ALTERNATE TALES OF THE STAR FORCE

STAR BLAZERS—THE ENTROPY WARS

By: Frederick P. Kopetz

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THE ENTROPY WARS

Ch. 9 “MIDNIGHT APPROACHES”

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I. DARK THOUGHTS AND FEARS

Planet Earth

The Tokyo Megalopolis

The Wildstar Residence

June 21, 2231

0212 HOURS (Standard Earthtime)

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Personal Journal

Admiral Derek Wildstar

Pro Tem Commander, Earth Defense Forces

June 21, 2231

The Dead of the Night….

I have noticed the strangest of viewpoints in the past day or so.

I find myself very pessimistic, dark, and depressed, as if Invasion was closing in on my homeworld, and that Death would soon have me in Its cold embrace, followed by Death taking my beloved wife in pain and in humiliation in the most horrid means possible…by crucifixion and then by an utter bloody violence we cannot see, but which leaves Nova dead, a bleeding shell in my arms.

I feel and foresee I will have almost died once, and may well have my own rendezvous with Death before Ekogaru passes on.

I see Death coming for us. I feel It. I smell it.

I even feel the coldness of the Grave, which is why I cannot sleep now.

But, strangely, this pessimistic view is surrounded by a nobler future, one where I live on, and still sail the stars as a ship’s master, but in peace.

A future in which Earth is cleansed of its scars, even the scars of the attack in the Capital, to look more beautiful than ever with, strangely enough, a beautiful twin world, a second blue Earth, looming in her sky as Gamilon looms in the sky of Iscandar.

I can see Nova, dead, naked and broken, but I can also see her in a white uniform, blushing, belly big again with a child, and I can see her on the beach on Pellias, nude except for a chapeaux, belly also big with child while we look up in the sky and see…

A planet looming above and look at the coastline of North America?

And, I again see Nova…in Earth, in a white gown, in a rebuilt and grander than ever Parliament Hall, smiling as she turns to me and kisses me…as I stand there in my Star Force whites and boots and gloves….

…and I also see her, totally naked except for a rose tattoo on her bare thigh I know she does not yet have, Derek wrote, pausing to look at the sleeping form of his mate in her bed, nude, sheets partly kicked off as she murmured in a dream of her own…showing her right thigh and buttock, which, at this point, displayed no permanent body art, as Derek well knew.

Derek began to write again. In this strange vision, Nova is sitting relaxed in the nude on a white throne, or seat, in one of the courtyards of a palace of white stone, which may be the incomplete High Queen’s Palace on New Pellias…I think. There, she lies in the sun, the Star burning on her brow in peace, and she is again nursing a bare little baby girl with strawberry blond hair who seems to be ours and who also seems to belong to the Cosmos. Strange. Ariel does not have strawberry blond hair, and neither does Anya, Teresa, Alex, Steven, or even Mark, the son long ago taken from us for G-Force.

Nova is singing to this baby in the Iscandarian tongue, and she coos at her mother and seems to understand.

This is a strange vision, and I do not know how much of it will come true. Are these two different worlds?

Or are they the same one?

But, now, what I need to consider is this.

Nova appears resigned to a fate which would lead to her death.

I am not.

I do not want her, me, or anyone else to die in this accursed, Goddamned war.

Well, no one except Ekogaru.

I want him nice and dead, and his works defeated, and things to be as they were before, when Zordar’s potential rearmament (as we have learned through reconnaissance) is all we had to worry about.

And, I want to retire, go somewhere with Nova, and laugh as our hair starts to go grey.

But in all of these strange visions, we’re young.

Or we look young.

I know this.

The enemy fleets are gathering, and in a few days, I’d better be aboard the Aquarius, ready to go out and fight.

I hope Nova stays back home here on Earth in her office and keeps things going.

Now that we’re setting things back right again, I do not, I DO NOT, want to be fighting this whole mess as part of a Government in Exile of Earth.

But, why does that phrase occur again and again in my visions?

I hope it’s not going to come true, either.

Maybe that’s what Nova is having these nightmares about….

Derek stopped writing, put away his standard paper diary and pen, and then he undressed and lay down beside Nova.

He tried to sleep.

After a while, he succeeded.

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The next morning, Derek woke up, to find Nova sitting with an upset face on a couch in their bedroom.

He could tell she had dressed for the funeral service for her father, which would take place later in Rome. Nova wore a funereal black top, black shorts, a mourning hat and net veil, and black sandals on her bare feet.

“What’s wrong?” Derek asked. “Other…than the obvious?”

“Mother and I argued on the phone. She hates my outfit, but I’m dressing for what it’ll actually be like around New St. Peter’s today in Rome, where it’ll be about a hundred and two Fahrenheit in the piazza.”

“What’s her problem?” Derek said.

“I’m ‘showing too much skin to be respectful to my father’,” Nova said. “This is a perfectly normal summer mourning outfit! It seems she doesn’t remember when I wore the same outfit in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania three years ago to my Aunt Anne’s funeral, all the way to the graveside service for her. Mother thought it was perfectly tasteful then.”

“So, don’t worry about her,” said Derek as he yawned.

“Well…she said she would “make a scene” if I didn’t change,” Nova said. “I can’t afford to have that sort of thing now. I know I’m on political thin ice right n ow to begin with, what with the emergency measures we’ve had to take…”

“Nova, we’re in a war, right now; a war which is getting even worse,” Derek said. “If you had only seen the dispatches I’ve seen from the EDF this morning…”

“How bad is it?” Nova said.

“Both Black Nebulan and Technomugar forces engaged the Fifth Fleet this morning near Pluto,” Derek said.

“How do they know it was Technomugar?” Nova said in shock.

“They were two of those huge Goraizu Fortresses, like the sort that we engaged years ago,” Derek said. “A few shots from them took out the main Headquarters Building of our Pluto Base, and we lost five more space battleships there and two carriers.”

“How many capital shops do we have left now?” Nova said.

“Maybe four hundred,” Derek replied. “We know that close to one hundred and eighty of our ships seem to have defected to the enemy side.”

“Has Ekogaru sent a surrender demand yet?” Nova said.

Derek shook his head.

“Good, because I do not intend to surrender,” Nova said. “After this funeral is over with, we will both be heading off into space. You...and me…”

“Nova, dear…you’ll be needed on Earth,” Derek said.

