Chapter 20

Jessie hit his head against the bar. Tasha and Constance had been gone for ages already, and more and more guests were showing up. Most of them were already at the bar, and he could tell they were already wondering where Tasha was. It was a paranoid worry, they were happy to be talking to each other and figured Tasha was just waiting to make a grand entrance. Some even thought Tasha might already have celebrated by drinking herself sick at midnight when she was officially eighteen. Still, none of them thought it was rude in any serious way.


Eliza was sitting at the bar, rolling a shot glass back and forth in her hands. She had never been much of a drinker, but she sure could use a drink now. Fortunately or not, her conscience wouldn’t let her drink while she was pregnant, barely letting her drink before. She had her first bout with morning sickness when she woke up today. It wasn’t too serious, just mild nausea. Still, she knew if it was a slight problem already, it was a poor omen of things to come.

“What’ll you have, sweetheart?” A cute blond bartender asked Eliza. She looked up at her. The bartender was a bleached blond and obviously so. She had thin and tight shirt on over a bra that hiked everything out for tips. It showed her midriff slightly, an effect amplified by her tight low-rider, legless jeans.

“…I don’t know. I’m not even sure I should be here…I barely know Tasha…” She rolled the shot glass in her hands again. “I shouldn’t be drinking anyway…”

“Are you…alcoholic?” Eliza shook her head slightly. “Oh…”

“Ginger ale I guess…” Eliza groaned, embarrassed by the whole thing. She knew the bartender was just flirting with her to get a better tip. Eliza couldn’t help but think of all the men she had been with. She didn’t want just a silly fling from a girl that wouldn’t want to be with a girl for the rest of her life. No, she was looking for more than a drunken memory the girl would use later to prove how wild she use to be to her friends.

“Come on, it’s a party…” The bartender snapped her fingers. “How about a Shirley Temple?”

“Sure, whatever floats your boat…” Eliza tapped her fingers against the bar as the bartender went to get her drink. Eliza didn’t even think about staring at her when she did or checking her out in the slightest. She just wasn’t attracted to women she knew she had no real chance with.

“Hey, Beautiful!” A voice came from behind her. She turned around on her stool to see Zen swaggering up to her. Zen had a mug of beer in her hand. Eliza could tell it was her first drink, because she wasn’t stumbling or spilling as she went. “…ouch…you got a new scar since I saw you last…”

Eliza instantly recognized Zen as the woman she sacrificed herself to save. Zen was even more magnificent now that she could see her without Paul’s perverted comments clouding her mind. She could see a certain look in Zen’s eyes that told her she was serious, unlike the bartender. She couldn’t help but stare at Zen’s heavenly body slightly, but ended up at her eyes again. Those gorgeous, seductive ruby eyes stared into her very soul.

“I…uh…” Eliza wasn’t sure she should say that she took the scar because of her. That she did it to keep Paul’s disgusting hands off her. Of course, to do it, she had to risk shattering every bone in Zen’s body. Bringing it up in any way seemed far too dangerous at the moment. “…lost count.”

“I don’t blame you there…” Zen sat her beer down on the bar next to Eliza. “Who needs to follow pain that closely, right?” She put her hand out to Eliza. “My name’s Zen, short for Zenaida Conroy. What’s yours, beautiful?”

“Tech Sergeant Eliza Otto…” Eliza grit her teeth slightly. She wasn’t use to not saying her rank when she introduced herself. She felt like an idiot for doing it. “…just Eliza Otto.”

“Can I call you Liz?” Eliza was re-evaluating how drunk Zen really was. She clearly had had something to drink, but was an experienced drunk. She could see a clear but subtle blush across Zen’s face, so she had at least one beer. She knew Rae were lightweights when it came to drinking, and this just confirmed it. “I’ll take that as a no…I saw your tattoo at the hospital. I’ve got one a lot like it, but bigger…”

Eliza turned and got her drink from the bar. She didn’t know what to say to someone as beautiful as Zen, and her being drunk made things that much more complicated. She decided to let her talk and get more focused, or at least work up her own courage to say something.

“It’s a case for not getting drunk…” Zen chuckled. “It’s covers the entire inside of my right thigh, and it’s two interconnected female symbols like yours, but a lot more complicated and a lot bigger. I mean, it goes from just before the main event down to my knee. Pretty huge, right?”

