Sean made it back to main Engineering, his hands and face covered in grime. He had just crawled through endless access tubes that had collapsed during the battle, preparing them for the transition to energy conduits. He was tired, had cuts over his body and his relief team was missing.

"Where the hell are Jonesy and Mallechi?" Sean sighed. He was basically ignored by the working shift. Predictable. It was predictable. This is what happens you take it upon yourself to rant and rave at a consistent and ongoing rate. People learn to tune you out.

Sean checked his work schedule. Six crews. He was missing six of his crews! Grabbing one of his workers he asked him where they were, and why they hadn’t reported for duty.

"Sorry, Sir. Far as I know they're still on the planet on furlough."

Sean was beyond cursing. Max had promised that allowing time off wasn’t going to slow his work. This was the fourth time in the last twelve hours he had crews not showing up for duty.

"Call the Operations Officer and inform him of our missing crew members." The man just stood there, and Sean let his irritation take over. "Now!"

Ignoring the scurrying man, Sean located the one person who was working nonstop. Liz.

"What's the word?"

Liz looked up to frown at Sean for distracting her. All the interruptions. It was a wonder anything ever got done.

"I think I found a backup protocol that will work."

"Does it involve me crawling through more crapped-out corridors and access tubes?"

"Unfortunately, yes. But..." Liz held up a hand before Sean could interrupt, "nothing you haven’t been through before. All the others can be done as we go. And we’ll only need to hit the internodes."

Sean rubbed his dirty face and scowled at his bleeding hands. Running them through his unruly curls and his too long hair, he made an executive decision. Damn, when the hell did he grow a beard?

"Time for a break. Come on."

Liz paused and just stared at him. Break? Almost afraid to know what he had in mind, she stood her ground.

"Oh for the love of Pete...a break Liz! You know...food, some coffee in the cantina while you tell me the latest plan."

Liz shrugged delicately. Okay she could do coffee. She followed Sean to the source of hot coffee, taking her workpad with her.

Sean sank in the chair tiredly and took a long drink from his cup. "Okay, tell me what you’ve got."

"Redundancy."

Sean just shook his head. What? Okay, redundancy.

Liz warmed to her topic. "I am proposing a redundancy system for the backup relay. You realize that most systems are overly glutted with redundancy to protect the system from a full meltdown during damage, right?"

"Our hardwiring system has it. It can be rerouted and switched at all main power junctions and modules."

Liz smiled. "Exactly. But in terms of hardwiring that mean endless amounts of excessive wiring that is more a hamper than a help since it all must be maintained and diagnosed."

"Tell me about it! With half my engineering staff servicing time on a nice cushy planet, and the remaining half of my dwindling half, I can barely repair a crushed light casing."

"Well, the new system doesn’t need such an elaborate redundancy plan. I can put in the backup system at the same time on the same diagnostic paneling, and they will work in conjunction so any breakdown will immediately become known."

Sean sat up straighter at that. Normal maintenance of his systems was his nemesis. It alone ate up more than seventy percent of his scheduled man hours.

"Tell me the proposal."

"At the internodes we can run circuits in series off the parallel ones. Then it is a matter of a double trip and a double pull mechanism to reroute essential systems away from damaged ones."

Sean thought about it. Ingenious. If it could work.

"So the redundancy systems don't lie in wait to be needed one day..."

"They run at the exact same time. So one system goes down, the backup system is still working, and immediately reroutes..."

"...the power relay through a series circuit." Sean smiled into his cup. It was too simple...so simple! Looking at the Immaculate he could feel his eyes getting watery. His Immaculate. He could turn Liz loose in a series of engineering modules and just toss food in once in a while, and she would work.

"Damn, your Immaculate soul! I think I’m finally in love!"

Liz took a drink of her coffee and just shrugged. "I hate it when you get all weepy." She knew he was talking about his engines.

Sean sat back and enjoyed the fun. Laughing hard, he had to admit his fondness for the young woman who was his polar opposite, and yet his equal. She was replacing his lost sister in his life. Serena had been a bitch, but he was connected to her. And the two of them were born with ‘fixit’ genes. Serena could wire a relay in seconds flat, build weapons of destruction and blow the crap out of anything. Sean was more into engines. Together they had been a working team. Only difference was Liz was quiet and respectful, did as asked and never complained. Serena was not.

For the first time in her life, Liz was doing the work she wanted to do. In the Temple they brought her supplies and she mocked up model systems, but the Shiva was a real-life working system, and it was...exciting. Sean was teaching her beyond books. In her mind everything had to be done exactly right, but after a few weeks of watching Sean's innovative rewiring and jerryrigging, Liz was coming to understand that there was more to it than just doing it by the book, that real success was in being flexible and dynamic.

"Sean?" She waited for him to stop trying to con someone into getting him more coffee. He finally looked back at her with a new steaming cup of brutalized beans. Whoever made the coffee was a sadist.

"Yeah?"

"When I’m no longer called upon to be an Immaculate, do you think the Captain will let me remain?"

Sean looked at the young woman with interest. "You want to stay on the Shiva?" Liz nodded. "What about your world and your family?"

"I don't know my world. I was taken to Temple practically from the moment I was born. My family turned me over. I never saw them or knew them. I don’t even know their names. The Priests and the Temple are all I know."

"And the Priests? Aren’t they like home?"

"There are no more Priests. Once I was removed from their care, hundreds of years of service ended for them. They performed the last ritual of Kel’ rah Tehl’."

Sean frowned at her. "Cal-rah-tel?"

"Ascension. They no longer exist at this plane of existence."

Sounded like mass suicide to Sean. He looked at the young woman, far too young to be left in a universe without anyone. "I’m sorry."

Liz just shrugged. "Don’t be. It was their life’s work to obtain that state, and my life path was set at birth. It wasn’t a bad life. I might have lived and died at Temple, and replaced by another if the Princess hadn’t come for me. On my world, I would’ve never been allowed to become educated, and all things I know would be gone."

The horror of her fascinating mind lost because a world was too stupid to educate their women! Sean couldn’t wrap his mind around it. It was too much.

Sean cleared his throat. "I’m not for religion. Actually religion and I would get along okay if it didn’t have so many things that were forbidden, all of which are all the things I do the most. But I’ve got to reconsider it if it’s responsible for giving you more of a life." Sean made a snorting sound. "Damn, I’ve never been in a house of worship. I think I spit in front of one once." Sean hit the table hard. "Nope, I’m wrong! I was married in a religious hall on my world."

Liz was suddenly interested in this jovial long curly headed man with twinkling eyes and a touch of the devil in his soul. "You’re married?"

"Was. Not anymore."

"What happened?"

"It didn’t take." Sean scratched his brow. "About around a certain time on my honeymoon when she tired to murder me."

Liz nodded stoically. "I suspected as much. Desperate times require desperate acts out of many women."

Sean just laughed. "You have no idea!" Sean got up and waited for Liz to follow him back to Engineering. "So you eating in the cantina tonight?"

Liz looked at him discreetly with a growing trepidation. "Why? You’re not cooking?" Sean chose to ignore the dawning horror in her voice. Jealousy was a terrible emotion in most people. He wasn’t responsible for the crew's growing envy.

"Yeah, me and Michael. That’s if Michael’s awake and not down on the planet."

Liz rolled her eyes. She had forgotten to check the mess schedule and didn’t save any food from the night before. "I’m fasting." Sean looked at her sharply not remembering her ever fasting before. "It’s a religious thing."

That explained it. Religion and Sean, they had an agreement. They occupied opposite places. Sean believed in religion. His own. That included anything that made him happy, sated or just plain horny. Or smelt of grease.

"Pity. I think Michael switched the schedule so Maria cooks with us now. Their new togetherness is just disturbing."

Liz had to agree. The idea of Michael, Sean and Maria in the kitchen at once was enough to change a person’s belief in survival. Maria insisted on vegetables, and the boys wanted all meat, so it was open warfare as they indiscriminately tossed things into the pot and the salad.

"I am definitely fasting tonight." Liz looked straight ahead and said in her expressionless, monotone voice keeping a deadpan face, "One of the monks told me a joke once."

Sean looked at her in interest. "Did you laugh?"

"The joke wasn't that good."

~~~

Michael woke to the most incredible dream. It was more like a sensation, and it took him a few moments to realize that it wasn’t a dream. Maria was awake and she was busy. Her mouth was wicked and hot. Moaning, he threaded his fingers through her hair.

"Maria..." His voice was thick and passionate.

"Ummm?"

"What are you doing?"

Maria gently nipped his inner thigh with her tongue coming out to smooth the bite. Laughing against his skin, she looked up at him in the dark.

"You’re the last man that I ever thought would need a diagram for this!"

"I don’t mean that! That I got. I mean..." Michael groaned deeply as Maria went back to work on him. "I mean...we’ll talk about it later."

~~~

Max woke in a sweat, his breathing hard and raspy. The moan came from deep inside as if it were drawn from him by an invisible hand. His bed was a mess. His body was equally sticky and covered in his release as he reached an orgasmic climax. Sitting on the side of his bed he called Michael all kinds of trash as he rubbed his scar hard. It pained him suddenly.

"Damn you, Michael. Put up some damn walls!"

Max treated himself to a shower, and because it didn’t seem like Michael and Maria were going to finish anytime soon, he decided to go to work to put some distance between himself and his otherwise engaged twin. Bastard.

"Caleb! What the hell is going on?" Max looked around at his almost empty Bridge.

"Umm, things are quiet, Cap."

"I can’t imagine why." Max said dryly. He entered the Bridge and walked around, noticing the unmanned stations. "Where the hell is the Bridge crew?"

"We had a few people not report for duty."

"How many exactly?" Max’s face darkened.

"The last two shifts."

Max swore, and went to sit in his chair. "Order all stations to report. I want a status report."

"Aye, Cap." Max just kept swearing and went to get some coffee.

"Cap, Medical and Engineering have reported. They are reporting missing staff as well."

"And the other system chiefs? Have they reported in yet?"

Caleb looked uncomfortable. "No, Sir."

"Why the hell not?"

Caleb wavered on his feet shuffling back and forth. "They’re missing as well."

Max just counted slowly. "Don’t bullshit me, Caleb. You’re my Operations Officer. It’s your job to make sure all stations are manned. So just tell me what the hell is going on."

"They’re on the planet, Cap."

"Then call them back."

Caleb sighed. "I tried. There was no response."

"And?"

"So I sent some of the security teams to the planet to retrieve the missing crew that were overdue."

Max wasn’t liking the situation at all. "And?"

"They didn’t come back or report in either. The next two retrieval teams I sent also failed to report. I cancelled all remaining furloughs." Caleb said something under his breath that Max didn’t quite catch.

"What did you say?"

"I had to cancel the remain furlough because the transport ships haven’t returned either."

Max stood up and paced his Bridge, stopping in front of Caleb. "A crew of over four hundred and thirty. How many are missing?"

"I can’t be sure, Cap."

"Estimate!"

"Three hundred and sixty-seven, the Eminent’s two sisters, and one Immaculate."

"The Ladies Isabel and Lonnie went down to the planet?"

"Alex okayed it. Since there were no sensors and they’ve been housed in their room for months..."

"And the Immaculate? Which one?"

"The newest. She went with the sisters."

Max couldn’t believe it. "Does the Princess know that her newest Immaculate is running around on the planet?"

