REBELS AND SAVIORS

Agape

“Liz! Go with the Captain. He’ll protect you.”

“Yes, Princess.”

Maria grimaced. “Maria. Call me Maria. Now go.” Maria quickly grabbed Max’s arm. “Do not touch her. She’s an Immaculate.” Max nodded and gestured the woman to follow him.

Michael watched them go. “Now what, Princess?”

Maria glared at him. “Now we create a diversion.” She looked at Kyle and Sean, “You go first. Commander Negativity and I will follow.”

Sean was worried. “What’s the diversion?”

Maria just snorted. “Michael and me.”

Kyle just laughed as he and Sean went towards their transport. Answering questions, they assured the security guards that they hadn’t purchased or acquired anything while on this world, that they had simply come for a wedding.

Michael watched them, and then turned to Maria, “So what’s this diversion?”

“Kiss me. And don’t stop.”

“Just kiss you? That’s supposed to be distracting?”

Her eyes traveled the length of him taking in all his details, from his boots, to his chest to his golden brown eyes. Michael squirmed under her regard and the darkening of her brilliant green eyes. She was living energy - alive.

Michael decided it was no hardship to comply. Reaching out he pulled her towards him. Lowering his head his lips brushed hers.

Once.

Twice.

She didn’t want to play. This was hardly going to create a commotion.

Suddenly she grabbed the back of his head and pulled him down, plundering his mouth, biting his lips and then sucking the hurt away. Trailing her lips across the raspy hair on his cheek she nipped his earlobe, the one with the tiny silver hoop earring.

“A kiss doesn’t have to mean anything,” she said simply.

“Not unless you mean it.”

Maria looked at him sharply, her eyes narrowing and darkening even more. “Then put something into it, Commander. Let’s create a sensation.”

Michael looked up and noticed a few of the Guard’s ground crew noticing them. Right...a show.

Growling low, he pushed her back against a small wall of crates and stood between her legs. Grinding against her, he let her feel how hard he was. He could smell her arousal; it wove its way around him, pulling him further into her web.

She lifted one leg up and hooked it around his thigh. Pulling his head down she ravaged his lips while taking her pleasure from him. He gave her control, relinquishing it gladly. She bucked against him, more into it than she was ever going to admit. Offering her neck to him she moaned as he sucked, nipped and tasted. His hands moved up to frame her small breasts, kneading, massaging, and letting his thumb rub over her nipples through her tight leather shirt.

Pushing against him she rode him harder and faster, straining for the orgasm she could feel beginning. Allowing herself to be very vocal to attract more attention, she bit the side of his neck.

“You could help me here by adding to the sound effects...” Her breath was raspy and coming in gasps.

Following her cues, he lifted her and pulled her other leg over his hip wrapping both around his waist. Increasing his speed he bucked into her, driving his hardness against her. Pulling at her nipples and biting her neck he slammed into her harder, faster until he felt her legs tighten around his waist and her voice cry out in pleasure, adding his own vocal encouragement.  Without looking, he knew they were the only show anyone in the landing bay was watching.

Minutes passed, both of them regaining some control. Her hand drifted to the front of his leather pants, caressing the bulge still there. He grabbed her hand, smiling ruefully at her obvious tease. This might be all for show, a distraction, but he still had to sleep with her. Chastely.

Pulling his head down, she whispered in his ear," Let's try this without clothes some time."

Michael looked at her in shock, as he noticed his brother standing in the doorway of their transport signaling him to hurry. He kissed her again, and then whispered in her ear, “Keep kissing me wildly; we’re heading for the transport.”

Maria just nodded, keeping both her legs wrapped around his center and her arms around his neck, as he carried her towards the transport, kissing her passionately the entire time. They didn’t stop for anyone, and no one tried to detain them. Finally once they entered the transport, the bay broke down into a large display of applause, catcalls and suggestions that were best ignored. Locking the transport door, Michael gazed at the bemused Maria.

She had never looked more gorgeous. Her hair was everywhere, her mouth swollen and red, and she was still trying to catch her breath. Okay, he had to admit it, her plan was a stroke of genius. Maybe all her plans didn’t exactly suck.

“How are you getting past the outer marker scanners with your gem wearing your dampening emitter?”

“I just need to touch her. The emitter will extend to include us both.”

Michael nodded and led her to the smuggler’s hold where Max must have stashed their newest passenger.

Max and Sean were getting ready for take off.

“They sure know how to hold the attention of an audience.” Sean said with not just a little amusement. Max just grunted his agreement.

“They do.”

“No one even noticed you walking the woman onto the ship. All eyes were watching the dry-humping, out of control lustbunnies going at it against crates in the bay.”

“I noticed.”

“One guy started chanting, ‘Take off her shirt, take it off...’, and damn if I didn’t join in.”

