The Siluvara Files
The Many Journeys of Ian Scranton
Chapter 12: Been A Long Time Coming
 
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"Fairy women are, for all their high female to male birth ratios, not the friendliest culture in the galaxy for some of humanity.
 
While Africa's city folk are much more progressive, a lot of the rural population still holds onto various old traditions which, collectively, can be identified as highly patriarchal in nature. Without getting into specific examples, the problem is that their mentality is highly unattractive to tribal and starfaring fairy cultures alike. Particularly forceful men are deterred by the overwhelming numbers and magical prowess of fairy women: they have no hopes of intimidating the fae into submitting to their backwards ways. So the staunchly patriarchal types avoid the fae - mostly out of fear - and tell others to avoid them, and that's the end of it. This is logical considering how powerful womankind is in fairy society: they control most of the reigns of power in all areas, including the military.
 
However, we also recently got a taste of how humanity's gender feminist element, the mirror opposite of the patriarchal mindset, will relate to Homo Sapiens Sidhe. Charlene Stafford-Howard, a hard-hitting comedienne whose male-bashing humor is brutal and controversial but fairly popular on Earth, was invited to take her show to planet Lehalsa at the popular Aralosis Meadows colony. Mrs. Stafford-Howard got all of ninety seconds into her routine at the stadium-sized Aralosis Forum, before she was physically assaulted by an angry young fairy woman, the first of dozens who surged to the stage in anger. A Royal Guard cadet saved her life and got her out of there, but the unrest exploded into a full-blown riot. We're not sure why this happened. Subsequent telepathic surveillance suggests a hypothesis: that fairy women value men greatly because of their extreme rarity. At best, only one in six babies are born male."
 
- African Union Lehalsa Incident Report
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"Chieftain! Chieftain!"
 
Chieftain Elsinara Eileen Dessia Lanaldani of the Biashal floated naked on her back in a murky pool full of fragrant pink flower petals, her eyes closed in serene contemplation, her trembling fingers clasped over her taut belly. An earpiece in her left ear squawked incessantly, flooding her with news reports from the Arajo military high command; but she could hardly hear it for the multitude of other voices conversing inside her. Despite her attempts to stay calm, her heart was racing, her adrenaline surging and threatening to overwhelm her ability to think straight.
 
Finally, her ongoing conversation with the other souls residing within her were interrupted by the desperate-sounding voice of one of her attendants. Her wings retracted instantly, creating a loud splash as several square feet of wings compacted into her shoulder blades in the blink of an eye. She turned and stood upright, letting the muddy water slough off to reveal her perfect ivory body. When her eyes finally fell upon the nervous woman in gray robes with her hands clasped in front of her, however, her serenity melted away. No one ever, in all the time she could remember, came into her private bath garden with the kind of condemned prisoner look that was written on this woman's face.
 
It was then that she also recognized her freckled face, blue eyes and ferric red hair that flowed down over her shoulders and back.
 
"Radaiah," she cocked her head back, surprised she hadn't recognized the voice. "Why such a formal tone, my love?"
 
Radaiah was one of Elsinara's two Meluwa, and the mother of their only son by their husband Dansair. "I... I'm sorry..." her voice trembled as she gazed down at her sandaled feet, then looked back up at her, summoning her resolve to speak. "Dear Morgania... the people... hundreds of them... have gathered outside our home. They're calling for you to answer to them."
 
Elsina sighed; her mind's eye revealed a sea of blue soul auras moving around outside her home, glowing brightly as if the very walls themselves were transparent. "Roshana..."
 
"It must be," Radaiah said despondently. "There's been word that Swordmistress Tuyen Pham is leading a rebellion against Nidale herself." As Elsina's open-mouthed expression turned to outright wide-eyed disbelief, Radaiah continued, "Nidale and our personal guard are hiding in the barracks... they're trapped, with two hundred Biashal citizens demanding their arrest. The situation has already exploded out of control."
 
Elsina gestured with frustration, exclaiming, "What a fool she is!" Then she sighed, grabbing Radaiah's shoulders and kissing her tenderly. She gazed down at her own bare breasts for a moment before shaking her head and saying with a false air of calm, "Roshana... such a fool..."
 
Radaiah sighed, "The one they call Ian was with Roshana and Rosinthe in a protest at the Willowgarden. Word has it that Ethara and Shahab of Indumon were also there..." As Elsina staggered back, her left foot touching the water, Radaiah added sadly, "There are also protests being spotted in the Arajo capital of Hazina, in the Doruba district."
 
Chieftain Elsinara shook her head.
 
"It's as if the entire Biashal population has fallen upon our troops and leaders," Radaiah glanced behind her briefly. "Ethara has called you a murderer and a traitor to your own people. It's as if she's spoiling for a fight."
 
Elsina folded her arms insecurely. Then she looked into Radaiah's eyes. "Radaiah... where is Noelani?"
 
"She's negotiating with the crowd outside..."
 
"Get one of our aides to bring her here. Do not show yourself to the crowd."
 
Radaiah frowned. "Milady?"
 
Suddenly a chorus of yelling voices erupted nearby. Both of them turned to the doorway. A woman with raven hair and a floral themed robe slammed the front door shut in the faces of several screaming fairies, then ran across the foyer and came to a near-screeching halt in the garden.
 
"Noelani!" they both shouted, sandwiching the newly arriving woman between them in a tight hug.
 
Noelani was quick to cut the celebration short, "The Biashal have suddenly exploded into armed rebellion! There's word of a battle at the elite guard barracks! The crowd outside is about to overwhelm our guards here! They want in and they want in now!" Glancing around, she then said, "Roshana... she's responsible for this?!"
 
As if to accentuate Noelani's warnings, the roar of angry voices outside began to work its way into the garden even through the closed doors and walls of her home.
 
"They're coming from all sides," Elsina warned. To her wives, she said calmly, "Look... what Roshana did to us does not matter. The Imperishable Empire, the demons that the Arajo and Nangwaya have warned us of..." Her composure faltered as she drew a deep breath. "They have just arrived. They're here."
 
Noelani and Radaiah's mouths fell open. "No..."
 
"I will go outside and break the news to the people," Chieftain Elsinara declared. "If that does not work..." She then placed her hands on their cheeks. After a brief, heavy pause, she said, "Flee with our husband Dansair and our children to Nangwaya territory and submit yourselves to their judgement. Beg for Chieftain Linjara's mercy."
 
"But..." Radaiah asked desperately, "what about you?"
 
Elsinara struck mortal dread in her wives' hearts at her next words: "Then the Imperishable Empire has arrived. If the realization that our extinction is at hand is not enough to end this rebellion... I have but only one more, final option..."
 
***
 
Hatred of Nidale was not what drove Tuyen Pham through the front door of the mess hall of Nidale's barracks compound. If anything, it was her respect for Nidale that forced her to delay the inevitable. She had spent an hour trying to find a way out of this obligation to go against everything she stood for, to deliver the final betraying blow to the woman who had offered her a hand up into the ranks of the Biashal warrior elite. A blow she would have much rather inflicted upon Roshana Caladuri, the former Silurhean who was their common enemy.
 
In battle, every Silurhean that rushed her with spell and sword alike and fell in her path, sliced in half by her blades or incinerated by her flame, fed Tuyen's morale and drive to continue fighting. Their bloody carcasses and scattering ashes satisfied her rapacious hunger for serving Morgania's judgement upon the unrighteous. Today, however, with each member of Nidale's personal guard that fell upon her and was driven back by her swords, her soul wailed in agony, begging her to stop, begging her to tell them to stop, lest someone die by her hand and add their body to the already unbearable burden being heaped upon her conscience. It was all she could do not to drop her blades and let them take her out. The only thing driving Tuyen to press on toward Nidale was her desire to stay alive for the love of her surviving Meluwa... and for the hope of revenge against Roshana for forcing her to turn on her own people.
 
Nidale was retreating rapidly from her, screaming hexes upon her soul for her treacherous deeds, curses that wounded her far more than the overwhelming volley of spells that battered her magic shields only to be absorbed to add to her power. The food hall itself shook and caught aflame from the fighting, torn asunder until the enraged crowd of battle-trained civilians and rebel troops spilled into the battle like a tsunami crashing upon a hapless beachfront village. Biashal males led the charge, blanketing the entire mess hall with anti-magic spells, temporarily rendering all magic useless in the area. After that, in only a minute's time, the crowd subdued and disarmed the Chieftain's entire elite guard while Tuyen Pham came to a halt and stood in the eye of the hurricane, staring dumbfounded.
 
