PLAUSIBLE DENIABILITY

An AU Battle of the Planets/Star Blazers crossover

By Frederick P. Kopetz

Inspired by Yuki Wildstar and Gail (Fluffy) Kopetz.

 Thanks again for the reviews and input….now, here we go! 

CHAPTER THREE: HEARTBREAK HOTEL

I. FLYING HOME…

Earth Orbit

September 7, 2221

0130 Hours: Local Time

“Well?” said Nova Wildstar up in orbit in the Roach Mecha’s head. They had survived their encounter with the Tigers. By just a hair. Derek had made radio contact just in time. Luckily, the Flight Leader of the planes they were had been up against turned out to have been Commander Flash Contrail, who was now the Group Leader of the Sun Tigers, which was the Flight Group normally deployed to the space battleship Arizona. The career pilot had recognized Derek’s voice before shooting, so Contrail had called off the attack and was now escorting the Spectran Mecha back home.

 “The good news,” said Derek as he pulled off his flight jacket and threw it over the back of the chair, revealing a still-buff lean torso clad in a sweaty black t-shirt, “is that I’ve just managed to reprogram the IFF transponder in this thing so it is giving off an EDF code. Thanks to that IFF unit and Contrail, we should not have any more close encounters…at least with our own planes.”

“What’s the bad news?” Nova said as she took a cotton swab out of her purse and ran it over a wadded-up tissue she had found on the deck.

“Re-entering might be a little bit tough. This thing’s glide path is going to be so weird that it’ll make my crazy Super Starfighter seem like driving a luxury aircar.”

“That bad, huh?” Nova said.

“And what are you up to with that cotton swab in that mucus? Yeeeccch.”

 “I am hoping I can get some of Zoltar’s DNA for an analysis. Even Lord Zoltar has to blow his nose sometime. I’m convinced that girl “Kathi” we saw tonight in that bar was connected to Zoltar. Either his sister or some Galaxy Girl agent…or, at the worst, the R’Khells have some kind of alliance with the Spectrans now.”

 “Not those guys,” said Derek as he pushed some buttons and began to play back the flight recorder. Zoltar’s laughter filled the compartment as Derek winced at some of the insults. “Fat? Why does he think I’m fat? I am not fat!”

 “Maybe it’s that jacket,” Nova said as she stopped her collecting to hug her husband and give him a kiss while rubbing his shoulders. She also had her own coat off, and, beneath the baggy trenchcoat, the turtleneck sweater, suede skirt, and elegant pumps that she had switched back to (since her stolen boots hurt her feet) combined with her still-slender figure to make her look like a woman somewhere between twenty-eight to thirty-six years old. “There’s too much tension in your deltoids. Relax,” she said.

 Admiral Wildstar put his head back, and he said, “This is no longer a bit of isolated terrorism. The past five attacks in the past eight months show they’re working up to something really sick, but what?”

 “Like the remains of my late aunt’s cult,” Nova said, “trouble with Spectra began around late 2208, when our second-oldest son and daughter Alex and Ariel weren’t even a year old yet. The assassination of Defense Minister Ainsley? Remember that?”

 Derek did, all too well, nodding as he concentrated on flying, and on thinking. The bizarre assassination of a member of the Earth Defense Council by Zoltar while he had been disguised as Nova followed by an ident of an alien ship speeding away from Earth towards the Crab Nebula had led to the Argo being deployed for some weeks in the late summer of that year in conjunction with a survey mission of the Sun as Wildstar had led the reunited Star Force in hot pursuit of the enemy ship. They had been forced to pursue Zoltar all the way to the Great Magellanic Cloud, and had almost gotten him (on Gamilon, of all places), but the terrorist madman had gotten away right as they had been about to unmask him. Derek remembered making it home with Nova just in time for his son and daughter’s first birthday and then for Nova’s first week of Medical School. The babies whose first birthday he had come home for were now each fourteen, and were waiting for their parents in a hotel suite back in Uto City along with their grandparents and their three younger siblings, two of whom had come along as a second set of twins. The Wildstars didn’t mind, and neither did Nova’s parents; Earth needed children to regenerate humanity after all of the losses the human race had suffered in the late 22nd and early 23rd century due to Earth’s space wars.

