Chapter 21

Eliza got Zen back to the Gears of War. Zen was depressed slightly, crying ever so slightly as she went. Eliza and Zen both didn’t want her crew seeing her like this, Zen guiding her through a number of emergency passages in the ship. Very few of the crew knew they were there, kept secret in case of mutiny. Zen didn’t like using them, but she couldn’t look weak to her crew.

Finally, Eliza got Zen back to her quarters. Zen punched in the door code and they stumbled in. Eliza looked around as she closed the door after them. Everything in Zen’s quarters seemed to be a mixture of feminine and masculine items, with nothing matching anything else.

“You’re actually the first woman I’ve had in my quarters in months, beautiful…” Zen sighed, pointing over at her bedroom. “In there…”

Zen’s bedroom was a mess, even by Eliza’s lack standards. There were dirty clothes across the entire floor, with a mixture of panties, bras, and thongs mixed in. Eliza groaned, setting Zen carefully down on her bed. She thought about making a remark about how her quarters were almost as big of a mess as her, but she stifled the thought. “Do you want me to see if I can find some oxy-pills for you?”

“You won’t find them here…” Zen sighed, unbuttoning her shirt slightly. She felt embarrassed and hot in front of Eliza all at once.

“God, why do you do this to yourself…” Eliza sat down next to her. She put her hand on Zen’s closest shoulder, not wanting to put an arm around her in case she had to run to the bathroom.

“Today…Today it’s because…because I can’t stop thinking about how Talia should be here to see her beautiful daughter become a woman…” Zen ran her fingers through her hair. “I’ve always dranked a lot…”

“Dranked?” Eliza bit her lip. Improper English annoyed her enough that a complaint slipped out just beyond her control.

“…a lot, but recently…on top of all the other shit I carry around…God help me, I…I mean, have you seen Tasha? She’s GORGEOUS!” Zen covered her eyes, trying to hide the tears trickling from her eyes. “God help me, she’s the daughter of the only lover that I really felt…connected to, but I just can’t help it…I’m such a slut…”

“Now, don’t go…”

“I am!” Zen snapped. “I haven’t brought them back here, but I’ve…I’ve been fucking my way through my crew and whenever we go to a planet…Because…because there’s just this hole no one can fill since Talia was murdered…” She put her hand on her forehead as she stared at the ground. “Jessie doesn’t know how much I loved her…that…that I never thought he was good enough for her, and the only reason I was so willing to handle…her ‘attacks’ when he was gone was just so…just so I could make love to her…Maybe I…I just want to be with Tasha so I can be with Talia in a way again…”

“I know how you feel, actually…” Eliza looked at the ceiling, not believing she was telling this story at all. “…When my Sarah was killed, I tried to seduce her younger sister at her funeral…because she looked so much like Sarah…”

“How did that go?”

“She…slapped me…Sarah’s family hasn’t talked to me since.” Eliza shook her head. “Her mom…who used to love me and said I was the best thing to happen to Sarah, spat in my face…”

“Well, at least she was actually a ‘girlfriend’…” Eliza whispered that Sarah was her fiancé under her breath, not wanting to interrupt Zen again. “I was just like…I might as well have been a nurse, like…giving her CPR or something when she needed it…”

“Did she love you?”

“You always say ‘I love you’ to the woman you’re fucking…” Zen shook her head. “I’d like to think she loved me, but…”

“If she was letting you have sex with her, for any reason, she loved you…” Eliza tried to comfort her, using the same logic she used for hope with Kristin. Zen looked up at her with her big beautiful eyes. Zen was thinking about saying something, but decided actions spoke louder than words. She put her arms around the back of Eliza’s neck and kissed her deeply. “What are you doing?”

“…I don’t know…” Zen kissed her again. “I need someone and so do you, so I thought…”

“Zen…” Eliza couldn’t believe she was stopping someone as gorgeous as Zen, but she was. Zen had her shirt unbuttoned all the way down to her belt. Her breasts were heaving up and down slightly with every breath. “I can’t deny I like you, and good god, you’re easily one of the most gorgeous women I’ve ever been hit on by…”

“No, no…” Zen ignored her, kissing her chin and trying to pull up her shirt up, but Eliza stopped her again. “We both have holes other people have left in our hearts…”

“I don’t want to rush things between us, but I still…” Zen took her shirt off completely, tempting Eliza further with the glowing spots that traced the edges of her chest and hips. “I still think you’re gorgeous…”

“I think you’re gorgeous, too…” Zen kissed her again. “I can almost fill the pain in your heart…”

“Zen, because I want to be with you, I don’t want to rush this…” Eliza say down next to her, putting her hand on her thigh. “I don’t want the only thing we have in common to be that we like fucking each other…” Eliza laughed. “I don’t even know how old you are…”

“…Thirty…four…ish…”

“Ish?”

“…I’m turning thirty-eight in three months, alright? I’m thirty-eight in human years, god knows how old in Rae years…”

“Whoa…” Eliza looked her over. She couldn’t believe Zen was as old as she said she was. “…Thirty-eight?”

“Yeah…” Zen smiled. “I know I probably look about thirty-two at the most, I think that’s how old I am in Rae years…How old are you?”

“…Twenty-seven.” Eliza was shy to say, since Zen was so much older than her. Zen smiled.

“That explains why you’re so gorgeous and cut…” Zen pulled Eliza’s shirt up slightly, running her hands across her stomach, “though that pregnancy is showing already…” Zen stretched arms over her head, leaving her shirt off to tempt Eliza. “What do you think of me?”

“I…uh…” Eliza had tried to not think of just how perfect Zen’s body was. She had to be in great shape, and had just the right definition to make her a goddess. Every curve on her body was highlighted by her glowing spots. Her spots even shone through the thinner parts of her red, lacy bra. Zen sat down on the bed, unbuckling her belt and unzipping her pants. “What are you doing?”

“I remembered that I told you about my tattoo…and I want to show it to you…” Zen slid her pants off completely, a move that seemed excessive to Eliza. She could have just slid them down to her knees to show the tattoo, not talk them off completely. “See?” Zen held her legs open, pointing at her tattoo.

Eliza stared at it slightly, thought she was ashamed she was. Zen’s tattoo was perfect, the dark purple shapes traced with a pale purple. The tattoos were complicated and the tracing made it obvious that they were interlinked. Zen got up and swaggered over to Eliza.

“You never did say what you thought of my body…” Zen stretched slightly. “I think it’s a shame yours got…marred like it did, but you’re so great…it doesn’t matter. You’ll always be a goddess to me…”

“I…I think you’re…” Eliza cleared her throat. She closed her eyes and turned her face away from Zen slightly. She was ashamed of her thoughts on how beautiful and gorgeous Zen was.

“Come on, you can say it…”

“…You’re…you’re a delicious Rae babe…” Eliza spoke quietly, but Zen heard and chuckled slightly at what she said. Eliza finally decided she had to tell Zen the truth. “The first time I saw you in my hospital room…I thought ‘she’s the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen’. I mean…your hips are strong and curvy…Your breasts and butt are firm and round, and…and then Paul took control…” Eliza looked down into Zen’s eyes. “He heard all of my thoughts about you…He wanted me to take you to him so he could have you like he had me…and…Honestly, I don’t know how, but I managed to resist him…though it made me throw you across the room…” Eliza ran her fingers through Zen’s long, flowing hair slightly. “I knew he was going to make me do to make up for not bringing you to him, but I’d rather suffer it than make you go through it. He even sliced my face every time he…violated me, which I could never let him do to the…masterpiece of your face. And if he made you pregnant too…I don’t know what I would have done…”

“Wait…he put one of those scars across your face every time he…” Eliza nodded. “So, he…when you didn’t bring me to him…” Eliza nodded again. “Which one…”

“This one…” Eliza traced the scar that went horizontally across her face and nose. “He did this really horrible thing to me, too…But I would have done anything to keep you out of his reach…” Zen got up on her tip toes, putting her hands on Eliza’s shoulders to guide her. She leaned in and kissed Eliza across her scar over and over again, across her entire face. Eliza blushed, trying not to glance down at Zen’s chest.

“It’s alright to look…” Zen smiled. “I’ve got to thank you somehow…” She lowered herself back down and kissed Eliza deeply, rolling their lips together. Eliza tried to resist what she knew Zen was trying to do. Still, she couldn’t find the strength to stop Zen from unbuckling her belt and letting her pants fall to the ground. As Zen kissed her neck and shoulders and slid her hands under her panties, Eliza didn’t know what to do.

“Zen…please stop…” Eliza heard herself say it, and the immoral side of her was already kicking her for complaining about it already. Still, she pushed Zen away slightly. “How drunk are you?”

“Not too drunk…” Zen unhooked her bra and slid it off. Eliza couldn’t resist her bare heaven shinning just in front of her. She let Zen pull her close and start caressing her again. Zen kissed her deeply again as she slowly slid off her panties.

“Oh god…”


Constance walked back into the party with Tasha. She wanted to kiss Tasha with every bit of her heart, but she knew it would only make things with Jessie incredibly tense. So, she decided she’d settle for holding her hand as they walked.