“Yeah, that must have been pretty painful…”

“Eh, like I said, I was pretty hammered at the time…” Zen chuckled slightly. “Want to see it? I guess it’s kind of a lesbian tramp-stamp…”

“Maybe later, gorgeous…” Eliza smiled, thinking Zen was just drunk. What a woman as beautiful as Zen want with her was beyond her, but still, she’d humor her while she was drunk. Maybe that would earn her trust, get her closer to her. There could be a real possibility with her later, outside of a drunken fling just because they were both lesbians. “I was actually thinking about getting another tattoo…”

Eliza was distracted from her thought as Kristin passed. It was fine in the long run, because delicious Kristen distracted Zen too. Kristin didn’t have her suit coat on, wearing a more ‘relaxed’ wardrobe. She still had on her usual high heels, but was wearing fishnet stockings instead of silk. She had on a flirty miniskirt, a dress shirt that was unbuttoned down to her chest, and her usual corset. The thing that really grabbed Eliza’s attention was her purple lipstick. Kristin winked at Eliza as she swaggered by.

“She…” Zen shook her head, looking over at Eliza. “Did you…”

“Oh yeah…” Eliza chuckled. Zen leaned in close over her beer.

“Well, come on…Don’t hold anything back…What was it like?”


Kristin swaggered over to Jessie, seeing how frustrated he was. She picked up a pair of tall flutes of Champaign off bar, figuring she’d try to brighten his day. As she walked over, he could feel her staring at her already. She tried to smirk it off, figuring it was just a baser instinct kicking in. She handed him a flute, sipping out of hers.

“I’m guessing the birthday girl’s…conspicuous absence isn’t intentional, Captain Jack.”

“Yeah…” Jessie shook his head, taking a hearty swig from his flute. Kristin shook her head, and couldn’t help but think he was wasting such expensive Champaign. “She went off to her quarters with a friend a couple hours ago, and hasn’t come back yet…”

“Uh-oh…” Kristin chuckled, sipping the Champaign again. She was being careful not to smudge her lipstick. It wasn’t much of a worry, but she hated reapplying it all the time.

“What?”

“You know what they call fathers who let their eighteen-year-old daughters go off with ‘friends’ alone? GRANDPA.”

“No. Tasha wouldn’t be that stupid.” He put his empty glass upside-down on the bar. “Besides, she went with Constance…”

“Oh, well then…” Kristen chuckled again. “At least you won’t have to worry about grandkids then…”

“HEY! I know you’re new to the ship, but don’t call my daughter a slut like that or I’ll throw you out an airlock.” Jessie snapped at her, surprising Kristin. She shook her head, and just couldn’t let what he said stand. God help her, she had to voice her opinion.

“…being a lesbian automatically makes you a slut?” Jessie growled at her, and she knew she had hit a touchy subject. She knew some people were just hopeless when it came to tolerance. “How about this? I’m reasonably famous, I can entertain your guests with the story I’m famous for.”

“Knock yourself out…” Jessie shrugged and turned around. “Seriously…” He growled under his breath. Kristin shook her head, wanting to argue with him endlessly about what being a lesbian was so wrong, but she had more important things to worry about right now. She stood up on the bar, flicking her glass to get everyone’s attention.

“Hey! Hello!” She got hoots, hollers, and requests from the group around the room. “Easy, boys, this isn’t that kind of show. Anyway, since the beautiful birthday girl, the lovely Miss Tasha is absent…and since I got so many messages asking about it, I’m going to tell my story of survival and INSANE LUCK…well…to kill some time.” Kristin stepped forward and dropped down off the bar, but in a blink, Eliza caught her. “Knew I could count on you, sweetheart…”

“Your audience is waiting…” Eliza put her up on her feet, thinking she was just being cocky. She didn’t know that she was actually getting countless e-mails about it. No matter where Kristin went, she was followed by that question. She decided to tell it here rather than putting out message after message about it.

“Now, everyone remember, this story is super, ultra, mega, black-book secret…But, since the military still officially lists me as dead, I’m not too worried about it, and neither should you.” Everyone chuckled slightly. “Alright, this started back about…ten years ago, so I was a…well, far from innocent eighteen, but still…”

Kristen was eighteen at the time, her figure was really starting to come in. It took longer for augments to ‘fully develop’, so she had a few more years of ‘puberty’ to look forward to still. Still, her figure made her the envy of most women, young and old. Then, getting into her high IQ, she was one of the smartest people on the station, making even the men jealous of her. To top things off, she was the youngest person on the station that wasn’t a child brought with someone. This led to some ‘friendly’ hazing that Kristin put up with.

