Authors: Jr H. Lee Morgan
“
Quite understandable. I
merely wished you to know my people would like to learn more. It is
the curse of being a sentient race.”
Netul
laughed in his strange way.
“I often envy
the ignorance of fauna who are ruled by instinct. Life is so simple
for them. Eat, sleep, breed. They do not know worry.”
“
Speaking of worry, have you
held your son yet? You were interrupted before you got close after
the traditional fight of birth.”
“
I have not. Please inform
me when Renee is done with the autopsy. I will make sure it is
disposed of properly.”
“
Right… can’t afford anyone
to be infested.”
“
Creelin cannot be infested,
My Friend. Our silicone biology cannot alter, but we can be host to
parasites. Keptl parasites are abhorrent and grow too quickly to
remove, but we are immune to infestation. It is why Keptl do not
bother sending Defilers to coat us in blood. They know we are
beyond their Queens’ control. Much like Drakes, but it is their
superior immune system that keeps them from being corrupted. If you
shall excuse me, I will hold my new son before I must leave to
overlook the cleansing of my world. The Game Wardens have much work
ahead reviving the land.”
To punctuate his words, far away one of the
landmasses that was risen on fire was lowered back to the surface
scorched completely.
For hours Renee was hard at work quickly
dissecting the Queen. As he waited with his daughter Oliver
listened to Sparky speak of the battle and how he personally tore
into several Dragoons while carrying Renee in his saddle. Together
they finished the flying serpents off as if they weren’t two
separate creatures at all. Sparky was still anxious to go into
battle again as he still found it hard being so Close to a Queen
and not shredding it to pieces even though Renee had completely
gutted it. Sparky wanted more than anything to go to the surface
and fight. His fearlessness made him excited to go. Meanwhile an
Archiver brought meat and Oliver with his Pride tore into it till
they were sated.
Eventually Renee got all her samples,
grumbling she wished she had the head he blew up and see hot its
brain worked, but she was content. The call to Netul quickly made
sure the carcass was disposed of in moments. Making the city clean
and purified again.
Sex afterwards was hard, fast and Oliver
didn’t like how she was in battle, but damned if he didn’t enjoy
what a little bloodlust did for her libido. She fucked him
senseless and received similar treatment. He couldn’t get the image
of how her breasts bounced each time he thrust and it made dreams
pleasant rather than let worry take root. Adrenaline sex was
amazing.
The next three days Oliver enjoyed
entertainment of Creelin and how their whole society based itself
on honor through deed and battle. His assistance with the
Mothership made him a celebrity. Most of all it was pleasant to
kick back and enjoy days of relaxation with the Pride, his family
and close friends without any pressing concerns. By far the most
relaxing place was being able to visit the city’s lovely gardens
where many fawned over the Pride from afar. Four times they spotted
humans who were friends to others and waved. Netul spent most of
his freedom with his female and new son.
Like all good things though, it came to an
end.
Sitting in the comfortable seat of the
prototype fighter Oliver was in the final stages of uploading the
new system software when a shadow disturbed the bright sunshine and
had him look up to find Netul cradling his son in his arms. “How’s
the little tyke doing?”
“
Extremely well. As is
expected between our Matches. Many of his brothers and sisters have
departed, but many more still remain to aid in repairing our
world.”
“
I’m just glad it’s over. I
just wish that the death count was so high.”
“
If not for your aid,
millions more would be lost. Take heart in that. Though death in
battle is what we all hope for and not to die in an unforeseen
accident, death is one day an inevitable outcome. We just enjoy
what time we have and swear honor that when such time arrives we
pass into the abyss without regret that we brought our enemy along
with us.”
“
You know, I rather like the
way you Creelin think. It’s almost pure.”
“
As I said, dying by a slip
in the bathing tub is not as heroic as battle. At least you died
with true honor in such a way. Sadly, accidents account for more
losses to our people than any war.”
“
Should I die, I know I’d
want my sword at hand and you at my side.”
“
As I too would wish the
same outcome.”
“
Then it’s good the
Archivers let me patch my vambrace into your collective Observers
so I can keep an eye on you as you do to me. At least we’ll always
know when the other is ever in real danger.”
Netul seemingly smiled even
without any kind of mouth.
“You already
deduced how our Observer network works and can recreate many of our
technologies. So it wasn’t much of a concession to allow the access
even without the battle in which you demonstrated who you are by
action. Still, I wish we can enjoy many more weeks of each other’s
company.”
“
So would Red, but we’ve got
our own lives to get back to. Besides, the sooner I can uncover
what happened to my people, the sooner I can get rid of this
irritating feeling of a job left undone and get past it to get on
with my life once and for all.”
“
Putting the past behind us
is not so easy as you will learn later in life, but I too do not
like a task unfinished. An impossible itch to scratch. I do though
believe you will soon have all the answers that will quench the
desire. I simply came to bid farewell. Renee is expressing the same
to Callier. They are good friends.”
“
Damn right we are. We
shared the birth of our hellions together. Nothing except sleeping
together can be more intimate between women.” Renee spoke up as she
crossed the bridge behind Sparky and Rose, carrying little Isabelle
suckling at the covered breast. “But it doesn’t mean we won’t come
back and pick up where we left off. Besides, we can’t always have
such exciting vacations. Don’t be a stranger either,
Netul.”
Her adorable smile made
Oliver’s heart flip flop a few times as she sauntered over. Using
her one free arm she threw it around her first Creelin friend and
he went stiff for a moment before using a free arm of his own to
embrace her warmly.
“Farewell, Renee Void.
May your endeavor bear much result.”
“
Sure hope this scavenger
hunt has an end. Zipping around this galaxy is starting to
get
sooo
boring.”
She said overdramatically.
“
What? Am I not good enough
to keep you on your toes?”