“Perverts usually do.” Max said casually, though he had to admit that watching Michael and Maria getting it on was...stimulating.

“You know, she could’ve volunteered me to act as a diversion.”

Max piloted the transport clear of the open bay, and lifted off towards Shiva. “Sure she could have. I think the sight of you and Michael dry-humping in the bay would have had the same needed distractive quality to it.”

“I didn’t mean with Michael!”

Max just laughed. “Sure you didn’t.”

~~~

Maria helped Liz settle into a set of rooms. The woman hardly spoke unless spoken to, and she seemed timid.

“This is a communicator linked to my quarters. You may contact me if you need anything. The mobile dampening emitter I’ve given you needs to be worn at all times.”

The woman touched her lapel and the small device that Maria had attached.

“I’m not sure what you need for your daily routine or what your eating requirements are, so I’ve had Sean install a replicator in your rooms.”

“Thank you, My Princess.”

Maria sighed. “Really, please call me Maria. The whole Princess thing? It seems silly when there are no people left to rule.” Maria smiled at her slightly, “Plus, I was never that type of Princess. It’s just a title.”

The woman bowed in respect. Maria just flopped her arms and gave up.

“Do you need anything else?”

“No. I am fine.”

Maria was reluctant to leave the woman alone. “I know the rooms are large and empty, but tomorrow we’ll begin translating the red manuscript, using the translator key on your arm, and soon you’ll have a roommate.”

“Thank you, My Princess.”

Maria had already given up on the Princess-thing. “Then I’ll say goodnight.”  She stopped and looked back at the woman. “I know that your entire life has been one of service, and remaining devout. But there isn’t a reason you couldn’t come out of the rooms and interact with the members of the crew and maybe eat with us, because someday this will be over. You might wake up one day no longer required to be devout, and the option to pursue a different life might awaken.”

When Maria got no response, she left.

~~~

Max was standing by the coffee when Maria walked into the galley. He calmly poured her a cup as well.

Maria smiled and took a drink. “Careful, Michael made this batch.” She quickly spit it back in the cup, and looked up to see Michael’s dark regard.

“Um, it tastes...lovely.”

Sean suddenly perked up. “Speaking of lovely, where is our new female on board?”

“In her room doing her daily devotionals.”

Sean’s smile faltered. “Devotionals?”

Maria just nodded and doctored her coffee with anything to take out the acid taste. What the hell did that man do to perfectly good coffee beans?

“Yes. She is a member of the Holy Order of the Immaculate. Since birth, she has been cloistered in solitude to prepare for her journey, and she alone can touch and hold the yellow gem. It is through purity alone.”

“Purity?” Sean cussed. “Are you saying she’s a nun?”

“Yes.”

Sean and Kyle shared looks and both just groaned. They already had a bet over who could talk her into a date first.

“So there is a real gem?”

Maria finished fixing her coffee and went to sit next to Michael. “Yes,” she answered him.

“Worth much?”

“Priceless. It is a special crystal not found in this Universe. It resonates at a pitch unrecorded. A normal man or woman would not be able to hold it in their hand. Legend has it that the devotee assigned the crystal once broke her vow of chastity, and when she touched the crystal her body winked into nothing. Imploded.”

Sean sat up at that. “Cool. Can I get a look at this crystal?”

Maria just laughed. “I don’t trust you not to try to touch it. You wouldn’t be able to resist. Even I can’t touch them. I’m only the Acolyte de Princ, so my job is to protect the Immaculate, guard them and complete the journey.”

Max asked quietly, “So all these gems are women?”

Maria nodded, stealing a piece of food from Michael’s plate. “The next is Patience...the red gem. I should know the location once I translate its manuscript.”

“And from that gem, you get the location of the last one?” Max asked and when Maria nodded again, “And then what?”

“Then I and my gems go to Khivar.”

Alex entered the room and stood silently at the door. “Why, Maria?”

She looked down in her cup, not wanting to explain, but their lives would be forfeited if she failed.

“The weapon that Khivar has, the one he uses to hold the Universe hostage...that's not what it was designed for. He took it from my world along with the manuscripts, in the hope of one day understanding its use. He could not. So he sent the manuscripts with the rest of the ill-gotten treasure on the Saratoga.”

“And this 'thing'? It is not a weapon?” Alex asked. He mentally visualized it. It was a large device made of a metal unknown to him.

“No. It can channel immense energy, create a field. The mistake that is made is believing that time is a linear thing, that it only exists in one plane. Time is fluid and ever-changing. As fast as it runs one way, it can easily reverse.” Maria looked around at her audience to see that Max and Alex were following the subject, but the others were not.