 Nova gave Derek a kiss on the neck and said, “We’ll be home soon, Derek.”

“Yeah, I hope those G-Force kids and Jonathan are all right,” Derek said.

“Mark, Mark, MARK!” cried Princess.

Mark Anderson, G-1, the Eagle of G-Force, was on the ground on his back, moaning. His white Birdstyle had been somewhat scorched when he had been knocked out, but his cerebonics and the wings of his Birdstyle had worked in concert to cause what would have been a fatal toss out of the exploding Roach Mecha to be nothing more than a bad fall.

Mark blinked his eyes, and he shook his head hard. “Uhhhhnnn,” he muttered.

“You’re all right!” said Princess as she hugged him and allowed herself a few tears.

Mark shook his head, and he muttered, “Princess Traci Yussupov, you look like you’ve been in a trash compactor.”

“Wait until you see what you look like,” said Princess as she looked around and then Transmuted out of her battered pink Birdstyle back into her t-shirt, striped jeans, and loafers so that she could get a better idea of where her wounds were. Her jeans were torn and bloody in a few spots, and Mark could see the tips of Princess’ toes on her right foot showing through a torn shoe. “I have no idea where Jason is. I saw that pilot of ours named Ramsey landing against a tree.”

“How was he?”

“His head was missing,” said Princess with a shiver as she sobbed against Mark. “Your shoulder is bleeding!”

“I’ve been through worse,” said Mark as he fingered his lethal boomerang.

“Come in, Mark! COME IN, MARK!” said Tiny over Mark’s headset in his helmet.

“Yeah, the Commander’s here,” Mark said. “And he royally screwed this one up, Tiny!”

“How bad?”

“Well, the Wildstars got shot off into space…”

“We were tracking them,” said Keyop. “Brip…boop…damnit, sorry. I mean…got a transmission from them. Guess they’re alive.”

“Good,” said Mark. “Where’s the Big Purple Smelly Cheese gone?”

“Tracked Zoltar’s escape ship to the Moon,” Tiny said. “The patrol cruiser Yalu reported back to Earth Defense that they almost got a shot in against him, but he warped away, laughin’ like crazy and sayin’ he has the Wildstars’ kid with him and that Brock goon. Course he abandoned all his guys as usual. I’d hate workin’ for Spectra. No retirement plan. You guys got anyone alive?”

“Jason’s not answering my signal,” said Mark as he pushed his bracelet obsessively. “I don’t know where he is…”

Princess jumped up and gasped. “Mark!”

“Yes?” he replied.

Princess was pointing to Jason, who was staggering up with a spare Feather Shuriken in one hand. The other one was caught firmly in the throat of a Spectran trooper he had just killed.

“Saved your butts again,” said Jason. “He was sneaking up on you two.”

“We were distracted,” said Mark. “Prin’s hurt.”

“Yeah? We’re all hurtin’ tonight. This is the crappiest night I’ve had in a month. One minute, we’re that close from getting Zoltar again, next minute, we’re all messed up.” said Jason scornfully while Princess gave him a rather dirty look. “If the Wildstars are still alive, how are we gonna tell them Zoltar got their kid?”

“Let me work on that one,” Mark said.

A moment later, Mark’s communicator went off. It was Chief Anderson. “Mark? Come in,” he demanded.

“Yes, Chief?”

“The Wildstars have just landed that Spectran mecha that they were in at the military airfield at the edge of town. They are on their way back to the Hotel Orion Embassy downtown. I want you and the team to meet them there and debrief each other on what happened after you secure the Phoenix at the airfield. Jason and Princess are not to use their personal vehicles; a staff car is waiting for you. Be careful when you speak to the Admiral and Captain about the loss of their son. Go in your everyday clothes; the Wildstars all know who you are.”

“Big ten, Chief,” said Mark as he de-Transmuted back to his normal form.