“You look much better in that jumpsuit than you did in that dress…” Constance realized what she said, stumbling slightly. She quickly tried to recover from her non-insulting mistake. “I mean, Tasha, you look so much more natural in that jumpsuit than that dress…Though you were absolutely GORGEOUS in that dress…”

“Connie…” Tasha whispered to her. “Don’t worry…I’m glad you like me better in my new jumpsuit than that dress…”

“Oh, I do.” Constance smiled, still resisting the urge to kiss Tasha and declare her love to the entire room. Her heart was singing with it, and she just didn’t know if she could contain it much longer. “Purple’s definitely your color…You’re absolutely stunning…” Tasha smiled.

“What happened to her dress…” Chase whispered in a loud voice to Yu’lena as they walked over. Tasha smiled, thinking it was adorable how Chase didn’t know how to whisper. She couldn’t help but think Yu’lena looked so good carrying Chase, like a perfect mother.

“I am sorry to interrupt, Tasha, but little Chase here would like a dance and she is very tired…”

“Alright, I’d be glad to give you a dance, little lady.” Chase cheered and practically jumped out of Yu’lena’s arms to be with Tasha. Fortunately, it was a slow song, because Chase barely had any energy left. Chase wrapped her arms around Tasha, putting her ear flat up against Tasha’s stomach. Constance could hear Chase’s cute little thoughts, trying not to eavesdrop on her. She didn’t have to worry about it too long, though, as she was quickly distracted by Jessie walking up.

“Constance,” Jessie looked down into her eyes, though she could see his eyes drifting down occasionally. She didn’t mind in the long run, knowing he didn’t mean anything by it. “I was hoping I could talk to you.”

“Alright…” Constance walked away from Yu’lena with Jessie so she could watch Chase and Tasha dance uninterrupted. “What did you want to talk to me about, Captain Jack?”

“I got talking with Tasha earlier…and…well, I wanted to apologize for the way I treated you when you first came aboard,” Jessie was ashamed of himself at staring at someone who was younger than his daughter, finally just casting his wandering gaze straight at the floor, “talking about giving you back to the police and putting you back into prostitution…”

“Oh, that’s fine, Captain…” Constance smiled slightly. “Things worked out, and you did try to buy me, so I’m not too worried about that…”

“I still feel bad about you ending up with Ariis…” Jessie looked up into Constance’s eyes. “I noticed you limping slightly…Did Ariis hurt you?”

“That’s…really rather awkward…” Constance put her hand on her stomach. She still hurt from everything Ariis had done to her over the last couple of days. She didn’t feel comfortable talking about such injuries, even with Patch, and he was just a robot. “…Ariis has liked it…really rough recently, that’s all I can say…”

“Well…do you hurt too much that you can’t dance?” Constance turned around and shook her head. In reality, she felt barely able to move. Still, she bit her lip slightly and didn’t hesitate, dancing slowly with Jessie. Jessie was surprising light on his feet, so at least Constance didn’t have to worry about him stepping on her feet and adding to her pain.


Helena and Geoff were both at the bar. Helena seemed to be drinking a little heavily to Geoff, but he wrote it off as Helena trying to celebrate Tasha’s birthday. He couldn’t begin to guess the real reason she was drinking, but she was keeping it secret. Kristin walked over with a drink in her hand, sitting at the barstool next to Helena.

“What are you all talking about that’s so important that you’re both just drinking at the bar instead of joining in the dancing?” Kristin sipped at her martini.

“Uh…Well, this is going to sound weird, but we were talking about how Ariis is…”

“Well, a lot of the crew, actually…” Geoff covered up so Helena didn’t say what he knew was coming. He didn’t want to look like some sort of pervert to Kristin, still hoping to get her to date him. She was gorgeous, after all. “They’re acting kind of creepy…Guys who usually hate each other hanging out, and not even really talking, just like…grunting and growling…”

“So, usual dumb guy shit?” Kristin stirred her martini with the olive on its toothpick. She took the olive out, biting it ever so slightly and sliding it off the toothpick.

“It’s not just that…” Helena groaned. “Ariis has been fucking everyone she can get her hands on like a bitch in heat…Regardless of gender…”

“She didn’t grab you, did she?” Geoff whispered to her, but she shook her head.

“I guess because I’m a runt…” Helena sighed and looked down into her beer. “I’m already pretty hammered, and I’m not even through my second beer yet…” She shook her head. “Sorry, I get a little…angst-y when I’m drinking.”

“Yeah, but no matter how hammered she gets, she always knows what she’s doing.” Geoff smiled and put his arm around Helena. “A guy tried to pick up Helena as an ‘easy-lay’ at her eighteenth birthday party…He started hitting on her and trying to feel her up and WHAM! She knocked him out with ONE PUNCH! And he was EASILY a foot and a half taller than her! I swear, she had to jump up to do it, but ONE PUNCH!”

“Hey…” Helena growled at Geoff, grabbing him by the collar and pulling him close. “If I knocked him out, I certainly can knock you out, can’t I? I’ve only gotten stronger since then…”

“Alright, alright…” Geoff chuckled, knowing full well Helena could probably at least mess him up if nothing else. She had a black belt in karate, though he didn’t know the specific name of the fighting style she practiced. Helena still held him close.

“Now…” she whispered so only he could hear, “…Ask Kristin to dance…I mean, if you faun over her anymore, I might throw-up…”

“Alright, seriously!” Helena finally let go of him, Geoff acting like she was still threatening him. He turned to Kristin, straightening his clothes slightly. “…Kristin, I know we got off on the wrong foot, but…I was hoping you’d let me have a slow dance with you here while Helena calms down…”

“Well,” Kristin looked Geoff over briefly. He was buff, but it was obvious to her that that wasn’t the only thing her ever worried about. She hated muscle-bound idiots that only did things between work-outs. He was rather handsome, too, but that could have been the alcohol talking. He did frustrate her when he was hitting on her within minutes of meeting her, but it was kind of funny now that she looked back at it. If nothing else, she could always end the relationship, move on, and hope he was mature enough to do the same. “…Alright, but it has to be a slow dance. These damn heals weren’t made for anything too athletic.”

“I’ll go at whatever speed you want, Kristin…” Kristin shook her head.

“Okay, two things…” Helena could barely hear them over the party as they walked on to the dance floor. “One more joke that could be followed by a frat-boy high-five, and I will have to hurt you…and two, call me Krissy.”


Helena couldn’t watch them dance, getting up and seeing if anyone else in the party was as bored and alone as she was. Finally, she saw Sally sitting at a table by herself. She walked over and sat down with her.

“Hey, Sally, what’s up?”

“Just watching little Chase there dance with Tasha…” Sally smiled. Chase was obviously fighting to stay awake while she was dancing with Tasha. She noticed that Chase seemed to be keeping her hands right on Tasha’s butt, and Tasha clearly didn’t know how to handle it. “She’s like the little sister I never had, though I think she’s kind of a perv…or is going to be…whatever…”

“Yeah…” Helena looked over at them dancing. “She definitely has her hands full of Tasha there…” She chuckled.

“I’m hoping she doesn’t realize what she’s doing to Tasha and her hands just slid down a little…” Sally looked down at the table, shaking her head. She knew what the signs meant, but was trying not to think like that about little Chase. “Look there…” Sally gestured slightly over to Hal and Kelli dancing. Helena’s jaw dropped when she saw it.

“A nerd like him…dancing with a TOTAL BABE like Kelli? Miracles do happen…” Helena finished her second beer. “Hey, this may sound weird, but do you want to dance?”

“…How drunk are you?” Sally had to ask. Helena shook her head.

“I don’t mean like a slow dance…I mean, just like…two friends dancing when a song they like’s on…” Helena put her beer mug on the table upside-down. She’d keep ordering more if she left it right side up, and she didn’t want to look like a complete idiot in front of Sally.

“Can we just stay here and talk or something?”

“Sure…” Helena looked over at Geoff and Kristin. “What do you think of that…Kristin science-babe?”

“She’s REALLY smart. I’ll give her that…Though she seems a little full of herself.”

“If I was that smart and hot…I’d be more than a little full of myself…”


Kelli looked up into Hal’s eyes while they were dancing. She smiled, seeing that he was looking down into her eyes and not staring at her breasts. Hal was more than a little shy, worried about where to put his hands. She grabbed them, putting them on her waist.

“It’s okay to touch my hips, Hal. I don’t mind…” She smiled, putting her hands up on his shoulders. “…don’t you like them?”

“There’s nothing I don’t like about you, Kelli…” Hal managed to summon up the courage to say. “Dancing with you so close like this is great.”

“I was just about to say the same thing…” Kelli put her ear against Hal’s chest. He was a little thinner than she usually liked, but she liked him enough to get past it. She didn’t have to fake a smile with him. “What are you thinking about?”