She was stationed at an Origin reactor satellite. It had a central unit like a perfectly round hourglass in space. The center of the hourglass had ring after ring around it. The rings all slowly turned around the center, like clockwork of the great machine it was. Some life had been restored to the reactor, so both ends of the reactor had small glowing orbs of energy perfectly centered in them. They were like faint, barely together stars trapped in their glass prisons.

Top scientists from the closest colony were called in to get the satellite up and running again. It wasn’t just a fusion reactor, though. It was an exotic and strange particle reactor, something which only the best of the best could dream of understanding. If the Terran forces could dissect the reactor and use its tech, their ships would be unstoppable. Naturally, Kristin was pulled in, being one of the smartest people there for light years.

“So, what’s the story today?” Kristin said as she floated down the hallway with one of her fellow scientists. They were both wearing one of the station’s tight radiation and space suits. She found it odd that for some reason, even though the colony was rotating, there wasn’t even artificial gravity in the station. That meant there was a device specifically cancelling out the centrifugal force from the rotation for some reason beyond them. Perhaps it was a malfunction of the artificial gravity, none could be sure. Kristin was glad it wasn’t working, as both the ceilings and floors were crystal clear windows to space. She always found it disorienting to walk on glass above space.

“The reactor’s just about ready to be fired up.” The other scientist was one of the most handsome scientists Kristin had ever seen, though he had the ridiculous name of ‘Storm’. He was tall, blond, and muscular, that was all Kristin really cared about. “What do you say to celebrate tonight, you and I go back to the Titan, get a bottle of wine, and spend the night in the hot tub?”

“That depends…” She stopped in front of him, making a flirty, seductive face. “Are you going to brag to all your friends about ‘what a great fuck’ I am again? Give them a little show from that hidden camera you’ve been sneaking up!?”

“I…uh…” Storm was flabbergasted to say the least as Kristin held up a screen playing a video of the first time they had sex. Storm, despite his high IQ, was awfully dumb when it came to explaining himself. “…Can you blame me? I mean, look at you!”

“You asshole!” Kristin punched him in the stomach. “I heard you talking to your retard friends about how I’m ‘a bitch with a shit personality’, but my…what was you said? ‘Rocking tits and ride-able ass made up for it’!”

“Krissy…” He tried to put his arms around her, but she threw them off. “Honey, listen to me…”

“Don’t give me that!” Kristin hit him again. “All that stuff you talked me into…‘I just love you and want to try some new things with you’ when it was all just for these VIDEOS! Well, I’ve got news for you…” She started rifling through the files on the device, seeing videos he had recorded just hours after he was with her. “I know about Michelle and I’ve got some news for you about her.”

“Oh yeah, what!?”

“While I’m eighteen and perfectly legal, Michelle is actually sixteen and protected by countless laws!” Storm was actually on the verge of his twenty-fifth birthday. Michelle hadn’t actually told him how old she was “…and since you were giving her alcohol and pot, we’ve got a case of statutory rape, contributing to the deliquesce of a minor, AND child pornography charges against you, since you just had to record everything…” She tapped the computer pad a couple times. “So, I’d enjoy your last few minutes of peace here, since I just sent Michelle’s videos to the military on the ships…” Kristin laughed and headed down the hallway. “By the way, the statutory and child pornography charges are sex crimes. They land you in the super-max part of the jail, just so you…NAH!”

“BITCH!” Storm yelled at her. His hands were wrapped around her throat as he slammed her against the wall. Kristin couldn’t breathe or scream, just desperately trying to pull his hands away from her throat. “I’ll fuckin’ KILL YOU for doing this to me!”

“Nuh…” Kristin swung her knee forward as hard as she could, burying it deep into his groin. His hands slammed open from the agony, letting her go. Free and gasping for breath, Kristin grabbed a tool kit that was floating by, slamming across his face. “Asshole!”