II. AT THE HOTEL…

Hotel Orion Embassy

September 7, 2221

0400 Hours: Local Time

All of G-Force had de-transmuted back to their civilian wear by the time they got to the hotel.

The Wildstars were staying in a suite on the sixteenth floor that was guarded by two EDF Space Marines. The Marines must have had their orders; they admitted the four teenagers and one pre-teen to the room without question after looking over their T-shirts and jeans.

When they got in there, they found Admiral Wildstar, in his red and grey T-shirt, pajama bottoms, and bare feet, sitting on a couch in the suite with a crying young red-headed woman who looked to be about twenty-seven. The redhead had on a sailor top and shorts, and she looked very young. Sitting beside the redhead was a chubby man with a mustache and glasses in a suit who was about sixty-five now, near him sat a woman with her hair in a bun who was sixty-four; she wore a nightgown and flip-flops.

“Ah, glad to see you’ve arrived,” Derek said. “Nova’s in the bedroom reading to the kids to try to get them to go back to sleep; both ours and Jonathan and Felicia’s. Yes, we already know…about Jonathan. This young woman here is Felicia Hartnell-Wildstar, the wife of my adopted son Jonathan and my daughter-in-law, and the man with the mustache is Karl Forrester, my father-in-law, and this is Teri Forrester, my mother-in-law. Mister and Mister Forrester, these kids are ISO agents who work with G-Force, namely, Mark Anderson, Jason Asakura, Traci Yussupov, Desmond Harper, and Keyop Jupiter.”

Mark and the team shook hands with Nova’s parents. Nova’s mother Teri hugged Traci and said, “You look no older than my two youngest, who are going on nineteen. How old are you, honey?”

“Sixteen,” Princess replied.

“God. I hate these wars and what they do to Earth. The warriors we send out are too young. My Nova was just a little older than you when she first shipped out on the Argo years ago to go to Iscandar. How old were you then?”

“Teri, can’t you do math in your head?” joked Karl. “She wouldn’t have even been born in 2199. She would have been born around the time the Second Cometine War began in 2205.”

“That’s right,” Traci said. “I sort of remember my father…not all that well. They say he was killed by the Russian Mob. Later my mother left me with an orphanage, where I met Keyop, before Chief Anderson was made my guardian. I almost wanted to killed myself out of grief after my mother died, until I met Keyop and had something to live for.”

“I feel like killing myself from grief now!” yelled the redhead as she sobbed while Derek held her. “I hope you people can locate Jonathan! Derek and Nova and those G-Force agents really messed this one up!”

Derek sighed. “You know we did all that we could.”

“LIAR!” screamed Felicia as she slapped Derek across the face.

A moment later, Jason’s head turned as a door opened. Slipping into the room like a gentle wraith was Nova, who was barefoot in a knee-length simple blue nightgown and holding a six-year old girl by one hand; she carried a glass in the other one. The little girl looked a bit like Jonathan with her sandy blonde hair and determined eyes, Jason noted.

“Derek, she began crying for her mother and father,” Nova said. “The others know I’ll be back. This is the youngest.”

“Where’s my Daddy?” the young girl. “How come he isn’t back yet?” she said as she ran on light little bare feet in her yellow nightie to her mother.

“Staci, these kids here have some bad news,” said Felicia as she grabbed the little girl while Nova mixed the glass of water she carried with a swizzle stick in the glass.

“What is it?” she cried.

Princess went to little Staci and held her hands. “Your father’s a prisoner of war. Zoltar captured him and took him back to Spectra. G-Force told us this.”

“G-Force stinks!” screamed the little girl. “I want my Daddy!”

“So do I,” said Felicia. “So do I.”

“We all want your father home safely,” Nova said as she knelt by Felicia and Staci.

“Gramma, you’d better not be lying!” demanded Felicia.

Nova tickled her unlikely grandchild under her chin as she said, “I wouldn’t lie to you so close to your birthday, Staci. You had such a nice party and all!”

“I remember being pregnant with her right around the time you had Teresa seven years ago,” Felicia said. 

