The team worked quickly to get Steven prepped. Victor in trying to get Steven’s heart started, ran a quick scan and was saddened to learn, there was no brain activity. Reaching into his med kit, he pulled out a little black box. Placing it on Steven’s chest, he pushed the green button. Three spindly, little legs came out and dove into Steven’s chest. A moment later, a little blip appeared on the monitor.
“What is that, doc? Did you get his heart started?” said Paris, excitedly hopeful that Victor had saved him.
Victor shook his head. “It’ll just give his family a chance to say goodbye. He has no brain activity.”
“Victor, does that mean that-” asked Stratton, looking down at Ashlyn.
“If what Tynabo said is true—I guess so,” Victor nodded. “But we’ll do what we can. Maybe my team can find a way to save her.”
Ashlyn was now one of them. Their reverence for her struggle to save one of their own, had ingratiated them to her—and for what it was worth, every person in the room would now and forever, be willing to lay down their own life to protect her.
Minutes later, Robbie announced that he was about to land.
Stratton opened the door, waving them on, “Hurry it up guys, the radiation is hot out here. We’ve only got a small window.”
Victor then added, “I’ll start the decon process aboard the shuttle.” Victor knew that lack of protective armor meant that he and Ashlyn needed it the most.
Before taking the final step aboard the transport, they took a moment to look at their surroundings. It wasn’t a city anymore. It was a barren, apocalyptic wasteland, scorched and brutal. Seeing the brick building that had saved them, so simple in its appearance, it seemed miraculous that they had survived.
Chapter 3
“Tynabo?” said Ashlyn weakly, her eyes fluttering open for the first time since her rescue. “Tynabo?” A quick glance around the room revealed that she was in a hospital. Her left arm was hooked-up to an I.V. unit attached to the bed. Behind her on the wall, a screen displayed her vitals.
The door by the end of the bed opened. “I thought I heard you. Glad to see that you are finally awake. I’m Renee, from the Bioscience Department—I’m temporarily assisting here in the med unit. We’re a bit understaffed right now.” The two women exchanged smiles as Renee touched Ashlyn’s arm, reassuringly. “Now that you’re awake, you won’t need this anymore,” she added as she began removing the I.V. from Ashlyn’s arm. “You were asking for Tynabo?”
“Yes. It’s really important that I speak with him.”
Renee pulled a chair up to the side of Ashlyn’s bed. Speaking softly, “First, there seems to be a bit of confusion as to what we should call you. Do you prefer D’na or Ashlyn?”
“Ashlyn or Ash. D’na is Tynabo’s pet name for me. It’s his idea of an inside joke.”
Renee smiled. “So, tell me Ashlyn, what’s the last thing that you remember before waking today?”
Ashlyn paused for a long moment, focused thoughts not coming easily. “There was an alarm. Then they told us all to report to a chamber. There was a lot of confusion, people running round. No one seemed to know what was happening.”
“You have no memory of the day we found you? Nothing at all?”
Ashlyn shook her head slowly as she fought to recall.
“I guess I’m not surprised,” said Renee. “We have a lot to discuss. First, I want you to know that you’re safe. Just a few more days to get your strength back and you’ll be good as new.
I must say—you are a very popular girl. You have a lot of friends that are anxious to see you.”
Ashlyn smiled and nodded. “But first, I need to see Tynabo.”
“Ashlyn, a lot has happened. Things have changed. You were in stasis a very long time!”
“How long?”
Renee winced. The intensity in Ashlyn’s eyes demanded an answer. “It’s been almost fifteen years.”
“Fifteen?” Ashlyn swallowed, her eyes widening. Ashlyn dug deep, trying to recall. The set of her eyes deepened as hundreds of scattered images suddenly came flooding in, “We were attacked, weren’t we?” Her memories became clearer, “A small fleet of ships jumped into our system. They seeded the atmosphere with radioactive isotopes that-”
Her eyes watered as she recalled violent, torturous, horrifying scenes. “The radiation burned everyone. I remember all the children.” Coddling her belly, she vainly attempted to ease the emotional pain. She closed her eyes, “I can hear them screaming.” Ashlyn’s mind recalled thousands of images of melting, blistering, charring faces. She saw the world’s cities in flames. Entire continents hidden under a sky turned black from fire and ash. She saw a world that was dead.