Tapping her full bottom lip and looked up
into a passing cloud, thinking far too long. “Nope.” Turned and
made way for her shuttle.
Netul, Rose and Sparky laughed as her man
glared in good fun.
‘
Beep. Beep.’ Chimed the
dashboard of the fighter’s systems that the download had
successfully completed and all functions were fully operational.
With it done he powered down everything and lazily jumped out the
silvery, lidless cockpit. “Before we head out” Oliver said as the
River Skipper’s airlock hatch sealed shut and the pair of Drakes
walked into the cargo area. “I wanted to thank you again for
jumping in fresh Booster Oil to top off our FTL reserves. It will
come in handy since I found another corner to cut and boost output
to shave off another thirteen and a half percent on subspace
travel.”
“
Think nothing of it. Though
my people surpassed the need to harvest the fruit of Inferno Trees,
some still use it for recreation or as a way to remember the old
ways. It was no problem to offer such a simple fuel.”
“
Wait, one last thing.”
Netul paused as they shook each other’s hands. “Let Warden Collu
know that as soon as the Cubs grow up and I give them collars I’ll
stop by.”
“
I shall. As you know, she
is preparing for that day. She’s enduring pain resistance to
increase her threshold to be worthy of taking such a large Pride.
Farewell, My Friend.”
“
Take care.”
In a flash, Netul and his newborn son
disappeared.
The most gentle of nudges with his mind had
Nova rising and commanding everyone into the Solar Flare’s remote
controlled shuttles. The entire Pride, minus Nova, walked right in
the rear openings of a Sun Spot. As master and king walked by the
shuttles hatch’s closed up air tight. The two of them made way for
the golden fighter and jumped right in.
Closing the clear sapphire canopy, Oliver
looked up just as the River Skipper took off and flew over to shoot
out tethers and bind the prototype fighter under the sailboat’s
belly. The smaller ship’s constant use of manipulated gravity made
it much lighter than it truly was and helped take the strain off
Renee’s personal interstellar shuttle.
Having a head start meant little as the Solar
Flare and following shuttles reached outer space before the River
Skipper did. They flew around lingering debris from the battle
still being cleaned and left the planet’s pull of gravity to allow
onboard navigation to calculate time in FTL and distance to
destination. The FTL upgrade also meant the ship systems had to be
recalibrated for the increase of output.
Several minutes later and Renee said “See you
tomorrow, Olly.”
“
Take care.” He waved as her
ship opened up a perfectly outlined spiraling rainbow of her
shuttle and the fighter underneath before flying right inside and
it close right behind her. It was already planned that this trip
wouldn’t be placed together on a tether line.
As soon as his ship finished mere seconds
later the screen displayed a green and a red dot. He touched green
and jumped into subspace with the Liger shuttles linking up right
behind. There was no sensation with dampeners active.
Chapter 18
Twenty five hours and eleven minutes later
the rainbow vanished into a vast blackness dotted with millions of
pinpoints of stellar light. Dropping out of FTL had ship systems
scanning star placement to orient itself in the galactic map of
Andromeda. His exit showed the River Skipper lay over ten thousand
kilometers from his position.
Without needing to speak about being so far
they flew towards each other. He spoke first. “How was the
trip?”
“
Nice and relaxing.” Renee
smiled on his screen. “Izzy and I had fun bonding as mother and
daughter. And you should know her tiny hands finally learned to
grab my hair.”
This made him smile to see her so happy. “I’m
glad you got to spend quality time together.”
“
Olly, you should also know
she finally opened her eyes?”
“
Really!” he got excited.
“Well? What color are they?”
“
See for yourself.” Renee
got up, left the viewing range of the dashboard camera and returned
with the small bundle. She sat down stroking Isabella’s cheek
cooing “Time to wake up my little hellion. Your papa wants to see
your pretty eyes.”
Apparently Isabella wasn’t pleased being
woken as she whined pitifully, but Renee lifted and turned her so
her adorable pudgy face could be seen. Tiny eyelids cracked and
right away showed vibrant green eyes sparsely flecked with amber.
“She has your eyes mostly, Red.”
“
I know.” She was so pleased
and to silence their daughter she exposed a nipple and allowed the
child to nurse to her desire. “And though you can’t see it, her
latest scan showed her pores atop her head are beginning to grow
burgundy auburn hair. She won’t have my bright fiery locks, but
she’ll definitely be her ma’s little redhead if she eats properly.
And I’ve also estimated her full and likely height to be four
centimeters below mine. It can change depending on what environment
she’ll prefer, but it is a good average.”
“
I’m happy you like being a
mother.”
“
Won’t like it when she hits
puberty in six years, but I’m enjoying it right now.”
“
We’re about six hours from
the planet. Want me to come over?”
“
Nah, I’m going to take a
nap. After seeing Izzy’s eyes I didn’t get a wink of sleep.” She
yawned to prove her point. “See you in six.”
Reaching maximum sublight speed, the three
ships cut off their engines and drifted since space could carry
them at the same speed forever and not slow without some kind of
outside interference. Spending the time wisely Oliver closed his
eyes to follow how Nova and the other adults continued instructing
the cubs.
Six long hours went by faster than expected
and as the sublight engines were thrown in reverse to decelerate
they finally got to get a naked visual of the ice planet. In orbit
were five varying sized moons rather close to it. The surface of
the ice planet oddly had little white in it. Mostly it was a
gigantic frozen azure. So far from the system’s home star, it
received almost no warmth. Certainly not enough to melt the ice
into liquid water. It looked peaceful without any sign of fluffy
clouds, but even distance told it was damn cold.
Around were floating shards of ice large as
houses from many meteor impacts. Without shields they would have
been shredded from ice shards too small and fast for the eye to see
before it was too late. Little puffs exploding on shields told the
story.