Kristin heard the massive, miles long reactor that stretched overhead and bellow them start to hum and shine with activity. She gasped and looked at her watch. They had started the reactor some ten minutes early as far as she could tell. That’s when she realized what was wrong. They had started the initiation sequence for the reactor but given it too much power to begin with. If she didn’t get to her station fast, god knows what would happen to the reactor.

She turned and tried to run to the station, but Storm grabbed her ankle and swung her, hitting her against the ceiling with a loud crack. Kristin screamed in pain. The ceiling felt like titanium instead of what they could only think was a type of Plexiglas. Storm tackled her, hitting her again and again across the face.

Kristin wasn’t even thinking about stopping him, just worrying about getting to her station. She couldn’t even begin to imagine what an overload would do to even the very fabric of time and space. The fact worried her more and more as a blinding light filled the room.

“What the hell…” Storm looked up at the hourglass as a fine shower of particles streaked down from the end above and up from the end bellow. They effortlessly streaked through the ceiling and floor, going through both Kristin and Storm. Kristin used the distraction to grab a pistol off Storm’s belt and activate it. She fired blindly into him, killing him. She knocked him off to the side and got to her feet. She struggled to run down the hallway, ignoring her injuries and hoping the radiation shower only sterilized her and didn’t kill her.

As she ran, she looked up at the hourglass. Energy was swirling around the reactor, a storm of utter chaos she couldn’t begin to comprehend. It blackened the space between the storm and the hourglass. She assumed the lower half was doing the same thing. Kristin shook her head, trying to stay conscious. She thought if she hadn’t called Storm on everything he had done, she could have prevented the accidental overload that was in progress now.

Kristin got to her station, quickly reading all the readouts. They were complicated, most of it being in English but some of it being in Rae, but she could keep up with it. She didn’t like what she saw, knowing the reactor was going into a massive overload. Of course, with dozens and dozens of geniuses on all the ships and the reactor, she wasn’t the only one who realized it. Red alert and evacuation sirens rang out through the reactor complex.

“No, no…” She shook her head. “Running’s not the answer…” She grabbed her communicator, flipping it open. She called the admiral in charge of the operation. “Admiral! I know this…LISTEN! I don’t have time to justify it, just LISTEN! If you run, your ships’ aren’t protected against the types of radiation they’ll face from this…Go into the reactor complex, sir! If anything’s going to survive…It may not EXPLODE, sir, and we’d still have the ships right…” Kristin snarled, throwing her communicator against the wall when the Admiral hung up on her. “Fuck you too…”

Kristin ran in through all the interconnecting rings, ignoring the screaming pain from all of her joints. She grunted and groaned, forcing her way through the throngs of people trying to get out. She got to the main reactor room. It was massive, taller than an apartment building. The two halves of the reactors came down to points that merged inside a sphere. It was riveted with strange devices that had glowing metal coils that shifted color across the entire surface. Countless glowing spheres were floating through the room. She had no idea what was causing them, ignoring them and just trying not to touch them as they gracefully floated through on whatever angle suited them.

“Okay, Kristin…” She whispered to herself. “Was this one of the worst decisions you’ve ever made or…the worst decision ANYONE has ever made?” Kristin’s question was answered no sooner than it had left her lips. Suddenly, the orbs shot off in a blink in all directions, one many ripping agonizingly through Kristin. One the size of a basketball plunged straight through her chest and out the other side, burning but not ripping. She gasped for breath, falling to her knees. Her world started dimming as bolts of energy shot out from the reactor like lightning.

“I woke up days later, laying on a med bed with an absolutely gorgeous male nurse tending to my every need.” Kristin sipped from her glass again, finishing it off. She set it down on the bar, gesturing for another. “The three battleships and four science ships that were stationed at the Origin Reactor were completely dead…every other single person except yours truly…and that’s when my INSANE luck started.”

“Do you have any regrets about how things went with Storm?” Someone yelled out of the crowd.

“…Only that I put up with his shit that long…I mean, he wasn’t ever able to get me to the finish line so to speak, he had the personality of a honey-badger, and his jokes would make any sane man kill themselves rather than hear another. I…” Kristin cleared her throat. “I do miss Michelle…the night before, I had convinced her he’d be the death of her…and, of course, indirectly, he was…She was a good kid, when it came down to it…” She shook her head again. “Anyway, because of an error in the military’s BRILLIANT computer systems, I’m still OFFICIALLY dead…Of course, if it wasn’t for that, I’d be bored out of my mind on a military ship instead of here with all you wonderful people!” Kristin held up her new glass of Champaign and got a cheer.


