ALTERNATE TALES OF THE STAR FORCE

STAR BLAZERS---IT NEVER RAINS IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA…

A Postscript to THE NEW COMET--- BY: Frederick P. Kopetz

This Story is being completed with the Cooperation and Assistance of Derek A.C. Wakefield (as usual)---Freddo

Note: This Chapter Contains some content that may prove to be upsetting for some…just wished to give a warning…

Elements of Battle of the Planets/Gatchaman that appear in this chapter are © 2010 by Sandy Frank and Tatsunoko Productions. Note to Gatch/BoTP Fans: it will be evident in this chapter I have taken some liberties with some of the Gatchaman/Battle of the Planets villains and universe in having two villains who never met in the series not only meeting but working together. Consider this one of the oddities of this universe, which is an alternate universe of both the Star Blazers/Yamato universe and the Gatchaman/Battle universe.

PART ELEVEN: YOU CAN’T GO BACK TO HIGH SCHOOL (Part One: Dawn’s Pain)

 

I. MOURNING DOVES

Earth

San Diego Megalopolis

Crestview Funeral Home

Monday May 2, 2208

1230 Hours Local Time

 

 

Jefferson Hardy sat in shock near the small dais that held the even tinier white casket that held the body of his baby daughter Sara.

 

Sara Hardy, as the reader will recall, had a very short and sad life outside of her mother. She had died on her birthday…April 28th, 2208.

 

Her brother, David Hardy, was alive and well, but was still at the hospital, spending part of the time with his shell-shocked, depressed, pain-filled mother Dawn, and part of his time in the nursery there, where, with his curious, winning personality, he had become a star in the maternity ward, where he mostly subsisted on formula, taking his shell-shocked mother’s breast a little, and also getting some natural milk from both Nova and Sasha, who were healthy mothers with plenty to spare. As a result, David sometimes got to look at little Star and played with her when both babies were in Sasha’s lap or at her breast, and he also got to know Alex and Ariel Wildstar quite well under similar circumstances in Nova’s lap.

 

But, we return now to Sara, who lay quiet and still in her open casket, clad in white like a tiny angel, with a white cover drawn up to her little hands, which clapsed a tiny pink teddy bear she would never be able to see.

 

Hardy sat stroking his baby girl’s hair. It was like David’s hair; blond, light…airy. Jeff could not escape the image of this little girl running free in a sundress with her hair floating behind her in the breeze…

 

“I’ll nevuh see you like that,” he whispered out loud…”Nevah…”

 

“You’ll never see her like what?” whispered Deke as he came up in his peacoat and Black Tiger uniform and hugged Hardy. Jeff, clad in a black suit, hugged back.

 

“I’ll never see her runnin’ down the beach with a kite…never see her at a slumber party…never see her mom face-painting her or body-painting her…” he said as he bowed his head and shook it. “Unless angels do those

things in the next world with kids who died too soon…”

 

“It makes me think of Kathi,” said Deke as he hugged him hard. “My baby sister…who died in the bombings,” Deke explained as Nova quietly stole up, looking solemn and funereal in a black suit, white blouse with black tie, black hose, and sandals. “I told you about Kathi, Nova….she…”

 

“I know,” Nova said as she patted Deke on the shoulder, like she and Sasha did whenever he began to talk about Kathi. Nova looked at Jeff and said, “If it’s any consolation, Jeff, my family went through this, too…even though I just barely remember it…”

 

“You lost a sister?” Hardy said in shock.

 

Nova nodded. “My mother had another little girl when I was five by the name of Samantha. She lived a little longer; maybe three days. Dad snuck me into the hospital where I played with her a little before she really got sick…she even looked like me. I barely remember her funeral. I blamed myself for a couple of months for giving her cooties. She was buried in Boulder…until the planet bombs destroyed the cemetery. Maybe that’s why my mother got so protective of me…I don’t know…”

 

In the meantime, Commodore Wildstar sat nearby with Jonathan, who had on a black suit. Nova’s mother was home with Lynn Westland, watching the babies and preparing a lunch for after the close of the funeral. Derek said, “Have you ever seen anything so sad in your life, Jon?”

 

Jonathan nodded. “Too much, Dad. Too damn much. I heard even worse stories through Michelle. She was on R’Khelle’va for a while. You know what was and is there, right?”

 

Derek nodded. “The chief temples of Ekogaru’s death cult?”

 

Jonathan again nodded. “One of her owners…you know she was a slave…one of her owners decided he was going to work her to death in the velshalite mines there…”

 

“What’s velshalite?” Derek asked.

 

“A mineral like our Titanite. It is found in trace quantities in coal on R’Khelle’va, and the R’Khells use it in the energy transmission units of their space warships. Anyway, when Michelle was younger….”

 

Then, a moment later, Michelle herself came up, and said, “Jonathan, please stop. If anyone tells your Dad that story, let it be me…”

 

“I’m sorry,” Jonathan said as he hugged his sister, who was clad in a black outfit similar to Nova’s. Behind her stood Katrina, who was dressed the same way. Katrina turned to Derek and whispered, “Where is the poor child lying?”

 

“Over there, Katrina,” said Derek as he and Nova noticed that Foxy was just standing there in shock, so he and Nova guided Katrina up to look at the poor little baby lying there dead in her casket.

 

Katrina’s eyes filled with tears as she said, “How did the poor dear die?”

 

“Complications from the birth,” said Nova. “We tried to save her, but…”

 

Katrina wiped away tears and gritted her teeth as she heard some giggly woman in the background walking along with General Stone and saying, “I heard it’s because she didn’t get to the hospital fast enough, sir!”

 

”What’s this girl like?” General Stone was overheard to ask the bleached blond in a bright red minidress and matching fire-engine red open-toed high heels sans stockings as the minidress girl said, “She’s some kind of detachee’ from the World Health Organization to the EDF, sir! They all say she’s craaaaazzzeee….and that’s why she’s not here, she…”

 

Nova ground her teeth and looked at Katrina. She said, “Let’s go shut blondie up.”

 

“You have my full support and sympathy, dahlink!” Katrina said. “Don’t worry, Jefferson. We’ll shut her up,” said Katrina as she looked at Hardy.

 

”Thanks,” said Jeff with a weak smile.

 

Nova and Katrina came up to the giggling girl and Nova spoke first. “Miss, are you aware we are starting a funeral in a few minutes?”

 

“You don’t look good in black, either of you!” said the Giggly Girl in Red Vinyl Mini as General Stone smiled at her. She looked down at their feet and said, “Didn’t either of you girls learn that you just don’t wear stockings with sandals?”

 

“I believe funerals are an exception,” Nova said as Katrina then looked at her and the alien woman then said, “You are disrespecting the spirit of that poor baby girl by acting like zis!  We are supposed to be here to comfort Jefferson and his squadron mates!”

 

“Do you two have some kind of issue on how Jade should be acting?” barked General Stone. “This Ensign, Jade Foster, is my new personal secretary, Commander Wildstar,” he said as he stared hard at Nova. “She gets special privileges because of that!”

 

“Permission to speak freely, sir?” Nova asked.

 

Stone said, “Yes, although half of what comes out of your mouth is crap, Wildstar!” Nova could smell Scotch on Stone’s breath, and she was sure that explained a good part of it, the other part of it being that he was just an….asshole…

 

“Sir, I don’t care if she is the Lady Madonna herself…there are ways you act at a funeral, and ways you don’t act? Jade here is a good example of how not to dress at a funeral!”

 

“And why are you dressed like an old lady, Missus Nova Loudmouth, ma’am?” barked Jade. “Oh, yeah, all the girls in Headquarters know all about you,” cooed Foster as Stone protectively stroked her bare shoulders in her minidress.

 

Nova said, “Katrina and I are in black out of respect for little Sara, and also because we’re going to be among her pallbearers. At her mother’s request…” Indeed, at Dawn’s request, all four of the pallbearers, namely, Nova, Sasha, Katrina, and Natalie Fisher were all women and friends of the family (even though Dawn did not get along particularly well with either Sasha or Katrina at the moment). The fact that all four of the women were fairly slender wasn’t a major issue. The deceased and her tiny casket weren’t very heavy.

 

Soon, the funeral director came out and called for silence. The funeral had begun.

 

 

HALF AN HOUR LATER….

 

A very small honor guard was formed by some of the men (namely, Deke, Derek, Jere “Brew” Marrable, and Clive Hartcliffe, who had recently joined the Black Tigers) as little Sara was slowly carried to the hearse by Nova, Sasha, Katrina, and Natalie. Hardy walked behind the casket, feeling deeply depressed as a soft rain began to fall and a funereal atmosphere filled the air.

 

When Sasha was finished with her pallbearer duties, she went to Deke’s side, smiled at him, and they kissed. Nova smiled at them, thinking they had never looked happier together.

 

Then, they got into their car, and Nova said a few prayers for Jeff and baby Sara as the procession went to the cemetery.

 

When they were there, they carried the tiny casket to the grave, where they laid it on the device that held it over the open grave as a Baptist minister led them all in the Lord’s Prayer and then began to preach from the Gospel of John, the theme being, “I am the Resurrection and the Life…”

 

To Hardy, the minister’s words about the next life, resurrection, the baby being with the angels in Heaven, and the fact that she was now an adopted child of their dead comrades did not comfort him very much.

 

Finally, they were done about twenty minutes later. Each person laid a white rose on the little casket, and then they stood in silence as the funeral director released a switch on the machine that held it above the grave and the casket very slowly descended down into the grave. Then, the pastor threw some dirt on it, saying, “Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Lord, we lie this child, this lost Lamb of Thine, here in the Earth in hopes of the soon-coming and glorious Day of Resurrection, where we shall meet again, our Savior. For it is in Thy Name we pray, Amen.”

 

Then, everyone hugged Hardy as they began to go back to their cars.

 

Nova gave one last dirty look to Jade, who was giggling again as she got into General Stone’s limo. Then, Stone and his Bimbo of the Month took off.

 

 

A while later, at the Westlands’ apartment, the group gathered to sit about and have a lunch made by Mrs. Westland and Mrs. Forrester while Hardy stepped into the other room to call Dawn at the hospital.

 

He caught Dawn in the middle of changing David’s diaper (with the help of Vanessa Smythe), and she sounded very tired. “Hi, Jeff….how did it go?”

 

“Sad….but, it’s over with now,” said Hardy. “Sara’s in…her little resting place. We can go there when you’re out of the hospital. How long do you think they’ll be keepin’ you there?”

 

“I don’t know,” said Dawn. “They were talking about letting me leave on the seventh…”

 

“Saturday,” said Jeff. “What about nursing?”

“They’re reducing the anti-depressants somewhat today,” Dawn said.  “They think I might be ready to have my milk checked on Wednesday and might be able to try then,” Dawn said in a calm but somewhat flat voice. To Jeff, it was some improvement over how she had been raving on the twenty-eighth and then so sad she could barely talk over the last day or so. Dawn ran her fingers down little David’s bare legs and smiled a ghost of a smile through her tears. “You should see David now, he’s so cute…”

 

“If we switch to video and we switch phones…we can all see him,” said Hardy. Jonathan just nodded. A friend of his named Shiro Kobayashi had just come over, and the two boys were sitting playing a video game on a portable computer Shiro had. The teenagers’ interest in the proceedings currently seemed to be rather minimal. 

 

“He doesn’t have his diaper on yet,” giggled Dawn.

 

“He’s a baby…that won’t matter much,” said Hardy.

 

Dawn nodded. Jeff ran out into the living room and picked up the phone and switched on the video screen. Everyone saw Dawn (who was in a hospital gown and pink knitted scarf) and little David and went,

“awwwwww…” as they saw the little blond baby boy with his little kicking legs on Dawn’s lap. He wore only his little white shirt, and his little legs, toes, and even his cute little bottom and boyhood looked adorable as his little legs flailed around. “Hi, everyone! Look, Mom! How does he look?”  Hardy also observed that Dawn had dyed out her blond bangs and that she looked a little more normal, now, if tired.

 

“He’s getting bigger,” said Lynn as she smiled at Dawn and David. Dawn looked a bit happier….she was even making David “wave” at the group after Vanessa helped her remove his little shirt so he could be cleaned off as he lay naked on his mommy’s lap. Sasha came up and made faces at David, and then Nova came up, gently pushing Saaha away to purse her lips and go “boo boo boo boo boo boo boo” at David. Then she crossed her eyes, which even made Dawn laugh a little for a moment until Katrina came up, dangling little Alex’s toy Super Star at the baby on the screen (and not quite believing she was doing this) as she smiled for a moment and she got teary-eyed before running to Foxy to hide her face and her tears in his chest as they hugged. Derek then put his hands on Nova’s shoulders and also joined in making faces at little David.