Caleb turned red and rubbed the back of his neck. "No, Sir."

"Why the hell not?"

Caleb cleared his throat. "You ordered that the Commander and the Princess not be interrupted."

Max felt his irritation rising to the point of a full meltdown. "When exactly were you going to report all of this?"

"Soon, once I had an accurate count of the current staff on the Shiva."

Max just shook his head. "You have the Conn. No one, and I mean, no one is to go down to the surface. I’ll take an individual fighter."

Caleb didn’t like it, not one bit. "Cap? What should I do if you don’t return?"

"Oh, don’t worry. I’ll return."

Max was on his way out of the Bridge when he ran into Alex. The Eminent seemed puzzled and confused.

"Alex? You’ve got a problem?" Other than his sisters and the Immaculate, Courtney.

"The space. It bothers. The energy field is too strong here. It is altering. Causing me dreams."

Alex turned and walked with Max towards the fighter bay. The man walked with his hands clasped behind his back and his brows furrowed in thought. He was pensive and worried.

"Dreams? About...?"

"Two that is one. The One. The silence of isolation thundering in sounds. It speaks without words uttered. Light that is bright and dark. The sun becomes new. The space burns as the Destroyer comes."

Max just ran his hands over his face. He had no time for Alex’s Eminent spiel.

"Look Alex, I need to get down to the planet. In case you haven’t noticed no one is coming back, and that includes your sisters and the new Immaculate."

Alex just nodded and walked off distracted. Max wasn’t sure Alex had heard a word he said.

~~~

Michael and Maria were lazing about in the bath after waking up and finding food. Maria was still partially asleep resting on his bigger body as his one hand moved water up over her back, while his other hand moved through the wetness of her hair. The silky golden strands fascinated him the way they curled around his fingers and gripped him - especially when wet.

"Maria?" he said softly.

"Hmm?"

"It that how it’s going to be?" Maria, who had been rubbing her cheek against his chest became still. "Except when you blink out, you won’t blink back?"

Maria sighed and slowly rubbed her face into him. Looking up she sat up a little and took his head in her hands.

"Time is short. The thread has been woven, the length pulled...all that remains to be done is for it to be cut. Do you really want to spend what is left of our time sad, angry and upset?" Maria leaned in and kissed his lips pulling his bottom one in for a long suck. "I don’t."

"Maria..."

"I’ve never lied to you or misrepresented how this will go. My destiny was drawn long ago. You...you I didn’t foresee." Maria moved her hand down his body and under the water. "I don’t want to fight with you. I just want to love you like it is all there is, like it has to last an eternity, and then once more into forever. Can you do that?"

Michael eyes darkened, too much of what he could never say was in his eyes and so much of it he had no language for.

"Yes. I can do that." Michael framed her face, kissing her deeply with his eyes closed tightly, concentrating on everything that was she. Memorizing it for a time when they would be no more. "But know this. There is no relief. When you’re gone, there will be no more me, no more you and no more us. How could there ever be again?"

Maria cried a little in pain, pulling away from him tears flooding her eyes. "Michael, please... this is too hard. Harder than I ever knew. Can’t we just..."

Michael pulled her back to him letting her cry. "Yes," he whispered. "We can. I never asked for promises, and I never gave you any."

"I know."

"Then we do this regardless. You’ve got this destiny, but it touches mine. And as much as you hate to admit it or even see it, you can’t control or stop what will happen to me when you leave. That is my destiny."

Maria nodded. He was right. She was so concerned for him - more than herself. But no more than he could change her duty, she couldn’t change what they had already forged between them. It was too late for them both.

"Pretend?"

Michael nodded, taking her smaller hand in his, sucking a long lean finger in his mouth nipping at its skin.

"Go away with me for a few days. The Shiva is under repair, and even though we can help...don’t. Just take a moment from all of this and come with me."

"Where?" Maria wiped tears away sniffing, smiling slightly, but the smile never reached her eyes. She was too busy searching his face as if memorizing every detail.

"Max suggested a long empty beach on the planet."

Maria just shook her head. "The place neither of us should go in our state. We’d never return or break free."

"I don’t know...a beach sounds nice to me."

"Sure it does. But not on this planet."

Michael was confused. The planet sounded perfectly normal to him. "What’s wrong with this planet? It’s protected from Pierce, and Max said the people were nice..."

Maria sat up suddenly. "What do you mean Max said the people were nice?"

"When he contacted them and they offered furlough to the crew." Michael frowned when she suddenly was up and out of the water. He wasn’t ready to get out. He was planning a much longer tryst.

"Did he go down? Did anyone go?"

"More than likely. Maria, come back..."

Maria gave a sound of exasperation. "Didn't I say not to contact the inhabitants? Didn't I not say to only use the planet as a blind?"

Michael just shrugged. "Sure. But Max searched your travel data logs. It just said ‘Pleasure Planet’. So what’s the big deal?"

"Oh damn! Get out of there! We need to see what damage has been done!"

~~~

Max finally tracked down a few of the transport team and ordered them back to the ship. The main capital city of Cyrenaica was flooded with his people having a good time. They were happy, laughing, and seemed more than happy to comply with his orders, and yet...no one left.

Max tracked the Eminent twins and the Immaculate to a large luxury resort. He stood and watched in wonder as Lonnie and Courtney swam in the nude and occasionally got out to have large men with glistening muscles rub them down. They chatted and laughed the entire time, and were eating in excess.

This wasn’t good. Max didn’t know what constituted the ‘corrupting’ of an Immaculate, but watching Courtney making overtures to the masseuse and the constant attention his hands were giving her body...it didn’t look good.

He ordered them back to the ship immediately, and told the Immaculate to dress herself. Both Lonnie and Courtney turned over giving him a full view of their naked asses as they chose to ignore him. Angry, Max went to find Isabel hoping she could exert some authority or reason over the other two.

Stormy were his thoughts, and he maliciously noted the added flabbiness to Courtney’s ass, and the thick thighs and pudgy upper arms and lower legs of Lonnie. It would serve them and their glutinous asses right if all the rich food they were eating settled in their least attractive features.

Max didn’t even knock. He just entered the suite. Isabel was standing at the window looking out at the beautiful scenery, her calm and regal body straight and tall. Turning at the sound of the door opening, she was stunned to see him standing there. She had been thinking of him, wishing for him, trying to reach him mentally and wondering if he could feel her desire to see him.

"Isabel..." Max was silenced by her beauty. She stood so tall and lean with her golden blond hair down her back, wearing a full body sheath of white trimmed in golden piping. The sheath was in a full Grecian style leaving her upper arms bare and the full length of her back naked to his glances. She was damn near a goddess.

Need. Want. Desire. To touch.

Both moved so fast it was impossible to see who initiated the first movement, but they were suddenly in each other's arms, kissing passionately, as Max moved Isabel backwards towards an open door, and what he hoped was a bedroom.

"Good... You taste so good..." It was what his body was thirsting for. She was like a tall cold glass of water to a man lost in the desert.

"I'm not Serena." Isabel gently reminded him.

"Thank God." Dealing with Serena was difficult, and Isabel was proving to be her own brand of hard. He wouldn’t take both his dead wife and Isabel being exactly the same. He already had enough problems. It was Isabel that he wanted, needed and desired. Serena was in all things, finally surprisingly silent.

"You're here now. I'm here now. Things have been building to this point." Isabel wrapped her arms around his slim waist. Her hands could actually meet; when she tried to do this around his broad shoulders, she really had to stretch to get them together. "I want this. I want you."

He tipped her face up with his big hand, and she was lost in his deep brown eyes. He moved forward very slowly, as if giving her a chance to change her mind and pull back. When she didn't, he pressed his lips very gently, on hers. Isabel kissed him back gently and then opened her mouth, her tongue sliding over his. He tasted so good, strong, like whiskey and mint. She nibbled on his bottom lip and the side of his neck. His gasps were a surprise, almost breaking the silence. Max pressed his lower body harder against hers. Isabel moved against him urgently, feeling his hardness between their bodies.

He gasps again. "Oh, shit..."

"Please," Isabel said. "Please."

Something loosened in him. Suddenly, somehow, they were on the bed, and his bigger body was covering hers, molding her to him. His mouth rained kisses on her lips and face and neck; his hands were strong and insistent against her thighs, pushing up the hem of her sheath. Thick, broad fingers and quick moving hands removed her clothes and slowly moved along the soft skin of her inner thigh, slipping into her. Her whimpers went straight into his mouth as she kept their mouths joined in a lusty kiss.

While Isabel struggled with the fastenings on his shirt, he reached to where he left her body sheath of silk when he removed it, and tossed it across the room.

It landed near the fireplace.

"Max..."

Max moved his one hand up her body along the sides to take her arm in his hand and push it over her head as his body leaned hard into hers.

"Don’t worry. If it burns, I’ll buy you another one." He was too rushed to worry about ruining her clothes as his hand quickly went to his waist to unbuckle the belt there.

"No, I want to do that." Isabel unbuckled and unfastened him as he finished taking off his shirt. He wore nothing underneath.

Isabel squeezed him and he hissed, "Oh fuck, that's good."

"Let's shut the door," she said as she wriggled under him thinking of the soon-to-be-returning Lonnie and Courtney.

"No."

He lowered himself on her again, capturing her mouth as he quickly and expertly removed all her undergarments. His mouth lowered to her right breast teasing the nipple with his teeth and tongue. The nipple puckered to a hard point, and Isabel arched her back, trying to push more of her breast into his mouth and wrapping her legs around his hips. His hardness was pressed against the slick folds of her sex. Isabel pushed up into him trying to force him to penetrate.

Suddenly, he flipped her hard on her back as he moved down to kneel between her legs, spreading them so that she was open to him. His thick fingers sliding against her wetness, igniting something in the core of her that had begun to build. Isabel’s gasps filled the room as he stroked her, back and forth and back and forth and back and...oh! He pressed two fingers into her lubricating her as he stroked them in and out, slowly, slowly, his thumb caressing her clitoris. Isabel frowned at the sounds of moaning until she realized it was her. Max moved his mouth down to where his fingers were fucking her with his mouth as he tongued the nub. She moved under his mouth and fingers. She wasn’t ready yet. He added another finger, to open her even more to him.

"Look at me," he growled. "Watch me." His gaze captures hers, and as she watched him, he withdrew his fingers and sucked them into his mouth licking the wetness from them, savoring every drop.

"Oh, please," she moaned. "Max, Max, please--"

He plunged the fingers back into her, stroking a little harder now. The thing that was building in her before climbed sharply, almost leaving them both behind. Isabel grabbed onto the sensation and held on for dear life.

Then she could feel his lips and his tongue on her, entering her, sucking her hard. Fuck! His tongue - it was alive! He was licking the sensitive nub of her clit and his rhythm was slow and steady, up and down, up and down. Isabel’s hand went to his head begging him to move faster and faster. Her fingers moved through the long slightly curled locks of his hair, winding her fingers tight the silky tresses, pulling them, and forcing his mouth closer.

"Please!" she begged in a breathy moan.

The rhythm picked up just a little faster but it was still steady and strong. Isabel could feel his rhythm in every muscle in her body, and she moved in time with it, pushing herself harder and harder into his mouth demanding more of his attention. Her thighs were wrapped around his head, trying to anticipate his swirls and strokes, trying to ride them into more pleasure. His hands clutched and squeezed her hips and buttocks, holding her still.

