet over the Pacific where I flew some tests in shorts and a tank top, some in a bikini, two stripped down to a fundoshi and two, where I had to swim and test a life raft…and some sunscreen…in the nude. Derek got a big kick out of that one when he rescued me. Of course, I did the same for him a month later when I was dressed and he wasn’t!”

“Who’s going to attack you in a fifteen-minute flight?” said Sane. “Come on…”

“The last time I followed your lead, I came home with a hangover,” Nova sighed as she sat down on a stool and began to unzip her boots.

She kicked them off, and then she undid her belt, pulled out her sidearm, unzipped her uniform. “Hook me up,” she sighed as she bared her chest and body, since she was naked under her jumpsuit.

This darn tight uniform, oh….zip, unzip, zip, unzip, cram into it, cram out of it…Nova thought. God forgive me, but I can’t wait until we get to Desslok’s palace, where Astrena already told me I can strip when I feel like it…followed by Iscandar, where, except for that ceremony, I am just going be like Sasha and turn into a naked beach bum like a native fishing village girl with the kids for three days at the villa by Taniquetel. Amazing how motherhood makes you more humble and less inhibited….

Derek came down a few minutes later, and he let out a wolf-whistle and did a double-take as he saw Nova, almost-bare, getting her sensors checked and adjusted by Doctor Sane.

“You’re doing an experiment now?” said Derek.

“I’m not, the Doctor is,” Nova said with a laugh as she wiggled her toes on the deck as Sane checked the sensors, came back, adjusted one on one of her half-exposed breasts…”I’m just getting fitted…”

“Doctor Sane, is all of that adjustment necessary on my poor wife?” said Derek.

“Oh, yes, it is….I don’t want the test results to come out useless…remember when you had to do a test and a certain part of your anatomy, Wildstar, got so big that you were like the man from Nantucket?”

“Whose thing got so big he could…” began IQ-9, as he burbled past Nova, and then he zoomed back. “WOOOW! Nova! What are you doing?”

“Testing a new uniform variation, Tinwit,” Nova said sarcastically. “It’s the ultra-Tropical version…coverage optional. Derek, are we sure we can’t take the kids?” Nova said with a facetious wink.

“Why?” Derek said.

“Nursing them would be awfully, obscenely convenient if I kept my uniform like this…”

Sane gave Nova a slap on the bottom. “All right, Barbarella. Zip up your uniform…”

“I’ll be happy to…” Nova huffed. “IQ…back, boy….back!”

As Nova was just beginning to zip up, Sergeant Vic Knox came into Sickbay, and said, “Doc, I hear tell ya have booze around!”

“Medicinal purposes only,” Sane said. “You need a cure for something that ails you, have a drink!”

Derek was trying to help Nova, and, as Knox walked past, he glanced at Nova.

“Nothing to see, Knox,” Nova said tartly. “It’s just little old me under my suit. In case you care, my belly button is an innie….”

“I say ya got plenty ta see!” he laughed.

“Knox, do not get your paws near my wife! Nova, please face the bulkhead…”

“Aye, aye, sir,” Nova said as Derek helped her zip up.

TWENTY MINUTES LATER….

“How’s your telemetry, Nova?” asked Derek from the Natsukaze as they flew down into the atmosphere of what they were calling Mecanner III.

“Not bad…I’m giving them a lot of signals, no doubt,’ she said as the Yukikaze flew on alongside Derek’s Super Starfighter. Nova’s own Super Starfighter hummed along as the two fighter ships came through a cloud formation, heading down towards a city that happened to be on a seacoast. Nova thought she saw the ruins on an ancient city on a hillside over the coast behind the modern capital of Rigelandia, which was known as Beltane. As they circled over the beach to get a vector for the primitive local-frequency VLR radio-guided beam landing they would be making, Derek and Nova noticed a lot of sunbathers and swimmers on the beach.

“It must be a warm day,” Derek said. “The beach is crowded.”

“Look at those pretty large sunhats on those women, and the sunshade veils around them…” Nova said. “It looks like Race Day at Ascot or something….look at those colors…beautiful!”

“Nova, most of them are naked otherwise…”

“You would notice that,” Nova huffed with a laugh. “Oh, look at the mom with the kids! The kids have on those hats, too. How cute! And look at that mom nursing her babies…we should have brought Alex and Ariel!”

“And meet with the King on the beach…with you in your birthday suit?” Derek teased.

“Well, you brought that silly hippie outfit! Might be nicer than a stuffy old palace, Derek,” Nova said. Flying away from the beach, they flew over the city. It looked a little like old Swinging London; the men were in bellbottoms and casual tops; the women were in miniskirts in either boots or sandals. Many of both genders had on unusual floppy hats of many colors; the Wildstars had no idea why, as of yet.

“This is Beltane Control. Beltane Flight Control,” said a voice in their helmets.

“Beltane Flight Control, this is Flight Alpha-one from the Space Battleship Argo,” said Derek. “Over.”

“Flight Alpha-One, you are cleared for landing on VLR Beam on Runway Three-One; it’s long, but you have some space. Taxi to the end and turn to the left side apron at ninety degrees at the runway end. You will want to change your clothes before you get out of your fighters.”

“Why is that?” said Nova over the mike.

“Protestors at the gate. They should not see your military uniforms. People are protesting our wars with Vilana and the Commala and their client states, and your presence here…”

“Nice,” said Derek. “Just like the Iscandarian peaceniks with their drums.”

“Who can’t even keep up a 4/4 beat,” Nova said as she flipped frequencies on the radio. She picked up a local band playing a song and singing in the local language that sounded a bit like Creedence Clearwater Revival’s version of “I Put a Spell on You”, and she tapped her fingers and toes to it as they landed.

Upon landing, the two Super Starfighters ended up side by side on the apron. Nova popped open her cockpit, switching the music to the speakers as she heard a pair of Rigelandan fighters taking off from the runway that crossed theirs. Smiling at Derek as he opened his cockpit and breathed the local air before pulling his Star Force shirt off and baring his chest, Nova called out, “No one around. And the air and sun and breeze feel so good. Mmmmmmm...” Nova said as she lay back in her cockpit with her eyes closed.

“They said they’d have ground crews out here in ten minutes. They’re giving us some privacy out here to change,” Derek said as he took his pants off.

“Oh, that’s a good thing,”’ Nova said as she unzipped her one-piece uniform. She struggled out of it a moment later, and carefully took off the EKG and medical sensors on her body.

Then, she lay back in the nude for a moment, with her bare feet up on her instrument panel.

“What are you doing?” Derek teased.

“I’m sunning myself. We have a few minutes and I’m waiting for the song to end,” Nova said as she tapped her bare toes against her target scope, and finished grooving to the local song as she lay there naked.

She also smiled at Derek and sent to him. You are making love to me tonight. Right?

If I have to keep on looking at you like that without my pants on, I might climb over to the cockpit and attack you now, Derek sent back with a wink. Looking around, he boosted himself up in his cockpit, just enough to show Nova he had on the upper half of his hippie outfit of a top, crazy vest, and short jacket (with a rosary worn as love beads) but he was himself still nude below the waist…and sporting an erection.

Nova giggled at that. “Cover that up! Not that I mind looking at it…but I don’t think the King will like it! Are you going commando?” she said as he pulled on his jeans over his bare attributes.

“Hippies don’t wear underwear, man,” Derek said in a weird put-on voice that sounded like Cheech Marin for a moment.

When a slower song came on, Nova flicked off the radio, and pulled on the denim miniskirt she had brought (going commando like Derek while praying her skirt did not hitch up), working bare-chested as she buckled on her sandals, and then, finally finishing up by pulling on her light top and pink round sunglasses. She secured her fighter and then climbed out and stood before a wall.

“How do I look?” she said as she stood on her toes to pose and show her long bare legs.

“Cute,” said Derek as he emerged in his outfit and sandals. “How do I look?”

“Goofy,” Nova giggled. “I didn’t know you had sunglasses like that.”

“Peace and love, babe,” said Derek as he made a peace sign before securing his Super Starfighter. “Score me some weed for my pipe, baby,” he joked, alluding to his very occasional use of what those in the twenty-third century referred to as ‘Hemp’, although never on duty and never when deployed, even though it was now both legal and easily available.

In the twenty-second century, medical marijuana had become more available, and it had gradually been made legal, especially since organized breeding of the plant had reduced the THC content and other psychoactive contents down to the point where, instead of being the psychologically addictive street drug it had been in the twentieth century, it had instead become a medicinal herb, used and sold widely for pain relief and as a relaxant, available as a tea like twenty-first century chamomile tea, available in capsules, as a topical cream, and in the classic tobacco-like cut weed form for smoking or for cooking into food.

Nova thought of Derek’s joke and said, “You know I don’t smoke. I do not like putting smoke in my lungs; most unhealthy.”

“Yeah, you just eat those funny brownies,” teased Derek.

“Once in a blue moon, when we’re not deployed, or I just make some tea we keep away from the kids.” Nova said primly. “You know? From the stuff in the hydroponic medicinal garden planters hanging high around the pool house that the kids can't touch…along with the other herbal medicines and catnip I grow in the hanging planters on the back porch.”

As part of her Nurse-Practitioner training, Nova naturally had a good bit of knowledge of herbal medicine. In the twenty-third century, herbal medicine was a bit more well-known and accepted by medical science than it was in the twentieth or twenty-first centuries, and, in fact, she would be taking a Medical School course in the topic next academic year. It was also very common in the twenty-third century for people to grow their own herbal medicines, spices, and aphrodisiacs…and Derek knew that Nova knew of quite a few herbal infusions for that purpose that could be quite…stimulating.

A moment later, Troughton showed up. He extended a hand and said, “Ahh…good thing you two showed up.”

The General was a tallish man, clad in a reddish-brown uniform with a white ascot.

He had grey hair, and a dignified demeanor as he said, “You will pardon my cynicism before. I’ve been through a lot…same with the survivors of my vessel. Luckily, they’ve been picking up Standard Terran English here, so I can communicate without that much in the way of difficulty…”

“Glad to hear that,” said Derek. “As you guessed, I’m Commodore Derek Wildstar…”

“I know; I do recall what you looked like. You look maybe a little older and less round in the face now. I do know this is the lovely Mrs. Nova Wildstar,” he said, bowing towards Nova and taking her hand and kissing it European-style. ”Enchante’” he said in French.

“Merci Beaucoup,” Nova said back, with a bow of her own. Then, she stood back, and did a subdued (but very cute) little curtsey in her miniskirt as she added, “And that is Commander Nova Wildstar, gentlemen!”. That gesture made both Derek and Troughton smile.

“My God,” laughed Troughton. “Wildstar, as they put it here, your young wife could charm the very icicles off of King Winter’s nose!”

“Thank you,” Nova said. “I had an interesting upbringing. I had to be very formal at times, but I got to sneak off and just act like a wild hippie tomboy at other times. Mother usually did not approve.”

“You two are an interesting pair. A car is waiting here to get us past the protestors. This way, please.”

Derek and Nova found themselves being ushered over to a large parking area.

Sitting there was a large white car that looked like a mid-twentieth century vehicle; with a ginger-colored furry humanoid, who was unclad except for a lot of fur, and a collar.

The feline-looking humanoid withdrew its forepaws/hands away from its crotch, revealing its gender by exposing a goodly-sized set of male genitals that were covered by his fur but very evident. He looked at Troughton and said, in a voice that sounded like it had a Brooklyn accent, “Hey, General! Are these two the Earthers?”

“Yes, they are,” said Troughton. “Commodore Wildstar; Commander Wildstar, this is Hegen. He’s a Ralkhen.”

 “We were taken off our home planet long ago by the Pellians in one of their wars and made their servants,” Hegen said. “I don’t know if I hate them or admire them for giving us more civilization…they said we needed it and they needed the planet occupied and then destroyed to fight their Dark Lord. Nowadays, people still think we’re like, stupid. That’s a load of shit. Just because we look a little different, and we don’t wear clothes…we find ‘em itchy, and with our paws and claws we don’t like shoes…in fact, how can you two walk in those stupid sandals, I wonder? You’re halfway there, so why not just go barefoot and be done with it?,” he said as he stood on his toes on his bare cat-like paws. “We don’t like when people calls us various slurs, either. The latest one, in your language, is ‘kitty’ as in…’here, kitty, kitty, kitty…Don’t you have Ralkhen on Earth?”

“No,” said Derek. He wasn’t sure he wanted to tell Hegen about Mimi and Fluffy yet. He did not seem sure how he’d take it.

Nova smiled gently and blinked her eyes at Hegen. He blinked back, swishing his tail a little. “How’d you know how to do that?”

“A guess from communicating with smaller felines who have different intelligence,” Nova said. “We have no one like you on Earth, Hegen.”

Hegen smiled and said, “Well, I never saw a girl wearing funny candy-colored orange sandals who paints her hind toenails with lacquer, so, let’s just say that to each other, we’re both kinda weird,” he said with a smile. “By the way, I’m driving. Get in, people. And hold on tight. Don’t know why these limos have no seat belts…”

Derek, Nova, and Troughton got into the car, which was an open convertible with the top down.

Hegen started it up; the motor sounded like a big, old V-8. He slammed his paw against the gas hard, revving it. “We wants to get this over with, fast. Oh, Commodore, is your mate pregnant?”

“How would you know?” said Nova, shocked.

“You’re giving off pheromones that I can pick up like a damn oil refinery, babe,” he said with a laugh. “No offense intended or taken; they smell nice. My mate Fela…she’s got sort of tortoise-shell fur… is expecting a litter soon, too.” Hegen looked around, licked his hand as he preened himself like an Earth feline, and then, he drove off.

As they drove through the gate in the convertible, the protestors spotted them, and began to yell, “Earth people go home!”

“You’re not wanted here!”

“Imperialist slime!”

“Capitalistic running dogs!” yelled a very filthy-looking protestor who grabbed onto the side of the car. Derek shoved one off the side of the car, while Nova screamed as something like popcorn was thrown in her face. She then saw local Rigelandian security forces getting between the protestors and the car, fighting them off with large shields and batons. She was crying and holding onto Derek as Hegen blasted the horn, snarled and hissed loudly at the protestors, and then sped off, handing the huge car well with his sharp reflexes.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

IV. LIFE IN ORBIT AND THE PALACES OF THE KING AND QUEEN

The Vicinity of Mecanner III

Space Battleship Argo

Thursday, April 27, 2209

1742 Hours: Earth Space-Time

Later on that afternoon, Sasha, on the First Bridge as Officer of the Deck, at around seventeen forty-five hours, sat behind the Captain’s chair drinking some coffee and looking over figures when Eager looked at her, and said, “What’s the grossest, wackiest, weirdest, kinkiest thing you can think of that is sorta fit for family consumption? Maybe? If the kids are over eighteen?”

“Have you been around little Alex in the nursery when he is getting a bath or his pants changed? He’s still potty-training, and given the way he’s drooling because he probably has teeth coming in, he doesn’t wear very much. In fact, like the other boys who love to do this, namely the Glitchman twins Aaron and Joshua, and my little Star, he just loves, loves, loves to be naked. His sister Ariel is a close second.”

“Yeah, I get that with kids a lot,” said Dash. “My cousin JJ hates to wear clothes. In fact, one day, his mom had him out at the store, in a shopping cart, sitting on his blankie, naked as a jaybird. It was hot, of course he was barefoot, and of course, he wanted his toes tickled every other minute.”

“Okay,” said Sasha. “Nudity fits this little story. Alex is there playing with Joshua, and Joshua is there playing with Alex. Nova and Wendy are giving them their baths on the tatami taps on top of the rugs, and none of the four of them have on any clothes. So, Alex looks at Joshua…he was there when Joshua got circumcised, and he begins whining about “Mommy, don’t cut it!”—while his mother is washing his little bare ding-a-lingie. Joshua is making faces at him, saying, “I’m a son of the Covenant…what’re you?” while his Mom is washing his thing. Alex says, “I’m a boy who has his whole peepee attached!” Then, he begins to bat it around and sing “My Ding-A-Ling!” Nova nearly faints, although Goddess knows why, because she’s wearing nothing but suds herself. Nova asks him where he learned that song, and he said, “From Daddy in the big peoples’ shower!” Then, Nova laughs and says, “I swear, I’m going to kill my husband and put him through a wood chipper!”

“That’s gross,” said Paul Rosstowski. “Wildstar’s kid can be gross…”

“It sounds sort of cute,” said Holly Venture from the helm with a laugh. “Mark and I are trying for kids, you know.”

“Good luck,” said Sasha. “Eager, tell us your story.”

“Has to do with breast milk,” said Eager, as he sat manning the Cosmo-Radar since both Nova and Sasha were occupied elsewhere. “You breastfeed your kid, right, Sasha?”

“You should know, you’ve only seen me doing it on the beach a hundred zillion times,” said Sasha.

