When he had learned that Anasha had requested and been granted the right to induct him as a Su’Tani Guard, Max had been literally struck speechless. It was an unparalleled honor for an android, as was being presented an official Su’Tani uniform to wear. Everyone knew androids did not wear clothing, and yet by presenting him with the uniform they had essentially said ‘you are not an android’ to him.
Sabine’s gift had taken that concept one step further. The gift of humanoid style eyes was also something not done for androids. Humans in general did not want androids dressing like them, and they most assuredly did not want androids looking too much like them either. What Anasha and Sabine had done was say ‘You are one of us’ louder than any statement or public declaration could have done.
The ceremony had been nice, but for Max the real ceremony had already happened with his friends. His family. And yet just when he thought that they could not surprise him anymore, they had turned around and done just that. Max had recognized Subat’s home, having been there a two time previously with Kristof and Anasha.
To be given the home, and all that it contained, had touched something in Max that he had not been aware of. Even as he walked about the house, looking at the pictures and the books that Subat had kept, Max could not identify what it was inside himself that he had felt earlier. It seemed a paradox to him that happiness could have an element of pain to it, and yet he felt an ‘ache’ in his programming that accompanied the happiness of the gift, and he did not understand the seemingly opposing emotions.
Had he been a human, one might have said the gesture from Anasha had touched his heart. But Max did not have a heart, he knew. He had a fusion power core and countless hydraulic pistons and moving parts, and memory cores and computer processors, but he did not have a heart.
So why did he ache while being happy? It defied his logic processors and even the little he knew of emotion. The house and its contents offered little insight yet, even though Anasha had told him the home would help him learn more about his emotions. He supposed it would all take time, so he took one of Subat’s books from a shelf and sat to read as the night hours slowly passed.
~34~
The final preparations were being made as the sun rose over the horizon. The Phantom sat on the Palace’s landing pad along with her three sister ships; the Ghost, the Specter, and the Spirit. All were stealth ships like the Phantom and would serve as the insertion ships for Kristof, Anasha, Max, and a battalion of Su’Tani troops who would assault the Temple of the Gau’dran’Seti. Anasha watched as the last supplies and troops were ushered aboard the vessels.
Sabine had left them earlier that morning to head up to the Queen’s Honor. No amount of protest would keep her away from this final battle. Their parting had been hard, but all had held in their tears. There would be time enough later for tears of joy, they hoped.
Kristof and Max joined Anasha as the last of the equipment was loaded onto the Phantom and all of the ships began to close their boarding ramps. They moved slowly through the cramped cargo hold that was packed with troops and equipment. Each of the four ships was carrying close to two hundred troops, so the next seventy two hours would be cramped. Even the mess hall had been converted into a makeshift bunk hall in order to fit all of the troops.
Kristof’s cabin remained his own, and Anasha dropped her gear in there with Kristof’s, not wishing to have to hunt for it later. Max went off to find Slag, the Phantom’s combat training android, leaving Anasha and Kristof alone as the ship lifted off. She stretched out on the bed as Kristof sat on the edge. Both were tense, wishing the fight would start already. Waiting for a battle to start was always worse somehow than the fight itself.
“General Mannis and Admiral Raekis returned late last night,” Kristof said out of the blue. “While they still oppose the battle, they did come up with a potentially useful tactic. Since surprise is out of the question with Karina having merged completely with Azrael, they proposed sending communications drones ahead of the attack, telling anyone who does not wish to fight to either flee or stay safely out of the way.”
“I didn’t know that,” Anasha said. “Why didn’t you tell me about this before?”
“You and Sabine were sleeping finally,” Kristof said. “I didn’t see the point in waking either of you when this fight is going to be so stressful. I wanted you both rested. I gave the general the go-ahead to carry out that part of the plan. Who knows, it may even help, and this way it might help bridge the gap between Sabine and those two later on.”
“Very clever,” Anasha said with a smile as she pulled Kristof down beside her. “Too bad we couldn’t spend the next three days on the Honor with Sabine. Its going to get mighty cramped for everyone one this bucket.”
“I know,” Kristof said with a rueful grin. “But stealth ships are no good if the enemy can see them launching from a dreadnaught.”
Anasha’s thoughts soon returned to the coming battle, though, and her thoughts became more sober. She remembered well the Dark Priestess that she had encountered on Clovani Prime, as well as seeing the damage Max had suffered after facing Karina on the bridge of the Queen’s Honor. The Su’Tani had worked hard to strengthen their shielding abilities, and since Cassandra’s depression had been lifted the powers of the Su’Tani seemed stronger than ever.
The Su’Tani on this mission would also carry high energy pulse rifles after learning how Max had been able to get past Karina’s shield to wound her with a high energy pulse. Anasha hoped that between their stronger shields and weapons, they would be able to deal with the Priestesses without too many losses. How she and Kristof would handle Karina was another matter entirely, though.
How exactly did one fight a God? Kristof’s power from the Hammer of the Father would surely protect him and be all the weapon he needed to face Karina/Azrael, but Anasha herself had no such weapon. All she had was the crystal vial Cassandra had given her that contained Cassandra’s tears. Somehow Anasha needed to strike Azrael with those tears to break his connection to the Underworld.
