REBELS AND SAVIORS

Atropos

Sean made it back to main Engineering, his hands and face covered in grime. He had just crawled through endless access tubes that had collapsed during the battle, preparing them for the transition to energy conduits. He was tired, had cuts over his body and his relief team was missing.

“Where the hell are Jonesy and Mallechi?” Sean sighed. He was basically ignored by the working shift. Predictable. It was predictable. This is what happens you take it upon yourself to rant and rave at a consistent and ongoing rate. People learn to tune you out.

Sean checked his work schedule. Six crews. He was missing six of his crews! Grabbing one of his workers he asked him where they were, and why they hadn’t reported for duty.

“Sorry, Sir. Far as I know they're still on the planet on furlough.”

Sean was beyond cursing. Max had promised that allowing time off wasn’t going to slow his work. This was the fourth time in the last twelve hours he had crews not showing up for duty.

“Call the Operations Officer and inform him of our missing crew members.” The man just stood there, and Sean let his irritation take over. “Now!”

Ignoring the scurrying man, Sean located the one person who was working nonstop. Liz.

“What's the word?”

Liz looked up to frown at Sean for distracting her. All the interruptions. It was a wonder anything ever got done.

“I think I found a backup protocol that will work.”

“Does it involve me crawling through more crapped-out corridors and access tubes?”

“Unfortunately, yes. But...” Liz held up a hand before Sean could interrupt, “nothing you haven’t been through before. All the others can be done as we go. And we’ll only need to hit the internodes.”

Sean rubbed his dirty face and scowled at his bleeding hands. Running them through his unruly curls and his too long hair, he made an executive decision. Damn, when the hell did he grow a beard?

“Time for a break. Come on.”

Liz paused and just stared at him. Break? Almost afraid to know what he had in mind, she stood her ground.

“Oh for the love of Pete...a break Liz! You know...food, some coffee in the cantina while you tell me the latest plan.”

Liz shrugged delicately. Okay she could do coffee. She followed Sean to the source of hot coffee, taking her workpad with her.

Sean sank in the chair tiredly and took a long drink from his cup. “Okay, tell me what you’ve got.”

“Redundancy.”

Sean just shook his head. What? Okay, redundancy.

Liz warmed to her topic. “I am proposing a redundancy system for the backup relay. You realize that most systems are overly glutted with redundancy to protect the system from a full meltdown during damage, right?”

“Our hardwiring system has it. It can be rerouted and switched at all main power junctions and modules.”

Liz smiled. “Exactly. But in terms of hardwiring that mean endless amounts of excessive wiring that is more a hamper than a help since it all must be maintained and diagnosed.”

“Tell me about it! With half my engineering staff servicing time on a nice cushy planet, and the remaining half of my dwindling half, I can barely repair a crushed light casing.”

“Well, the new system doesn’t need such an elaborate redundancy plan. I can put in the backup system at the same time on the same diagnostic paneling, and they will work in conjunction so any breakdown will immediately become known.”

Sean sat up straighter at that. Normal maintenance of his systems was his nemesis. It alone ate up more than seventy percent of his scheduled man hours.

“Tell me the proposal.”

“At the internodes we can run circuits in series off the parallel ones. Then it is a matter of a double trip and a double pull mechanism to reroute essential systems away from damaged ones.”

Sean thought about it. Ingenious. If it could work.

“So the redundancy systems don't lie in wait to be needed one day...”

“They run at the exact same time. So one system goes down, the backup system is still working, and immediately reroutes...”

“...the power relay through a series circuit.” Sean smiled into his cup. It was too simple...so simple! Looking at the Immaculate he could feel his eyes getting watery. His Immaculate. He could turn Liz loose in a series of engineering modules and just toss food in once in a while, and she would work.

“Damn, your Immaculate soul! I think I’m finally in love!”

Liz took a drink of her coffee and just shrugged. “I hate it when you get all weepy.” She knew he was talking about his engines.

Sean sat back and enjoyed the fun. Laughing hard, he had to admit his fondness for the young woman who was his polar opposite, and yet his equal. She was replacing his lost sister in his life. Serena had been a bitch, but he was connected to her. And the two of them were born with ‘fixit’ genes. Serena could wire a relay in seconds flat, build weapons of destruction and blow the crap out of anything. Sean was more into engines. Together they had been a working team. Only difference was Liz was quiet and respectful, did as asked and never complained. Serena was not.

For the first time in her life, Liz was doing the work she wanted to do. In the Temple they brought her supplies and she mocked up model systems, but the Shiva was a real-life working system, and it was...exciting. Sean was teaching her beyond books. In her mind everything had to be done exactly right, but after a few weeks of watching Sean's innovative rewiring and jerryrigging, Liz was coming to understand that there was more to it than just doing it by the book, that real success was in being flexible and dynamic.