Time slowed to a crawl and the yelling faded into the distance as Tuyen Pham watched her former benefactors being manhandled and dragged through the gaping holes in the walls of the mess hall to the grassy field outside. Then her eyes drifted upward, attracted by the myriad of glowing spiders spinning threads of silk high into the early evening sky toward the eastern horizon. Her heart nearly stopped.
 
Seconds later, the wailing of Arajo-made air raid sirens drowned out the ongoing riot at the guard compound, and all eyes turned to the stars.
 
***
 
"Uzuba Phantom Crimson 7, ramp out in thirty seconds."
 
"All missiles deployed. Skies are clear."
 
"Uzuba Vorpalis Wing has reached Libration-3. RAZR Pod Stage 1 ejection successful."
 
"Nangwaya Karik Squad space-suited and launched. Uzuba Phantom Crimson Wing 19 Squad 1 flying close support."
 
Supreme Commander Rafiki Ebo and Clanlord Rijaal Haj-Bollar stormed back into the primary Arajo Freehold underground war control center and barreled right to the center of the room to get a look at the main display.
 
"Sir," a soldier saluted them as they arrived, "as you can see there are now five mother ships... the gravitational pull of so much mass is already affecting the moon's orbit. That much mass will start inflicting tidal disruptions across Absegami very soon."
 
Clanlord Rijaal looked at the screen to study the image of a giant ship shaped like a mutated, many-whiskered fish with no eyes, flanked by four nightmarish carnations with concentric rows of menacing teeth in place of petals. Against the backdrop of stars were a sea of yellow dots representing smaller ships, which seemed as numerous as the sands on a beach.
 
"Have they deployed any large objects in our planet's path?"
 
The officer nodded grimly, gesturing to the screen; the image filled out into a 3d display and rotated, turning the ghostly depictions of the enemy fleet around so that they were seeing it from the side. Another gesture pushed them further off to the side until a pitted chunk of rock appeared on the far edge, outlined by a red targeting reticicle. The rock was larger in size than all five mother ships combined.
 
"Dear God," he gasped, taking a step back. "They hitched an entire planet and dropped it in our path."
 
"It's the same size as our moon, with 20% more mass," gasped General Ebo. "We will slam into it at the speed of our planet's orbit... roughly 30,000 shiamuata* per hour."
 
"No wonder they brought five mother ships... they needed them to haul that thing." Clanlord Rijaal gritted his teeth. "Absegami will be completely shattered on impact."
 
"Not entirely... but a full twenty percent of the planet's mass will be blown into space..." the officer started to say before he caught imself. "Sorry... sir."
 
General Ebo shook his head. "Why bother apologizing? The war is already over. That rock will impact us in 18 hours. It would take a whole squadron of our clan's best warships during the height of our starfaring years to destroy that thing."
 
"At least you have a God to pray to," another voice called from the other side of the display. They looked up to see Isaya walking into the hologram. Turning to look at the rock, she folded her arms insecurely and said, "At this moment I wonder if one of your gods will consider..." She then noticed another display which completely consumed her attention, "...hearing from me."
 
Clanlord Haj-Bollar turned to look. "Tha... is that... what is that?"
 
Supreme Commander Ebo's eyebrows lifted dramatically at the swarm of ants crawling around the deep valleys between the mountainous buildings of one of their cities. "It's some kind of mass civilian march... is that our district? Doruba?"
 
Rijaal burst into laughter. "You can't be serious?! A protest? It can't be..."
 
"Roshana..." Isaya whispered. "She's out there, somewhere..."
 
***
 
Most of the Nangwaya who crossed under the shadow of the massive carapace canopy overlooking Doruba that evening had never even seen this part of Nazon before in their lives. Huddled within the Hazina Ruins, a vast and grotesque graveyard of scorched and twisted metal debris and shattered skeletal fragments as tall as small mountains, the sprawling military industrial center of the Arajo Freehold remained shrouded for three hundred years in mystery and terrifying myths. Nangwaya children avoided the region because parents told them it was a scary place. Nangwaya adults avoided it because of all the sins and abominations they knew went on there, all in the name of defening the land of Nazon and restoring their rightful place among the stars.
 
Inevitably, however, the secret affairs within the Hazina Ruins had come to affect the entire population of Nazon. From the use of the Biashal army to violate the sacred beliefs taught by the Nangwaya to their lighter-skinned sisters, to the outright subversion of their sovereignty by Clanlord Rijaal Haj-Bollar, the foreboding forces that made Hazina so frightening to outsiders, were reaching out to taint all of Nazon.
 
And so all of Nazon moved upon Hazina. Millions of Nangwaya warriors left their homes to gather in a place everyone knew how to get to, but few until then had dared to visit. That day, the eternal shroud of fog had been cleared away by the previous storm; the skies over Hazina City, at the center of the Hazina ruins, grew dark with the swarms of fairies coming all at once to make their voices heard. Like locusts they settled into the streets and began walking. Tubeway traffic and tunnel trains stopped as fairies seeped into and clogged all the transportation arteries of the entire region, all making their way to Doruba.
 
Inevitably word got around as to why they were there, and another wave of people joined them - tens of thousands of Arajo at first, mostly those who lived close by the Arajo leadership but who until now knew little of what the politicians were doing in secret. News of the mistreatment of Chieftain Linjara Indumon spread like wildfire, and by the time Roshana and Ian had led the vast army of quiet but determined protestors to the edge of the Doruba district, the skies were full of Bollar traffic - ships bringing in hundreds of thousands of citizens seeking to join the Nangwaya. By the time the quiet protest reached the District of Doruba, they were like a tsunami pouring into the area, working its way through every path into the city, yet being polite enough not to sweep away everything in its path.
 
Roshana and Ian walked down the center of a long street, their fingers interlocked and their lips closed in silence. Ahead of them, all surface traffic had come to a halt, with crowds of onlookers emerging from skyscrapers that covered the land as densely as a field of grass, to watch them pass by. Most Arajo citizens looked on in confusion; others cheered; and a large minority leapt into the slow-moving current, allowing themselves to be swept along, lending their numbers to the swelling masses approaching the Council Chambers at the far end of the vast artificial cavern created by the carapace canopy.
 
And then it happened.
 
Air raid sirens across the city went off all at once, followed by a powerful, yet subtle rumble that started out like the stampede of a million beasts of burden bearing down upon the world. The entire mega-procession stopped and all eyes turned to the sky as thousands of rockets hurtled into the atmosphere from spots all around the city. Air traffic suddenly scrambled to find places to land, despite being nowhere near the hidden silos. The rumble escalated into an ear-shattering roar which lasted for several minutes and shattered countless windows before finally diminishing.
 
After that, the sky filled with a second round of rockets.
 
Once it got through to everyone that the rockets were not headed toward any spot on planet Absegami, but rather into space, toward the distant eastern horizon, there was no need for any announcements. If at some point one was given, few had reserved any rationality to comprehend it, as mass panic instantly consumed Doruba and spread swiftly across the entire megalopolitan zone of Hazina.
 
First it began with the Arajo Bollar citizens; most of the people in the area knew where the fallout shelters were, and began to stampede in the direction of wherever they knew the closest ones lie. Despite being at the forward edge of the Nangwaya crowd, Roshana quickly found herself in the path of thousands of humans running in every direction. She teleported Ian into herself and threw herself high into the air to avoid the frantic wave of humanity scrambling every which way they could go.
 
From above, she saw a nightmare unfolding which she had never seen in all her years of life: Nangwaya fairies struggling in vain to separate humans and slow them down, or at least prevent them from trampling one another to death. Though the Nangwaya warriors seemed to outnumber the Bollar citizens in Hazina at first, what had really occurred was that most citizens were still indoors at home or working night shifts when the fairies came to protest. When the rockets launched and the air raid sirens wailed across the land, however, they all came spilling out in search of underground safe havens to ride out the imminent end-of-days holocaust that everyone learned from childhood to dread, but few really imagined might actually happen. The warriors had been caught in a temporarily inert state at the wrong time by thousands of flash crowds suddenly run amuck. Many Nangwaya who did not see this coming and who were standing in the streets when the chaos erupted were also dragged under by the deadly riptides of panicked humanity, joining the casualties before their comrades could react.
 
Then the world trembled again as the second round of rockets roared into the darkening sky; Roshana's superior eyesight allowed her to make out groups of aircraft embedded in the hulls of the nearest missiles, and the soul auras of their pilots. The ground shook so terribly that below her, a tubeway cracked, causing people to get out of their tube cars and scramble across the smooth glass to get back into the buildings they were suspended between. Nangwaya warriors, spotting the situation, scrambled to get under the tubeway to keep it from collapsing; but no more cracks appeared, and the structure remained stable long after it was cleared and the fairies moved on to deal with other emergencies.
 
