“Not yet. Who knows what the future holds.”
“Indeed. That is a true statement. I do know many of our scientists are trying again. And since you brought up this point, may I inquire something?”
“Go ahead.” He said after brushing the cheek of his daughter who whimpered in her clothed wrappings that looked more like a white cocoon.
“My people know how I was imprisoned and experimented on, to be rescued by you and Renee. Many old friends and acquaintances of mine soon learned of you and how you and she use functioning Valek to full function. I have been requested from many scientists to see if you would be amiable to observation on your use of them. Our people cannot equip these.” Netul again touched the black vambrace. “Humans are a close enough match to your people that two had finances and fortitude to bind them. We haven’t been able to study one in twenty five millennia.”
“Someday maybe. I cannot promise anything more than a maybe. Right now raising my daughter and uncovering what happened to me and my people are more of a priority.”
“Quite understandable. I merely wished you to know my people would like to learn more. It is the curse of being a sentient race.” Netul laughed in his strange way. “I often envy the ignorance of fauna who are ruled by instinct. Life is so simple for them. Eat, sleep, breed. They do not know worry.”
“Speaking of worry, have you held your son yet? You were interrupted before you got close after the traditional fight of birth.”
“I have not. Please inform me when Renee is done with the autopsy. I will make sure it is disposed of properly.”
“Right… can’t afford anyone to be infested.”
“Creelin cannot be infested, My Friend. Our silicone biology cannot alter, but we can be host to parasites. Keptl parasites are abhorrent and grow too quickly to remove, but we are immune to infestation. It is why Keptl do not bother sending Defilers to coat us in blood. They know we are beyond their Queens’ control. Much like Drakes, but it is their superior immune system that keeps them from being corrupted. If you shall excuse me, I will hold my new son before I must leave to overlook the cleansing of my world. The Game Wardens have much work ahead reviving the land.”
To punctuate his words, far away one of the landmasses that was risen on fire was lowered back to the surface scorched completely.
For hours Renee was hard at work quickly dissecting the Queen. As he waited with his daughter Oliver listened to Sparky speak of the battle and how he personally tore into several Dragoons while carrying Renee in his saddle. Together they finished the flying serpents off as if they weren’t two separate creatures at all. Sparky was still anxious to go into battle again as he still found it hard being so Close to a Queen and not shredding it to pieces even though Renee had completely gutted it. Sparky wanted more than anything to go to the surface and fight. His fearlessness made him excited to go. Meanwhile an Archiver brought meat and Oliver with his Pride tore into it till they were sated.
Eventually Renee got all her samples, grumbling she wished she had the head he blew up and see hot its brain worked, but she was content. The call to Netul quickly made sure the carcass was disposed of in moments. Making the city clean and purified again.
Sex afterwards was hard, fast and Oliver didn’t like how she was in battle, but damned if he didn’t enjoy what a little bloodlust did for her libido. She fucked him senseless and received similar treatment. He couldn’t get the image of how her breasts bounced each time he thrust and it made dreams pleasant rather than let worry take root. Adrenaline sex was amazing.
The next three days Oliver enjoyed entertainment of Creelin and how their whole society based itself on honor through deed and battle. His assistance with the Mothership made him a celebrity. Most of all it was pleasant to kick back and enjoy days of relaxation with the Pride, his family and close friends without any pressing concerns. By far the most relaxing place was being able to visit the city’s lovely gardens where many fawned over the Pride from afar. Four times they spotted humans who were friends to others and waved. Netul spent most of his freedom with his female and new son.
Like all good things though, it came to an end.
Sitting in the comfortable seat of the prototype fighter Oliver was in the final stages of uploading the new system software when a shadow disturbed the bright sunshine and had him look up to find Netul cradling his son in his arms. “How’s the little tyke doing?”
“Extremely well. As is expected between our Matches. Many of his brothers and sisters have departed, but many more still remain to aid in repairing our world.”
“I’m just glad it’s over. I just wish that the death count was so high.”
“If not for your aid, millions more would be lost. Take heart in that. Though death in battle is what we all hope for and not to die in an unforeseen accident, death is one day an inevitable outcome. We just enjoy what time we have and swear honor that when such time arrives we pass into the abyss without regret that we brought our enemy along with us.”
“You know, I rather like the way you Creelin think. It’s almost pure.”
“As I said, dying by a slip in the bathing tub is not as heroic as battle. At least you died with true honor in such a way. Sadly, accidents account for more losses to our people than any war.”
“Should I die, I know I’d want my sword at hand and you at my side.”
“As I too would wish the same outcome.”
“Then it’s good the Archivers let me patch my vambrace into your collective Observers so I can keep an eye on you as you do to me. At least we’ll always know when the other is ever in real danger.”
Netul seemingly smiled even without any kind of mouth. “You already deduced how our Observer network works and can recreate many of our technologies. So it wasn’t much of a concession to allow the access even without the battle in which you demonstrated who you are by action. Still, I wish we can enjoy many more weeks of each other’s company.”