She shook her head. “I’ve foreseen that I’ll end up back on the Yamato eventually, and so will you, after some trials. This battle will not be won on Earth, Derek. And I know you’ve been having some strange dreams, visions, and forebodings…”

“You do?”

Nova nodded. “I’ve been having the same dreams...and visions, and forebodings. Let’s go…”

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II. A FUNERAL OF SEVERAL HOPES

Planet Earth

Rome: New St. Peter’s Basilica

June 21, 2231

1112 HOURS (Standard Earthtime)

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A bell was tolling solemnly in the rebuilt Piazza of St. Peter’s in Rome as Derek and Nova walked together hand in hand behind her father’s coffin.

What was left…of her father’s mortal remains lay inside the bronze casket, which was covered with the Federation Flag, and carried by six Space Marines in their dress blues.

The bell rang as the Marines stopped. Derek, funereal in his black peacoat and white slacks, saluted along with Nova, who was still in her black attire and sandals, as a priest blessed the casket with holy water.

Two more Marines came up and removed and folded the flag while two more priests placed a white funeral pall, symbolic of Karl’s Baptismal Clothes, over the casket before it proceeded into the church.

The Marines saluted Nova, who nodded.

The flag was then handed in silence to a woman who had walked behind Nova but had said nothing at all to her; her mother Teri, who was in a print dress and backless sandals hand-in-hand with another man whose presence utterly shocked Nova, namely, Pastor Spector.

“Well, milady,” said Spector in his nasty Southern twang, “Let’s get in here, behind the Boy Captain and Her Freaky Alien Ladyness, eh?”

Derek snapped, “Don’t you have an ounce of respect for the President of the Federation, Pastor? Teri, this was your husband we are burying! Shouldn’t you be in black? Your daughter is in black…she’s in mourning!””

“You don’t have to take that, Pastor,” Teri snapped. “He’s never been any fucking good.”

Nova heard her mother’s slurred voice, and thought to herself, with gritted teeth, You’re drunk! You came to your husband’s funeral drunk! You bitch!

“Who are you?” barked one of the priests guarding the door at Spector. “Are you invited, sir?”

“I am,” snapped Spector.  “I am Pastor Alan Spector of Yamasaki Hill Independent Bible Church in the Tokyo Megalopolis, interpreter of the Scriptures and Man of God. I am accompanying Mrs. Forrester, the widow, and am listed on her invitation as signed by His Holiness, Pope Xavier I himself! BEHOLD!”

He showed them Teri’s invitation, that he had forged cleverly so that he also appeared on it.

“Very well,” said an SS guard nearby guarding Nova. “You may attend and stay close to the coffin, but do not harass or bother the President or the Acting Commander of the EDF. If you do, you will both be arrested at her request or his, regardless of who you are!”

“We will not bother my daughter unduly, even though she has sold out to the lure of Power,” said Teri. Then, she went silent, occasionally glaring at Nova as the procession went forward to the High Altar, behind which Pope Xavier I was preparing to say Mass.

Now, Pope Xavier I was an old Cardinal from Japan who had been named Haruo Yamazaki. When he had been elected Pope, he had taken the middle name of Saint Francis Xavier, who had been one of the men who had brought the Gospel to Japan in the Fourteenth Century. The thin, saintly-looking old man was quite a contrast in appearance to the fat, gross figure of Pastor Alan Spector. The Pope was in white and green vestments, while Pastor Spector, who had become fat, gross, and ugly with age and hypocritical riotous living, was garishly clad in a white dinner jacket trimmed in black, black slacks and shoes, blue shirt, and red tie. He had a cross old gold on his lapel, and his face wore a sickeningly “sanctimonious” expression. He had been a handsome, if severe-looking man in his younger years, but now he looked like an old, gross pig of a man.

Pope Xavier, on the other hand, was thin, usually quiet, and was of a calm, forgiving manner. He had spoken against Pastor Spector’s “racist, bizarre, Unscriptural” pronouncements a few times over the eight years he had sat as Archbishop of the Tokyo Megalopolis. However, after he opened the Requiem Mass, he extended a welcome to him from the Pulpit after he welcomed Derek, Nova, and Teri Forrester, stating, “I welcome you, Pastor, and see that you appear to be here to support Mrs. Forrester. Join with us today as we seek God’s Blessing upon the life’s work of our Brother in Christ, the former Prime Minister Karl Forrester.”

After the Scriptural and Gospel readings, during his homily, the Pope addressed the issue of “a renewed danger from without, and dissension of all sorts from within the Body Politic of the Terran Federation. In this time of war, we, the nations, peoples, religions, and political believers of Terra must again unite as we did in the twenty-first century against the threat from Gamilon, and it is imperative that we stand together in these dark times, in a spirit of mutual defense, reconciliation, and prayer. I have spoken with this woman who has, by the Divine Will, been thrust into the shoes of the Presidency and the ceremonial Queenship of our allies, the Pellians, by an accident of Birth. Our President assures me that her use of the Presidential Power is an emergency usage only, and will not endure beyond this current wartime crisis. In fact, she has informed me that when elections are held, she will follow the Constitution and step down. As to her abilities, I consider them God-Given Gifts, and I ask you to join with me in prayer that she will act wisely, calmly, and with restraint. I ask Pastor Spector and Mrs. Teri Forrester to clasp hands with the President and Commander as we pray.”

Derek reluctantly took Pastor Spector’s hands across the casket, and Nova took her mother’s.

The Lord’s Prayer followed.

As it ended, Teri reached over the coffin to her daughter, and kissed her.

“This is because I love you,” she said over Nova’s microphone, loudly enough to be heard.

Then, she spat in Nova’s face and slapped her across the face. “AND THIS IS BECAUSE YOU STAND OVER YOUR FATHER’S CASKET IN SHORTS WITH BARE LEGS, LOOKING LIKE A WHORE! ”

“GOD IS NOT MOCKED!” yelled Pastor Spector. “Admiral Wildstar, your soul is damned for sleeping with this half-breed, part-Alien Monstrosity who looks like a woman, and we are cursed as long as we have her as President in our sight!”

Then, over a huge amount of hubbub, as the SS and Swiss Guards ran to secure the Pope and the President, Pastor Spector reached out across the casket with his beefy hands and began to strangle Nova.

Nova gasped, and glared at him as her face began to go red.