“Sean?” She waited for him to stop trying to con someone into getting him more coffee. He finally looked back at her with a new steaming cup of brutalized beans. Whoever made the coffee was a sadist.

“Yeah?”

“When I’m no longer called upon to be an Immaculate, do you think the Captain will let me remain?”

Sean looked at the young woman with interest. “You want to stay on the Shiva?” Liz nodded. “What about your world and your family?”

“I don't know my world. I was taken to Temple practically from the moment I was born. My family turned me over. I never saw them or knew them. I don’t even know their names. The Priests and the Temple are all I know.”

“And the Priests? Aren’t they like home?”

“There are no more Priests. Once I was removed from their care, hundreds of years of service ended for them. They performed the last ritual of Kel’ rah Tehl’.”

Sean frowned at her. “Cal-rah-tel?”

“Ascension. They no longer exist at this plane of existence.”

Sounded like mass suicide to Sean. He looked at the young woman, far too young to be left in a universe without anyone. “I’m sorry.”

Liz just shrugged. “Don’t be. It was their life’s work to obtain that state, and my life path was set at birth. It wasn’t a bad life. I might have lived and died at Temple, and replaced by another if the Princess hadn’t come for me. On my world, I would’ve never been allowed to become educated, and all things I know would be gone.”

The horror of her fascinating mind lost because a world was too stupid to educate their women! Sean couldn’t wrap his mind around it. It was too much.

Sean cleared his throat. “I’m not for religion. Actually religion and I would get along okay if it didn’t have so many things that were forbidden, all of which are all the things I do the most. But I’ve got to reconsider it if it’s responsible for giving you more of a life.” Sean made a snorting sound. “Damn, I’ve never been in a house of worship. I think I spit in front of one once.” Sean hit the table hard. “Nope, I’m wrong! I was married in a religious hall on my world.”

Liz was suddenly interested in this jovial long curly headed man with twinkling eyes and a touch of the devil in his soul. “You’re married?”

“Was. Not anymore.”

“What happened?”

“It didn’t take.” Sean scratched his brow. “About around a certain time on my honeymoon when she tired to murder me.”

Liz nodded stoically. “I suspected as much. Desperate times require desperate acts out of many women.”

Sean just laughed. “You have no idea!” Sean got up and waited for Liz to follow him back to Engineering. “So you eating in the cantina tonight?”

Liz looked at him discreetly with a growing trepidation. “Why? You’re not cooking?” Sean chose to ignore the dawning horror in her voice. Jealousy was a terrible emotion in most people. He wasn’t responsible for the crew's growing envy.

“Yeah, me and Michael. That’s if Michael’s awake and not down on the planet.”

Liz rolled her eyes. She had forgotten to check the mess schedule and didn’t save any food from the night before. “I’m fasting.” Sean looked at her sharply not remembering her ever fasting before. “It’s a religious thing.”

That explained it. Religion and Sean, they had an agreement. They occupied opposite places. Sean believed in religion. His own. That included anything that made him happy, sated or just plain horny. Or smelt of grease.

“Pity. I think Michael switched the schedule so Maria cooks with us now. Their new togetherness is just disturbing.”

Liz had to agree. The idea of Michael, Sean and Maria in the kitchen at once was enough to change a person’s belief in survival. Maria insisted on vegetables, and the boys wanted all meat, so it was open warfare as they indiscriminately tossed things into the pot and the salad.

“I am definitely fasting tonight.” Liz looked straight ahead and said in her expressionless, monotone voice keeping a deadpan face, “One of the monks told me a joke once.”

Sean looked at her in interest. “Did you laugh?”

“The joke wasn't that good.”

~~~

Michael woke to the most incredible dream. It was more like a sensation, and it took him a few moments to realize that it wasn’t a dream. Maria was awake and she was busy. Her mouth was wicked and hot. Moaning, he threaded his fingers through her hair.

“Maria...” His voice was thick and passionate.

“Ummm?”

“What are you doing?”

Maria gently nipped his inner thigh with her tongue coming out to smooth the bite. Laughing against his skin, she looked up at him in the dark.

“You’re the last man that I ever thought would need a diagram for this!”

“I don’t mean that! That I got. I mean...” Michael groaned deeply as Maria went back to work on him. “I mean...we’ll talk about it later.”

~~~

Max woke in a sweat, his breathing hard and raspy. The moan came from deep inside as if it were drawn from him by an invisible hand. His bed was a mess. His body was equally sticky and covered in his release as he reached an orgasmic climax. Sitting on the side of his bed he called Michael all kinds of trash as he rubbed his scar hard. It pained him suddenly.

“Damn you, Michael. Put up some damn walls!”