 

Finally, after Lynn talked to her daughter a bit more, Dawn said she was tired, thanked everyone, and hung up as they saw Vanessa helping her put a new diaper on David.

 

Lynn patted him on the arm and said, “This is sad. We buried one baby today but we are seeing the other one, all full of life….in the arms of my daughter. It took so much out of her to have them…”

 

Hardy wiped away some tears as he said, “Yeah….life goes on…I’m finally getting things ready for their homecoming in a few days. One thing that worries me about Dawn is that she was talking a little about high school again when she began getting better…”

 

Deke sighed. “She’s on that kick again?”

 

“Yeah….she is,” said Jeff with a sigh as he watched Nova picking up little Alex, who had on a little striped shirt and (sort of) had on his diaper. Alex had just learned how to undo his own diaper, and, as a result, with the utter lack of propriety of a baby beginning to go into toddlerhood, he was now also letting everyone see he was a boy. Nova was trying to figure out whether to put his diaper back on him or let him do without when he solved the dilemna himself by kicking his diaper off onto the floor. “Alexander!” Nova said, gently scolding him. Then, he began to squirm and pull at his shirt, going, “Itchy!”

 

“Are you hot?” Nova said. “Do you want to be nakee?” He smiled a big grin at that, and Nova then said to Mrs. Westland, “Lynn…apparently…Alexander wants to be stripped….do you mind?”

 

Lynn laughed and said, “Not at all. Teri and I had a hard time keeping his clothes on earlier when you were at the funeral. We dressed him partially because we weren’t sure if you wanted to come home and find him like that…”

 

“Not at all,” Nova said. “When it’s a really hot day, they’re barely even dressed most of the time at home…” Nova said as she got Alex out of his shirt and began to tickle her naked son’s tummy.

 

Derek came up with Ariel (who was likewise stripping herself) and he said, “When it’s a really hot day, Mommy is barely dressed at home, either…”

 

“Derek, they don’t need to know that!” Nova said as she playfully slapped her husband on the wrist while thinking, I can’t stand these stockings any more…or this suit….Sure, we needed them for the funeral, but now, I want to get home and change…

 

While she was holding little Alex, he kicked his legs, grinned at his mother….

 

….and before she could do anything about it, Alex was making everyone laugh as he went wee all over the place…mostly all over his mother’s white blouse and her black skirt.

 

“Alex!” Nova cried as Derek laughed and said, “I think he’s saying ‘take me home?’”

 

Nova nodded hard, and she said, “I think he’s saying something else, too,” Nova said as he began to unbutton her blouse in front of everyone! She had a slip on beneath it, so to give him what he wanted, Nova would have to…strip herself. She thus grabbed a sandwich and gathered up Derek and beat a hasty exit for their townhouse next door as Katrina followed them, asking, “May I come over, Nova? I want to put my normal clothes back on! I hate zese damn stockings!”

 

“Sure,” Nova said. “Come right over and follow us! Foxy, don’t get into any trouble while she’s gone!” Nova barked.

 

“I won’t,” he said while he tried to do some dumb magic trick with a deck of cards to amuse Jonathan, Shiro, Aurora, and David. “Now where did that card go?” he asked.

 

 

Once back in the apartment, Nova and Katrina got rid of their sandals at the door, and Nova took the additional step of reaching up under her skirt to get rid of her pantyhose while Derek unbuttoned her blouse and undid her ribbon tie. “Your things are in the spare bedroom, Katrina,” Nova said as Derek had her sit down in her beanbag chair with Alex and he helped her out of her black jacket.

 

“I do want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart for showing me what to wear to funeral observance, Nova,” Katrina said. “Even if the black hose itched like crazy. Now I see why you don’t like it much…”

 

“Now you know,” Nova said as Derek began to unzip her skirt. “Well, go get comfortable, Katrina. We’ll talk when you get back in here…Derek…run a bath for me for Alex? I have to clean him up.”

 

Katrina went to change. Once in the spare bedroom, she stripped off all of the clothing Nova had bought her and pulled on her purple sundress over her own usual panties.

 

When she came back out in her sundress, running her hands through her hair, she found Derek kneeling beside Nova in the beanbag chair.

 

Derek had changed into a two-tone blue t-shirt and grey shorts and went barefoot in the warm apartment. On the other hand, Nova was now sitting there on a beach towel in the nude and fresh from the bath with her legs crossed and Alex resting in her arms as he nursed, naked and wrapped in a towel from the quick bath his mother had given him and herself. Both mother and child showed fresh evidence of their bath; little rivulets of water ran down Nova’s face and chest between her breasts, and Alex’s hair was still wet.

 

Katrina smiled at her and said, “Nova, you have far more dignity about you like that naked than that giggling airheaded fool of the General’s did in her slutty dress at funeral. What was her name?”

 

“Jade,” Nova sighed. “Another one of General Stone’s mistresses. No one knows for sure, but her “battlefield commission” to Ensign last fall for helping Stone during the last battles with the Eritz Gatlantis back on Earth seems sort of suspect. She was once on my office staff when I was the Commanding General’s Aide some years back, and I found I had a hard time getting her to pass the tests to make Corporal, for heaven’s sakes! She is one of those girls who is so dumb she probably has to go barefoot to do math because she has to have her fingers and toes showing to count to twenty!” Nova said as she wiggled her bare toes for a minute and chuckled. “That’s a stereotypical dumb blond,” Nova added. “Derek, see if Ariel’s cranky?” Nova said as he held their daughter.

 

It turned out she was, so Derek brought her over to Nova and let her suck at her other breast for a moment. When Ariel sucked a little and then began to use her mother’s breast as a play toy, Nova smiled and said, “No, dear…you’re not hungry. Derek, see if she needs her diaper changed?”

 

“Right,” Derek said as he began undressing his daughter on the floor. The room was soon filled with baby giggles because Derek, like Nova, liked to tickle Ariel as he undressed her. In one minute flat, Ariel was out of her clothes and getting baby powder put on her bottom by her father, who made Nova smile because he kissed her and made goofy faces at her as he powdered up her bottom, upper thighs, and diaper area. Ariel giggled. Then, she pulled up her little foot and began to bite her own toes. Derek smiled at her, figuring her diaper and jammies could wait until she was done playing.

 

“I take it that General Stone is not someone who respects women very much?” Katrina asked.

 

“Hell no,” Nova sighed. “He hates young people, he hates the Star Force, and he dislikes me with a passion and the feeling is mutual. When I danced with him at my wedding, I could swear that he was looking down my dress at my cleavage. Later on, in April of 2202, once we arrived home on Earth to make our last stand in Ekogaru’s first war with us, he came aboard the Argo to help General Singleton inspect the ship, and I was made to do pushups in front of him with another officer from the ship…that was Eager…because our brass belt buckles were smeared. Luckily, Derek joined in with us. Stone also made me serve as his personal aide for a week in late April of 2200 when Commanding General Singleton was sick, and he pretty much turned me into his personal slave for over a week, and even crashed a private Cinco de Mayo party I was having with some of my girlfriends and friends from the Argo after work. He’s such a jerk!”

 

“Yeah, you wrote me about that time,” Derek added. “Nova, didn’t he make you wash his car once like his personal slave?”

 

“He did, Derek. Twice. I would not wear a bikini for him, though! I told him I dress like that only for you, Derek. I washed his car in a one-piece swimsuit with gym shorts on over it. I actually reported him to General Singleton for harassment, but later I found out that Stone’s buddies in the higher echelons of the government quashed it. Sorry, Katrina…he’s such a…I don’t have the words to describe that man!” Nova did have the words to describe him, but most of them used four letters and various obscenities, so she didn’t care to say them out loud.

 

Katrina found one of Derek’s cameras lying nearby, so she picked it up and said, “Derek, Nova…mind if I take a picture of you two with the baby, or would you rather be dressed, Nova?”

 

Nova rolled up her eyes a little, and with a twinkle in them, she said, “Well, since the kids have come along, Derek and my mother have gotten a lot of pictures of us, and I think I’m decent in maybe half of them? Derek and my mom both think it’s cute to see me photographed out of my clothes when I’m caring for the junior cadets here,” Nova said as Derek handed her a fussing little Ariel. She was now in a fresh diaper and light yellow pajamas, and the barefoot little imp immediately climbed up onto her mother’s lap, squealing, “MILKIE!!!”

 

“Oh, I still can’t get dressed with you around,” Nova said, mock-scolding Ariel. “Okay,” she said as she grabbed the baby, but then fell back with a squeal as her bare feet went out from under her.

 

Luckily, Derek was there to catch her and Ariel as she collapsed against him with her feet in the air and legs open.

 

Nova chuckled softly as she got Ariel latched on and Derek laughed, putting an arm around her,

 

Then, they laughed even harder and blushed as Katrina chose that moment to be utterly evil and take a picture of Nova in an utterly ludicrous position as she nervously wriggled her toes on her right foot.

 

A bit of music began to play on the stereo; a jazzy torch song called, “My Angel Put the Devil in Me”, a recent popular song that both Derek and Nova had gotten rather a shine to. Nova was trying to learn to play it on her piano at odd moments.

 

Katrina stood there grinning as she held up the picture from the instant camera of Derek’s. “You two will love zis!”

 

“Katrina, give it back!” Nova said. “That must show enough of me to…”

 

“Have a look,” said Katrina. “I know how to compose a picture!”

 

Nova grabbed it while feeding Ariel, and she breathed a sigh of relief that Katrina had not gotten a shot for posterity of her own…diaper area. What could be seen of Nova ended about at her navel, with a great shot of seven of her toes blocking out everything else. Derek was captured laughing like an utter fool while Nova had a look on her face somewhere between embarassment and admiratiion for her baby daughter.

 

Katrina grinned at her and said, “See. This again shows you have more dignity about you stark naked than that Jade bimbo has in a dress.”

 

“Actually, that’s very cute,” Nova said with a blush. “Uhhh..Derek?”

 

 

“The picture looks cute…but the real you looks far, far cuter,” Derek said as he kissed the side of her neck.

 

“Derek, dear…” Nova said as she smiled back and kissed the side of her husband’s neck…and then she kissed her daughter.

 

The young lovers were laughing softly as Katrina set down the camera and said, “Foxy is waiting for me. I see you two later,” she said with a wink.

 

“Yeah, Katrina,” teased Derek. “I don’t think you want to take pictures of what’s going to happen in about the next half hour…we have enough of those that we took on our own…we don’t need any help taking those sort of pictures!”

 

“DEREK!” Nova laughed as she playfully belted her husband. “You’re horrible! Katrina does not need to know our private lives!”

 

“I already have good idea of your private lives,” Katrina said with a wink. “That is why I am going! Don’t you two make too much noise, now! You will disturb the entire neighborhood!”

 

Nova grabbed a box of tissues and threw them at Katrina as she left. Katrina ducked, made a face at the young couple, and left them thankfully alone with their babies.

 

 

About twenty minutes later, after Nova called Lynn’s place (voice-only because she was still undressed) and found out that Jonathan and Shiro had taken off on their bikes to go visit a local hobby shop to buy some astro-fighter models, Nova tucked in a sleepy Alex and Ariel while laughing and trying hard to “fend off” Derek, who was smooching her, tickling her, and playing grabby games with various parts of Nova’s unclothed anatomy. “There,” she said. “Ariel’s finally tucked in and….” Then, Nova bit her tongue as she held back a little yelp, and then she said to Derek, “stop teasing me there every time I bend over!”

 

“Oh….you want me to pick you up off your feet to do that?”

 

A minute later, Derek, who was already minus his shirt, did exactly that, carrying Nova out of the nursery in his arms while she kicked and giggled.

 

The kicking and protesting stopped when they got to their bedroom and Derek kicked open the door to carry Nova in.

 

They fell on top of each other on the bed, with Nova falling down again in Derek’s lap. He kissed her, with one hand teasing her right breast and the other hand going straight to her exposed womanhood.

 

“My God,” whispered Derek between kisses. “How long have you wanted me in this worst possible way?”

 

“Since I fell in your lap while Katrina was still here and I was feeding Ariel,” Nova whispered passionately. “It was a little hard tucking the kids in while you were teasing me, but since we know Jonathan won’t be home for a while, please tease away!”