“What do you like to wear when you breastfeed?” said Dash.

“Nothing,” said Sasha. “I always breastfeed in the nude,” she said, with emphasis, while blushing. “I got Auntie Nova to pretty much do the same thing, and we’re both working on Wendy. I’m more comfortable like that. What’s this about?”

“You know any guys who drink breast milk from their ladies?”

Sasha nodded, blushing. “I do. I will not say how, when, or under what circumstances, but, boy, does it feel good,” she said with a laugh as the bridge crew laughed and applauded.

“Know anyone else who does that?” said Eager.

“Eager, this is getting weird,” said Rosstowski.

“Shut your piehole! I’m interested! East Texas and all that!” said Eager. “And we get milk on the farm from moo-cows, and people milk ain’t that much different than moo-cow milk! Hell, we had old pictures, and mah mom just ran around in a tube top half the time when I was a baby so I could get what I wanted! In fact, there was an old picture o’ her in just her flip-flops nursing me while she milked the cows!”

“I’m not a moo-cow, but I know there’s one or two other couples on this ship who do that,” Sasha said with another blush as she kicked off the thongs she was wearing with the skirt and pea coat she had on (her ankles were swelling now due to her pregnancy, too) and she put her bare feet up on the Captain’s console while she played with her ascot. “One couple I know…uses breast milk now and then as a gourmet coffee creamer.”

“Who?” said Dash.

“I am not at liberty to say,” said Sasha primly. “Strange, but they say it makes a good cup of coffee…”

“I have a bet for ya,” said Eager.

“What?” said Sasha.

“I’ll betcha eight hundred credits that you won’t make me a cup of coffee with yoah own milk as creamer! And you gotta be naked when ya do it!”

“Slap him, Sasha, that’s gross. That’s weird!” said Rosstowski. “Eager, that’s such a violation of fuckin’ regs that I oughta write you up for that myself, East Texas!”

“You’d drink it?” said Sasha as her mother Starsha’s voice sounded in her head, saying, “Sasha, dear, that’s bizarre! What you do with your bond mate is your own business!”

“Be quiet, Mom, this is a game,” said Sasha. “I won’t do it for your price.”

“Aw, shucks,” said Eager.

“I might consider it if you make your bet higher,” teased Sasha as now Deke screamed in her head, “Sasha, this is nuts! C’mon, now…”

“It’s harmless fun, Deekee…I do not intend to let a soul touch my breasts while this happens, if it happens…” Sasha said.

“Eager, you’re sexually harassing the Officer of the Deck, and this has gone far enough! Cut it out!” said Rosstowski.

“He’s not sexually harassing me if I agree to it for fun,” said Sasha.

“It still is that way in the regs,” said Holly. “Sasha, do that, and an Inquiry Board will have your ass before you can say “Rumplestiltskin!” You, too, Eager! Is that why you’re still a Junior Grade Lieutenant? Pranks like this?”

“Okay, that one time they caught me in the whorehouse when I went there with the late Bryan Hartcliffe and the Shore Patrol caught me might be part’o it? Lisa nearly drop kicked me outta the relationship fo’ that one…”

“Well, you’re just…messed up,” said Holly. “And don’t drag innocent brand-new Lieutenant Junior Grade Wakefield here down with you!”

“I’m not as innocent as I look,” sang Sasha. “Like the old Beach Boys song, “I Get Around...””

“Well, you don’t have to agree to this at all…and, Eager, cut it out,” said Holly.

“Aye, aye, ma’am,” said Eager.

But Eager was not about to let it drop there….

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Planet Mecanner, The Union of Rigelandia, The City of Beltane

King Roland V’s Palace

2PM Local Time…

“Is that the King’s Palace?’ said Derek Wildstar in awe as Hegen drove around a reflecting pool in front of a huge white building that looked as if it was several hundred years old.

“It’s beautiful,” Nova said.

“It’s the home of His Majesty,” said General Troughton. “He has not been seen outside in months.”

“It’s massive and very old,” said Hegen. “They say it’s been here a thousand years. The only thing older around here is the ancient Pellian ruins outside the city. But this palace was built in a Pellian style. It is an image of the old Protector’s Palace that once stood on Pellias.”

“The…Protector’s Palace,” said Nova. “It used to stand next to the Royal Palace in the city of Perlana on Pellias itself. It’s where Aliscea grew up and where Astrena lived.”

“I can’t go in with you guys,” said Hegen.

“Why not?” Derek said.

“Ralkhen are not allowed near the King or his Royal Presence. That is why,” said Hegen with his head bowed. “It’ll probably always be that way, I guess,” said Hegen. “There are some places we still cannot go. We can vote, but we can’t run for Parliament and have no direct representation there, even though some provinces in the Rigelandian Union in and near the rain forests in the South are populated by our race. We weren’t even allowed on the beaches in town until recently, and there are many places that do not serve us.”

“That sounds horrible!” said Nova.

“Do you have anything like that on Earth?” said Hegen. “I hope not.”

“Up until recently, in many nations, until the Gamilons came, people of African descent were discriminated against, as well as those of Hispanic descent, those who practice the religion of Islam, and women were also discriminated against, for example,” said Nova. “In fact, in some places, women are still discriminated against in subtle and not-so-subtle ways on Earth. One of my friends is a robot who has the…oh-so endearing…habit of looking up my dress. Of course, now, on Earth, robots seem to be becoming the new group everyone discriminates against.”

“It seems to be a human tendency all over the place,” sighed Troughton.

“Yes, but we are working on counteracting it,” snapped Derek. “Hegen and his people do not deserve this sort of treatment!”

“No, they do not,” added Nova. “General Troughton, please forgive me for giving offense…but how can you discriminate against other sentient, living beings! It’s…cruel!”

“I say it is,” said Hegen.

“You be quiet!” snapped Troughton as he raised a hand against Hegen, who started and trembled. “You know your damned place!”

“Does he?” Nova said angrily and tearfully as she laid a hand on Hegen’s furry shoulder. “Hit him, General, and you might as well just slap me, too!”

“NOVA!” cried Derek.

Nova held Hegen and cried into his fur as she embraced him while she kissed the back of his head.

Hegen looked back at her and said, “By the Most High, you brave, innocent, dear young woman…no other human has ever honored me like that before! Please stop it!”

“And why?” Nova sobbed.

“Look how they are all looking at you!” he said, shocked. “In some parts of the Union, they’d hang you for that!”

“Let them look, damn them!” Nova said hotly. “If you can’t hug a friend on this planet, what are we fighting for, anyway? Derek, give him a hug…please…”

Nova moved aside, and Derek embraced Hegen. “Hey, buddy, I think I need to buy you a beer someday,” he laughed. “If you drink it. Now, sit up there with your head held high! You’ve got nothing to be ashamed of!”

“My wife and I are forever in thy debt, Derek and Nova Wildstar,” said Hegen. “Now, go…”

Hegen remained in the car and drank some juice while a shaken Troughton opened the door and helped Derek and Nova out of the car.

The Wildstars entered the Palace. Two guards bearing pikes saluted at the main door as they entered.

A trumpet blast went off, and Troughton and two guards escorted the Wildstars down some corridors and halls.

Then, they walked into a vast hall. It was a hall filled with statues.

“Who are those?” said Derek.

“Some of the prior Kings and Queens of Rigelandia,’ said Troughton.

“I notice that the Throne is empty,” Nova said. “Where is His Majesty?”

“You may recall that I told you on the drive here that His Majesty is old and rather unwell. He rests in his apartments. This way, please…”

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

V. A TREACHERY BEGINS…

The Vicinity of Mecanner III

Space Battleship Argo

Thursday, April 27, 2209

1742 Hours: Earth Space-Time

On the Argo, Eager said, “I’m getting a reaction on the radar. It’s not that major…but…”

“What sort of reaction is it?” snapped Sasha.

“A warp hole opened up…several thousand megameters off, near the orbit of the fourth planet…I’m getting several readings…diffuse…”

“Can you bring them into focus?” asked Sasha as she left the Captain’s chair and ran over.

“Negative…I’m tryin’!” said Eager. “Sasha, can you sense anything about any life forces?”

“There is something there…shrouding itself in a psychic mist,” Sasha said. “Dark…terrible…focused on one and only one remorseless goal…murder…”

“Murder?” said Dash.

Sasha nodded sadly. “I need to see Aliscea...at once! If this prediction is correct…they will be here at Mecanner in ninety minutes. We have no time to waste!”

Sasha then ran to her post and hit the alarm. “Attention, all hands! Possible enemy fleet spotted…approaching the Argo and Mecanner Three at high-speed parabolic course! All hands, yellow alert! Aliscea Rosstowski ordered to the Bridge immediately!”

At that, the sirens began to go off…

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Aliscea was sitting with Paul Rosstowski in their cabin.

“What I wish I could do, Paul, is turn back the clock,” she said.

“Would you explain that, please?” said Paul.

Aliscea sighed at Paul and wept. “I wish we could go back to what we had on Day One of our relationship. When we had first bonded. When you loved me…”

“Aliscea, I still love you,” said Paul. “Do you love me?”

Aliscea made a field of silence cover the inside of their cabin.

Then, she stood up, held Paul, and kissed him, hard.

She hugged him, as she flicked her hand, and a romantic, wistful version of the Beatles’ I, Me Mine began to play on Paul’s stereo.

Then, Aliscea twirled on her sandal-clad toes with Paul, kissed him, and turned his Star Force uniform into a romantic disco-type suit. She made a red ribbon appear in her hair, made her dress suddenly begin to glitter, and then she caused a red sash to appear around her waist and turned her sandal straps bright red.

“Dance with me,” she whispered, aware, somehow, that she was being summoned.

Aliscea held Paul and sent, into his mind, I wish that I could give up the fight against the Dark Lord. Or that I didn’t know so much?

Then why not give it up? Paul thought back. Others can handle the burden now. You told me that you think the Matrix is passing on…why not let it go…and, pardoning a bad pun, just let it be?

Aliscea seemed to make the world around them disappear as she said, “Paul, my love…I may just take you up on that?”

“For the fight?”

“Yes, and for us. I can’t tell that sniveling Nova how to handle it, yet…for she has to learn that herself, as I did.”

Then, Aliscea kissed Paul hard…and, she used her powers to strip both of them naked, in an instant.

Paul was surprised.

“You forgot I could do that, didn’t you?” Aliscea said as she rubbed Paul’s body up and down as they danced.

Then, she smiled, kissed him again, and faded away with a giggle.

“Aliscea! Where did you go? Aliscea!”

 “Look on the bed, silly boy,” giggled Aliscea’s voice from nowhere.

A moment later, she appeared on the bed, naked, sly, grinning, and licking her lips with playful lust.

“Come here, Paul. Jump into the sack with me, and let’s get going at renewing our bond!” she sang.

Paul smiled at her, jumped into the bed, and began to kiss her from her breasts, down to her stomach, down, down, down, to the center of her, which looked very attractive, but…

…as he began to give her the most intimate of kisses with his mouth, he noticed that her sweet taste had a bitter tinge to it.

He ignored that, and he crawled about on her, and let Aliscea begin to service him with her mouth as he did the same to her.

Finally, when they realized they were just driving each other mad, Paul changed position again, and he began to dance with Aliscea in bed as he took her.

Aliscea rolled around in the bed, moaning, kissing him, and thoroughly enjoying it, as she finally cried out, “Paul! Oh, Goddess! PAUL!”

“Yes?” he said.

“Give me a child,” she said in a husky, sexy voice. “I have pulled down all of the barriers. I want us to have a baby together…please give me…a baby…”

“We never discussed it…” said Paul.

“Not lately, but now, the time is right,” she said as another voice whispered in her mind, Let him make you pregnant, Aliscea. Let him. Then, the baby will be a bargaining chip of yours…for many purposes…

Yes, friendly angel, Aliscea thought as Paul and she drew closer and closer to climax. Yes, I will let him make me pregnant…and now!

Then, Paul and Aliscea rolled in each other’s arms, and Aliscea threw back her head and howled as waves of pleasure hit her. She sent the joy back through her bond to Paul, who yelled in return, too.

Then, the naked lovers held each other, and wept, not knowing that…today…would be their second-last dance…

…and their last waltz together.

Of course, Aliscea never heard the summons to the First Bridge as she lay on top of Paul, twirling his hair, and covering his chest with kisses…

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The Wildstars were ushered into the presence of King Roland V a few minutes later. He lay in a four-postered, canopied bed in the middle of a huge room with a shiny wooden floor.

The King said, “I’m so sorry that I could not come out to see the two of you. I pray this suffices all that it can to explain my condition.”

Derek and Nova nodded with understanding.

King Roland V was very old, and, by the looks of it, not well. He had once been a tall man, but now, he sat hunched over in his bed, clad in a white nightshirt, and circlet. He had long white hair, and a bushy beard that made him look like a Wizard from any one of many tales of Old Earth.

“You two may sit here,” said General Troughton as he pointed an two stools. “Commodore, please bow before you sit. Commander Wildstar, a small curtsey will suffice.”

Derek bowed and sat down. Nova curtsied, but, as she did so, one of her sandaled feet slipped on the slick floor…

…and, as Nova stumbled, her curtsey became very deep, and showed off far more of herself in her miniskirt than she intended as she stumbled with her hands on her skirt, and, for a moment, her entire Southern exposure became evident to the King, and to Derek and General Troughton!

“Nova!” Derek snapped as he helped a blushing Nova smooth down her skirt.

“I’m so sorry if I offended you, your Majesty!” Nova stammered.

King Roland smiled at her, and chuckled. “Nonsense, child!” he said with his hand up. “I am old…they say I don’t have a year left, and my Queen Bettina is now two years in her grave. A glimpse of such a lovely young maiden as thee, if I may say so, O good Commander…is no offense at all to me, even with thine accidental showing of thy lovely form below the waist…how can such loveliness, even unclothed, offend the eye?” he said as he looked at Derek. “If I may say so, Commodore Wildstar, you are a lucky man.”

Derek smiled at Nova while she blushed. “Thank you, Your Majesty.” Then, he coughed long and loud while Nova impulsively helped him to sit up.

“I do pray I didn’t violate some protocol in helping you, Your Majesty,” said Nova.

“Nonsense! A healing touch…a helping touch…is appreciated right now. I know. I sense. Were the two of you thinking, just now, that I looked like a King or Wise Man from your ancient legends?” said the King.

“We were…” said Derek.

“This is the most eerie thing for me. I had a touch of the Second Sight and could cure the King’s Evil with my touch, at times,” Roland said. “You look something like a figure from an ancient Pellian legend, good Commodore. And, Nova, if I may call you that?”

“Yes?” said Nova. “You said you dreamed of me?”

“Dreamed of you, I have. Tell me. Have you noticed people here on Meccaner, looking at you most intensely? Have you noticed that?”

“Well, I think I did,” Nova said with a blush. “I wondered if it was my…little skirt.”

The King smiled and laughed. “Hardy, although I must say thy limbs are firm, strong, and lovely. No, Nova Wildstar; it is because you resemble a ghost who has long only been seen in sculpture or very ancient frescoes. In you, it would appear, in my dreams, in you, the loveliness, kindness, quiet conviction, bravery, and sheer pertness of the ancient Queen Pellas herself actually walks alive again under the Sun, not as a ghost, not as a statue or graven image, but as a living woman.”

“I remember that Astrena of Pellias mentioned this Queen,” said Derek. “How do you know of her?”

“The Pellians, long ago, were sprung from the loins of Iscandarians. Queen Pellas actually lent her name to the whole race. It is said that she had the blood of two worlds flowing in her veins; the Royal blood of Iscandar, and humble yet high-born blood from your Terra…where she was born…millennia ago.”

“Your Majesty!” Nova said, shocked.

Derek then said, “Are you saying…that someone of the ancient Iscandarian race was actually born on Earth?”

“Why be so surprised? You helped the one known as Star Wakefield spring from the loins of the Princess Sasha on Terra,” said the King. “In my dream, I was privileged to behold a glimpse of thee in the recent past as you lay back in your bed naked and bare after giving them birth, yet as stately as a Queen, after your children had just sprung from thy loins and you were giving them thy breasts. They are Alexander and Ariel…am I right?”

“They are,” Nova said, awed. “And it seems everyone is saying…I look like someone else. Queen Starsha herself mistook me for her departed sister Astra when we met…”

“The High Blood is so written in thy very face, long limbs, and slender yet strong build that it is easy for anyone to make that mistake. And, I met the first Princess Astra once, myself, as an envoy, when she came here in stealth once when Desslok’s determination to destroy thy world was great. If Princess had lived and she had been guiding you…you may well have stopped here years ago. As it was, Starsha had to give you a straight course. We had just begun to suffer from Gamilon aggression when two of our space shots were shot down, at a time when Troughton later said you involuntarily engaged Desslok’s very forces on Gamilon. Then, the attacks stopped. Astra...that sweet yet pert Princess who was also a gifted scientist; I remember her well. You do look just like her,” said King Roland. “Now, touching as to why I wished to see you two….you know I dreamt of you. Indeed, you both have haunted my dreams. The dreams told me that you would be coming my way, both coming and going, from Gamilon and Iscandar. First, I have a bit of background on Queen Pellas for you. The Pellians told you of her?”