And the ride was speeding up, and Isabel could feel the telltale flutter inside, letting her know that she was close. She tried to speak, wanted to speak, to let him know that she was close, but her brain could only form keening noises. Instead she threw back her head back and let out a long, low moan and squeezed her thighs tighter around his neck--

But he stopped. Max didn’t finish her. She was under him writhing and dripping wet on the edge, and he unwrapped her legs from around his head and shoulders, taking his tongue away, and moved up her body rolling to his side, showing her, finally, what she was in for. His cock was hard, jutting out before him, as he leaned into her, taking her mouth in a long sucking kiss, sharing her taste with her, feeding her. His hand took hers in his and circled his cock.

He was magnificent. Broad, strong shoulders, chest defined and muscular, with more than a hint of definition to his abs, despite the slimness of his body. There was hair around his naval that lightly trailed down his stomach in the softest of down to the inverted triangle at his crotch, from which his cock bulged all hard and erect. It wasn’t particularly long, but thick, very thick, and well-shaped. The head was purpled, excited and wet from his pre-cum. Isabel was a tall woman, but she wondered if she could handle his girth enough to ride this ride? She hoped so.

Isabel reached forward and took him in hand, weighing the heft of it. The skin was smooth and hot, the big vein pulsed against her palm. Stroking slowly on the shaft, she took the head into her mouth, licking away sticky, salty drops of pre-cum. He felt and tasted so good. When Isabel looked up at him, his head was thrown back, exposing the arch of his strong neck. His hands, strong and powerful, caressed her hair. He was resisting the urge to thrust his cock hard into her mouth. If she had been of his world, he wouldn’t have resisted the urge, the need to use her mouth hard and violently. Isabel made a sound in the back of her throat as she pulled his hips closer, sucking his shaft deep into her throat. His moans were the most beautiful sound in the world, the only sounds she wanted to hear. These Attilaan men were loud!

Isabel swirled her tongue around the head, interrupting the rhythm with flickers against his shaft. With her left hand she massaged his scrotum, rolling the balls around in the delicate sac. With her other hand she stroked her fingers against her clit and inside, getting herself ready for him as he watched her masturbate herself and blow him. He had left her so close to the edge that her body was extremely sensitive to her own touch. Max groaned as her fingers in her own body created electric flicker jolts through her and she rewarded him with deeper suction.

His breathing quickened, and Max took her head firmly in his hands and swiftly pulled her cock away from her mouth. "Iz, I'm gonna come if you keep doing that."

"That's the point, Max." Isabel said, then snuggled up close to him, still stroking his cock. "Sex now?"

"Oh, yes," he replied, his voice thick. He captured her mouth again, offering her a taste of herself from his lips. His hands cupped her ass, caressing her naked flesh until Isabel felt like she was on fire. He nipped at the neck, nibbled at the earlobes, all the while maneuvering her around him as he picked her up to settle in his lap pushing her to the far end of the bed against the wall that the bed was a part of.

The plaster was cool against her back and ass as he pushed her up against it, his body hot and hard on her front. Isabel wrapped her long legs around his waist. His strong arms pulled her close to him, the skin of his chest rubbed against her nipples, making them even harder as he pinned her. The head of his erection slipped and slid up and down the folds of her sex wetting itself, moving up against her clit and down to her ass.

Sound rushed in her ears and light exploded behind her eyelids as she moaned, "Do it, do it, do it!"

"Oh, fuck, yes. Yes. Yes," he groaned in reply, and slowly, slowly pushed his cock into her. The hard width slid into the wetness, stretching her open. Isabel was being filled to overflowing by huge cock and she could barely stand it. There was some pain, but she didn’t care as he pushed on pushing her thighs further apart making her take him. Wrapping her arms around his shoulders, she buried her face into his neck and held on.

He reached bottom, firmly embedded in her, and he began strong, steady thrusts inside her. He was so controlled, his movements sure and certain. It began to build in them again, tingles of feeling radiating out to their bodies moving proximal to their extremities and back again, climbing higher and higher with each thrust.

His mouth was still at her ear. "I have wanted--" he whispered, his voice so soft she could barely hear him.

"What? What?" Isabel asked wildly, distracted by his solid, throbbing cock. "Oh, God, what?"

"I have wanted this for so long," he said, his hips moving faster and faster. "So, so long."

Isabel cried out, throwing her head back and hitting it squarely against the wall. She didn't feel the ache from her skull; all she felt was his cock thrusting up into her, again and again and again. The muscles of her vagina clamped and contracted around him, drawing her closer and closer to the brink. Sweat drenched his muscular back, causing the grip she had on him to slip.

His growls of pleasure became louder and louder, culminating in a shout as he thrust one final time into her, coming hard. The spasms from his cock finally drove her over the edge with him, and Isabel set her teeth into his collarbone and held on as the orgasm exploded throughout her body.

"I hope by the blood of my ancestors that's an outside wall," he gasped. Isabel could only snicker softly, too weak to speak.

"Are you okay?" he asked, pushing strands of hair from her face.

Isabel looked up at him bemused, drawing his mouth into a deep kiss. "Wonderful," she said, when she could.

"Which side you want?" he asked. Isabel gestured aimlessly not really caring, and he settled her to his right, her arms and legs still wrapped around him. He lay down gently beside her on the bed, drawing her close to him.

"Next time," he panted, wiping the sweat from his brow, "You get to be on top."

Next time? There's going to be a next time, Isabel smiled. "Next time..." she repeated drowsily, her fingers lazily stroking the lines of his face, especially his scar as she drifted off to sleep. Next time. No longer denied.

~~~

Lonnie and Courtney entered the suite for the third time in the last six hours. Both of them sighed and shook their heads.

"They’re still going at it!" Courtney sounded impressed.

"Well at least we shut the door. Walking in on them was just disturbing." Lonnie frowned. It was more disturbing that neither seemed to notice them or even care that they were rutting like animals with the door wide open.

The sight of the Captain behind her sister who was on hands and knees, with him pounding into her and his hands on her ass was more than Lonnie ever wanted to see. And the sounds of their combined screams were enough to put Lonnie off food for a month. It was a total nightmare. Rubbing her eye viciously, she still couldn’t erase the sight.

Courtney just huffed. "I can’t believe they’re doing that in my bed!"

The sounds from the closed bedroom were ever increasing to a climatic howl, as Max’s voice rose and demanded more of Isabel.

"Damn, I can’t believe it. The Captain is killing my sister with his cock."

Courtney agreed. "Hey! If she dies, do you think I can have that one dress of hers that is that sparkly green?"

"No way! I’ve had my eyes on that number forever, and she won’t even let me borrow it." Courtney and Lonnie went to hide in Lonnie’s room shutting the door to try to drown out the sounds of the howling menagerie. "But I’ll be nicer and lend it to you from time to time."

~~~

"How long has he been down there?" Michael paced the Bridge in anger as Maria was trying to establish contact with the planet.

Caleb pulled at the collar of his shirt which was suddenly too tight and choking him.

"Eight hours? Give or take."

Maria looked at Michael who seemed wired and irritated. "Michael can you reach him...make a link?"

"Oh, I’m feeling him just fine! It’s diluted, but I can definitely feel him."

"Well then tell him..."

"It won’t work. He's fucking himself into an early grave!"

Maria paused. Both she and Caleb suddenly were very interested. "Really? You can..." Maria made a gesture and lifted up a little to look over the railing where Michael was pacing to check out his package. Yep, very erect.

"Not in so many images...just endless sensations." Michael flopped his hands about in helpless irritation. "We can’t go down or we’ll be trapped. We can’t contact anyone because no one seems interested in answering. And what the fuck is wrong with you? Pleasure Planet? Like that’s not like offering candy to a fat baby?"

"I didn’t write my comments for anyone but me! I know what the hell a pleasure planet is! Why the hell don’t you?"

Caleb discreetly tried to move away from them as they argued, motioning to the officer manning the communications to continue trying to contact the planet's Council of Elders.

"Then what the hell is a ‘Pleasure Planet’?"

Maria looked at him like he was stupid, or at the very least slow. "Pleasure. They provide you with any and every pleasure imaginable." Maria suddenly felt bad. After all she had found herself stuck on the planet the first time she went there, and barely found away to escape. "It’s like a sinkhole of pleasure. The more you want or desire, the more is provided, and thus more you want."

Michael frowned. "So you tell them that you want something, and they provide you with whatever it is...endlessly?"

"Something like that, but not quite. You don’t realize you're asking. The Cyrenaics are telepaths, strong ones. That’s why this is a protective planet, and the field of positronic nexus waves has helped to mutate or evolve them into pure thought. Their philosophy is that the greatest pleasure is the greatest good, so no one works."

Caleb came to sit on the banister next to Maria. "Then how do they survive? Someone has to do work, run the government, grow food, and stuff. A civilization can’t live on nothing."

Maria nodded. "That’s true. And they live well. They have endless replicators and power that provides them with everything they need."

"They built replicators?" Michael was impressed. Fuck in the morning, build a replicator in the evening, and spend the rest the night glutting yourself.

"Hardly. They are an advanced society, but not of their own making. Their way of life and abilities traps people, almost like sirens calling. The ships are trapped here, and then the Cyrenaics offer them a way out for a price. They steal technology in a ingenious way."

Michael’s face stormed over. "So they're holding our people captive...hostages?" Michael’s rose in anger. "Tactical, arm the forward photon array and target the capital city."

"Wow, power it down Big Man! You can’t randomly fire on the city without hurting our own people." Maria pleaded with him. "They do nothing of the sort. The crew is trapped by their own desires, not the Cyrenaics. Basically they’re trying to entertain them, so it becomes a self-feeding cycle. Sooner or later the Cyrenaics will offer an escape, but we don’t have the time to wait, so if we can get one of the non-working Cyrenaics to pick up the link we can make a deal."

"How will they release our people?" Caleb asked quietly as Michael paced the Bridge swearing under his breath and devising tactics to blow the hell out of this planet without harming their crew.

"We make the deal, and the Cyrenaics as a collective consciousness will transmit a desire to return home."

"What can we offer them? They have everything they need. Maybe more replicators with your isolinear chips that allow them to interface with the mechanism?" Michael suggested.

"Nope, can’t do. That’s what I gave them the first time I was trapped on their world." Michael’s eyes narrowed as he tried to think of what exact pleasure it was that had trapped her in their web.

"Then what? What can we offer?" Michael wasn’t sure he wanted to know. Not the Zephyr?

"The uranium-plutonium-curium power node."

Michael exploded. "Absolutely not! Our warp core crystals are showing first stages of fracturing, if we lose the power node we can’t recrystalize."

"Michael, their power systems run constantly. They don’t understand the concept of abstinence, denial, or even moderation. Their power source is always needing a re-matrixing. This nodule will do it. It will give them years of much needed power."

"No."

"Dammit, Michael. What is Max doing right now?"

"Sex. He's engaged in sex."

"For how long now?"

Michael rubbed his face. "Hours."

"Does it feel good?"

Michael just shrugged, but in truth he knew. "He’s feeling uncomfortable. The acts are becoming more frantic and desperate taking on a real hint of violence. He’s appalled."