Fires began to appear sporadically across all of Hazina, the smoke plumes working their way up beyond the skyline. Roshana could only imagine what was behind that; but as she noticed the smoke and followed its rise into the sky, her eyes fell upon something that nearly made her heart stop. Absegami's moon rose high over the sky to the west, far behind the sun which had by now retreated over the horizon. It was in its half moon state, with both its dark side and light side being visible. But to the east lie another, smaller moon, barely a fifth its size by the looks of it.
 
But as Roshana and everyone else knew, there was no other moon orbiting Absegami. And this moon looked shiny and perfect, like a pearl rising over the horizon. Its surface glittered as thousands of tiny bright lights sparkled briefly across its surface, and then went out.
 
*Antimatter missiles*, she said to herself. *The Imperishable Empire has dropped a moon in the planet's orbital path... we'll all die!*
 
***
 
"But they will see us tunnelling our way underground!"
 
Dansair Lanaldani, the topaz-haired husband of Elsinara, Noelani and Radaiah Lanaldani, stood at the doorway leading to the underground tunnel beneath their house. Their children stood huddled against the rear dirt wall, crying, hugging each other.
 
"I will provide a distraction they will not take their eyes off of," Chieftain Elsina said resolutely, glancing behind her at the increasingly loud voices beyond. Giving him one last full-mouthed kiss, the Chieftain wiped the tears from her face and pushed him back. "Now go! Protect our children! NOW! That is my final order as your Chieftain!"
 
"Elsina..." he said as Noelani and Radaiah burst into weeping, getting between them to push him away. Dansair screamed her name one last time as she turned her back and strode defiantly back upstairs, just as a crowd of fairies burst through their private garden and into the south wing of the house by the tunnel.
 
"Murderer!" one fairy citizen screamed at Elsina as she came through the doorway to face the angry assembly smashing down walls to make room for their numbers.
 
"You killed children!
 
"They were just CHILDREN!!!"
 
"How could you betray our most sacred laws!"
 
"The gods are sending us a moon of evil omens to punish us!"
 
"Morgania will not save us! We've blasphemed her with our deeds!"
 
"We're all going to die for your betrayal!"
 
Elsinara raised her hands, seeking to be heard; but the crowd would not be silent. Her people pressed ever closer, threatening to crowd into her personal space, their condemnations growing ever harsher and, is possible, more desperate. She could see the hurt in their eyes, the disgust and even their fears. The whole of the Biashal community feared righteous retribution from fate itself over what she had sent her army out to inflict upon the Silurheans.
 
Still, she maintained her cool. She knew her cause had been right, and that the survival of their people depended upon an act that would clearly cost her their love and support. She had long ago accepted that this moment was worth the price. With the enemy giving away the location of the people of Nazon to otherworldly invaders, they had sentenced themselves to death. She and the Clanlord had both seen that their people would be subject to invasion from millions of fairies on land while hell rained upon them from the stars. Now they only had to defend against death raining from the sky. Their sword and shield only needed to be pointed in one direction.
 
"You're not our Chieftain!" one frightened teenaged fanatic yelled almost in her face.
 
Elsina smiled at her, reaching out to touch the surprised fairy's chestnut hair. "You do not mean that, sister," she said calmly as her wings sprouted out behind her, causing the rest to jump back. "I am still your Chieftain for now." She glanced up at the ceiling. "I am still your Chieftain as long as the second moon remains in our sky... it and all the evil omens it brings."
 
Silence suddenly fell over those gathered close to her; and a few fairies in the crowd put their hands to their mouths and started to inch even further back. By the time she tapped her earpiece, the whole house full of protestors had quieted down.
 
Elsina then spoke softly...
 
***
 
"The approaching moon is visible from every sector of Nazon," Supreme Commander Rafiki Ebo said solemnly. "Do you even want to know where it will hit?"
 
Clanlord Haj-Bollar was glued to the second primary screen, which showed a satellite view of Hazina City, whose citizens had been thrown into a panic. "Does it matter?"
 
Rafiki Ebo shook his head sadly. "Not really, sir." He looked to Isaya, who had bowed her head earlier; all that stood in her place now was a tree stump shaped in her image. Distracted by the turning of his head, Clanlord Haj-Bollar turned to see her as well.
 
"Tell me something..." he asked rhetorically, "do you think she's taking steps to defend the planet... or flee?"
 
"Defend, sir..." General Ebo responded with certainty. "She has nowhere else to go."
 
Rijaal nodded. "You think she'll come up with some kind of miracle?"
 
As his highest ranking military officer started to respond, a voice called through his earpiece. "Arajo Clanlord Rijaal N'han Hizar Haj-Bollar, I hope you are still listening. This is Chieftain Elsinara Eileen Dessia Lanaldani of the Biashal peoples."
 
Startled, the Clanlord looked up and around. General Ebo shot him a surprised look as well.
 
"What? Our entire EBS system is being jammed!" an aide nearby looked up and blurted out of nowhere. "A pirate transmission is... it's..."
 
The Clanlord bared his teeth as he finished, "Elsinara... what in the hell is she doing?!"
 
"Daughter of Eileen and Galhanor Lanaldani... Chieftain of the sons and daughters of the Cerulean Dawn of Earth..."
 
Clanlord Rijaal's eyebrows lifted high. "The who... of where?! Who the hell is she talking about?"
 
"I know you're trying to block her..." General Ebo pointed at his aide. "At least, you'd better be..."
 
"Sir..." the young man shrugged, "the signal... it's taking over the entire cyberspace realm. Every router in all of Nazon is relaying this to every video display that is on the network..."
 
Rijaal snarled. "Who in the hell could have done this so fast... who the hell is this Cerulean Dawn?"
 
"I am the youngest of the tribal Chieftains and second youngest of all the sovereign leaders of Nazon... second only to you, Clanlord."
 
The Clanlord tapped his ear piece. "I'm not transmitting," his voice became agitated.
 
The aide then stated the obvious: "It appears that she's not receiving..."
 
"You made a critical decision to defend our people against certain annihilation from space and from the lands all around us... a decision that has driven my people, and will drive yours, into rebellion."
 
"She's stabbing me in the back, for God's sake!" Clanlord Haj-Bollar howled. "Turn one of those satellites around and EMP the system... or something!"
 
"Sir, the satellites are locked onto the approaching moon..."
 
The Clanlord's voice became more desperate. "Then reprogram them! Reprogram one! Whatever you need to do!"
 
A more accusatory tone crept into Elsina's voice as she continued, "For the defense of our people... I disgraced myself before my goddess Morgania..."
 
"Oh God..." Rijaal turned and rushed to the door. "I must get to her now!"
 
"It'll be too late!" General Ebo grabbed his arm. "Sir! You have to stay here in the bunker!"
 
As imposing as General Ebo was, Clanlord Haj-Bollar was even bigger; he nearly yanked the General along before he stopped and turned. "There'll be no place to hide! For either of us!"
 
"... while you stayed behind the scenes, manipulating me, the Biashal Council and the Arajo leadership as well! Countless fairy children died in those cities because we all followed your grand vision! And now look! We are doomed anyway! You calculated wrong, Clanlord!"
 
"Sir..." the aide reluctantly interrupted, "this transmission is interfering with communications with our forces in space."
 
"You gambled poorly... you forfeited our souls, Clanlord! And our lives are yet still lost!"
 
"She was able to break our whole network with her magic?" Clanlord Haj-Bollar said with disgust. "Do we not have anyone who can stop just one tribal Chieftain from doing this to us?"
 
"You, Clanlord, may hide in your secret bunker while the world erupts into panic on the eve of our annihilation... but I am a true leader! I will save this world so our people can find a way to make amends!"
 
"Call the Council..." the Clanlord ordered sternly. "Tell them to hightail it here. Now. Use Channel Bunto-5. She does not know of that one and it is not a networked channel."
 
"Yessir!" the aide nodded snappily.
 
"And to Chieftain Linjara of Indumon... tell your son Shahab and his wife Ethara to look to the sky. Look toward the new moon. There you will see true COURAGE in action! A true WARRIOR QUEEN and her mighty COUNCIL... demonstrating the true meaning of SACRIFICE!"
 
"Good God..." another aide half-whispered as the entire room exploded in gasps.
 
"What the..." General Ebo turned to the main screen, followed by the Clanlord as the entire poorly-lit room suddenly brightened. "Oh, dear God..."
 