“I’m worried, to be honest…” Hal looked at the ceiling slightly. “I mean, I’m not exactly buff, and when you find out how geeky I really am…”

“Don’t worry about it…” Kelli tried to reassure him. “I mean, we weren’t really friends, but we were acquaintances. I know about most of the stuff you’re into…” She looked up into his eyes again. “Why are you so worried? Relax…”

“Sorry, it’s…” He took a breath. “I don’t know if I can tell you…”

“I’ll tell you what…” Kelli smiled. “If you tell me your secret, I’ll tell you one of mine…”

“Alright, but don’t tell anyone, okay?” Kelli nodded, assuming he’d do the same with her secret. “I’m OCD and have…what’s called high-functioning autism…I obsessed over books and read them over and over, and because of my autism, math and everything just click together…It helped out with math and science, but it makes me really awkward…”

“I don’t mind…It makes you kind of cute…” Kelli kissed him on the lips, giggling slightly when he blushed because of it. “Anyway, want to know my deep, dark secret?”

“Sure, if you want to tell it…” Kelli pulled Hal down a little bit and got up on her toes ever so slightly so she could whisper in his ear. It was the one thing she was really shy about and absolutely no one could know about.

“I…I have inverted nipples…” Kelli blushed brightly when she said it, making Hal’s blush look positively pale in comparison. “It’s kinda like inny-belly buttons. They’re inside, you can still see them, and they’ll still poke out…at the usual times, but they look kinda weird…and sorta disgusting, I guess…”

“I’m sure they’re not disgusting…” Hal tried to comfort her. “I mean, everything about you is great…er…even…perfect.”

“You only say that because you haven’t seen them…” Kelli turned her face away from him. She wasn’t even going into her days stripping and in pornography, how self-conscious and worried she was about them. She had to constantly toy and mess with them to keep them looking ‘normal’ for the videos and clients. It was the one thing she wanted to change about herself, even with her past. The worst thing was it seemed to be because of what her parents made her do to make her look ‘better’. “Do you want to see them?”

“…I want to say yes, but not sound like a pervert…” Kelli giggled and kissed him again. She held herself close to him as they danced, thinking she finally found the someone she could be happy with. Then, she started to cry again, realizing she wasn’t going to get to have her first time with Hal. She hoped it wouldn’t drive Hal away when he found out.


After her dance with Tasha, Chase finally started falling asleep, so Yu’lena took her back to their quarters. She was starting to get tired herself, so she didn’t mind. One of Tasha’s friends at the party that was recording the party for Jessie said she’d send her the footage of Tasha and Chase dancing together. She hoped Sally or Chase knew what to do with it and could show her how to play it since she had no idea how to even play it.

She opened the door to her temple and found half-a-dozen Zieke soldiers praying in it. She had no idea what to make of it, holding Chase tight and close in case she needed to run. Yu’lena had only heard rumors and stories about Ziekes before this. Mostly, she heard they were easily angered and to watch what she said, making sure to NEVER insult their strength.

“We are sorry for…intrusion, Princess…” The leader of the Zieke soldiers spoke broken English as she walked over to her. She was short, five-feet tall, maybe. She looked to be roughly the same age as Yu’lena, maybe a little older, with a few more grey hairs and wrinkles. Her eyes were a rich, leafy green, with the fire of military focus behind them. Her uniform, while obviously older, was perfectly maintained and sharply ironed. “Those of us who still have…souls are praying for their safety…”

“Priestess, not princess…” Chase roused from her sleep to say, quickly drifting back to sleep. Yu’lena sighed, making a note to teach Chase a lesson about manners tomorrow.

“What do you mean…‘still have souls’?” Yu’lena loosened her grip on Chase.

“…perhaps the child shouldn’t be in the room when I explain to you…” Yu’lena nodded, carrying Chase over to their bedrooms. She looked back and forth for a moment, wondering which would be best for Chase. She really wanted Chase to be able to sleep on her own, though there were certain teachings on her planet that said you should never sleep alone, always having someone with you. Either way, she didn’t want Chase waking up alone in a strange bed after falling asleep in her arms.

“One more night…at least…” Yu’lena kissed Chase on the forehead and put her down on the bed. She’d see if she could wake her up so she wouldn’t sleep in her fancy clothes later. Yu’lena walked back out to the main room with the Ziekes. “Now, what do you mean, ‘still have souls’, Matron?”

“Half my men have…consorted with that whore Akyllisian…” The matron coughed and rubbed her eyes. “Not always…one at a time…My men here have resisted that whore, and are praying for the strength to continue to do so…”

“I see…” Yu’lena walked over to the soldiers. “I…do not speak Zieke…do they speak Rae?”

“No, and…unfortunately, they are even less fluent in English than I am…” Yu’lena took a deep breath.

“I am afraid I do not know your name…”

“Matron Kez Jerek, ma’am. What is yours?” Matron Kez put her hands out face up in front of Yu’lena. Yu’lena remembered that you were suppose to grab the other person’s wrists with your hands face down.

“Yu’lena, we give up our sir-names when we become Priestesses…” Matron Kez shook her arms. “Uh…tell your men that they are welcome to pray here whenever they want, but to try to be quiet and not disturb my daughter…”

“You have my word we will be silent.” Kez looked around the room. “And that we will protect or avenge you of vandalism…”

“…Thank you, Matron…” Yu’lena bowed to her slightly. Kez knelt down to her to show her honor for her.

“I need to ask something…” Kez stood back up, putting her hand on Yu’lena’s elbow and walking them both over to a corner. “We…need a new religion. All of our race’s religions are being corrupted and turned…at us…” Kez pointed at herself and her men. “Pure bloods…They call us Karak because of it…We cannot go to church or get married without hordes of people demonstrating against us…”

“All of us are equals in my religion. No one has any innate superiority to anyone else due purely to genetics.” Yu’lena could tell she would already like Kez. She was proud, strong, and protective, everything she prided herself on. “You never really get truly ‘higher’ than anyone in a sense, though you can make yourself lower through evil things and you can either raise yourself back up or…or raise others up…”

Yu’lena couldn’t help but think about Hunter as she spoke. He was lowering himself into the pit of hell, and when he raped Tey’ena, she used a special incantation to make sure he was damned there. It was a dangerous prayer to say the least. If he wasn’t truly evil or redeemed himself out of hell, she could be damned in his place. She hoped Hunter had redeemed himself, but didn’t want Tey’ena to go to hell either. She knew what she had to do, though it required a great sacrifice on her part.

“It is very difficult to raise yourself back up, depending on what you did.” Yu’lena wiped a tear away from her eye, trying to hide it from Kez. “It is still a very kind religion. Soldiers are held in high regard for protecting the innocent and banishing evil.”

“Do you have a…Zieke language bible that I may read and approve for my men?” Kez asked, looking at the English and Rae copies of the bible. Yu’lena blushed slightly, feeling more improperly prepared for her role on the ship.

“I only have the two there, unfortunately…”

“Would it be against code for me to scan English one into computer for translation?” Yu’lena couldn’t get frustrated at Kez’s broken English, knowing the only reason she spoke English at all was an accidental gift from Constance. She thought Constance might be able to gift all of them with the same gift.

“I suppose not, but I do have to ask that if you are going to print it…handwrite it out instead. It is mostly for tradition…” Yu’lena realized she was oversimplifying things, but it was true. Rae didn’t have access to printers. Printing something wasn’t necessarily bad, it was just something of a grey area in her religion. “I know it is a task, but consider it as you doing me a…great favor.”

“Ah, it will be favor-back for you saving my men here.” Kez patted her on the arm and smiled. “Don’t worry. I will take the best care of your English bible and make you a fine copy in Zieke.”

“Oh, that is not…” Kez laughed again as Yu’lena tried to discourage her good deed, patting her on the arm again.

“I like you. You don’t even ask for things that are given.” Kez smiled. “I think you and I are…going to be very best friends.”

“I hope so.” Yu’lena said with her usual kindness in her voice. She really wouldn’t mind having more friends her age, knowing she was the oldest person on the ship. Kez was at least close to her age, finally someone she could talk to about the pains of getting old.


Patch was hovering around Hunter, checking on his progress. He was still in his coma, with no sign of waking up any time soon. It had Patch stumped, despite his almost endless knowledge. He was beginning to run deep, more complicated scans on him to try to solve it. As Patch hovered around him, he heard a noise and decided to go respond to it.

The crash was in a room that had patients’ personal effects. He hovered in and found Karen throwing things around. His camera immediately recognized her appearance being massively different. Her hair was back and many elegant curls in it. His sensors detected a gentle perfume of roses and a slight hint of wine to it, though he knew it was part of the perfume. She had on red nylons under her plaid skirt, and a white dress shirt that was unbuttoned to her bellybutton. Under the shirt, she was wearing a bronze breastplate that stretched down and covered her stomach. Combined with one on her back that it was belted to, it made almost an armored bra and corset combination. Literally on top of everything else, instead of her big frumpy glasses, she was wearing contacts.

“Karen,” Patch was programmed to recognize drastic appearance changes, as it could be a signal of serious problems, “is there something wrong?”

“Nothing at all, Patch.” Karen’s voice was smooth as silk and pleasant even to Patch. He didn’t have time to focus on that, recognizing Hunter’s special grenades in her hands.

“That is Mister Hunter’s property. I am going to have to ask you put those down…”

“You’re going to have to do more than ask…” Suddenly, Patch was sent flying off into the room by a powerful attack. Karen walked over to Ariis, who was smirking at her attack on Patch. She stretched up and kissed Ariis. “Here’s what you’re looking for, Master…”

“Are you sure you can modify these to do what I require?” Ariis put one hand on Karen’s stolen items, and one hand on her breastplate under her shirt.