"It’s the feedback loop. The more pleasure he achieves, the more he needs to reach the next level of satisfaction. At first it would’ve been easy and he would have felt sated. But the lull between sessions would shorten until he and his partner are so trapped that they will literally kill themselves."

Michael rubbed his face, trapped and unhappy with the circumstances. "Caleb, call Sean to the Bridge. Kyle as well, if he’s not down on the planet."

"Kyle wouldn’t be," said Maria quietly. Michael looked at her with a raised eyebrow waiting for her explanation. "He’s an empath. He and Alex are too connected to mental things to withstand how upsetting the positronic nexus is to the mind. My gifts are different so it doesn’t affect me except as a low humming. The Shiva’s shields offer some protection, but on the planet they’d be overwhelmed. Just being in orbit is probably already bothering them, and with the shields down..."

"This is stupid!" Michael kicked a console before flopping down into the command chair. He just brooded and Maria left him alone while they waited for Sean.

~~~

"This better be good!" Sean looked around the Bridge and whistled. "You know, a starship works better with people at its helm."

"Shut up, Sean! We’ve got problems."

Sean just held up his hands. "I’m telling you those blown relays on deck sixteen wasn’t me. It did it all on its own. Now I know that I estimated that repairs would be completed in a week, but fuck me, almost my entire staff is missing. Don’t think I won’t put the whole lot on report..."

"Sean...Sean..." Michael paused as Sean kept rattling off his accomplishments, why he shouldn’t be held accountable for anything that might be wrong. "Sean! Will you shut up? We didn’t call you to the Bridge because we discovered who been stealing Ensign Tarre’s undergarments from the ship’s laundry."

"Oh!" Sean looked skeptical. "Are you sure? I mean, I’m sure if a few scraps of her things landed in my laundry bundle I’d be not knowing how that happened. Not that I’m saying it did happen, mind you, but if it did...theoretically...It wasn’t me."

Maria snickered at his large insincere cheesy grin.

"Sean, almost the entire crew is trapped on the planet." That got his attention. Maria quickly explained the Cyrenaic people, and Sean’s reaction was swift and predictable.

"Blow their fucking planet to hell and back!" Michael nodded his head in agreement.

Maria looked at them. Amazing. Just amazing! Did all Attilaans immediate seek the most violent expedient resolution for all problems?

"We can’t. To attack them would be like attacking the crew. They’re all over the place, caught up in what ever pleasure is their..." Maria stumbled over the words, "pleasure?"

"This is sick. They hold other species hostage to help support their worthless slothful ways?" Sean was appalled. He loved being slothful, a layabout, worthless and shifty with an eye on the main chance, or at least a skirt, but not work? That was just wrong.

"Different cultures, different strategies. Theirs has proven to be effective for them for generations, and now I’m not sure they could be taught to work."

"Okay, then Michael, you're number two and in charge now. What do we do?"

Michael looked at Sean and then quickly at Maria. She just shrugged. It was his decision.

"We get them back. We can’t wait. Some of them aren’t going to last long depending on what ‘pleasure’ they chose."

"Well good thing I didn’t go down. I’d never come back." Sean said truthfully.

"You said it, Vice Boy." Michael looked at Maria again, but she was strangely silent. "We need to offer them something so they mentally suggest to our people that it’s time to go home."

"Good plan. That’s a good plan. We should give them something they need, something they’ll want...something juicy and choice. We should give them anything they want. Whatever it takes." Sean said nodding the whole time.

"Good. We’ll need the uranium-plutonium-curium power node." Michael said quickly, and then waited for it.

"Oh, they’re dead. Bury them and let's move on." Sean walks off heading off the Bridge as fast as he could. "Anything but that!"

"Sean."

Sean turned around and flopped his arms about in exasperation. "No, Michael. Absolutely not! I need it. We need it." He gestured around them. "Who needs them? They make noise, take up space, and eat food. We’re better without a huge glutted crew. We can manage."

"Sean..."

"They're down on that planet eating to excess, fucking and partying. They’re corrupted beyond repair. I say we cut them lose. They’d thank us for it."

Michael shook his head no.

"I hate them!" Sean rubbed his face. "Who needs them? Maria can take over hydroponics, you command...Caleb, Caleb is an excellent crewman, and I’ve got my Lizzard crawling through access spaces sweeping as she does along. She hardly eats anything, easy to maintain, and Kyle in Medical...and we’ve got an Eminent!"

Michael had known Sean was going to be tough. "Sean, we need our crew. And even if you can live without them, I can’t. I want my brother back."

"Don’t make me do it, Michael. Don’t. I need that power node. My crystals are fracturing. Dammit, man! I can hear them from here!" Michael stood firm. "Fucking mother puss bucket! I protest. I sorely, strongly protest!"

"Sean..."

"Aww, don’t 'Sean' me! Just don’t! By all that’s holy, on the very steps of Valhalla, I swear Michael that was my first UPC-power node. My first! Do you’ve any idea what that means?"

Caleb interrupted Sean tirade. "Commander, we’ve got a response from the planet."

Michael acknowledged. "Sean, just get me the node." Michael took the command chair. "Patch them through."

"This is High Councilor Kal’rah, how may I assist you?"

Michael looked at the smiling pleasant woman and felt his irritation increasing. "You could send my crew home."

"Captain..."

"Commander."

"Commander, your people are free to return home at any time."

Bullshit.

"Pardon me?"

"Bullshit! I think you can read me fine, Kal’rah." Michael sat back as Maria came forward to stand next to Michael’s command chair. Michael was correct, the woman was reading him and his thoughts to get the upper hand. Michael was purposely thinking of all the hideous and heinous things he wasn’t to do to that planet, to that woman who would bargain for his brother’s life.

The woman seemed taken aback. Attilaan. Brother? The woman broke out in a sweat. "Princess?" she pleaded as she saw Maria and recognized her.

"Kal’rah, you are keeping well?"

"Yes." There was a scurry of information and exchange of ideas off the viewer. Maria and Michael patiently waited.

"We’ll transmit a list of what we require." Kal’rah stood up straighter. "If the Princess would be so kind to deliver the requests."

Michael stood up. "The Princess will do no such thing."

"Commander, we prefer to deal with..."

"Me. The Princess is my mate." Maria looked at Michael sharply, her eyebrow rising, but she remained silent. "The crew is mine. You’ll deal with me or you’ll deal with my weapons."

"That would be unwise. Your people are intermixed among our populations. You could only do them harm." The woman sat down. "I am sure you wouldn’t want that to happen."

"I’m sure that you know nothing of me! Death before surrender. I’d rather kill every member of my crew before I allow them to be used and oppressed in tyranny."

Maria was impressed. The woman faltered. A Cyrenaic never faltered or backed down. Their survival depended on them remaining strong and in power, which meant showing no mercy and staying in control.

A crewman handed Michael a list. It was the Cyrenaic’s demands to the return of the crew.

"This is what you want of us?"

"Yes."

"And how do we negotiate? I can’t possibly meet this list of items. Most are not available on our ship, and others would cripple the Shiva."

"There is no negotiation. We know what is on your ship from your crewmen’s minds. You have the treasure of the Saratoga."

"That is not ours to give. We can’t negotiate with other worlds’ treasures." Michael stood up and walked towards the viewer screen. "Is there no room to compromise, or is this your last word?"

"We don’t negotiate."

"I suspected as much. That would stink of work. Then we have no deal." Michael looked at the Ensign manning the tactical station, his station."

"Leslie, do you have the High Counselor's coordinates?"

"Yes, Commander."

"Then lock the forward tactical array and fire a full dispersal. Fire on my command." Michael looked at the woman again. "Goodbye."

They could hear the rush of noise at the other end. The other people in that room on the planet became utterly agitated, loud and their voices rose in panic.

"Leslie, fire," said Michael as he sat down in the command chair again purposely not watching the woman, but Maria instead who stood at his side.

"Wait!"

Michael motioned for Leslie to belay that order and he calmly turned to look at the woman. Michael refused to talk, and as he sat there in silence Sean returned to the Bridge.

Desperate, the woman tried to appeal to a reasonable authority. "Princess, please."

Maria just shook her head, and turned away. Standing by Michael’s chair, she stood facing him with her back the viewscreen.

The woman sighed when it was apparent that Maria would not intervene. "We’ll entertain a counteroffer if you wish to transmit a list."

"There is no list." Michael said. "Just one thing, and no more. My suggestion is that you take it happily, because it far exceeds your request."

"One thing?" The woman sounded doubtful.

Michael held out his hand for Sean to give him the node. The reluctance of the engineer was apparent when he hesitated. Michael just snapped his fingers, and a thoroughly put-out Sean placed the node in Michael’s hand.

"One." Michael confirmed as he held it up for the view screen. "One uranium-plutonium-curium power node."

The offer sent the Cyrenaic High Council into a flurry of activity. The woman conferred with other members.

"Manufactured?"

"Real." That increased the excitement.

"You have a deal."

"Expect me within the next half hour." Michael looked at Sean. "You take the Conn. If I fail to contact you or fail to return, you know what to do."

"I’ll blow every motherfucking blasted one of them to kingdom come." Sean said as he tossed himself down on the small flight of stairs, dejected.

"Then the deal is made." Michael made a motion to have the transmission cut.

Maria looked at him with her head cocked to one side as her hand moved up his shirt front. "I could fuck you right here in Max’s chair. Hard-ass Michael. I like."

Michael chuckled as he leaned in closer to her, their mouth just touching. "Gets you hot?"

Maria nodded. "But what was with all the ‘she is my mate’ crap? Everyone knows that you're my mate, and not the other way around."

"You think?" Michael smiled and pulled her around the chair to stand between his legs as he kissed her within an inch of her life.

"We’re still here!"

Michael reluctantly pulled away, and looked at Sean. "Shut up, Sean." Michael put Maria away from him. "Once again, Princess, you’d be wrong. Stay here with Surly Boy and I’ll be back soon."

"What if..."

Michael kissed her again, quickly. "Don’t worry. They have nothing I want. That’s why you’re staying onboard. My greatest pleasure would be to get back to you immediately." With that Michael left.

Maria actually blushed at his words. When the hell did he get so gosh-darn romantic? And because her legs were feeling a little weak about the knees she sat down next to Sean and patted his back in comfort.

"My node... Bloody hell. My poor engines needed that." Sean was truly in mourning.

"Don’t worry, I’ll give you another one."

Sean looked at Maria with a return gleam in his eyes. "You’ve got more?"

"Yes. Obviously not here, but yes, I can get more."

"Can I have two?" Sean asked in his sweet lost little boy voice. Maria just laughed. Glut Boy had missed the pleasure planet. Unreal.

"So why didn’t you go down like the others? This planet sounds like your idea of paradise."

"Leave my engines in the middle of repairs?" Sean just snorted. Maria laughed, but she understood. That was Sean’s greatest pride and pleasure.

~~~

Maria was waiting in the landing docks when the first transports returned. Surprisingly it wasn’t Michael who came back first, but Max. A very upset, angry Max. He was carrying Isabel, who appeared to be sleeping.

"Deck Officer!" Max bellowed. Isabel made a distressed sound and burrowed deeper into his neck. "I want everyone accounted for, and once all the crew is back on board no transports are to leave without my consent. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, Cap!"

"Report to the Commander once he returns to the ship."

"Aye, Cap."

Max saw Maria and only said one thing, "Pleasure planet?"