***
 
The gray pearl rising over the eastern horizon had grown since the first time Roshana laid eyes upon it. Formerly a flawless gem, its surface was now clearly marked with tiny hairline fractures and dots - marks left behind by the combined antimatter weapons arsenal of the Arajo Space Defense force.
 
Curtains of kaleidoscopic light billowed in the atmosphere as the ground began to shudder below, shattering even more windows across the city. The tidal forces of the giant moon approaching Absegami had begun to affect the planet.
 
*What happened to the protest?* Ian's thoughts reached into Roshana's mind to ask her. It was a rhetorical question, loaded with mockery and disdain for the Arajo, whom he blamed for the hell Roshana had been put through.
 
Roshana had finally recalled the full measure of her abilities as a child of Gaia; there were no walls between his thoughts and hers, no restrictions on what she could see of him or what he could see of her. By the time the delirious haze of pleasure that came with being absorbed into her soul finally passed over, he had a lot of catching up to do. But because of the clarity of their mental connection, all he had to do was ask her and her mind revealed the answer to him without so much as a word in response.
 
Still, even while her soul dispensed to Ian all the knowledge he requested, she liked filling his mind with her voice. *It's worse than anyone thought. Look through my eyes, love. There is a second moon rising up over the horizon, a quarter of the way across the sky. It's growing in size and will hit this planet, flinging much of its mass into a giant orbital planetary ring... like your planet Saturn.*
 
*Dear God...*
 
*I'm sure the Arajo have called on God a billion times by now...* Roshana chuckled grimly. *The Imperishable Empire has arrived and they are dropping a killer moon in the planet's orbital path. The tidal forces from the moon are starting to affect the planet. There's an earthquake below...*
 
She looked down to see the damaged tubeway she'd been watching earlier; now cracked in several places, it broke apart and fell on the rooftop of another building below.
 
*The concrete jungle oasis of Hazina City will collapse. Fairies are everywhere using their magic to shield the fleeing humans.*
 
*A moon... a whole moon... Rijaal wasn't kidding! And they arrived so fast!*
 
Roshana let out a guilty sigh. *I'm sorry you got stuck on this planet, Ian... I should have sent you through to the other side when I contacted my people...*
 
A brief flood of questions flowed through Ian's mind to Roshana's, coalescing into one thought: "Would you have come with me?"
 
*No... I couldn't leave these people behind.*
 
*Then you did the right thing. I couldn't spend the rest of my life knowing all the women who ever treated me right were dead...*
 
Roshana folded her arms, looking at the giant moon now dominating the sky, its flaws growing ever larger. *I will not die. We will not die, Ian. My people will not let this happen. I know they're...*
 
Then, out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of a bright light arching into the sky. *Oh... another launch in progress...?*
 
Turning her head, she laid eyes upon an enormous blue-white fireball racing into the giant aurora curtains spreading across the sky, like a fiery spitoon launched by an unseen dragon that had just joined the fight. Its power was so great it disrupted the aurora, bending the curtains in its direction, and even lit up the sky like a full moon.
 
*What the hell is that, Roshana?* Ian's emotions of surprise and disbelief swirled with her own.
 
*It...* her thoughts turned to awe when she studied the flame again and noticed an unusually bright blue aura surrounding it. *It's a group of fairies... or one, really impossibly powerful life force signature...*
 
*Oh no... Linjara?*
 
As if fate itself had sent a messenger to answer them, another presence appeared out of nowhere in midair next to Roshana. She turned; it was Shahab.
 
"Roshana!" he spoke urgently. "Chieftain Elsinara and her council have betrayed the Clanlord!" Pointing to the fireball curving in the direction of the deadly moon looming over the southern skies of planet Absegami, he added, "She just gave a speech of some sort... we believe it's..."
 
Then he turned and saw the light as well.
 
"Dear Tarajika..." He then turned away, to his left, distracted by his earpiece. Turning sharply back at Roshana, he blurted, "They're reporting a great fireball that just launched... from Chieftain Elsinara's home!" While Roshana turned her total attention to the light rising into the sky, Shahab turned away again to listen to another transmission. "They've captured Nidale..." Then he rolled his eyes back toward Roshana. "The Clanlord is nowhere to be found."
 
Roshana snorted, watching the enormous flame receding into outer space. "What was that you said about her betraying Cla..."
 
The words died on her lips when night time turned to broad daylight before her eyes.
 
***
 
"Sarhis, Olasith, Othugat and Rethog are in position to fire."
 
"Enemy fighter craft counted. Roughly five thousand booster units deploying payloads now."
 
"Five thousand?" Admiral Yarsia Enid snorted as she reclined in her seat, her legs crossed leisurely. "What's their payload, ten units apiece, tops?"
 
"We're seeing Nivalavi units, possibly geared for space combat... maybe twice that number, ma'am."
 
The silver-haired fleet commander shook her head. "So in an extreme case we're up against a hundred thousand units."
 
"Very extreme case, ma'am."
 
Yarsia Enid looked around the spacious bridge of the mighty warship Mosprang, the mother ship and largest of all five dreadnoughts deployed to destroy the blue-green world floating on the big projected screen at the center of the room. There were five hundred fairies on the bridge and half a million support staff that answered to them. She could order a million troops to stop what they were doing and commit suicide and no one would even notice. And so, she did.
 
"Send out one M-class squad to intercept them," she ordered, waving off the approaching enemy as if they were but a fly buzzing around her head. "Any update on the structural integrity of the iron moon?"
 
"The moon is stable; magnetic polarization was unaffected by the missile strikes."
 
Admiral Enid threw up her hands. "What else is there to do? Continue firing magnetic beams at the rock until it is fully locked by the planet's gravity. I am not interested in waiting another 15 hours for this impact. The sooner we get home, the less resources we have to expend feeding this army our fleet is..." She then noticed a tongue of flame racing off the surface of the targeted planet, its brightness swelling until it was like a small sun approaching the giant iron moon. "What the hell is that?"
 
Klaxons started wailing as someone below announced frantically, "Massive life force signature detected! No... multiple signatures! It's approaching at near-relativistic speed!"
 
Admiral Enid jerked her head back. "Near-WHAT?! Lock onto that thing and fire!"
 
"The rock is between us and our target! We can't get a clear shot!"
 
"Sarhis beam cannons out of range!"
 
"Enemy units are clearing the field! They're turning back!"
 
Admiral Enid shouted angrily, "Get us into a proper angle! Now!"
 
"We can't maneuver that fast!"
 
"Damn it!"
 
Admiral Yarsia Enid could not see where the flaming ball of energy struck the giant moon they had sent to destroy all life on Absegami; but the consequences were clearly visible to everyone in the fleet.
 
A massive cloud of debris ejected into space in a great rippling plume shaped by the impact's shockwave. At the same time glowing hairline cracks spread across the planetoid's pearlescent surface, spewing flames and dust from deep within. The fractures converged on the other side an instant later, where the miniature star that first struck the moon then burst through. The moon promptly tore itself apart from within, flinging massive chunks of itself into space, and then it completely exploded in a blinding flash that made the already brightly-lit bridge seem gloomy in comparison.
 
Admiral Enid gawked with open-mouthed amazement at the total destruction of the killer moon her forces had worked so hard to deploy; but, being a high-ranking military commander trained to maintain her cool, she quickly regained her composure to order, "Shields! All ships raise their shields now!"
 
The screen dimmed to show massive, jagged fragments of the moon headed their way, with other fragments hurtling toward the planet. Tiny sparkles of light in its path marked the destruction of countless warships and individual fighting units caught in the wave of destruction racing toward the fleet like a hellish tsunami.
 
"Forward attack groups unable to escape! We're losing the entire fleet!"
 
Admiral Enid waved her hand dismissively, attempting to remain calm and in control. "Nevermind the minor ships. Tell our battlemages on board to get out there and stop that approaching fireball. Do this by the numbers, people!"
 
Beams of crimson death lashed out from the other large warships flanking hers, converging on the tongue of flame headed directly at the flagship Mosprang. But even the combined firepower of the Mosprang and its monstrously-sized escorts could not even so much as slow it down.
 
"Battlemages!" Admiral Enid snarled, her smooth composure giving way to frustration. "Lock onto that fireball and extinguish it!"
 
One of her nearby aides turned, a haunted look etched on her face. "Admiral... the target has no life force signature. We are trying to track it with sensors. It's coming at us much too fast!"
 
Admiral Enid's brows furrowed. "No... life force signature?" She then got to her feet. "Zoom in. What the hell are we..."
 