“For you, Master? Anything…”

Eliza woke up with Zen clinging to her slightly. Zen would occasionally rub up against her and sigh almost like a cat purring. Eliza knew she wanted to be furious at Zen, but she just couldn’t muster it. Zen had seduced her even when she asked her to stop, but something about laying next to her in bed felt right. Yelling at Zen could wait until morning.

Eliza saw a lot of herself in Zen. She thought maybe that was why she was so reluctant to be with her. Zen was in just as damaged as her, if not more so. Eliza could lose herself in the job when she lost Sarah, devote every waking minute to finding the ones that killed Sarah, but Zen couldn’t. She was guessing whoever killed Zen’s loved-one was caught rather quickly. A quick, painless death for one that had caused such agony in her life left her feeling just as hollow as Eliza after the act. Now they had to both deal with the loss of someone they loved, but the fact that nothing could bring them back or at the very least make the pain go away.

It did Eliza some good to know that Zen couldn’t deal with the pain perfectly too. Eliza thought her Enhance Marine training had drained all of her emotions away, all the knowledge of how to handle it going with it. She didn’t know if she could tell Zen every horrible little thing that she went through in her life. Would a normal person know if she could tell a lover everything she went through?

More and more, the Enhance Marine parts of her seemed to clash with the real living parts of her. It stole her last month with Sarah away from her, though it was the reason she met Sarah in the first place. Once again, her feet were hanging off the end of her lover’s bed, her legs stretching well past Zen’s feet, even though Zen’s head was resting on her chest. Sarah was much smaller than Zen, and these things, these size-differences, would have never come up with her. Why did it bother her with Zen?

Maybe it was better to get the argument going. Get this out in the opening and get away from this alien feeling. It was harassing her, not letting her have a moment’s peace. That’s when it came, a small kiss on her chest from Zen in her sleep, a slight caress from her hand. Eliza was always so much warmer than Sarah’s small, cool body. Zen wasn’t quite as warm as her, but much warmer than Sarah. Her body was firm and tone instead of the ‘perfect princess’ body Sarah had. Maybe that’s why the size difference bothered her. Eliza was Sarah’s White Knight, while Zen needed no one to protect her. Eliza wasn’t sure how to handle that, but figured she might be able to accept it with a little work.


Kik’tik was sitting in the bar on the Orion. She hated leaving herself exposed like this, but Mana said she was going to meet her for drinks. It was the first possible date Kik’tik had in months, if not years, and she had to hope Mana would show up, even if it meant getting her hopes up for nothing. She felt like an idiot, sitting alone at the bar and ordering grape soda after grape soda as people just gawked at her and snapped photos. She realized it was an old, repeating truth in her life coming up again; No one wanted to get close to the bird-girl. It appeared even Mana fell into it.

“God damn it…” Kik’tik ran her fingers through her hair. Not even Zech and Sala had shown up, though she expected them to be getting to know each other better in their quarters. She was the only one alone on the ship as far as she was concerned. She signaled for the bar tender. “Get me your strongest beer, and make damn sure I don’t have an empty mug in front of me and I’ll give you a giant tip.”

“You got it…” The bartender said as he got out a frosted mug. He looked over the selection of beer before choosing the most expensive one. Kik’tik didn’t care how much it cost as long as it got her drunk. She wanted to try to forget the fact that she had been putting on a free freak show for the crew for the last few hours. The bartender filled a mug and plopped it down in front of Kik’tik. She stared at it briefly, knowing the agony it was going to cause her for the temporary relief. As she started to reach for it, a hand snatched it away at the last second.

“Jack Richards Premium Draft?” Mana whistled and took a drink from the mug. “You sure now how to treat a girl right.”

“You…” Kik’tik turned and faced Mana as she sat down on her stool. Mana took off her uniform coat and threw it around the back of her chair. She loosened her tie and unbuttoned her collar. “You actually came…”

“Sorry I wasn’t here sooner. Things didn’t go as smoothly with your two friends.” She took another drink of beer. “They wanted a room together, and the higher-ups thought they’d turn into a bomb when put together, I guess…So, I spent the last hour…” She looked at her watch. “Sorry, two hours, arguing that they’re more than likely to spend all their time fucking and not conspiring to destroy the ship from the inside.”

“That…” Kik’tik almost felt compelled to it was nice of Mana to do, but didn’t want to sound lame. “…was a problem on my ship. I finally let them have my quarters and they didn’t even change the sheets!”

“Oh god, and I hear Zieke sex gets pretty nasty…” Mana took a drink of beer. “Actually, I know it gets pretty nasty.”

“You know?” Kik’tik chuckled. “Oh, there’s a story there…”

“A Zieke guy I meet in a bar starts trying to seduce me…And he was ripped and I was drunk, so it worked, right? Not one of my prouder moments, but everyone’s telling me to loosen the hell up all the time, so I figure, why not? I get him back to my quarters, things are getting all hot and heavy…until he drops his pants…”

“So, it’s true?!” Kik’tik laughed again, leaning over to her. “They have those little…”

“Uh-huh…” Mana shook her head and took another drink of beer. “And he’s still trying to sell me on it! ‘Don’t worry, baby, you’ll DIG THE PAIN!’ Can you believe that shit? I swear I kicked him out of my room so fast that he tripped and stumbled and…well, he got stuck to the other wall like a DART…” Mana and Kik’tik both had a hearty laugh. “I’m sure…living on one of the Laumur’s worlds, you’ve got wilder stories than that…”

“Well…There was this time with this Tel-Kek…”


Tasha stayed late after the party ‘ended’ so Constance could get a chance to dance with her. Constance wanted a nice, romantic slow dance and Tasha was willing to oblige. Constance had her ear flat against Tasha’s chest, closing her eyes as they danced. She smiled as she felt Tasha’s hand glide gently through her hair.

“Connie…” Tasha whispered, knowing how tired Constance was feeling. She wanted to be sure Constance wasn’t asleep on her feet. Constance sighed, looking up at her with loving but completely exhausted eyes. “Maybe it’s time we called it quits, dear…”

“I think you’re right…” Constance groaned ever so slightly, frustrated that her body was betraying her like this. She straightened her dress and looked up into Tasha’s brilliant green eyes. Tasha’s eyes could always take her breath away. “Do you…do you mind if I kiss you one last time before I go?”

“You don’t have to ‘go’. I’m sure my dad wouldn’t mind if we granted you asylum from that lunatic Ariis…” Tasha straightened Constance’s hair for her slightly. She knew Ariis would want her to look perfect.

“No, she would come to get me…” Constance looked at the ground. “I want to keep her as far away from you as possible…I’d love to stay with you, believe me…”

“I know, Connie…” Tasha put her hands on her shoulders. “And you can, beautiful. We’ll tell my dad everything…I’m sure he won’t like it, but he’ll save you from Ariis, I know it.”

“I don’t want to tell your dad everything…” Constance looked away from her. “I wasn’t comfortable with you knowing, but showing your dad the bruises and…”

“Look.” Tasha said sharply, but still tried to sound tender and kind to Constance. “I know it’s embarrassing, but…” Constance embraced her, putting her mouth next to her ear.

“Ariis would take me from you…” Constance looked into Tasha’s eyes. “She would punish me for staying with you and you for thinking to take me…”

“I’m willing to take that chance…”

“Tasha…” Constance put her hand on the side of Tasha’s face. She stared into Tasha’s green eyes again. She felt such a deep connection with Tasha that it was almost like they shared the same soul. She didn’t know why. Constance just hoped Tasha felt it too. “…please, you’re making this harder than it has to be…”

“I just want to protect you, Connie…” Constance leaned in and kissed Tasha.

“I know, thank you…” Constance took Tasha’s hands into hers. “Do me a favor…let me walk back to Ariis alone, go back to your quarters, and try to enjoy the rest of your birthday…”

“I can’t promise that…”


Sally and Helena left the party at about the same time. Sally wanted to be sure no one took advantage of Helena while she was drunk. Still, Helena wasn’t as drunk as she started off as, burning off all the alcohol remarkably fast. She might have been a light-weight when it came to drinking, but her metabolism wouldn’t let her stay drunk long, a problem when it came to drinking to forget her problems. They saw Kristin and Geoff leave together, which worried Helena.

“You think Geoff and Kristin are…you know, right now?” Helena shook her head and rubbed her eyes. “Hell, Geoff’s probably going to tell me all about her in the morning…”

“I don’t think so…” Sally pointed to Kristin heading the opposite way down the hallway. Kristin smiled as she passed them, stopping and heading back towards them.

“Helena and Sally, right?” Kristin pointed to them to make sure she got their names right. “Can you tell me where your ship’s astrologic lab is?”

“Why do you want to go there?” Helena had to ask.

“Star gazing always helps clear my head…” Kristin up her hands on her elbows, rubbing her arms to calm herself down. “Digging up that old ‘surviving my own death’ story was a bad idea…plus with the drinking…and you never know when you find something new. You both are free to join me if you want. I’ll let you both name a star if we find anything.”