"Sorry. I never expected anyone to read my notes. I told you not to contact them." Max just nodded admitting his mistake. Looking down at Isabel he swore and took off with her to Medical. He could barely walk himself. He felt crippled.

Maria watched them leave for a moment when both Lonnie and Courtney disembarked. When Courtney saw Maria, she faltered.

"Courtney?"

"Princess, I can explain."

"Save it! Is this permitted by your office?"

"No, but I didn’t think..."

"That is obvious." Maria just shook her head. "You’re confined to your quarters until further notice. We’ll begin translation in the next few days."

Maria sighed when the woman did not leave. "You’re dismissed!"

"Actually, Princess, I was wondering about changing my accommodations? The other Immaculate, Lynn..."

"Liz."

"Right. Her. She doesn’t do anything or say anything to me. She just disapproves."

Maria felt her anger slipping. "No. Now go!"

She watched as Courtney and Lonnie scurried off together, frowning at them. As she watched, the fightercraft that Max had taken down to the planet was landing.

It was Michael.

Maria smiled at him as he approached. "You survived."

"I did. I really should make sure that this planet does not."

"Michael..."

"Don’t worry. They remain a trap for another day. But sooner or later this trap will no longer work as they take from every species around them."

"They implant a memory suggestion that erases the circumstance but keeps the sensation of pleasure."

"You’re saying that in a short time everyone will forget they were trapped and will only remember the pleasure? So they’ll want to go back?"

"Yes."

"Fuck that! I should end their games and kill them now. If I don’t, Max will. He’s very angry, very, very pissed."

Maria took his arm and them were leaving the bay when the deck officer stopped to report. Maria waited politely as he finished.

"Max took Isabel to Medical I think."

"Yeah. He was pretty upset. More so than I can ever remember."

"So he and Isabel had sex. I don’t see..."

Michael just rubbed his face hard. She should. "Maria imagine us going at it wildly for eight hours non-stop. No food, no water, no sleep. Just sex."

"Okay. Done." Oh, she could imagine it. Actually too well. They were doing just that earlier before they were interrupted by having to rescue the crew. Granted they took naps, bathed and stopped for food, but still...

"You don’t understand. Attilaans don’t mate outside their own kind for a reason. Sexually we’re very..." Word failed him.

"Primitive?" Maria suggested.

"Yes. Primitive and uninhibited." Michael faced clouded. "You think I’m primitive? A rutting machine?"

Maria giggled at his tone and, after scanning the corridors she pushed him up against a wall and mated with him fast and furious. Her mouth was on his, at his neck, and then back to him again. Her hands everywhere as he mimicked her actions until suddenly he found himself in her, slamming her up against the wall hard, ignoring where they were or who could find them.

They were finished fast, and Michael held her pinned to the wall, his arm resting above her head as he struggled for breath, hers coming in pants as well. Maria wiggled beneath him, and the part of him still embedded in her suddenly became interested again.

"Dammit, Maria! Stop that. Let's get out of this frickin’ corridor and back to our rooms."

Maria smiled, still panting as her heart was slowly calming its rapid beats. "To answer your question? I think you’re perfect just the way you are."

Michael smiled at that and rested his head the nook of her shoulder and neck moaning softly. She was going to kill him. She really was. They both quickly straightened their clothes, and they were off to their quarters with Michael impatiently dragging her with him. Maria had to keep doing quick doublesteps to keep up.

Attilaans were self-serving and very primitive sexually, but Maria couldn’t see that as a bad thing. Their species were warriors for a cause, soldiers trained literally from birth. Women were compounded separate from men until they married in their eighteenth year. It protected them from each other.

They approached mating like they did a military campaign. Something to be fought for - hard and dirty. Winning was everything. It left their species with a touch of violence to everything they did, a lack of gentleness, and it was the trade-off they made to quickly and efficiently repopulate their world. All three Attilaan men were guilty of engaging in sex that bordered on rape with species outside their own. It wasn’t that they didn’t take care as much as they saw sex as one goal with one outcome. On their world women were equally single-minded and vicious, sometimes more so than the men, making the unions tolerable and evenly matched. It was when they involved outworlders that things became dicey.

~~~

Max entered Medical calling for Kyle in a loud voice. He was barely keeping his own feet, and Isabel was wincing as he shouted. His voice was gruff and thick.

"Max? What the hell?" Kyle rushed towards the couple. Emotions were running off them both in waves, making even Kyle pause before approaching.

Max laid Isabel down on a medical bed, and leaned back against another one in disgust.

Kyle looked Isabel over and swore. "Who did this to her?"

"I did." Kyle swore and turned his scanner on Max.

"You’re in almost as bad shape as she is. Lie down."

"Just take care of her!"

"Then get in that bed! You’re dehydrated and even I can read your pain."

Max swore and rolled onto the bed groaning in pain. He felt bad. Real bad. Almost like he’d been run over by a large object called Isabel. For a non-Attilaan she kept up and gave him as good as she got. It was terrifying.

When he was finally released from the Cyrenaics, he rolled over to look at the exhausted form sleeping curled up next to him. There were bruises and bites all over her body. And blood. Two hours previously she had started begging him to stop, but neither of them could. He was truly disgusted. He couldn’t stomach his own body, his own skin. Watching Kyle working on Isabel, Max suddenly was up and in the side washroom vomiting up his guts.

Kyle came up behind him, and quickly injected him with a sedative and something for the nausea. Helping him back to the bed, Kyle gave him a neural block to cut off the pain from his groin.

"I think I pulled something."

"I think you did more than that." Kyle looked at the sleeping Isabel. He gave her the same medicine he gave Max and started her on an IV for fluids. His staff was slowly trickling back in and with them survivors of Cyrenaica.

"I feel like my dick is going to fall off, and you know what? I fucking don’t care!"

"Max, this isn’t your fault."

"The hell it’s not! Maria told me not to contact them, and I did. I made the choice." Max could feel the drugs taking effect as Kyle inserted an IV into him as well. "I raped her, Alex. Not once, but for hours. I thought that part of my life was over. I hoped it was."

"It’s okay. She not any worse for wear, and she was equally consenting, which means not rape, Max. It was just intense sex that went on too long. Just rest. It’s going to be okay."

Max’s voice thickened as the need to sleep became too great. "She was a virgin. It was her first time. I hate myself."

Kyle looked at the sleeping couple. He quickly treated them both for internal tears and pulled groin muscles. Isabel had some interesting bruising on her inner thighs, and Max had nail marks marring his entire back including some deep bites. Repairing the damage quickly, he left the real damage unrepaired. It would take time for them to fix things mentally. They were both victims of mind rape.

"Damn."

~~~

It was three days before Michael finally gave up. Maria had the whinny Courtney in their rooms translating the final manuscript. Michael went to find Max. Their old room was dark and silent and Michael entered without permission.

"Get out."

"Make me." Michael found Max sitting in the dark drinking himself sick again. "I thought I would report. Let you know that the world is going on and repairs are coming along."

"Thanks." Max went back to this drinking.

"You want to talk about it?"

"Nope. I want to be left alone."

Michael shrugged and took the bottle and a drink. "I fully believe in delay tactics and avoidance as much as the next person, but drinking yourself ill isn’t going to change things."

"Michael, fuck off! I just want to be alone."

Michael made a face and took a chair. "You talk to her yet?"

"No." Max said quietly.

"Hmm, well Maria did." Michael ignored Max’s stillness and sudden interest. "You interested in knowing what she told Maria?"

"Just tell me."

Michael took the bottle and another drink. "She said that that planet needed to come with warning labels." Max just snorted. A page from the book of ‘Duh’. "And Maria said Isabel looked good."

"So...your point?"

"She doesn’t seem to be blaming you, so why are you sitting in the dark beating yourself up?" Michael let irritation thicken his voice. "Your damn Captain’s chair is poking me in the ass! You know I hate being in charge. It makes me all insane and power-crazy. Just this morning I ordered someone to kill the coffee maker. Placed the morning crew on report for not standing at attention when I entered the Bridge. Cited the plants in the Hydroponics Bay for growing too slowly, and pissed Maria off by ordering her around all morning. Having her draw my bath and rub my feet is the least she could do! I lack patience when I'm in power."

"Damn right you do!" Max sighed. "Okay, I’ll move my ass. It’s just that..."

"Just what?"

"The things I did to her. It was too much. I let her do things to me as well, and even when a part of me was screaming to stop, I couldn’t. She kept begging me to stop, but then she pulled me closer, and her begging...it made me want her more."

"Okay, so it’s official. You’re a sick pup." Yeah like that wasn’t obvious a long time ago.

"I...I just never thought this would...that what we are, what I am...would touch Isabel."

"Don’t you mean Lady Isabel?"

"Shut up!" Max stood up wavering on his feet. He was slightly drunk. "Get the hell out of my rooms. I need a shower and to get back to work. And next time ring for admittance to my room."

"Sure I will." Michael smirked and headed for the door. "And man, do something with your teeth. Smells like something died in there." Max just waved a choice finger at his brother, as he headed for a shower and the return to his life.

Max exited the shower wearing only a towel and rubbing his hair dry when the request for admittance rang. Michael. Dammit. Max walked and opened the door standing shocked in the doorway. Isabel.

"Well were you going to invite me in, or are you still trying to avoid me?" she asked quietly.

"No, of course not, Lady Isabel."

"Can the Lady Isabel crap. Call me Isabel, Izzy, Iz or even ‘bitch’. You've used them all before." She walked past him as he rolled his eyes and rubbed his face.

"What did you want?"

"For you to talk to me."

Max just looked at her. He was being unfair. She was entering into a situation he couldn’t explain, and he was being a coward about it and somehow that made it even worse.

"I can’t."

Isabel literally stomped her foot. "Fine. But you will talk to me sooner or later!"

"Isabel..."

She just walked around him and headed for the exit. He was a thick-headed prick. "And I know you will. Want to know why? Well too bad, I’ll tell you anyway. We fucked. We fucked a lot, and one thing I think you know is that I’m a virgin. Or was." Max had taken care of that little issue very effectively.

Max actually looked guilty suddenly, and he stared down at the floor. His refusal to look her in the eyes infuriated her.

"Fine. Whatever! But put this in your stupid gullet and chew on it. I was a virgin, and unless you're sterile, we may find we have a lot more to talk about soon!"

Isabel raced to the door. But Max was suddenly in front of her grasping her arms tight. He searched her face, and then looked down her body and then her face again. Pregnant? He closed his eyes. They had been so out of control that he didn’t even think to use protection.

"Oh damn," Max said rubbing his scar. Isabel reached over ignoring his flinch and removed his hand.

"Don’t try to distract me. I know that scar is nothing but a blind to misdirect and deceive."

"What are you talking about?"

"It keep people from noticing the real scars inside. The ones you hide."

Max shook his head. "I can’t talk about this with you. Not this."

"Then what? I think I’m very involved now. For eight hours I had your body slamming into me at breakneck speed, and you know what? I don’t care if you regret it. I don’t care if you think I should! I just know that all I think about is you. The taste of your skin, your blood, and your semen. I think about the sound of you and the smell, and after an endless session with you tell me why I want more?"

"This isn’t about you, Isabel. It’s about me."

Isabel hit him across the face, hard. The open handed slap left a red mark across his face and scar.

"That’s once." Isabel said shaking with anger. How could he keep doing this to her? Keep just discounting her involvement. "I’m very much involved. Don’t discount me."