 

Derek did exactly that as Nova got his shorts open, down, and off as she lay beside him on their bed having her fancy tickled. She began tickling his fancy while she lay there in bliss, in love with him as much as ever as he teased her and made her toes curl up with utter delight.

 

Finally, when she was about to explode out of her body with sheer pleasure, Derek pulled Nova up on top of him while she kissed him like crazy and mounted him, taking him carefully but quickly. Many blissful, passionate minutes followed as they made each other feel utterly wonderful, loving each other deeply in their shared, hot passion.

 

Finally, after they both finished up and exploded in each other’s arms, Nova fell back against him and cuddled him under the covers, whispering Derek’s name and whispering, “I love it when you do things to me like that…”

 

“I love to be allowed to do things to you, my dear Nova,” Derek whispered as Nova kissed him. He held her and said, “How do you feel right now?”

 

“Like I’ve died and gone to Heaven with you,” Nova whispered. “I’ll be putting some clothes on later when I practice my guitar, but right now, let’s take a nap, shall we?”

 

Derek yawned. “Yeah, I feel like Baby Alex right now. A nap with you is a great idea…”

 

“Good,” Nova whispered. “You don’t really know how tired I am…with all I’ve been through with Jeff and Dawn…O, dear God, why do they have to suffer so much?”

 

“If I knew the answer to that question, Nova…we’d be….oh, I don’t know….I don’t feel like philosophizing right now, love.”

 

“A bit too mentally challenging?” Nova teased.

 

“Yeah…especially after what we just did. What did we just do again?” Derek teased.

 

Nova gave him a little playful slap on the chest and said, “You know what we just did! Wanna do it again tonight after Jonathan’s home and safely tucked into bed?”

 

“Now that would be nice…provided one of the babies doesn’t wake you up and need one of these in the middle of the night,” Derek whispered as he stroked one of her breasts under the covers.

 

“I think they’re just about past the four AM feeding stage by now,” Nova said after she yawned again.

“Thank heavens…when do you think you can wean them?”

 

“Derek, they seem to be doing it themselves…I expect they’ll be off my milk by the end of the summer…”

 

Derek smiled at that. “Which means we’ll still have a few more weeks of my randomly opening your clothes you at various times of the day when…”

 

“Make that randomly stripping me of my top or all of my clothes when we’re more or less in private…” Nova whispered.

 

“Are you complaining?” Derek whispered back.

 

“With my dishy, sexy one and only Cowboy of Outer Space doing it, who’s complaining about you pulling my clothes off? Even though, I have even more fun pulling your clothes off!” Nova murmured. She stroked his chest and said, “I love you…”

 

“Love you too,” Derek mumbled back.

 

Soon, they were both asleep.

 

 

About an hour to an hour and a half passed.

 

Nova woke up, yawning, as Nature called. She kissed Derek, who was still sleeping, and went to the bathroom, putting on a fresh pair of panties and a sports bra as she came back.

 

Then, she found the camera and found Derek sleeping. He had half the covers off, and he looked luscious.

 

Do I want to jump back in the sack with you, or do I want to take a picture of you like that, dear? Nova mused as she tapped her toes against the rug.

 

She opted for the latter, going “rrrrrrooowwwwlllll” quietly to herself as she took a picture of her naked young husband, with his sleek yet muscular form exposed between the sheets. Then, he woke up a little right as Nova took another shot, and he looked up at her and said, “Are you taking naughty pictures of me, Nova?”

 

When the picture came out, Nova smiled and licked her lips. “You’re getting good at this, Nova…too good,” she said to herself out loud. Then, she said to Derek, “Yes I am, sir. Am I harassing you?”

 

“If you are, this is a very interesting new form of harassment,” Derek yawned.

 

“Sauce for the goose, sir,” Nova teased back as she jumped back onto the bed and kissed his nose. “You love photographing me in all states of bareness…”

 

“Speaking of which, I love your underwear, Nova....”

 

“Yes, I rather thought you would, Derek. Oh. In case you have never noticed, I love posing for you in all states of bareness….but you look darn good, too. Almost good enough to eat,” she whispered as she mused over whether or not she’d jump back into bed with him for Round Two or not right now.

 

“Drop that camera, and let me get you out of your underpants and bra…you look overheated, Nova…”

 

“I do?” she said.

 

“Ahhh….yes….you are getting quite flushed,” he said as he ran his finger down her chest above her little bra.

 

Nova put down the camera, blushed, and kissed him again, climbing on top of him and smiling….

 

Then, she heard laughter outside and heard bikes coming down the path between the townhouses….

 

“Jonathan!” Nova said. “Damnit! I’d better get dressed…sorry, Derek….” Nova said as she kissed him. “Get washed up, quick, Derek. We both need to be decent…he’s probably bringing his friend by…and I do have to drive him home later, so I’ll even need shoes on…. “ she said as she rummaged through her closet as Derek got up, kissed her, and ran off to the bathroom to shower up fast.

 

 

FOUR MINUTES LATER….

 

Nova had thrown on a top, light overjacket, black choker, Capri jeans, and sandals, and she was messing around with a new pink Fender Telecaster guitar in the living room when Jonathan and Shiro came in.

 

“Hiya!” yelled Jonathan as he ran up to his mom (after kicking off his shoes) and kissed his mother on the cheek.

 

“I’ve been in and out so much,” said Shiro, “That I have trouble keeping track of who’s who here. Hey, Jonathan, is this your sister Michelle that you talk about so much?”

 

“Sister?” said Nova, puzzled.

 

“Well, you look so young, especially with those clothes and that guitar,” said Shiro. Then, he said, “Are you Jonathan’s mom?”

 

“I was the last time I looked,” quipped Nova as she looked at herself in a mirror, hoping she had gotten all of the sleep out of her eyes from the afternoon’s earlier nap…and other such activities with Derek.

 

“Oh, Mrs. Wildstar, I’m so sorry!” said Shiro as he bowed respectfully to Nova. “Ma’am, meaning no disrespect, you could still pass for a teenager…”

 

“Actually, since I’m pushing thirty-one, I’m flattered.” Nova said with a laugh. She strummed a few more chords, began tapping her foot, and began launching into a current rock piece called “I’ve Got Your Heart”.

 

Derek came out in a checked shirt and jeans as Nova launched into the refrain singing, “I’ve Got Your Heart, I’ve Got Your Soul, I’ve Got Your Mind written on my heart…”

 

Derek kissed her on the back of the head as she played and sat down with the kids, watching her play and sing. He applauded with the boys when Nova finished, and Shiro said, “I wish my mom could do that?”

 

“Do what?” Nova mused.

 

“Play an instrument. She doesn’t even sing very well. How did you get so good, ma’am?” said Shiro.

 

“Practice,” Nova said dryly. “When I was your age, Shiro, I’d sometimes play the guitar until my fingers began to bleed.”

 

“eeeeeeeeeewwww!” called out Jonathan and Shiro together.

 

 

“You guys are funny,” Nova said. “Shiro, want me to drive you and your bike home to your mom’s place so she doesn’t worry? I have to go out with Jonathan for a bit afterwards. He needs a haircut and I want to be sure they don’t cut it all off!”

 

“MOM!” whined Jonathan. “You let Dad grow his hair long!

 

“He’s getting a trim later this week himself…from me,” Nova said. “I think you need one, too, Kobayashi-kun,” Nova teased as she mussed up Shiro’s hair. She then mussed up Derek’s hair and said, “I know you need one. Watch the babies and please don’t burn down the townhouse. We’re supposed to close on it in two weeks, and I don’t Lynn would like it if we burned it down before finishing up the sale. Take care!” Nova said as she kissed Derek. Outside, she opened the trunk of her yellow and black Mustang and pulled out and set up a folding bike rack she and Derek sometimes used to take their bikes various places for rides (they had biked up and down the California Coast at various times, as well as having taken a day trip down to Tijuana once). She then put Shiro’s bike in the rack and took off a few minutes later to run her errands. 

 

 


II. DARK MEMORIES

(THREE DAYS LATER….)

Cometine Empire Capital World

Planet Great Andromeda

Earth Date: May 5, 2208

1631 Hours: Tokyo Megalopolis Time

 

 

Emperor Zordar sat morosely before a painting of the old Gatlantis holding a goblet of wine as he turned to his current Chief of Staff, General Karintz, and said, “General, how well do you remember my wife?”

 

“Do you mean your concubine, lord?” asked Karintz as he bowed.

 

“Yes, even though she was, to me, my wife,” said Zordar. His spouse, Invidia’s mother Countess Eloise, could not techincially have been his wife under Cometine Law because she was not of the Race, being a Pellian. Although Zordar had respected her, and in his fashion, loved her, he was only able to hold a commitment ceremony with her, and not a proper Royal Wedding. But, the commitment ceremony had made Princess Invidia his legitimate heir, and it had shown the Countess his love for her.

 

This had happened about a year before Invidia’s birth in the Cometine Imperial Year of 3244, which coincided with the Earth Year of 2183, Invidia was now twenty-five, but she had been twelve when her mother had been killed in a plane crash. Zordar remembered she had been just eighteen when they had gone through the momentous year when they had tried to conquer Earth…and had failed.

 

Zordar still remembered the day of Eloise’s tragic death as if it had been yesterday….

 

…and it still haunted his dark dreams.

 

Dreams he did not wish to repeat, and memories he did not wish to revisit….

 

 

 

The Cometine City-Ship Gatlantis

Sometime in the Earth Year 2195

Near the Edge of the Andromeda Galaxy…

 

 

“When is Mother coming home, Father?” Invidia asked as she stood beside her father who was now the Ruling Prince of Gatlantis, watching in the Gatlantis’ bowels as they stood in a balcony overlooking the runway on which a Courier Scorpion would soon land. It was carrying Countess Eloise up from the surface of Planet Nerkia, a small blue world in the Magna Star Cluster where the Countess had been sent to finish negotiating a peace treaty with the Nerkians. The Empire’s battle with Nerkia had been short, and the Nerkians had decided to surrender and accept Zordar’s terms only two days after the war had started.

 

“The negotiations on Nerkia went well,” said Zordar as he hugged Invidia close to him. “Your mother said that Nerkia was very accomodating in choosing to become a part of the Comet Empire. As a result, we will treat them well.”

 

“Father, I overhear the General Staff saying things about Mother,” Invidia said. “Zey don’t like her much, do they?”

 

Zordar shook his head. “I hear the same rumors, Invidia. The worst of them supposedly originates with a General named Palvov. I hear word from your Mother he tried to sabotage the negotiations.”

 

“Why would he want to do that?” Invidia asked.

 

“He thinks the terms I allowed Mother to offer were too lenient, and he does not like the idea that I let your mother take a hand in negotiating on my behalf. Your Mother is a woman of honor, and you know how kind she is. She understands our great power, but she wants us to wield it wisely. I know she follows some of the teachings of those we consider Learned.”

 

“Whom?” Invidia asked.

 

“The wise men and women of Planet Iscandar; a legendary world in the Great Magellenic Cloud. Someday, Invidia, our Empire will get there, and someday, we will discover Iscandar’s secrets. It’s also said that there is a strong world out there known as Gamilon. Perhaps we will conquer them someday…and perhaps we will ally with them…who knows? We have a lot of space to conquer before we get there, Invidia, love.”

 

“I know about the Gamilons,” Invidia said. “They’re currently attacking a silly little planet in the Great Galaxy that they say can’t even really fight back. Why would they do that?”

 

“I don’t know much of this world,” said Zordar. “What is it called?”

 

“They call it “Earth” or “Dirt” in their most common tongue,” said Invidia with a giggle.

 

“Odd name for a planet,” said Zordar. Then, the comm phone near them on the balcony rang. It was a distinct ring, and Invidia jumped for joy when she heard it. “Mother’s signal! She’s coming back! Father! Can we have dinner together later on? Prerfeably without snotty Caella around and creepy little Naska?”

 

 “Yes, we can have dinner,” said Prince Zordar as he picked up the phone and put it on speaker as Countess Eloise’s gentle, dark-haired smiling face appeared on the screen above the elegant two-toned purple and red sleeveless dress that she wore with her own Royal Pin in her beautiful but unruly dark hair which she had a hard time keeping in the requisite Imperial widows’ peak. “Hello, there, my dear Countess,” said Zordar. “How did it go?”

 

“It went well, my Prince,” said Eloise over the screen as she flipped her hair back in a gentle gesture that Invidia thought was pretty but which was a subtle come-on for Zordar. Eloise smiled at Invidia and said, “How’s my darling one today?”