A burst of power shot forth from her like lightning, and with a visible blue bolt of electricity and loud SNAP of electric energy, a carefully applied electric current of 80 milliamps, just below the fatal range, and 8,000 volts of power shot forth from Nova’s body into Spector’s.

Spector went limp and cried out as he drooled on himself and fell down, kicking out at Derek near the bier holding Karl’s coffin.

In the meantime, Teri beat Nova about the head with her purse before the crazed woman was tackled by SS agents.

Derek whipped around the casket and punched Spector in the face before throwing him to the Swiss Guards.

“Ma’am?” said the head of the Swiss Guards to Nova.

“See to it he is arrested and held for an attempt to assassinate me,” Nova gasped, while rubbing her bare neck and carefully curing the damage. “Deport that woman back to Japan under guard and see to it she is involuntarily committed!”

“…You wouldn’t dare!?!!” yelled Teri. “And what did you DO to him?”

“Automatic defensive measure; I could not help it, Mother! Be glad I am showing you mercy!” Nova snapped.

“You are no longer my daughter, you whore!” yelled Teri as she was dragged off.

Nova, held in Derek’s arms as she cried, refused to answer her mother.

Nova made no further remarks during the Mass. Her planned speech was canceled as she wept in Derek’s arms….

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III. THE DARK LORD ATTACKS…

The Solar System

The Vicinity of Pluto

June 21, 2231

1131 HOURS (Standard Earthtime)

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The Terran Bases and the City on Pluto were under heavy Technomugar attack as three of Ekogaru’s Command Ships had warped into orbit, with each of these saucer-shaped Goraizu Fortresses, each of them two kilometers wide, were surrounded by ten space battleships, five carriers, and ten destroyers each.

Opposing them was the Earth Defense Forces’ Fifth Fleet, led by Admiral Jan Podgorny, from the vicinity of Warsaw, on his flagship, the Andromeda-class space battleship Warspite.

“Identification completed, sir,” said his radar officer. “A total of seventy-eight enemy ships, all identified as Technomugar.”

“My God, the rumors I’ve been hearing are correct; ships of this class haven’t been seen in thirty years!” said Podgorny as he began to sweat. “Mister Hamley!” he snapped to his Communications officer. “Order our battleships to attack those enemy carriers, and order our carriers Izumo, Wolfsburg, and Hornet to launch a squadron of fighters each to help the City’s Interceptors stop those bombers. We cannot allow those bastards to take Pluto.”

“Yessir,” said Hamley as he relayed the orders. A moment later, he said, “Sir! The skipper of the Izumo reports that our destroyer screen is already taking heavy fire from the enemy’s destroyers, and requests permission to launch fighters against them!”

“Tell Commodore Miyama his request is granted, and…”

“Sir,” said the Warspite’s radar officer as she shook her long red hair. “Enemy fighters have materialized three thousand meters off our port side!”

“Damn them!” snapped Podgorny. “Fire pulse lasers!”

The Warspite’s pulse lasers began to spit blue fire at the Technomugar fighters, destroying some of them, but allowing some to fire missiles at the flagship, which trembled as she took three hits.

“Minor hits taken at our ram scoop and port side launch tube,” said Commander Graham, the ship’s Mechanical Group Leader. “Air Ops now says we cannot launch our fighters until that launch tube is repaired…”

“Get Damage Control working on it!” said Podgorny.

“Sir, we have a message coming in from the enemy,” said the Comm Officer.

“Put it up on video,” snapped Podgorny.

The first thing the crew heard was sardonic laughter as a man with long dark hair, glowing red eyes, and a denim jacket and t-shirt appeared on the screen. “Greetings, Earthling scum. I, First Citizen Randall Flagg by name, order your immediate surrender in the sublime name of the Lord Ekogaru the Great, who is on his way to Earth to demand the planet as his new capital and crown jewel of the Technomugar Empire. If you surrender and give Him your worship, he promises to be merciful,” hissed Flagg.

“If you think we’re going to surrender, you freak, you’re mad,” said Podgorny.

“Who can stop us now?” hissed Flagg as he raised his hand and Podgorny began to feel a crushing pressure around his throat. “You have no Parliament. Your Ministries are in disarray…your President is crying her eyes out…”

“…while she lies on her bed, aware of you, Flagg, who I have met before…” said another voice as Nova’s image appeared over Flagg’s, like a double exposure, while the pressure on Podgorny’s neck eased.

To Podgorny and the crew of the Warspite, who could see only Nova’s face and bare shoulders, she was gleaming slightly like an angel as she glared at Flagg, even as blasts of Magna-Flame energy roared out from the Goraizu Fortresses into the heart of the Earth Fleet, blowing apart five space battleships, four cruisers, and the carrier Wolfsburg.

Nova nodded, and a burst of fire appeared from nowhere and consumed one of the Technomugar vessels.

Debris and gas surrounded the enemy fleet and Flagg’s image disappeared as Nova said, “Admiral Podgorny; I’ve bought you a few minutes’ grace. Regroup and hit them with your wave motion guns! And know that you are not alone; Admiral Wildstar and I will soon meet you out in the Sea of Stars. Godspeed, Admiral,” Nova said as her image vanished.

“Godspeed, Madame President,” said Podgorny. “All ships…regroup!”

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In the meantime, Captain Jonathan Hartnell-Iiyama, having heard about the Battle at Pluto while at Planet Janella, after having found Teresa Wildstar and many of the tablets she had taken from her archaeological dig, decided to return home with their discoveries, since the tablets, written in ancient Pellian, touched upon many aspects of Ekogaru’s rise to power., warped the Yamato and her Task Force into the fray.

The arrival of the Yamato and her reinforcements in the Solar System caused Admiral Podgorny to breathe a great sigh of relief when the space battleship and her escorts arrived.

“What do you need us to do?” asked Jonathan as soon as he got in touch with Admiral Podgorny. “We offer our services in this battle.”

“We are under the direct orders of President Wildstar to regroup and hit the enemy fleet now with our wave motion guns!” replied Podgorny.

“Of course,” said Jonathan. He ordered the North Carolina to take a position off port, which ended up being below the Warspite.

On an order from Admiral Podgorny, the Yamato and all of the other ships of EDF Task Force 5.2, as it now became, stopped their engines and began to power up their wave motion guns.

On the Yamato, Anya Wildstar was having the time of her life, since this was the very first time she was firing the mighty space battleship’s Wave Motion Gun in combat.