“Oh, what the hell, I was just going to go wallow in self-pity in my quarters anyway…” Helena smiled. “What about you, Sally?”

“I’m going to pass, girls.” Sally looked at her watch. “It’s late, and…I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I have to go home and study my bible…” Sally chuckled slightly. “I’m trying to decide what type of Priestess to become…”

“Oh, in that case…” Kristin bowed to her slightly, folding her hands in a prayer position. “Congratulations, Sally.”

“Thank you.” Sally bowed back. “I’ll see you both later…”

“Okay, see you later…” Helena knew she had to talk to Sally the next day. Sally could be one of her best friends, one of the few friends she’d have outside of Geoff. Plus, it had the bonus of Sally not always trying to see her breasts or anything else.

Geoff and Helena had been friends for a long time, going back to high school. Geoff had always been an annoying pervert, but she had learned to deal with it for the most part. Since they graduated high school and became pilots, they had been going from job to job together. Geoff was even her cover when they had to take a job on a ‘ship of amazons’, as Geoff put it. They spent about a year on that ship, ending up being temporary lovers on the ship, for lack of any other options. So, she put up with his antics since. She wondered if she should warn Kristin about some of his stranger quirks, deciding she’d decide later.

“Well, come on, show me the way to the lab and we can see if my probes have found anything.”

“Probes?” Helena started walking, leading the way to the lab. Kristin followed her without complaint.

“You don’t think I haven’t been using all my travels to my advantage?” Kristin chuckled slightly. “Well, don’t tell the Coalition, but I planted bugs on the ships of theirs I’ve been on so I can tap into their sensor feeds without being noticed. Same with most other ships I’ve been on, transports, mercenary ships like yours…And I’ve been dropping probes and satellites of my own as I go. So, I’ve got something like…fifty-to-seventy-five ‘eyes’ floating around both galaxies. I even have a picture of Earth, its great ring and all.”

“So that’s true? Earth has a ring?”

“…You’ve never seen it before?” Kristin smiled and put her arm around Helena as she shook her head no. “Then have I got a treat for you.”

Earth had become somewhat of a legend since the Crash. Not much was known about it, other than it being the pre-crash home of humanity. It had a ring world around it which couldn’t be explain, as most records had pictures of it before the ring and after. Most didn’t both going to Earth, as it was a prime spot for slavers and raiders. With the population kept with very primitive technology, it was the richest ground for them and made it almost impossible for the Coalition to remove them. Kristin hated it, knowing Earth was humanity’s home world. Someday, she was going to do something about it, though she didn’t know when or how.


Constance got back to Ariis’ quarters shortly after she said goodbye to Tasha. She walked up to the door and got ready to open it, hoping Ariis was still having sex with any random idiot at the time. Unfortunately, she didn’t hear the same ecstasy crazed thoughts she usually heard from Ariis’ mind. Instead, there was just silence, though she could feel Ariis’ presence. She was definitely awake and waiting for Constance. She decided not to put it off anymore, opening the door. Ariis was standing in the middle of the room, staring at the door.

“Oh, Master Ariis…” Constance did her best to hide how much her injuries really bothered her. She knew Ariis wouldn’t let her have a moment’s peace if she thought she was injured. “…Miss Tasha wondered where you were during her party, but I told her you sent me as an emissary…”

Ariis remained eerily silent, staring at Constance. Constance thought she was furious because she had sneaked off to be with Tasha at her party. She knew she was going to have to deal with it sooner or later, quickly and gingerly walking over to Ariis. She got up on her tip toes and kissed her, getting ready to make up an excuse, but Ariis didn’t let her talk, grabbing her by the neck.

“I can smell her on you…” Ariis growled, lifting her into the air. Constance gasped for breath, kicking her legs and fighting Ariis’ grip to try to get free, but it was no use. Ariis’ hand was a vice slowly closing on her throat. “You DARED to touch MY WOMAN!?”

“Muh…Master Ariis…” Constance wheezed out as tears poured down her cheeks and over Ariis’ hand. She couldn’t beg or plead with her long, the world slowly snuffing out around her as Ariis’ strangled her. Once her body went limp, Ariis threw her across the room, whistling to Karen.

“Drag her off to the dungeon and chain her up…” Ariis snarled.

“Yes, Master Ariis…” Karen didn’t question Ariis in the slightest, dragging Constance’s unconscious body off to the room she called the dungeon. She knew Ariis’ plans for Constance, hoping she would let her watch for the sick thrill of it all.

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…”

Ecstasy of Gold - Ch. 18

Jessie was looking for Tasha to try to help her. Still, on top of it, he had to find replacements for all the soldiers that died. He had put out an advertisement on a mercenary site for the colony. He was sure he’d get enough soldiers to replace the almost two dozen that had been killed or permanently disabled. He hated doing it, mostly because it was what his wife use to do.

Talia was a perfect judge of character. She would be able to tell if a soldier was going to obey Jessie’s strict rules of conduct. Jessie wasn’t going to go raider and have his crew murdering and raping through the crews of other ships. It would buy the Ecstasy of Gold some sympathy if military ships ever came knocking. Talia was the grease that kept the ship rolling smoothly. Jessie knew she’d say he was doing an admirable job keeping the ship going, but Jessie knew the truth. It was really only a matter of time before the ship fell apart.

As he walked around the entire ship looking for Tasha, his communicator rang. He knew it couldn’t be any soldiers calling in, mostly because he didn’t put his number up on the site. He looked to see what the number was, not recognizing it. He spun his communicator open and answered it.

“Captain Jessie Jack here. Who’s this?” He said sharply and to the point.

“Hello, Captain. This is Kristin Nightingale.” A seductive woman’s voice came over the line. At first, he thought it was Zen playing a trick on him, but he decided to play along with it. “I’ve heard about the various scientific discoveries your ship has made over the past few months, discovering one of the largest hypergiant stars on record, the hyperspace demon you encountered, and this recent encounter with this shadow demon, and I have to say, I’m impressed.”

“If you’re another one of those military researchers calling about the Shadow Demon, I told you before, I don’t know a damn thing about it!” He snapped. “My daughter came close to being RAPED because of that thing! If I knew of a way to kill it, don’t you think I would TELL YOU?”

“I’m sorry, sir…but that’s not what this call is about.” Jessie breathed a sigh of relief. He knew everyone that came within ten feet of the demon or Paul were lucky to not have been ‘disappeared’ to a secret colony and examined from head to toe, inside and out. “I wish to join your crew because your ship in particular seems to always be on the cusp of scientific knowledge.”

“We’re not looking for any more scientists right now, Miss Nightingale…” Jessie rubbed his eyes. He was getting tired of all the science types on his ship already. Karen was enough of a pain in his ass as it was. If he had another colossal pain in the ass haunting his ship all the time, he didn’t know what he should do.

“I know you aren’t looking for one, but it sounds like you aren’t familiar with my work.” Kristin said calmly. “I’m Kristin Nightingale, one of the universe’s top experts in Origin tech, and I’m lucky. Incredibly lucky and incredibly rich. Take me onboard your ship and I’ll make it worth your while.”

“What do you mean ‘worth my while’?” Jessie just had to ask. Kristin just laughed.

“Don’t get excited, Captain. I’m as wealthy as I am lucky. I can pay rent, and I’d be willing to help upgrade your ship’s sensors and anything else, and any further Origin technology I find will be at your disposal.”

“Damn it…” Jessie groaned. “Alright, you can come, but I set the rent.”

“No problem, I’ll be on your ship within six hours. Over and out.”

“Right…” Jessie groaned, closing his communicator. He took a deep breath to calm himself down. His only hope for staying sane for the next twenty-four hours was that everything with the new soldiers went smoothly.


Eliza was standing in front of a military tribunal. She was out of her armor, wearing military fatigues instead. They were dark green instead of camouflage, the only uniforms Enhance Marines had that weren’t for combat duty. All of the wounds Paul inflicted on her had healed, leaving large horrible scars across her entire body. Disconcertingly, she had to wear her belt slightly out because of her pregnancy. She didn’t know much about being pregnant, but it was moving faster than it should.

She knew they all knew what happened to her. The mind control, the rape, everything, but she didn’t care. Pain of any kind meant nothing to Enhance Marines after their training.

Of the whole thing, Eliza’s only regret was that her love Sarah was no longer the last person she had sex with. She missed Sarah with every bit of her heart. She hated herself for failing to protect her. She should have known she couldn’t protect her from the blast and the shockwave.

Eliza took a deep breath, swallowing air briefly. There was a telepath at the end of the row of generals at the tribune table. He was individualized by his black uniform. She knew he was scanning her, possibly hearing his thoughts. She looked straight ahead at the tribune, not taking her eyes off them.

“Unfortunately, as my report said, General…” She took a deep breath. “The telepath Paul Lamar caught me with my helmet off and penetrated deep into my mind and was able to control my every action.”

“Sergeant Otto, do you have any idea what Lamar was rated on the telepath scale?”

“No, sir.” Eliza said firmly, without flinching in the slightest. The general looked down at her information, reading every intimate detail about her.

“He was a Te-5, he would need direct line of sight to control you like that.” The general looked up at her. “And your training should have been MORE than sufficient to break his control.”