As Ashlyn opened her tear-filled eyes, “Spiders. There were spider-like creatures!”
Renee again took Ashlyn’s hand. She inhaled deeply. Renee was shocked by what she was hearing, “Yes, you’re right, on all counts. That is precisely what we watched happening on the video feeds from around the world—but the big question is, how do you know all that? You were in stasis.”
A cold chill raced through Ashlyn as she saw Renee shift uneasily in her seat. “It’s Tynabo isn’t it? He’s dead. He wouldn’t have left us in stasis for fifteen years if he was alive.”
With sympathetic eyes, Renee continued, “Yes, and there’s no easy way to say this Ashlyn—but you are the only survivor from the Foundation.”
“Everyone died? Everyone?”
Renee squeezed Ashlyn’s hand. “I’m truly sorry.”
Ashlyn’s eyes closed. Her head dropped. A tear fell. “How many people died on Earth?”
“Are you sure you’re ready for all this?”
Ashlyn’s head rose, she nodded, her eyes wide, expectant of a hard-to-hear, answer.
After a brief hesitation, “Almost nine billion. There’s only six thousand of us left.” Renee looked up, glancing at Ashlyn’s readouts.
Ashlyn was in disbelief, the numbers were staggering. “How did you survive?” she said softly.
“We almost didn’t. It was a rough ride. We weren’t fully operational when the attack came. We still had major dependencies on the mainland. Everyone worked round-the-clock for months to get Sea Base up and running.”
“Sea Base?” asked Ashlyn.
“I’m so sorry. Yes, you’re in the Challenger Deep Sea Base, in the Pacific. We’re almost 11 kilometers down.”
“Challenger Deep—we’re in the Mariana Trench?”
Renee nodded. “You know your geography.”
“History actually, I’d read about the early Challenger expeditions.”
“That too. The Trench is the reason we survived. Between the mineralized canyon walls and the enormous energy and heat being emitted by the thermal vents, the enemy ships couldn’t detect us. It’s also why the spiders can’t get to us.”
Ashlyn studied the mural of Poseidon holding his Trident on the wall. “And what happened to the alien fleet?”
“A few days after they’d seeded the atmosphere, they released the spiders. Two weeks later they left,” said Renee. “Then, nothing—up until two weeks ago, anyway. Our probe in the Sirius star system sent us an alert that the alien fleet is inbound.
Best guess is that we have a few days to a few months, but there is no way to know for sure, time dilation being what it is. Nor do we know the capabilities of their ships.
We don’t think it’s a coincidence that the shelf-life of the isotopes are expiring and radiation levels are pretty much back to normal.”
Ashlyn’s eyes watered as the horror of all the events settled in her heart. “So much has happened.”
“I’ve said more than I should have. We’ve had time to adjust and acclimate. For you, the world you remember was only yesterday. I am sorry, Ashlyn. I’m sorry about your friends and about Tynabo. I wish your first day with us had been an easier one.”
“It’s not your fault, Renee. I needed to know. I wouldn’t have let you leave without telling.”
Ashlyn smiled softly. “Renee, if you don’t mind, I think I do need a little rest.”
Taking a bottle of water from the fridge, Renee handed it to Ashlyn, “I’d like you to drink this slowly. The bed you’re on is actually a cellular regenerator. It’s what healed you. The regen requires you to maintain a high moisture index for it to work properly.”
“Thank you,” Ashlyn took a sip of water and set it on the table beside her.
“All right, try to get some rest. I’ll check on you in a few hours. If you need me, just call out. Gena, our computer, will notify me.” Renee smiled sweetly and stepped out of the room, quietly closing the door behind her.
Alone, Ashlyn closed her eyes. She needed answers. Her life depended on it. Ashlyn then spoke the words that would open the conduit between her and the man for whom she’d been created. She would now find out if he was still alive. “Alnilam, Mintaka, Alnitak.”
