by Kelly Brewer
“You should be free to love Kyle your way. You should not have to manipulate your relationship if you love each other. I will speak to your mother and try to mend fence between you, if you promise one thing.”
“Anything for you, Gran.”
“You better be bringing me some Earth-born grandchildren!”
“Oh, Gran, I will, I promise!” Mercy squeezed her precious granny’s hand and kissed her wrinkled forehead. She loved her Gran.
Mercy felt much better. Granny Kep had revived her faith in people. After she tried to help sew and got shooed away, she felt a good workout would clear her mind, improve her mood.
“You go,” Gran said, never looking up.
“The wedding is tomorrow.” She smiled to herself.
A good sweat would put some color in her cheeks, she thought, as she went to change.
Jack-ie was in her room. Her friends were gone. She flipped it on and gave it instructions to clean the cabin and then check with Granny Kep to see if she needed any help. She was glad Kyle had brought the little machine.
Changed, she grabbed a copy of Jump Girl magazine and jogged the narrow hallways of the tool freighter to the corporate gym. Her bodyguard, who was stationed outside her suite, followed at a discreet distance, radioing ahead.
After stretching, she mounted a treadmill machine and began pumping. Exhaling a deep sigh, she was already glad she came. It was her day after all.
She was under just a little pressure.
All the worlds were primed, awaiting her arrival.
She ignored the sadness she felt about her mom and focused on her tempo and breathing.
Earth gravity would be difficult to deal with if she did not work out extra hard before arriving there. Plus she wanted to blow Kyle’s mind on their honeymoon.
It was time to focus on the future.
The past would take care of itself.
CHAPTER 85
Kyle is Neptune
wedding, T-minus 3 hours
His eyes flicked open. They were already in Neptune orbit. Time was flying by. Whiskey, his black cat, was on his chest staring at him. Time to wake up and feed me.
Kitty’s long whiskers barely touched Kyle’s face and tickled. Then itched. He caressed the cat’s head, neck, and back. When he rose out of bed, the cat jumped down and darted to its feed bowl in the kitchen, even though he wouldn’t be there for at least fifteen minutes.
Humans before animals, silly puss. He forgave her. She was eager. He would take care of his business first.
The lights came up slowly when he entered the bathroom. Shit, shower, shave, shampoo. Not necessarily in that order. Fifteen minutes later he walked out of the bathroom naked, shaking his long hair into place with one hand and looking at his to-do list taped to the small mirror. There were three items.
Marry my love. Nail Neptune. Go home.
A butterfly fluttered in his belly. It always did before getting married, he figured.
He slathered his body in SPF 60 moisturizing anti-radiation sunscreen. Then, using the remainder of a tube of lip balm, laid down a thick lip layer, top and bottom, lick-smacking lips sharing balm evenly between them.
Getting ready for the wedding in the cold, desiccated void reminded him of the dryness he’d been born into. Space was dryer than West Texas dunes.
Texas, his home town…
A few years back, Hurricane Zulu, the first “Z” named storm ever recorded, churned up the Sabine River, the state line between Texas and its partner in crime, Louisiana. Another unusually active hurricane season had led to record flooding and death. Seemed the “gods” enjoyed consistently opening up a case of whoop-ass on those folks on the Gulf Coast. And the residents there must like it because they stayed disaster after disaster. The storms were coming more and more frequently.
Volunteering for a fund-raising concert that year in East Texas, he was stupefied by the summer humidity. How different that side of the state was. Wet and wild!
Whiskey meowed loudly. He filled the water side of the feed bowl and realized water was his future. He stroked that good kitty’s arched back.
Drill. Drill wells in each corner of the secluded ranch. Dig a lake at the bottom of the ravine on the east side of the property and let the water flow from all four corners into it. He would create a well-watered estate around it. Their kids would hunt and fish their whole lives.
He wanted as many kids as Mercy could stand. She had strong, sturdy hips that would bear him a legacy of love. The thrill of rock stardom paled next to his expectations of a family. He wanted to be a good dad, like the one he missed right now. Mom would have been so proud of him.
He let himself cry a second because he was alone… and some tears come from joy. Whiskey rubbed against his calves. Picking her up, he put his nose in the fur on top of her head.
“Are you the good kitty?” She meowed in the positive.
“Yes? You are the good kitty.” He set her down and filled the food side of the bowl.
They would have two kitties at their house by the water.
CHAPTER 86
The Wedding
Mercy
Mercy was smiling when she awoke on her wedding day.
Today she would leave her childhood behind.
Today she would become a woman.
Today she would get her man.
Today was a good day to be alive.
After breakfast, production designers met her in wardrobe a floor beneath the stadium. An army was preparing her for her grand entrance.
Granny Kep was finished with the dress alterations, which made it so much more comfortable. Gran loved her, and she tried not to cry as she helped Mercy prepare.
Mercy fought back nerves as professional hairdressers and makeup people swarmed over her. Aporue was supposedly there to help too, but she just sat there, drinking mimosas and talking about the new technology Dad had created to mine deeper into freezing atmospheres.