 

“Great,” said Invidia. “Father has me down here with him on the Runway Level. He is letting me see you land! This is only the second time I’ve seen a ship coming in, and the first time I’m seeing you come in!”

 

“If you are good,” said Eloise. “Would you like to fly out with Father and I when we go down to Nerkia to sign the final treaty tomorrow? We will be good to them. They have agreed to an honorable peace.”

 

“I like that!” said Invidia. Then, Eloise turned to Zordar and said, “I had a strange dream this morning, but I could not discuss it with you, since you had a meeting with the Staff, dear, while I had to kiss Invidia goodbye quickly before I left for Nerkia. May we discuss it now? We are close to approaching the bottom of the City.”

 

“Yes?” said Zordar, puzzled by this. Why does she mention this now? Zordar thought. They say the Pellians have The Second Sight. Is she manifesting some of this now?

 

“I had a dream,” said Eloise. “About Pellias. And about a little planet in the Milky Way or Great Galaxy. I think I dreamed of the doom of Pellias, although I do not see how that can be. The Federation is too strong, and they are pushing that madman Ekogaru back. I told you of him once, Zordar…”

 

“You did,” said Zordar, remembering that he saw Invidia shiver when Ekogaru’s name was mentioned for the very first time. “But isn’t he just a legend of space?”

 

“No. he is real,” said Eloise. “Someday, I think, he will defeat the Federation, and it will be a dark day for Pellias. Then, he may turn his sights upon us.” Eloise paused as the camera zoomed back a little and the pilot of the Scorpion said, “Flight Control, I request clearance to land with the Countess. Please make the clearance Priority One. The ship is handling a little sluggish…”

 

“Flight Control Grants Courier Scorpion Four Hundred and Thirty-Five priority clearance in the stack,” said a bored-sounding operator in one of the balconies above Zordar and Invidia. “We have you on sensors, Countess. Path is nominal, but your pilot is a little slow. Can he bring his speed up?”

 

“Are we going to be all right?” asked Eloise.

 

“Fine, Countess,” said the pilot as he saw Countess Eloise looking scared. “You were saying to the Prince?”

 

Eloise nodded. “In my dream, that little planet…I’m not even sure what it was called…was an ally of ours someday in the distant future…and there was a gallant race there…a race who had made their world bloom again. It is vital that this little world allies with us and comes under our protection, for they…”

 

“Are you all right?” Zordar snapped.

 

“Sir, Number Two Engine is cutting out,” said the pilot. “Luckily, we can control the ship on one…coming up through the lower section now…”

 

Zordar remembered the sight of Invidia grasping the balcony hard as they saw the Scorpion shooting up in an arc from the lower part of the City-Ship, and coming in on its glide path at the end of the long runway that they were at the other end of. The black Scorpion began to slow, but it was wobbling a little.

 

“Father!” said Invidia. “Will they be all right?”

 

“Nothing to worry about,” said Eloise in soothing tones over the phone. She smiled at Invidia and Zordar and said, “Mergar just says it’s engine trouble…he says we could even glide in if the other one cuts out…he…”

 

“Number One is cutting out! Temp off the scale!” yelled the pilot. “Prince Zordar, who maintained this piece of garbage? We….”

 

“Be careful coming in, Mergar!” yelled Zordar. “Take it easy…take it slow…”

 

“Mother, about that planet?” said Invidia. “What do they call it?”

 

“I think in my dream, they call it…”

 

Suddenly, they were within sight of the balconies. Alarms began to go off as rescue crews scurried to set up fire equipment and a barrier net in case the Scorpion went down badly.

 

The ship dropped like a stone as the last engine cut out, and they could see the pilot panicking as he worked the control yoke.

 

Eloise’s eyes met Zordar’s and she said, “Oh, Arishna, please be….”

 

Then, the Scorpion slammed nose-first into the runway with a loud crash. Invidia and Zordar saw a final, horrible sight on the screen…namely, the cockpit of the plane filling with flames as the ship again slammed into the runway and bounced three times. They could see poor Eloise with her hair and her dress on fire, and heard her final scream before the image faded out as the Scorpion turned into a fireball….then, the remains of the Scorpion slammed into the runway for one last time and the fireball exploded.

 

Prince Zordar could remember Invidia looking on and screaming as a few brave rescue workers waded into the fire, smoke and wreckage…and he looked on, sickened, as he heard people yelling,

 

“Can we get them out?”

 

“No, they’re fused into the seats!”

 

“Can we save the Countess?”

 

“What is there left to save? Half of her is just bones now…we…”

 

Then, there was another explosion that even killed the would-be rescue workers.

 

 

Zordar remembered sitting in their suite with Invidia and rocking her and holding her as she screamed in his arms for what seemed to be hours. He guessed it was hours. From what they had overheard, they knew Eloise was gone two hours before the remains of the ship were finally safe to approach and they were officially given the grim news that the poor Countess was dead.

 

The wake, funeral, and mourning period passed in a daze. Zordar, for the sake of form, had to order the execution of the Nerkian High Council, and in his rage and grief, Zordar took it out on the Nerkians, who were reduced to slavery, mining in pits on their world either in rags or naked. Prince Zordar also began to extend his new, deep cruelty to other colony worlds that Gatlantis had conquered as the once-aggressive in war but honorable in peace Prince degenerated overnight into the vengeful, terrible warlord whose name would be feared and cursed across the galaxies. Without Eloise’s softness, Zordar became a brusque and cruel man that everyone in the Comet Empire feared, even (at times) his own daughter Invidia. 

 

Zordar found out that General Palvov had apparently known that Eloise would die that day. Finally, after severe torture in an experimental device known as the Sphere of Joy, Palvov finally confessed to planning her assassination by sabotaging her ship after half of his naked skin had been roasted off him while he was still alive. Zordar then ordered that he was to be executed in the Sphere of Joy by being roasted down to his bones just as the crash had done to Eloise. Zordar remembered that Invidia had been there with him during the torture and the execution. In fact, she had become cruel, filled with a rage that was frightening in an twelve-year old child, and she insisted on running the equipment herself and taunting Palvov for killing her mother as he had died screaming in utter agony.

 

In the present, Zordar morosely finished his wine as he threw away his goblet and then said to himself, “It is Twelve Kilev. The anniversary of her death, which coincides with the Terran date of May the fifth. Invidia always takes this particular day quite hard. I wonder how she is doing?”

 

 

ABOUT ONE HOUR LATER…(1802 Hours: Tokyo Megalopolis Time)

 

Foxy came home to Foxworth Manor that day from a meeting with some investors looking for Katrina.

 

He could not find her after searching much of the mansion, and he was gettiing very concerned.

 

amanatsu bed blush bra breasts brown_eyes cleavage dressing feet ginta glasses kazami_suzuka lingerie maid panties pantyshot purple_hair sandals scan sitting toes upskirt hands hands_on_feet highres legs Finally, Foxy turned to Elke Johannson, his pretty chief maid, whom he found sitting in a bed in her quarters buckling on one of her sandals to do some work outside after he knocked for admittance and she let him in. When inside her small suite, he demanded of her, “Where is Katrina? You always seem to be abreast as to what she’s up to? Where is she?”

 

“Sir,” said Elke with a respectful bow as she stood after buckling on her shoe. “She is in your suite. She refuses to come out, and she is crying. I am most concerned because she even turned Michelle away.”

 

“She turned away Michelle?”

 

Elke gulped and said, “Yes, sir. I do not know what has gotten into the poor woman. I am more used to her anger than her tears, honestly, Mr. Foxworth-Savela. This is most irregular. She states she only wishes to see you, or her friend, the young Commander.”

 

This reference puzzled Foxy a little and he asked, “The young Commander?”

 

“Yes, sir. Mrs. Wildstar. I don’t see what purpose could be served by bringing that poor kind young mother here to the Manor today. Every time she is here, Katrina overloads her with work, even more work than I sometimes undertake, but she almost never protests. What kind of woman is that?”

 

“Someone who is…different,” said Foxy. “I’ll try to see Mrs Katrina.”

 

“Thank you, sir,” said Elke with a bow.

 

Foxy then went to the master bedroom where he and Katrina slept. He banged on the double doors and said, “Katrina! Please let me in! This is Kazuo!”

 

“I may let you in!” Katrina yelled through sobs. “But I haf to think about it! I am very, very depressed! I want my mother!”

 

Foxy went to the doors and said, “Dearest, I wish I could produce your mother. But I cannot. I’m sorry, but your mother…has gone beyond anyone’s power on Earth to retrieve. And I wish I could help you…would holding you help?”

 

“NO!” yelled Katrina. “At least not now, forgive me!” she added. She lay on the bed crying as Invidia. “Please get me someone with my mother’s eyes. She even sounds like her. I need to be held by Nova for a while. She reminds me of Mother!”

 

“I don’t know if I can produce her from out of a hat, my love,” said Foxy. “She has a family…she has a husband…she does have a career and life apart from you. But I’ll try her at home. If they are even in Tokyo right now. They may have gone back to the West Coast of the States.”

 

Foxy called the Wildstars’ large house in the Megalopolis. On the second ring, he was staggered to get Nova, who was caught shrugging off a labcoat, carrying a wailing Ariel, and gesticulating at Jonathan with a spatula. Nova finally caught on that Foxy was on the line and said, “Okay. Foxy. I thought it was Derek! I’m expecting a call from him! What is it?”

 

“Nova, I’m sorry, but Katrina is freaking out. She locked herself in the bedroom, she is crying, refuses to see Michelle, refuses to see me, and says she only wants you because you remind her of her mother?”

 

“What day is it on the calendar?” sighed Nova as she yelled at Jonathan, “Jon, I love you, but you do that again, and you are grounded for a week! That means no Shiro, no Mike, and no seeing Felicia! And stop tormenting Fluffy with those cat toys and those stupid noises! You’re fifteen and you know better!”

 

“Awwww, MOM!” yelled Jonathan.

 

“Would you rather deal with me, or with your father?” Nova snapped. “Yes?” Nova said as she turned back to Foxy as she turned back to Foxy with a gesture of this is my life! Insane! “Foxy, I’ve been forgetting lately, what with Dawn calling me every day or hour, so what day is today? Make it quick!”

 

“It’s…May the Fifth…I…”

 

“Explains everything,” Nova sighed. “She and I talked at great length about this one night. Get some brandy, see if she will let you in. If not, wait for me. I can be there in ninety minutes,” Nova said as a beep came over the video phone. “That’s Derek. When I come over, he is to be let into the Manor after me, no questions. Talk later. Bye!”

 

Nova clicked off.

 

Foxy yelled through the door. “Katrina, Nova will be here in an hour and a half. Do you want some brandy?”

 

“Not now!” yelled Invidia.

 

Foxy went to the doors and said, “Katrina, if you are in black, if you know what I mean, you’d better Change, if you know what I mean. You don’t want Nova to see you like that if you are being the Princess! Is that clear?”

 

Invidia sobbed and said, “Clear. I am Changing now…”

 

She Changed back into Katrina and banged her pillow and screamed sobs into it.

 

 

At Earth Defense Headquarters, it was now close to 1900.

 

In the meantime, Major Gary Maples, controlled by Ekogaru, of course, managed to get back to Great Island, having just arrived back in the Tokyo Megalopolis the previous night.

 

When he arrived there, he immediately went to see General Stone, who was working late in his office. Maples knocked at the door and asked Stone, “May I come in?”

 

“Yes, Major,” said Stone. Maples came in and shut the door. “What do you want?” Stone demanded.

 

“Sir,” said Maples, who was not entirely lying. “While I was near Beijing, I found out some more information regarding the Josiahites.”

 

“The followers of the late Yvona Josiah?” said Stone. “It’s a miracle if any are left. I understand that Yvona is long dead and that, a bit less than a year ago, that damned hippie rebel Commodore Derek Wildstar and his airheaded flower child wife ran into a clone of her while they were mucking about on a train in Russia. The clone is supposed to have saved their lives and then vanished down some dimensional rift with some Technomugar or R’Khell agent. Is that right?”

 

Maples nodded grimly, knowing the story from not only the perspective of reports and briefings, but, thanks to the Entity in his head, he knew that Ekogaru felt betrayed by the failure of his mad son and the betrayal of him by the very clone of the bitch Yvona he had created. Maples then said, (with Ekogaru’s urging), “That’s the trouble with clones, sir. You clone something, you never quite know what you’ll get. Although I wonder what would happen if the Dark Lord ever got hold of some cells from some of those so-called heroes and started boiling a little brew with their genetic material? Oh, human cloning is against the law on Earth, but I do not believe Ekogaru follows our statutes, sir. And he’s so insane and advanced he could probably make a copy of a person from a few little bits of hair!”