The words released a powerful burst of adrenaline. It raced into the deepest corners and recesses of her mind, activating the genetically engineered circuitry that had been dormant within her.
By design, Ashlyn’s heightened passions rose within her like an emboldened warrior, breaking the chains that had kept her aura bound to her physical being. Hungering for harmonic balance, Ashlyn’s aura loosed an invisible tendril of flame. It stretched outwards; sliding around the imperceptible gravimetric eddies of space with uncanny precision. With a graceful and surreal beauty, it found him asleep in his quarters.
Had she not been under the control of the fugue, she might have even chuckled, for like most men; he had simply let his uniform fall to the floor beside the bed. She might have even given thought to the worn set of Admiral’s bars that were sitting on the nightstand and the stack of tabbed and dog-eared strategic warfare books that he had fallen asleep to. At this moment however, her attention was singularly focused.
Seeing his defined chest, chiseled stomach and muscular forearms, her breath hastened. As her thoughts wished that the sheet atop him were a bit lower so that she could see his nakedness, the bulge in the sheets overwhelmed her passions. The power within her aura obeyed her wish, gently sliding the sheet down below his thighs. Seeing him, she gasped. She wanted him desperately.
Ashlyn’s heart was racing, she could see his shaft growing, responding to her aura, aroused by her mental, stroking touch.
She wanted to surrender herself to him, letting him dominate her. The desire embodied within Ashlyn’s aura swirled about him, teasing him, coaxing him and arousing him. When he was ready, it swallowed him whole.
The two flames were tender, yet merciless. Loving, yet unrelenting. The flames intertwined, becoming a fiery pillar of molten gold. It moved slowly, savoring the moment for which it had waited so long. It was a dance of lust, joy and fulfillment realized. A dance which no human eye or human heart had ever known.
Securely locked within the fugue, they were safe. The desolate and destroyed world outside faded away, becoming nothing more than a forgotten memory.
***
Renee had only taken a few steps away from the door, when she remembered that Steven had wanted her to give Ashlyn her personal items upon waking. He’d hoped they would help ease her transition.
Though only a few seconds had passed since she had left, Renee opened the door just in time to hear Ashlyn utter the words, “Alnilam, Mintaka, Alnitak.” Though she recognized the words, she knew nothing of their contextual significance.
She stood frozen as flashes of sparkling light began to dance around Ashlyn. The air itself began to glow golden in color, and the room became alive with sizzling, crackling energy.
Ashlyn’s hair began to lift, papers fluttering round the room as if they were in a twister. Renee watched as Ashlyn’s breathing grew heavy, erratic and her fluidly moving body writhed deeper into the throes of ecstasy. As the blanket covering Ashlyn sailed across the room, carried by the wind, Renee observed an unseen force manipulating Ashlyn’s body. Her breasts were contorting under the touch of invisible hands, her stomach compressing as if someone were atop her. Her hips canted, and her legs came up, wrapping themselves around an invisible presence, her nails clawing at the bed.
Renee shouted loudly above the roaring wind, “Gena, record everything that is happening to her. Run a full chemical and adrenal gland scan and maintain a continuous scan of her brain activity. Highlight all anomalous readings. Chart everything about her down to the molecular level. I want to know what is happening to her!”
Suddenly, the strength of the fugue exploded, increasing a hundredfold. The energy driving the windstorm enveloped Renee, and within moments, she was shadowing Ashlyn’s movements. Though she could not see the man entwined with her as Ashlyn could, she was experiencing the rapturous sensations as if they were her own. She could feel a man’s hands upon her, manipulating her, touching her, prodding her to receive him. She was helpless to resist.
***
While fast asleep, a tendril of energy touched Steven, waking him. As his own electrical field responded to the Siren-like call of Ashlyn’s aura, his mind released a massive wave of adrenaline. It raced through him, opening dormant neural pathways. Like a man lost at sea on a moonless night, Steven found himself afloat in a dark, featureless void. Though seemingly alone, he knew he was not. He could feel a tender warmth lovingly calling him. It encircled him, rousing him with a skillful lover’s touch. His passions engorged him.