“Sir, his powers were greatly enhanced by the shadow demon, sir.” Eliza had to defend herself. The generals thought she was just making excuses for herself, but she was really just stating the truth. “Sir, I would estimate his new telepathic rating being near Te-20, as he was able to control not only me, but several others as well.”

Eliza wondered why the others weren’t on trial. She wasn’t the only one that wasn’t able to resist Paul’s control. Of course, she was the only Enhance Marine in the group. Enhance Marines were trained to resist all telepathic control, at least until they were rendered unconscious, then it wouldn’t do any good to control them anyway.

“How do you defend yourself against the fact that he could only control you so well is that he’s had previous intimate contact with you and your mind?” Eliza grit her teeth. “A fact that is backed up by you being several weeks pregnant with his child.”

“Sir, I have made my sexual orientation no secret. I proposed to my girlfriend of several years under the base’s flag, SIR.” Eliza said strongly. Her relationship with Sarah was common knowledge on the base. “Frankly, sir, I’m more than a little insulted by you implying I would CHEAT on my fiancé with a MAN.”

“I think that’s enough questions about Sergeant Otto’s personal life, General Gray…” One of the local Space Force’s Admirals growled at him. “I think a bigger concern is, after suffering such severe trauma, do you think you can effectively serve the military after what happened to you?”

Eliza sighed. She hated having her strength questioned. The crime scene photos were splashed up on screens behind the generals. It was the way she was found, raped, with parts of her armor cut away. It made her look weak to the generals, like a waste of money and time. They expected it to rattle her, make her fall apart.

“Forget the condition of her body and mind!” General Gray shouted. “The fact of the matter is her mind’s been BREACHED! Just for that she should be drummed out of the military! She shouldn’t even be in here! She could snap and kill us all before a guard could be…”

“GENERAL GRAY!” The admiral shouted again. “One more outburst and I will have you removed from this hall. Understood?” Admiral Mustang was one of Eliza’s few friends in the military. Eliza kept everyone else in the military at arm’s length, knowing she was in a high risk position and could be killed or her friends could be killed. “Otto…”

“Sir?” Eliza replied strongly.

“After suffering such severe trauma…” He said slowly to make sure Eliza knew it wasn’t an attack, “do you feel you could effectively serve the military?”

“Sir, I am not permanently injured or disabled in any way…”

“Miss Otto…” Mustang spoke slowly, “do you think you can still serve?”

Eliza looked down at her feet, taking a deep breath. She really thought about the whole situation and what happened to her. Being raped didn’t bother her, she was sure of it. All the anger she had about it was released when she snapped Paul’s neck. She had gone through far worse pain before. What did both her was the pregnancy. It felt like an invasion, like her body was building a bomb to kill her. Eliza never wanted to feel that, feel a foreign life growing inside of her.

“Yes.” Eliza said strongly. She was sure she could serve again.

“I believe you, Otto.” Mustang took the photos down behind him. “Unfortunately, you cannot serve while you are pregnant…”

“What!?” Eliza shouted slightly. “I’m still…”

“You have to keep the child in consideration. You don’t want to risk loosing it…” Eliza thought for a second. Did she want to loose it? She was ashamed of the thought the second she had it. It wasn’t the child’s fault how it was conceived. Still, she didn’t want it. She thought the growing intrusion into her body would slowly drive her mad. She didn’t know if she could take it. “Have you decided if you’re keeping it or…”

“I’m going to at least carry it to term…” Eliza made the snap decision. “I might put it up for adoption afterward…”

“Then…until you’ve given birth and had the appropriate recovery time, you’ll be removed from active duty.” Eliza panicked slightly. All she ever wanted to do was be in the military.

“But I can still…”

“It’s for the best, Otto.” Admiral Mustang stood up, calling the group to attention. “Sergeant Eliza Otto, it is my decision that you were under the involuntary and vicious control of a telepath and an extra terrestrial being. You will not be held responsible for your actions during this period of time.” Eliza had to restrain herself to keep from shouting her defense. She couldn’t stand to be out of commission for almost a year. It would drive her mad. “Upon your child’s birth, your physical and mental condition will be evaluated, and if all goes well, you will be assigned a new unit.”

“…Yes…yes, sir…” Eliza saluted them and waited to be dismissed. Once she was, she left the room, going back to her apartment as fast as she could. She closed the door, doing her best not to slam it. If she slammed it, it’d shatter the door and rip out the doorframe. She collapsed into a pile, crying. She had literally lost everything now, not able to serve in the military was going to drive her insane.

She hated herself more for crying. Showing any weakness was beaten out of her in her training. She was ashamed of it, and ashamed of the thoughts that followed. Eliza grabbed her head, trying to force out the thought of terminating the pregnancy. She couldn’t accept the thought in her mind at all. She was going to protect whatever life she could. She had to distract herself with anything, remembering what happened to Tasha. She remembered a patch on her jumpsuit that Jessie had on his coat.

“Computer…Search the docked ships for one named…” she paused for a second, trying to recall the name, “Ecstasy of Gold.”

Eliza never drank, though she was tempted to now. She wasn’t even thinking about her child. She just wanted a relief from the blur of confusion in her mind. Still, there had to be much healthier solutions. She took off her shirt, plopping into a chair while the computer worked.

“Ship found: Ecstasy of Gold. Registered Pirate Guild vessel. No outstanding warrants for attacks on any military vessel.” The computer stopped for a moment, searching for more information. “Currently, they have an active ad for any soldiers willing to join the crew. The pay is a percentage of the take, and room and board will be provided.”

“Soldiers?” Eliza looked at the information. She liked the ship. The Ecstasy of Gold had no serious crimes attributed to it. She felt she could serve it well without breaching her service to the military. “Is there a contact number?”

“Yes, dialing…”

“Transfer it to my communicator.” Eliza flipped open her communicator, waiting for everything to go through. It rang and rang. Finally, it was answered. “Captain Jack?”

“Yes, are you a soldier applying for the position available?” Jessie paused for a second. “Because we’ve filled the position with two-dozen Zieke soldiers…”

“With all due respect, sir, I can’t imagine any of those soldiers would be my equal.” Eliza didn’t like boasting, but she knew it was true. Unless the soldiers were Enhance Marines, they wouldn’t even be on par with her. Even then, she thought she could out do most of them. “Let me explain…Sir, my name’s Eliza Otto, an Enhance Marine. I believe we already met earlier…when I was in the hospital and under Paul’s control…”

Jessie was eerily silent. Eliza knew why. Paul had a long reach, damaging many lives. She thought she’d give him time to get through everything, but after a few seconds of silence over the line, she couldn’t take it anymore.

“Captain?” Jessie cleared his throat. “I assure you that I regret absolutely everything he made me do under his control…and I…”

“I know, you didn’t do any of it willingly…” Jessie sighed. He knew how badly she hurt Zen and him. He didn’t know if he could get past it. “I don’t know if I can trust you. I mean, Enhance Marines are hardcore military. You wouldn’t just ditch…”

“I’m not ‘ditching’ the Corps, sir…” Eliza rubbed her eyes. She didn’t want to admit it. “Because of what happened to me, the mind control, the rape…and the pregnancy, they’ll never let me back into the corps…But I’ve been bred to fight now. You don’t understand what it’s like…” Eliza didn’t want to tell Jessie the truth, but she had no choice. “I’m not a transfer…I’m a recruit…I was recruited at a young age…because I was orphaned in a car wreck. They adopted me and trained me from age eight…You don’t understand what it’s like…all I’ve had my entire life is the Corps, and if I can’t serve it, then I’m going to do the closest thing possible.”

“Alright,” Jessie groaned slightly, “we can use an Enhance Marine. Bring your armor and weapons and we’ll set you up here. We’ll have someone at the space port for you at…” Jessie checked his watch. “…Twenty-one-hundred hours.”

“Very well, I’ll be waiting for you there.” Eliza closed the communicator, getting up out of her chair. She looked around her apartment, trying to decide what she wanted to take. She didn’t have much, deciding just to take things that reminded her of her Sarah.

It was simple, just photos. That was all she needed. All the furniture was government issue, so she couldn’t take it with her anyway. She put on her medium set of armor she stored at her apartment. It was a geometrical armor, like her scout armor, but offering much more protection. She grabbed her clothes, jamming them into a duffle bag. She had nothing fancy, just military fatigues, jeans, t-shirts, and khaki pants. All her clothes fit into two duffle bags. She didn’t have to be careful with any of it.

Eliza looked around her apartment. There was nothing left she wanted to take with her. She had a few hours to kill still, plopping back down onto her chair. Unfortunately, it broke under the weight of her and her armor. She raged, getting to her feet and kicking the chair across the room. She should have known the chair wouldn’t support her weight. She had never felt so awkward in her body before. She took her helmet off, throwing it against the wall.


Ariis fell asleep after ravaging Constance, keeping her close with her arms. Constance couldn’t take her holding her right now. Not after what she made her do. She could never forgive her for making her service her in front of Tasha. She could forgive her forcing the drug on her, just jamming the needle into her neck. She could forgive the metal collars and cuffs all chained together to keep her immobile. She could even forgive her forcing herself on her, even if many on the ship would consider it rape. But, she could never forgive Ariis for letting Tasha see her like that.