“Hey, you,” Kristof said, caressing Anasha’s cheek and turning her head so he could look into her eyes. “Don’t overthink this. We’re going to be fine. I promise.”
“How can you promise something like that, my love?” Anasha asked quietly. “Too many things are going to be out of our control once we get there.”
“I have to believe,” Kristof said simply and then he kissed her.
“Cheater,” Anasha said with a smile as she caressed his face. He had stolen her gloomy thoughts with a single kiss, and she loved him for it.
Memories came to her of the first time she had met Kristof years ago. She had been on an undercover mission on Wassiga to find a thief who had been stealing Su’Tani artifacts from some of the old Temples on now lifeless worlds. The Su’Tani still guarded the Temples, and had been wroth to discover a few had been pillaged.
Anasha had first seen Kristof in a bar in Wassiga’s capital city that was frequented by any number of unsavory characters. There had been a spark of not quite recognition, but something almost as familiar, the first time their eyes had met. She had brushed it off then, since her target was finally in sight and leaving the bar. Giving chase, Anasha had followed the thief into the dark alleys of the city.
It had been a trap, as it turned out, and would have ended badly for Anasha had Kristof not chosen to follow her from the bar. He had recognized the trap she was walking into, as it turned out, and he had also felt that spark between them and followed her. Not only had he rescued her from that trap, which had involved six of the thief’s associates, but Kristof had also managed to catch her thief for her.
Once the thief had been locked up aboard her ship, Anasha and Kristof had fallen into her bed almost as easily as they did now. That first night together had been extremely passionate, and from that day forward until her death they had been inseparable. Of course her father had not understood at the time, it had taken years for that breakthrough.
/> “Do you remember that first night we met?” Anasha asked Kristof softly, trailing her hand down his chest. “Even from the start you were saving me.”
“We did a lot of things very well right from the start, as I recall,” Kristof said with a smile, and she didn’t have to guess what he was thinking. Being so close together, it was hard not to think of the intimacy they had shared that first night.
The shudder of the ship jumping into hyperspace accompanied Anasha’s shrugging out of her uniform as Kristof kissed her hard. They undressed in a rush, the memories of that first night together rushing through their heads as she bit his chest as she pushed him back onto the bed. She felt him rigid between them as she lay atop him, and together they reached out to pull Sabine into their union, unwilling for her to be without them as they made love.
Sabine’s spirit soared through them as Anasha kissed her way down Kristof’s body to take him into her mouth. She’d always loved the sound he made when she did this, and how he surrendered to her will. Kristof may have been dominant sexually with Sabine, but with her he’d always allowed her to take the control she desired. She liked for him to take control too, but every once in a while she felt the need to just have her way with him, just as Sabine did with her.
It was a curious love affair the three of them shared, but it worked for them and that was all that mattered. Anasha brought Kristof to the brink and then would deny him his release, enjoying the groan of frustration that would take him. There was a desperate need in his eyes as she did it to him a second time and let him calm, before she straddled him and took him inside her. From then on she rode him at a furious pace, their bodies slapping together in the dim light as the ship and their passion raced along at the speed of light.
They felt Sabine’s spirit pass through theirs lovingly again and again, as if her spirit was making love to theirs, and she was in truth. Their spiritual love only made the physical experience more intense, and Anasha cried out as Kristof grabbed her ass hard to pull them together harder, and when Anasha and Kristof felt Sabine’s spirit spiral down into their joined sexes, Anasha and Kristof exploded together in an ecstasy of release as Sabine’s spirit shined in a joyous light.
As Anasha collapsed sweating on top of Kristof, they could both see Sabine’s spirit beside them for the first time, the glowing white luminous body of her soul there with them, and Anasha felt how truly deep their connection had become as she smiled at her tiny wife. Sabine smiled at them both, her expression filled with the deepest love before fading into the darkness.
“I love you both so much,” Kristof whispered from beneath her, and Anasha was surprised to see tears in his eyes until she realized that her eyes were wet as well.
“I love you both too,” Anasha said, and they could feel Sabine’s love with them as well.
They slept then, both physically exhausted yet mentally high on love. The battle to come was forgotten for a time as they just lived within their love for a little while.
~35~
Sabine lay in her bed aboard the Queen’s Honor, sweating and exhausted from the experience she had shared with Kristof and Anasha. Never before had she felt their connection so strongly when making love as she had tonight, and she lay there basking in the afterglow of that love they shared.
It hadn’t surprised her when Kristof and Anasha had pulled her into their lovemaking, she would have been surprised had they not been intimate on the eve of the coming battle. The intensity of their connection has surprised them all, however, and Sabine knew they had actually seen her soul there at the end. Sabine had also been able to explore their connection in ways she’d never been able to before, and to be within their loins at the moment of their release had been a joyous moment.
She had awoken in her bed to find herself naked and with no memory of removing her clothes. Her nipples had been hard and aching even as her hand had stroked her wetness with abandon, her own release coming even as her consciousness returned to her body. Kristof’s and Anasha’s awareness were still with her, and she knew they shared in the moment even as she had been with them in theirs.