“I know. We went to see Doctor Stewart together; that’s well after she hitched up with Doctor Sane,” Nova said. “We changed their diapers together, got spit up on together, and dealt with the nursing bra and boobs bit together.”

Felicia smiled a little. “To think I nearly belted Jonathan when I was feeding her with one boob and he wanted to play with the other one that night!” Felicia laughed, not wanting to admit to her mother-in-law that she and Jonathan had been “playing around” in some form or another ever since they had met when they had both been fourteen, having been boyfriend and girlfriend all throughout high school and college. To be precise, it was the Space Fighters’ Training School for Jonathan; the members of G-Force had gone to the similar Federation Special Forces Academy on the same campus and in those days, they had even taken a few upper-level classes with the cocky older Regular EDF Midshipmen.

Nova laughed. “Derek’s got a bit more experience at that sort of thing than Jonathan does. Remember what happened with all five of ours, dear?”

“I keep in my head everything about Alex, Ariel, Steve, Anya, Teresa, and our adopted Jonathan like a Russian novel,” Derek said with a yawn. “Guys, like to go in to the other room and meet them?”

“Sure,” said Princess as Jason scowled. “It’ll be charming.”

“Let’s go,” said Mark. Not far away, Princess noticed Nova coaxing both Felicia and Staci to drink some of her glass of water. They both did, and Staci lisped, “Thanks, Gramma,” and kissed Nova before Nova led her by the hand back into the other room.

When they got in there, the first thing they noticed was a tallish fourteen-year old boy in grey sweat pajamas with dark, tousled brown hair yelling, “Okay, people, SHUT UP! Mom and Dad are coming, so you’d better SHUT UP!”

Beside him, a lovely fourteen-year old girl with honey-blond hair extending down to her waist and a long pink nightgown yelled, “Alex, let me tell them to shut up!”

“That’s not your job, Ariel!” yelled the boy, who, as Mark of G-Force noticed, looked like an image of a far younger Derek Wildstar. “It’s my job!”

In the meantime, a boy in striped pajamas who wore round wire-rimmed glasses was being chased with a pillow and hit every now and then by a little demon of a girl with long, dark brown hair and a devilish expression. She wore a red and white Star Force-pattered sleep shirt with the arrow and markings in red. The two chasing each other looked to be about eleven or twelve. Not far away, a little girl with golden blond hair and a sea-green nightie sat with her legs curled under her, coloring in a coloring book, oblivious to the noise and insanity all around her. She looked to be about seven or eight.

Mark noticed Derek looking at Nova, who slowly and sadly shook her head. Derek took the center of the room and whistled loudly. Then, he yelled, “ALL of you, shut up! We have guests!”

“Guests?” said the dark-haired girl in mid-bop as she was engaged in bopping her brother in the head. “What’s a guests?”

“What are guests?” Nova corrected her in a snappy voice. “Anastasia, learn to use proper grammar for once!”

“She’s been like this all night, Mom,” said the blond fourteen-year old as she hugged her mother. “It’s like she ate a whole box of Sugar Smacks, Mom.”

“Ariel, you know she always acts like that when she’s cranky,” Nova said.

“I am not cranky, Mother!” yelled Anya. “Do you see me holding a big metal crank in my hand? Huh! Tell me! HUH?”

“Show your mother some respect!” snapped Derek in a loud voice. “Apologize right now! What will people think?”

“Sorry, Mom,” said Anya with a bow.

“Go sit in the corner for a while and reflect upon your actions,” Nova said. “You’re in a time-out.”

“Mother,” whined Anya.

“You just added ten minutes to that time-out,” Nova said. “Twenty minutes time-out. Alex, make sure she stays there.”

“Yes, Mom,” said Alex as the Big Brother walked Anya to the corner and made her sit down facing the walls.

“Breep-boop, KIDS,” said Keyop with amusement.

“You’re still a kid,” said Princess as she bopped Keyop.

“I’m a Science Ninja,” said Keyop. “I could take out this whole bunch of kids with one arm tied behind my back! I am the Great Swallow!”