Max treated himself to a shower, and because it didn’t seem like Michael and Maria were going to finish anytime soon, he decided to go to work to put some distance between himself and his otherwise engaged twin. Bastard.

“Caleb! What the hell is going on?” Max looked around at his almost empty Bridge.

“Umm, things are quiet, Cap.”

“I can’t imagine why.” Max said dryly. He entered the Bridge and walked around, noticing the unmanned stations. “Where the hell is the Bridge crew?”

“We had a few people not report for duty.”

“How many exactly?” Max’s face darkened.

“The last two shifts.”

Max swore, and went to sit in his chair. “Order all stations to report. I want a status report.”

“Aye, Cap.” Max just kept swearing and went to get some coffee.

“Cap, Medical and Engineering have reported. They are reporting missing staff as well.”

“And the other system chiefs? Have they reported in yet?”

Caleb looked uncomfortable. “No, Sir.”

“Why the hell not?”

Caleb wavered on his feet shuffling back and forth. “They’re missing as well.”

Max just counted slowly. “Don’t bullshit me, Caleb. You’re my Operations Officer. It’s your job to make sure all stations are manned. So just tell me what the hell is going on.”

“They’re on the planet, Cap.”

“Then call them back.”

Caleb sighed. “I tried. There was no response.”

“And?”

“So I sent some of the security teams to the planet to retrieve the missing crew that were overdue.”

Max wasn’t liking the situation at all. “And?”

“They didn’t come back or report in either. The next two retrieval teams I sent also failed to report. I cancelled all remaining furloughs.” Caleb said something under his breath that Max didn’t quite catch.

“What did you say?”

“I had to cancel the remain furlough because the transport ships haven’t returned either.”

Max stood up and paced his Bridge, stopping in front of Caleb. “A crew of over four hundred and thirty. How many are missing?”

“I can’t be sure, Cap.”

“Estimate!”

“Three hundred and sixty-seven, the Eminent’s two sisters, and one Immaculate.”

“The Ladies Isabel and Lonnie went down to the planet?”

“Alex okayed it. Since there were no sensors and they’ve been housed in their room for months...”

“And the Immaculate? Which one?”

“The newest. She went with the sisters.”

Max couldn’t believe it. “Does the Princess know that her newest Immaculate is running around on the planet?”

Caleb turned red and rubbed the back of his neck. “No, Sir.”

“Why the hell not?”

Caleb cleared his throat. “You ordered that the Commander and the Princess not be interrupted.”

Max felt his irritation rising to the point of a full meltdown. “When exactly were you going to report all of this?”

“Soon, once I had an accurate count of the current staff on the Shiva.”

Max just shook his head. “You have the Conn. No one, and I mean, no one is to go down to the surface. I’ll take an individual fighter.”

Caleb didn’t like it, not one bit. “Cap? What should I do if you don’t return?”

“Oh, don’t worry. I’ll return.”

Max was on his way out of the Bridge when he ran into Alex. The Eminent seemed puzzled and confused.

“Alex? You’ve got a problem?” Other than his sisters and the Immaculate, Courtney.

“The space. It bothers. The energy field is too strong here. It is altering. Causing me dreams.”

Alex turned and walked with Max towards the fighter bay. The man walked with his hands clasped behind his back and his brows furrowed in thought. He was pensive and worried.

“Dreams? About...?”

“Two that is one. The One. The silence of isolation thundering in sounds. It speaks without words uttered. Light that is bright and dark. The sun becomes new. The space burns as the Destroyer comes.”

Max just ran his hands over his face. He had no time for Alex’s Eminent spiel.

“Look Alex, I need to get down to the planet. In case you haven’t noticed no one is coming back, and that includes your sisters and the new Immaculate.”