“They spoke of her years ago,” Derek said, thinking back in his mind as he remembered a scene that had unfolded years ago on dying Pellias itself in the cold;

January 14, 2202….

Aliscea was speaking to a group that included the Wildstars. Derek and Nova remembered her lecture well, especially these words:

“…Ekogaru demanded complete surrender. Our ancestors refused, and Ekogaru was branded a public enemy by what remained of the Rikashan government. In rage, this machine being, no longer human, turned upon his race then upon our race, decimating those of us who didn't join his "improved" priesthood. As for his citizenship as a Rikashan, he renounced his people, declared the Rikashans public enemies, and used powerful new thermonuclear missiles to reduce the homeworld of Rikasha into a burning desert all in one night." Aliscea paused again as images of genocide and then of a blazing planetary nuclear war raged across her screen. In one night, the once blue world of Rikasha became a burning desert that made what Gamilon did to Earth seem almost tame by comparison.

"The remainder of us who didn't follow Ekogaru joined together as the Pellian Confederacy after our last Empress, Pellas. Queen Pellas fought a psionic battle with Ekogaru himself and his fleet and banished them to the black pit of the Blackeye Galaxy. Pellas died in the battle, but we, her followers and children, broke our links with the R'Khell, who had decided to remain in this galaxy, loyal to Ekogaru's cruel ethic. Then we left this galaxy to guard Ekogaru, not knowing that the defeated and exiled Dark Lord had left behind secret plans for his return with a few trusted R'Khell priests and priestesses who kept psionic contact with him, now worshipping him as a war god. We never dreamed that they would nurture the radiation-scarred survivors of the war on Rikasha into a new, cruel Rikashan Empire that worshipped Ekogaru as a god of War."

Aliscea paused again, showing the terrible origin of the Rikashans and R'Khells that the Gamilons and Terrans knew as enemies. "Never did we guess that Ekogaru and his few survivors would, bit by bit, person by person, send emissaries deep into our galaxy to rally worlds to his cause. Never, either did we guess that within the dark clouds of the Blackeye Galaxy Ekogaru would be building his means of escape from the exile that bound him to near the black hole at the center of the Blackeye Galaxy, while also building our destruction."

“Queen Pellas defeated Ekogaru, long, long ago,” said King Roland. “She came the closest to destroying him that anyone ever has…with the exception of Aliscea, your Black Dagger, and you, Nova, the image of a Queen walking under the skies of many worlds yet again, o traveller. The message I took from the dream?” said Roland as he coughed and drew Derek and Nova close.

He looked at them and said, “Nova, you are bound to pass through many tests. Stay true. Remain pure, untainted by pride, hatred, jealousy. You are very young, and you and the Commodore have already seen much. Yet, your hour has just begun. We have faith in you, and I bless you, and I bless Derek,” he said as he placed his hands on their hands. “The Blessing of a King here is no small thing. And I give you gifts. General, make sure Nova receives the box with the warm-weather shore hats, fans and matching sandals inside, and the pictures. If I may ask, Nova, please dress for the seashore and wear the hat when I see you pass this way again in a few days if you survive what is about to befall you…”

“If I survive what is about to befall me?” Nova said.

The King said, “In my dream, I saw you surviving several tests, trials, and even battles. More battle is coming soon. When you return, please come back singing a cheerful song… and please bring some sunshine, seashells and sand into my sickroom along with  your brave warrior mate, you both in just your bronzed, naked skin fresh from the beach and your two little laughing toddler children that I dreamed of. Do that, and I will break our ancient law as you wish, and you may bring your friend Hegen and his mate Fela, a beautiful Ralkhen grown great with child, into my very presence in the Palace so I may bless them as I blessed thee before they go to your Earth. For, I foresee that they shall follow you since you have thought kindly of them, and since Nova defended Hegen with her very body and touch a while ago.”

“They’ll follow us?” said Derek.

“You know of what I did for Hegen?” Nova said.

“We all do,” said the King. “From you, it is a sign. Troughton. Take them and Hegen and Fela to the ancient ruins of the Royal Pellian Palace in the ruined city. They need to see those ruins before they leave Meccaner. Then, I believe they shall understand.”

Troughton saluted and said, “Of course, your Majesty. Let us go, now…”

Nova and Derek rose, and bowed before the old King. Then, they left.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Outside, Hegen drove them to his small bungalow, first. The Wildstars and Hegen went inside, this time, while Troughton remained outside.

When they were there, a young female Ralkhen, whom Derek and Nova noticed had black and brown fur trimmed in white, ginger, and orange, ran up to Hegen and elegantly kissed him, and then nuzzled him and licked him. The long-limbed, but heavily pregnant female Ralkhen wore only a green ribbon around her neck, and a mischievous look on her face. Nova noticed that the fur on her hands and feet also had a tortoise-shell pattern that went down to her fingers and toes, which were clad in different lovely colors of fur.

Hegen came up with his mate, and said, “This is Fela. As you can see, she is my spouse, and she’s expecting.”

“I assist Hegen in his work here part of the time, and I work as a cook part of the time,” she said, in a gentle, somewhat accented voice that almost sounded Australian. “We also have something of a bond formed…like yours,” she said quietly. “I know of the debt Hegen owes you both for rescuing him from disgrace, so I beg leave to come to Earth with you. I am also skilled in child care, and I pick up from your minds that you wished to hire a governess to assist you in your pregnancy, Nova…so if you’d take me…you have one.”

“Would you be following us now?” Derek asked. “We will be on Gamilon and Iscandar for a few days.”

Hegen and Fela looked at each other, and then Hegen said, “It will take us a few days to prepare our goods and the like to leave Mecanner, and even with the King’s blessing, we must get travel permits and papers to leave.”

“I see,” said Nova. She glanced at Derek, who nodded and said, “We have some friends living on our property in a small beach house. You two can have the lower floor of that beach house until we finish adding on to our main house…for our anticipated little ones. Then, you will live with us.”

“Thank you,” said Hegen.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

VI. A STAB IN THE BACK…

Planet Mecanner III

The Vilani Union

The City of Ploetsk

Thursday, April 27, 2209

1813 Hours: Earth Space-Time

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

While peaceful events went on in Beltane in the Rigelandian Union, on the other side on Mecanner, the night side, far from the Argo, other things were afoot.

“I tell you, this is madness!” said Mikhail Kailev, the Vilani Premier, as a meeting of his Politburo. A sad, female Ralkhen, standing there with her white fur matted and with a chain attached to her collar, bowed as she handed the Politburo members a drink like peppered vodka. Her keeper, a member of the Vilani Army, pushed her and then dragged the poor slave away on the end of her chain like a dog.

“Why is it madness?” said a voice accented somewhat like Kailev’s on a speaker. “You just fire the strategic armament at the Rigelandi in the middle of my attack! A quick nuclear first strike! Hit them with every missile you have. We will take care of the Argo, and you will have the mastery of Mecanner. Of course, you will then come under the protection of my Bolar Federation and then allow us to base our ships there along with those of the R’Khells. From there, we strike both Gamilon military and Earth targets along with destroying what remains of Pellian strength as we begin to press them to surrender.”

“You do not wish to mess with the Pellians, Admiral Naljinsky” said Kailev as his voice shook.

“Why not?” snapped the Bolar commander.

“They say the Matrix-Bearer is a terrible woman with great powers!” said Kailev. “She can fight us. They say that she has the power to kill all of us. And they whisper legends of her successor, yet in the shadows, being far more righteous and far worse…and some even say the current Pellian Reigning Queen will someday be replaced by the new High Queen, who, they say, will someday cause all of Pellias’ old enemies to kneel and kiss her feet before she sends them without remorse to their fates!”

“She, the Matrix-Bearer, is already accounted for!” snapped Naljinsky. “Or so the R’Khells tell me! The rest of it is claptrap. A mighty God of theirs just told the R’Khells that there will never be a Successor to the Matrix-Bearer; merely an upstart pretender who shall die with her ship before she is even anointed. And the rest is claptrap. We will eventually pillage Gamilon and drag the so-called Queen Astrena naked and in chains to Mecanner so you can spit on her, and when we behead her, that is the end of the last tiny, decayed remnant of the Pellian Royal Line. You will be greatly favored as members of the Bolar Federation, Kailev. Do this right and our Prime Minister may appoint you as the Planetary Governor of all of Mecanner. Are we clear?”

Kailev smiled and nodded. The Ralkhen female slave whimpered and meowed like a baby kit at his presence as he walked over to lewdly pet her.

“Kill that damned animal!” snapped Naljinsky over the speakers. “Keep its head. I want to see it stuffed and on a post at the Victory Banquet!”

Kailev clapped his hands, snapped, “Butcher that female beast! Damned KITTY!” Then, the Vilani soldiers dragged the poor Ralkhen girl away by her chain before she could react, unsheathe her claws, and spring at the Vilani Premier.

The Politburo laughed as Kailev called for planning books…and they began to look over targets to attack with their H-bombs in Rigelandian territory.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

On the Argo, Stephen Sandor had taken over as commanding officer, and he was currently receiving Sasha’s report that Aliscea was not responding to any hails.

“Sir, I called Aliscea over half an hour ago, and she refuses to respond to voice messages, psychic hails, and someone in their cabin hung up the phone when I called!”

“Hmmm,” said Sandor as he looked over Sasha’s radar results. “They seem to be an hour away. Have you tried psychically connecting to your Aunt down on Mecanner? Given Nova’s new…abilities…I think she could pick you up.”

“I have tried, but the Darkness around Mecanner is increasing.”

“Darkness, Sasha?” said Sandor.

“Psychic darkness!” she cried. “It is something from that approaching R’Khell fleet! It is a horrible, dark, terrible feeling! It’s….”

Sasha then looked at her radar. “Ten objects! They’ve warped in all around us!”

“Identify them!” said Sandor.

“Fleet identified as one heavy Bolar Federation space battleship; and nine Bolar battle cruisers!” Sasha snapped. “Range, nine point twenty-two megameters; speed….eighteen space knots and accelerating…”

Their intent became obvious a moment later as they began to fire upon the Argo, which immediately began to take hits.

Sandor ordered an immediate red alert and then he said to Dash, who was at Combat in Rosstowski’s place, “Dash, get those ships targeted ASAP!”

“Yessir,” said Dash.

Sandor ran to the Captain’s chair and snapped, “Engine room; you’re showing a fifty-thousand electrovolt energy drop! Report!”

“Two hits,” said Diane’s voice over a lot of static. “They got power cables controlling systems in the keel. Bridge Number Three is dead! Hoists, lighting, and the main hatch control for the Black Tigers’ main lower flight bay area dead! Keel thrusters out!”

“Get those systems back up pronto! Sasha!” cried Sandor.

“Yessir!” said Diane.

Finally, Dash was ready. “Captain, main guns ready!”

“You have permission to fire; get that battleship first!” Sandor said.

“Roger,” said Dash. “Main turrets one and two, FIRE!”

The Argo’s main guns spoke a moment later.

Two Bolar vessels were destroyed.

And, thus, the battle had begun.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Nova and Derek, in the meantime, were barefoot, and walking up a grassy hill into the ruins above Beltane.

Troughton acted as a tour guide as he pointed out some of the features of the ancient city of Mishana.

“This is Mishana, which was once the Pellian Royal Capital here centuries ago. It is said that Queen Pellas actually began the Pellian civilization here.

“We thought she began it on Pellias,” Derek said as they stopped to put their sandals back on. Then, they walked on, and entered the ruins.

They walked into a majestic, roofless hall from which birds flew as they walked along in the rubble and dirt on the ancient stone floor.

They went up some stairs to a broken stone dais that dominated the ruined pillared hall.

“This site is where Queen Pellas first reared the Crystal Throne, over three thousand years ago,” said Troughton. “Eventually, the Pellians moved on to their permanent home in the Blackeye Galaxy, where Queen Pellas died fighting Ekogaru. Her dead body later was brought back to Iscandar, but no one knows what became of it. Some of the Queens who succeeded Pellas returned here and used her ancient Palace as summer palace or resort of sorts. Our history records that the last of the Queens to visit Mecanner came here about two hundred and eight years ago to pray for wisdom as the Pellian Confederacy began to crumble from Ekogaru’s onslaughts. The Pellians began to leave Mecanner soon after that. Yet, they remained fond and mighty in memory here.”

“Why would that be?” Derek asked. “The Pellian civilization, you said, was somewhat elitist. Many of them exploited the Ralkhen, and many of them, you said, lorded it over those here.”

“Because of prophecies about a return of the Pellians someday after a great and terrible war,” said Troughton. “It was prophesied that someday, a great leader, a woman partly of Pellian blood and descent would return here, bind up the brokenhearted, begin to free the oppressed, and eventually defeat the Dark Lord Ekogaru. The legends say that a woman in white, with flame in her gaze, would come here and eventually begin to gain the ability to destroy the ancient foe of the Pellians and to bring an age of peace…”

Nova walked around the broken stone dais where the Crystal Throne once sat, and then, she came to a bronze statue of a woman.

The woman wore what looked like a flowing, tight, gossamer gown that hid almost nothing, with a cloak on over her bare shoulders. In her right hand, she held a sword that was partly driven into the rock the statue stood on, near one of her bronze bare feet, and her left hand was up in a gesture of warning as her bronze eyes stared out at the heavens as she either spoke-or screamed-with her mouth open, her face surrounded by shoulder-length hair that blew in some wind. There was a circlet about her brow, and the circlet had a single horn projecting upwards that seemed as if it had once held a gem.

“That was what Queen Pellas looked like at the height of her powers,” said Hegen as he looked on in awe.

Fela also stood in awe, and she began to weep slightly.

Derek looked at Nova as she looked up at the statue of the reverend Queen. A bit of the sun shone in her eyes, and tears ran down her cheeks as she looked up in awe.

What awed her was also what was obvious to everyone in the empty chamber of the ruined Palace.

Namely, Nova looked very much like Queen Pellas.

In fact, she could have been the very living image of the long-dead Queen and Mage cast in cold bronze.

“Why did you bring me here?” Nova said softly, to no one in particular.

“So you can see what we all can see,” Fela said as she wept happily. “All of us Ralkhen share a psionic bond…weak…but everyone here felt the same shiver go down their backs when Hegen first saw you…Lady.”

“Lady?” Nova said confused.

Derek said, “Darling, if all goes as planned…you are supposed to be receiving the Matrix on Iscandar…”

Fela shocked Nova by actually kissing her sandaled toes as she stroked her feet and said, “You are to pass through the Fire someday, and leave us. If you survive that ordeal at his hands, we prophesy that someday, you shall return here, and you shall rebuild much…and many things await you. You may be the One to finish what Queen Pellas started. Not her,” Fela said hotly. “Not that spiritual whore in black on your ship who thinks she is so high and mighty! She would have been in a position to do what you shall do had she remained true to her calling…and…she would have rebuilt that which Ekogaru had destroyed…”

“She’s that dangerous?” Nova said.

Fela nodded sadly.

“Thank you. We will…keep a watch on Aliscea…” said Nova.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

They left the ancient palace a few minutes later, and walked down the hill again.

Derek took off his shirt due to the heat, and smiled at Nova, who looked adorable laughing, talking to Fela, and running down the hill in her bare feet, carrying her sandals in her hand.

They reached a stream. Fela jumped into the stream to splash around. Troughton laughed and said, “She likes the water, Commodore Wildstar. Be warned.”

“So does Nova,” said Derek. “She may want to join her in a moment…”

“Derek, may I please join Fela?” Nova asked as she laughed and stuck a toe in the stream. “That stream looks so good for a swim right about now!”

“In the water? Sure! Just don’t take too long…we have to get back to the ship,” Derek said.

Nova kissed Derek and then, she blushed and pulled off her top and cast it aside, baring her breasts. The top was followed by her skirt as she stood completely naked at the water’s edge near Fela, Nova jumped in, and she and Fela both splashed each other and laughed in the water for a while.

“I see she loves the water like Fela,” said Hegen.

“She does,” said Derek as he lay in the sun with his shirt and sandals off while he let the warm sun dry his sweaty upper body off.

Nova came out of the water a minute later and she lay naked in the grass by Derek. He smiled at her and said, “Now what are you and Fela doing?”

“Sunning ourselves to dry off, silly,” Nova said as she blushed as she sat in the grass near her unclothed Ralkhen friend, wiggling her toes in the sun.