“So would Red, but we’ve got our own lives to get back to. Besides, the sooner I can uncover what happened to my people, the sooner I can get rid of this irritating feeling of a job left undone and get past it to get on with my life once and for all.”
“Putting the past behind us is not so easy as you will learn later in life, but I too do not like a task unfinished. An impossible itch to scratch. I do though believe you will soon have all the answers that will quench the desire. I simply came to bid farewell. Renee is expressing the same to Callier. They are good friends.”
“Damn right we are. We shared the birth of our hellions together. Nothing except sleeping together can be more intimate between women.” Renee spoke up as she crossed the bridge behind Sparky and Rose, carrying little Isabelle suckling at the covered breast. “But it doesn’t mean we won’t come back and pick up where we left off. Besides, we can’t always have such exciting vacations. Don’t be a stranger either, Netul.”
Her adorable smile made Oliver’s heart flip flop a few times as she sauntered over. Using her one free arm she threw it around her first Creelin friend and he went stiff for a moment before using a free arm of his own to embrace her warmly. “Farewell, Renee Void. May your endeavor bear much result.”
“Sure hope this scavenger hunt has an end. Zipping around this galaxy is starting to get sooo boring.” She said overdramatically.
“What? Am I not good enough to keep you on your toes?”
Tapping her full bottom lip and looked up into a passing cloud, thinking far too long. “Nope.” Turned and made way for her shuttle.
Netul, Rose and Sparky laughed as her man glared in good fun.
‘Beep. Beep.’ Chimed the dashboard of the fighter’s systems that the download had successfully completed and all functions were fully operational. With it done he powered down everything and lazily jumped out the silvery, lidless cockpit. “Before we head out” Oliver said as the River Skipper’s airlock hatch sealed shut and the pair of Drakes walked into the cargo area. “I wanted to than
k you again for jumping in fresh Booster Oil to top off our FTL reserves. It will come in handy since I found another corner to cut and boost output to shave off another thirteen and a half percent on subspace travel.”
“Think nothing of it. Though my people surpassed the need to harvest the fruit of Inferno Trees, some still use it for recreation or as a way to remember the old ways. It was no problem to offer such a simple fuel.”
“Wait, one last thing.” Netul paused as they shook each other’s hands. “Let Warden Collu know that as soon as the Cubs grow up and I give them collars I’ll stop by.”
“I shall. As you know, she is preparing for that day. She’s enduring pain resistance to increase her threshold to be worthy of taking such a large Pride. Farewell, My Friend.”
“Take care.”
In a flash, Netul and his newborn son disappeared.
The most gentle of nudges with his mind had Nova rising and commanding everyone into the Solar Flare’s remote controlled shuttles. The entire Pride, minus Nova, walked right in the rear openings of a Sun Spot. As master and king walked by the shuttles hatch’s closed up air tight. The two of them made way for the golden fighter and jumped right in.
Closing the clear sapphire canopy, Oliver looked up just as the River Skipper took off and flew over to shoot out tethers and bind the prototype fighter under the sailboat’s belly. The smaller ship’s constant use of manipulated gravity made it much lighter than it truly was and helped take the strain off Renee’s personal interstellar shuttle.
Having a head start meant little as the Solar Flare and following shuttles reached outer space before the River Skipper did. They flew around lingering debris from the battle still being cleaned and left the planet’s pull of gravity to allow onboard navigation to calculate time in FTL and distance to destination. The FTL upgrade also meant the ship systems had to be recalibrated for the increase of output.
Several minutes later and Renee said “See you tomorrow, Olly.”
“Take care.” He waved as her ship opened up a perfectly outlined spiraling rainbow of her shuttle and the fighter underneath before flying right inside and it close right behind her. It was already planned that this trip wouldn’t be placed together on a tether line.
As soon as his ship finished mere seconds later the screen displayed a green and a red dot. He touched green and jumped into subspace with the Liger shuttles linking up right behind. There was no sensation with dampeners active.
Chapter 18
Twenty five hours and eleven minutes later the rainbow vanished into a vast blackness dotted with millions of pinpoints of stellar light. Dropping out of FTL had ship systems scanning star placement to orient itself in the galactic map of Andromeda. His exit showed the River Skipper lay over ten thousand kilometers from his position.
Without needing to speak about being so far they flew towards each other. He spoke first. “How was the trip?”
“Nice and relaxing.” Renee smiled on his screen. “Izzy and I had fun bonding as mother and daughter. And you should know her tiny hands finally learned to grab my hair.”
This made him smile to see her so happy. “I’m glad you got to spend quality time together.”
“Olly, you should also know she finally opened her eyes?”
“Really!” he got excited. “Well? What color are they?”
“See for yourself.” Renee got up, left the viewing range of the dashboard camera and returned with the small bundle. She sat down stroking Isabella’s cheek cooing “Time to wake up my little hellion. Your papa wants to see your pretty eyes.”
Apparently Isabella wasn’t pleased being woken as she whined pitifully, but Renee lifted and turned her so her adorable pudgy face could be seen. Tiny eyelids cracked and right away showed vibrant green eyes sparsely flecked with amber. “She has your eyes mostly, Red.”