Constance managed to slide out of Ariis’ trapping arms without waking her up. Constance stood over Ariis, looking at her with a loathing she was unfamiliar with. She couldn’t let it go, her mind replaying the scene over and over in her head. She could see the horrified look on Tasha’s face. She had rarely felt so humiliated before in her life.

Still, she knew she could do nothing against Ariis. She couldn’t hurt her. Anything she tried would just make Ariis respond in kind. Then, she remembered the gun Keil gave her. She shook her head, throwing her long hair around. She wasn’t going to be a murderer. She went back to her own personal room, collapsing on her bed. She still had her shackles on with no way to get them off. She hated sleeping on her stomach, but she had to. Her arms were slowly going numb.

She started crying herself to sleep, trying to think of anything that would make her feel better. Thoughts of Tasha just haunted her with the day’s events. She started thinking about Hunter instead, but something new haunted her. She could remember things about every person she had ever had sex with. It was a side-effect of her telepathy. Like it or not, she could remember intimate details about Jeremiah and her regular clients. She was haunted by Jeremiah’s love to torture and torment her. She hated feeling his own love to rape her.

Constance had to focus on Hunter, knowing if she just let everyone’s emotions bleed into her, she was going to be a weeping heap for god knows how long. She was worried as she searched herself. She couldn’t find any of Hunter in any part of her. She panicked, searching and searching.

“Oh no…” Constance cried, burying her face in her pillow. She couldn’t find a trace of Hunter in her mind, and that could only mean one thing. Hunter’s mind wasn’t active at all when he made love to her, which meant a horrible fact that she knew was true all along. She tried to deny it and ignore it, but she couldn’t now. “No, no, no…”


Zen tracked down Suzuna on her ship and was teaching her the same lesson she always had to. She turned Suzuna’s quarters upside-down, found her stashes of drugs, condoms, and birth control pills. The only good thing about the situation was Suzuna never moved them. Suzuna yelled and fought, but she didn’t do anything that would physically hurt Zen.

“Damn it!” Suzuna tried pulling Zen away from the airlock, but Zen was stronger than her. Zen dragged her kicking and screaming down the hall. “You told me you use to get high!”

“Suzuna,” Zen growled, holding up her stash, “I said I use to smoke pot every once and a while! This isn’t just pot!” She pitched the first bag into the airlock. “This is ecstasy!” She pitched another bag, hearing it crack. She was glad that no matter what, she wasn’t getting that drug back. “Black! That stuff could FUCKIN’ KILL YOU!”

“…You don’t understand…” Suzuna cried. “It…it makes me feel like I can see my mom again…”

“That’s because it’s KILLING YOU.” Zen shouted, throwing in all the rest of it. “I miss your mother too…You have no idea…”

Zen could remember comforting Suzuna’s mother, Hoshi. One day, she snuck a kiss and a loving embrace, and Hoshi kissed her back. She felt like she seduced Hoshi at first, but Hoshi told her she didn’t need much convincing. Even when her husband was around, he beat her and cheated on her. Soon, Hoshi was even more passionate than Zen was. Zen had sweet memories of them making love until the day Hoshi was killed.

“You shouldn’t…” Zen hid a tear. “You shouldn’t risk killing yourself to see your mother again…I’m here, we can talk about her.” Zen put her hand on Suzuna’s shoulder, but Suzuna ripped her shoulder away from Zen’s bitter touch. “Look, I…”

“You’re NOT my mom! Do you understand that!?” Suzuna yelled at her. “You’re not even a fuckin’ REPLACEMENT mom! You’re not going to just…”

“BITCH!” Tasha rushed onto the scene, catching Suzuna in the face with a hard right. Zen didn’t know what to do, wanting to hit Suzuna herself. Tasha’s punch caught Suzuna completely off guard, knocking her to the ground with a loud thump that shook the deck. Everyone around her understood what it meant to ‘go down like a sack of potatoes’ now. Tasha kicked her while she was down. “You god dam bitch!”

“Tea!” Zen grabbed her, pulling her back. She could barely keep a grip on Tasha. Tasha struggled to get free, kicking at Suzuna.

“What the hell!?”

“You weren’t happy with trying to rape me, so you had to rape Constance!” Zen was stunned, giving Tasha enough freedom to get free. She got a sharp blow to Suzuna’s nose, breaking it with a sickening sound. “Who else have you RAPED, Suzie!? Who else is crying themselves to sleep because you…”

“I didn’t rape that slut!” Tasha gave her another sharp punch, knowing she gave her a black eye now. “GAH! Let me talk!”

“Okay…” Tasha growled. “You have five seconds before I get even for both Connie and me…”

Tasha was deceptively strong. She was an engineer, after all. No one could be an engineer and be overweight, having to stay in shape to respond to emergencies across the ship. Tasha was stronger than anyone would guess, but Suzuna was learning that first hand.

“Constance…” Suzuna was quick enough to realize referring to Constance as a slut was a death sentence. “…came to my quarters. She asked Glycon and me to be clients and pay her for the fuck…and since you turned us down…” Tasha’s fists trembled. Suzuna could see blood dripping between her fingers from her nails digging into her palm. “And we gave her extra! We really did, she was that good! And my god…it was worth every penny…Her skin tasted like peaches, her lips like cherries, and her c…”

“Shut up!” Tasha punched her again, knocking two teeth out of her head. Suzuna was just barely conscious as Tasha stood over. “Tell me whatever bullshit you want. Fine! But that was for me…” She turned to face Zen. “Throw me in your brig if you want, but she deserved EVERY bit of it!”

“…Yeah, she did…” Zen shrugged, letting Tasha go. She couldn’t stop her if she wanted anyway. To add insult to injury, she closed the airlock and spaced her drugs.

“Aren’t you going to do anything about her KICKING MY ASS!?” Suzuna screamed.

“Nope…or…or yeah, whichever one means I’m not stopping her.” Zen knelt down next to her, picking her teeth up off the floor. “I’m going to take you to Bones to get you patched up, and PRAY TO GOD you finally learn that actions have consequences!” Zen jerked on Suzuna’s arm, causing her to stumble. “Oh, and tell Glycon that if I find out he’s seeing you again, I’ll make what Tasha did to you look like you were in a pillow fight compared to him.”

“But…”

“I mean it this time, Suzie. If I see him within ten feet of you, I’m putting him in traction!” Zen snarled. “He brings out the very worst in you, and I’m not going to put up with it anymore!”

“You’re NOT my…”

“I KNOW I’M NOT YOUR MOM!” Zen bellowed as she shoved her along. “But she would want me to take care of you, and I’m doing the best I can. So, you can either try to cooperate, or I’ll keep you in the brig until you’re twenty-five!”

“Alright…” Suzuna groaned, going along with her to the med bay on the ship. She decided to play along, pretend like she wasn’t going to see Glycon anymore. She wouldn’t obey that of course. She still didn’t care what Zen told her to do, she wasn’t about to be controlled.


Ariis was tossing and turning as she tried to sleep on the couch. It wasn’t the couch that was making it hard to sleep. Ariis was more than comfortable on it. She heard an inaudible hiss and rumble of words coming from all around her. She tried to ignore it and kept sleeping. Slowly, ever so gradually, the murmur became more comfortable for her, but was still an annoyance.


Geoff went down to the planet to get Eliza without complaint. He didn’t have any problems finding her, spotting the eight-foot-tall woman clad in armor sitting around the space port. He helped Eliza with her bags, though she could obviously handle them. Eliza rolled her eyes when Geoff wasn’t looking, knowing she was doing it to flirt with her.

The shuttle ride up to the Ecstasy of Gold was quick. Geoff was still helping Eliza with her duffle bags, hitting on her in a stream she ignored. She noticed a shuttle that didn’t have the ship’s distinctive markings on the hull. She stared at it slightly as she walked down the ramp.

“Where’s your captain? I assumed he’d want to brief me on your ship’s mission.”

“Well,” Geoff shrugged, “…a lot has happened in the last forty-eight hours…” He shifted the bags in his arms. “Plus, we’re a lot less formal than a military ship. We’ll find you a room and…”

The shuttle was Kristin Nightingale’s shuttle. Jessie didn’t expect her to have her own shuttle, no one did. Both Geoff and Eliza were staring at it now, watching as stairs descended from the shuttle. They saw a shapely form walking down the stairs. They watched as a shapely form swaggered its way down the stairs towards them.

“Wow…” Geoff whispered slightly in a hush. Kristin was a buxom goddess wearing an incredible black business suit and tie. Her curvaceous figure was hugged by a black underbust corset she wore over her pure white dress shirt. Both Geoff and Eliza thought her body was perfect, not understanding why she wore the corset. She had flowing black raven hair that went down over her black suit coat. She had an extra couple of inches on her height because of tall stiletto heals that clicked against the ground as she walked.

“Hello.” Kristin said warmly to Geoff and Eliza. Eliza saw her gorgeous blue eyes and felt like she could get lost in them. Kristin smiled and winked at her when she noticed she was staring slightly. “I’m Kristin Nightingale, the new scientist who signed onto your ship. How do you handle quarters? Is there rent? And do I have to talk to someone to get quarters?”