Fela looked at Nova and smiled. “Your bottom would look so cute with a tail on it! Has anyone told you that you look adorable in the nude?”

“Yes! My husband, my mother, some of our best friends, and my children,” Nova replied.

“What’s this about having a tail?” Derek asked.

Hegen said, “We Ralkhen have the power to morph humans temporarily so they can work with us. Fela could give you or Nova a tail like hers. However, it would last only about seventy-two hours…and because of where the tail comes out, a human running around with a tail has to have a bare bottom. A human who is given a tail usually is also given thickened footpads for that period of time so they can just go barefoot like us.”

“Sounds interesting,” Nova said. “But I’d have to have a good reason for wanting a tail…Derek, I’m dry now…let’s go.” She kissed him and began to dress.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

At the airfield, Derek and Nova were getting changed in their cockpits.

Derek pulled on his pants, shirt, boots, and gloves. With his helmet on, he ran up to Nova and said, “How far along are you?”

“Just getting hooked up,” Nova said as she sat there with her uniform on but unzipped, after taking off her blouse and skirt and then wiggling her nude body back into her Star Force uniform. She finished clothing her nakedness by zipping her suit shut just as an officer ran up.

“Commodore Wildstar! Commander Wildstar! We’ve gone to Defcon Two! Possible attack imminent! Do you need flight boots, ma’am?” he said to Nova, who sat there with her uniform legs rolled up. She decided not to hook up the EKG sensors, but she would still fly barefoot, since she did not have her boots with her (having been medically profiled out of them, of course) and she had also found that her sandals slipped against the pedals. There was a sense of urgency as she inserted her bare feet in the footwells of her plane. But, Derek smiled at her as she did so; despite the bit of danger in flying without a full spacesuit, he thought she looked so cute sitting barefoot in her cockpit. 

“Negative,” Nova said as she pulled on her gloves. “This bird has a pressurized cockpit, and I’ve flown various craft in my bare feet on flight tests and when flying search and rescue over water when I have to swim for it to help recover comrades. I’m fine like this.”

“Let’s pray to God you do not have to punch out in space in this!” Derek said. “Let’s get a move on!” When he got his helmet on, he heard klaxons on the Argo and the dull thump of an explosion.

“Damn! You’re under attack!?” Derek barked into his lip mike.

“Wildstar! Where are you and Nova?” Sandor snapped.

“On the tarmac in Beltane,” Nova said. As she flipped controls on her Super Starfighter, the Yukikaze’s radar and sensor readout came out, and Nova looked at it and yelled, “My God! Five bogies approaching us at supersonic speed-ETA one hundred seconds-profile resembles old Soviet 1960’s MiG fighter ships!”

“Which ones?” Derek asked over the mike as he spooled up his engine and shut his canopy.

“They look almost like MiG 15’s” Nova said over her mike as she shut her canopy. “Korean War vintage. I’m gonna feel almost bad shooting those antiques down and killing their pilots,” she sighed.

“Remember, they are after us,” Derek said. “Fly accordingly, Barefoot Ace!”

Nova smiled at that one and said, “I have two more to get to Ace Out in this plane and get six! I’ll go up first; as CO, you follow me up and then I’ll be your wingman.”

“Right,” said Derek as he watched Nova tapping at her helmet as she taxied forward. Flight Ops men with paddles directed her to the runway end as Derek began to taxi.

“Super Starfighter Zero-One Natsukaze, hold for takeoff. Yukikaze, you are cleared for takeoff,” said a ground controller over their headsets.

“GO!” Derek snapped over the headset to Nova.

Nova snapped back, “Roger that, Skipper…” and then, she took off.

Some kind of sense enabled her to dodge a burst of cannon fire that came at her from ahead at just 2000 feet. Nova looked up and said, “There you are, you poopyhead!”

Artwork: Nova’s Firefight on Mecanner III © 2011 by Freddo. All Rights Reserved

Nova got the Vilani pilot in her heads-up display and squeezed off a quick burst from the Yukikaze’s forward laser cannon. “Splash one! Skipper, you up yet?” Nova then gritted her teeth, and jammed one of her slender feet down hard on the metal rudder pedal in a blur to make her plane jink to starboard to dodge some enemy fire.

Derek’s plane was roaring up. “Affirmative! One of those bastards is after the base!”

“I’ll get it!” she cried after she snap-rolled…with a speed she had never had before, but Nova barely thought about it…then she destroyed the Vilani who had been shooting at her.

“No, we’ll get it!” Derek snapped after bringing down two of his own tormentors.

Both of them did a quick roll, and the Vilani pilot strafing the base screamed as both the young man and woman caught him in their cannons and blew him apart.

A moment later, a loud, blasting trumpeting sound came over Derek and Nova’s headsets.

“What’s that?” Nova snapped.

“R’Khell!” yelled Derek. “Nova, look up when we hit the edge of the atmosphere; R’Khell planes are coming! This is some kind of damn set-up! I think maybe the R’Khells have something to do with…”

A blip appeared on Nova’s radar. Diving out from a cloud, a Bolar plane plunged down on her.

Nova got it with a missile, but she cried, “Derek! The Bolars are in on this, too!”

“Oh, crap!” Commodore Wildstar snapped. “Sandor! Trying to raise you! Sandor! Respond! Argo! Respond! Over!”

The weird trumpeting noise came again as they reached the edge of space; and an ugly, bright-red R’Khell plane dived straight at Nova’s ship.

Nova felt her head slammed back by an unknown force…

…as an iron, invisible hand again went around her neck…

And, she heard the Voice of Ekogaru saying, “I’d like you to meet Gel’nats, you rotten, mentally diseased whore! This R’Khell, all in red, is one of my priests and assassins. As you can see, bitch, he is going to kill you. Would you like to know why we staged this attack?”

“Why, damn you?” Nova hissed.

“Nova?” cried Derek. “NOVA? Come in! Are you all right?”

“Trying…to…R’jkharraz…attacking me…” Nova hissed as she lifted her hand, and slowly began to break the psionic attack as her heart rate sped up while they roared into orbit over Mecanner.

Prior Gel’nats, the R’jkharraz attacking Nova, sat in his fighter in only a scarlet robe; he was also barefoot, but his body was smeared with the blood of a recent human sacrifice to his Dark Lord. Gel’nats was a Priest of Ekogaru’s and a psionic who was also a sorcerer, a murderer, and a sadist. He was shocked that the human was managing to fly her plane and resist him.

“Leftenant Dilvats, Hosss’KA!” he barked, making a hand gesture for a younger pilot to act as his wingman.

As Nova fought off the strangulation, the Matrix shot a sudden bit of knowledge into her mind; The kill switch in a R’Khell Fighter plane is behind the pilot. It is a handgrip they pull in case of an engine fire. Reach out with your mind, Nova, and give that thing a good tug…

“Roger that,” Nova said. She shut her eyes and reached out.

“Nova, who are you talking to? Nova?” said Derek.

A moment later, as Gel’nats lined up for the kill, he felt a kick, and the kill switch handle in his plane popped on its own.

His ship went dead.

“Why, you rotten little bitch,” he said in awe as he saw Nova’s plane doing a quick snap-turn and heading right for him.

He tried to restart his plane, but, it was too late as laser fire from Nova’s Super Starfighter raked his ship.

He blew apart screaming in a fireball.

Derek said, “Nova, are you all right? Respond!”

“Over, I’m okay…splashed one R’Khell, jinking over now….and…”

Nova had Dilvats lined up in her target scope. She smiled a little, and squeezed the trigger…

…but, she screamed as Dilvats fired first.

It was a dead-on hit. Nova felt her plane bucking as its nose was blown off, and then, it twisted and turned as more fire raked through it. Nova felt enemy laser bolts roaring past her bare lower legs as the cockpit was holed…and her atmosphere began to fly out into space. Filled with a sudden panic but also with a sudden inspiration, Nova shut her eyes and looked serene as light filled her cockpit…

…the cockpit, a moment later, blew apart, along with the rest of her Super Starfighter.

The Yukikaze exploded in a bright ball of light as Derek looked on in utter horror.

“NOVA!” he yelled as he gritted his teeth. “NOVA!”

There was no answer. Nova was not there.

Derek Wildstar cursed and shook as he realized that his lovely wife and one of his best officers had just, to all appearances, been killed in combat right before his eyes.

I didn’t even see her punch out, Derek thought in rage and despair. She didn’t even try to eject? Why not!??

“Nova! Come in!” roared Derek as he felt their psionic bond fading out slowly like a radio signal fading.

Then, as tears ran from his eyes, he realized that Nova was just as gone as her plane.

Sandor’s voice burst in a moment later through the jamming. “Wildstar? What’s wrong? I heard you screaming Nova’s name…”

“The enemy got her. Direct hit on her plane, Steve.”

“Did she…punch out?”

“No. She’s dead.”

“Look at the wreckage…can we…recover her body?” said Mark Venture as tears ran down his cheeks.

“The wreckage is in a lot of little pieces…so’s she, probably,” said Derek, glancing once at the remains of the Yukikaze, and not able to look again.

Derek gritted his teeth and cried as he flew. An image of the way Nova had looked in both one of her first and last appearances came into his mind; Nova at her medical work, slender body clad in a marigold scrub tunic, wearing matching yellow operating room sandals, and looking adorable in his mind as he realized he would never see her again.

“How am I gonna tell Alex and Ariel their Mommy is gone?” said Derek. “Venture, I should have never let her go! And she took my unborn son and daughter into the grave in space with her…” An instant later, another burst of static hit, and he was cut off from his talk with the Argo.

Then, Derek screamed in rage as laser bolts roared past him.

He turned his head; more R’Khells were coming.

Derek had hated the Gamilons once upon a time, and sometimes he still hated some of them. They had cost him his parents, and for a time, he thought they had cost him his brother.

He hated the R’Khells far, far more right now, since they had just killed his Angel, his Peppermint, the love of his life, and his best friend.

Derek had shared emotions and feelings and fears with Nova he had never shared with anyone else, not even Diane. And she had taken those secrets about him into the next world.

He had no time to mourn for now as he realized that the enemy was still shooting at him. In rage, realizing it was less than two minutes since Nova’s loss…he hissed, “God damn you fucking bastards! God DAMN you!”

Then, Derek went after the R’Khells like a deranged tiger, flying fast, pushing his plane hard, and hissing his hatred at the R’Khell pilots.

One died quickly as he shot a missile into the belly of his plane. “You’re the bastard who got her!” he yelled over his mike. “How do you like it in HELL?”

Then, Derek flew about, and aimed at a second R’Khell plane. He smiled a grim, tight smile, and he pumped fire into the plane.

The R’Khell ship began to explode, and its pilot punched out, his seat rocketing out of his ship.

Derek’s hands shook with rage as he got a bead on the enemy pilot, and shot at him with his cannon.

The R’Khell pilot blew in half-one half of him flying one way, the other half going the other way.

Derek lined up another shot on another plane, but, at that moment, his plane buffeted unexpectedly. It shook as if something had just hit it.

“What the hell is that, near-miss?” he roared.

Then, a blinding light filled the cockpit and the rear seat of the Natsukaze…

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

On the Argo, which was surrounded by Bolar and R’Khell ships that were blasting at her, things were looking very bleak.

“How are the engines holding up?” snapped Mark Venture.

Diane Sandor sat at her post at Engineering, nursing a bandaged hand.

“Port side auxiliary just blew. Without it, we can’t warp now,” said Diane.

“See if we can find a way to get it back up,” said Stephen Sandor from his post.

“Do we have a status on Wildstar?” snapped Venture.

“The blip that is his plane keeps on fading in and out on the radar….along with the remains of…Auntie’s plane…” said Sasha. “I’m…there’s a vessel approaching us at high speed from port!”

“Get its identity,” snapped Venture as he stood there with his head bowed.

“Scanning,” said Sasha. “Identity confirmed! She’s the EDF Space Patrol Cruiser Yunagi. The prototype vessel we were supposed to rendezvous with in the next day!”

“Her Captain is asking us if we require assistance,” said Wendy from Communications. “She appears to be in one hell of a rush!”

“Send Captain Nesmith our regards, and tell her we sure as hell do require her assistance!” snapped Venture. “Get her to flank our port side! We’ve taken a hell of a lot of damage! When can we launch the Black Tigers?”

“Two minutes,” said Stephen Sandor from his post.

“Main turret number two should be back up in forty seconds, sir,” said Dash from his post.

Paul Rosstowski stumbled onto the bridge. He looked dazed.

“Where the hell were you?” demanded Venture as he grabbed Paul by his shirt and shook him. “What the hell were you and Aliscea up to?”

“Business,” said Rosstowski.

“Business? Business?” said Venture. “We get into a major battle, and take thirty-one casualties, including ten dead…including Nova…and you call it business, you diseased son-of-a-bitch?” roared Mark.

“Nova bought it?” said Rosstowski, shocked. “Aliscea…said…nothing about that…nothing!”

Aliscea then appeared, a grinning, cold, vicious Dark Eminence, barefoot, but clad in pants, a half-open shirt, and a jacket with a black ribbon in her hair. She smelled of lovemaking, and she somehow managed to look both cute and repulsive at the same time. “I have a very good reason I said nothing about Nova’s death. I have a very good reason that I did nothing to prevent it!” Aliscea said coldly.

“And why the hell is that?” said Venture. “WHY?”

Aliscea smiled coldly and sat on the deck behind Eager’s post. “I suggest we wait and see. Everything shall soon be made clear…”

“Made clear?” demanded Venture.

Even Paul looked angry as Aliscea sat there, played with her hair and said, “Why don’t we just see what happens?”

“My God,” whispered Paul. “How cold and cruel you have become!”

“Is it cold? Or…is it mature?” said Aliscea.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The light faded, and, to Derek’s utter shock, Nova was sitting there in his cockpit, moving a leg, moaning a little, and rubbing her helmeted head, but very much alive and safe!

“Nova! Is that really…you?”

“Oh, the plane,” Nova said. “I…I punched out.”

“How did you not freeze your feet off in open space with no boots on?” Derek said, looking at her as she sat there with her legs apart, one bare foot on one panel…the other bare foot on the other. He ran a finger over the ball of her foot, and watched her toes curl as she said, “Derek, that tickles! We’re in combat, dearest!”

“How did you get out of that plane?”

“The Matrix told me. I concentrated a certain way, zapped myself in a teleport unharmed into the Astral Plane, and then I caught a mental bead on you through our bond and I phased back in here. I don’t know how Aliscea does it…it is nauseating and disorienting. Not pleasant at all! But a lifesaver…as we just discovered…do you mind having a Navigator?”

“Nova, if you can get your feet down safely, I would appreciate it!” Derek said in a shaky, broken voice as he cried happy tears as the audio from the Argo came up again.

He heard Venture saying, “We’re still getting hit and the Skipper’s talking to Nova while Aliscea sits there and laughs? He’s lost it, Sandor…poor guy…”

“Hullo?” Nova said shyly over the mike.

“What the hell?” said Venture. “Is she haunting us?”

“She is most definitely not haunting you,” said Aliscea as she grinned. “Hullo, my Apprentice. You sure took long enough? What the hell were you doing in the Astral Plane? Getting a new pedicure?”

“Not funny, Aliscea! I’m alive and in the plane with Derek,” Nova said. “I’m sort of hard to get rid of, and I’m fine. Or I will be when we get back aboard the ship!”

 “Oh, good, that means we can play poker later,” Aliscea said. “Five-card stud…”

“Aliscea, there are five Bolar planes converging on my radar to attack us, and you’re talking about poker?” Nova said as Derek flew hard, evading several missiles. “What is wrong with you?”

“Let’s make it strip poker?” Aliscea teased as she winked at Paul, who rolled up his eyes.

“Aliscea, get off the bridge!” Mark yelled. “You’re confined to quarters! This vessel is in combat, and you’re making no useful contribution whatsoever!”

“I’ll leave,” said Aliscea coldly. “Whether or not I shall remain…confined to quarters…is another issue altogether!”

At that, she vanished.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

SIX MINUTES LATER….

Derek and Nova finally shot down the remaining wave of R’Khell fighters.

With the lower landing bay back on line once Sandor’s damage control team restored power, the Natsukaze finally made an almost anti-climactic landing back aboard the Argo at 1935 Hours.

After Derek brought the plane to a stop, he pulled off his helmet and gloves and helped Nova sit on an edge of the wing as he handed her a data padd and said, “Fill out this quick incident report on the loss of the Yukikaze and then check Block Fifteen to request to be assigned a new fighter. I’ll see about having Sandor assign you one of the spare Tigers under repair so you can have a new recon-pod equipped Tiger in a day or two.”