“Don’t make me put you in the other corner, Keyop” Nova said dryly.

Keyop gave Nova and Princess a dirty look and he sat down. “Moms,” he muttered.

Nova and Derek talked for a few minutes while Princess sat down on the floor beside Mark of G-Force, watching as the kids slowly began to calm down. When her time-out was over, Anya came up and hugged her father while Nova came up behind her and laughed. Mother, daughter, and father looked adorable together.

“I wonder what it’s like to grow up in a big, close family?” said Princess.

“I don’t know,” replied Mark. “The only memories I have of my parents…well…I was an only child.”

“Oh,” Princess said. “I think I may have been, too. My memories are a little unclear before the orphanage…and not very pleasant.”

“Yeah,” said Keyop.

III. STORIES…

Hotel Orion Embassy

September 7, 2221

0430 Hours: Local Time

“Did I hear the word ‘orphanage?’ asked Derek Wildstar as he sat down while Nova went off to the side to talk with little Teresa.

“You did,” said Mark. “We were all orphans at some point. My father vanished…and I believe my mother died.”

“My mother died of grief after the Second Cometine war,” said Princess. “I never really knew my father.”

“I had my parents up until I was around fourteen,” Derek said. “Maybe thirteen. They were killed in the war with the Gamilons.”

“I’m so sorry,” said Princess as she looked with compassion at the Admiral.

Derek lowered his eyes. “All I had left was my brother Alex, in the military. Then, he was assumed dead in the Battle of Pluto back in 2199. Alex supposedly died defending Captain Avatar’s flagship. Then, except for my friend Mark Venture, I was alone in the world. Until I met Nova.”

“How did you meet her?” asked Princess, who looked sidelong at the beautiful woman in the nightdress.

“Mark Venture and I found the body of Queen Starsha’s sister Astra on Mars,” Derek said. “She died bringing us the plans for the wave motion engine, which was Earth’s first faster-than-light time warp drive, and a message inviting us to come to Iscandar for the Cosmo-DNA machine to remove the radioactive pollution that the Gamilons had covered Earth with. Then, the Gamilons were our enemy, led by Leader Desslok, who had schemes more maniacal than Zoltar’s worst. The dead Princess Astra was a beautiful young woman with long sort of honey-blonde hair, long eyelashes, slender build like a classical elf or an angel, beautiful purple gown. Mark and I never thought we would see a woman as beautiful as that again. Until we got home and ended up in the Medical Wing of the underground EDF base near the Capital beneath Great Island. There, we saw a woman in a yellow nurse’s smock and boots, who, except for somewhat shorter hair, could have been the dead Astra brought back to life. That was Nova. Nova Forrester then, to be exact. She came with us on the first mission to Iscandar as our Living Group Leader, radar officer, and head nurse.”

“Sort of what I’m trained in,” said Princess.

“Yes,” continued Derek as Mark looked on. “She was twenty-one then, just out of college; she went to a civilian college and took ROTC. On the mission to Iscandar, she became friends with Venture and I; she eventually came to know all about how my brother Alex had gone missing, presumed dead. She started becoming a little closer to me when she found out I had no family left; I was sort of too stupid to notice it at the time. But Nova and I went through a lot of adventures and battles together…and we were always there for each other.”

“But weren’t there rules about getting too close to a fellow officer?” said Mark as Princess gave him a dirty look that he didn’t notice…but Derek did.

“It happened so slowly that we couldn’t do much about it. Besides, we didn’t know if humanity was going to be alive when we got back. Some couples met on the Argo…some got engaged. Admiral Avatar, our Captain, then, allowed it, so long as it didn’t interfere with duty. Then, when we were almost at Iscandar, Nova and I talked, and I took this picture of her. I still have it,” Derek said as he got out a picture from his wallet and slowly unfolded it; it was an instant-print picture from a stereo camera, now rather beaten up.

Mark and Princess looked at the picture. It showed a much younger Wildstar with a startled look on his face; it looked like one of his hands had just been slapped by a saucy-looking but very cute younger version of Nova in a yellow and black catsuit-like uniform who didn’t look that much unlike the current-day woman, as Princess noticed with some envy. There was a mixed look of annoyance and playful mischief around the woman’s eyes.