“Target scope, OPEN!” she snapped. “Set electric magnification at two hundred twelve; target, enemy fleet!  Thirty seconds to firing! Prepare safety goggles, and prepare for recoil shock!”

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“My Lord, I seek your will…” said Flagg as he knelt before a hologram of Ekogaru on the bridge of his Goraizu Fortress.

“I will save you, fool….but the others will be left to their fates,” said the Dark Lord as he laughed. “This was just a test, at any rate. I will be in the System in three days…MYSELF. Prepare to be taken from the area…”

“What?” said Flagg…as his ship, under the Dark Lord’s control, executed a space warp back to the Grand Fortress, which was now near the very place where Pellias had warped into the Milky Way Galaxy almost thirty years ago.

“One of those ships has vanished!” said Ariel from her radar.

“That doesn’t matter to me…I have the rest of these bastards in my sights,” said Anya. “Captain?”

“Commence ten-second countdown!”

“With pleasure, sir,” said Anya as she gripped the wave motion gun firing grip.

“Ten…nine…eight…seven…six…five…four…three…two…one…zero…FIRE!”

With that, the Yamato’s wave motion gun fired, followed by the guns of the North Carolina, the Warspite, and the other capital ships present.

With Flagg’s command ship out of the way, the rest of the Technomugar Fleet was blasted to bits before their commanders could react. Over four hundred enemy ships perished in this battle, and, on that note, the Second Technomugar War seemed to have begun on a high note for the EDF.

However, as Alex, Ariel, Anya, and the others on the Yamato would discover, to their sorrow…things would not be quite as clear-cut as they seemed to be, since the Dark Lord was carefully maneuvering all of them into a well-placed, and long-laid trap.

A trap that would be cruel indeed…

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A WHILE LATER….

Upon arriving in her suite after seeing her father’s remains entombed in a crypt below Saint Peter’s, Nova continued weeping. As she cried, Nova had savagely stripped off her top and then her shorts, revealing that (as Derek had guessed and was not particularly surprised or appalled by) she had adapted to the humid Italian summer by simply going completely naked beneath her velour mourning clothes.

She sobbed and tears ran down her face as she said, “How could my mother have dared to slap me in the face over his casket? And then, she was more concerned about Spector than about me? And she wasn’t even wearing widows’ weeds there like I was, but a print dress? How dare she condemn me for everything, Derek? How dare she condemn me for anything at all?”

Derek shed his shirt and looked at Nova weeping on the couch in only her mourning hat and sandals, with her nude body hot, sweaty, and bothered.

Then, she had stiffened, whispering “Oh, no!” as she stripped off her hat and shut her eyes while Derek guessed something terrible was happening.

It was in this shaky state, almost naked, that Nova, through the miracle of the Matrix, beheld what was happening near Pluto and thus rescued Admiral Podgorny from Flagg’s attempt at murder while confronting the terrible demonic creature herself with her nude body shaking with the effort of reaching out so far to attack the enemy herself. When she was finished, she felt nauseous and tired, knowing that Flagg’s ship had just escaped the explosion by only a few thousand meters, but feeling confident that the damaged Fifth Fleet would strike back.

“I can’t explain it,” Derek said as he knelt over her and kissed away the tears from her collarbone.  He then kissed the tears away from her cheeks while gently tickling her navel.

Nova’s sobs died down, and the ghost of a smile appeared on her tear-streaked face.

“What happened?” said Derek.

“We fought a battle, out near Pluto,” said Nova as she sent the salient details and images into Derek’s mind. “But, even now, we are turning the tide. Admiral Podgorny is about to fire his wave motion guns, and I foresee that Flagg will be on the run. For now. Until he gets back with reinforcements. But that doesn’t mean we don’t have some time for…other business; business of a far more intimate nature, dearest.”

She winked at him and reached down to unbuckle her sandals, but Derek then said. “Not yet. You look hot in just those heels.”

“How hot?” Nova said, squealing a moment later as Derek picked her up and set her bare bottom on a walnut table in their hotel room.

Then, he bent over her and began to tickle her toes in her sandals.

Nova kicked, squealed girlishly, and laughed as Derek kissed his way over her toes, and then up her almost bare feet in her heels, running his lips up one of her legs until he found the center of her, her pink rosette nude and unashamed as he kissed her there, and then teased her with his tongue, making her feel just wonderful.

Nova grabbed his hair as he went at her, laughing and gasping as he brought her to a hot, unexpected climax. Then, she opened his white slacks and pulled them down with his underpants.

“Hullo, there! He sure looks hot to trot,” Nova said as she gently grasped his aroused manhood, teasing it just as he entered her willing body while she gasped with pleasure.

 “The President of the Federation running around her hotel suite in just a pair of heels is one heck of an aphrodisiac,” Derek said as he began to make love to his bride.

“I thought I would be,” Nova said as she embraced her husband. “Oh..God..YESS! I wonder; how would I look to you in just a black Pellian Chapeaux and these heels having a Bloody Mary by that pool later on?”

“Can you go down there like this?” Derek said as he kissed her bare breasts as they made love. Nova squealed softly as he suckled at one of her hardened nipples.

“I saw quite a few naked girls down there who didn’t look as good as I do when we came in before,” Nova said. “I’m going to have to go naked, anyway, if I want to go to the pool. You see, I forgot to pack my swimsuit.”

“You’re silly,” Derek laughed as their burning pleasure increased.

“I’d better get used to going naked,” Nova said, “and…you’d better get used to seeing me like that, since I’ve foreseen that eventually, on New Pellias, I will eventually end up taking a vow of poverty that applies to how I will have to live in the whole Pellian Commonwealth…and as part of that vow…”

“…yes?” Derek said as they made mad love.

“As part of that vow….like Queen Pellas…I will go naked most of the time in the Federation….and…and…and…yesss….take me….OHHH!”

While thrashing about softly, Nova kissed Derek deeply as her climax hit her like an ocean wave as Derek exploded with pleasure.

Then, they held each other for a long, long time….

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

HALF AN  HOUR LATER…

As she had promised, Nova appeared at poolside a few minutes later before Derek as she stripped off a black wrap she had worn downstairs as a filmy cover-up.

She had on only another strappy pair of sandals she had changed into (in fact, for the Roman summer, every pair of shoes she had packed for this trip happened to be barefoot sandals of some type), along with a black Pellian-style sun chapeau and veil.