“Space, or the concept of space, is seen as origins and destinations. And in that thought there is only so much space or distance that can be covered in a span of time.”

Sean was suddenly more attentive. Maria had traveled distances in a few days beyond what they could travel in a week, or even a month. He’d love to understand and convert to that technology.

“So this thing that Khivar stole...”

“It creates an energy barrier or ribbon, a wrinkle between Universes, so you can travel there in a blink of an eye. If you find two points in space, and they are separated by immense distance, the Granilith could open an energy corridor that takes you from one point to the other instantly.”

Alex sat down. “So it was never a weapon?”

“No. It is like your slip stream technology. The same, but different.”

“Does it fold space?” Sean asked.

“No. It is as if space does not exist on dimensional planes, but is rather interwrapped and laid upon itself. That at  any given time, multiple planes touch and intersect, but due to phase variance, they do not ‘perceive’ each other. The Granilith opens up an energy field that allows for the crossing from one plane to another.”

“The distortion field that we saw when your ship rejoined us. It was like a slip stream, but different. Is it the same thing?” Alex also wanted to understand the technology.

“On a much smaller scale than what the Granilith does, but yes, the same principle.”

Max sat on the table beside Michael. “So Khivar stole a simple device from your world, one used to travel, but because he had no concept how to use it, he activated and used it in another manner that was destructive.”

Maria nodded. “Yes. My people would’ve stopped him. They would’ve gone for the Granilith, but his first act of destruction was to destroy my people and my world. I was at Temple learning about my duties as the Guardian of the Granilith. Once they were silenced it became my obligation - my legacy - to restore balance to this Universe. My regret was that I was so young in my training that I couldn’t begin sooner. It was never my people’s intention to allow something as strong as the Granilith loose. That is why the ‘gems’ were hidden and separated from the Granilith. They were a Holy Order, the Immaculate - very much like the teaching order of the D’Jesuit. They trained and prepared for centuries for the moment that they would be called in service to return our people home, to the ancient worlds.”

“Your people were not from here originally?” Alex figured that explained a lot about how one planet in an entire system could be so evolved above the rest.

“No. We were not.” Maria paused in how much to reveal. “But in time we blended our genetics with those indigenous to our star system. Over so many hundreds of thousands of generations we now belong more to this system than to our old one.

“What happened to the ships your people used to travel here? Rumor was that your people did not travel in ships, but traveled in winks.”

“That is true. They were able to use the Granilith to create instant travel between one world to another in a wrinkle of time and space. However travel became less and less necessary as those worlds evolved and became technologically more advanced. We considered it ‘rude’ to merely appear on another world. So the technology was adapted to be used in ships much like mine. It gave us the ability to travel in less time, and in less exposure to the cold of space.”

Alex was silent in thought, when suddenly it occurred to him what she had avoided telling them, or had purposely skipped the answer.

“Maria, what became of your ancestors' ships?”

They stared at each other for a moment, and finally Maria shrugged. “They did not come in ships.”

The rest of the room became silent, listening.

“My homeworld, Anterra, was the ship. They transported an entire world through the barrier, and it became trapped in the star system in which you have always known it to exist. That is how powerful the Granilith is. It can move worlds.”

~~~

“You haven’t said much.”

Michael looked over at the bed where she was lying waiting for him to join her.

“I know.” Michael looked down at his hands resting on the counter with her family photos. “Your mission...what is it?”

“To remove the Granilith from Khivar.”

“How will you do that?”

“I will use the ‘gems’ and activate it to its real potential power, and then I will feed it into a phase shift loop. It will wink out of existence.”

Michael turned and looked at her. “Why do you expect to die?”

Maria just sighed and shook her head. “Don’t ask me to tell you of my demise.”

Michael came to sit on the bed. “Tell me anyway.”

“Michael...” Maria looked away from him and at her family. “It is what I must do.”

“I can’t...I don’t want to...” Michael paused. No words. There were no words. “Just tell me.”

“My people. The Ancient Ones. The ones that first came to this Universe...they were fleeing a Universe that had destroyed its own fabric of space because it had evolved too fast for its own technology. My people never meant to stay here, but once they became trapped by the sun of our star system and the entire ecos of that system changed to admit them, if they had left it, it would have wreaked havoc on all the other planets in this Universe. So my people never intended to leave, but on the other hand they couldn’t live here. It took hundreds of generations before they noticed the start of their physical breakdown. The original Ancients could phase shift, so traveling in winks was okay, but they were slowly losing cohesion. Some went through a process of ascension, where they left their corporal bodies and became pure essence. Others joined with the indigenous people of this system to create those that you know.”

“That's what you are?”

“Yes. But I am the last in a long line of first families. My bloodline is direct and pure, or as pure as it could possibly be. That was why I was chosen to be the Acolyte de Prin’c. It takes ancient blood to be able to withstand the power of the Granilith. They used to phase shift with it, and that was how they survived.”

“And you are destined to die because...?”

“I can’t phase shift. If I shift there is no strong matrix to hold me, or to bring me back. I will either ascend, or I will wink out of existence along with the Granilith.”

“I don’t understand.”

“For me, phase shifting comes with a price. My physical form. Without my physical form or an anchor, I cease to exist.” Maria looked at him solemnly. “The only way to activate overload in the phase shifting generators is to do it within the core. There is no way for me to activate and get out at the same time. I will be stuck there.”

Michael was silent for a moment. If she did not take the Granilith from Khivar then the Universe would continue to suffer. But if she did, it would mean her end...the ultimate sacrifice.

“Maria...”

“Let's not talk about this anymore, okay?” Maria pulled him into the bed, covering them up. “What has to be, can’t be changed.”

Michael held her close and in his arms, enjoying having her back. Love. The concept still had no meaning to him, but he felt a burning need to protect her, to keep her, and to have her stay next to him forever.