 

“Let’s hope he doesn’t,” snorted Stone. Maples held back a smirk as he and Ekogaru thought, Guess what, Moron? He already has some genetic material! The sort that comes in hair follicles and comes off in strands of hair at the tips of those strands! And, when I find a proper base with a lab and some clone tanks, I plan to start cooking a nasty little gift that will grow and grow and grow and, lo and behold, the Earthlings will hate it!

 

General Stone got a phone call a moment later. “Hello, Jade,” he said softly into the phone. “Hon, I know you’re waiting for me. I’m stuck. Here at the office. Stupid damn cow Chelsea will never suspect a thing. Who’s Chelsea? My wife. Last year’s model. I love you, dear. I love only you, and I will love you forever, until the end of time. Yes, I’ll love you forever, Jade. Yes, dear, you sing well. Far better than that ancient singer, what did they call him? Hamburger? Meat Bread? Oh. Meat Loaf. Yeah, that was him. Stupid fucking Chelsea,” muttered Stone as he lit a cigar. “If I could figure out some way not to pay the bitch alimony…Yes, dear, yes Jade, I’ll never forget you. It’s cute how you count on your toes, dear. No, you are not an airhead, and I love you. Smooch smooch.” Stone hung up, and looked at Maples and said, “Fucking airhead,” as Maples began to laugh.

 

“Why do you keep her around?”

 

“She’s good in bed. Downright sexy and crazy in bed, matter of fact. Way better than my frigid wife Chelsea and better than my usual mistress, who is having pangs of guilt about our long-term relationship again and is getting near one of these female menopausal things, so she has me on the shelf and is trying to make nice with her ostensible husband all over again. But she’ll be back to protect her husband,” chuckled General Stone. “I’ve got enough blackmail shit on him to ruin any political career he may ever want to have, so my usual lady will come back to me to keep him safe. Women can be funny, Gary. You know that? I tell this mistress of mine I’d like to have her daughter in bed with us one night to make it a nice little threesome, and the bitch slaps me! Stupid dark-haired cow! I get ignored by my wife and slapped across the face by Mistress One, which means that I have to make time with Mistress Two. Of course, keeping Jade apart from Mistress One has been sort of an amusing exercise, but it’s been doable. Don’t you think women are weird, Gary?”

 

“Yes, sir, they stink. But, sir, the reason I’m here. I have intelligence on the R’Khells, and I need a ship to get off planet and follow it. As soon as possible. Can I get a ship?”

 

Stone puffed at his smelly cigar and thought hard for a moment. Then, he said, “I have access to a so-called “private” courier vessel…based upon the design of an O’Malley class planetary cutter. She has a wave motion engine and she can warp, but maybe only about a thousand lightyears per jump. Getting her into R’Khell space would probably take you about anywhere between fourteen to twenty days; you can cut that time in half if you warp her twice daily. You’ll get a small crew of eight. It will be two other officers and six men; you are in command. It will have some defensive weapons, but don’t go trying to fight a major battle. If you get into an entanglement, you run. And don’t ask for formal assistance; we are going to follow the law of plausible deniability and we will not be able to assist you openly. Are we clear?”

 

Maples nodded. “When can I pick up my ship?”

 

“Pick her up tomorrow; Dock Fifteen, Yokohama Space Naval Yards. The vessel will be named the Nicolai. Take it, go tomorrow, and God be with you,” said Stone. “You get in trouble, I know nothing.”

 

Maples smiled and saluted. “Thank you, sir…”

 

 

At the Wildstar residence, in the meantime, Derek had gotten home from his meeting at Earth Defense Headquarters. Ironically, his path and Maples’ path crossed as they ended up in the same lift, heading down, with Maples smirking at Derek while he thought about the intelligence he had heard from Sandor and some other members of the Inter-Space Committee at the briefing.

 

“Nova,” said Derek as he knelt down beside her near Alex’s high chair as he helped Nova feed the babies some beef stew, pureed, “The good news is that they are not finding any evidence that the Sun is expanding. That is a definite, so that any fears that the sun might be burning its nuclear fuel prematurely and on the way to being a red giant have been dispelled. For now. That is pending further observation, of course. And we don’t know when this Solar Max cycle will end, either. It could still be hot in December, and you may have to do your Christmas shopping in a bikini top, but we don’t think that we have to open the underground cities up again.”

 

“Thank God! You’re still going to be observing it closely when you take off on your mission in the late summer?” Nova asked as she flew a spoon around like a plan and made it “land” in Ariel’s mouth. The baby ate most of the stew quite happily.

 

“Uh-huh,” Derek said as he got a spoon for Alex. “How did the practice flight go this morning?”

 

“It went well,” Nova said. “I was in my Tiger between 0800 to about 1030. Debriefed at 1100, and got to Central Hospital at 1200. Made rounds examining some of Doctor Sane’s patients, consulted with him and wrote two minor prescription changes myself as a Nurse-Practitioner after said consults were completed, and got done with my shift by 1700. Got home, found the kids acting up a little, managed to restore order, and then, Foxy calls up. I told you that’s why I have to leave in a bit,” Nova said as she knelt in the rather battered jeans and red top she had changed into after getting a little settled at home.

 

“How long will you be, you think?” Derek asked.

 

“Maybe an hour and a half, maybe two hours,” Nova said. “It should not take that long to get Katrina calmed down. I think we’ll be eating late; sometime between 8:30 and 9 o’ clock tonight…is that all right?” Nova asked.

 

Derek yawned. “I had a snack before I left Headquarters, so I’ll probably be able to survive until you get in. Getting sleepy all of sudden,” Derek yawned.

 

“You get some rest,” Nova said tenderly as she kissed Derek on the cheek. “You look utterly exhausted, my love.”

 

“Yeah. Worry will do that to you,” Derek said as he finished feeding Alex and got his bib off. Jonathan ran in in the meantime, and he dutifully assisted his father with Ariel while Nova picked up a purse.

 

Then, the phone rang again. “Ohhh..I do hope that’s not Foxy or Katrina again,” Nova sighed. “They know I’m driving over!” Nova answered the phone, but she didn’t recognize the woman’s voice, and she did not recognize the slightly severe dark brown hairdo on the woman on the line. “Moshi-moshi…Wildstar residence,” Nova said. “May I ask you what you need, ma’am?”

 

“You’re Nova Forrester-Wildstar?” asked the woman on the other end.

 

“I don’t hypenate my name, but, yes, I’m Mrs. Wildstar,” Nova said politely, a little embarrased that she had been caught in a somewhat grungy outfit on her way out. “Your face looks somewhat familiar but I can’t place it. You are?”

 

“Mrs. Chelsea Stone, Mrs. Wildstar. I’m returning your message.”

 

“Oh, yes,” Nova said as she stepped into her white thong sandals as she talked. “I wanted to talk to you, Mrs. Stone. About…your husband? He was acting very inappropriately the other day at a funeral in San Diego. He…”


“I think I know where this is going,” Mrs. Stone sighed as she dabbed at a corner of her eye and wiped away a tear. “He’s seeing other women again?”

 

Nova nodded sadly. “His latest…conquest…if you can call it that, is a woman from Headquarters named Ensign Jade Foster. Not the most savory person in the world…she…”

 

“I get the picture; it’s happened before,” sighed Mrs. Stone. She stopped and said, “Can’t talk for long…his aircar just pulled up. He hates it when I talk to other women on the phone. Where can we meet up for lunch tomorrow?”

 

Nova bit her lip and then said, “La Brasserie Café. It’s a small French bistro near Central Hospital. They have tables outside; we can sit under an umbrella and talk. I like to meet up there quite often with Derek.”

 

“Make it thirteen hundred, if you can manage,” said Mrs. Stone. Then she said, “I’m so sorry, Mrs. Wildstar. I have to go! The last time he caught me talking to some girl…he slapped the phone out of my hand…”

 

“Oh, God no,” Nova said. Why doesn’t she leave him? Nova thought. This is an abusive relationship! “I have to run, too,” Nova said. “I have to go see a friend, and then get home and make some Garlic Tilapila for my husband and I later on. Take care!”

 

Chelsea Stone nodded and hung up.

 

 

** Nova drove over to Foxy and Katrina’s place in a beat-up yellow 2203 Fiat sports convertible groundcar that her cousin Jane had owned; Nova was caring for the old car while Jane remained in the hospital, but she was getting to like the banged-up old convertible and was thinking of making Jane an offer for it so she could begin restoring it.

 

Nova drove casually, with the top down, and her sandals kicked off, working the pedals and clutch expertly in her bare feet as she took the long way around to Foxworth Manor, flipping up her sunglasses occassionally as the motor and turbo whizzed along at her command with the wind whipping in her hair as she drove.

 

Here I go, passing the docks and the nearest WorldPower grid node as I look for the turnoff to Matsunaga Street, Nova thought. Darn me. I yelled at Derek the other day for getting lost. Now am I lost?

 

It turned out that Nova was not lost; just a few blocks out of direction. She finally found Matsunaga Street, and then followed the curving road until she found the gates for Foxwoth Manor.

 

Nova pulled in, shifted the car into neutral and pulled up the handbrake to secure it. She stepped out of the car, kicked her flip-flops back on, and walked into the mansion, not stopping until she found the ancient-style elevator. She closed the metal gate on the lift and ran it up to the third floor, getting off and walking down the corridors until she appeared before Foxy and Katrina’s master bedroom doors before a very surprised Foxy.

 

“Where is she?” Nova asked.

 

“Right here,” said Foxy.

 

Nova tapped hard at the doors and called out, “Katrina! This is Nova! Can I come in with Foxy?”

 

There was a long paused until Katrina finally said, “Yes, you can come in; I guess. Nova, no problem with Foxy, but I need you to hold me. You remind me so much of my dead mother it is not funny…”

 

The doors opened, and Nova walked in, kicking her shoes off at the door. Both she and Foxy held Katrina as she cried pitiably. Nova could see most of a bottle of brandy lying empty on the floor near the large bed as she hugged Katrina, who said, “Nova, you remind me so much of Mother right now…she had dark hair, but your eyes, your voice, our soft arms, your smell, even, you are my mother, my lost dead mother who died so cruelly…O, please forgive me….Arika’ djaega ma-quada e’mshlada, shlada, naga triki, dla’ja ega, mada, mada, mada…o….aga, Ari’tla, ooooo, oooooooo” whined Katrina drunkenly in Cometine before she gagged and threw up on the floor.

 

Nova held her and patted her on the back as she coughed and retched through being sick. Katrina had on a long black nightgown that was soon slightly stained as Nova got a wet rag and came back and held her while Foxy tenderly cleaned the mess up from off the floor.

 

Katrina grabbed for the brandy bottle, but Nova gently nudged it away with her foot and said, “Katrina, you’re already sick from overindulging, dear…I don’t think you should have any more…”

 

“You’re condemning me!” cried Katrina in her pain and paranoia.

 

“No, I’m not,” Nova said. “When I’m not pregnant or nursing children or on a mission, I’ve been known to go on a bender or two myself when stressed. Just ask Derek. Once on my honeymoon with him, I woke up hung over and stark naked up in a palm tree on Dominica, and I still have no idea to this day how I got there.”

 

Katrina smiled a little at that. “Who was up in tree wid you?”

 

“Derek. Also hung over, and also naked. He had no idea how he got there, either. Another time, we had a bad time with General Stone one night at a dance, and we came home and guzzled down a big bottle of sake between the two of us. That’s how the knee got torn out on the pants I have on now,” Nova said. “Something about trying to roller-skate down the street together at three in the morning, and….”

 

A moment later, Derek himself came in, clad in an old pair of jeans, sandals, and a green pullover. He was carrying Ariel in his arms; the little baby girl had on a very cute sleeper. Jonathan came behind in his school uniform carrying little Alex. Wildstar caught what Nova was talking about, and as he sat on the bed by Katrina, patting her on the head as he cuddled his daughter, he said, “Yeah, Nova. And you fell on your butt three times that night with your roller skates on.”

 

“It was two!” Nova insisted.

 

“Three times; I fell twice,” Derek said. “We both looked stupid.”

 

“You wanted ice skates on,” Nova said.