Far above him was a solitary, yellow, glowing ember. It twinkled once, twice, and then erupted in a brilliant, golden flash that made him wince. It dimmed, warmed to orange in color, twinkled gently then split in two. The two radiant embers began moving round each other, moving faster and faster, until they were dancing like a pair of frisky fireflies. They flashed, the two becoming four. Four became eight. They split, and split again, brightening the darkness in much the same way as the first warm rays of a sunrise chase away the cold loneliness of night.
As the hauntingly, beautiful pathway formed, the dark sea around Steven evaporated. In some mysterious way, the light was begging him to let the warm, passing breeze carry him along in its wake. Under its mesmerizing control, he could not say no.
No more corporeal than a ghost, Steven drifted down the pathway toward the golden light that was growing ever brighter with each passing moment. As the light engulfed him, the image of Ashlyn solidified before him.
Her beauty arrested him. She was the hallowed epitome of feminine sensuality, hypnotically beautiful in every detail. Her face was soft, sensual and one for which nations would go to war.
Seeing her now, lying naked before him, he studied her slender, graceful legs. Her voluptuous breasts were rousingly inspirational. She was a woman of which men dared not dream, fearing they will become lost to their lust and never awaken.
Like a voyeur, he stared, taking in every detail of her trembling body. The sensuality of her fluid movements left him gasping for air. He watched longingly as her eyes closed and she threw her head back in mind numbing ecstasy. Steven froze, not daring to blink as she pulled her knees up and spread her legs wide. He swallowed hard as her hands moved to her breasts and her lips parted. Her breath was ragged, raw. She was beckoning him.
Aching to hold her, his soul hungry to devour her, he felt a crushing need to possess her. As his mind succumbed to obsessive desire, the nucleus of each cell in his body was set ablaze.
Even as his deepest desires wished he were atop her, thrusting himself into her, so did the melding of their auras make his wish possible.
Solidifying atop her, his passion-induced obsession driving rationality from him, the savage but tempered man within was unleashed. He wrung her heaving breasts, squeezing, squashing and contorting them. In approval, Ashlyn’s sharp sighs welcomed his arrival.
Steven gave a moaning exhale as she swung her legs up, and locked them round the small of his back. As he sensually began coercing her, letting curious and gentle charm finesse her to receive him, she responded to his proddin
g touch like a bow to an archer’s pull. Each time her back arched, her breasts rose like spired towers into the air, as much a challenge to his imagination as they were a gift to satisfy his gluttonous longings. With his eyes enslaved to their rhythmic, jiggling, heaving sway, their perfect symmetry appealed to his primitive inner craving.
Her tightness still resisting his heavy engorgement, her legs tightened round his hips, begging him to push his cock inside her. And so he did.
With a soft scream, she heralded his penetration of her.
His thrust, while forged in a kiln of heated, lustful passion—was tempered by the mildness of an intimate love driven by the fugue. The fugue grew in power, whipping his mind into an insanely deep state of erotic, frenzied, lusting madness.
And not unlike a heroin addict, he became enslaved to the rapturous psychosis.
In accompaniment to her masterful sonata, he thrust himself into her ravenously, until the tendons in her neck were straining with relentless desire and the rippling contractions of her orgasm were fluttering with the crisp, quick speed of a hummingbird’s wings. He thrust until her lungs were begging for the simplicity of a single breath and until she was pleading for his mercy.
Then, and only then, did he give her that for which her trembling body was screaming. She screamed softly as he gave a mighty thrust and released his hot semen deep inside her. With his release, her lust came fully unbridled and her nails dug deep into his shoulders.
It was under a thunderous cloud of lusting abandon that she was finally broken and he finally satiated. Wrapped within each other’s arms, they basked in the warm afterglow. It was only as their sweat laden, overheated bodies cooled and their hearts stopped pounding, their lungs no longer aching that their lust was bid its leave.
EARTH'S LAST WAR (CHILDREN OF DESTINY Book 1) Page 7