“Yessir,” Nova said as she sat smartly on Derek’s Super Starfighter’s wing brushing out her hair, and swinging her bare feet as she filled out the report. When she was done, she smiled a little as Aliscea came up. “Aren’t you cold running around down here like that?” asked Nova as the young Pellian woman came up as Hardy and Deke watched, along with the other pilots, all wondering how the heck Nova was alive and unscathed after everything that had happened.

“I’m fine,” said Aliscea as she came up to Nova, jumped up on the wing beside her, and unexpectedly gave her a kiss on the cheek.

“What?” said a shocked Nova.

“That was for learning how to teleport so quickly,” said Aliscea as Derek came up.

“And?” Nova said.

Then, Aliscea slapped her across the face.

“What the hell was that for?” yelled Nova.

“That was for making such a hash job out of it, you stupid half-breed Terran!” cried Aliscea.

“Lieutenant Commander Rosstowski, you are to cut that out now! You are on report as of now for striking a superior officer!” Derek snapped before Nova could do anything else, defusing the situation slightly. He had caught the look in his wife’s eye and had read her enraged thought. Nova had been about two seconds away from using her new-found power to see how deep a dent Aliscea would leave in a bulkhead if she used her mind to throw her against it. Thus, the psi-fight that seemed to be brewing between the two increasingly antagonistic young women was stopped. For now.  

“Superior officer?” hissed Aliscea.

“If you forget, I am a full Commander,” Nova said. “Now get on that deck and give me twenty pushups before Derek confines you to quarters like I just picked up from his mind he intends to do! This has gone far enough! We are not running a cadet play ship here!”

“I…” said Aliscea.

“She gave you an order!” Derek snapped. “DO it!”

Glaring hatred at Derek and Nova, Aliscea assumed the position and did twenty pushups.

With that done, Derek said, “You’re dismissed.” He noticed that Hardy must have called some Marines, because Knox and two other Marines appeared. “Take this allied crewmember to her quarters and confine her there, Knox.”

“Could I confine myself in there with her since I can’t have you?” said Vic Knox with a wink and a leer, and a little “know what I mean?” elbow nudge to Nova. Despite their razzing, he was growing to like the feisty young officer and mother of three, and Nova, in her way, was growing to sort of like the late Sergeant Knox’s cousin.

“Permission denied,” Nova said tartly. “You are to remain outside her cabin, Sergeant!”

“Oh, well, we tried, Miss Aliscea!” laughed Knox.

“Be quiet, you quasi-human pig!” snapped Aliscea.

“Shut the hell up, or I might ask my boys to be rough!” growled Knox. “Commander Wildstar’s mouth is kinda cute. You’re a Goddamn bitch!”

 “You’re a stinking wad of human waste!” snapped Aliscea at Knox as she spat on him. “Inferiors! You Terrans are all fucking inferiors!”

“Lieutenant Commander Rosstowski, shut up!” roared Derek. “No profanity from you on the flight deck! You are now under shipboard arrest! Take her away! Knox…chuck her in the brig if she causes you any more trouble. My direct orders; I’ll take full responsibility!”

“With pleasure, Skipper!” said Knox with an eager salute and a big grin. “Boys, move her butt out of here!”

One of Knox’s men handcuffed Aliscea and gave her a shove. “This will be reported to my mother and to Desslok, who is, you recall, my stepfather?” she snapped. “You’ll be lucky if Gamilon does not resume its war with you for this insult!”

After Aliscea was taken away, Hardy came up behind Nova and said, “Hey, dohn’t take what she says to heart! If somethin; evah happened to you, you’d be the gal we’d all miss and we’d have a big drunken wake for ya! Not heh!”

“You’re a good officer, Nova…I’d say you’re about irreplaceable,” said Deke.

“We see you walking around here in the morning, even with your kids, well, Skipper, a smile from her lights up our whole day,” said another Black Tiger pilot.

“Thanks, guys,” Nova said with a sniff.

“C’mon, let’s get to the bridge,” Derek said as he grabbed her shoulder and gave her a rough hug that was both a hug from a comrade and a hug from her lover and husband. “We still have a battle to fight, Nova. Don’t let anything she said get to you.”

“Half-breed,” Nova said angrily as she wiped her eyes. “Aliscea, how far you have fallen. Now you’re a racist piece of garbage!” Her sobs filled the corridor as Derek gently ushered her away.

“She’s taking that one hard,” said Deke.

“Not the first time, bro,” sighed Brew as he grabbed Deke’s shoulder. “Some jackasses once caught us playin’ Spin the Bottle back in Boulder when we were twelve. They threatened both of us and yelled the ‘N’ word at us several times when they found out we had kissed and giggled durin’ the game.”

“So, what happened…Toad?” grinned Deke.

“Hell, I kicked their butts for Peppermint’s honuh!” said Brew. “She helped me do it, too. First time I ever saw a girl fist-fightin’ with a boy! I was impressed! And her butt looked so cute in her little shorts under her sailor top, and she had these little white sandals on…she looked cute but deadly at twelve!”

“Sounds like my sister who died in the Gamilon planet bombings,” said another pilot.

“What if the Gamilons start it up again?” said another pilot.

“We took those bastards before, we’ll do it again,” said Deke. “Something tells me this alliance isn’t gonna last!”

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

When the Captain and Nova finally returned to the First Bridge, the Argo was still in battle.

Her guns were blasting at Bolar vessels as Dash sat at Combat, with Paul Rosstowski demoted down to Artillery.

Finally, after a moment, Sasha said, “Look…they’re pulling back!”

“Are they retreatin’ or regroupin?” asked Eager.

“My guess is that they’re regrouping,” Nova said as she looked over Sasha’s shoulder, standing up on her still-bare toes to do so. “They have only three heavy battleships left…”

In the meantime, Derek received a quick rundown of the situation from Mark, including Paul and Aliscea’s strange behavior, (some of which Nova backed up by probing the recent past with her mind with Sasha’s help, which was how they came to learn what Paul and Aliscea had been doing in their cabin while being ordered to their posts-a security camera would later back that up) and Derek said, “Yeah…what a mess.”

“Him, we can punish,” said Mark in a whisper as he pointed at Paul. “But Aliscea?”

“She’s confined to quarters under a Marine guard,” Nova said.

“And I’ll do the same with him,” Derek said. “Mister Rosstowski, you stand relieved! Return to your quarters under temporary confinement! I may allow you to return to duty later tonight after a preliminary hearing pending court-martial proceedings! Dash, assume his post…I’m taking over at Combat.”

“Yessir,” said Paul, crestfallen. He left the Bridge.

Derek looked around the bridge. “Mrs. Glitchman, send a coded burst to Gamilon apprising them of the situation in battle and appraising Desslok and Astrena that Aliscea is under arrest and being held on lawful charges of refusing lawful orders, dereliction of duty, gross violation of Personal Relationship Protocol Regulations in an on-duty period, striking a superior officer before witnesses, and making racist comments. Advise them that Paul will be held under similar charges; requesting legal advice of Astrena as Ruling Queen and Steward of Pellias and Empress of Gamilon for proper handling of situation given Aliscea’s unique status as both a Pellian religious and diplomatic figure and officer and an attached EDF Officer.”

“Yessir,” said Wendy.

Derek looked over the bridge. All posts manned, he thought, except…

“Diane,” said Derek. “How are you doing at Engineering?”

“Fine, sir. My hand hurts, sir.”

“Where’s Tim Orion?”

“Trying to get that auxiliary engine fixed, sir…” said Diane as she grimaced.

“Diane; you’re relieved, go to Sickbay,” Derek snapped. “Good job, though; I’ll see to it that you are recognized for your efforts in this battle. Nova, you were cross-trained to handle every bridge post in 2199, along with myself, Mark, and Steve. Take over at Engineering…I know you’re rusty at it, but I need that station filled fast and you’re my go-to girl. Keep our power levels up!” he snapped as he gave Nova a quick pat on the tush.

“Yessir,” said Nova as she saluted and took Diane’s post. “Wave engine energy level’s currently sixty-one percent.”

“Get it up to sixty-five percent and give us some maneuvering reserve. Venture, this will be only about the fourth time Nova’s filled old Orion’s shoes, so don’t go calling her “idiot”, huh?” he said with a wink.

“Sure,” said Mark.

“Considering I’m not even wearing shoes, this will be quite a feat,” Nova said as Eager groaned.

“Damn, Nova, your puns are gettin’ as bad as mine…” he said.

“Enemy fleet regrouped! But they aren’t doing anything!” said Sasha.

“Message from the lead Bolar space battleship!” snapped Wendy from her post.

“Put it up on video,” said Derek.

The main screen came up a moment later.

A short-haired, grim looking Bolar officer appeared on the main screen. “Are you the infamous Commodore Derek Wildstar?” he said in a flat, nasal voice.

“I am,” Derek replied. “And who are you?”

“Admiral Pitor Gramonski, Commander Bolar Federation Special Forces Fleet Sixty-Six. We were sent here in a joint operation with R’Khell forces led by my counterpart, R’Khell Priest Commandant Bremen. Unfortunately, Bremen is no longer alive. You saw to that, you band of sociopaths.”

“I’m delighted that you think so highly of us,” Derek said sarcastically. “What do you want?”

“Your surrender, your warship as a prize, and, finally, your consent to be incarcerated in a concentration camp until you all freeze to death. Our homeworld is very cold and icy and quite bleak. I do not think you would like it there.”

“What else do you want?” Derek snapped.

“I am willing to waive the request of our Prime Minister that you be frozen in our gulag system on one condition. Stand down and let us initiate a nuclear first strike on the nation-state of the Rigelandian Union through our clients in the Vilani Union, and you are free to leave once you take an oath not to aid any survivors and that you recognize that this planet is now Bolar Federation territory. Will you do this?”

“I refuse,” said Derek.

“Then, you pay the consequences of your rotten meddling! Higar! Order the Vilani to commence operations!”

“Yessir,” said a voice off-screen as the message from the Bolar space battleship faded.

A moment later, Sasha cried, “I’m reading multiple missile launches from the northeastern continent! Profile is consistent with heavy ICBM’s!”

“SHIT!” Derek hissed. “Dash, ready smokestack counterattack tracking missiles! Activate all nuclear warheads! Ready two waves! Wave one, for the enemy missiles-place the warheads on independent MIRV bus firing mode. Sasha, how many enemy missiles do you read?”

“Thirty, sir!” Sasha said.

“Good. We have thirty warheads in wave one; that’ll bring them down. Ready second wave if more missiles are fired. Then we’ve got this fleet to deal with, and I have no time for them, so…”

 “Firing first wave of missiles,” said Dash as the Argo’s smokestack missiles fired.

After the first wave went off, a moment later, the enemy ICBM’s began to explode in orbit before they ever reached their targets.

Sasha then cried, “Object approaching the Argo at high speed; small space capsule; life readings indicate…one pilot!”

The main screen changed, and they saw a small ship approaching at high speed that looked like an old Soviet Vostok manned capsule. Except that it had a service module of some kind, and a rocket blasting her towards the Argo at high speed.

The small ship slammed into the Argo’s starboard side and exploded.

“Minimal damage to the ship,” said Sandor grimly. “We have a small fire going on fourth deck around Frame 130 with four casualties.”

“But that enemy astronaut—or should that be cosmonaut? He just threw away his life for no reason in a primitive liquid-fuelled ship!” Nova cried. “Derek, when is this going to end?”

“Soon. How’s our engine power?”

“Sixty-nine percent,” Nova said.

“Hold for action at my signal,” Derek said.

“Second manned space capsule coming in,” said Sasha. “Roaring past our bow…looks like it’s coming around…”

The ship blasted past the Argo’s bow, where the mighty space battleship evaded the attack by turning about and following it. A single shot from a counterattack missile nudged it into a lower orbit that it could not recover from. The cosmonaut would survive and re-enter the atmosphere of Mecanner just hours later….over Rigelandian territory, since he knew that if he had landed over his own peoples’ territory after his failure to destroy the invading space battleship or die in the attempt like his comrade, he would have been shot.

“Nothing else coming from the planet,” said Sasha. “The Bolar fleet is heading in slowly; right towards us.”

“Wendy, order the Yunagi out of the area; they did great work. Nova, stop all engines.”

“Stopping all engines,” Nova said, pretty sure of what Derek was going to do next when he gave that order.

“Nova…Transfer all energy to the wave motion gun,” Derek said.

“Roger that!” Nova said.

The hum of the gun’s charging began as Derek snapped, “Target Scope, OPEN! Electric cross gauge at brightness level eight! Venture, give helm control over to me!”

“Yessir,” said Mark.

“Target, range, fifty megameters off the bow, speed, twenty space knots!” Sasha said.

“Energy level now eighty percent,” Nova said from Engineering.

“Two minutes to firing; all hands ready anti-shock and anti-flash defenses!” Derek said.

The goggles came out, and they went on.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Admiral Gramonski said from his Bolar flagship, the Demaldesht, “They’ve stopped. Idiots! Are they preparing to surrender?” he said.

“Not sure of their intentions, Comrade,” said one of his helmeted officers.

“Bunch of cursed, shit-eating idiots from primitive backwater planet filled with maggots,” hissed Gramonski. “Uncultured fools. Ready final attack; we will have to just destroy them,” he sang. “They are just like those filthy naked cat-people down there on Mecanna; they can’t be reasoned with! After we finish this business and claim this world, I want every one of those filthy furry beasts enslaved and sold to the R’Khells for their purposes for their bizarre God. I hear they make good eating once those things are slaughtered, butchered, and cooked in a borscht sauce!”

“Yessir,” said his XO as the battleship sped up.

Now we have you, idiots, thought Gramonski as he smiled.

He had never bothered to read his intel briefings on the weapons systems of EDF vessels. Gramonski thought that EDF vessels were useless garbage inferior to Bolar technology.

Had he done so…this battle might have turned out differently, but…

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“Energy level one hundred percent!” Nova cried from her post as the wave motion gun’s hum began to build up to a scream.

“Enemy  fleet: Range, ten megameters,” said Sasha. She gasped as they began to fire at the Argo. Most of the shots went wide. A few hit.

“Thirty seconds to firing! Release final safety lock!” said Derek.

“Safety lock open!” said Sandor.

“Energy level at one hundred and twenty percent!” Nova cried.

“Ten seconds to firing!” Derek said. “Ten…nine…eight….”

“First wave of missiles hitting!” said Sasha.

Derek ignored the damage as he counted down and said, “…five…four…three…two…one…ZERO! FIRE!”

Then, he fired the wave motion gun.

The effect was the usual.

A cataract of energy roared from the Argo’s bow.

It hit Gramonski’s flagship dead-on. It blew apart.

The beautiful flame of fire ran over the whole Bolar fleet, which blew apart.

On the port side observation deck, Teri Forrester stood in shock as she looked out the windows at the destruction.

“Mommy…that’s so cool!” yelled David.

“Pwetty,” gurgled Ariel in her arms as she looked out at the expanding firestorm. “Daddy did that!” she said with her eyes full of knowledge. “Mommy helped!”

“Daddy made stuff go BOOOOMMM!” yelled Alex as he giggled. “Bigger than Poopy!”

“Dat’s right, Poopyhead!” laughed Knox as he tousled the hair of Derek and Nova’s son. “Your dad’s got some big guns! Hooolllleee shit!”

“Don’t curse like that around these babies,” said Teri as she pulled Aurora close to her.

“Pwetttyyy!” said Ariel.

“What’s pretty?” sniffed Teri Forrester. “Destruction?”

“No, pretty star appearing in sky! Big new star!” said Ariel as she jumped up and down on her little sandaled feet in her pink sailor dress.

“What the fuck is that?” said one of the Marines as he gazed at the bright star that had come from nowhere.

“Face in the sky?” said Ariel as something faded into existence.

Teri Forrester looked down at herself, and gasped as she began to gleam slightly. So did her children, so did Karl, and so did Alex and Ariel!

Then, a moment later, an overwhelming gleam filled the Argo….

As Trelaina of Telezart appeared out of nowhere in the middle of space!

“Pretty lady!” screamed Ariel. “She lights up like Awiel! Googleplex cool!”

“Isn’t she cold?” said Aurora. “My God, she’s so beautiful!”

“She’s nekkie!” yelled Alex, pointing out the obvious; the beautiful phantom of Trelaina was indeed naked. She was also gleaming with a supernatural Light, and the Argo was soon covered with the same light in glimmers.

To their shock, on the First Bridge, Nova and Sasha were soon covered with the same Light over their bodies and clothing…and a little of the Light also covered Derek.

In her cabin, Invidia stood and rapidly Changed to Katrina, trembling as she was covered with the same Light and heard the Voice of Trelaina.

Finally, Aliscea burned dimly with some of the Light, which faded and brightened like a will-o-the-wisp.