Max just rubbed his face. His eyes were violent and angry. Suddenly he looked away.

Isabel just shook her head. How could she have already lost him? "This isn’t about sex, or us, or even the planet. This is about Serena." Isabel laughed bitterly. "Of course it is. Why should I think it would ever change?"

"Isabel." Max warned.

"No. You’re right. You stay here with your booze, your dark room, your lonely life and your fucking ghost. I have nothing left to give you that you haven't already taken. I can’t compete with her."

Max stopped her before she could leave. Look down into her stormy eyes, he couldn’t stop himself. He kissed her. Isabel’s arms went around his neck, and they were off and running again. So fast and furious that Max lost his towel, and it took moments for Isabel to become aware that she was on her back on the bed, the lack of clothing. It took him surging into her for any real sense to hit her. And she bit his shoulder as her arms pulled him into her even closer.

Max held her later, moving his hands through her hair. He had kicked the covers from his bed, so he could look at her, take inventory of her body for any scars left by him from the time before. His hand stroked down her skin and settled on her stomach low. They had done it again. Unprotected sex.

"Max?"

"Hmm?"

"Do you think we’ll ever do anything normally? I mean like go out together?"

Max looked at her, and suddenly his eyes were brilliant with mirth. "Like date?"

Isabel laughed at his tone of horror and slapped him lightly on the chest. "From your tone I take it Attilaans don’t date?"

"Hardly! We’re settled with a mate at age eight, married by eighteen, or seventeen in my case, and we generally spend the rest of our lives trying to avoid having to really talk to our spouses outside of sex. And that usually entails telling them to do it hard, or not like that, etc. Purely instructional. We’re a very instructionally driven society. Ever notice Michael following Maria around the ship instructing her on what she can and cannot touch? Most of the time Attilaans try to convince their mates to wear a mask so they can fantasize about someone else."

Isabel laughed harder. "You’re making that up!"

"Unfortunately..." Max just made a gesture and shrugged. He played with her hand and took a deep breath. "If I tell you something, will you promise not to hit me again?"

Isabel nodded. "Okay."

"It really wasn’t about you." Max stopped and looked at her. His eyes were dark and turbulent.

"Then what?"

"Serena. My wife. My wife." Max paused, but things had been left unsaid for too long.

"You loved her."

Max laughed at the simple matter of fact tone. "Yes. Desperately. And that was the problem."

"I don’t understand."

"No, no you wouldn’t. The only person who could would be Michael. See, until a few months ago I missed Serena. She was this ache inside me. It wasn’t just the sex or companionship, but something else. Something I couldn’t even begin to understand. Michael would ask me why I wasn’t over her, and I couldn’t say. I didn’t know. It was a mystery to me. We thought it was the bond, but Sean was feeling no effects from his broken bond. Then this happened."

"What?" Isabel sat up a little, confused.

"Maria. Maria happened. Michael, my twin was flooded with these feelings - things he had no understanding of, no language. Kyle called it love."

"Your people must have a name for it."

"No. No concept whatsoever. But I knew. I felt it through our twin’s bond. I felt his feelings - the richness, the deepness and how it overwhelmed him. A lifetime of his pissy manners and nonchalant attitude was totally bowled over by a simple little girl."

"She's little only in size, but yes, she is small, and he’s so large! And yet...they fit."

"As if they were born to it. Yes. But it taught me something."

"What?"

"It gave me words for the first time in my life. I finally had a word that described why Serena still haunted me. I loved her. I loved her and I didn’t even know it." Max’s eyes became slight watery. "She died, and I never told her. And the thing was, it wouldn’t have mattered because she wouldn’t have understood anyway."

"Maybe she loved you too?"

Max laughed bitterly. "No. I have no illusions about that. I can feel Maria in the bond. Her connections to Michael are so strong that they bleed over into me. I can feel what she feels for him. It’s this touch of awe, almost like witnessing creation. When she looks up and sees him, she is exposed and I get this rush of warmth from her. It's alive, inviting and feels like everything. I felt Serena in our bond, and believe me, she didn’t feel anything near that for me. I had my uses, and that was about it. We had sex, but her twin, Sean was the person she socialized with."

"You don’t know. Maybe..."

"Isabel. No. The moment before she died, she knew it. What was left of her functioning brain knew that she was already dead. She looked at me and smiled and then set off the explosive devise. She knew it would bring down the mountain, kill not only the enemy, but me as well. She didn’t care. If she was to die, she wanted me dead as well, and not free of her."

Isabel was silent. There were no words. He was living with the knowledge that his own wife whom he had loved had no real regard for him, but thought of him only as her property.

"The irony of it is that Serena would’ve considered my love of her a weakness, something to ridicule and despise. And it was this love that has kept me bound to her after all these years."

"I’m sorry. I’m so sorry." Isabel knew there was something else though, something more than Serena's death and his never telling her he loved her.

"It was worse. She bleeds over into this thing between you and me. Especially down on the planet. The intense sexual violence. That is a legacy. It is natural to my people, but my brand of it is all Serena."

Isabel was still sore in places from three days previous, and what had just occurred between them didn’t make her any less sore. But it was tolerable, considering it came with other things.

"I don’t understand."

"Serena searched me out when I was fifteen. It was forbidden to engage in sex before eighteen and the joining ceremony, but she searched for me anyway. That day, the very first day, I took her virginity and it was violently done. A fight between us. Serena found me, mocked me, did everything in her power to push me to the edge until I knocked her around a little, tossed her on the ground and raped her." Max shook his head. "That was our first time together."

Isabel was understanding a little more about his reluctance. "What we did wasn’t rape, Max. It started out very consenting, and just went out of control. But I didn’t want you to stop, and even when we were so exhausted and I begged you, my body still wanted more. I didn’t beat on you or try to get you off. It was many things, but it wasn’t rape."

"Maybe not, but it was close. I know. I’m very experienced with rape. Serena loved it. She wanted it that way. She didn’t beg either. She demanded more. It got to the point that the more violent the sex, the better. By the end of our marriage she couldn’t tolerate sex any way except anally and orally, and even then she took it a step further."

"How?" Isabel was afraid to ask, or more specifically, afraid to know.

"She became an asphyxiator. She liked me to choke her to death during sex to help her climax."

Max didn’t mention all the times he wished he had gone too far, and actually killed her. He would’ve gone to prison, but in a way he was already living there. He could still close his eyes at night and see himself pounding into her ass with no preparation, blood rushing from a tear, and her screaming for him to do it harder, faster, as his hands found her neck and squeezed until her instructions stopped and all was left was her choking to death. He hated that the image in his mind left him aroused, and he hated the sickness she left in him.

"Oh God! Did Michael know?"

Max nodded. "I think so, or I suspect he did. He hated Serena with a passion."

"So down on the planet...?"

"I felt that same rush of violence and need again. The violence is part of my nature, but I can’t say how much is a legacy from Serena. She didn’t 'do' gentle."

Isabel noticed the way he stroked her skin, her hair, and the way he was holding her. "You do."

"Perhaps. Serena wasn’t into cuddling. She came to my bed for one thing and left soon after. We had our moments and even an understanding of grudging respect and mutual lust, but that was about it. Women on my world, they have no nurturing genes. That trait has been selected against for centuries. My own mother never touched me except to breastfeed, and once I could eat food, that was it. Michael is the only person who had touched me in kindness and he tends to hit not hug, Over the years Sean and Kyle, and even Alex..."

"That’s why they’re your family."

"Yes." Max needed to explain, to make her understand that Serena wasn’t a monster. "Serena was angry almost since she was a child. She couldn’t carry children or ever conceive. She learned long before her family did and kept it a secret. She had gone to a local place to get contraceptives so she could engage me in sex long before we were allowed, and there she found out the truth. I think it was the anger and rage, the pure hatred of her own defective body that made her find me and taunt me into raping her. Somehow the violence and pain made her feel better." Max understood his wife, and he loved her despite it because there was always something so lost and vulnerable about her, somewhat like Michael who was unbonded and hurting because of it. "On our planet a sterile woman is less than the dirt she came from. She was put down and ridiculed by other women. Serena knew that, and she grew hard and uncaring."

"To protect herself?"

"Yes. After a while she could barely feel anything but the pain and violence. War was like therapy to her. She loved it. Loved killing things. She wasn’t a monster, but she was driven. Somehow it made her feel alive." Or it punished her for being defective. And in the process of living in her own personal hell, she made Max part of the atrocities.

Isabel was silent. Thinking. "Max?"

"Hmm?" He was rubbing his face in her hair again, stopping to take a few of his dark strands of hair and intertwined them in her golden blond tresses.

"Maybe the reason your people don’t feel love or have a word for it isn’t because you don’t feel it or can’t feel it. Maybe it’s because you’ve just never experienced it. I bet that Maria showed Michael a lot of nurturing and tenderness long before they became sexually active."

"She knocked him sideways and back. He didn’t know what hit him."

Isabel was right. Maria did nurture Michael, touched him with kindness, growing love, and then she turned around and tossed his ass on the ground during their training sessions. They spent weeks and weeks touching, kissing, talking, fighting and laughing before they actually joined. Michael never stood a chance. He didn’t understand that his little ploy to get her under him and wiggling during sex was a self trap of his own making...not until it was too late, and he had fallen hard. And he didn’t care. By that time, it was all he wanted.

Isabel laughed. "Well good for her." Isabel didn’t know if it was the right thing to say or even if he wanted it, but she couldn’t let him continue living his life without something. "I think you know that I love you."

"Isabel..." She stopped him with a hand to his mouth.

"No response necessary. I feel you. I don’t know why, but I do. When your hands move across my skin, I can feel it on my fingertips. And I do nurture, and I do love." She took his hand and placed it over her stomach. "So if we've made a child, unlike you, it will know love from the moment it is born, and it will know you."

Max looked at her, and felt something too vast to explain. It was as if his entire body was an open universe too large to span or feel the edges. "Thank you," he said heartfelt. He never thought to be a father.

~~~

Maria entered the large conference room off the Bridge. She paused in the door and listened to Sean arguing with Max and Michael. Both Kyle and Alex were present, but they were strangely quiet.

"I thought you said just a week?"

"I told you a week, Max before the entire crew took a vacation on "Planet Pleasure Me Now". I need at least three more days."

Michael shook his head. "My sensors have been offline for over six days now and we’re using valuable energy sending out constant patrols."

"It can’t be helped."

Max listened and then nodded. "Just do it, Sean. What about the warp core? Will our power crystals hold?"

Sean looked beaten. "They’ll have to, now won’t they? I say that once we are underway, we detour to Maria’s secret stash and acquire my three UPC nodes."

"One," said Maria from the doorway.

"Two," said Sean.

Max gestured Maria to join them. "We’re stuck here for another three days to finish repairs, but we’ll need the coordinates from you to our next destination. Sean said you had another UPC node that we can use to recrystalize our core."

"I do, and it is yours. But, we need to find my next Gem first."

"Aww...! No, Maria. My node first then your Immaculate."

Maria just shook her head. "Sorry, Sean. We can’t wait a moment more. I’ve finished translating the last manuscript. I’ve got the coordinates."

"Where?" Max wanted to know. So far their journey had been spread out to the far reaches of the universe.

"The Aesculapian system, a planet in the system called Deneb."

"Why the hurry?" Alex asked finally breaking his silence. Both he and Kyle were suffering from the energy around Cyrenaica that made it a perfect hiding spot. It was disturbing their thoughts, enhancing them.

"As long as we’re here, Pierce can’t track us. The positronic nexus takes care of that. Khivar doesn’t invade this planet because he tried and all his forces went down and never came back. If he explodes the planet, he’d be looking at a catastrophic event by igniting the positronic waves. Even he couldn’t get far enough away to out run the shockwaves." Maria looked at Alex. "But Pierce tracked Courtney, and he can track the next Gem as well. The longer we delay, the more chance we give him to beat us to her."

The men were silent, but Sean couldn’t back down yet. "I still think we need to tend to the engines first. If we meet up with Khivar, a full fight could fracture the crystal completely."

"I think I already made my wishes known, and I am the client." Maria didn’t wait for a response, but left.

Sean just watched her. It was the first time she had exerted her authority.

"Damn, she really is a Princess."