“Why did she slap you?” said Mark.

“I was trying to give her a hug,” Derek said.

“He was trying to get too frisky,” Nova rejoined. “Then I told him it was our first date and he could have a record of what had happened. We had to go back on duty soon afterwards, but I let it stand. Our second date was on Iscandar. There, we lay in the grass and watched the clouds for what seemed like hours. We were officially dating by the time we got back to Earth…when I nearly gave my life for him and the crew.”

“How did that happen, ma’am?” Princess asked.

“Desslok and the Gamilons attacked the ship and filled it with a radioactive knockout gas,” Nova said. “It would have been lethal eventually. I knew that. I went to the newly-assembled Cosmo-DNA and turned it on, getting a good whiff of gas right before I finished my job. I went into a deep coma afterwards and almost died. I woke up in a nightdress in Derek’s arms hours later. He was carrying me around in utter grief, thinking that I had died…”

“Like you with the Fierce Flowers,” said Mark as he patted Princess’ hand.

“Mark,” said Princess. They stared at each other for a moment as Nova sat down on the bed next to little Teresa. The little girl smiled and crawled into her mother’s lap, followed by little Staci. Derek sat on the bed behind his lovely wife and put an arm around her as the other children came around (even Anya was allowed out of the corner with no comment) while Nova began with, “In honor of one of our guests, I’d like to tell you a story about another Princess. She was named Anastasia,” Nova said.

“Is this the same lady I was named after?” said Anya.

“Yes, dear,” said Nova as Anya sat down on the floor next to her brother Steve, between Alex and Ariel. Jason, Mark, and Princess sat down with Tiny and Keyop. Jason was snarling, but not even he wanted to quite break the spell Nova was creating in her soft, low voice as she continued with, “Once upon a time, long ago, in the land of Russia, there was a Tsar named Nicholas. The Tsar was what they called the King of Russia in those days. The Tsar had several children who were Princesses, and one sick little Prince named Alexei. One of the Princesses was named Anastasia. Now, Russia had just lost a great war, and there was a revolution in which the Tsar was overthrown, because of the war and because many people thought the Tsar was an oppressive, bad ruler. There were good, idealistic men in the Revolution and there were also evil men who wanted vengeance,” Nova said, continuing with her tale as she talked a little about Alexei’s illness and the mad starets Grigori Rasputin, sugar-coating some, but not all of the story.

Nova believed in being a gentle realist about life…after all, she had been pregnant with little Teresa a few years ago in front of the four older children, and she had not exactly hidden where babies had come from. It had been a little hard to, since she had given bravely birth to Teresa at home on a beautiful warm June morning seven years ago in her own bed, with the children having witnessed some of the process, and all of them meeting their new baby sister as she lay on her mother’s bare breast afterwards as Nova lay there naked nursing her child.

Mark wasn’t quite able to believe this. Nova had an art with the word so that she could take a tale of woe and tragedy and weave it into a children’s fairy tale. Still, he noticed that all of the children were enraptured, and little Staci and Teresa were getting sleepy.

He felt a pang of heartbreak and jealousy, thinking, How many years was it since my mother told me a bedtime story like that? Were my parents once as close as Derek and Nova are? They look like they are so much in love with each other. My mother died. My father disappeared. Where is he?

Mark did not even notice the appearance of a red-clad figure in the doorway who stood there with his teeth gritted. The figure was Colonel Cronus. He shook his head sadly, thinking, Mark, I see what is happening. They called me here to speak with you and with the Admiral, but I find the Admiral here playing devoted father and husband instead, fiddling while Rome burns. Or is it fiddling? I wish I could have been as devoted with you, Mark. I wish… Then, Cronus sighed as he thought, I wish you could have stayed with your true parents...not just the surrogate mother...my lost wife, who gave birth to you, but your true mother, and father, who conceived you and gave you life....your true parents...who do not even themselves know the truth....