“My friends from Earth, I address you as a Plenipotentiary of a Great Power far above my own!” said Trelaina. “I have been sent with great tidings for Mecanner! Today, they have seen what evil exists out in the Sea of Stars. Evil which all of you on the Argo are aware of. Evil that some of you have been Awakened to fight. I stand above this Evil, until the End, since this Is and Is Not my fight. It is my fight because I concern myself with the Cosmos that is as one of my many cares. It is not my Fight because I will not carry it on in the Cosmos where you live, work, play, make love, have children, weep, and laugh. That is your task. I cannot directly intervene until when it is close to the hour when many shall mourn and weep when the Dark Lord is close to accomplishing his ends. A Great Battle will happen. I have been shown much of what must be, but the results of the Great Battle are veiled from my sight…except for one thing…it is only then I will be allowed to intervene…directly.”

“In what sense will you intervene?’ asked Derek.

“That is hidden from me, Derek Michael Wildstar,” said Trelaina. “It has been given to me that I shall see some of you again…on Iscandar…in another Place.”

“And where is that?” Sasha asked.

“You know where,” said Trelaina. “In time, Starsha shall explain it to your Aunt, who is now an Apprentice in our Order,” said Trelaina as she looked down at Nova. “What a gift you have been given, my friend. And what a terrible responsibility…I cannot walk among men on your Earth…Mark, you know that. But Nova…you are the one who must walk in both Earth and Sky. Your destiny is a strange one. Stranger than mine. Yet, you have a Grace I have not been granted at this Time. Except for the day you Pass through the Fire…you will not walk your strange path alone. Cherish the Companion you have been given. For Derek’s heart beats in tandem with yours…”

Nova bowed her head as Derek held her hand. She had no idea of what to make of this.

“Now, I must depart,” said Trelaina. “I know all of you on Mecanner are shocked at this, and I know all of you can now hear my voice!”

Indeed, on Mecanner, Trelaina could be heard everywhere…her Voice coming from the sky itself. The part of Meccaner that faced the Argo’s location could see Trelaina hanging gleaming in the Cosmos.

She continued with, “People of Mecanner. There are great Powers in this Cosmos. Unknown and unseen. I am a small part of a far Greater Life Force. As Earth must live to fulfill its destiny, so must you. You must become united. There will be no more bloodshed between you as Nation-States! You almost had your Fourth World War today. This one would have destroyed you had the Star Force not intervened. You can no longer fight as nation-states, and petty discrimination of others must come to its end. Soon, I will send a Messenger of mine who will tell you what your differing peoples must do for each other. Also, as of today, your Governments shall begin to act as one. Earth’s Governments joined as One to fight the Gamilons. You must now do the same against the Dark Lord Ekogaru and his Allies. This charge I give you as an Order. I also inform you that the prayer of many of you shall be granted. You will eventually be the First Planet of the Nov’Pellia’Ne…the New Pellian Confederacy. Therefore, in the Name of the Reigning Queen Astrena, and in the name of the Great High Queen who will reign but not necessarily always rule from a restored Crystal Throne someday as successor of Astrena, of Whom she is aware…I rename Mecanner, which you call Tierre, Nov’Pellia, or…”New Pellias”! Someday, if we all survive through the Fire… your world will experience a Time of Wealth, Blessing, and Prosperity that will make it one of the Crown Jewels of the Universe…as what was Lost when Ekogaru arose again and escaped from his prison in the Blackeye Galaxy is now restored! I repeat my charge! Today, the bloodshed and oppression immediately ceases! I will permit it no longer ! I say this in My name, the Name of Him who is far Above Me, and in the name of Queen Astrena, and in the Name of the High Queen who shall return to you someday!”

At that, Trelaina nodded and said, “My last word is for you, Mark Venture…”

“Trelaina…you know I’m married to Holly…but…but…will I ever see you again?” he asked.

“You will, Mark. My Mark. Someday…we will meet again…”

At that, Trelaina went dark, bowed, and faded back into the Cosmos.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Those on newly renamed New Pellias stood in shock and awe as bells began to ring in houses of worship (they were not called churches there, but were mostly called “Temples”) across the Rigelandian Union. Soon, in shock for the Socialist Leadership of Vilani, as people began to gather in the great Square of their Capital, the statues of the leaders of the Revolution began to come down in a single hour, and the long-silenced Temple bells of the atheistic Vilani Union began to peal solemnly as, across the land, people just began to tear down the Red Flag of the Party, the Red Star, and other such symbols.

In the light of Trelaina’s Declaration…no one dared raise a hand against the new wave of Freedom suddenly rising across the whole planet.

And, on New Pellias, King Roland V was receiving a call on the Hot Line from Prime Minister Kailev from his Capitol.

He was weeping, and saying, “You heard that, Your Majesty?”

“Yes, I have heard,” said King Roland.

“It looks as if I must find a new line of work. Especially since I see the Icons outside.”

“Icons?” said the King. “You banned those years ago.”

“My Predecessor did. Not I. I cannot stop it!” yelled Kailev. “There are two faces on the Icons. The native people…the full humans among us…are holding up Icons of that…goddess…the blond one…the naked one….”

“Who’s on the other Icon?”

“The Rahlkens are holding up those. I do not understand this…it’s a girl with short, darker blond hair…looks like an Earth girl who appeared briefly in the intelligence reports….why are they singing…what sounds like…a hymn to the Earth Girl as their “Defender?” makes no sense…”

“They share a gestalt…across the whole planet,” said King Roland as his eyes filled with tears. “And I think they know something we don’t!”

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

At 2130, after the battle, Nova had felt a bit dizzy, so she asked to take Sick Call and head to Sickbay…as she tried to deal with what had happened.

Nova had no idea what had been going on…so…she was trying not to think about it.

Derek had heard a rumor about the Rahlkens’ Icons. He decided he was better off not telling Nova about it now. And something told him she didn’t know about it…yet.

Since it was near the end of her four-hour watch, Derek allowed it, and he gave command of the ship to Sandor and went down below to Sickbay with her.

On the examining table, stripped naked for her exam, Nova shivered a little as Doctor Sane took an ultrasound.

“Well?” said Derek.

“The babies are fine. One definitely is implanted a bit above the other,” said Sane.

 “That’s Abraham,” said Nova. “The boy. The girl, whom we agreed will be named Anastasia, is carrying and implanted lower in my womb,” she said, pointing at her bare stomach with her eyes closed.

“I see something here that worries me a little,” said Sane. “Nova, act like you’re doing a stress test in later pregnancy, and stimulate your nipple a bit. Derek, please stand ready to stimulate here a little more if needed, but be ready to stop…”

Derek held Nova’s hand as Nova shut her eyes and did as asked, gasping a little as her bare toes curled at the end of the bed. “What’s wrong, Doc?” Derek asked.

“Hmmm….sign of a slight contraction there,” said Sane. “The placental attachment of the fetus, really, the blastocyst, she feels will be a boy, is a little thinner than is good…pregnancy’s not really in danger, but we have to take some more care this time. She’s going to need a mild drug, taken daily and a bit more rest. And, those sugars have to be checked…”

Dawn came in a moment later with a clipboard. “The results of her blood work, Doctor…”

Sane looked at them and shook his head. “This makes it official. Nova, you are no longer borderline gestationally diabetic…you are diabetic.”

“Oh, no,” Nova sighed.

“How bad is it?” Derek asked.

“What’s worrying me is that with your hormone mix, for some reason, you are developing this condition in about the fifth week of your pregnancy,” said Sane. “It does not normally present until about Week Twenty. Your hormonal mix is a bit different because as well as having the risk factors of being over twenty-five, and being part Asian with a small amount of Native American blood from your gene markers, you also have the additional genetics of a Pellian and an Iscandarian popping up. Your very genes seem to be switching out a bit, so, it is possible by the latter part of this pregnancy that you may level out and get better. But, to be sure you and the babies suffer no harm, you are going on a standard diet regimen which I know that you know because you have prescribed it to other patients, and you will be taking a small amount of insulin at mealtime…with your slender build, the best place to inject it would probably be your thigh or buttock…since I know that you spend some time in the nude caring for the kids with their baths and nursing them before your meal periods, that would be a good time to take your shots before you eat. I have a pen syringe I can prescribe for you…and I know that you know how to…”

“Doctor,” Nova said. “I. Hate. Needles. Okay, maybe it’s necessary, but…”

“Turn over on your side for a minute and show us your tush…” said Sane as he nodded to Dawn. “Shut your eyes…”

“What are you doing?” Nova asked.

“Wildstar, watch how I do this,” said Sane. “You pinch her flesh up a little, like this…wipe the site with rubbing alcohol like this…”

“Right,” said Derek.

“If you inject me, Derek, I won’t make you ice cream sundaes for a week,” Nova threatened.

“Oh, you be quiet,” Sane snapped. “Derek, it goes in her like this…stop looking at me as if I am hurting the best friend you have…”

“She is the best friend I have, Doc! How would you feel if you had to do this to Kei Stuart?”

“I’d do it if it was medically necessary,” snapped Sane. “Now, do it!”

“You cold-hearted son of a bitch,” Derek muttered.

At that, he injected Nova for the first time in his life as tears ran down her cheeks at the sting of the needle…which passed remarkably quickly.

“It’s over?” Nova whimpered as she took some hard, deep breaths. In her very vulnerable-looking nakedness, they could see her rib cage showing in sharp relief with each breath.

Derek nodded and kissed her.

“Thanks for being quick,” she said. Nova kissed him back.

 “Now, sit up,” said Sane.

Nova did so as Sane squeezed her wrists and ankles. “Water retention; and it’s showing up early. All right…you can put your uniform back on,” he said as he handed it to her…but handed her boots to Derek. “Except for these, which are to be put near her station so she can dress in space gear if needed. With the mild retention in your ankle and foot, down to here…and the circulation issues…you are either going to go barefoot or wear a backless sandal that keeps you as close to barefoot as possible for the rest of your pregnancy…I’d recommend a nice, comfortable slide or thongs…you’re profiled…so even if you have to wear a dress uniform sandal, no back on it, and unless it suddenly gets cold, keep your toes as uncovered as possible, too.” 

Nova smiled a little at that. Derek smiled at her as she put her uniform on over herself, and carefully rolled up her tights just below the knees, firmly but loosely. Then, Derek found her kitchen clogs, and gently slipped the open-toed shoes onto her bare feet.

As it turned out, given the continuing strange weather on Earth, and what would turn out to be her personal preference in the warmth, Nova would spend the next sixteen months of her life either barefoot or in sandals, not putting boots on again until early September of 2210 when she would reactivate her pilots’ license as it began to get cooler again at last. In the meantime, Nova certainly didn’t mind, since she loved having her toes exposed…and neither did Derek.

Then Nova stood up. “How do I look?” she said as she wriggled her toes up.

“Very cute, my almost barefoot tomboyish Tom Sawyer,” teased Derek.

“You be quiet,” Nova said with a little smile.

Derek smiled back. He kissed Nova, thinking she looked just…adorable with half her legs bare and her feet almost bare in her adapted uniform.

“You look so cute like that, Nova. Did you dress like this sometimes in the early part of your pregnancy with Alex and Ariel on the Arizona when we were assigned apart?”

“Yes, I did, Derek,” Nova said.

“What did you think?”

“I wish I could have shown you how I looked then. Now you can see it.”

She grabbed Derek by the arm, and off they went.

After holding hands while sharing a milkshake with two straws in one glass in the galley, Nova and Derek kissed and went about their separate duties for a while.

Derek’s job included going back to the First Bridge and seeing a message (received by Homer, who looked half-dead) that had come in from Gamilon.

It read:

My Dearest Commodore Wildstar;

Greetings, from Astrena, Empress, and Ruling Queen of the New Pellian Confederacy.

I greet thee with a kiss of friendship. Thee, and thine gentle Bondmate, the pure, dear Child I love like a Daughter.

My Eldest Daughter grieves me greatly. I weep at her lack of judgment, discretion, and Love. This is my recommendation in light of the recent events you spoke of. You are asked to deal with your, and our, Paul Rosstowski, as appropriate under your laws. I only ask that you release him on his own recognizance, until such time as you are ready to try him, and that his Trial take into account the fact that he is bonded to my Aliscea. While that may not alone exonerate him, as he should know better than to give in to her whims and he should act as an Officer first, Husband second (even as you do with my dear White Lady herself in a most exemplary manner, O Derek) I do ask this be taken into account at his trial, and I request leniency.

As for Aliscea; the following is my recommendation for her. I recommend that you also release her on her own recognizance, but that you not try her herself, even though I do ask you to strip her of her Earth Defense Forces uniform, rank, duties, and commission administratively, as she has shown she can no longer act as a trusty officer in your ranks. I ask you to convey her to me for Inquisition, which shall be on Iscandar. Her Fate will be in my hands, and, perhaps, the hands of the Blue Council. She will be dealt with, and will never serve in thy ranks again unless she someday shows major remorse and repentance.

Give this news to Aliscea and to Paul. If Aliscea attacks any of you again, I reluctantly authorize and deputize Sasha Wakefield and your dear White Lady Nova to deal with her at once as if I were present in body, not just in spirit. Aliscea is to be made aware of this. I will tolerate no further physical violence on her part. If she does such again…she is to be informed she is no daughter of mine as of that point, and will be dealt with by the Throne as a Common Criminal. For her lack of judgment, her Pellian Royal Military Commission, Ranks, and Honors are forfeited. Her ranks, estates, and prerogatives as a Pellian Lady are also suspended, pending the outcome of her Inquisition. She will not be called ‘Lady’ or ‘Princess’ any longer from this day forth. She retains only the honors that are hers spiritually as Matrix-Bearer. It grieves me to do this, but it is necessary.  I also wish to let you know that Leader Desslok also concurs with this course of action, and he is considering stripping her of her Imperial Honors within the Gamilon-Garuman Empire.

I know this grieves you greatly. I beg your pardon, and please give Nova a kiss of peace and embrace and tell her it is from I.

With Love and Tears.

Astrena; Ruling Queen of the Pellians; Empress-Consort of Gamilon.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Derek looked at the letter, sighed, and went to see Paul and Aliscea after he did some paperwork in his cabin. The paperwork was repugnant, but necessary.

When he was ready, he went to see Paul and Aliscea in their cabin, where they were confined under guard by two Marines who watched the hatch.

He was accompanied by Sasha and two other Space Marines; Nova was busy, so he did not wish to disturb her.

He looked at Paul and Aliscea and said, “Paul, I restore you…for now…to your duties. However, you will appear at a Preliminary Hearing in ten days, pursuant to this letter from Astrena, this report, and this Memo of Recommendation from me. I suggest you review it with one of our JAG Officers on board ship as soon as possible…and the crap stops now.”

“Yessir,” said Paul with his head bowed. “Sir, is my PRP waiver allowing me to room with Aliscea pulled?”

“No, because it no longer applies. Aliscea, this letter is also for you, from your mother. Read it carefully. Upon the recommendation of your mother and stepfather, you are, as of today, discharged administratively from the ranks of the Earth Defense Forces!”

“NO!” hissed Aliscea.

“Read your discharge,” snapped Derek. “You have disobeyed so many orders that we can’t tolerate your presence on this vessel as anything but a civilian, and a guest from Pellias, as you were in the beginning. We will call you “Aliscea” or “Mrs. Rosstowski” from this point onwards, per your mother’s request. You have no military rank anymore, and you will return your uniforms, code books, manuals, and space gear now. We are taking your weapon now,” said Derek as Sasha raised her hand and made Aliscea’s Astro-Automatic float to her hand before Aliscea could act to stop it. Sasha smiled at Aliscea. Aliscea snarled at her.

Then, Derek said, “Given what your mother said in her letter, we will not bow to you any longer, kowtow to you any longer, or kiss your ass any longer!” snapped Derek. “Are we clear on this, Mrs. Rosstowski?”

“She can’t do this,” sobbed Aliscea. “I’ll appeal to my stepfather!”

“Try it and see how far you get,” snapped Sasha. “Uncle, let’s go.”

Derek nodded. Aliscea was left alone to cry and curse in Paul’s arms.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

More time passed.

Derek took his post on the First Bridge while Nova ran some computer simulations for their next space warp, made on schedule at 2100 Hours.

The next hour went quietly after they made their warp as they passed Beemira, which was silent and dark on its night side, with only a few coded signals coming from the EDF and Rikashan bases on the planet.

Rosstowski looked at Venture and said, “She’s callin’ me.” His face lit up in a smile.

“Who’s callin’ ya?” said Venture as he looked over.

 “Aliscea,” said Paul from his post. He then turned serious again as he looked out at the stars. “She says we really need to talk tonight. First, she sounded cute, now…she sounded almost mad. What’s making her like this?”

“Time of the month?” said Venture.

“Maybe she’s pregnant,” said Derek.

“Why do you say that?” said Paul.

“Well, you know, Nova sometimes gets all moody and weird….”