Kelli was one of the few people at the party not gathered around Kristin. She was slumped over one of the tables around the bar, her face covered by her arms. She couldn’t get the horrible image she saw out of her head, and no one believed her that she told. She could hear several of the people she told snickering at her, making her want to die.

“Hey…uh…is everything alright, Kelli?” Kelli vaguely recognized the voice, looking up to see who it was. She was surprised to see it was shy, timid Hal standing there. He was wearing formal pants and a charcoal grey dress shirt, though he didn’t have a tie on. Kelli didn’t care about that, just pushing her hair back. She sat up, revealing what she was wearing to Hal. It was a gorgeous red dress that was low-cut in the front and showed almost her entire bare back. The dress itself was slit all the way up to her hips.

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you…” Kelli sighed, looking down at the table. Hal sat down across from her and Kelli couldn’t help but look back up at him. To her surprise, he was looking at her face, not even momentarily glancing down at her chest. She didn’t mind when men did look at her chest, she was just impressed Hal was able to resist the urge.

“I don’t know about that…” Hal leaned in over the table. “I heard what you told some of the other guys…about the ship that attacked the newscast ship…”

“Oh great! So you’ve come to mock me too?” Kelli grit her teeth. “Can’t I just…”

“Hey, hey…Give me a second…” Hal pled to get a second to speak his case. “You’re radiantly beautiful, and if you keep yelling at me like that, I’m going to lock up…” Kelli took a deep breath to calm down, deciding to trust Hal enough to see what he was going to say. “I saw the same newscast…Maria Ramirez was killed…and there was that thing…that…uh…that…god, I can’t even describe it. It was just the most horrifying thing I’ve EVER seen…” Kelli still wasn’t sure if she could trust Hal, not trusting anyone right now. “They claim it was the ship’s reactor exploding due to a malfunction, but if that was true, everything would have been carried up and out…But the…the blink before the camera was destroyed…everything was flying…towards the camera, which is a blast from outside…” Hal was silent for a second, and Kelli saw the same fear she had on his face. “…and the entire colony…” he shook his head slightly, “…the…the entire planet was dead black…”

“You…you did see it…” Hal nodded, speechless. “I’m real sorry I yelled at you there…”

“It’s cool, don’t worry about it…” Hal shrugged slightly. “You’re a very emotional person…and I kind of envy that. I have the damnedest time trying to express myself. It always feels like…like if I express myself, the world will end…”

“Do you really think I’m…How did you put it? ‘Radiantly beautiful’ like you said?”

“Yeah…though that’s just normally…when you’re just in your work clothes…I mean, right now, in that dress…You’re…you’re speech-taking-ly gorgeous…” Kelli smiled brightly, blushing and leaving Hal speechless.

“See? You told me I was gorgeous,” Kelli loved that word, usually just getting ‘hot’, “…and the world hasn’t ended.”

“Well…yeah, I guess…” Kelli giggled slightly. “Alright, well, since that may have ended the world and we’re just waiting for the end…will you go out with me?”

“I think we’re already on our first date, Hal.”


Just when Jessie was about to call Tasha and yell at her for missing her own birthday party, Tasha and Constance came through the door. They were both laughing and smiling, Tasha had her arm around Constance’s shoulders. He immediately noticed Tasha’s hair was straightened instead of the usual curly or wavy look it normally had, and that he hadn’t seen Constance so happy in as long as he had known her.

“There she is!” Jessie shouted and applauded, the applause ripping through the crowd. Constance panicked slightly, looking around to make sure that Ariis wasn’t at the party. Tasha patted her on the back to comfort her. The group started to sing happy birthday to Tasha and she walked into the center of the room. She was smiling brightly, blushing and swing her hands back and forth. She waited for them to finish.

“Thank you for being so patient with me!” Tasha spoke loudly so the crowd could hear her. “I wanted to be here sooner, but my hair had different plans…” She got chuckles and laughs out of the crowd. Jessie thought her hair looked just fine this morning. “Well, I’ve been asking you all not to worry about getting me anything, but who did anyway?” She got cheers again. “Alright…” Tasha sat down on a barstool, keeping her legs together to make sure no one saw her panties. She hated being paranoid about it, but after everything that had happened to her lately, she wanted to be sure she wasn’t being peeped on. “Let’s get this over with so we can have a party! Now, who wants to be first?”

