(Penthouse Suite, Riverside Gem Hotel, Yokosaki, Nuevo Edo)
Fukuya Talia groaned slightly as she felt the first signs of
a hangover. The forty-five year old premier did her best to keep her mind off
the pain, as she silently promised never to drink again, even knowing that was
probably a lie. Opening her eyes, she blinked, seeing an unfamiliar ceiling.
And then she felt movement next to her.
“Ah, up already, I see?”
Talia suddenly became very aware of the fact that she wasn’t
alone in bed, and the fact that she was very naked under the sheets. With a bit
of trepidation, she turned, and saw the young owner of the Black Star Company
smiling at her, while Hikari lay on top of him, the two also naked. And her
childhood friend looked to be still asleep, so had they…
And then she remembered. The official announcement when the
Black Star Navy had returned to Nuevo Edo, that the ‘Demons’ were no longer a
threat. The party they’d had in the capitol. The many, many drinks. And then he
brought them to the hotel.
She squeaked slightly as the arm under her curled up,
rolling her body that was pleasantly loose (unlike her aching head) up so that
she was lying atop of him as well, her face barely a centimeter from Hikari’s.
She blushed furiously as the movement caused her friend to awaken, and the
blush intensified as she felt the man’s hand moving down to her rear.
When they had left earth, the Japanese and Hispanic cultures
both had religious and social taboos against… pairings between those of the
same sex, and about groups doing souch things. While some of those taboos had
been challenged during the long flight from Earth, and had been all but
destroyed with the steadily declining male population during the Demon Wars,
Talia had never once thought of her friend Hikari like that, and now, here they were, sharing a bed with the man who had
changed everything for their world, and, as the memories came back to her, she
blushed as she remembered how Hikari had tasted when Mollen-san… no, Mirikon
guided her head between Hikari’s legs, getting her to clean up her friend’s
freshly filled womb with her tongue, as he entered her in turn.
What kind of technology did they have in Known Space, that
they could produce such a man? She had been to the Pleasure Halls, as had most
women, but she had never known one of the men there to be as large as Mirikon
was, or have his staying power. How had he managed to recover so quickly, again
and again?
Her thoughts were interrupted by Hikari opening her eyes.
The general who was the same age as Talia looked like a young maiden the way
she blushed, but then she leaned forward and kissed Talia on the lips. The
premier did not refuse her friend, and then she moaned as she felt the man
underneath her press a finger into her rear entrance. From the way Hikari
shuddered in pleasure, he was no doubt doing the same for her.
“Good girls. Perhaps we should continue with where we left
off last night, hmm? Would you both enjoy another creamy filling before we get
up and go about our day?”
Talia’s answer was to push her friend off the man’s chest as
she got fully on top of him. “In the interests of diplomacy, of course.”
The man smiled as he adjusted, and then slid his length into
Talia. “Of course.”
(Nania Gateway, Nania System)
Much as the Alpha Centauri system was important primarily
because of it being the closest Gateway to Earth, the Nania System’s primary
claim to fame was being the closest Gateway to Dimiya. Well, it also was the
site of the Knelfi’s first colony back when they had just started exploring the
stars. That meant the Nania Gateway was one of the busier ones in Confederation
space.
So when the Gateway had an unscheduled arrival, that turned
a few heads. When the computers announced that the address it was coming from
was unknown, that REALLY got people’s attention. When the black forms of Shinokage and First Group of the Black
Star Navy slid out of the Gateway, well, all eyes were on the infamous stealth
ships that had been gone from Known Space for eight months. Moreover, they had
three new ships with them.
The new ships were clearly Black Star designs: two Raven-class freighters and one Assassin.
But unlike ships used by Black Star themselves, these were painted a brilliant
white, and the Assassin had a strange flag painted near the bow, a field with
Yellow, Blue, and Red stripes, with red being at the bottom. In the middle of
the field was a red circle. Under the flag was written NEN Santiago.
When challenged by Confederate Navy ships guarding the
Gateway, a reply was sent in the clear to all ships in the system from the Shinokage: “The Black Star Navy has been
commissioned to escort a diplomatic mission to Dimiya, and will be proceeding
there forthwith. Attempts to violate the diplomatic immunity of the vessels
will be responded to in kind.”
Faster than light itself, it took mere hours for all of
Known Space to understand that the Black Star Company had indeed found a new
Gate Address, and there were people living there.
(Amazon Gateway, Amazon System)
It had been half a day since the delegation had gone through
the Gateway, heading for Dimiya and the center of the Confederation. Unfortunately,
the realities of travelling between the stars meant that news of their
existence spread fast, before they could actually get to Dimiya to begin
official dialogue. Also, the nature of the Gates meant that everyone who was
able to get a clean reading of the address knew where they were now, and they’d
spread that news far and wide.
The Gateway opened again, and six pirate ships flew through,
weapons and shields up. The Civil War had been good for the Dead Rover clan,
and they’d feasted on all the poor little merchants who flew around like lost
sheep when they logistics of the Empire were torn apart by the Black Star Navy.
Now those ships had apparently found a virgin hunting ground, and the Dead
Rovers were going to stake their claim.
Captain Cailean Caoidheach was in charge of Dead Rovers,
mainly because he’d killed the last leader, as well as the two that’d
challenged him over the last couple years. His Black Flag was an armed freighter, extensively modified over the
years. She was tougher than any modern merchantman, and could pack one hell of
a punch, but she couldn’t hold a candle to any real military ship that weighed
the same as her in a fair fight. Good thing Cailean cheated.