“Don’t look at me, I just got here myself.” Eliza said with a shrug.

“Well,” Geoff stepped up, “there’s no rent for standard sizes. If you want bigger, you’ll have to talk to the captain and arrange a rent. For quarter assignment, it’s kind of whichever are open. There’s a girl…Sally’s her name…Captain assigned her to keep track of that sort of thing.” Geoff looked between Eliza and Kristin. “For now, we have guest rooms you both can stay in until we get you both permanent quarters.”

“Guest quarters?” Kristin stopped in her tracks. “This involves a cot, doesn’t it?”

“Well, yeah…” Geoff turned around and saw Kristin heading back to her shuttle. “It’s not that bad! They’ve got really thick comforters, and it’d only be a day.”

“I hate to sound conceited,” Kristin said with a flick of her hair, “but I haven’t survived the shit I have to sleep on a shitty cot.” She turned to Eliza. Eliza’s eyes shot back up to meet Kristin’s. She was slightly ashamed that she was staring at her shapely, nylon-caressed legs. “Marine, you said you were new here, too. I have a big shuttle and a spare bed, there’s plenty of room for both of us. Interested?”

Eliza weighed her options carefully. Crappy, dirty guest quarters alone or luxurious quarters with the beautiful Kristen. Needless to say, it wasn’t a hard decision to make. “Sure. Just give me a second…” Kristen nodded and walked up the stairs into the shuttle. Eliza took her duffle bags from Geoff, who was shocked and smiling a little.

“Ladies, I do happen to have room for all three of us in my quarters.”

“Never going to happen…” Eliza growled slightly.

“Buy me dinner first, flyboy.” Kristen said before she tipped her hips and went into the shuttle.

“Lucky…So, so lucky…” Geoff stuttered. “Don’t worry, I don’t think she noticed you staring…She didn’t notice me and I was lucky I didn’t burn a hole through her ass…” Eliza shook her head. “Sorry about hitting on you. I didn’t know…Well, I assumed, and you know what that does.”

“Whatever…” Eliza said, shaking her head. Before she left for Kristin’s shuttle, she remembered the one thing she had to do. She pulled a note out and handed it to Geoff. “Give that to whoever runs the teleporter beam up any signal with this unique tag number.” Geoff opened the note and looked at it.

“Nineteen-one-seventeen-one-eight? Alright…” Eliza was glad the code wasn’t as transparent as she thought. Using Sarah’s name felt flimsy, but it was the only unique code she could think of. “What are we snatching up, just so I know what I’m an accomplice to?”

“Weapons, armor…stuff like that.” She started walking towards the shuttle. “Oh, and when you get my PA-22x, CALL ME. I love that thing and want it by my side constantly.”

“And a PA-22x is…” Geoff said with a roll of his head.

“Big plasma rifle, with a vibro-knife bayonet…Seriously, call me.” Eliza kept going. “By the way, if anything’s missing, I’ll find it, and whoever took it.”

“Got it.”

The inside of the shuttle was spacious and luxurious. Eliza felt instantly awkward, like she was just a walking hazard inside. The chairs were all covered in velvet and their cushions were overstuffed. The walls were all painted with a fine satin finish. It wasn’t so much a shuttle as it was a flying condominium. Eliza wondered who could afford all of it, but then she remembered her name.

“Kristin Nightingale…THE Kristin Nightingale…” She had heard news stories about Kristin, though none of the stories ever had photos of her. She was practically legendary for everything she had found or survived. Eliza looked and found Kristin sitting at a boudoir in her bedroom. Her coat was on a hook next to her, and she had her tie off. Her shirt was unbuttoned down to her corset, giving Eliza a teasing look at her ample bosom. “You’re THE Kristin Nightingale…”

“The one and only.” Kristin said with a smile as she brushed her hair. “You can call me Kristi if you want, sweetheart.”

“Well, Kristi…” Eliza leaned against the doorframe slightly, being careful not to break it. “I had seen stories about you…but no pictures…I never expected you to be so…breathtaking.”

“Why do you think I invited you here, Marine?”

“Otto. Eliza Otto.” Eliza said just to give Kristin her name. “And…to be honest, I don’t know. I’m not…assuming anything, though.”

“Good…” Kristin put her brush down. “You look like I do, some people start assuming you’re a whore. That you’ll put out because they offer you a drink or have a tight body themselves…I just have it and flaunt it.”

“I’ll say…” Eliza looked her over again. Kristin winked at her again when she noticed she was looking again.

“But I do have my reasons for inviting you…” Kristin’s voice changed to a pure-information tone. “Your scars are fresh, and you have a lot of them. That means you’ve gone through a lot of shit in the last few days.” Kristin stood up, swaggering over to her. “And, judging by your armor, which is cutting edge, you just recently left the military…I’m guessing injuries made you 4-F, ‘unable to serve’?”

“…Pregnancy…and…mind control.” Eliza pointed at her face. “He mind controlled me, cut me up pretty good…made me do it to myself, and…” Eliza sighed, and Kristin understood. She followed her with her eyes as she walked closer.

“Well, then you’ve definitely gone through enough shit the last few days than to have to stay…in what must be just god-awful guest quarters…” Kristin stood just in front of Eliza, with barely any space between them. Eliza stared down into her beautiful eyes. She was getting somewhat mixed signals from Kristin and didn’t want to rush anything. “There’s a spare bedroom the next level down. Feel free to stay here as long as you want, as long as you’re neat.”

“Alright…” Kristin reached up and brushed aside a lock of Eliza’s hair, brushing the side of Eliza’s face ever so gently. Kristin’s hand was pleasantly warm. She knew a smirk was on Kristin’s face because she saw a little tattoo she had behind her ear. It was small, purple interlinked female-symbols.

“…How did your girlfriend take all this?”

“…I haven’t had a girlfriend since my Sarah was murdered six months back…” Eliza took a deep, trembling breath. “I’ve been so alone since she was stolen from me…not really knowing what to do…” Kristin got up on her tip-toes to give her a quick peck on the lips. She brushed up against Eliza’s armor, making her wish she wasn’t wearing it, just so she could feel the warmth of Kristin’s body.

“Don’t worry, beautiful…You’re a sweet girl. I’m sure you’ll find someone else.” She noticed Eliza was still looking at her eyes and not her chest.

“…Have I found someone else?” Eliza had to ask. The reason she got the tattoo was to remove doubts from people’s minds. She hated having to find out by just bluntly asking like this.

“We’ll see…”


Yu’lena was sitting next to Hunter’s bed, content just to sit meditating. She hoped it wouldn’t take too long for Hunter to wake up. She hated wanting to leave, feeling selfish about it. Being by Hunter’s side should have been more important than anything else at the moment. She felt guilty for just leaving Sally back at the temple, but it was alright. She’d make it up to her later.

Yu’lena stayed by Hunter’s side despite the long hours. She started drifting asleep as she was meditating, giving her more shame than she wanted. Just a few years ago, she wouldn’t fall asleep while meditating. She didn’t stop to think her injuries were to blame, sapping her strength.

“NO!” She heard a voice scream in Rae, waking her from her light slumber. She looked around, trying to figure out where it came from. She heard a bloodcurdling scream looking around in a panic. She was about to call for someone when she heard talking again. “Why…are you doing this to me? How could you be so…heartless…”

“Gods…” Yu’lena sat down, realizing she was hearing Hunter’s dreams telepathically. She sat down next to him, praying to her gods for permission to go into Hunter’s dreams. She closed her eyes and proceeded, hoping Hunter would forgive the intrusion later.


Zech laid down on Kik’tik’s bed. The sheets were a fine silk that were perfectly smooth against his skin. The mattress seemed to adjust itself perfectly to him and was the most comfortable thing he had ever laid down on. He was uncomfortable laying on someone else’s bed, but he could get use to it.

“You sure Kik’tik said this was alright?” He shouted to Sala who was in another room changing. “Both of us taking her room so she could be alone in the med bay?”

“Yes, she said she thought you’d snore and didn’t want to deal with it.” Sala swaggered into the doorway. Zech sat up slightly the instant she entered his sight. She was wearing a deep purple transparent negligee. Zech drank in the view, looking over her perfect body. Her skin seemed impossibly smooth, like the silk that was against his skin now. “I’d be happy hearing you snore every night for the rest of my life…”

“Holy god in heaven, you’re an angel…” Sala smiled and blushed slightly. It was the first time in as long as she presented herself to a man and he didn’t call her a ‘karak’. She forgot how good it sounded to be complimented. She tried to swagger over to Zech quickly, losing it in the walk. Zech looked at her, afraid to mar her skin with his touch. “You’re too good for me, Sala…”

“Heh…” Sala chuckled slightly, cover her mouth with her finger. She only did because she had the same thoughts about him. She kissed him, putting her hands on his chest. “If you’ll have me, I’d…I’d gladly be…”

Zech didn’t wait for her to finish, kissing her back and drinking deeply from her lips. Sala moaned slightly as Zech caressed her entire body. She climbed on top of him in bed, giggling slightly as he slipped off her negligee.