“ME!” Chase shouted and jumped up and down, shaking her box around. “Me, me, me!”

“Alright, alright, calm down…” Tasha tried to calm her as Chase ran over. Suddenly, she realized where she had seen Chase before. The flick of gold hair she saw running into the ship before Jessie took her down to the planet had to have been her sneaking over. “Chastity…I haven’t seen you in years…”

“I know! I think I was…like…six sort-of?” Chase smiled brightly as Tasha got off the stool and knelt down in front of her. “You’re a lot taller now! And prettier…”

“Thank you, sweetie…” Tasha could have sworn Chase was staring around her chest, but ignored it. Chase had to be too young for something like that. “Want to help me open the box?”

“No…” Chase giggled. “I all-ready know…wha’s in it.” Chase continued to stare at Tasha’s chest, glancing up at Tasha’s eyes. She knew she was staring, not knowing why though. Tasha quickly opened it, hating wrapping paper. She flipped the lid, gasping when she saw it.

“Oh my…” Tasha picked the teddy bear out of the box. It was brown with incredibly soft fur. “I haven’t had one of these since I was your age…”

“I know…You gave it to me…when I was little…” Chase swayed back and forth slightly. “I…I haven’ used it…in years…but I really like it and…and you use to say…you loved it…” Chase sighed. Even though she was speaking at normal speed for everyone else, she felt she was dragging. “While I was hidin’, it was jus’ sittin’ in my room…So, Momma ‘ad it cleaned an’ I’m givin’ it back.”

“You don’t have to, sweetie…” Tasha whispered to her.

“I’ll trade ya for a kiss…” Tasha smiled and gave Chase a big kiss on the cheek, making Chase giggle a lot. Tasha giggled when she noticed the big pair of lips she left on Chase’s cheek. She went to rub them off, but Chase smacked her hand. “Leave them!”

“Okay, whatever you want, dear…” She hugged her. “Thank you…”

“You’re welcome!” Chase giggled and ran back to Yu’lena. Tasha smiled and put the teddy bear on the bar. She could hear Chase’s almost incoherent ramble and bragging to Yu’lena about the kiss. She was glad she could make her so happy.

“Oh…” Constance stepped in close to Tasha, leaning in. She hated that she forgot to mention Hal’s charitable donation for the statue earlier, but she remembered in time for the gifts. “Hal paid for a lot of the statue…like…three-fourths of it.” Tasha nodded.

“Hal! You out there?” Hal raised his hand without saying anything. “Thanks for the awesome statue! So, who’s next?”

“I’ve got you one…” Zen swaggered over to Tasha with a box that had to be a computer pad. She handed it to Tasha and glanced over at Jessie. Tasha sighed a little. She could tell Zen was already pretty drunk, hoping Zen wouldn’t get drunk until the end of the party. “Open this one in private later…” She handed another smaller, thinner box to Tasha. “…and open this one now…”

“Alright…” Tasha couldn’t stand the question of what was in the box. She just hoped it wasn’t something like a sex toy. She didn’t know if she could live with that, not sure if she should throw it out or keep it, like a deep part in her wanted. She opened the small box, seeing that it was a large locket on a gold chain. She flipped it open and it had a picture of her mother and father in it, and an empty frame on the other side. “Oh my god…that’s their wedding picture…thank you…” Tasha hugged Zen just before she put on the necklace. “What can I do to thank you?”

“…Go on a date with me.” Zen spoke the words with a shrug of her shoulders. She didn’t need to be thanked for doing something nice for Tasha’s birthday, but she figured she might as well go for it.

“Hey, hey!” Jessie stepped in, taking the beer glass from Zen. “I think you’ve had enough to drink there, Captain. Don’t be corrupting my beautiful girl!”

“Heh…” Zen chuckled slightly. “You’re right…and I’m more than a little hammered…” Tasha groaned. “I had to do something while you weren’t here, love…Next time, get here sooner…”

“Alright…” Jessie groaned. “Go sleep it off…”

“Kay…will you walk me back to my quarters, Tasha?” Eliza stepped up and grabbed Zen’s arm.