“Wildstar, Nova loves you, and her basic disposition is sunny with a big trace of wistful. She does not hold grudges. I think it’s against her religion or personal code or something,” said Paul. “Aliscea. She holds grudges. And she’s griping at me over stupid things we did in the first year of our marriage that I had forgotten about, and at the time, when she was cute, she had laughed off…”

The bridge doors whizzed open and Nova came in, clunking along in her clogs. “It must be the toilet seat,” she said, looking like a deranged Sherlock Holmes making a conclusion for a moment. She walked over to Derek. “You leave the stupid thing up in our head all the time, Derek.”

“Oh, Nova, if only it was the toilet seat,” said Paul as Nova kissed Derek and then flounced across the bridge to Paul’s post, getting behind him and massaging his shoulders like the good friend she had always been to him.

“Nova, can you get through to her…on the frequency you transmit on?” said Paul.

Nova smiled sadly and shook her head. “I can, but it takes a lot of effort. She’s gone down to a psychic frequency…that’s…that’s all too close to the one…HE used,” Nova said as she made a sudden discovery.

Then, Nova’s face contorted in pain and rage, and her eyes began to go from their usual dark brown to a strange blue. She turned around in an almost Prussian about-face, and she spun Paul’s chair around. Derek was about to snap something at her, but a deep voice suddenly came from her mouth. “SILENCE, YOU UTTER SCUM! To her credit, she is fighting me nicely, so this shall be a brief transmission from the stinking morgul-pit I am hiding in. The one she consigned me to in pain Nice try, Nova, you stupid blonde bitch. You didn’t get me. I still live. I can’t use this brain for longer than a minute because it is too damn sweet in here for me! She’s literally diabetic now and there is not enough malice for my taste!! HA… HA… HA…HA!”

Derek ran over, outraged, and gently shook Nova’s shoulders. “For the love of God, you diseased ghost, get out of my wife’s mind!”

Ekogaru grinned a twisted grin and touched the Analysis board next to Paul. The board beeped out the first few notes of the “Passacaglia and Fugue in C Minor” and then exploded.

Nova’s face contorted, and, with a tremendous act of will, she re-emerged as the Dark Lord’s malignant light faded from her eyes and she said, “In Christ’s Holy Name, Ekogaru, get the hell out of my head and off this vessel; you are not welcome here!”

“Look to your children, you stupid cow!” roared Ekogaru as he took control again for a moment.

While doing so, he sent into Nova’s tormented mind a bizarre image of horror.

It was an image of her lying naked and dead in a pile of dirt, gut-shot. Nova usually looked beautiful in the nude, but there was nothing aesthetically pleasing about this gruesome image. In this bizarre, horror-show image, she had died in great pain with her fingers and toes clawing the earth, and her corpse had been there for a while, for it was half-mummified and half-decomposed and skeletonized in the weird vision. Flies, worms and rats were feeding on what remained of her flesh.

Derek, through their bond, saw the weird, sickening vision from the Dark Lord in his minds’ eye, and he felt the stench of his unwanted psychic presence in the relatively clean, well-lit, and well-ordered space of Nova’s logical and artistic mind, and he yelled, “You’re hurting her! For the love of God, leave this poor woman alone!”

Nova gritted her teeth, took control of herself, and slammed shut her psychic gates to everyone but Derek. She then said, “You won’t get near Alex and Ariel, you filth!”

“Oooo, I don’t mean them, Nova,” Ekogaru said over the bridge speakers as he made a weird skull-image come up on the main screen surrounded by R’Kesh Runes. ”I mean the weak little lights inside you. Let’s see how long you can keep pregnant. And I have other tools I can use…”

At that time, Aliscea appeared on the Bridge in civilian clothes. “Was he here?”

“You just missed the Beelzebub Express, Aliscea.” Nova said sardonically. “I could’ve used your help!”

“You’re a big girl. You can take care of yourself,” said Aliscea even more sardonically. “Oh, I just got fired of everything by your husband and my Mother. Both of whom are fools and mountebanks.”

“The Lord of Flies and Filth takes over my unwilling mind, tries to harm me, and that is the best you can say about it and you call my Derek a fool?” Nova snapped. “Please! All right! I’ll never have you on my bowling team again, since we see we cannot depend upon you to do anything helpful!”

“I have bigger fish to fry, Nova!” snapped Aliscea.

“Such as? The Dark One attacks us and you take your sweet time in getting here? That’s why you were kicked down from your Rank, O High and Mighty One!” Nova snapped. “Get that attitude out of my face…you civilian,” Nova said with a look of distaste on her face.

Sasha ran onto the bridge a moment later. “Auntie, are you and Uncle all right?”

“We’re fine,” Nova said.

A vision of Queen Starsha appeared on the Bridge; namely, her face over the video panel, as she had once appeared when addressing the Star Force on their initial journey to Iscandar.

“My friends and loved ones,” she said in the vision. “I have been monitoring your progress, along with my Council Sister Queen Astrena of the Pellians. We know of Trelaina’s Declaration. I wished to warn you that we felt the Dark One’s renewed presence in the Cosmos once again, but we see that he has gotten to you first with your corrupt visions. Aliscea, and Nova, we must speak openly to you and the other Terrans of matters and visions of things that might be that the Blue Council has long kept secret. Commodore Wildstar, do we have your word that none of this will be used by you against either Aliscea or Nova?”

“Queen Starsha…you do have my word,” Derek replied. “I will consider this matter classified…as will the rest of the crew on the Bridge now who sees this.”

“It is good we have your word. Thank you. Aliscea, we also see that you have awakened that which long slept latent in Nova. As well-intentioned as your design was, it was somewhat precipitate and foolish, and you should have consulted with us first, because we have means to the same end that would have been less destructive, and would have avoided drawing the attention of our Enemy to us, and which would have harmed the Lady Nova far less than your foolish, cruel methods, of which we are ashamed…and of which we despise. You make a surprisingly poor teacher, and we are filled with nothing but anger at you for your manipulative methods, based in corruption and jealousy. We also warn you that you are now walking a very dark and shadowy path, and that in attempting to pass beyond the bounds of what can normally be done with such abilities into the bizarre realms and pathways of dark sorcery itself, meant for dark ends, you are close to falling into the same path of error as your father…and the Master he took. The Blue Council censures you and your methods…and it appears that the Matrix has censured you, as well. For, now the Power is no longer simply grieved by you. Oddly enough, as you intended in your glee when we thought, for a short time, Him defeated at last by Nova’s brave but impulsive act…the Matrix is leaving you…gradually, of its own accord. And, Nova, we sense it is coming to rest in you, and some others. For that reason, we have need of you on Iscandar before the Blue Council, and we humbly implore you to appear before the Council soon after you arrive in the Sanzar System.”

Nova looked up at Starsha and asked, “What is the Blue Council? You have never mentioned it before.”

“The Blue Council is a rotating, floating group of the Wise women of several different worlds affected by Ekogaru and his evil. It has met several times on Iscandar, in secret session, in approximately three thousand years. Its usual meeting place is Iscandar, although it met on other worlds; having met once ages ago on the planet you are now over when it was a Pellian world, and it has met on Pellias itself. It even met once on Terra, on an island which was then all that remained of lost Atlantis, home of light and beauty before its people turned corrupt and were Drowned. When you appear before the Council, you will be the first woman born of Terra who will have beheld it in several thousand years. I believe that your very appearance before us will be a sign that now, at long last, the great psychic war against Ekogaru may end in your generation. Do we have your consent that you will appear before the Council, Nova?”

“You do, Queen Starsha,” Nova said as Derek stood beside her.

“That is good,” said Starsha. “We shall see you, along with you, my dear Sasha, and you, Aliscea, Lady of Pellias and Matrix-Bearer, in a few days, on Monday your May 1, Standard-Space Time on Iscandar, at the sunrise in Mother Town in a secret Chamber of the Palace. Stay true, Aliscea. And repent of your path. Heed not any voices whispering to your fear, rage, and jealousy. I prophecy most solemnly that if you heed those dark voices, you shall experience a fall even greater than that foolish path upon which you have embarked, and your dabbling with things that should have been left alone and should have remained buried shall harm many people, including those precious to me and your mother.”

“Why is she not telling me this herself?” snapped Aliscea.

“Because you have grieved her, Aliscea; this is your last warning from Us!” Starsha snapped. “Think, consider, go into prayer and meditation, and turn back from your path! If you do not, you may not stand before the Council willingly next time! You have been warned, Aliscea Rosstowski, na’ D’Shal, and neq’ Gralnacz!”

“Starsha, you called me by that Name?” screamed Aliscea.

“If you do not want to be called by that Name in Council in the open, turn back!” Starsha snapped.

Starsha then turned to Nova. “Dear one, we are sorry you had to see that. Be steadfast…be careful, and stay close to Derek. We have much to tell you in Council. Remain true to your ideals, and farewell for now.”

“Thank you, Queen Starsha,” Nova said with a bow.

At that, Aliscea left in silence.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

It was later in the evening, close to 2300 hours, when Derek’s watch finally ended.

Per the Instant Message from Nova, he went down to the nursery…where he found an enchanting sight.

Down in the nursery, Nova was sitting smiling on the deck, with Ariel in her lap, straight from the bath, as Alex danced around.

All of them were somewhat wet, and, of course, naked.

Artwork: “Nova And The Twins” © 2011 By “Anonymous Reader”- All Rights Reserved

While Nova dried her hair, with her little hair ribbons out, Ariel was singing, loudly, “I love my Mommy, she’s Googleplexly nicie! She gives me baths and rubber duckies, and Alex goes fart fart in the tub!”

Then, Ariel grabbed her mother’s breast and began to nurse for a bit as Nova continued to dry her hair and back.

“Mommy, I was farting! Did I go POOPIE?” yelled Alex as he danced around and showed his mother his butt. “Lookie! It’s Daddy!”

“Hi, Alexander!” said Derek. “Ariel’s drooling a lot, Nova,” Derek said. He knelt down, after kissing his young wife’s wet hair.

“I’m feeling more hard spots in her gums,” Nova said as she ran a finger around in her mouth while Ariel paused in her suckling to squeeze her mother’s breasts together a little and to compare them. “I think soon she will be getting her teeth…”

“Whaf’s teef?”  asked Ariel.

“Things that make you chew, like this,” replied Derek as he growled and showed his teeth.

Ariel giggled. “Daddy’s silly!”

“Daddy belongs inna cage with doggies,” giggled Alex. “Mommy, we wanna doggie.”

“You want a doggie?” Nova said.

“Yeah, we wanna doggie that you can run and play and chase around. We met Jonathan before and we formed a kiddie camooogie and we all voted!” Ariel said.

“Camooogies are stinky!” yelled Alex.

“What’s a camooogie?” Nova asked.

“It’s dose poopyhead guys like you see on TV when those big fat, sweaty poopyheads yell yell yell at the President and do nothin’! Those are camooogies and they waste our taxi credits!” Alex screeched.

“Do you mean a committee?” Derek said.

Alex and Ariel nodded brightly.

“Political commentary from two nineteen-month old toddlers, Nova. It’s a scary thought!” Derek said.

“I believe Alex and Ariel are probably smarter than some people in Parliament,” Nova giggled. She shivered a little, but held Ariel as she finished nursing.

Then, Nova burped her and slipped into an old University of Colorado Cheerleader top she kept around as a sort of cover-up when she got cold.

While Nova encouraged Alex to run over to his potty chair, Nova sat on the deck dressing Ariel, looking very enchanting to Derek in her top and absolutely nothing else.

The door whizzed open, and a yawning Angie Hartcliffe came in carrying her son Richie who had on only a diaper, while Homer Glitchman came in carrying Aaron and Joshua. Nova put her legs together but made no other effort to cover up, as Angie had on only a button-down sleep shirt and flip-flops while Homer was dressed for bed in pajama bottoms and his kitchen clogs.

“Where’s Wendy?” yawned Homer as he came in.

“She’s on duty, as Officer of the Deck until 0300,” Derek said. “You can call her or Instant Message her on the Bridge from here, Homer.”

Nova cuddled Alex (who was nodding off) as she put his training pants and a pajama top on him. Richie looked at him, and said in a monosyllable, “Play?”

“No play poopyhead…sleepy,” yawned Alex.

Richie stripped off his diaper as Nova was dressing Ariel for bed in just her underpants (Ariel had refused the t-shirt Nova had offered), and he toddled naked over to Nova to play patty-cake with Ariel and her. Nova cooperated by playing with both toddlers as Homer said, “Caring for these two is driving me outta my gourd.”

“You love your kids?” asked Derek.

“Yeah, I do, but…”

“Then learn how to deal with getting your hair pulled,” Derek chortled as Aaron pulled his father’s hair and screamed as loudly as he could. “I’ll be down here with you tomorrow night after my late-night bridge watch. Nova needs a night to rest and study for her med school finals next week.”

Nova kissed Richie and she then tucked in Ariel and Alex. After putting them in their little futons on a carpeted part of the deck, Nova looked for a towel to cover up her bottom, found none, so she said to Derek, “Carry me up to our cabin like this.”

“Half-naked?” Derek said.

“No one will see this time of night,” Nova said as Derek romantically picked her up.

They kissed, and, as Angie went “awwww…how cute…” Derek carried Nova out of the nursery. Angie then poked an elbow at Homer and said, “I think I know what the Skipper and Third Officer are gonna be up to tonight!”

“Yeah,” said Homer.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Nova was carried half-naked to their cabin in Derek’s arms at close to 2400 Hours as April 27^th turned to April 28^th during their walk.

While he carried her, he kept his hand over her center for covering.

She kissed him during their walk, and he rubbed her nose.

Luckily, no one saw them.

When they got to their cabin, Derek opened the hatch, not aware of a furry, sleeping feline form (Fluffy) curled up for warmth on one of his ship’s status readout units near the front of the cabin.

Derek gave Nova a kiss, and he asked her “Happy?”

Nova just smiled, and, as rapidly as she could, she let Derek pull her cheerleader top off her half-naked form as he tenderly stripped her completely naked.

She whispered, “Oh that feels so good…I’ve wanted to be naked in your arms all day…”

Finally in the nude again, Nova came to her husband, and sat in his lap at the table, kissing him wildly as she began to strip off his clothes.

We have to make love to finish this bond thing, Nova sent into Derek’s mind. “And I’ve wanted you all day,” she said as she pulled his Star Force shirt off.

“The same here, Nova,” Derek said as he somehow got out of his boots.

“I’m going to kneel on the deck,” Nova said. “Touch me while I get you ready to jump into bed,” she whispered passionately as she pulled down his pants…then his boxer shorts.

Naked himself, Derek started by kissing her breasts.

Nova smiled, and shivered with pleasure as her breasts were played with, teased, and then, with butterfly kisses, Derek found her nipples.

Nova began to shiver pleasantly, and she began to mean very, very softly as her lover began to suck at her breasts.

A little of her milk went into his mouth.

Nova really moaned as she sent into her husband’s mind, Oh, God, Derek, you are driving me mad!

I know, he sent back.

Nova moaned, shivered, and she grasped her husband’s manhood and began to touch it and play with it. 

With him as naked as she was, Nova knelt and tenderly kissed her husband and lover’s manhood, playing with his penis and tenderly kissing his testicles before she took him into her mouth. She gasped with happiness as Derek’s hands found her naked womanhood as he began to touch her there, getting one hand on her breast and teasing her nipple with his right hand while he touched her rosette with his left hand.

Derek almost climaxed right in his darling wife’s mouth before her mind gently entered his and she sent to him, Oh, God, I feel you about to explode…let’s get on the bunk…

It was very easy. Nova let him get up, and, hand in hand, they went onto the bed. Derek lay on his back, and Nova, with her passionate but slightly tomboyish manner, as Derek thought, Nova, you look so cute being a tomboy when you’re running around naked…

She sent back a laugh into his mind, and sent, I’ll have to do this more often, won’t I?

“Yeah,” said Derek as she kissed him as he pushed at her, and she positioned herself to receive him as he took her.

Nova immediately opened her mind and spirit to her husband like a flower, keeping nothing of herself back in their bond, because in her innocence, she had no idea how to do so.

The force and purity of their bond echoed throughout the spiritual plane, as, on Gamilon, Astrena, as she sat naked nursing little Aisha in her apartments with Desslok, just began to cry.

“What is it?” said Desslok.

“Oh, my God,” sobbed Astrena. “She’s really been awakened…by Aliscea…and she’s bonding with Derek?”

“Who?” said Desslok, puzzled.

“Our Mash’ka…the little one…young Nova,” said Astrena as she cried. “It’s moving to her…on its own! The Matrix is forming in Nova…she struck out at Ekogaru…we felt that…was not sure if the Power came from her or Aliscea…it’s from her! And she’s spontaneously bonding with Derek! And he has some of the Fire in him, too! They are in bed…making love….oh, my God…what a pure Bond!”