Other than that, she wore only her own showered, scrubbed, and suntan-lotion bathed skin as she appeared ready to enjoy the pool in the nude, along with some laughing teenagers of both genders.

Her slender naked body drew quite a few glances as she walked around smiling arm-in-arm with Derek, who had on only a black Speedo.

Some excited voices went off around them, and Nova and Derek groaned to themselves as they saw men and women with cameras showing up.

“Paparazzi,” mumbled a member of Nova’s security detail who came up to her and bowed. “Madame President, should I keep them away from you?”

“No, perform a quick search while I take a swim with Derek,” she said. “I’ll be lying over there on a towel in about twenty minutes.”

“Nova, you can’t let them invade your privacy like this!” Derek said.

“No, Derek. They caught up with me here. If they want to photograph and interview me so badly that they’d talk with a naked woman, then they can go ahead and do it. On one condition, that is. They have to get into swimwear, or if they don’t have any, they have to strip down, too. Derek, make sure the security detail knows my instructions.” Nova then winked at him.

“Okay,” Derek said, catching her thought, and thinking to himself, That’s a very foxy solution, I must say.

No, it’s wily, Nova thought back through their bond. I just look foxy from the outside, and I know they’ll want to hear about the war…especially that report we received before about Pluto being under attack.

Derek gave his instructions to the security detail while Nova sat on a towel and carefully removed her sandals, chapeau and wedding band. Then, in nothing at all, she jumped into the water and began to take a quick, brisk swim. She giggled to herself as she surfaced and saw and heard some of the paparazzi vanishing after they heard the security detail’s directions, while others were going into the cabana to either change or undress.

Derek joined her in the water, and some of the first few photographers, who reappeared either in swimwear or in the nude, after they were cleared by Nova and Derek’s security men and women, they were allowed to watch the First Couple swimming, and then laughing as they joined some local teenagers and college kids, most of whom were in the nude, in a game of water volleyball.

After a few minutes’ worth of swimming, Nova emerged from the water and lay down on a towel near the pool, putting up her leg and extending her toes towards the water as some of the photographers snapped her putting on her sunglasses and wedding ring  as she smiled at them in her wet hair and skin. Derek thought that she looked adorable sitting by the pool in the nude, and he smiled as he thought, That’ll serve them right since I guess their editors probably won’t let them run those shots of Nova, because she’s naked.

Then, she joked, “Is this going to be a fashion shoot of my naked body, or do you want to ask some real questions?”

“Why did you allow us to interview you here at poolside?” asked a reporter. “And what happened back there at Saint Peter’s?”

“To show the people of Earth that life goes on during this late week in June, even as we face peril out near Pluto,” Nova replied. “I do not care to discuss Saint Peter’s right now, except to note my mother is being institutionalized and Pastor Alan Spector is being held without bail in prison, and the Prosecutor will be requesting either life in prison or the death penalty for his actions, because we are now at war on two fronts.”

There was a lot of excited mumbling. “So the reports of the attack on Centaurus…?”

“Unfortunately, they’re true,” Derek said. “They also hit Pluto an hour ago.”

“They hit Pluto?” asked a reporter.

Nova nodded and said, “The Fifth Fleet got decimated, but the Warspite led a major counterattack and fought them off. For now, anyway, until the Fleet has time to regroup…since the enemy will be back.”

“Madame President, you announced a few days ago that you were of alien descent, at least partially, and that you are also the “High Queen of Pellias”. What is that position, and how did you come to be there?”

“Long ago,” Nova said as she got up and walked towards a grassy hillock, where she took off her sunglasses and sat naked in the grass, demurely hiding most of her womanhood behind one hand; since she wondered where the heck she had thrown her black wrap, which she found later. “The Iscandarians and the Pellians had contact with Earth. We have found out that Lord Ekogaru, our sworn enemy, was partially Rikashan, partially Iscandarian, and partially Terran. So was Pellas, who became the first High Queen of the Pellians long ago. Queen Pellas was once the spouse of Ekogaru, before she knew how truly evil he was, and they used their powers to, somewhat like the myth of Prometheus, capture a small piece of the primeval fires of Creation from the Big Bang and to exploit it as an energy field. This was called “The Pellian Matrix”, and they were able to do miracles with this energy.”

“Can you tell us what became of Queen Pellas?” asked a reporter.

 “Yes,” Nova said. “Ekogaru betrayed her and began to use the power for evil, sickening purposes. She blocked his access to this power and left him while carrying his child. In a rage, he sent forces to drag her to a hot desert world in the ancient Rikashan Empire known as R’Khell’eva. There, he publicly stripped her naked and tormented her to such an extent that she miscarried in his dungeons. Yet, he dragged her forth, still naked, before his legions and ordered her crucified. She was indeed nailed to a cross. She almost died, but escaped his clutches and fled the planet, penniless and naked, like a slave in that culture, aided by the charity of others. It is said she eventually came naked to her throne on Pellias, and naked she remained until she finally died…but she exiled Ekogaru to the Blackeye Galaxy before she died. She had remarried an Iscandarian/Terran man named Tarek, a Prince of their people, who gave her children. One of these children, a girl named Tarisha, she designated as her Heir and second High Queen, and she passed the power to her as she died. Tarisha took a vow of poverty in memory of her mother and denuded herself in public and spent her time on the High Throne naked, as I am now, by happenstance, in memory of Queen Pellas. There have been other High Queens since then, but her line almost disappeared, save for a small shoot here on Earth, which merged with the human race, almost forgotten…until now.”

Nova was then very grateful for her nudity, because she began to gleam…ever so slightly, as some of the photographers noticed it and gasped as the Crown Imperishable flashed at her brow.

Nova then said, “I am a part of that line, through thousands of years. I had latent Iscandarian and Pellian abilities, which only began to arise after I nearly died years ago operating the Cosmo-DNA on the Yamato. As these powers slowly arose, Aliscea of Pellias, now a traitor to our cause, gave me the Matrix she bore from her mother in an act of spite which was a fortunate mistake, even though its Root still dwells in her unworthy breast. I have foreseen that in my breast, it will be united,” Nova said as she put her hand over her heart, “But…only after I suffer many trials…and experience, probably in this war, a death and rebirth. Then, and only then, shall Ekogaru be defeated, and in his armor, he shall fall.”