"Detecting reverse magnetic polarization on target.. target is accelerating toward us!"
 
The main screen, over a hundred meters across, promptly showed the incoming projectile in all its horrifying glory.
 
Admiral Enid was propelled back into her seat, her hands gripping the sides tightly. "... dealing... with."
 
At the center of the onrushing blue-white star was a flaming ghoul; a creature with tattered, boiling flesh and flames coming out of its eye sockets. Its mouth was ripped wide open in a silent scream with fire drooling from its burning lips. It had no life force because whatever that was that was coming at them was already dead.
 
"Dear Rhea..." she put her hand to her mouth.
 
Under normal conditions she would have ordered her battlemages to augment the ship's magnetic polarization projectors and reverse them, in order to repel the object. But the sight of the ghastly thing howling at her was too much for her mind to deal with. By the time she snapped out of it and turned to give the order, it was too late; the words never even left her mouth.
 
The silently roaring bansheee struck the Mosprang on the nose. In a flash, all the fairies rushing to use their magic energy to stop the incoming missile found their magic turning against them. The magic reserves of over a billion fairy battlemages exploded inside them, lending to the already devastating force tearing through the ship.
 
Admiral Enid's death came instantly when her own magic exploded inside her and her entire universe became white brilliance.
 
***
 
"The light! I can't see!" Shahab howled, turning away in panic as the entire night sky lit up with the brightness of two white-hot suns being birthed at almost the same time. Even as he gazed back toward the ground, all he could see was whiteness. It took a healing spell to restore his sight and to shield his eyes from the flash as he turned to look again. "Twin suns... I was blinded..."
 
"That.. that was Chieftain Elsinara and her entire council..." Roshana said with disbelief, her shielded eyes blinking as a new binary star system seemed to appear out of nowhere in close orbit over Absegami. "She must have destroyed the killer moon... and something else behind it. I've never seen such power..."
 
Looking to Roshana, Shahab said frantically, "We've got to find Clanlord Rijaal Haj-Bollar. His satellite network will be able to tell us if they survived..."
 
Roshana shook her head slowly, shielding her eyes from the twin suns' blinding light. "They couldn't have. No one but a Matron has enough magic ability to inflict such destructive power. It must have taken her and all ten of her Council... they could not have survived."
 
Shahab watched the twin suns as they began to break up into trillions of fading, sparkling embers curving toward the atmosphere. "Oh no... look... the debris..."
 
Roshana put her hand to her mouth, her other hand pointing to a large, white-hot iceberg moving swiftly across the sky, threatening to eclipse the fading balls of fire behind it. "There... a piece of the moon!"
 
The enormous chunk of rock spewed debris as tiny lines of light crisscrossed in front of it, carving unintelligible but highly intricate runes into its surface. Yellow and orange flowers of flame blossomed across the rock's heavily cragged landscape until large chunks began to break off.
 
"The combat satellites," Shahab half-whispered. "They're carving it into pieces... but it looks like it's too close!"
 
Roshana's heart leapt into her throat as she looked down; there were still crowds of people in the streets below, most laying on ground, covering their faces. They had been blinded by the flash; none of those who had been caught looking into the sky would see their fate coming. There were those who hadn't been looking upward during those critical moments, however - but now most of them were on their knees, praying... or crying... or holding one another.
 
Sadly, she looked back up at the stars to see the sky itself rippling with the force of a massive invisible hand smacking against the atmosphere. Explosions erupted in its wake, signaling the destruction of the defense satellites. "Oh, no..." she gasped. "Shockwaves!"
 
Shahab noticed it as well; but his attention was fixed on something else. Behind the dying binary suns loomed two more nightmarish beings emerging from the mists to bear down on the planet; two great maws lined with endless rows of razor-sharp petals, swimming in a sea of increasingly bright sparkling lights. "Are those... enemy starships?"
 
Roshana blinked; as the two objects in question faded into view, she shook her head. "Two Imperishable Empire motherships. They carry enough backup firepower to incinerate this planet's surface. Typical deployment when confronted with a large Nivalavi fairy presence..." She looked to him. "That would be you guys."
 
Shahab frowned. "How many?"
 
She studied the hardened look taking over his countenance. "You cannot engage them in space. You're not trained."
 
"My mother is far stronger than Elsinara ever was," he snorted. "I must get back to her. She will destroy their mother ships; and then we will force them down here!"
 
It took a second for Roshana to register his words in her mind; and then another for her to actually believe he was serious. By the time she could sputter out, "Shahab!!!" he was gone in a flash of light.
 
*Roshana!* a voice called in her head. *Roshana!*
 
Turning inward, she spoke, *Ian... we're... Damn. I've got to get back to base...*
 
***
 
"Forward satellite network losses at 93%..."
 
"Lunar sensor grid responding... we're receiving data..."
 
"The shock wave deflected off some kind of massive planetary shield..." Clanlord Haj-Bollar said with disbelief, turning toward the tree stump that had once been Isaya. "Someone get me in contact with Isaya. We need to know how much more she can hold off..."
 
"Sir... preliminary data from the destroyed satellites suggests a second gravitational disturbance detected at a distance of four million shiamuata..."
 
General Ebo said to the Clanlord, "We have units in contact with her now. She is giving a report, sir." To the aide, he said, "Do we have any satellites that survived the shock wave?"
 
"None in position to deal with the two mother ships bearing down on Absegami, sir," she replied, her voice shaking with fear. "Sir... the data we got was fragmented but it looks like another, larger force just entered the star system..."
 
"... you sure about that?" another aide's voice half-gasped, distracting both the Clanlord and the Supreme Commander. "Dear, God... this is overkill..."
 
"Hold it," General Ebo turned away from his senior aide toward the other two officers conferring at the edge of their platform at the top of the stairs. "Overkill? What are you two talking about?"
 
Both officers snapped a salute. "Sir," the higher-ranking officer spoke, "As soon as the old lunar grid was activated, we started picking up a torrent of communications between the enemy force settling into orbit and another gravitational disturbance... a third one... sir."
 
General Ebo and Clanlord Haj-Bollar looked at each other for a moment.
 
"We're going to be attacked from three sides... sir." the officer's voice was heavy with resignation.
 
A brief pause ensued before the Clanlord rolled his eyes. "We're not dead yet, people. Get me in contact with Isaya. Get me Linjara Indumon on the line." He turned to the General. "You saw what Elsinara was able to do. We know damned well the entire Indumon family could buy this world some more time..." Seeing the stunned look on Ebo's face, he growled, then turned away to sit himself down in front of a console.
 
"Sir!" the aide sitting nearby turned sharply. "We're picking up another set of transmissions being aimed at us!"
 
Clanlord Rijaal, meanwhile, started barking at the computer, "Locate Linjara Indumon. Connect to subject priority code Clanlord Haj-Bollar!"
 
The entire platform fell silent when the aide tried to shout over him. "Sir! We're receiving a Clanlord priority message from offworld..."
 
Even before the aide finished her sentence, the image on the main screen changed abruptly.
 
"The transmission... it's superceding our satellite feeds!"
 
"Clanlord priority?" Rijaal exhaled with shock as he turned to see what had changed on the main display. "Oh, my God..."
 
***
 
Roshana came storming down the steps of the Cerulean Dawn hideout where she had sent her transmission to the Siluvarans, with Ian back in his physical body, stomping down after her. Two robed agents preceded them into the room to fire up the computer consoles.
 
"The task force should have been here by now," Roshana snarled, the angry expression on her face amplified by the sudden lighting up of the console screens. "They haven't suddenly gone incompetent in just twenty years. That's impossible."
 
"We have a connection available at the coordinates you specified previously," one of the agents said, standing over her as she pointed to the blinking green light at the bottom right corner of the interstellar map screen. "Just an FYI... the Luginta fleet you contacted was massed quite close by, in the Ross 614 binary system, less than ten light years away."
 
Roshana jerked her head back. "They were close, yes... very close. But both the Ellefeather Canyon Nebula and Kelba Pass Nebula allow you to practically waltz right by that particular system..." She pointed to the two cloudy icons surrounding the star system icon in question. "It's like a fog so thick you can pop firecrackers ten feet away from an alert guard without being seen or heard."
 
The other agent nodded. "Ah yes, dark matter and space dust are like that. The Bollar homeworld was shrouded in bok globules that made it impossible to see inside..."
 
"Which is why their ancestors settled there," Roshana noted, looking up at Ian.
 
Having been immersed in Roshana's memories and knowledge, he knew immediately what she was talking about. However, something else had his attention at the moment. "Uhm..." he pointed at the screen, "the connection attempt just went yellow... or whatever."
 