Derek kissed Nova gently while she continued her story with these words, “…Sadly, the evil men, led by a revolutionary man named Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, got hold of the Tsar and his family. They took them all prisoner, and eventually, they were taken to a part of old Russia called Yekaterinburg, where they gave orders for them to be killed. They were, but their bodies were not found for many years after that. However, some people thought that Princess Anastasia somehow escaped her captors. After the Revolution, quite a few young women appeared, claiming to be Anastasia. One of these young women seemed so much like her that some thought she really was the lost Princess.”

“Was she, Mother?” said Anya through sleepy eyes. “Or are you just making this one up?”

“People thought she was,” Nova said. “Maybe she fooled herself into thinking she was. The Tsar and his children died in the early 20th Century. It was not found that the real Anastasia was with them until early in the 21st Century. But some of the members of the Tsar’s family, cousins, and so forth, did survive. Russia had a Tsar again in the middle of the 21st Century, more of a constitutional monarch than the original Tsars had been, and she also had a Tsarina; a female Tsar. She was named Anastasia the First, in memory of the lost Princess. So, after a fashion, she did come back again. But she lived on, because people remembered her. If we remember Jonathan hard enough, I think he’ll really live on, and that the power of our wishes will keep him safe…even in Zoltar’s hands.”

“Looks like two little Princesses are asleep,” Derek said as he tousled his youngest daughter’s hair….just the way he had when Teresa had been a baby, nursing at her mother’s breast.

Nova kissed little Staci and Teresa and said, “Anyone want to help me tuck them in?”

“I’ll do it,” said Ariel as she picked up her little sister. Alex picked up little Staci. Nova got up, followed by Derek, and she watched as the two of them were tucked into bed side by side by the oldest of the children and then by Nova and Derek. Nova said, “Staci will sleep a bit longer. I gave her and her mother something in their drink to help them sleep because they were so upset.”

“So what happens after this charming little scene?” said Jason as Keyop yawned beside him.

“We’ll talk later in the morning,” yawned Derek. “Let’s make arrangements to meet at 1130 Hours.”

“Sounds wonderful,” Nova said in a sleepy voice as Anya yawned. Anya went obediently to bed beside Ariel, and Alex went into bed holding his brother Steve.

“I think a real Princess needs to be carried to bed,” Derek said as Nova yawned.

“She does,” Nova said. “This Princess Bride MD is getting pretty sleepy herself. Derek?”

Nova came to Derek’s arms. He kissed her and then picked her up and tenderly carried her to the inner bedroom of the suite in his arms. The door quietly closed, and the lovers were not seen again until the next morning.

“Well, what does this mean?” Mark said as Princess looked at him.

“It means a lot,” said Colonel Cronus as he turned around and made himself known.

“Sir?” said Mark. “What are you doing here?”

“Chief Anderson sent me. A lot has been going on up on Riga. Shall I tell you?”

“How’s about letting us get some sleep?” snarled Jason as Keyop kicked off his shoes and curled up on a spare cot in the suite. “We’re beat. The Story Princess there almost lulled me to sleep. The lady’s got a good method for controlling these little turds; you’ve gotta grant her that.”

“Yeah,” said Tiny. “I’m seeing three of you guys right now.”

“Maybe it’s because you’ve been hitting the Scotch, Tiny?” snapped Jason with a leer as he played with a feather shuriken. “Maybe the lady gave those kids Vodka, too. I wouldn’t put it past her. She can’t be as sweet innocent and goody-goody-damn two-shoes as she looks. Get your kids drunk. That’s a good one! And how’d she get five kids in the first place? Sure wasn’t Immaculate Conception!”

“Be quiet or you’ll wake them up,” said Princess.

“This can’t wait,” said Cronus. “I would also demand Wildstar, but, unfortunately, I can’t order an Admiral and a Captain around. With those two, rank hath its privileges. Let the Swallow sleep; he’s already out cold.”

“Well, let’s get to it,” said Mark.

“Outside,” growled Cronus. “This way…”

 TO BE CONTINUED…