“Your…Majesty,” said a reporter, with a mixture of mocking derision and fear in his voice, ”How shall you defeat him?”

“Through the Matrix and the Grace of God,” Nova said as she got up, twirled on her toes, and picked up her abbreviated attire without putting any of it back on before Derek took her arm. “He will be armored in steel and adamant. I will be burning with the Matrix and I will be like this when I defeat him in the Last Battle, with child by my husband, and completely naked.”

“How can you run around like that?” snapped a reporter as she snapped a picture of Nova with a hand slightly away from her crotch for a moment while she put out her right leg, flexing her toes slightly to improve her circulation.

Nova looked at her, huffed, and lifted her hand.

The shocked reporter’s camera lifted out of her hands and floated in the air, gleaming as Nova smiled and nodded.

The camera vanished, but drifted back down into the startled reporter’s hands a moment later…having been changed into a daisy!

“To you, Miss Gwyneth Rodgers of the Sydney Times-Press, I must say….when you are down to nothing else,” Nova said as she picked up her garments and threw her wrap about her shoulders like a cloak as her fire flashed and burned lightly around her. “There is no shame in being naked, as I have explained a moment ago. Derek, let’s go.”

And, at that, Nova left, head held high, and strangely regal even though she was still virtually naked.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

IV. DESOLATION

The Grand Technomugar Fortress

The Beta Valentis System

1,000 Lightyears from Earth

June 22, 2231

1131 HOURS (Standard Earthtime)

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Katrina Savela aka Princess Invidia of the Comet Empire was busy having one of the very worst days of her life.

“Are you all right, Foxy?” she whispered as she was thrown against her husband in a very dark room somewhere.

Where it was, she did not know. The room was dim, cold, and the floor was freezing under her bare feet. She was in pain, for she had spent the past few days cut and bruised all over, and in chains.

The Black Nebulans had betrayed her. They had beaten her, stripped her of every stitch of her clothing and all of her jewelry, and had thrown a ragged, semi-transparent joke of a negligee over her bruised naked body, and forced her to wear a heavy collar with a glowing green stone that almost cut off her access to the Matrix.

It’s almost cut off my access, but not quite, she thought. She had occasionally been in mental touch with both Nova and Derek, and was distressed to find out the stresses and pains that Derek was under as EDF Commander, and sickened to piece together what Nova was experiencing in the Presidency. What I wonder about, is zis: why is Nova set on a future where she dies? She does not need to play martyr, and accept death so calmly. Why does she not fight? Oh, she fights enough, but…

“I’m not all right,” Foxy whispered back. “I’ve been chained up, threatened with death, electrocuted, threatened with castration, disembowelment, and with wearing hideous clothes.”

“What a pity, my love,” whispered Katrina. “They took everything from you.” She looked, and noticed that Foxy was naked, save for his chains.

“I’d rather go naked than wear pants that clash with my suit jacket,” said Foxy as he tried to grin slightly.

A Technomugar guard appeared and brutally punched him in the mouth, causing a tooth to fly out onto the deck. He screamed, and Katrina tried to fight with both the Matrix and her fingernails. Instead, she was hit across the back with a whip that tore at her ragged garment and her back.

“You be quiet, Princess Invidia-ness, you scum-master of scum-masters! Curse your filthy hair and rotten ears, you Cometine scum!” roared a hideous creature with hairy jowls in her ear.

Invidia (for that was the form that somehow Katrina had been forced into) had learned the name of these stinking, diseased mutant R’Khells quickly. They called themselves Orcs or Orks, and they looked like walking nightmares; like some warped child’s version of a Troll, Goblin...or….Orc…brought to life straight from the pages of The Lord of the Rings.

The hideous Goblin that had been tormenting her for the past day was named Radbug. Invidia found him totally vile, right down to his vicious habit of killing and then ripping apart (and partially eating) two of the Black Nebulans who had been guarding her. Amongst Radbug’s hideous snarls and curses, Invidia learned that the Black Nebulans had somehow fallen out of favor with Ekogaru, and that he was mocking them by giving his own hideous R’Khell Orcs power and authority over them as they were taken prisoner one by one. Invidia was secretly delighted that the Black Nebulans were seemingly losing to the Pellians and Terrans after they had tried to invade several of their colony worlds, and, yes, even Gamilon and New Pellias itself in small raids.

So far, at great losses, the Gamilons, Pellians, and the loyal parts of the Earth Defense Forces had been grinding them into powder, or so Invidia had heard.

A moment later, she and Foxy grew colder than ever as heavy breathing appeared from nowhere, and the Orcs and Technomugar suddenly bowed cravenly, groveling in fear before one of their Overlords.

And, Invidia recognized the deep, dragging voice of THIS Overlord at once as she gritted her teeth.

“Welcome, my dear, dear Princess. It has been ages since you and I have last chatted. I’m very sorry that I had to trick you, you diseased pile of filth, but, ah…what’s a little trickery betwixt friends?”

“Ekogaru…you sicken me,” said Invidia.

“No….you sicken me,” he hissed. “I am well on the way to breaking you into powder. What keeps you going like that?”

“The knowledge that you will be defeated someday, you dishonorable person,” snapped Invidia. “Even if I am not the one to do it!”

“So you are not afraid to die?” said Ekogaru.

“No.”

“What do you fear?” said Ekogaru, and he smiled as he read her thought. “Being exposed…both in body…and in truth. The people of Earth have NO idea who you are or what you are. What if I just TOLD them?”

“You…wouldn’t dare,” hissed Invidia.

“What if I told Nova all about you? She’d arrest you. She’d have you tortured. She’d probably execute you herself, you piece of dirt! And even I would grant she would be within her rights to do so to you, you liar!”

“NO! DON’T!” screamed Invidia.

The Dark Lord just spat in her face and laughed at her as he walked away.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Nova Wildstar awoke from an uneasy sleep, shivering in her skin under the sheet.

“Derek?” she whispered. “Derek?”

“What’s wrong…it’s 0300?” he muttered. Then, he heard glass breaking on the other side of the wall in their hotel room in Rome.

“YOU”RE HAVING THOSE DAMN DREAMS ABOUT HER AGAIN?” yelled Holly Venture on the other side of the wall.

“I can’t help having dreams about Trelaina!” barked Mark on the other side of the wall.

“Listen, you!” yelled Holly. “You just got back from space after a year a few weeks ago, and half the damn time, you’ve been having those dreams about Trelaina!”