After several tense hours of preparations, Mercy was ready. She stepped onto the queen’s water chariot, turned, and waved to her sister and grandmother. Granny finally cried then laughed as her baby rode away, away from her past to embrace her future.
KYLE
As he slipped into the “T-rex Tuxedo” as he called it, Tamer buzzed in on comms. “Hey, you up? You ready for this?”
Kyle heard him chuckle. “Yes, on my way. Is Mercy in place?”
“Hottie is in the slot my friend.” He chortled.
“Be there in a minute.” Kyle bristled at the crass reference to his woman.
All buttoned up, he walked to the elevator with his bodyguards. Rapidly descending in the lift to the staging area below restimulated tremulous butterflies in his navel. Moore met him as he stepped out and they strode to their assigned places, conspicuous in their gaudy, dinosaur wedding duds.
The huge starship dubbed “Ultra D,” the latest monument to Docks wealth and preoccupation with sex, stood on the opposite end of the arena from the stage where the band would make history in a few hours. The wedding altar had been set up in front of it. Kyle winced at the sight. Even though this was their wedding, Dock had to be invading it, commercializing it. Kyle had signed up for it, but was growing weary of the nonstop narcissism.
Tamer had had a hand in designing the wedding outfits and the procession. So had Dock and a few executives from the record company. Kyle had battled to get the whole production down to something sleek, not garish.
The tux had turned out awesome! What had started as an outlandish sea-monster outfit had finally been pared down to something kinda cool. Wardrobe helped him put on the aquamarine tux, fitted with a Spinosaurus fin starting in the lumbar region and ending in a curve of spikes above his head. American trans-knit sequins started deep green at the shoulders and an Elvis collar then faded into tall, barnacled, sea-foam
green cowboy boots. A battered, green-golden cowboy hat jutted a craggy gold crown all around the dome. Groomsmen Mac and Ox, and Moore, the best man, were outfitted in similar tuxes and hats, but without the spine.
He and Mercy’s original thoughts had been along the lines of a Greek fairy tale. The Neptune show was the last date before they got to go home, so before he rode off into the sunset with the girl, Kyle/Neptune, God of Oceans, would surface upon the seas, commanding a powerful, deepening beast. Mercy would flow down to him and he would joyfully marry the virgin sea-nymph Salacia, Goddess of Rivers. Then, with his beautiful bride aboard, they would boil away the seas into the sunset tide, to his hidden coral mansion under the sea. And live happily ever after. Something like that. He smiled at the corny dream!
The coolest part was the Kraken-mobile! He had pushed for this one. The production team had produced a monster car, complete with eight gyrating arms flowing out the back of the vehicle. Modified pipes would bring them in with a low, guttural rumble that shook the entire station. Way cooler than their first idea, which had been a team of four saddled, tittering robo.dolphins that had looked like a kiddie ride at an amusement pod. The guys would have never let him live that one down!
Five men stepped into the seatless Kraken Kar. Angel revved up the twin V-16 engine, filling the arena with a deep rumble. It tickled in everyone’s chest and an excited cheer rose up from the small audience waiting in front of the altar. Angel eased it forward and the countdown began.
Worlds were watching the wedding spectacle, yet Kyle felt alone. He wanted to hold Mercy’s hand and kiss her. Touching her soothed him, calmed him deep in his body. When his body rested, his soul rested.
She was good for his soul.
He would bind her to him today.
When the Kraken stopped at the foot of the coral altar, the two bridesmaids took their places on the podium steps. Angel revved the engine three times. A flash and a blast of smoke from the opposite side of the stadium, and Mercy burst in riding a wave-chariot, a moving sidewalk designed to look like a sparkling, flowing river. They had spared no expense on it, and it looked like she walked upon foaming water from every camera angle.
Her dress shimmered like flowing water as well. Synchronized sewn-in rope lighting simulated water rippling over her, around her, through her. She too had a spine down the back, but finer, more petite. It shimmered shades of pale blue and turquoise, lighter than Kyle’s darker green. Her emerald-encrusted seaweed tiara glittered from the aerial light show that followed her across the stadium floor. She was a raven-haired Aqua-Angel flowing spectacularly across the sea, summoned by the God Neptune.
Angel revved once more then killed the rumbling car and a liquid version of “Here Comes the Bride” began. It was played low and slow, with a few eerie blues notes to make it sound less demanding, more enchanting.
Kyle forgot where he was, who he was.
The princess waved to cameras and the small crowd, but kept her eyes on him. The men dressed as seahorses on either side of her hydro-chariot guided it to a stop at the bottom of the altar. Kyle stepped down from the car, his dyno-friends following him single file.
Franco was there to give her away, dressed in a traditional black tux. He was not about to wear the silly dino-tux thing Tamer had begged him to. He offered her his hand and she stepped down gingerly, as if she were a figurine. Moore handed him the ring before they three climbed the five steps to where the preacher stood.
“Who gives this woman in holy matrimony?” His mic was a little hot and he boomed across the stadium, exciting the hundred or so onlookers, families, and a few close friends. Dock’s Skin-gineers were present, a party of ten. Mrs. Sylvia had slipped in with them, incognito. They all shouted and cheered the couple.
Stepping away, Franco said, “I do.”