“I’ll take care of you…” Eliza dragged Zen off to the side. “Come on, you’re making an ass out of yourself…” Eliza growled at her slightly.

“Yeah…I think I have a problem…” Zen whispered back as Eliza pulled her out of the bar.

“Anyways…” Kelli cleared her throat and walked forward. Tasha’s jaw dropped slightly at the gorgeous dress Kelli was wearing, making her giggle slightly. “I got something special for you, Tasha. Hopefully, you’ll like it…”

“I’m sure I will…” Tasha opened the box and was confused by what she saw. She knew they were diamond earrings, but between them, there was an identical thing she didn’t quite recognize. All three had three real and perfectly identical diamonds in a straight line. The diamond at the top was the smallest, then the middle one was the biggest, with the lowest one being somewhere between the two. “I…I like these…a lot, but my ears aren’t pierced…”

“Oh, there’s a gift card to take care of that!” Kelli showed her in the lid. “And the middle one’s a bellybutton stud. They all match!” She spoke so brightly, Tasha couldn’t help but chuckle slightly. “I’ve got one. It doesn’t hurt at all.”

Tasha use to have a joke about ‘if god wanted me to have piercings, he’d put the metal through it himself’, but that was just an excuse now that she thought about it. She didn’t want to spend money on earrings and piercings, but now, Kelli had taken care of that. She figured she’d get it done, and if she didn’t like it, she could take them out.

“Alright, but I’ll have to figure out a way to show the belly button one…without tube tops, because that’s kind of your look.” Kelli giggled again and they hugged. Tasha noticed how heavenly soft Kelli was as always. Kelli kissed her on the cheek.

“I’ll help you figure out something…”


Kik’tik was sitting alone in her holding cell. It had a one-way mirror on one wall, and Kik’tik could feel the peep show being held on the other side. She wondered if they were paying a cover charge to eyeball the freak or if it was just a come as they wanted then leave. She ran her claws through her hair, staring down at the table. She didn’t pay any attention to the door opening and Mana coming in and sitting across from her on the table. Kik’tik didn’t bother looking up at her until she slid a hooded sweatshirt to her across the table. It was black and she knew it would be extra baggy on her.

“So you don’t have to wear that Zieke’s sweaty fatigues.” Kik’tik took slipped the coat off, putting on the hoodie. She pulled her hair out from between the hoodie and her back.

“Thanks…” Kik’tik held her head between her heads. “How long is this going to take?”

“Why? Do you need anything?” Kik’tik nodded and leaned in over the table. She whispered what she needed in Mana’s ear, not wanting it to be recorded on the monitoring devices. She knew she couldn’t keep it secret too much longer. “…alright, we can get you that. But it’ll be brought here.”

“Thank you…” Kik’tik sat back down. “You have no idea how…how hard it is…”

“It’s alright. You don’t have to explain yourself to me.” Kik’tik sighed, thanking all of the Laumur gods she could think of that Mana didn’t grill her about her request. She watched as Mana typed in the order on the computer pad, hoping it went straight to a doctor and not through a chain of command. No sooner had she sent the order out than were the pills she asked for brought in with a tall glass of water. Kik’tik downed the pills and chugged the water. She knew they wouldn’t try to poison her.

“Thank you…” Kik’tik put the glass down on the table. “Why are you being so damn nice, anyway?”

“I figure there’s no need to treat you badly.” Mana looked over Kik’tik, trying to get a complete picture of what her body looked like. She understood why Kik’tik was so self-conscious about it. No one ever looked like her before. She was the first and only one of her kind. “Don’t worry, by the way, I haven’t allowed anyone in the viewing room other than myself…”

“That’s good, I…” Kik’tik saw Mana wasn’t looking at her in the slightest. Mana had turned her head sharply to the mirror.

“I know you’re there…” She growled at it. “If you don’t leave now, I’ll have you demoted within the hour…” At first, Kik’tik shook her head, thinking Mana was just putting on a lame show for her. Then she heard a door open on the other side of the wall and a number of unique footsteps leaving the room. “I apologize for the crew…They’re apparently children…”

“I’ve noticed you staring too, Commander.” Kik’tik groaned. “You’re just as obsessed.”

“I can’t deny I’ve been staring a little, but it’s not because I think you’re hideous. I think you have a…haunting beauty to you.” Kik’tik smirked slightly, thinking she’d call her bluff.