Roshana turned and studied the yellow light blinking over the Ross-614 icon. "Wait... they transmitted something back, but not a permission signal to connect. That could be some kind of code." She looked at the keyboard and then sighed. "But I can't tell for sure without a decoder that we don't have available here. Damn." She scratched her head and then looked up at the agents. "It could mean several things. They could be telling us we're blocked, it could mean bend over and kiss our asses goodbye..." Then her eyes widened and she turned slowly back to the screen. "No... wait... I can decode it myself if I'm willing to do a lot of guessing..."
 
Ian snorted. "Guessing?"
 
She shrugged. "What else can I do? There's no more than 17 codes that I know they'll transmit. One is that we have a connection and I can talk to them from here. There's only 17 other responses. In the last 19 of your years it's unlikely that they've added any more."
 
And then the blinking yellow icon went red.
 
Seeing that, Roshana jerked her head back. "Oh, dear. Connection attempt denied." She turned to the agents. "That means exactly one thing... 'go the hell away' in Siluvaran."
 
"They've washed their hands of us?"
 
Roshana chuckled, shaking her head. "Perhaps. One other possibility is that this line is not secure." She reached for the trakball and the red icon went yellow again; then she tapped the icon and a transparent window appeared, revealing a bunch of one's and zero's. "Ah, binary data..." she then cringed as the color drained from her face. "Dear Gaia... binary! This is a transmission from the Bollars." She scooted back in her seat. "This must be one of their damned viruses rampaging through the Luginta network..."
 
Meanwhile, another agent came hurtling down the stairs. "Everyone!" she shouted. "Come up topside! The whole solar system is on fire!"
 
***
 
Ian Scranton and Roshana Caladuri raced out to the top of the steps of the acorn squash-shaped building to see myriads of eerily silent fireworks blossoming across the entire sky beyond the planet's atmosphere. The heavens warped and rippled as if the planet and its atmosphere had been but an apple wrapped in cellophane and left out to be pelted by both rain and fiery embers alike.
 
"What in God's name!" Ian yelped. "What's going on up there?!"
 
"The two big ships looming over our atmosphere were struck first," one Cerulean Dawn agent already standing outside explained. "A flaming sword descended upon them from somewhere further out in the heavens, cleaving the lead ship in two. Then they both exploded like giant propane gas bags. After that? It was like the stars themselves started exploding!"
 
Roshana covered her eyes as the explosions bathed the entire southern hemisphere in virtual daylight. "I hope the Luginta Silver Arrow task force wasn't caught in the middle of that..."
 
Ian shrugged. "Why?"
 
Roshana turned to him. "What you're seeing up there is most likely a surprise attack by a Bollar Task Force... perhaps an entire starfaring Freehold responding to my distress signal." She sighed. "The data I was looking at below... it came from the Bollars." Gesturing to the sky, she added, "They tapped into the Silver Arrow task force network. They know we're here. They would not have sneaked in like the Imperishable Empire..."
 
"That fast?!" Ian gawked at her. "You just sent that signal..."
 
Roshana snorted. "There's a whole population of Nivalavi here, dear," she noted. "Once they got word from their infiltrators in the Luginta force, their intervention was certain."
 
"Really? Man, they got here quickly."
 
Roshana nodded. "Most of the time that has passed probably involved them waiting for a spy probe to drop by this star system and verify the existence of the Nangwaya," she surmised. "After that, another nearby Freehold could be here in five minutes."
 
"A spy probe?"
 
"They're very good at spying," Roshana explained. "Once they decide something is worth infiltrating or investigating, they will find out what they need to know."
 
One of the agents cleared his throat. "We've been here for decades, undetected..."
 
Roshana laughed. "You'll find that your concealment skills will be... strongly challenged... by the surveillance abilities of a modern Freehold."
 
"If we survive..." the agent added.
 
"Oh, you will." Roshana said confidently. "Either the Siluvarans are out there destroying the Imperishable Empire right now, or the Bollars are. Both sides want the loyalty of the Nangwaya." She winked. "That's why I put word of their existence out there. We're the most popular place in the universe for the moment."
 
"In any case, we're helpless to do anything about the light show..." another agent shrugged, cutting them off. "All we can do now is watch the fireworks and guess who that is up there that's coming to our rescue."
 
Roshana snorted. Taking Ian's hand, she said, "Well, you go ahead and watch those fireworks."
 
Ian shot her a look as she tugged him back toward the door; then he smirked. "Ah, I get it..." Then he waved and followed her back inside.
 
The azure-cloaked agents turned as the door slammed shut; then they grinned.
 
***
 
"This room belongs to another agent..." Ian warned as Roshana used her magic to push open a door ahead of her.
 
"A woman, it appears," she said, as if she hardly cared. "It smells nice and baby powdery in here. C'mon..."
 
Ian cautiously stepped into the room to see a daytime forest scene painted across all four walls. There was an Earth-style dresser with a picture on it, showing a human woman with a topaz-haired male fairy's arm around her shoulder and a fairy woman in a casual sundress on one knee in front of them. There was one large bed and a computer desk as well.
 
"Oh jeez," Ian groaned as he looked up at the dresser mirror and saw Roshana's robe slide off of her, revealing her well-toned body. He turned quickly, but then looked into her eyes, even though his hormones were screaming to look her over. "Am I going back inside you?"
 
Roshana grinned, cupping her breasts and eased herself into a sitting position on the side of the bed. "Not the way you did before," she purred, turning to lay on her back on the bed. "This time we're going to be a little more... traditional." She then gestured to him. "C'mon... don't make me handwave your clothes off."
 
Ian gulped and slid out of his pants and shirt, noticing that he'd been without underwear. He smirked sheepishly, letting her take in the sight of his swelling erection. "I kinda prefer being slurped up into your womanhood..." he said, stepping tentatively toward the bed.
 
Roshana giggled and the sat up on her heels, her hands resting on her thighs. "Oh Ian, you just like the idea of being swallowed whole."
 
Ian gestured at her. "Hey now, didn't you enjoy watching Isaya do it?"
 
She rolled her eyes at him. "I did share that memory with you, didn't I?" Patting the bed, she said softly, "C'mon... lay down."
 
"Pity she's so busy right now," he said as he crawled into bed and flipped over on his back next to her. "C'mon... at least let me lick you again."
 
She paused to consider her request; then she looked longingly down at his thick, ribbed flesh. "Nut-uh," she responded, swinging her hips over his lap. "I know what you're trying to do."
 
Ian's heart raced when she reached down to spread her petals with one hand while her other hand aimed his dripping cockhead, "Huh...? Oh God, Roshana..."
 
She held him in place, letting her vagina drool onto his flesh; then she eased down, pressing her entrance against him. "You know, it's a compliment to a fairy woman to spend yourself quickly," she said breathily, pushing his sensitive mushroom-shaped head inside her. "Ahhh... Ian..."
 
Ian groaned her name, his hands digging into the pink sheets while his back arched. His breath caught in his throat while her tight walls swallowed his penis, clenching and tugging him inwards, until her hips settled in his lap and the whole of him was trapped in her wet and silky folds.
 
He fought to get one more good clear look at the Droathas fairy whose body now held his aching manhood in the grip of absolutely exquisite pleasure. If there was any argument about whether sex with Isaya had amounted to losing his virtue, there would be none with Roshana; if virginity was defined by sex with a human woman, than clearly his now lie safe in her depths forever.
 
Her name escaped his lips again as a gasp; and then his seed defied all efforts to keep it pent up. Roshana gritted her teeth as she felt him mushroom inside her, and then sat down hard to match the frantic jabbing of his hips. She was instantly rewarded with a powerful throbbing sensation and the sight of Ian's eyes rolling almost up into the back of his head. Just as she'd wanted, he released quickly, pumping fast and hard within her, filling her with waves of his essence. Her vagina grabbed his flesh possessively, clamping down and capturing every drop of him so that their juices could mix into a hot sticky mess inside her. Roshana wiggled and danced in his lap, letting out one exerted sigh after another, working her lover's penis, ravenously milking his freshly rejuvenated body for all that it could give her. Then she closed her eyes and cried out his name, her own spasms gathering momentum into a dizzying, satisfying orgasm of her own.
 
Ian's young body easily kept up with her, massaging her pulsating inner muscles with deep, hard jabs, making her scream as loudly as Ian was screaming silently. Then she let out a triumphant howl that echoed through the entire upper floor of the building when she felt him jerk powerfully again inside her, spurting a fresh load of liquid heat into her depths.
 