Kyle was closely watching Franco’s face as he said it. The older man looked at him with a raised eyebrow, as if to say, “Take care of my baby.” Kyle nodded back.
Mercy had been waiting to touch Kyle for days. When her dad released her, she finally reached out to hold his hand. He felt warm and calm. She was shivering with anticipation. They mounted the final two steps and the preacher began.
Kyle couldn’t hear anything except a ringing in his ears. He was looking at every facet of her beautiful face and hair.
Lost in her glittering eyes for he did not know how long, he felt Moore tug at him from behind. “I do, dude, I do!”
“Yes, I do,” he blurted out. He wanted to kiss her then so badly.
The ringing continued through the remainder of the preacher’s speech.
At last, he saw her lips say, “I do.”
He lifted the veil and kissed her, sweet and strong.
Ox shouted at him from behind, “Dude, you’re embarrassing me. Let the girl breathe!”
They emerged from the kiss and took a deep breath. The huge facility’s processed air felt new. Everything looked different. He had the same transcendent feeling he’d had at the previous show.
It was real now.
Now it was real.
She looked at him expectantly and they turned, waving to the crowd. The flashing, swirling lights from the video droids made it hard to see the steps with his head in the clouds, but his feet remembered the climb and he was able to get them back down to ground level safely. Mac handed him a golden Trident as the guys and gals stepped into the Kraken Kar. Angel toggled a switch, roaring the beast back to life.
Gina turned on the bubble machine and a million bubbles flowed up and outward from spiraling tentacles. King Neptune picked up the reins, and Angel eased the gyrating, foaming Kraken Kar forward.
Bound together forever, King Kyle and Queen Mercy sailed across the Neptunian waterscape into the sunset, which was a stadium entrance tunnel surrounded with golden lights and tinsel. The simulated sunset beckoned then embraced them in their new future together.
Tamer caught up to them afterwards, when they were posing for wedding photos for a dazzled press corp.
“Kyle, you should become an actor! I’ve already contacted some movie people about parts. The way you looked at Mercy was a million-credit shot! You’re a natural.”
“Hey!” Kyle retorted through a clenched smile. “All this aqua cowboy and water nymph silliness is for the public. OK? The moment itself was for me and my girl. Do you think I can have one damn second that’s not commercialized?”
The manager dialed his tone back, but not his enthusiasm. “No, sir. I’m sorry. You want out of the spotlight? Then walk away. No one’s holding a gun to your head. Your life is public and so are your emotions, your good times and bad. You chose this for you and your family. I didn’t. Walk away. It’s that simple.”
Perturbed, he walked away, back to check a million details for the Neptune show, dubbed Neptune’s Water Wedding Bash. Pictures done, everyone congratulated them again and the crew shooed cameras away, leaving the two to savor their first moments alone as man and wife.
With the help of wardrobe personnel and jackie.bot, they got out of their bulky costumes and went straight for Mercy’s sleek gyro, stocked and ready for launch. There were twelve hours until showtime and they damn sure had better things to do than give post-marital interviews with Macy Bryant: robo-reporter.
Mercy took the gyro out quickly and efficiently, followed by a cadre of security personnel in a separate ship. Kyle located Naiad, Neptune’s nearest moon on radar. Right on schedule, it passed near Station Neptune and they eased in behind it, drafting on autopilot in its wake.
Mercy quickly unstrapped her restraints and went to crown her womanhood.
There would be no more waiting.
Kyle was in the shower, washing away bachelorhood. She dropped her drawers, stepped into the steamy shower with him, and with fire in her eyes said, “I have a million things to tell you.”
Kyle was somewhat at a loss
when she stepped naked into the shower with him. He had so trained his mind to not think about being inside this woman, that for a moment, he wondered if he really wanted to violate something so perfect.
She felt his hesitation and wondered, “Baby, are you ok? What’s wrong now?”
“Yes. I mean no! Everything’s Perfect. I just love you so much it hurts, here, in my chest. I wish we could die right now, just holding each other because I want to remember you like this, perfect and pristine. I never told you, but I’m a virgin too. My folks made me promise shortly before they died. Don’t you dare tell the guys!”
Mercy clasped herself around his wet body, grateful and sad and so in love. “Kyle, we made it. You were right. I’m sorry I almost messed this up. You are the strongest person. I hope it gets passed on to our kids.”
“Kids? Kids? Yes, I have a million kids to fill you with.”
He reached around gently, found the best grip, and lifted her off her feet. Her slick legs went up around his waist as if she’d done it before. Finally opening up was relief and teeth-grinding anticipation forced her to dig her heels into his backside, drawing him against her. “The round hole needs the round peg. It’s science,” she thought.
Her left hand reached around the back of his neck and her right hand to the front of his hips.
“Don’t hold it back any longer, sir, give it to me NOW!”
Aiming his hard length towards her ache, she pulled with her hand and with her strong legs, but he stopped her, AGAIN!
“NO! NOW!” she commanded him, begged him and pleaded all in the same breath. He was not… not again…not ever again…saying no.
“Wait baby. I want to do one thing first. It’s a guy thing. I want to taste you before I… before we… here, hold on.”