Alex just nodded and walked off distracted. Max wasn’t sure Alex had heard a word he said.

~~~

Michael and Maria were lazing about in the bath after waking up and finding food. Maria was still partially asleep resting on his bigger body as his one hand moved water up over her back, while his other hand moved through the wetness of her hair. The silky golden strands fascinated him the way they curled around his fingers and gripped him - especially when wet.

“Maria?” he said softly.

“Hmm?”

“It that how it’s going to be?” Maria, who had been rubbing her cheek against his chest became still. “Except when you blink out, you won’t blink back?”

Maria sighed and slowly rubbed her face into him. Looking up she sat up a little and took his head in her hands.

“Time is short. The thread has been woven, the length pulled...all that remains to be done is for it to be cut. Do you really want to spend what is left of our time sad, angry and upset?” Maria leaned in and kissed his lips pulling his bottom one in for a long suck. “I don’t.”

“Maria...”

“I’ve never lied to you or misrepresented how this will go. My destiny was drawn long ago. You...you I didn’t foresee.” Maria moved her hand down his body and under the water. “I don’t want to fight with you. I just want to love you like it is all there is, like it has to last an eternity, and then once more into forever. Can you do that?”

Michael eyes darkened, too much of what he could never say was in his eyes and so much of it he had no language for.

“Yes. I can do that.” Michael framed her face, kissing her deeply with his eyes closed tightly, concentrating on everything that was she. Memorizing it for a time when they would be no more. “But know this. There is no relief. When you’re gone, there will be no more me, no more you and no more us. How could there ever be again?”

Maria cried a little in pain, pulling away from him tears flooding her eyes. “Michael, please... this is too hard. Harder than I ever knew. Can’t we just...”

Michael pulled her back to him letting her cry. “Yes,” he whispered. “We can. I never asked for promises, and I never gave you any.”

“I know.”

“Then we do this regardless. You’ve got this destiny, but it touches mine. And as much as you hate to admit it or even see it, you can’t control or stop what will happen to me when you leave. That is my destiny.”

Maria nodded. He was right. She was so concerned for him - more than herself. But no more than he could change her duty, she couldn’t change what they had already forged between them. It was too late for them both.

“Pretend?”

Michael nodded, taking her smaller hand in his, sucking a long lean finger in his mouth nipping at its skin.

“Go away with me for a few days. The Shiva is under repair, and even though we can help...don’t. Just take a moment from all of this and come with me.”

“Where?” Maria wiped tears away sniffing, smiling slightly, but the smile never reached her eyes. She was too busy searching his face as if memorizing every detail.

“Max suggested a long empty beach on the planet.”

Maria just shook her head. “The place neither of us should go in our state. We’d never return or break free.”

“I don’t know...a beach sounds nice to me.”

“Sure it does. But not on this planet.”

Michael was confused. The planet sounded perfectly normal to him. “What’s wrong with this planet? It’s protected from Pierce, and Max said the people were nice...”

Maria sat up suddenly. “What do you mean Max said the people were nice?”

“When he contacted them and they offered furlough to the crew.” Michael frowned when she suddenly was up and out of the water. He wasn’t ready to get out. He was planning a much longer tryst.

“Did he go down? Did anyone go?”

“More than likely. Maria, come back...”

Maria gave a sound of exasperation. “Didn't I say not to contact the inhabitants? Didn't I not say to only use the planet as a blind?”

Michael just shrugged. “Sure. But Max searched your travel data logs. It just said ‘Pleasure Planet’. So what’s the big deal?”

“Oh damn! Get out of there! We need to see what damage has been done!”

~~~

Max finally tracked down a few of the transport team and ordered them back to the ship. The main capital city of Cyrenaica was flooded with his people having a good time. They were happy, laughing, and seemed more than happy to comply with his orders, and yet...no one left.

Max tracked the Eminent twins and the Immaculate to a large luxury resort. He stood and watched in wonder as Lonnie and Courtney swam in the nude and occasionally got out to have large men with glistening muscles rub them down. They chatted and laughed the entire time, and were eating in excess.

This wasn’t good. Max didn’t know what constituted the ‘corrupting’ of an Immaculate, but watching Courtney making overtures to the masseuse and the constant attention his hands were giving her body...it didn’t look good.

He ordered them back to the ship immediately, and told the Immaculate to dress herself. Both Lonnie and Courtney turned over giving him a full view of their naked asses as they chose to ignore him. Angry, Max went to find Isabel hoping she could exert some authority or reason over the other two.

Stormy were his thoughts, and he maliciously noted the added flabbiness to Courtney’s ass, and the thick thighs and pudgy upper arms and lower legs of Lonnie. It would serve them and their glutinous asses right if all the rich food they were eating settled in their least attractive features.

Max didn’t even knock. He just entered the suite. Isabel was standing at the window looking out at the beautiful scenery, her calm and regal body straight and tall. Turning at the sound of the door opening, she was stunned to see him standing there. She had been thinking of him, wishing for him, trying to reach him mentally and wondering if he could feel her desire to see him.

“Isabel...” Max was silenced by her beauty. She stood so tall and lean with her golden blond hair down her back, wearing a full body sheath of white trimmed in golden piping. The sheath was in a full Grecian style leaving her upper arms bare and the full length of her back naked to his glances. She was damn near a goddess.

Need. Want. Desire. To touch.

Both moved so fast it was impossible to see who initiated the first movement, but they were suddenly in each other's arms, kissing passionately, as Max moved Isabel backwards towards an open door, and what he hoped was a bedroom.

“Good... You taste so good...” It was what his body was thirsting for. She was like a tall cold glass of water to a man lost in the desert.

"I'm not Serena." Isabel gently reminded him.