~~~

"Why are you being such a hard-ass over this?"

"I’m not."

"Yes, you are!" Maria just rolled her eyes and refused to comment any further. Michael took that as a sign of consent and he reached for the herb again.

"I said no!"

"What’s wrong with a little more arrugula? It’s got a nice peppery taste."

"You’re ruining the meal." Maria tasted the pot again and grimaced. Too Late! Sean forgave her for demanding he wait for his UPC node, but he was taking it out on the crew with Michael’s sadistic help. Maria scrambled to save the meal, but it already looked like a hopeless battle.

"No, we’re not! You’re just upset because Sean tossed seafood on your salad."

"No, I’m not! And it wasn’t seafood, Michael. He dumped chopped up swidula lining on my salad. That means, stomach lining of the foulest creature to inhabit..."

"He said it was seafood."

"He lied!"

"Hey, I can hear you. ‘He’ is standing right here." Sean looked at the two and rolled his eyes. They were at it again.

Maria gave up. "Then at least taste this."

She held out a spoon of broth for Michael to try. His and Sean’s method of cooking involved tossing everything into a pot, boiling the shit out of it, literally sometimes, and then trying to repair it by overcompensating with nasty vile tasting greens.

Michael shrugged and tasted the broth as Sean came up with his own spoon and tasted it as well. They both looked at each other and shrugged again. It tasted fine.

Maria looked at them unbelieving. It was vile. Worse. It had to improve to be vile. It tasted like dirty socks in a pot of boiling moose lard, and she suspected she saw Sean toss a few nuts and bolts covered in grease in there as well when he thought she wasn’t looking.

"Oh god! You’ve got no taste buds. That has to explain it!"

"My taste buds work just fine, thank you kindly!" Michael said indignantly. Kyle swore those taste buds would come back better than before.

Sean got in Maria’s face waving his finger at her. "Jealousy! You’re jealous." Maria just huffed at him. "I’ve tasted your cooking, and you’re trying to say ours is bad? That’s just spite and envy talking."

"In your dreams, Grease Boy. You suck!"

When Max entered the cantina with a few others, Kyle, and Alex they stood watching the display. Michael and Sean’s cooking night had become a spectator event since Maria joined their cooking team. She stood there in between the two giant men poking them in the chest with her wooden spoon to emphasize her point.

"Damn," said Kyle. "Do they ever just shut up? It's always so loud."

"They are a bit boisterous." Alex was trying to be nice.

"Isn’t it enough they keep me up at all hours, or wake me in the middle of a nice sleep with their constant noise? Can’t we have a nice quiet dinner hour?"

"They are loud." Max said agreeing with Kyle. After all, he lived next door to them, and between his bond with Michael and all the moans, groans and banging on the walls he couldn’t remember the last full night's sleep he had had.

"I wasn’t talking about Maria, just him." Kyle said gesturing towards Michael. Who’d have thought he was a screamer?

Max just chuckled. It was a male Attilaan thing. They liked to scream in battle, in rage, even in death, and apparently during sex. It seemed that Isabel commented on his vocals as well, but personally, Max couldn’t remember being very loud. Just normally so.

After the battle of dinner was over, Michael and the others were sitting around a table talking and laughing. Sean brought out his latest batch of home brew and distributed to the group.

Maria looked into her cup, skeptical and uncertain. "And you mixed and fermented this yourself?"

"Aye. It’s got a good head and quite the kick."

"I see." Maria looked over and caught Michael’s eyes. He had a twinkle in them filled with mirth and a challenge. Maria just shrugged and took a drink, a big one. Suddenly she slapped the table as she sputtered and coughed against the hot burning liquid seared a path down her throat.

"Smooth, huh?" Sean said with a touch of pride.

"Oh, yeah, sure!" Maria squeaked trying to get her breath back. "If you don’t mind your throat stripped. What the hell did you put in there?" Maria looked in her cup and shuddered. "Tastes like battery acid."

"Only for coloring."

The rest were chuckling and having a good time when Maria reached over and whispered to Michael. "Any more of this and no oral sex for at least a month while my throat mends."

Michael looked at her sharply, and took the cup from her. "Let me get you some tea."

~~~

"Captain, we’re approaching the Aesculapian system."

"Alert the Princess, and bring us in on one quarter impulse."

Max kept working at his station, reading reports as they came in. They had finished all major repairs, but some sub-systems were still needing work.

Nothing crucial.

Maria entered the Bridge, and smiled at Michael before taking a place at the upper banister above Max’s command chair, watching the new star system coming into view.

Alex was manning his station at the science console, when he suddenly made a sound of distress.

"Alex?" Max swiveled in his chair and looked at his friend.

"I cannot lock on Deneb, or the two other planets within the system. I am getting venting gases and...Max," Alex looked over from his monitors, "the space is burning."

Max remembered Alex’s Eminent gibberish back at Cyrenaica.

"Helm, increase speed. Let’s take a look."

Maria was watching the view screen and was the first to respond. Her gasp of dismay drew the others to look. Michael swore under his breath and Max simply stroked his scar as his jaw clenched.

The star field was brilliant in the dark as the three planets burned. The ones around them were showing damage as well. Maria slowly walked down the steps to stop before reaching the command deck, her hand holding the rail tightly to keep herself upright.

"Survivors?" her voice was thick with emotion.

Sam scanned the planets quickly. "None on Deneb. She’s a floating hull. The two surrounding planets are slowly dying. There are still life signs, but their upper atmospheres have lost their integrity, and are venting atmospheric gases."

Max stood up and walked forward to stand behind his helmsman. "The other planets?"

"Still alive, Cap. But not for long. With three planets dead, two jumped their orbital paths. One will collide with another planet within this cycle, and the others have been pushed from there orbital paths. There’s already evidence of planet die-off."

Max looked at the shellshocked Maria. She stood silently looking over the field, and he was surprised to see her openly crying. Her hand holding the banister was deadly white.

"Princess, Deneb is a dead planet. No survivors. Your Immaculate..."

"Is gone. She who cuts the thread." Maria nodded as she stumbled and sat down on the stairs. "This is the future of the universe now that I’ve failed." She sunk her head in her hands and wept.

Michael moved towards her. "Maria." But Max forestalled him with a shake of his head. They had watched worlds burn before, but Maria was reliving the destruction of her own people.

"Call to general quarters, all hands! I want sensors on full alert in case Khivar the Bloody returns to watch his handywork. Instruct recovery teams to man all vessels." Max paced angrily. "We’ve got survivors. Bring them aboard."

Caleb nodded. "Aye, Cap."

Max took his seat again, and hit the console to connect to Engineering. "Sean, you seeing this?"

Sean’s voice was subdued. "Hard to miss."

"Power up the closed sections and empty quarters. We’ve got survivors."

"Already done, Max." Sean disconnected.

"Alert Medical. We’ll need medics for evac, and full triage in all open bays. Deck Officer, open all port and aft bays. We need room for ships from the planets that can still fly."

"Aye, Captain."

"Get on it, boys. The more time we waste, the more lives are lost."

"Max." Max turned to look at the Eminent. Alex was gray looking, pale under his normal coloring. "My calculations suggest that if we take out Deneb completely from the starfield it will help to bring the remaining planets to a more stable orbital path. They will still die, but this will give them more time to evacuate to a new home."

"Okay, make calculations - how much fire power we're talking about, and I’ll need full dispersement numbers and payload."

Max went over to Maria, and crouched down in front of her. Taking her cold hands he forced her to look at him.

"It’s done. There is nothing we can do but survive. I need you to go find Isabel, and the others. I need them to help the teams in the mess, in the general decking to prepare to take on survivors." Maria nodded. "This world has passed, and though Khivar seems to have won the day, he will pay. I promise you, my Princess, on the blood of my ancestors. This will not go unpunished." Max helped her up and pushed her towards the door. "Now go."

Max watched her leave. Too late. They had been too late. Trapped on a pleasure planet while Khivar took away their last hope.

"Michael, lets take out a planet."

"All targeting computers are online, and full spread incinerator devices are packed and loaded. We’ve got guidance lock and are ready to deploy."

"Fire."

Michael followed his brother’s command, and then walked around his console down to the command deck to stand next to his brother.

"Helm, back off to a safe distance. Sound for impact."

"Sounding."

They watched as the weapons hit the planet directly in its burning core. In a brilliance of light in the darkness of space, Deneb exploded, incinerated and then was no more.

"Shiva, the Destroyer of Worlds." Alex said softly. Max looked at him. Prophecy.

"Captain, we’ve got an increase in this system's sun. It just jumped by ten percent in luster."

Max looked at Alex to explain the readings. "The sun is collecting the venting gases to its helicon layer. It is being reborn."

Max frowned. The sun was new. He nodded. "Michael, full scans. Take our shields down, and deploy all recovery craft." Max turned to his helmsman, "Sam, acquire me a long distance marker and target a loading probe to set bounds for our outer perimeter. I don’t want anyone to sneak up on us while our shields are down. Full sweeping array with active location pinging."

"Aye, Cap."

Michael loaded the beacon buoy and locator beacons for firing after Sam calculated the distance area. "Max, that will alert us to incoming vessels, but there nothing for anything already within our sensor nets."

"Understood." Max looked at his brother. "Recommendation?"

"Fighter squadrons to run security detail with the recovery teams. They’ll cover our sixes."

"Done. Order the squadrons to the flight deck. Gold team takes lead."

"Aye." Michael quickly ordered his teams into a defensive position. "Max, maybe I should..."

"Stay where you are. I need you at Tactical." Max turned in his chair. "There’ll be other fights, Michael. I need you here."

Michael nodded and ordered his fighters into a defensive formation. They continued taking on survivors for the next hour. Until the beacon went off.

"Cap, I’ve got active pinging on our marker alpha-3, she's dead to stick and unresponding."

"Michael, push our sensors to full range. I need to know what’s out there."

Michael nodded and remodulated the field ranges. "Fuck me! We’ve got a full strike team in our wake, they're out past our perimeter and bearing down fast!" Michael reached over and alerted all his fighter teams to full battle formation.

"How’d we miss them?"

"They hid in our sensor rebound shadow. We were reading our own ship’s mirror image."

"Caleb, order all recovery craft to redirect to the surrounding planets. I need my shields back up."

"Acknowledged." Caleb quickly passed on the command. "Captain, I’ve got a craft unable to divert. It’s the Trinity. She is reporting her communications down and systems are failing. Requesting immediate landing."

"Commander, order your fighter teams to take point. Full defensive spread. Send one team to escort the recovery vessels to the other planets." Max linked to the port landing bays. "Clear port bay 3-B! We’ve got a damaged ship coming in! Someone have Deck Officer batten down the landing bays, I don’t want anything that can burn."

"Cap, Trinity is a dead stick. She’s coming in hot."

"Damage crews report to port bay 3-B."

"Max, I should take my ship out to..."

Max turned to face Michael once more. "You should man your station, Commander!" Max sighed. "Sorry, M. I know you hate to miss a fight, but I need you on Tactical. We’re going to engage the strike team with the Shiva." Michael just nodded.

"Helm, bring her about. Set course 1-7-0 mark 3." Max looked at his console. "Correction, 1-7-6 mark 174. Open full starboard and port nasails, and ahead three quarters impulse."

"Michael."

Michael responded to his hail from Maria. "Not now, Princess. We’re going to engage the enemy."

"Well then where the hell are you? We’re engaging the enemy down here!"

Michael could hear blaster fire coming over the link, the sound of active fighting and screaming. Max looked at Michael in horror.

"Where is she?"

"Maria, report your position and conditions."

"Port landing bay 3-B! The Trinity came in packing, and lousy with Imperials. Intruder status is fucking a lot!"

Alex stood up and looked at Max. "Pierce. Pierce boarded with them!"

"Son-of-a-bitch. Imperials on my ship!" Max swore and looked at his brother. "Pierce is near your Anterraan, what you going to do about it?"

Michael took his gun, and smiled a not so nice smirk. "Liander, take Tactical. Captain, request permission to leave the Bridge."

"Granted." Michael headed for the door with Alex on his heels. "Michael! Get them the hell off my ship!"

"Understood."

"Caleb, sound red alert and order all non-essential personnel to secured quarters. I want those civilians out of harm's way. We’ve been boarded. I can’t guarantee their safety from friendly fire."

Caleb nodded and began following his orders.

"Bitches came in through one of our recovery vessels. Order the security fighters escorting the other recovery vessels to check for Imperials. Raise the shields and go to battle mode, I want running lights only."

"Captain, Imperials reported on decks 6, 4 and 3, all to port. Correction. Decks 5 and sub-deck 4 is reporting firefights."

"Full armory. Alert ordinance officer all personnel to be armed with blasters and set to kill."

"Aye."

"Captain, we’ve engaged the enemy."

"Helm, take us in. Target their frontal tactical arrays. I want those deflector generators down."