 

“No, you did,” said Derek as Katrina began to smile a little at their silly argument. “Nova, you cannot go down the street in ice skates…”

 

“Unless there’s ice,” Nova countered.

 

“In July?” Derek said.

 

“Okay, you got me there,” Nova said.

 

They both held Katrina until she whimpered and fell asleep. Then, both Derek and Nova got up and manuevered her into Foxy’s lap.

 

“When do you leave on your second honeymoon?” Derek asked.

 

“About a week and a half from now,” said Foxy. “We have things set up to go to Dominica, too.”

 

“Does she always get like this when she remembers her mother?” Nova asked softly.

 

“Yes, but never this bad. Then again, I never had her on the actual anniversary before…”

 

“Poor dear,” Nova said softly. Nova did not know that her comforting Katrina over her mother’s death would become a regular occurrence on every May the fifth….

 

..for the next thirty years….

 

…and even after Nova and Derek finally learned who Katrina really was.

 

 

Later on, the Wildstar family returned home in their respective cars.

 

At home, Nova got an adorable picture of Derek on the couch with little Ariel on his chest after he kicked off his shoes and fell asleep on the couch playing with his little daughter.

 

Jonathan was playing his mother’s piano (albeit somewhat badly) when he found his mother crashed out on the floor near Derek’s couch, holding little Alex on her chest. Nova was fast asleep, and so was Alex.

 

Jonathan smiled at them, and he got a pillow for his mother. He smiled at both of his parents, and then went off to do some homework while his tired parents slept near each other.

 

Later on, he surprised them by calling out for pizza and steak sandwiches while they were asleep…and paying for everything himself out of his allowance, with his father promptly repaid him for.

 

Then, the whole family sat on the floor (including the babies,who were fed bits of pizza and cheese steaks right in their parents’ laps) and ate, discussing the events of the day and catching up on things. Since the babies weren’t nursing as much now, Nova felt confident enough to take a few sips…just a few sips, of Derek’s can of Sapporo Ichiban Beer as she shared it with him sitting on the floor attacking the pizza box and good-naturedly fighting Jonathan for the pieces of pizza that had anchovies on them.

 

Then, while Alex and Ariel crawled around the living room behind a baby gate that Nova put up, the two young officers and their adopted son put on a tri-d fantasy movie that they enjoyed up to 2300 Hours, when it was time for bed.

 

Alex and Ariel went to bed after their bath. Jonathan also turned in.

 

Nova and Derek then also went to bed (but not to sleep), finally falling asleep bare in each other’s arms at about 0100 Hours the next morning, which was, of course, May the sixth.

 

It was a sweet, gentle family night for the little family.

 

 

III. CONFLICTS AND PLANS

Rio Amarillo Complex

The Hardy Residence

San Diego Megalopolis

May 5, 2208

0910 Hours

 

 

“YOU did what?” Jefferson Hardy demanded of Dawn Hardy as they stood facing each other angrily in their townhouse in San Diego. Thanks to the vagarities of the International Date Line, their argument came at the same time that Derek and Nova Wildstar were cuddling naked and nearly asleep in a state of blissful togetherness in each other’s arms in Tokyo the next day.

 

There was no such blissful togetherness here as Dawn yelled, “I was at a high school dance last night, Jeff! Okay?”

 

“You have a baby boy here!” yelled Jeff as he looked with sadness at little David. In the current subdued light, his blond hair looked a little darker than usual, and he was gurgling softly at his father as he tried to focus upon his daddy’s face with his big eyes, which were turning out to be an enchanting shade of green. “You were out so late, and we ran out of milk, so guess who I had to beg to nurse him?”

 

“Who?”

 

“SASHA!” yelled Jefferson. “I had to get Sasha to nurse my own child while you are out screwin’ around at yoah old high school, namely, Rancho Carne High, in that damn Varsity jacket o’ yoahs! Why do ya have to go back to a school ya graduated from years ago?”

 

“I miss it,” countered Dawn. “And how come you had no formula in the place?”

 

“Because you threw it all away and said you could nurse yoah son yourself! That’s all well and good, except when you come home at two in the morning, missing a shoe, laughing your head off, and smelling like a distillery!”

 

“So, I didn’t know the kids would spike the Gamilon Seawater punch there! The teachers didn’t know, either, and the chaperones were clueless!”

 

“Dawn, you’re clueless!” yelled Hardy.

 

“And you are a snotbag!” yelled Dawn as she stamped her flip-flop clad foot on the floor. “Snotbag, snotbag, snotbag!” Then, little baby David began to cry, and she turned to the baby in his bassinet (who had on nothing but his diaper in the humidity) and yelled, “SHUT UP!” in her son’s face. She tried to pick him up, but Jeff pushed her away and walked around comforting his son himself after picking him up. He was a bit afraid to let Dawn have him, since she had come close to shaking him the other day before he had stopped her. With such a tiny baby, shaking him could very easily kill him.

 

“Little baby snot!” yelled Dawn. “I hate him!”

 

“Don’t blame our son for your damn problems!” snapped Jeff. David was crying like mad now. Jefferson could tell he was hungry. Finally, he said to Dawn, “Could you please, dear, condescend to nurse our son?”

 

Dawn took him, and then she lifted up her shirt and let him latch on while he nursed at her breast. I hate this…I’m not a fucking cow! Dawn thought as tears of rage ran down her face.

 

She snarled at him as he nursed, pulling a lock of his hair as he suckled at her. She looked thoroughly frustrated, and thoughts of harming her son were going through her mind right now. All new mothers, even Nova, grew frustrated with their babies at times, but Dawn was the one woman in their little circle who was closest to throwing her son (her little damn boat anchor) out a window.

 

Jeff watched them, and he felt sadness and rage at this scene.

 

Sadness, that Dawn, at the moment, apparently hated the one baby left to her.

 

Rage, that she was not a better mother.

 

And, disappointment, major disappointment, that she was such a poor, poor wife.

 

You selfish woman, he thought. How did we ever come to this? We’ve been together for just over a year, and now….oh, I know part of this is post-partum depression, but, still….Dawn, couldn’t you just grow up?

 

Then, Dawn cut off all further discussion by throwing a crying fit with little David in her arms. She took the baby with her into the bedroom and slammed the door shut.

 

And, Jefferson Hardy, not for the first time as of late, was again left all alone with his thoughts….

 

 

Excerpt from the Upcoming Historical Work: Baptisms of Fire: Vol. 3, The Confused Years 2207-2214, by the Hon. Nova Wildstar, Commodore, MD, JD, Ph.D, Random House, New York, 2234. All Rights Reserved.

 

“…..One thing that I have forgotten, thus far, to mention in my account of the events of 2207-08 happens to be the strange, strange story of the Mongo Family.

 

The Mongo family was an old and honorable line of American and British stock. For some reason, perhaps showing what might best be described as very poor judgment, a member of a distaff side of the Mongos emigrated from the United States to Anglia around 2140 or so; supposedly for tax reasons. They thought that the taxes were lower in Britain than in the United States.

 

Passing aside Jupiter Mongo’s bizarre sense of….judgment…for the moment, Jupiter married a local woman named Molly Jones whose brother was named Desmond, who once ran a barrow in the marketplace in Kingston, Jamaica and grew marijuana for a sideline. Jupiter and Molly had somewhere around nine or ten children. Rumor has it that some of them ended up residing in the Nevada Desert around the time of the Trinity X series of nuclear tests in the 2160’s. Their fate is better left undescribed but some say some of threm are still alive, as a family of strange, inbred mutants that not even the Cosmo-DNA could fix. This writer does not care to meet them. A son of Jupiter and Molly known as Fred and born in 2154 remained in Britain where he grew up to be a minor tradesman for the Surrey Housing Council. Fred “Shabby” Mongo, as his peers called him, worked for the Council as a skilled plumber whose specialty was septic tanks and sewer systems. He is still alive, although this writer’s sources state he is now suffering from a severe case of advanced Alzheimer’s and does not now remember his own name but will gladly answer to the name “Michael Palin.” He married a woman named Shammy McGonigal from Scotland. Shammy remained a housewife for her entire life. She still believes she is one, and she now resides in a geriatric home near San Diego, California. This writer recently met her for an interview for this chapter. In said interview, she ranted and raved, and threw a bedroom slipper at this writer, calling her “a nosy, posh git of a pretentious bird in a miniskirt who’s putting on bloody airs and why’re yer’ leavin’ that bloody vomitous friggin’ penguin on me television set, luv? HUH?”

 

It goes to say that Fred (aka “Shabby”) and Shammy had eight children. Those eight children were as follows: a set of triplets born in 2175 who were named Rizen J. Mongo, Trachea J. Mongo, and Troglodyte J. Mongo, affectionately called “Troggie” by his peers. It must be noted that “Trachea” is the eldest female of the line who understandably goes by her middle name “Jennifer” as an adult. They were followed by a set of twins born in 2178 known as Victor J. Mongo and Cinderella J. Mongo. (It must be noted that this writer actually knew Victor Jocko Mongo during his brief college career before he failed all of his courses and became a Space Marine Sergeant.) The only single child, Elvis J. Mongo, was born in 2179. The last two children, twins, were born in 2181 and went by the names Mongo J. Mongo and Danny J. Mongo. Perhaps the diverging careers of Mongo and Danny Mongo will best describe the directions this bizarre family was pulled in by events. In brief, Mongo J. Mongo joined the malcontent racist cult of the Josiahites in 2201, and ended up being one of those who captured the space battleship Potempkin in 2202.

 

Somehow, during the Battleship Potempkin’s odd journey, Mongo jumped ship and found a home amongst other inbred mutants such as himself in the depths of the R’Khell Union. He eventually found new employment with another group of terrorists on Planet Spectra. On the other hand, his brother, Danny J. Mongo, found himself attending Pan-Am University in San Diego where he became an exceptional student, although he also became notorious for his bizarre dorm pranks involving shaving cream and small animals. Danny found himself in the Earth Defense Forces as a pilot, where he later became a member of the Black Tigers on the Argo herself. But that is a story for another chapter. We are primarily interested in Mongo Jameson Mongo as a case study. I have completed a psychological autopsy of this man, whose history began like this….”

 

 

In the meantime, we now return to the present, where, at about the same time as Hardy and Dawn’s disagreement, on Planet Spectra in the Crab Nebula, strange things were afoot.

 

The planet looked somewhat like Earth, save that it had become grossly polluted over the centuries thanks to industrial overdevelopment and relentless mining of its resources. It was nowhere near as ruined as Gamilon had once been, but under its smoggy, reeking skies, it was getting there as an acid rain ate at some stone buildings on an island near a coast of the Great Continent of Spectra.

 

The island was known as Bast Island, and it was the personal preserve and base of General Ibn Zoltar.

 

The weepy, stinking rain subsided down to a drizzle as a ship came in for a landing on one of the landing pads on Bast Island near one of the many cavern entrances. The whole island was filled with caves that led to deep tunnels that underlay the Spectran Imperium Base that took up most of the island.

 

Steams and smokes came from the Spectran ship as a landing ramp came down and the troops lined up on each side of the tarmac snapped to attention.

 

Zoltar purposefully strode down the landing ramp of his ship, accompanied by his lumpish, stupid bodyguard and manservant Mongo J. Mongo. Zoltar was walking slowly towards another Spectran Warlord with roughly the same rank, a blue-skinned man known as General Egobosslar.

 

“The Great Spirit bless you, lord,” said Egobosslar as Zoltar approached him and he saluted.

 

Zoltar swung his pointer, returned the salute and said, “The Luminous One grant you Light,” as he returned the salute. Then, he turned to Egobosslar and said, “How has your research of the life histories of the crew of the accursed space battleship Argo been going?”

 

“The assignment you gave me?” laughed Egobosslar. “My contacts are discovering things for me. I have the biographies of most of the major command crew here in this portfolio,” said Egobosslar as the two Spectran generals went down into a cavern together. The two warlords then entered a lift, which went down several hundred meters to a deep level of the base. A bell went off, and the doors hissed open, revealing a sterile-looking corridor.

 

They went down it and accepted the salute of several guards when they came to a set of double doors. Thus, they passed into an office suite; ignoring the outer office and the robotic secretaries, they went into the inner office, which was an elegant-looking room that one got into by going down a corridor built at the bottom of a canyon on Bast Island; the canyon actually gave a view of the sky through some of the windows, and the view could be spectacular at night when the stars were out.