By the time she came back to her senses, her insides throbbed with soreness; but it was a good kind of sore, thanks to Ian's weakening pulses. Opening her eyes, she studied her lover, collapsed onto his back, completely spent with a deliriously satisfied smile. His chest rose and fell quickly while his fingers remained dug into her thighs, holding her down to keep himself buried in her silky tight vagina.
 
Roshana took a deep breath to calm down her pounding heart and then pulled him up until he was sitting upright in her arms; then she lifted up slightly to extend her legs out behind him, and her lips met his for a long, sloppy wet kiss.
 
After a moment, he groaned, "Jesus, Roshana..."
 
She brushed back his hair. "As I said..." she chuckled weakly, squirming in his lap to stir his throbbing flesh inside her, "Cum quickly..."
 
His eyes glazed over; she pulled his head to her shoulder and clamped her muscles down around him, enjoying his groan of release in her ear as he erupted again. "...and often."
 
***
 
One year later:
 
 
 
"Hey guys. Glad to finally get some v-mail from you. Lucky bastards. The intarwebs were right after all. I wish I could say I regret not having the cash to do what you did and hop a transport to Africa. Lots of refugees stepping off of African Union transports here and they didn't go through all the shit I described to you in the last v-mail. But you know what? I met Roshana. That trumps everything.
 
So... what I didn't tell you last time. Here goes. Things moved incredibly fast while Roshana and I were... ehm... borrowing Dulcinea Martinez's bedroom. Yeah, that was her name. Full blooded Hispanic, born in the Old Los Angeles undercity. Oh and the bedroom and all... yeah, we had sex for an hour. I coulda sworn it was a few minutes but clocks don't lie... not that I know of. Oh and Roshana's Title of Valor is spelled Z-U-R-A-R-I. Zurari. Saver of WORLDS, baby. Five hundred mother fucking Bollar Freeholds slapped that one on her. Can you believe that shit? Hahahahah, man I wish y'all had been here for that ceremony!
 
er, anyhooters... okay, sorry, got carried away a bit there. You got the CD so you know the score... so... about the rest of what was going on... well, it turns out that the Intarwebs were right... again... and the U.S. Government had lied to us... again. Those Bollars that we kept hearing about... they did interfere at the Battle of Kuiper Line back in 2408 - the Awotawi Freehold, to be exact. They dropped right in and fired a big fat Planet Killer and blowded the holiest of crap out of the Grue Combine AND the Siluvarans who were coming to our aid against the Grue Combine. Well, now we know they're called the Imperishable Empire, but still. They perished in that battle. And our side almost perished, too. But you PROBABLY know all of this. So here's what's relevant about that.
 
The Awotawi, it turns out, had Nivalavi spies in the Luginta Exclusion Zone defense force. One spy alerted them to a mass deployment to Earth, which was what led them to interfere at the Kuiper Line. Betcha don't know that, do ya? Or the part where another spy was sitting right there to hear Roshana's transmission. Ayup. This spy alerted the Awotawi and they hopped to action like a Kangaroo - they charged right into the Ross-154 system and fired a Planet Killer at the first crowd of ships they saw in front of them. That just happened to be the SECOND Imperishable Empire task force that we on Absegami didn't see coming. They broke the single planet killer death ray beam into several smaller tendrils of death, which meant smaller shock waves, but still - two totally Imperishable task forces... well... they kinda perished in orbit, right over our heads.
 
To give you an idea of how fast the Awotawi reacted, there's a contingent of guys here from the African Union who were touring the Awotawi fleet. They weren't even given a chance to disembark when the Awotawi got word of this place: the Awotawi just jumped. On the word of one Nivalavi spy, 12 million warships hopped into a wormhole and dropped in for a fucking intergalactic gang war. And they nuked the other gang. Fucking nuked them. Jesus. These guys do not play. Their Clanlord is a Clanlady... I had to try five times to pronounce this shit... Paki Batumelo... Zolanuuuu... B'thando... she says she commands the largest Freehold in the galaxy. I sincerely hope so; what with 12 million of her ships that circled the planet that day. Oh and there are about 500 Freeholds. Jeez.
 
About those 500 Freeholds. And that fucking Clanlord here on Absegami... that guy's a fucknut. Class-A jack to the ass. Er, he was. It turns out that the Bollars have a history of beheading Clanlords like him for fucking over the Nivalavi. The Nivalavi fairies are to the Bollars like a man to his wife. Which explains why Roshana's little trick with the Luginta people worked so much better than we'd hoped. Anyhoot, it turns out that among the starfaring Freeholds, no Bollar leader lives long who tries to subvert the Nivalavi Chieftains; Clanlord Rijaal earned himself the guillotine just for having Linjara thrown out of a meeting. Them Bollars don't play.
 
But neither does this Rijaal dude. Shit went really foul as soon as Clanlady B'thando came back with a sentence handed down by herself and almost two hundred other clans to kill Rijaal. Clanlord Haj-Bollar was officially stripped of his Title of Valor and that pissed off all of the Arajo populace - that's his tribe, basically. His army stormed into the Doruba district to protect him, and apparently they OWNED the Awotawi once it became a ground battle. Even Chieftain Linjara of Indumon came to back him up. Yup, you read it right. Linjara. After all the shit he pulled, she turned on Clanlady B'thando and said Clanlord Rijaal Haj-Bollar would be handled by his own people, not an invading Freehold. Shit, what can I say? During the Global Civil War the Canadians got told to step off while my father and half a million Americans shot their way into Washington, DC and hung the President on his lawn. He was a criminal but he was OUR criminal and he was put down by We the fuckin' People. We didn't want no outsiders "democratizing" us. We handled our own shit... kinda like these guys probably would have.
 
Oh and what is this about everyone still hearing about what a pussy this Haj-Bollar dude was, all hiding in his bunker while the Awotawi shot his whole Council dead? I'm telling you again, it didn't end like that. You see, everyone EXCEPT Roshana and I knew Rijaal's history: he's an ex-soldier who's done two tours of duty up north against the Silurheans: from what I've seen that's far meaner bush than anyone on Earth has ever seen. This guy was hackin' and whackin' and slashin' in places where you blink wrong and wind up in someone's stomach being digested alive. So when this nutjob Generalissimo called Clanlady B'thando out for a duel and she declined to meet him, his inner soldier woke up. He hopped a shuttle to her flagship and started some really major shit up there. I saw his face on the video feeds on his way out. Now mind you I've seen Clanlord Haj-Bollar annoyed, frustrated and downright ornery, but now that I think about it... he was always in control. Then Clanlady B'thando went and said she wouldn't waste her time putting down a disgraced pissant like him... and he totally lost his gourd. He put his demon face on and went on a solo killing spree. He whacked a lot of her crew up there, why else did she blow up her ship? That was no fucking engine failure. We all saw him go up there. Everyone knew he was up there. The whole planet heard her frantic calls for aid. She blew up her ship, man. Scuttled it flat out. There's a cover-up going on, I swear to God on a stack of bibles as high as from here to Earth. Why wouldn't they cover up news of a blustering backwater foot stomping dictator of a backwater clan suddenly going Yojimbo and turning a modern Bollar flagship into a carniceria? A Clanlady in great standing getting her ass handed to her by someone who got stripped of his Title of Valor? She'd be disgraced! I'm telling you... it's a cover-up. Tell ya what, though: I say good riddance, and long may the galaxy not see his like again.
 
More fun ensued after that. 87 dissenting Freeholds sent reps here to recognize his badassity. Their Clanlords and Clanladies even convened to announce their refusal to accept Haj-Bollar's loss of his Title of Valor. The Hazina graveyard zone is now being razed by Haj-Bollar's supporters to build a new business complex named after him. Transport ships, taxis and practically a third of everything that was built here to fly or drive, has his face framed by a lion's mane. The Arajo plan on naming that new Hazina Plaza mega-building the Rijaal N'han Hizar Simba Haj-Bollar Plaza. This also means that these dissident Freeholds are granting Haj-Bollar not just his lost Title of Valor... but a SECOND one, too: Simba, the African word for "The Lion". FYI: Lions were unknown to the Bollars until now. They're only native to Earth. Makes ya wonder, man. Makes ya wonder what's going on behind the scenes.
 
Oh and Isaya is open for business again. Literally. That whole therapy thing you heard about her was bullshit. She's got a thrill ride in western Nazon. No I won't tell you about it. You have to come and see it. Adults only.
 