“I know.” She was so pleased and to silence their daughter she exposed a nipple and allowed the child to nurse to her desire. “And though you can’t see it, her latest scan showed her pores atop her head are beginning to grow burgundy auburn hair. She won’t have my bright fiery locks, but she’ll definitely be her ma’s little redhead if she eats properly. And I’ve also estimated her full and likely height to be four centimeters below mine. It can change depending on what environment she’ll prefer, but it is a good average.”
“I’m happy you like being a mother.”
“Won’t like it when she hits puberty in six years, but I’m enjoying it right now.”
“We’re about six hours from the planet. Want me to come over?”
“Nah, I’m going to take a nap. After seeing Izzy’s eyes I didn’t get a wink of sleep.” She yawned to prove her point. “See you in six.”
Reaching maximum sublight speed, the three ships cut off their engines and drifted since space could carry them at the same speed forever and not slow without some kind of outside interference. Spending the time wisely Oliver closed his eyes to follow how Nova and the other adults continued instructing the cubs.
Six long hours went by faster than expected and as the sublight engines were thrown in reverse to decelerate they finally got to get a naked visual of the ice planet. In orbit were five varying sized moons rather close to it. The surface of the ice planet oddly had little white in it. Mostly it was a gigantic frozen azure. So far from the system’s home star, it received almost no warmth. Certainly not enough to melt the ice into liquid water. It looked peaceful without any sign of fluffy clouds, but even distance told it was damn cold.
Around were floating shards of ice large as houses from many meteor impacts. Without shields they would have been shredded from ice shards too small and fast for the eye to see before it was too late. Little puffs exploding on shields told the story.
Renee spoke up. “Let’s begin the surface scans and split up to cover more ground. Preliminary pulses show no sign of any activity in this system that might be a threat. No Keptl or ships are a good sign we’re all alone out here.”
“If you say so.” Oliver pressed the ship’s long range scanners while also releasing billions of micro-drones from tiny pores in his armor after making many more than last time on Mereddia. It would speed things up and more accurately give readings.
Many hours were spent cataloguing the planet and its moons. Readings took gravity measurements and was a mere half gee despite the planet being twice Earth’s girth. Also scans searched for life and remarkably there were native species of small, furry animals that thrives on the near endless tundra. Feeding on mineral deposits as well as the ice itself. To keep them in check were moderately large clawed predators.
When eventually the ships converged together Renee swallowed to say “Olly, please tell me my readings are wrong?”
“Noticed it too huh?”
“Like I’m that oblivious?” She rolled her eyes. “I’ve never seen flash-freeze storms before. They are supposed to be theory. How can it be that they are even possible when the central star doesn’t produce enough heat to reach this far out?”
Flash-freeze storms refer to a severe drop in temperature where practically all thermal energy is lost in mere seconds. The average temperature in sunlight on the icy planet is minus one hundred seventy Celsius and on the dark side being minus two twenty. With flash-freeze there is no actual storm. To the naked eye you see nothing. In the storm the temperature plummets from whatever temperature is down to minus four hundred Celsius in under five seconds. Anything caught will instantly be frozen no matter how thickly insulated.
“It’s the moons.” He stated calmly. “The moons generate a tidal effect which pulls and pushes the deep sea and thin atmosphere below the frozen surface. The way the spin around in orbit whirls the little amount of atmosphere to suck and spread at seemingly random times. It’ll take a couple days to calculate how the flash-freeze storms move by the moons’ effects. Hopefully I can figure it out before the Dorgenox arrives in four days.”
“Then while you do that I’ll figure out how
the hell animals still live with these conditions. I’m going to go land on that largest moon and throw up an atmosphere tent. We’ll be safer there than landing on the planet. At least on the moon the only worry is getting hit by meteorites and shards of ice. No atmosphere, no flash-freeze.”
“Good idea. I’ll go complete a full analysis on the five moons and how they work. If I can find a safe method I’ll alter their orbits to make sure it all comes to a stop.”
“Do that.” She said and flew over to the moon to land and manipulated the River Skipper’s shield into a bubble. Airtight, she released the spare air tanks to make a sixty meter wide area. It would be temporary, but would allow them to walk and stretch their legs.
Right on schedule boomed the voice of the king of the pirates. “Lass? We arrived. Are ye there?”
Snapping awake in the arms of her lover Renee got up and sat in the pilot’s seat. “Yes, Papa, I’m here… I’ve got visual on you.”
“So do we, Lass.” The bearded Scotsman smiled. “Any problem’s?”
She knew exactly what he meant. “Not at all, Papa. Olly manually moved all the moons into orbits which have stabilized the weather from any more sudden flash-freeze effects. It took the better part of a day to telekinetically to move the moons around without turning them rogue and flying off, but he got the job done. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still freezing down there, but at least there’ll be no more that is so sudden you’ll turn to ice about as fast as you can blink. My scans have been running at a constant twenty three and a half hours and there hasn’t been any more signs or fluctuations of those storms after they sputtered out.”
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