Sabine loved her husband and wife and the deep connection they shared, which still seemed to be growing and strengthening all of the time. They would need that deep connection in the coming hours, she sensed, and she was glad they had renewed that bond tonight. Sleep came to her easily as she wrapped her blankets around her and laid a hand on her stomach.
The baby would come with the battle, Sabine knew. She couldn’t say how she knew, but it was true all the same, she felt. She wondered if she would see her baby at all once he was born, or if he would instantly transform into the God he would be and be gone forever.
Kristof’s and Anasha’s spirits were with her suddenly as they felt her silent anguish for what was to come, and they held her gently as she slowly drifted off to sleep. Sabine’s last thoughts as she drifted off were that she would love her son no matter what.
For the next two and a half days their pattern remained much the same. They would make love furiously in the evenings and then bask in a spiritual glow together in a place touched by neither time nor space, deepening their connection further and further. Sabine had been overjoyed when she brought Anasha to orgasm simply through their spiritual connection as he wife lay motionless in the bed next to Kristof. Her spouses had then turned around and done the same thing to her, and a new form of love making for them was born. Their last night before the battle then became so deeply intimate that they had passed out from the sheer love and pleasure of it.
Two hours before the fleet would drop from hyperspace above Clovani II, two aides awoke the Queen and helped her to shower since the baby had now grown to the point where the tiny Queen could hardly walk at times. Sabine would be glad to have her body back, she thought as the water beat on her skin, though she did not care for the tradeoff. The aides helped her to dress as well, and soon she found herself on the bridge watching the flashes of rainbows outside the viewports.
Admiral Arctura greeted her warmly, and Sabine gave her grandfather a hug, no longer caring who watched. Decorum seemed so silly when compared with what was about to come. Her grandfather gave her a speculative look as they parted.
“Are you sure you shouldn’t be down in the med bay?” he asked, eyeing her stomach.
“I will have time to get there when the labor starts,” Sabine said as she took a seat in the command chair. “I want to at least see this started. So much rides on what happens here today.”
“As you wish, my dear,” her grandfather said with a smile. “I will have a hover chair brought up for you when the time comes.”
“How much longer until we arrive?” Sabine asked, not caring to try and crane her head around to see the countdown clock.
“Twenty minutes,” was the response, and Sabine felt a nervous pit growing in her stomach. She had never liked battles anyway, but now so much rested on the outcome of this one that she felt nauseous. Even as she had the thought, however, her water broke and she had her first contraction.
“Oh shit,” Sabine moaned, feeling slightly sick.
Admiral Arctura signaled immediately for a medical team as he went to Sabine’s side and steadied her.
“Easy now, child, it will all be ok,” Geoff said as he held his granddaughter tight.
“I’m afraid I ruined your chair,” Sabine said and laughed weakly.
Her grandfather laughed with her as a pair of nurses appeared with a hover chair.
“Take good care of her,” the Admiral said as Sabine was wheeled away.
Another contraction came as they went, not strong yet but not as weak as the first either. Sabine had read much about childbirth, but she wondered if this time it would go as smoothly as in the books. Would giving birth to a God hurt more or less, or be the same?
The ship shuddered as it dropped from hyperspace, and Sabine knew the battle was now joined. She could feel Kristof and Anasha with her even as their ship raced for the surface of Cl
ovani II amid a hail of laser and EMP blasts. Kristof and Anasha had their own battle to fight, they could not aid her much in this one of her own, so she urged them to focus on what they needed to do. They shared one last moment of love, and then they were gone for the time being.
The med center was a beehive of activity as they prepared for the inevitable wounded they would receive. Sabine was wheeled into a private room where she was moved to a bed. She knew there was quite a while left before her labor would begin in earnest. And she lay back and tried to mentally prepare herself for a battle as old as time.
~36~
The ship shuddered and shook from turbulence and the stray shot that connected with their shields as they made a mad dash to the surface. The Queen’s Honor and the Archangel were currently bombarding the capital city of Clovani II with EMP weapons to knock out their defenses as the four stealth ships descended amid that cover fire. The cover fire would cease as they neared the surface at a prearranged time.
Other ground forces would be landing around the outskirts of the city so that Kristof and his team would not be facing the wrath of the Clovani army alone. The objective for Kristof’s group was the Temple of the Gau’dran’Seti and the Dark Priestesses within. Kristof could feel Karina somewhere below them already. He also sensed that Sabine was not the only one in labor, and he wondered what dark spawn his sister was giving birth to as they neared.
The ships landed and the Su’Tani disembarked with crisp precision. The few Clovani troops who had witnessed their landing quickly fell. Units began moving out immediately and headed towards the Palace and the Temple which were one building. Kristof and Anasha moved out with one of the center units as other units fell in to either side and behind.
The Clovani troops were unprepared to meet them since many of their weapons and vehicles had been knocked offline by the EMP barrage. Kristof’s team did not have the ability to take prisoners, so they were forced to cut down any troops they encountered. The trip to the Palace went quickly due to the lack of resistance, and they stormed the building virtually unchallenged.
The Smuggler's Ascension: The Ties That Died Page 23