One other thing: those buddies on my list who are still on Earth planning to avoid conscription... don't do what I did. Save up the $13-14 grand to immigrate to North Europe or Africa. I'm telling you, the intarwebs are always right: the Norse boys and the African Union are escorting refugees off of Earth and the Earth Federation doesn't DARE fuck with them.
 
Oh yeah! The Cerulean Dawn. Would you believe that they came from Earth less than a hundred years ago? There are other Cerulean Dawn groups converging on this planet from all over the place. Man, I don't even want to KNOW what's going on with them. The tabloids are right about these guys. They're like cockroaches, man.
 
Remember that Nidale bitch I was ranting about? As you know she finally got disgraced for what she did to me; she wound up banished, but last week she really made me happy: she went and killed herself. Good riddance. Hollani also got a decent burial; I guess imagining Nidale vaporizing herself with her own magic has helped me stop seeing Hollani in my dreams. Who the fuck ever said catharsis doesn't work? I say that's bullshit. I hope Nidale burns for all eternity along with Tuyen Pham's dead little bitch ass wife Aide. You know, the scumbag who killed Hollani. Yeah, that scumbag. Sorry. I guess I'm still really, really pissed. You would be, too, if you'd known Holly. Roshana yelled at me for taking a whizz on Aide's grave. Fuck it. That one was for Holly. Burn in hell, Aide!
 
Oh yeah, about Tuyen Pham. She's now the new Biashal Chieftain... Tuyen Binh Chau Pham. Her title of valor is Chau... "The Pearl". Only a fool doesn't understand now why she turned on her allies to help us out. Of course, Tuyen's first act was to pardon the thousand or so troops that engaged in that mass-slaughter. I mean, there ain't that many half human fairies around: a thousand death sentences would be half their adult populace. Oh and I left the funniest part for last: Shahab Indumon is on the short list of about THREE... yeah... THREE candidates for the... wait for it... the new Arajo CLAN FRIGGIN LORD. Hahahahaahh! No shit! He's been off-world for a month for fear that he might get elected. I'd rather be cleaning toilets in Alabama than have that job, I tells ya.
 
Now... what have I learned from all of these journeys? One, you just GOTTA come here to Absegami and meet Isaya. Two, man am I glad I met Roshana... and three... politics is a fucking bitch no matter where you go.
 
Okay now I'm starting to hear some shit going on outside. Gotta run. Catch ya later!"
 
 
 
Ian closed the lid on the digital recorder and typed in a command at his computer to send the message out. It was the same computer he used to have back at home; the African Union, at his request, had sent a Psi-Mage to retrieve it from the US Government after the Feds had confiscated all his belongings. Now his entire room looked like the way he'd left it when he fled America and Earth to escape the imminent first wave of military conscription orders.
 
Of course, he rarely spent time in his bedroom except to send voice mails to his friends abroad. Roshana did not like his bachelor pad setup, but in honor of his wishes he was allowed to keep this private retreat as a sort of museum of life back on Earth.
 
"Hey babe..." a woman with jet black hair poked her head around the corner into the doorway. "That fan of yours who buzzed us this morning is here."
 
Ian raised an eyebrow. "Coming," he said, getting up. Looking down at his Bermuda shorts, he lifted his finger. "Uhm, gimme just a sec..."
 
Just that fast his shorts were gone and he was naked. As he gawked at himself and her, she winked. "You're decent now, by our standards. She's in the garden out back."
 
Another fairy, this one a brunette, stepped into the doorway. She, too, was naked. "Oh, c'mon, Ian, you'll be just fine."
 
Ian sighed. "Mari... Eliana... c'mon, really."
 
She pouted. "Isaya's waiting, too."
 
Ian smirked. "Hmmm... okay. What does Roshy have to say about this?"
 
Eliana rolled her eyes. "Quit stalling. C'mon."
 
Shaking his head, Ian followed them down the hall and past the living room to the patio.
 
Standing in the garden was Isaya, in all her green-skinned glory, tapping her foot impatiently. Behind her was the much larger version of herself, a giantess whose head blocked the daytime sun, her pink tongue playing across her dark green lips as she stared down at them.
 
"So..." Ian sighed, watching the larger Spriggan's throat flex as she gulped. "Oh my God... you ate our visitor."
 
Isaya gestured to her larger self. "And Roshy, too. There's room for all of you in my belly."
 
Ian shook his head; he didn't even bother hiding his swelling erection. "Well then... shall we?"
 
The giantess Spriggan smiled; then she lowered her chin to the bannister and parted her lips, revealing her cavernous mouth and her tonsils.
 
Ian walked over to the edge and climbed over the bannister into her waiting mouth. As usual, Isaya's tongue swirled over his body, coating him in minty cool saliva; then she drew him back until he slid under her tonsils into the tight embrace of her throat. Her throat muscles embraced him tightly with a loud wet gulp, kneading him down the giantess's esophagus.
 
When he squeezed through the sphincter into her stomach, he was greeted by Roshana who pulled him in the rest of the way and helped him stand upright.
 
Ian chuckled as he kissed his wife. "You know, no other planet in the universe allows anyone to indulge in this..."
 
Roshana nodded, gesturing to her side. "Ian, don't be rude. Say hello to your latest fan..."
 
Ian turned; even in the low light emanating from the bulbs embedded in the floor and walls of Isaya's stomach, he recognized the face he found himself staring at.
 
"Amber... Vallance?"
 
The naked, curvaceous blonde woman nodded, reaching out to shake his hand. "Pleased to meet you, Ian. You've heard of me?"
 
"I..." he started to say; then another loud gulp rumbled through Isaya's body. They all turned to the roof of her stomach to see Mari's head and shoulders squeeze through with a slick noise. She wiggled and slipped all the way inside, flipping onto her feet. Eliana quickly followed after her.
 
A loud moan rumbled through her body all around them to compete with her powerful heart beat.
 
"I wonder if she'll go back to the Willowtree to enjoy her full belly," Amber joked, sitting down to lay on her back in the moist folds of Isaya's flesh.
 
"I don't think Chieftain Tuyen Pham would appreciate looking outside and seeing that..." Ian started to say before he chuckled out loud.
 
Roshana laughed. "Damn, can you imagine... Tuyen Pham, a Chieftain." To Mari and Eliana, she said, "You met her... all calm and stately. Nothing like when I first met her. She was ready to chop my head off."
 
"Killing one of her wives will do that, you know," Mari warned. "I wouldn't turn my back on her. Especially not here on her planet."
 
Amber nodded. "She's got a point, you know."
 
Roshana laid down next to her. "Yeah, I know." Then she gestured to Ian. "C'mon and join us, babe."
 
Ian looked around, then eased down onto his back. "So... what brings you here, Miss Vallance?"
 
She clasped her hands behind her head. "I heard about Isaya and..." She looked at Ian and cleared her throat. "I just had to find my way past her pretty lips and into her friendly tummy."
 
Mari laid between Ian and Amber, while Eliana laid on Ian's other side, turning to kiss him. "You said you want to take Ian on a mission...?"
 
Amber nodded. "I kill Silurheans as a hobby. I was wondering if Ian was interested in joining me."
 
Mari chuckled. "You don't look like the heavy weapons or magic user type. How can you do such a thing?"
 
Amber winked. "I give them what they want..." She wiggled her pendulous breasts. "Luscious, delicious little ol' me."
 
The other women laughed ominously; Ian, on the other hand, smacked his forehead and groaned.
 
"Ladies and our beloved hubby..." Roshana then cut in. "I need an answer here..." She made Ian's jaw drop open when she proposed, "Do we agree about spending the next day or two sharing this gorgeous blonde gal from Earth?"
 
 
 
THE END
 
 
 
 
* Shiamuata - literally "thousand light steps", or "one thousand steps taken by a ray of light" in the Ke'yep language, was first used during the Ke'yeppan (the Bollar peoples, before they were known as Bollars) Age of Steam, right before the Steam Wars. It is a thousand times the "muata", which is the Ke'yep metric term defined as the distance traveled by light in free space in 1/100,000,000th of a second. Light travels 186,000*5280 feet per second in a vacuum; thus, one-third of a muata is 3.2736 feet, or just BARELY under 1 meter (3.2808 feet), 21st century Earth standard. Note: one muata is exactly 3 meters by 25th century Earth standard. This is purely coincidental, and is the result of the new definition of the Earth standard meter being redefined by the 1/300,000,000 standard during the January 2401 ConfAcrence GAcnAcrale des Poids et Mesures in Paris, France, a direct result of the "Global Reconstruction" period that followed Earth's Global Civil War. This makes one shiamuata the equivalent of barely less than three 21st century-standard kilometers, and exactly three 25th century-standard kilometers.