“I think you’re beautiful too…So what do you say we go out for drinks later?”

“You shouldn’t be drinking with those pills, Kik’tik…” Mana seemed to just be making an excuse to dodge the whole thing. Of course, it didn’t help that they were both women, though Kik’tik didn’t care. As long as she had someone that wouldn’t shiver every time they looked at her, she was fine with whatever gender they happened to be.

“Alright, I won’t have any booze…just so you won’t worry…” Kik’tik folded her hands under her chin, leaning over the table and peering deeply into Mana’s eyes. “So, what do you say, Commander Winslow?”

“…Answer all my questions, and sure. I won’t just have drinks with you…We’ll have a full date and everything.”

“Alright…” Kik’tik put her feet up on the table, ready for the questions. “Shoot…”


“Alright…and the last gift is from Bill…” Tasha said, shaking it slightly as a joke. Bill was just like Tasha, not usually caring if someone got him a gift for his birthday. Bill stepped forward, wanting to see how she reacted to his gift.

Tasha honestly didn’t know what to expect. Hal had gotten her a book on a computer pad, an in-depth science book called ‘Life, The Universe, and Everything’ that covered almost literally everything. It turned out Kristin had picked her up the same thing, giving her ten-thousand credits out of her own pocket to make up for it. Yu’lena had given her a giant singing crystal for her quarters that was at least a foot and a half tall, saying she made it for her, though Tasha had no idea how she could have. Helena gave her a new music player, and Geoff some albums for it. They were mostly generic rock albums, nothing Tasha really liked, an unintentional mistake on Geoff’s part. Lastly, Sally had gotten her a small gift card to a clothing shop on the ship, though Kristin’s was much larger. What Bill would get her was anyone’s guess.

“Nice job wrapping this, Bill…” Tasha joked as she grappled with the wrapping paper. “But did you have to weld it shut?”

“…You know, I thought it was a bit excessive when I was doing it…But hey, it’s your birthday.” Bill Nelson was always fast with a joke and a smile. It could be annoying at times, but he tended to know when it was a good time to stop. He was super protective of everyone under his command, and when he found out what happened to Tasha at Paul’s hand, words couldn’t describe his rage. He went out an airlock in a normal suit and raged against the void to keep his sanity. Since then, he had been as protective of Tasha as possible. He had even been letting her take breaks far more often and reassigning work to cover her.

“There we go…” Tasha laughed as the box was finally opened and unwrapped. She gasped at what was inside. It was a deep purple that Tasha loved, with black across the shoulders, in blocks at the hips, and around the cuffs of the arms and legs. It was lined with silk and had a little insulation to keep her warm. It was better than any of the jumpsuits she had already. “Whoa…”

“I was hoping you’d say something like that…” Bill said with a smile. Tasha stood up and hugged him.

“Thank you so much…This is great!” She backed away from him slightly. “Wait…where’d you get my measurements?”

“It’s nothing creepy!” Bill reassured her. “Your dad gave them to me.”

“Ah, well then…” Tasha hugged him again. “Thank you. I’m going to put this on as soon as I can…”

“Really?” Bill asked in genuine disbelief, thinking Tasha was just being too nice. Tasha nodded.

“I can’t stand dresses…” She whispered to him, tugging up the top of her dress. “I feel like I’m almost naked with just…like…a towel around me.” She gave Bill a quick peck on the cheek. “Thanks for the gift and the excuse…”

“I…uh…you’re welcome.” Bill bumbled through the sentence slightly. He watched as Tasha went over to Jessie before turning around and going back into the group of people. Tasha hugged Jessie and kissed him on the cheek.

“I’m going to duck out and change into this real quick…”

“Ah, come on!” Jessie groaned and hit his head. “You never wear dresses…and you look so pretty in them…”

“Dad, you know how I hate dresses…” Tasha groaned back as she looked the jumpsuit over. “I prefer pants.”

“You’re going to try to get married in a tux, aren’t you?” Tasha nodded and smiled. “Alright, go change, but don’t take three and a half hours like you did last time, alright?”

“You got it…” Tasha smiled again. “Constance, will you help me change?” Constance nodded and slowly walked over to Tasha, picking up the jumpsuit box. “As for everyone else…Feel free to drink and dance, let the music start and try not to have too good of time until I get back…”