~~~

By the time Michael made the upper deck, Imperials had already spread through the forward port areas, and were using cross hatching access tubes to spread to other decks. He worked his way through them cutting a swath with Alex on his shoulder.

"Maria, where are you?" Michael swore when she didn’t respond.

"You can pinpoint her, Michael, just concentrate." Michael nodded and led the way to the fourth deck area and across into the subdeck. She was heading for the field generator controls.

"They’re falling back to field generator control. The Imperials are breaking the line, and Liz took a plasma hit to her leg."

"How do you know?" asked Alex as he took out a few more Imperials.

"She told me. And her orders are to get my lazy ass down there."

Alex laughed as Michael continued on and Alex commented, "Did it ever occur to you that our lives were a lot more peaceful before she came into them?."

Michael covered Alex, and they took the next access tube across, dropping in behind the generator control room.

"Yeah. I was bored off my ass, too." Michael took out a tool and quickly removed a panel. Going through first, they came out in the control room on the side behind Maria and a group of security officers and repair crew. They were holding the Imperials out of the room.

"Honey, I should’ve known that if there was a fight you’d be in the middle of it."

"Shut up. This isn’t my fault." Maria looked at him and smiled. Yeah, back in the trenches.

"Maria, Pierce is on board. I can feel him." Alex was furious, his insides trembling and unsteady with some building energy fueled by hate.

"Then he can feel you too."

"He is on the other side of that door."

Maria nodded. "I can open a distortion field on the other side to the secondary hull and suck him and his Imperial thug into space."

Michael made a clicking noise in his throat. "Righteous. Do it."

"Wait!" Alex stopped them from being impulsive. "That will wreck the Shiva’s warp field. She is engaging in battle."

"Oh it can’t ever be easy." Michael said. "Guess we do it the hard way."

~~~

"Cap, attack squadrons have engaged a wave of fighters."

"Acknowledged. Helm bring us in between those two support craft aft of the battlecruiser." Max watched as they moved through, their shields holding. "Bear off, hard to port...Now!"

The Bridge crew watched as they came up between the two small vessels and veered away. The vessels couldn’t avoid a collision with each other. They hit hard and then continued on to hit the larger cruiser, the Tiberius.

"Bring us around for a strafing run on that cruiser. Hold her steady and in trim. Let’s take out those deflectors."

"Aye, Cap. Steady as she goes."

"What’s the condition of our fighters?"

Caleb looked over. "They’re giving them a real pasting, Cap. The new shields and weaponry is making it hard for the other ships to get a firing lock. We’ve got some stragglers who took damage."

"Understood. Call in reformation coordinates. We’ll swing by and pick them up on the next run. All fighters still combat ready follow us in. We’re taking out this cruiser."

They ran hard and fast long the strike cruiser, Tiberius, avoiding her ordinates and secondary gunnery as heavy artillery and laser blasting weakened her shield. Shiva hit her hard. And once the deflectors were down, the smaller ships came in to clean up as Shiva turned into the battle and started taking out the smaller support vessels of the strike force in a hellstorm of a firefight.

"Cap, the cruiser’s radiation emissions just spiked. She’s in a full breach."

"Order all deployed craft to leave the containment area to safe distance, pull us back." Max checked his console. "Engineering, I’m reading spikes from the reactor core."

"Affirmative, Cap. I’m losing containment! You need to get us out of this! I need to do an emergency shutdown. The crystals are fracturing under the stress."

"Just hold them together, Sean."

Sean swore, and Max could hear fighting. "Easier said than done. I’ve got Imperials targeting my coolant modules, half my staff is holding them off, and the other half trying to keep up on the damage. Dammit, Max. They took out my Immaculate!"

"Understood. I’ll redirect more support to your position." Max looked at Caleb. "Report on Michael’s teams?"

"They swabbed the deck on six, five, and three, but four is still a mess. Commander is in deadlock holding the field generator and his remaining teams are moving fast towards Engineering."

"Order them to do double time. Is it just that for the remaining pockets of action?"

"Aye, Cap. But casualty reports are coming in. A few of the non-essential personnel took hits on the upper decks before containment, them and a few of the survivors."

"Get them to Medical."

"Acknowledged, Cap."

"Contact the Commander. Tell him he’s pissing me off! I gave him a direct order and I expect it to be followed to the letter."

"Transmitting now, Cap." Max could hear his brother’s heartfelt cursing response, and he smiled.

~~~

"Dammit, Maria. I told you to stay down!" Michael pushed her behind the barrier next to him.

"How many more?" Maria looked to her right at the wounded Liz. She was losing blood from the wound in her leg despite the pressure bandage Maria had put over it. "We need to get Liz to Medical."

"Working on it, Princess. Alex, I’ve got seven and your Pierce."

"That’s my count." Michael took out two more. "Make that five."

Michael’s laser rifle lost its charge, and his firearm was dead. Maria pulled the weapon strapped low to his leg, and passed it up to him.

"Thanks, honey." Michael gave her another shove to further put her safely behind the barrier. "Stay there."

"Michael."

"Just for once would you do as I ask?" Michael looked down quickly, and Maria nodded her head in consent.

"Three and Pierce, Michael."

"I see that." Michael watched as Maria took off her top and wadded it up to add to the blood soaked compress on Liz’s leg. She had on a midriff silk camisole that left little to the imagination. Damn. He swallowed quickly as his tongue suddenly was dry in his mouth.

"Michael, I could circle around and..."

"You could stay there and be quiet." Michael squatted next to her, as he took out another Imperial. "You realize that with your Immaculate gone this great Destiny of yours is no more? That means I get to keep you, and I’m damned if I’m losing you in a fight with the Imperials. I’m sick of being noble!" Michael continued shooting to emphasize his point. "I...don’t...do noble!"

Alex took out the second Imperial leaving only one and Pierce.

Surrender.

Suddenly the firing stopped, and Pierce and his remaining guard came into view with their hands held high. Michael stood up and calmly killed the Imperial, but simply kept his weapon trained on Pierce.

Pierce’s eyes were black and deep, and he concentrated on Alex, his Eminent brethren. That was until Maria stood up and faced him.

"The Anterraan." Maria ignored him and handed Liz over to other crew members who quickly escorted her to Medical.

"She is."

Pierce laughed bitterly. "Leave it to you, Alex to find the last remaining Anterraan."

"You would be wrong. Leena found her, and it was her dying wish I find her and help her on her quest."

"That bitch!"

Alex moved his hand in a broad sweeping motion, moving the fabric of the matrix around Pierce and sending him hard across the room, up against a bulkhead. Alex held him there pinned like the cockroach he was, as the man sputtered and struggled to breathe.

"You will not disrespect my wife and the mother of my child!" Alex released him and watched as Pierce slid to the ground in a heap. Not so Eminent any more.

"So..." he gasped, his hand around his neck rubbing. "...there is a child."

"Yes, safe and as yet unborn." Alex went to squat next to Pierce. "Something more evolved and stronger than you will ever be. Something you will never see."

Maria stood watching as Alex reached down and placed his hands around Pierce’s face. He leaned in and with a closed mouth he kissed the man. Maria walked forward, but then had to step back as the source of Alex’s power became overwhelming. Alex absorbed Pierce’s power - his essence - much like Kathleen had transferred hers.

Pushing Pierce away Alex stood over him, magnificent and frightening. Without further regard, he turned and walked away as Pierce’s body ignited into flames. Alex never looked back. Maria and Michael watched the horror as the body withered in pain under the flames and the shrieks rose. Maria buried her face in Michael’s chest, as all the spectators in the room watched the only other remaining Eminent burned to death. When the screams stopped Michael led Maria away. He still had more Imperials on the ship.

"Someone piss on that to put it out. Take the remains and toss it off this ship."

~~~

When Michael and Maria made the Bridge, Max was standing and watching the remaining ships in Khivar’s strikeforce burned. Khivar had the Granilith, but his individual ships were no match for the Shiva with her new weaponry and shields. She was truly a Destroyer, and Khivar’s nemesis.

"Pierce?"

"Alex took care of him. There will be no repercussions of tearing in the space time continuum. We now have the most powerful Eminent alive sharing power with a fetus."

Max nodded, standing on his Bridge with his hands clasped behind his back watching the destruction of a star system and the retribution paid for the destruction on the offenders.

"My ship clean of Imperial scum?"

"All Imperials have been contained. We took a few prisoners for questioning. I want to know what Khivar wanted to prove by killing these worlds. He has an agenda."

"He does." Max sighed and turned looking at them. "What's next, Princess?"

Maria gazed at the battlefield and the destruction. She shook her head. Where to start?

"These worlds are dead. All of them. Even the planets that were untouched. The natural balance has been ruined. They need new worlds. All of them, not just the survivors."

"What are you suggesting?"

Maria walked to the viewer and watched the space burn around the hull of destroyed ships.

"We save them."

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