 

They entered into Zoltar’s private office, where another set of windows gave a view of the leaden smog-filled sky, the sea, and the nearby coast of the Great Continent. Egobosslar sat and handed Zoltar a large portfolio while Zoltar turned on some music; a bootleg, unreleased version of the Beatles’ song “Not Guilty” from 1968 filled the office, at ear-splitting volume. In researching Earth culture, Zoltar had received a selection of rock and roll, and he rather liked the louder, more discordant stuff. 

 

Zoltar pulled off his mask, exposing his cruel face and long blond hair, and then he began to read over the contents.

 

“Commodore Derek Wildstar, Lieutenant Commander Tetsu Kitano, Commander Stephen Sandor…nice work….” Zoltar read a bit longer until he took out two histories. “Lieutenant Commander Diane Henson. Commander Nova Wildstar. The two women who were aboard the Argo when it dared to counterattack me the other day. Both enchanting women, by the looks of them, although Henson looks to be the stronger of the two. It appears this Wildstar is no intellectual slouch, though, is she the sister of the Commander of the ship? Hmmm….no…bondmate! This makes this even better. And this Henson…is a former paramour of the vessel’s Commander, too…and potential bondmate of the First Mate. This is…fascinating. What do you think are the chances of success that I can capture both of them?”

 

“Hard to say; their security is tight on their ship in some aspects, but very shabby in others,” said Egobosslar as he drank some red wine he had taken from Zoltar’s desk. “Would you like to give me the job of bringing you one or both of these sluts?”

 

“I”d prefer to do it myself,” purred Zoltar as he began digging in a small bag that held his “stash” of shlanka, a Spectran plant that was close to the plant known as cannibas sativa or marijuana on Earth. Zoltar was a regular smoker of the potent Spectran Weed. “I was planning an attack upon their Government in the next few weeks, but…”

 

“Can I come along, Boss? HUH?” yelled Mongo in his strangely childlike voice.

 

“No,” said Zoltar. “I need you here on my base to shine my weapons and sweep out my office,” he said as he began to roll a small, ugly-looking handmade cigarette coloquially known as a ‘joint’.

 

Mongo yelled, “Wooo wooo woo woo woo woo, woo!”

 

 “Are you a fool?” hissed Egobosslar, who looked thoroughly evil with the light shining off his blue-skinned face, bringing out an old scar in sharp relief.

 

“Nope, I’m a bona-fidey moron! Member of Amalgamated Council of Half-Wits Local Number Thirty-Two!”

 

“Sounds appropriate,” said Egobosslar as he drank some wine.

 

“Mongo, please go and clean out the reactor room again, would you?” said Zoltar as he lit his joint. “You don’t need the lead-lined suit this time; it only appears to get in your way!”

 

“Yeah, Boss!” yelled Mongo as he saluted and left, banging his bald head into the wall in passing.

 

“A terrorist war makes things so much more interesting,” said Egobosslar as he laughed, “To the Great Game, lord!”

 

“The Great Game!” said Zoltar as both evil men clinked glasses and then laughed like madmen. “Want some?” said Zoltar as he offered his smoking joint to Egobosslar.

 

“I prefer the wine, thank you.”

 

“To each his own,” said Zoltar as he lay back like a contented mountain lion and began to smoke his shlanka.

 

IV. OF PEACE AND OF WAR

Earth

The Caribbean Region: Dominica

EDF Rest and Recreation Facility Foxtrot

Saturday, May 21, 2208

0910 Hours

The flight was not that long for the most recently-arrived couple to come to the newly-renamed EDF R & R Facility Foxtrot on Dominica, which was where Derek and Nova Wildstar had enjoyed their honeymoon years ago.

The couple here was about to enjoy a long-awaited second honeymoon.

A Jet Recon Boat finally landed, with Katrina Savela herself at the controls. It was a very good thing that Invidia had actually been trained on how to fly a spaceplane years ago in the Comet Empire. Otherwise, her ruse as Katrina would not have lasted nearly as long as it actually did.

Not long after arriving on Dominica, Katrina got out of the Jet Recon Boat….landing on one of the landing pads near the bungalow. There had been more construction there since 2201, and there were now landing pads at the edge of the jungle as well as near the beach.

And, with no ado, she began to shed her flight boots, helmet, and then her flight suit.

She shushed Foxy and kept on stripping. Her underwear came off next, and then she went for a small bag in her luggage.

“Katrina! What are you…?”

“It is hot here, yes?” Katrina said as she stood naked before him.

With a smile, she Changed into herself…into Invidia.

Then, she put her Royal Pin in her hair and stood wiggling her toes as Princess Invidia openly went naked and barefoot as herself outdoors on Earth for the first time ever.

A moment later, she threw her bag over her shoulder, and found a big leaf to use as a parasol to shade herself and Foxy as she grabbed him and stripped him of his flight suit…boots….

..and then, everything else.

Invidia smiled at him as she watched him pick up his clothes, put them in his bag, and he began to walk down the path towards the same bungalow that the Wildstars had used for their honeymoon, which was nearly seven years ago now.

As he walked along….a certain part of Foxy’s anatomy began to wake up and come to….

…attention as he walked along naked, looking at his lovely naked wife.

Finally, he stopped. “Invidia,” he said.

“Yes?” she purred.

“I have…a problem,” he said.

Invidia laughed. “I believe I have noticed, Foxy one. Actually, I have a problem, too…”

Foxy then looked at Invidia, taking in her breasts, stomach, navel, hair, et cetera, down to her toes, and then, he said, “We shall require some therapy for this problem. The question is…where?”

Invidia threw off her bag, opened it, and got out a beach towel. She spread it quickly, and then got out a wine bottle and two crystal goblets. She poured herself some wine, and poured Foxy some wine as she clinked glasses with him and said, “Let us have a few sips, and then, I am sure you can guess what we will be doing…next…”

“And that is?” Foxy teased.

“If you cannot guess, Foxy, maybe you need more wine,” Invidia purred.

Foxy answered Invidia’s question by lying her down and beginning to just kiss her. He began playing with her breasts and caressing her all over in the warm sun while they kissed.

Then, as they kissed, Foxy slipped his hand down between Invidia’s legs. She did not resist at all as Foxy stroked her womanhood. In fact, she lay back on the towel and moaned softly as Foxy caressed her there…and then, he kissed his way down her breasts, down her stomach…and then down there as Foxy began to give her an initmate, beautiful kiss…which turned into several kisses as Invidia arched her back, moaned, and curled her toes into the beach towel.

Then, Foxy lay beside her, pleasuring her with his hands while Invidia eagerly but tenderly grabbed his manhood and played with him in the sun. Invidia cuddled next to him as he ardently touched her, and before kissing him again, she whispered, “I could stay here like this with you forever! Forever!”

“I know,” whispered Foxy. “Ohh…I know…” he moaned, trying to hold himself from exploding as he watched Invidia writing with pleasure and joy in his arms. Finally, she shivered against him, exploding in a climax that felt as if it would just kill her….it was so good.

As Invidia lay there mewing and gasping with naked, hot, longing pleasure, Foxy gently pushed her onto her back and took her…his body entering her like a clean, white lightning bolt. He started slowly, but sped up the pace of his dance as they writhed together on the towel, with Invidia crying happy, happy tears that glittered in the bright sunlight as she lay there enjoying the sweet, longing feel of lovemaking with her dear, dear husband.

Finaally, her pleasure increased, and Invidia was sobbing with utter happiness as she screamed, “YES! Foxy! YES! There is no one here to hear, thank Arishna, so MAKE ME SCREAM! Oh, GODDESS! YESSS!” she screamed as they exploded into another world together as Foxy’s climax hit, and Invidia’s second climax hit.

Then, they both lay there, shivering, crying, and kissing each other as they could not believe the sheer joy they had just shared.

“I love you so much,” moaned Foxy as he kissed her all over.

“Yes, husband, yes, Foxy one, yes, my sweet, yes my darling, I love you too,” purred Invidia.

“So what do you want to do?” said Foxy as they lay there on the towel caressing each other.

“To do what I vant, we have to go naked all day,” whispered Invidia as she kissed him again.

“That’s great,” said Foxy. “I do not mind. This is…fun…” purred Foxy as he tickled Invidia’s stomach.

“Stop that!” she yelled, laughing in such a way that seemed to indicate to Foxy she really wasn’t very serious about wanting him to stop….especially as the tickles that she disliked turned into kisses…and the kisses turned into caresses, which went…

…right…down….

there…..

“Oh, GODDESS!” cried Invidia as Foxy got back down to the wonderful business of making her feel as if she had died and gone to Heaven…

And, they went on like that….

…for most of the day….

Two more days passed for Invidia and Foxy as they ate, made love, played music, talked, made love, swam a little, made love, explored the hot jungle together naked, made love, took pictures, made love, made schemes and plans together, and, again, made love.

On the twenty-third, which was third day of their second honeymoon, late in the afternoon, Invidia surprised Foxy in the shower by Changing in mid-kiss to Katrina while they were playing under the water and making love. Foxy took Invidia again as Katrina (she looked a bit off with the Royal Pin in her hair as Katrina but rather cute), and as they did the deed under the water, she changed back into Invidia again (which looked better to Foxy while she wore the Royal Pin).

Then, when they got done, after Invidia got out and put a towel around herself, she winked at Foxy and said, “I have somehow learned to Change into someone else, too. I would like to show you. It is almost amusing!”

“Who?” said Foxy.

 “My little surprise. This just happened by accident one day when you were not home. I did it when I was half-asleep and worrying about her. I scared myself. It was hard to Change back into myself or into Katrina later. I vas afraid I’d get stuck like zis,” said Invidia as she put a towel…uncharactersticially, a pink towel… around herself and kissed him. “Now, close your eyes.”

Foxy did so, so he didn’t see Invidia shimmering as she made her Change yet again into someone else.

Invidia then said, “Now, open your eyes…”

Foxy nearly screamed when he saw whom Invidia had just Changed into.

Standing there, wiggling her toes, in a towel, and, incongrously, a Cometine Royal Pin in her hair…

….was “Nova”!

“What the?!!” said Foxy.

“It just happened,” said the girl who looked like Nova, talking in Invidia’s voice, although the accent sounded a little less deep and a little more breathy, sounding somewhat like Nova doing Invidia, or was it Invidia trying to sound like Nova?

“Now, can’t exactly change voice, although if I try to talk like she does in zat ridiculous nasal Terran accent,” said Invidia while, as “Nova” she wrapped a towel around Foxy’s middle and tied it. “This is to soak up the water, Foxy,” she said.

“My God, you are sounding like her now,” said Foxy, frightened by this new revelation of Invidia’s strange ability. 

“No. This is too weird,” said Invidia in a voice that now sounded about 85% like Nova’s.

“And, I swear, it was an accident!” Invidia said in Nova’s more excitable, girlish tones that did not fit her before she clapped her hands, and shimmered and Changed back into herself.

“Oh, yes….Much…much…better. How does she talk like zat? Surprised to hear she has any damn vocal cords left! Might work someday if I need to disguise myself as her for some ridiculous reason. Of course, just watch. Next thing you know, she pays Trelaina bribe, Trelaina gives her power to do zat, and then, POW, she then walks around disguised as ME! Probably never happen. But the thought of someone else doing zat is scary!”

“I don’t want to see Nova doing you. I want to see you doing you,” said Foxy.

“I like that. Now, you know that we have not worn much since we got here?”

“Yes?”

“Please step out of the room. I have a special outfit I have intended…just…for…you…” said Invidia. “Just give me a few minutes…”

Foxy kissed her and watched Invidia smiling and licking her lips as she closed the door.

He waited for her for several minutes, tapping his bare foot against the floor, wondering what was taking Invidia so long to get changed.

Finally, she opened the door a crack and said, “All right. You may come in. Now.”

Foxy did so…

…and he almost passed out.

Even though it was, granted, for a very, very good and sexy reason.

Invidia had gotten changed.

Boy, had she gotten changed.

The Princess had put on black panties, black platform sandals trimmed near the top of the straps in black lace decorated her bare feet, and her primary garment was a gorgeous black shorty negligee with a pink butterfly near her stomach, with a white rose between her breasts. Her outfit was decorated with a pair of black elbow-length gloves with black lace that matched her sandals, and everything was tied together with a short black cape.

Invidia also wore a black lacy choker trimmed with amytheyst gems, and she just looked….

…spectacular.

“I was saving this for you,” said Invidia. “Do you like it?”

“LIKE it?” purred Foxy. “My Goddess, I love it! And I love you in it!”