He looked over to his second, who was reading the sensors.
“Well, what do we have, Fionn?”
The tall, wiry man who was looking over to the
barrel-chested captain, and chuckled. “The fools didn’t even leave a guard
behind to keep disreputable types from talking with their new ‘friends’ while
they were away. We were lucky to hear about this before any of the major clans
got the gate address.”
Cailean nodded as he considered the crazy-eyed Nomad they’d
‘rescued’ off Earth a month ago. He’d bought his freedom and a provisional
place on the crew with the knowledge that he was a Nomad, and could get into
their information networks. “Aye, that we were. Be makin’ sure that Gemroth
feller is promoted to full crew, and let the men know it is because he came
through with good intel. Might get some of them to think with their heads
instead of their sacks if they see good things happening to a new hire who did
good for the Clan.”
Shaking his head, he looked back at Fionn, and said, “So,
what do we have in the system? How many targets?”
“There was definitely a battle here, Captain. Debris all
over the place. I see one habitable world, but it looks like any cities have
been bombed to the stone age. There must have been one hell of a fight, which
might explain why the other Black Star ships aren’t here.”
Cailean nodded. This score was sounding bigger and bigger by
the minute! “Playing like they’re bigger than they are, to keep people from
knowing how badly they got mauled when it was a straight fight instead of sneak
attacks. Guess it just sucks for them that we were ready to sneak through a
gate once we knew where to head. OK, find where the most people are, and we’ll
see what is worth ‘trading’ for.”
“Coordinates locked in, Captain.”
“Take the ships down, have the boys ready for raiding!
There’s virgin raid territory down there, just waiting to be plucked clean like
a preacher’s daughter! Last man ashore gets the last pick of loot!” That
brought cheers from all the men as the Black
Flag and her companions angled down to enter the atmosphere of the planet
and see what trouble that they could get in to.
Suddenly, when they were just under thirty kilometers above
the largest population center, alarms began blaring all throughout the Black Flag. To say that Cailean
Caoidheach was pissed about the alarms in his moment of glory would be to
severely understate things. “What the hell is that blasted racket?”
The helmsman called back, “Response from the starboard
engine’s getting bad, Captain. Don’t know what is wrong with it, but we’re
losing power, fast. Starboard is at 50% and falling, Port is at… 87, no 85% and
falling.”
“Fuck! Get us on the ground then, and remind me to smack the
hell out of that damned engineer for lying about the ship being good to fly.
I’ll kill him after he fixes it.” More alarms went off.
“We have a hull breach on the Cargo Bay doors. Shutting off
environmental control.”
Screams came over the com lines, apparently ones of pain.
“Goddamn it, turn that shit off! Who the bloody hell was screaming into my
channel?”
“It came from the cargo bay, Captain. It sounded like
Gallach. Don’t know what the big lummox was up to, but he’s looking pretty bad,
if you go checking the field nearest cameras to the training room… Fuck the
cameras are gone now, too!”
“Get us on the ground NOW helmsman!” Captain Caoidheach
gripped the seat of his chair as he saw, with some satisfaction, that the crew
was well motivated, and were taking what time they could get to put the ship
down, crashing into the Jungle rather than waiting for the ship to fall on a
civvie population.
It would suck to kill off the potential slaves before they
could get the ship fixed and back to civilization.
And that is when he saw the bulkhead literally melt in front
of him, as nanites began hunting and destroying all post-industrial works,
which included pretty much the entire ship except the hull.
“Oh feck me!”
(Thelorious Starport, Dimiya)
As the center of the Confederacy, Dimiya was used to having
VIPs show up. The shuttle from Santiago
was joined by one from Santiago and
by a four-bird flight of Crimson Blade squadron’s Thunderbolts flying escort as
they landed in perfect precision on the pad that had been prepared for them.
Meeting them on the platform was a full honor guard for a
visiting dignitary, with several diplomats who were eager to be the first
‘official’ group to talk to these mysterious Nuevo Edoans. The Knelfi Governor
of Dimiya stood there with a member of the Assembly’s foreign relations
committee and other such important people.
Mirikon’s people spread out as he joined the procession,
with his people clearly augmenting the security detail for Premier Fukuya and
General Akagi., some of them disappearing into the crowd so they could form an
outer circle of protection around the VIPs. Anyone who was watching would see
that the Black Stars were carrying out their task.
No one on the street noticed when a knelfi man managed to
insert himself into the group near Mirikon. His guards noticed it all right,
but allowed the meeting in plain sight to happen because Mirikon simply nodded
to let them know he was to be allowed to come talk.
With a mock sigh, Alok Paxisys said, “You really do like
stirring things up, don’t you, Commodore?”
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Be sure to read my published works!
Frozen Soul series (Sci-Fi Supervillain story):
Frozen Soul https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071R125QT
Tales of the Void Traveler https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06ZZ52G37
Rules-Free VRMMO Life (Dark Fantasy GameLit):
Volume 1 - Tutorial https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071VPRNDB
Omnibus 1 - Volumes 1-4 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0774T354X
Into the Black (Sci-Fi GameLit):
Book I - Game Start https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071LT5WGL
Omnibus I - Books 1-4 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B077X2KR7Y
City of Champions Online (Superhero GameLit):
Issue I - Origin Stories https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075SHXQS1
Lewd Dungeon (Dungeon Core GameLit):
Book 1 - Welcome to the Apocalypse https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07BB34DHF
The Kalipshae Affair (A First Contact Short Story): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0739V6R6T
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