~~~

“Captain?”

Max looked up from his work, and frowned at the two women on his Bridge. Isabel and Lonnie. Masking his irritation, he politely stood.

“My Ladies.”

Isabel discreetly pushed her sister forward. Lonnie looked back at her in irritation, but continued anyway.

“I just wanted to thank you for coming for me on Phloth II.”

Max just nodded, but remained unyielding. “You shouldn’t be out of your quarters.”

“Maria made us mobile cloaking fields, and modulated them to read as other species. I’m a Tellarian. I like that they have three stomachs and can eat all their food for a week at one sitting.”

“Maria?” Max should have known. Their resident little fix-it genie was fast at work meddling, and now he’d have the twins to run after as well. “Clever little thing she is.” Both Isabel and Lonnie nodded their agreement.

“I, um...” Lonnie looked at her sister for encouragement. “I wanted to offer to help around the ship, to do something to pay you and your crew for saving me, and all the trouble I caused.”

Max looked at her thoughtfully. “What can you do?” His tone indicated that he doubted she was worth much or capable of doing anything.

Isabel shot a look of anger at him. It wasn’t easy for Lonnie to come to him and offer her services, and he wasn’t helping.

Max just shook his head a little. The twins. His downfall. “Maybe I could use your help.” Max refused to see Isabel’s look of thanks and encouragement. He didn’t need a mother hen.

“Where? I’m not really trained for anything, and...”

“You seem to understand herbals and plants. I think hydroponics and Sickbay could use you in some capacity.”

Lonnie’s face suddenly cleared and brightened. “Really? Oh that would be excellent!”

“Why don’t you go to Sickbay and talk to Kyle. Tell him I said he should find something for you to do, and then have him take you to hydroponics.”

“I’ll do that!” Lonnie turned to rush from the Bridge, but suddenly rushed back to Max’s side and quickly kissed his cheek before rushing off the Bridge.

Isabel watched amused at the look of discomfort moving over his face. Max was trying to regain his composure while his crew watched him with interest.

“Thank you. Between you and Maria, Lonnie might actually survive this ordeal.”

Max nodded, and watched Isabel turn to leave the Bridge. Against his will, he motioned for Sam to cover Conn until he returned.

“Lady Isabel?”

Isabel stopped and turned back towards him. She waited.

“Was there something you wanted to do as well?”

Isabel just smiled. “My life isn’t a prison to me, but if you need help, I can cook.”

Max smiled at that. “Finally! I let someone on board who can actually create something edible? Shocking. Go to the galley and talk to the Steward in charge. He’ll install you into the cooking schedule.”

Isabel smiled and nodded.

“Your sister, can she cook?”

Isabel just laughed. “If you value your life and health? No.”

Max gave a shudder. “Thanks for the warning. I’ve already got Maria, Sean, and Michael on the cooking schedule, and the three of them have the crew on the verge of mutiny, especially Michael and Sean.”

Isabel just laughed. Looking around the corridor on the deck outside the Bridge, it was surprisingly free of people. Moving closer to Max, Isabel studied him critically. He was a strange silent man. Commanding and domineering without a word, his mere presence was enough to demand respect.

“I never thanked you for saving my sister, and not taking it out on her.”

Max groaned under his breath. She was moving too close. “Lady Isabel...”

He never got to finish.

Making sure they were alone, she pulled him to her. Using her hands, she lowered his mouth to hers and kissed him. He was gentle at first, but quickly became more demanding as the passion began to take hold. She matched him, opening her mouth and meeting his tongue with her own.

As his arousal began to escalate, his hands began to move. Slowly, he let his fingertips glide over her, learning her contours. After a few minutes of this, she broke the kiss and stepped back.