“Well, you don’t have to throw coffee carafes at me, you witch!” Mark yelled back as Derek muttered, “Venture, go back to sleep…”

“We should have stayed separated!” yelled Holly.

“Separated?” said Derek.

“That must be what really happened when she was ‘away at grad school’ two years ago, Derek,” mumbled Nova. “Derek, why are you getting up?”

“To knock some sense into Mark’s head,” snapped Derek as he threw a kimono on over his naked body.

“Derek, you’re not going to get up and confront them!”

“Why not?” barked Derek.

“It’s none of our business!” snapped Nova.

“Guess you’re right,” Derek said. “Although this place, with its thin walls, is reminding me of that apartment complex we lived in back in Philly for six months when you were teaching at Penn three years ago,” Derek said.

“The place with the bugs?” Nova said. “Fluffy the Kitten GOT fleas in that dump!”

“YOU SHUT UP!” Mark yelled on his side of the wall.

“I’m LEAVING YOU!” yelled Holly.

“GOOD!” yelled Derek on his side of the wall. “MAYBE WE CAN GET SOME SLEEP!!!”

“Derek!” Nova yelled. “I can’t take you anywhere!”

“Fuck this, I want Room Service,” snapped Derek. He got up and picked up the phone. “Hello! Yeah! This is Room 1325. Send up a whole tray of hor d’ euvres! Charge it to my bill. The President’s hungry!”

“I’m not!” said Nova as she overheard the Secret Service banging on Mark and Holly’s door outside.

“You will be when you smell those little franks!” yelled Derek.

“Is that some double entendre’?” said Nova as she pulled her covers over her head while she heard Holly screaming at three Secret Service agents.

“Should I make it one?” said Derek with a wink.

Nova pulled off the covers, rolled up her eyes, and got out of bed naked and picked up the phone. “Room Service,” she snapped.

“Is this 1325?” said the desk clerk.

“Add to that order 2 kilos of kielbasa, six deviled eggs, a box of Slim Jims, a bottle of Scotch, headache medicine, and a bottle of seltzer. Thanks! Oh, add earmuffs!”

Nova then tiptoed to the room door and screamed as some glass shattered against the peephole.

“What’d she throw now?” said Derek.

“A bottle of Vodka. She was aiming at Mark.”

“This is gonna be a long night,” sighed Derek.

_________________________________________________________________________________________

TWO DAYS LATER…(June 24, 2231)

A shuttlecraft had brought Teresa Wildstar and her cargo of tablets from Janella straight from the Yamato to the Vatican in Rome, amid all sorts of news stories, since Holly had left Mark Venture, and since the news media was still buzzing around Nova and Derek even as there were two more space battles, this time near Neptune, as Ekogaru’s forces drew ever closer to Earth.

There, under heavy guard, the young archaeologist, clad in her best suit jacket, skirt, off-the shoulder blouse, and sandals, was escorted into the Secret Archives of the Vatican, to meet her parents.

Her father hugged her, clad in his uniform and cap.

“I’ve missed you, Dad,” said Teresa. “The cooking that you and Mom make is far better than Rikashan cooking, even though the Rikashans have been kind to us.”

“I’m glad to hear that,” said Nova in a tired voice as she worked at a computer.

Nova had her glasses on, and was simply dressed in a red skirt, green spaghetti-strap blouse, light suntan stockings, white sandals, and a white lab coat.

“What are you doing?” asked Teresa.

“Looking at various texts in the Archives,” Nova said. “I was also allowed to test the DNA traces found in this skull, which I found in the Catacombs,” she said. “This young man, who died as an early Christian Martyr under one of Nero’s persecutions, also had Pellian blood, which proves my supposition that Pellias and Iscandar long had contacts with Terra. “Do you have an translation from those tablets you brought?”

“I do,” said Teresa. “But…it’s incomplete.”

“Let me read it,” Nova said.

She took the tablets, comparing them with another set of clay tablets from the same time period found in the Vatican Archives. As three priests watched, Nova began to read, out loud from the Vatican tablet, “I, Pellas, the High Queen and Ruling Queen of the Pellian Commonwealth, was truly born on Terra in Egypt, during a period of our peoples’ slavery, to a father of the House of Jacob of the Tribe of Naphtali, and a mother of a race that appeared to the Egyptians of the day to be Egyptian, but was in truth, Iscandarian with some Rikashan blood; one of the many Watchers from Iscandar stranded on Terra in those times, about fourteen centuries before what I see in my visions to be the Coming of the Anointed One of Israel. I was born forty-six Terran years before Moses the Prophet demanded of the ruler of Egypt to let his people go, and I have returned here to Terra, still looking maybe thirty years of age, but actually closer to ninety, in a day when my father’s people are beginning to take the Land of Canaan.”

“That would be in the era before Joshua,” said one of the priests, a Father Oswald.

“What is the era?” said another of the priests, a Father Heimwald.

“Around the 13^th or 12^th Century, BC” said Teresa. “We proved that with this set of tablets. “They were actually found in the wreckage of a spacecraft that had an electronic quartz chronograph that was still functioning. We were able to exactly connect the Fifth Rikashan Era to 1290 BC in our reckoning. Mother, do you have a translation for that tablet?”

“I hope you do,” said Derek.

“Oh, I do,” she said as she continued to read the strange clay tablets, written in early Hebrew letters, but actually composed in the R’Kesh language of the Rikashans. “This shall be, I foresee, my final trip to my world of birth as a wanderer in the Cosmos. I have kept a copy of this message here on Terra, and have sent a copy forth to the Sea of Stars. I have split off from Ekogaru, whom I met after he was expelled from Egypt for heretical ideas after having fought Moses magically before the King of Egypt. I confess that I was fooled by the Lord Ekogaru, who is a very effective liar and snake and servant of Belial, whom we also call the Satan, or Adversary, of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He took from me a part of the power of the Pellian Matrix we found and tamed in the Blackeye Galaxy on far-off Pellias, a land truly overflowing with milk and honey, and on my preserve world of Beltane, where I met and loved Tarek, the Iscandarian Prince with ten children who hath borne me two more. I record these tidings here on Terra since I have foreseen that Tarek and I will soon again leave to confront Ekogaru, who, we have understood, has bombed Rikasha inhumanely and declared himself the Most High over the Rikashans and their benighted Brethern the R’Khell people. This blasphemy we cannot permit to stand, since he hath advised me his next target is Terra itself, which has no means to defend herself; she is far too primitive at this juncture, even though I foresee if she surviveth this trial, she will rise someday to a level where she will actually save the Pellians, in a Day before the Anointed, who shall die and redeem Israel and mankind at large, shall return to claim the Throne that is His and put Satan under His Feet, as the Holy Prophets of Terra and our offshoot people hath foreseen. The LORD our God is One Essence and gives not His Glory to another. Blessed Be His Name.”