“I rather thought you would,” said Invidia as she steered him towards the living room. She put on some low, sultry jazz music and said, “Dance with me, Foxy.”

“In what sense?”

“We will begin with a waltz, and we shall end in the bedroom,” purred Invidia. “Of course, by the time we get in the bedroom, I want you to get me onto the bed, and then…”

“Yes?”

“I want you to get me out of these clothes,” Invidia purred.

So, they began to waltz…and their dance began in the living room…

…but, it ended up in the bedroom.

And then….

V. BAD DREAMS…

Earth

The Tokyo Megalopolis Region

The Wildstar Residence

Saturday, May 28, 2208

1645 Hours Local Time

Some time passed.

Invidia and Foxy were due to come home from their second honeymoon on the twenty-ninth.

Having a full weekend off, the Wildstars, after seeing Jonathan off for the day for a Junior Space Cadet Corps training exercise, decided to get their bikes and go for a long bike ride with Alex and Ariel from their house in the Tokyo Megalopolis, riding right down the coast to the edge of Yokohama and back. It would be a strenuous ride, but the two of them were in good shape. Carrying plenty of diaper changes, some baby food, some baby wipes, and energy bars and water for themselves, they took off in the early afternoon.

Derek wore an old top, shorts and thong sandals for the sticky heat, while Nova wore an old blouse, blue jeans, and pink thong sandals.

The young couple had fun riding down the coast, sometimes riding on a road near the beach, and sometimes riding on the beach. At least once, when they found a cove, they stopped, laid down towels, got the babies out of their clothes, and then they undressed themselves to take a joyful, naughty, skinny-dip with the babies in the warm water. Then, on towels as they dried out, Nova took advantage of her nakedness to give Alex and Ariel her breasts after she fed them some baby food on her lap.

Then, when the babies went to sleep clad in fresh diapers and sleepers, Derek and Nova made some soft, gentle love on the beach for a few minutes, happily besotted with each other on this sweet, warm afternoon.Then, they got dressed and began to get ready to head back. They took their time, so it was a while before they made much progress.

Later, Nova sat in the sun tenderly holding little Alex on her lap as Derek played with baby Ariel.

Derek looked at Nova and said, “You’re worried ahout Dawn, aren’t you?”

Nova nodded as Alex began to whimper. “How did you ever guess?”

“Well, you got that look on your face you get when you’re thinking…and you were discussing checking on Dawn and Jeff when we get back to San Diego next week,” Derek said as he played around with the bell on his bike, while thinking it would be a good fifteen-kilometer ride back up the coast to their little cove and their place.

Alex began to scream and Nova said, “It’s okay, darling,” as she opened her pink blouse and gave Alex her right breast again as he nursed hungrily. It seemed that he wanted more milk maybe two hours after having last been fed.  “Ohhh…you poor little baby,” Nova cooed as she pushed aside some discarded, torn netting from a fishing boat to sit down on the seawall wiggling her toes in her flip-flops. Derek noticed that she looked very youthful in that outfit with her blue jeans rolled up to near her knees so she could catch the sun. Then, Nova said, “Derek, why is it that Dawn is going back to these high school events? It’s really getting Jeff mad at her. I have an idea…but I want to know what you think…”

Derek sat down beside Nova and said, “I think she wants to bring back her teenage years. Agree?”

“Same thing I was thinking,” Nova replied. Derek gave Nova’s neck a smooch as he said, “Speaking of teenagers, you sort of look like one now…”

“Oh?” Nova said as Derek kicked off one of his own thongs, and played footsie with Nova for a moment, making her giggle as she switched Alex around and she playfully slapped at him and said, “Derek…cool it a little. We’re not in that hidden cove that we made love in before. Now we’re up here where half of the Yokohama longshoremen can see us!”

“Okay, Nova. But you still look like you’re about eighteen right now.”

“Why’s that?” Nova said.

“You look younger with your hair in a ponytail, and with those rolled-up jeans. All you need is a freaky hat, maybe, or funny sunglasses…”

Nova went, “Hmmm….Derek, the next time we hear from Jeff about Dawn going back to hang around her old high school….”

“Yeah?”

“I think I have to go there disguised as a teenager…to see what she is doing!” Nova said. “You think I could sneak into a dance behind her if I look young enough? What would you suggest?”

“First, lose the baby…”

“That’s obvious, Derek…” Nova giggled. “I don’t know of a lot of teenage mothers who still go to high school dances. What would you suggest?”

“Well, you must be the envy of other women around you, Nova, because you still look like a kid. Clear face…those dark circles around your eyes from the time that Dawn and Jeff’s daughter died and you were working double shifts have gone away…keep your hair in a ponytail when you go, and maybe wear weird sunglasses or something like a music star. Your eyes are so recognizable that I think you’d need to hide them…”

“Okay, Derek…” Nova said. “Sounds like a plan…if I have to do it. Is Ariel hungry?”

“She’s not making any hungry noises…”

“Let me have her,” Nova sighed as she opened her blouse up all the way and took Ariel. The baby girl suckled at her other breast for a while and then pulled away and went to sleep in her mother’s arms. Derek got up, smiled at her, and kissed his little daughter and then kissed Nova as he took her, helping his wife button her blouse back up part of the way until she finished feeding Alex.

Then, they went home.

 

SOME HOURS LATER: AT 0400 THE NEXT MORNING….

 

Nova lay in her bed with Derek on a very unseasonably hot and humid night in her bedroom, tossing and turning as she lay there, naked except for a fundoshi and her own sweat.

 

She woke up Derek because she lay there in the throes of a nightmare, moaning and crying in her sleep as she grabbed at the sheet and fought off an invisible assailant.

 

Derek heard her muttering, “Please stop that..please stop doing that to me! I’ll do anything….stop hurting Derek…please…”

 

Nova moaned again, and then her eyes slowly opened, filled with sleep, confusion and rage until she realized she was looking at Derek. Then, she sat up, crawled to his side, hugged him, and just began to cry…as she tore her own fundoshi off and then lay naked in his arms.

 

“What’s wrong?” Derek asked softly.

 

Nova looked at him and said, “I had a horrible, horrible dream. Someone was torturing me…on the Argo…”

 

“Who?”

 

“Some enemy soldier who had boarded the ship. He…tore off all of my clothes….and then…I don’t want to talk about it any more…just hold me!” Nova screamed as she began to cry at the memory of her nightmare.

 

She didn’t want to tell Derek, but it was a nightmare about being raped.

 

Derek just held her as she shivered in his arms. She very seldom thought about them, but Nova had survived three close calls with rape in her lifetime; once on Diamond Island in 2200, once at the hands of the Technomugar in that evil castle dungeon and torture chamber on Planet Carufax in 2201, and once at the hands of Lance Stovall in 2204. In all three of those occassions, she had been either partially or totally stripped, touched in a lewd manner, and sexually taunted…but Nova had never actually been penetrated by another man in her life except for, of course, Derek.

 

Now, sobbing softly,Nova kissed him and made him run his hands down her body so she could be touched there.  Derek did so and found out that his young wife lay there aroused and trembling…he wondered if the nightmare had done it to her as he pulled Nova into his lap, kissed her, and began to play with her breast as he touched her while she sobbed softly. She kissed Derek back, and her hands went for his manhood (she had gone to bed in her fundoshi while he had gone to bed naked) as she began to touch and caress him.

 

Many wonderful and sad minutes passed until Nova helped Derek get on top of her and then helped him take her. The young lovers then made love tenderly and softly, going on until the final burst of pleasure came and they were both satiated.

 

Nova lay on top of Derek, whispering to him, calling him by all sorts of endearments. He asked her, “Did that help make you feel safer?”

 

 “It did, my darling..thank you,” Nova whispered as she caressed his cheek. “Do you think we could do it again?”

 

 “If I can get my engine running, I…”

 

Then, they heard little Alex crying. Nova kissed Derek and ran up out of bed naked to get him.

 

She came back and lay on the bed a moment later with her son in her arms as she tenderly gave him a breast

 

“Another interruption to our love life,” Derek sighed.

 

Nova striked Derek’s hip as she said, “Yes! But isn’t our darling little boy a cute interruption?” Nova said as she lay back on the bed naked in the warm night giving him her breast again. “I’m almost going to miss this when they’re weaned, Derek. Sometimes…this is kind of fun…”

 

Derek cuddled up to Nova and played with Alex and then Alex’s mother. He felt his son’s bottom and then touched Nova’s belly button. It was such a sweet scene…

 

Then, a moment later, they heard more crying.

 

It was Ariel.

 

“Oh, no, she’s hungry, too,” said Nova.

 

Derek got up, but the crying stopped a little as they heard a door opening and heard footsteps.

 

“Derek, who’s…?”

 

“Just Jonathan, Nova,” said Derek. A moment later, the bedroom door opened, and their adopted son came in, clad in only a fundoshi, and smiling a little as he tried to keep his baby sister from rooting at his bare chest as the baby tried to suck at one of his nipples.

 

“Mom, she’s silly,” giggled Jonathan. “She thinks I give milk!”

 

“Jonathan, dear, she’s just a tiny baby and doesn’t know any better,” Nova said. “Put her on my tummy,” Nova said. Jonathan crawled into bed between his parents, reassured a little by the warmth of their naked bodies, and he rested his little sister against his mother’s free breast as the baby girl latched right on, smelling the milk that was on Nova’s breast. Nova embraced her baby girl, and kissed Jonathan as Derek put his arms protectively around her, Jonathan, and his two youngest children. Derek smiled at Nova and at Jonathan, and he kissed Nova and then kissed the back of Jonathan’s head as he roughly but tenderly stroked his teenage son’s chest.

 

“I like it here with you guys,” Jonathan said.

 

“God knows you come in here enough when you have nightmares,” Nova said softly.

 

“We know what you’ve been through with the Rikashans, so we don’t mind if you need us, Jon,” Derek said gently.

 

“What about what I went through with Astra?” sobbed Jonathan. “And that crazy priest?”

 

“That orphanage was a horrible place,” Nova said softly. “It would give anyone nightmares.” Then, Nova said, “Maybe someday Felicia will be comforting you?”

 

“Mom…I don’t know how serious we are…I…” stammered Jonathan.

 

“I’ve seen the way that girl looks at you,” Nova said. “I’ve also seen the way you look at her. It’s hard to deny when you’re in love,” Nova said.

 

“It would be better if you hold off…you know…,” stammered Derek. He and Nova had discussed the facts of life with him already (well, mostly Nova, he was horrible at discussing sex with anyone except Nova…usually in bed with her!) but he had a hard time getting his wishes to him. “How far have you gotten with her? Come on!”

 

“Uh…first base.” said Jonathan. “We’ve kissed. I mean, the idea of jumping in the sack with her yet…I don’t want to be tempted with unseemly thoughts, and…”

 

“You do think about girls,” Nova purred. That made Jonathan blush. Nova had once found that Jonathan had a collection of a few centerfolds, some of girls in swimwear, some of girls in nothing at all. She also knew that he slipped off to his bedroom to do what 95 percent or so of adolescent boys his age did (she had caught him in the act in only his skin once and had made a rapid 180-degree turn out of there, making sure his bedroom door was locked!) so she knew that he most likely had a normal teenage interest in the opposite sex. Jonathan remembered that he thought it was cool that his mother had never yelled at him for what she had glimpsed him doing, or had ever mentioned it except for having his father check the lock on his bedroom door to make sure it worked. A gentle reminder from her to “please lock your bedroom door when you need privacy” was all that was ever said about it.

 

“Yeah…I think about girls..” said Jonathan.

 

“Are you and Felicia going steady?” Nova teased.

 

“MOM!” said Jonathan.

 

“Novelle, that’s enough,” said Derek. “He does not need to go through the third degree over this. How would you feel if he began quizzing us about what we were up to before…?”

 

“Derek!” Nova yelled, blushing herself. “I…better put on a nightie..I…darn it…babies,” Nova said as she realized she couldn’t go anywhere right now with two babies suckling at her. “I…”

 

“Jonathan, help me get the covers for your mom,” Derek said. Jonathan unfolded the sheet and then Derek covered Nova’s nakedness with it. Derek got up, put on a fundoshi, and crawled back into bed, hugging Jonathan as he pulled a cover over the two of them.

 

A while passed during which the whole family just cuddled. Then, all together, they all went to sleep together, with Nova and Derek hugging each other and hugging their children.

 

As Derek fell asleep, he thought it was one of the most tranquil scenes of his life, as he lay there…no longer alone at last.

 

 

TO BE CONTINUED…..