In the meantime, as they made love, Derek immediately felt and discovered that she had been longing for him and fantasizing about him ever since an early point in the Iscandar mission in 2199…he was surprised to discover that for a short time, she had been having trouble determining whether she possibly start a relationship with Mark or with him! She had begun to decide for him when she and he had been on Titan and he had found the wreck of the Paladin.

In fact, as they made love, Derek found that Nova had been briefly considering taking him to her cabin that night, but she had dismissed the idea with the understandable thought, What if it doesn’t work out? And he’s so silent and he keeps everything bottled up, I’ll look like a fool if I tell him ‘I want to sleep with you’ if he doesn’t feel the same way about me….

Nova smiled and even pulled Derek’s hair a little when she found he had been eyeing her up a few times over in the Underground City after they had met; usually with her then-marigold nurse’s dress on, also with her boots on (most of the time) or with the plastic OR sandals she had sometimes worn (once…and Nova was pleasantly surprised to learn that he had come away from that view of her legs from toes to thighs with a massive hard-on)

“You wanted me from early on, didn’t you?” Nova said.

“Yeah…” Derek replied.

“I had a thing for you…I would have jumped in the sack,” Nova teased.

“It was too soon after Diane; too soon after Staci…and I liked the fact that you were elegant and just…cute…and kind of coy…” Derek said.

“How does it feel with the kids with us?”

“Different…I want to name the boy Abraham…I get the sense he’s gonna be smart…a humanitarian like Avatar…and that little girl…wow!”

“I think he’s going to be a priest,” Nova said. “Mom always wanted a priest in the family…”

Derek then rooted around a little more in Nova’s mind as strange thoughts, in an odd language he did not know, came to him, “V’rsha…ega…nali-hada, d’shalinskaaa….ati…ati he…”

What’s that? Derek thought as Nova kissed him like mad.

The language is Pellian…brand-new….there’s a new presence inside me…like it’s waking up, getting stronger, Nova thought. It’s saying, ‘Love him, little daughter, love him, little naked innocent child of Earth…love him, young but wise one…bond with him…he needs to protect you…care for you…keep you alive…safe…whole…until the time of Parting comes…and then your Passage through the Fire…there will soon be many tears, but much new joy, little one. Love him…pure one….’ Now, I say…Derek, I cleave to thee….as I have always cleaved to thee, naked, in joy, and in happiness…in peace…with two children you have created inside me…you are mine, and woe be unto any that profane our love…

Derek thought back, Nova, my Shalinskaa…my heart…the better half of my soul, my conscience, my compassion….my conscience speaks to me in your gentle voice….I feel you cleaving to me, and I open my mind to you, as I always have…all the rage, all the pain…my parents, oh, God, my parents…my parents!’ Derek thought as he sobbed….

…and Nova could feel him picking up and hugging what was left of his mother’s dress at the planet-bomb site….

Nova immediately sent Derek an image that made him shiver, as he saw her, at about sixteen, in a temporary shelter somewhere in Denver, crying and terrified as some…pervert tried to touch her the temporary shelter they had come to in a high school gym after the planet bombs had flattened Boulder…with Nova’s new pink Corvette, her first car, only a few weeks old, destroyed…most of her possessions destroyed, and even the few clothes she had left locked away in a footlocker waiting to be taken to a new underground city by the Space Defense Marines.

Derek could tell that the minidress, panties and canvas summer sandals Nova had been wearing had finally had to be washed by her mother, so Nova found herself naked in the shelter for a few hours, wrapped in a blanket in her father’s lap as she had had to be bathed and deloused right out in the open by her parents along with many other children from babyhood up to her own age….

…and then, some bearded, dirty pervert with filthy blond hair from Minnesota had tried to pull open her blanket and touch her bare bottom as she cowered against her rag-clad father as Karl kicked the pervert and kicked him away. 

The pervert had said, “Hey, old man! Your little bare-ass bitch daughter is cute! Can I have her for a night?”

“NEVER!” Nova had screamed as she turned around, uncaring of the fact that her breasts were coming out, and she scratched the would-be rapist on the face, followed by her father punching him and then grabbing for the revolver in his bag. Nova remembered her father holding up the gun and saying, “You get your filthy paws off my precious, untouched daughter, you bastard, or I will blow your damned brains out on this floor!”

The pervert had then been noticed, and some men dragged him off after questioning Karl and Nova. The next day, Nova had been walking around in her sole dress and shoes (now clean) to get some water from a well pump for a sick person. She stopped in front of a horrid sight. Nova shivered but felt a grim sense of satisfaction when she saw that the pervert had been stripped naked and summarily executed by being hung from a light post near the back of the gym, with a sign reading MOLESTER written in his own blood hung around his neck. In his nakedness, it was easy to see he had also been castrated.

Nova had then stood looking at the stinking, burning remains of Denver, looking out as she saw a planet bomb falling in the distance, somewhere in the Rockies. How can they be so cruel? Nova had thought. How can the Gamilons do this to us? She then noticed some grit on the tips of her sandaled toes. This dirt used to be brown and kinda wet…now, it’s dry and turning…red….Nova thought as she wiped some of the dirt off her feet and looked at it. What are they doing to Earth?

Thankfully, for her, the fallout she cleaned off her body was only….mildly radioactive…

Then, the lovers returned to the present, with their bodies still joined…and the call, the most ancient call, even older than Shalinskar, came to them, Derek kissed Nova hard, over and over and over again, as the two of them rolled about and they enjoyed a long, weeping, joyful climax.

When they were done, they held each other, whispered their names, and they just kissed, holding each other, naked, enjoying the peace….

…it was in a moment of peace, caring and joy in which their bond formed and solidified.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Their lovemaking went on.

Derek wondered where he was getting the strength from as he took Nova again, with her on top, with her being fast, quick, and sexy as all hell as they danced together.

Then, they kissed a while longer. Derek knelt on the deck, where, as Nova’s legs dangled over the edge of the bunk, he kissed his way up her legs from her toes to the very center of her, giving her a few more hot, stolen moments of pleasure with his lips and his tongue. He gave her such an intense orgasm that he saw some milk spurting from Nova’s naked breasts as she climaxed. He kissed his way up her, lapped up the mess as they laughed together, and then, since Derek was ready again, he took her like a like a finger going into a glove for the third time that night, with him on top this time.

The lovers called each other’s names, again and again….

And, just as Derek was hitting his climax, he heard a loud purr-meow behind him.

Artwork: Fluffy Gets Derek! © 2011 by “Anonymous Reader”- All Rights Reserved

Nova caught the little white blur and said, “OhmiGod, it’s Fluffy! Fluffy, SHOO!” she snapped.

But, Fluffy did not listen.

She saw something interesting on her “Daddy’s” body. Alex and Ariel loved to play with her with a cat toy with two little plush balls on a string.

Fluffy saw two such balls moving up and down, up and down. Her tail twitched. She was in a mood to play with her favorite people…

…so, the little white cat pounced at the moving balls.

Balls that were not part of a toy…but attached to her Daddy.

She caught Derek’s most tender part with a claw just as he pulled out of Nova’s form for a moment….

Derek’s scream could have broken glass.

The rage and pain Nova felt through their bond made her eyes go wide as she heard Derek yelling,“YIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII! YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! NO!!! YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! NO! YAAAAAAAAAA! PAAAIN! IIIITAAIIIII!!!  KUSSSSOOOOOOOOO! NOOOO! GOHHHD! NOVA! MY BALLS! NOOOOOO!”

Nova looked down at Fluffy, and she immediately kicked at her. “BAD KITTY! GET OUT OF HERE! SHOOOO!”

“Rrrrrrrooowwwwllll?” said Fluffy in response.

Nova shut her eyes, controlled her breathing, and made a quick gesture. In his pain, Derek thought he heard the hatch unlocking, and then the hatch handle was undogged with a loud creak. Nova made another gesture, and the hatch flew open by itself, and Fluffy found herself floating through the air, frightened, enraged, shocked, looking like a cat in a 1940’s Warner Brothers cartoon as she scrabbled at the air, and then, with a black look from her mistress, she was psychically whipped down the stairs. Derek heard a loud thump and then a meow, and then, the hatch flew closed again, although it was not dogged.

Derek was naked in a fetal position, moaning as he held his testicles. “Nova, I feel…blood…no….”

Nova knelt on the deck. “Let me look at you…”

“Nova, I’m gonna need STITCHES!”

“Not necessarily,” Nova cooed as she gathered her wits about her, accessed the knowledge of the Matrix hid in her, and then, she coaxed Derek to get on his knees and open his legs.

Nova sent into his mind, Derek, this is going to hurt like hell for a few moments…trust me…I’ve got you….

Trust you? He sent back.

Nova kissed his bottom and she said, “Please let me at the spot…”

“What? With no anesthesia at all, Nova? No antiseptic? We have a medkit…”

“Which I intend to get in a moment,” Nova said. She shut her eyes, and sent calm into Derek’s mind as she looked at his testicles. There was a small scratch, and it was bleeding.

Nova sucked at the wound as she sent energy into it through her mouth that she knew would disinfect it. She tenderly numbed the area with a tender kiss from her lips, and sucked at him, encouraging bleeding. She spat the blood onto the deck, repulsed at its taste, and then, again, tenderly, through her mouth, she kissed the affected area as she sent a gentle burst of energy there that killed any bacteria from Fluffy’s claws. The burst was warm and tingly and Derek found it pleasant. It was followed by another that closed the wound. Nova remembered how she had strained to heal her own neck the previous day, clothed, and she thought, It seems easier, freer, somehow, for the psi-energy to flow though you when you’re in the nude…no wonder Aliscea stripped so often when she did her work…and I thought she was being an exhibitionist or something…wish she could have explained this to me.

Nova then kissed Derek, and whispered, “Does that feel better?”

“I still feel a bit of an ache...but…Nova…what did you just do?”

“I just fixed you. You’re still going to need a tetanus booster…and a good multi-spectrum antibiotic shot, but I have those. Roll over onto your back, darling. I want to check that from another angle.”

Derek did so, and he watched as Nova gently felt and stroked his testicular area. Then, she kissed it two more times, and knelt between his legs, watching his breathing speed up and watching him smile as she kissed him and gently washed that part of him as clean as a cat with her tongue. Then, she took his manhood and tenderly did the same thing. Two minutes later, Nova had him in her mouth, and Derek shivered at how quickly he became aroused as her warm, sweet energy flowed through him.

One thing led to another, and soon, Derek was able to get out of bed, and he walked Nova over with him to a convenient bulkhead.

Nova leaned back against the bulkhead, opened her legs, and whispered sexily in his ear, “Take me again, darling…we want to see if it’s working right!”

Derek kissed her, and he did so, wondering where he was getting the energy from as he got heavily aroused, and he and Nova were soon doing it again, standing up, with her tush lightly hitting her locker door every time he thrusted at her. They were giggling, they were kissing…they were going at it like teenagers in love as the hatch opened again…

Artwork: Don’t Hurt Fluffy!!!! © 2011 by “Anonymous Reader”- All Rights Reserved

Then, Ariel came in, sobbing a little…clad in only her underwear…and holding Fluffy in her arms in all innocence!

She looked up and said, “Mommy, daddy…saw in my mind what happened…heard Fluffy crying….why’d you throw her down the stairs? DON’T HURT FLUFFY! PLEASE!” Ariel said as she began to cry so hard that she wet her little underpants while doing so.

“A…Ariel?” said Nova.

Then, Ariel stopped petting Fluffy, and she looked up at her father and mother…against the bulkhead, sweaty, and naked in the act of love!

Derek looked at Nova. “Did I hear Ariel?”

“Derek…she’s…in…here…”

“What’s she doing?”

“Watching us!” Nova said as she tried to pull away, but Derek caught her neck with a last passionate kiss, and she giggled.

So did Ariel.

“Mommy! Daddy!” Ariel said, excited… “I LOVE your funny nekkie tickle game? Do you do this with Mommy often! Daddy, why is your peepee touching Mommy? Is this really where babies come from? Is this the same thing I saw Uncle Homer’s doggie doing with Aunt Wendy’s doggie?”

Nova looked at Derek. Derek looked at Nova. Derek said, “Ariel, honey…this…this why we usually keep the bedroom door closed at home.”

“Why? Your funny game looks fun!” Ariel piped out.

 “Ariel,” Nova said, blushing like hell…”I…normally, Mommies and Daddies do this thing in private. Remember how I said Daddy does something special and secret to put a…baby inside Mommy?”

“Yesssssss?” said Ariel as she wiggled her toes and looked as cute as a button.

“This is exactly it,” Nova said. “It’s called ‘making love’. Only grownups do it; people who are married to each other or people who love each other very much and are about to get married,” Nova said as Derek played with her hair. “You’ll know more when you get bigger.”

“Is Fluffy all right?” said Derek as he knelt down. “Hiya, ball-grabber…” he said with a lop-sided grin as he decided to pet her, while thinking, Cat, you put your claws in me again, and ya might be an ex-cat!

Fluffy mewed at Derek and licked him. She hissed a little at Nova, who knelt and let her sniff her hand…then…she began to pet her too. Fluffy purred at Nova, and gave her a kiss.

“She’s okay!” said Ariel. “Mommy, I saw her in my head like a dreamy thing grabbing at Daddy’s peepee part while you two were playing that silly game in bed, and then she got Daddy to scream, and Mommy opened the door and she got mad and made her float through the air, and then made her go down the stairs and then Mommy kissed Daddy and I didn’t see any more until I found Fluffy and then found you playing your dorky game! Up against the wall? Gwonups are weird!”

“Yeah, grownups are weird,” said Derek.

“Don’t you agree with her!” Nova said while lightly squeezing Derek’s nose.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

HALF AN HOUR LATER….

“She’s purring…” Derek said sleepily. He was lying in their bunk, still naked…on his back—wet from the shower (where Nova had washed him down and had given him his shots while she let Ariel play with Fluffy on the deck of their cabin, looking cute as a button out of her underpants and hair ribbons on a throw rug, playing naked with Fluffy’s little kitty toy. Fluffy also had an extra little bowl of food, so it was not a totally bad night for the little cat.

Nova had gone into the shower with Derek, and had been washed down (with Derek not able to keep his hands off her for a bit…something she did not mind.)

Then, they had emerged, and Nova took Ariel into bed with her and Derek, offering one of her naked breasts (which the toddler took) and then, she lay on top of her mother, a picture of cuteness as Nova cuddled against her husband under the sheets, petting Fluffy with one hand and stroking Ariel’s hair with the other.

Nova looked at Derek and said, “I can hear her purring. Thank God cats are resilient.”

“Thank God I’m resilient and that you’ve learned lots of new tricks…” Derek said.

“What’s resilient mean? New word?” said Ariel sleepily.

“Yes, it means strong…not someone who gives in easily,” said Derek as Nova yawned. What a day, she sent into his mind.

Yeah, sure is, he sent back.

“Me sleepy,” Ariel said.

“So’s Mommy,” Nova yawned. “Nighty-night, Ariel,” Nova said. “Nighty-night, Fluffy. Good night, dear Derek…”

“Nighty-night, Mommy,” said Ariel. “Nighty-night Big Daddy…nighty-night….(yaaaawn) Fluffieeeee…”

Ariel was soon asleep. Derek petted Fluffy. “Nighty-night…Fluffy…nighty-night…Ariel…my little baby Angel…good night, Nova…my love…”

Nova smiled weakly and blew a kiss at Derek before sleep took her.

Derek looked at much of his little family, knowing Alex had stayed asleep and that Jonathan was on watch now, so he also went to sleep.

Soon, they all slept.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

A FEW MINUTES LATER….

Aliscea, clad in only a black cloak with a cowl like a monk’s hood, phased into the Captain’s Quarters a few minutes later.

She gritted her teeth and looked at the three sleeping humans and one sleeping cat.

I wish I could deal with you now, Nova. You and your damn husband…throwing me out of the service on his own…how dare he do that? Aliscea thought.

“I want all you to know I have made a Decision” whispered Aliscea. “I am not going to be subject to my Mother’s Justice or give up my Root of the Matrix. You fucked me over? Good. I will fuck you over. And I will cause so much pain before I leave you will never be a happy little family again. And, you will see me again. When my Master and I attack you.”

Aliscea paused and whispered, “I know who the Friendly Angel who helped me is now. And I intend to go over to Him of my own Free Will. They lied about Him. He is the greatest person who has ever lived and he gives eternal life. He is named Lord Ekogaru and he is the True God. I intend to live forever and I am taking Paul with me. And I will live forever. As the High Queen of Pellias when I take over. And then? I will bring you all down!”

Aliscea smiled acidly and then she disappeared.

Her fall was complete.

When she arrived back in her cabin…she intended to find a dark place aboard ship to perform a ritual, call up Ekogaru…

…and to worship Him and offer herself to Him.

Of her own free will.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

TO BE CONTINUED…