“Can you read that again?” said Father Heimwald, amazed by what he had just heard. “That’s amazing.”

Nova re-read the tablet, and then said, “This proves not only the truth of Ekogaru’s prior involvement with Terra, but also the truth of the Faith we contend for, as I have found in this papyrus scrap, written in the same language, that I date to about 64 AD. It was buried near the Martyr I found. Hear these words:

“I have known our ancestry is from the stars, and I have known that for a long time. I have been given pen and ink, and as I await death in the Circus tomorrow, most likely on a cross as the Saviour died, I give an account of my first meeting with He who Lives Forever, as recorded by our Brother John in these words: ‘Now after two days he departed thence, and went into Galilee. For Jesus himself testified, that a prophet hath no honour in his own country. Then when he was come into Galilee, the Galilaeans received him, having seen all the things that he did at Jerusalem at the feast: for they also went unto the feast. So Jesus came again into Cana of Galilee, where he made the water wine. And there was a certain nobleman, whose son was sick at Capernaum. When he heard that Jesus was come out of Judaea into Galilee, he went unto him, and besought him that he would come down, and heal his son: for he was at the point of death.Then said Jesus unto him, Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe. The nobleman saith unto him, Sir, come down ere my child die. Jesus saith unto him, Go thy way; thy son liveth. And the man believed the word that Jesus had spoken unto him, and he went his way. And as he was now going down, his servants met him, and told him, saying, Thy son liveth. Then enquired he of them the hour when he began to amend. And they said unto him, Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him. So the father knew that it was at the same hour, in the which Jesus said unto him, Thy son liveth: and himself believed, and his whole house. This is again the second miracle that Jesus did, when he was come out of Judaea into Galilee.’ Behold, all Israel, scattered abroad, I testify to you that I am that son of the nobleman, named Barnabas Son of Saul. My faith was discovered as I taught a church in the home of Janus here in the Imperial City. While I did not meet the Savior again according to the Flesh, I have met Him in the Spirit, and He testifies to me that as He died on a Cross in pain and suffering to save mankind’s soul and spirit across the Stars, so shall the suffering and martyrdom of a daughter of mine in the future, before the Great Day of Judgment, bring peace and wholeness to mankind across the stars as a scheme of Satan foiled by my ancestors is put to rest as all is set right before the Great Day comes. This is true, and I know my children are safe. I go to my death with a happy heart, therefore, and in the grace of Christ Jesus…”

“And this proves?” said Father Oswald.

“It proves a lot,” Derek said.

“It proves?” said Heimwald.

“I am a daughter of this Barnabas, by many generations, the one he spoke of in this papyrus you ignored, that I have dated to 64AD,” Nova said. “This proves the Gospel of John, or part of it, was then in circulation, and proves that the Founder of our Faith knew of what we are witnessing now.”

“And what is that?” said Derek.

“The beginning of the Fall of Ekogaru, long foreseen, and long hoped-for. To that end, I must leave Earth, Derek,” Nova said.

“But how?” he said. “Your place as President is here…”

“I shall just barely escape an invasion; an invasion which is coming soon,” said Nova. “Father Oswald, see to it that these translations of mine are printed out and given to my daughter Teresa. For, soon, I will be fleeing Terra with a servant of Evil itself at my heels…before I am captured, and taken off to my death…”

“That does not sound encouraging,” said Father Oswald.

“Do you think I find it encouraging?” Nova said as everyone saw Derek holding her.

Her eyes were filling with tears.

_____________________________________________________________________

That night, Nova had another dream, one that was more disturbing than ever….

Nova dreamed the following….. 

Very cold, and close to nauseous, Nova made sure the ragged sarong that was around her involuntarily shivering form as her sole garment (for the moment) was on tightly, and she began to dig through the dirt and ashes in the ruins of the bedroom she had shared with Derek in the Tokyo Megalopolis in the rain.

 Nova guessed this was just a few days away….

Derek where are you? Nova thought, rhetorically. She reached out with her now finely-honed paranormal senses, and touched Derek’s soul through their gossamer bond with a smile. I am not dead, she sent quietly. But don’t come back for me…not yet…since you need to be where you are, aboard the flagship Aquarius….

 How are you going to get off Earth without Stone and…him…noticing you? Derek sent back.

I will find a way, dear. I always do.

Where are you now?

 In what’s left of our house, Derek. They burned it halfway down already. It’s a risk, but I had to come here to try and find food, clothing, maybe even a uniform and a sea bag.

 You’ll need a uniform to join the Resistance? Where are you going?

 You know where I’m going, my darling, Nova sent back with a shaky smile. Those kids are going to need me on the ship they stole again. They’ll need a doctor. Maybe even a Skipper…at least until you get there.

I plan to lead this battle from the Flagship, Nova. There’s no one else to command what’s left of the Fleet! Derek sent back with some heat.

I’m not saying don’t command…you need to be in command. I just foresee that you’ll be changing your flag to another ship at some point. You know which one I mean. We always end up there when things are at their worst….and we’ll be mutineers again. Just like the last time…thirty years ago, Nova responded. Only, this time I’m not going to hesitate, and if you tell me to leave the ship, you’ll be sorry, Derek!

I bet I will be, O dear spouse of almost thirty years, Derek sent back. You’re getting that line between your eyebrows again, aren’t you? Your ticked-off look!

I am not! Nova huffed back mentally as she dug through a pile of clothes until she found the black Captain’s pea coat she had last worn nine years ago when she had been the skipper of the Hospital Ship Louis Pasteur when there had been a virus near the Earth Colony at Arcturus and she had gone out to aid in the relief effort.

Nova then awoke.

And…so it will go, she thought as she bit her lip. It is not long now…not long at all…

She watched Derek sleeping, and she held him.

She held him, and she wept….

 _____________________________________________________________________

TO BE CONTINUED….